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

it'd be nice for one mainstream and prominent centrist/centre-left/left-wing party somewhere in the western world to actually try and consistently and vocally make the positive case for immigration for an entire term and see what happens - it may not work! but it'd be nice for one party to try it

submitted 3 days ago • 41 comments

Calling any coalition involving AfD 'centre-right' is obviously mad, but you do have to wonder what Merz thought coalition building was going to be like, pulling his party so far to the right. All quite worrying

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

White House moves closer to penalising EU and member states for any meaningful enforcement of the DSA. The message: don't even think about requiring X to "moderate content." Obey or defy the bully? Over to you @ec.europa.eu.

submitted 5 days ago • 14 comments

think what grates most about Fraser Nelson's "a dramatic shift? of MY Overton window?" shtick is that those of us who kept talking about the Spectator's dangerous slide to the right were treated as hysterical, not able to see the humour in shock jocks, etc etc, when we were just clearly right!

submitted 5 days ago • 31 comments

Still trying to figure out why Anas Sarwar approvingly referenced the extralegal project of a neo-Nazi in his speech to ScotLab conference today...

submitted 6 days ago • 4 comments

It's hard to see this as anything other than cowardice. And at this point, Anas Sarwar seems likely to fight the 2026 election without having had a consistent position on any major issues for the Scottish Parliament.

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Absolutely shocking that the Labour administration have failed to put forward a council budget. They’re supposedly running the city, but have zero vision, leadership or ideas. Edinburgh deserves better.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Whether Spain's particular prescription is the answer, the EU's budget needs to get bigger. Expectations of what the EU should deliver have expanded dramatically, while the only major increase in budget was specified as a one-off.

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

Labour are never going to be viewed as being as tough on immigration as Reform. Focussing on it iincreases the salience of the issue Reform want to talk about. Many Reform voters have had enough of Labour and the Tories and don't trust them. They're not sitting around waiting to be wooed back.

submitted 17 days ago • 30 comments

This is good to see. It should follow, surely, that EU countries should not consider themselves free to ignore arrest warrants issued by the ICC

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

Last night 🇨🇦PM Trudeau called 🇪🇺Council chair Costa in an apparent move to coordinate retaliation against 🇺🇸, according to an EU official. No decision was taken but will likely be discussed with EU PMs at today's #EUCO summit. 🇪🇺🇨🇦 will remain in close contact in the coming days.

submitted 24 days ago • 15 comments

Quite the marmalade-dropper, this: 3 weeks before Germany's election, Angela Merkel has issued a statement criticising her own party for enabling ("with open eyes") a majority with the AfD. Effectively accuses Merz of breaking his pledge not to do so. www.buero-bundeskanzlerin-ad.de/erklaerungen...

submitted 28 days ago • 21 comments

BREAKING: The Scottish Budget is guaranteed to pass after the Greens announced they will back the SNP's plans Reports say the LibDems will also support John Swinney's spending proposals

submitted 30 days ago • 7 comments

As expected, Hungary did another trial to create some drama, see how far it could push the other EU member states on Russia sanctions and then backed down. Good that this is achieved, but not a sustainable way to make foreign policy.

submitted 31 days ago • 4 comments

Friedrich Merz today gave a foreign policy speech and said this on a possible EU defense fund: He is "sceptical" that "with money alone" problems could be solved and that before we could consider "any new contribution- or debt-based funds", European and national defense procurement...

submitted 35 days ago • 1 comment

This is a great thread. What the EU defense discussion has missed is that Europe needs to focus on how to REPLACE the US military presence. Let’s hope that doesn’t come to pass but it’s now possible. This requires a radically different approach that goes beyond every state spending a bit more 1/

submitted 37 days ago • 3 comments

🧵This from @jburnmurdoch.bsky.social links to probably biggest thing I've changed my mind on in last 5 years: the merits of working (or study) from home. Initially in post pandemic rows on it I tended to think loud critics of WFH were opening another culture war front & many did frame it that way!

submitted 39 days ago • 66 comments

This worries me for young people, but also for everybody else. Meeting in person for work or extracurriculars has fallen down our list of priorities and become much harder to arrange. And I find that difficult, personally. Especially as I worry that it's the new normal.

submitted 39 days ago • 0 comments

EU condemned today's execution in Taiwan as being "the ultimate denial of human dignity" "The EU therefore calls on Taiwan to apply and maintain a de facto moratorium, and to pursue a consistent policy towards the full abolition of the death penalty in Taiwan."

submitted 41 days ago • 0 comments

The bit about needing more 'disruptor' vibes seems right on. Too often, 'establishment' parties won't challenge orthodoxy or longstanding systems needing reform. That gifts the 'change/reform' themes to the far right, who use it in large part to attack human rights and their other scapegoats

submitted 42 days ago • 1 comment

Meanwhile, on and on and on…

submitted 43 days ago • 0 comments

Thank you to everyone who came along to our Portobello/Craigmillar SNP branch New Year pub quiz - especially our excellent quizmaster @dastonsnp.bsky.social. Lots of fun was had!

submitted 48 days ago • 0 comments

Good from @davidcarretta.bsky.social et al on EU comms this week "EU has no voice, no face. The new HRVP was highly anticipated. But Kallas ... is absent, as if overwhelmed or restrained by VDL, who even when nailed by a serious pneumonia refuses to delegate the slightest ounce of her powers"

submitted 49 days ago • 1 comment

Very much agree. The EU has proven surprisingly resilient to react to crises that hit with a shock moment requiring quick action. But has high difficulties in dealing with slow moving structural challenges that don't have a single shock moment.

submitted 50 days ago • 1 comment

Scottish Labour's approach to budget negotiations:

submitted 51 days ago • 1 comment

Where Musk leads the rest of the Tech Bros will gladly follow. We've - rightly - talked a lot about Russian oligarchs in recent years but we urgently need to start talking about 'our' oligarchs. They're a way, way bigger threat, frankly.

submitted 51 days ago • 18 comments

Scottish Labour's greatest hits: incredibly vague criticism of the SNP without saying how things should be different. Just more funding for everything and lower taxes. I'm no closer to understanding what they'd do about poverty, except Tory-esque insinuations that there's too much welfare.

submitted 52 days ago • 0 comments

Join Portobello Craigmillar SNP branch, kicking off the new year with a pub quiz this Thursday. Tickets on eventbrite: www.eventbrite.com/e/portobello...

submitted 53 days ago • 0 comments

submitted 61 days ago • 13 comments

It feels a bit anti-Christmas to say, but my honest opinion is that pigs in blankets do a disservice to both bacon and sausage. I'd rather just have a sausage and a bit of bacon

submitted 61 days ago • 0 comments

NEW: Labour has clung to power in Edinburgh despite having less than one sixth of councillors - a 'super minority' administration. Jane Meagher is the new council leader. She wasn't at the meeting - she took part remotely 5,000 miles away in Tanzania. Quite a shambles.

submitted 70 days ago • 2 comments

This is perhaps a bit unfair due to economic conditions and polarisation, but many (especially centre-left) governments seem of late unable to form effective narratives. It often seems like they're just coming up with triangulated policies with no coherent, broader reason behind them.

submitted 70 days ago • 0 comments

First Minister John Swinney says there is a "£950m gaping hole at the very heart of the Conservative taxation proposals". "That reeks of economic incompetence and that economic incompetence is a consistent approach for the Scottish Conservatives." #FMQs

submitted 84 days ago • 0 comments

Am I the only one whose bluesky feed has turned into an endless parade of lighthearted posts about coffee? Feels like they're overcompensating - I would like my nerdy EU/ scottish politics feed back please!

submitted 85 days ago • 0 comments