paulysmith.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

You know what would really impress Reform curious Labour voters? Building more [council] housing. Let's do that. From @steveakehurst.bsky.social great research.

submitted 2 days ago • 6 comments

"On the doorstep people don’t make a distinction between graduate visas & small boats" This is: a) objectively wrong (plenty of polling evidence) b) suggests utter contempt for electorate's thought processes c) is a dreadful way to make policy Otherwise fine www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

submitted 2 days ago • 72 comments

#DisabilityBenefits Please sign and share the petition petition.parliament.uk/signatures/1...

submitted 3 days ago • 2 comments

#WelfareNotWarfare If you live in Lewisham can you email your MP using this link tinyurl.com/no-cuts-Lewi... Please support this protest outside Lewisham Town Hall Wednesday 7th May 2025

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

Fuck Nigel Farage. Fuck disability registers, “overdiagnosis”, pity porn, and so-called bloated benefit bills. Disabled people have full, rich lives and add enormous value to the country. It is time for a new narrative. Who Wants Normal? is out now: linktr.ee/WhoWantsNormal

submitted 7 days ago • 79 comments

Being disabled does not make someone “a victim”, Nigel Farage. Having state support to go to school does not make someone “a victim” either. These kind of remarks are in many ways why I wrote Who Wants Normal? Disabled young people deserve more than this vile narrative.

submitted 7 days ago • 19 comments

Trump appears confused here. He is suing Perkins Coie in Florida in a case before Judge Middlebrooks that has been dismissed and resulted in sanctions against him and Alina Habba. Perkins Coie is suing HIM before Judge Howell over his retaliatory executive order.

submitted 8 days ago • 242 comments

One of the most shocking things I have read for a while: t.co/lg46ijHLDF

submitted 8 days ago • 2136 comments

I strongly encourage people to use Paula's app to get a sense of how much Labour and Reform voters like each other's party. And then report back to Number 10 about whether this seems like an obvious area to focus on.

submitted 8 days ago • 4 comments

If you’re buying a copy of Who Wants Normal? this week for your disabled teenager, and would like a personalised dedication, email me on bio. I have a few bookplates and limited edition postcards hanging around and am happy to post them out.

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Here's the secret of "university indoctrination." Professors aren't doing it. Your little darlings are finally meeting a diverse group of people and realising that the stereotypes you've been feeding them are closed-minded garbage.

submitted 11 days ago • 54 comments

#NUFC

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

"Possible solutions include allowing backbenchers to abstain" Abstentions won't stop these cuts going through - and neither threats nor agreements to abstain are likely to wring significant concessions from the government either. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

submitted 14 days ago • 8 comments

If anyone in Manchester or north east wales wants a perfectly functioning wheelchair lmk. Proving bafflingly difficult to give away, including to the Welsh NHS or social services. I guess they are famously well resourced after all

submitted 15 days ago • 24 comments

Madness.

submitted 15 days ago • 6 comments

When Isaiah Berlin paraphrases Heinrich Heine the results are pretty powerful. I’d forgotten this passage from the opening of Two Concepts of Liberty (1958). ALT text may be easier to read.

submitted 16 days ago • 12 comments

In his first term, Donald Trump duped UK politicians into choosing the hardest possible Brexit by dangling the lure of a US-UK trade agreement. It never came to pass. Today, in an interview with a credulous journalist, VP Vance dangled the lure once more. Will i work again? 1/x

submitted 16 days ago • 42 comments

Sandro Tonali might be the best midfielder to ever play for us. I won’t be taking any questions at this time #NUFC #Sandroismint #Manuareshite ⚫️⚪️⚫️⚪️

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

I heart @brooke — telling a suicide bomber who blew up the economy due for no reason that he is brilliant is peak beta chode for Ackman.

submitted 22 days ago • 1052 comments

Just the most startling collapse in basic intellectual standards. He literally campaigned on tariffs you mad obsolete bastard. You didn't need to deploy any sophisticated political analysis, just listen with your human ears.

submitted 22 days ago • 75 comments

If you made my grandma stand outside in a line in AZ for hours to find out why her Social Security check hadn’t come and then told her to ‘come back tomorrow’ or figure it out online. I would spend the rest of my days making sure the political party that caused it became extinct.

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

I can’t believe that even after so many people have patiently sat down and explained how university finances work, the government still thinks turning the big dial that says “ban international students” is a winning economic strategy

submitted 23 days ago • 12 comments

"The US cumulative trade deficits in goods from 1976 to 2024 have transferred over $20tn of American wealth into foreign hands." Mate, that's just not how this works. www.ft.com/content/f313...

submitted 24 days ago • 85 comments

I often wonder how @resfoundation.bsky.social feel about the @torstenbell.bsky.social volte face? I think it’s hugely damaging to their credibility. #Labour #PIP #Welfare #Poverty #UC

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

This 💯 👇

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

I don’t think the Government will be thanked at the ballot box for being weak towards a bully, and bullying towards the weak. Punching down on welfare recipients while pleading with Trump for a trade deal is an instant ick. So fwiw, I think I do support retaliatory tariffs.

submitted 28 days ago • 26 comments

okay so he genuinely thinks that fentanyl smugglers have to pay tariffs lmfao

submitted 29 days ago • 76 comments

submitted 30 days ago • 132 comments

UK Statistical Authority tells DWP to withdraw and correct its dodgy press release: "The statement that the number of people claiming disability elements of Universal Credit has increased by 383% presents an entirely misleading picture to the public." osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/corresponden...

submitted 30 days ago • 7 comments

UPDATE: pleased that the Office for Statistics Regulation has acted quickly on this. osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/corresponden...

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

As a special Bluesky bonus for today only - I will send anyone who signs up for an annual subscription a signed paperback of my book "Failed State". Simply sign up and DM me your address (DMs are open).

submitted 33 days ago • 3 comments

I’m seeing even well-meaning accounts criticise disability cuts as hitting “the most vulnerable.” Reminder: disabled people are not inherently vulnerable. We are vulnerable when governments choose to withhold the resources disabled people need to live dignified and secure lives.

submitted 35 days ago • 22 comments