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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 1h

That Angry Residents' Meeting re Boscombe Overcliffe Drive van lifers ....... Keeling and Dove are in the photographs, even though Keeling lives in Poole and Dove doesn't even live in BCP any more. Tories on manoeuvres. www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/2660532...

bournemouthecho.co.uk

Residents demand action as anger grows over motorhomes on Southbourne over cliff

Residents packed a community meeting to vent their anger over the growing number of motorhomes and campervans parked along the cliffs.

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

This guy goes out of his way to create unruliness & division in Basildon Council meetings, which he then monetises via his Facebook account. On 10/9/26 he spent 10 mins abusing Labour Cllr Victoria Joseph, claiming she'd been arrested. (She denies this vehemently & my FOI is likely to show it's BS)

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Andy Jolley @andyjolley.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Bournemouth echo has effectively become a fan magazine for fascists and does everything it can to promote the cause Doxing a hotel where the suspect stayed and leading with “migrant” It’s deliberately inciting protest

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Parody Nigel Farage @parodypm.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

"I should just point out that we don't have any Lib Dems on the panel as they only have 71 MPs, but Suella Braverman is here because Reform have 8 MPs"

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Oh .... Joanne Keeling is "community campaigner" again this week I see, not "Deputy Chair (Political) of the Bournemouth West Conservative Association" www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/2659305...

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

ARF - nine hours and just one comment on the Harry Redknapp column. #TaxAvoidance

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Emailed the chair and vice-chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Board about this, in the event - deliberate attempt to shut down public scrutiny and accountability. Blue badges come under the normally-bullish Cllr Andy Martin's portfolio: it'll be interesting to hear what he has to say about this.

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

BCP - hope the Overview & Scrutiny Board kick off about this tomorrow night: an update on the blue badge process. No questions from councillors allowed, unless they've been pre-screened by officers (deadline today). I've never known a SCRUTINY committee barred from carrying out spontaneous scrutiny.

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Another by-election for Reform to lose: Penn Hill ward, BCP Council, 5 November. (No Council meetings being held that week.) Reform failed here in the Poole Town Council elections of 7 May 2026 and the ward's been consistently Lib Dem on BCP Council since 2023. www.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/elections-an...

bcpcouncil.gov.uk

Penn Hill ward by-election

There is a by-election in the Penn Hill ward on Thursday 5 November 2026.

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

From the other place: before being demoted to Echo editor, Toby Granville allowed Reform UK to place front-page ads on all Newsquest titles in the week of the local elections .... x.com/nick_clarkLD...

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

POOLE TOWN COUNCIL - Hamworthy East by-election result is guuuuuuuudddd; Labour's Pete Cooper elected, Reform vote down by 326 votes in just four months. FULMINANT OUTRAGE in the Echo comments tonight. "Cutter" (Martin Houlden) strangely quiet, probably writing apols to bosses /crypto-billionaires.

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I won't name the Lib Dem councillor who said she thought Safeguard Force was "a much more legitimate organisation now - I hear they've got an Echo column ...."

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Bournemouth Town Council meeting - the good guys have arrived. (Reform UK are sitting on a separate table as they always do.) Got a feeling Reform are going to sabotage Jeff Hanna's motion tonight - for CSAS officers - & try to get Safeguard Force to patrol the town. Am recording the meeting ...

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Danny Thomas's voice goes really high when he's arrested - last time I heard someone babbling that nervously it was Drew Mellor trying to fob off the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. www.facebook.com/reel/1598040...

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Gareth Davies @garethtbij.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

If Reform paid for this one I hope they kept the receipt

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Cllr Ben O'Keeffe (EC&S) @greenbenokeeffe.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The Echo isn't interested in local history unless it's AI slop from Ian Crump. The AI Springbourne protest signs are still comedy gold to me.

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Bournemouth Echo reported to IPSO over its bullshit RNLI story. www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2026/news/in...

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

The maximum penalty is a life sentence.

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Hearing BCP's new MO is more relaxed than his predecessors about Council meetings taking place during purdah, & none are likely to be cancelled during the Penn Hill by-election. Full Council 13/10 couldn't be cancelled anyway, due to execrable new Planning laws & need to reflect them in Constitution

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

If the Echo are bringing back bent reporter Matt Simpson, it'll expedite the end of that paper. This piece is a mystery though, given that the court case was in 2022 & he seems to have got the quotes in 2025. Did he write it just before he moved to the Oxford Mail? Is he dusting it down for clicks?

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Lib Dems giving nothing away tonight. Children's Services Scrutiny. One councillor asking the portfolio-holder (& Lib Dem whip, Cllr Burton) why the meeting is tonight and not the usual Tuesday. Me: "Presumably all meetings will be cancelled shortly anyway, because of the by-election?" Radio silence

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Bournemouth Echo's former chief reporter has left the building ... Almost her last article (10 August) was a defence of the local vigilante group Safeguard Force, which seemed to have been written between gritted teeth. www.responsesource.com/bulletin/new...

responsesource.com

Hannah Knight to join ITV News Meridian from Bournemouth Echo - ResponseSource

ITV News Meridian has appointed Hannah Knight as a production journalist. Hannah was previously chief reporter at Bournemouth Echo where she worked for three and a half years.

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Lots of us talking about this at a pub in Christchurch right now (CHRISTCHURCH, for God's sake) and most agreeing that if you still support Reform, you're either stupendously thick or you're a traitor who's happy for your country to be sold. Paradoxically this could do them big damage.

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

BCP COUNCILLOR RESIGNS - Jo Clements, Lib Dem member for Penn Hill, was said to be resigning after chairing the Planning Committee yesterday, and is now absent from the list of serving members. (The only way of finding out what's happening in BCP.) democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/mgMemberInde...

democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk

Welcome to BCP Council | BCP

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Gareth Davies @garethtbij.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

There's something deeply alarming happening with the local press in Dorset. The Bournemouth Echo appears to have become a mouthpiece, and even a recruiting arm, for the far right

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tanglewoodsteve.bsky.social @tanglewoodsteve.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I hope that the @bournemouthecho.bsky.social & the #Reform led #Poole Town Council put as much effort into getting behind & supporting the #RNLI volunteer rescue teams who put their own lives at risk for all of us everyday as they have in spreading rumours and lies. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Abuse of RNLI volunteers 'wholly unacceptable', chief says

Peter Sparkes says there has been "deliberate misinformation" spread about the charity.

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Bournemouth Echo's latest racist article - they're quoting rumours from Kimberley on Facebook now and calling it journalism. Contacts they've actually spoken to are: leader of the ultranationalist "Protect Our Postcode" group; and Reform UK Cllr Xena Dion

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Jules McHamish @julesmchamish.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Why the blazes is my local paper, the Bournemouth Daily Echo advertising a call from Tommy Robinson for people from Bournemouth to march in Portsmouth? I have no respect for my local paper anymore.

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John Henderson @jphendo.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I'm assuming that as the CPS website says the law regarding assault on emergency services includes those "engaged to provide, search services or rescue services" it would apply to lifeboat volunteers if Farage incites violence against them #FarageRiots. If not, the Government needs to make it so.

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

The Echo thinks this is a sentence.

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

I'm guessing these reserves will eventually be used by the Reform group - who have a supermajority - to fund a contract with racist vigilante group Safeguard Force, much like Essex County Council is doing with its fearmongering project "Operation Vanguard". Echo will cheer it all on: "lOcAL hEroEs"

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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

I'd say "Something for nothing" culture is getting paid £100,000 a year of public money, plus expenses, for a job that you then fail to turn up to for months on end

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Interestingly the Echo also removed Houlden's comment from beneath the Safeguard article ..... Wonder if he was making the Reform link too obvious .... Especially if the company wants CIC status. The mayor referred to is the Mayor of Poole, Reform UK's Tracey Newman.

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Echo have changed it to "CLUBS AND SOCIETIES"!! 🤣🤣🤣

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Good morning @bournemouthecho.bsky.social. Can you explain why you're running the Safeguard Community Support Ltd column under "Charity", when it's actually a private limited company run by a convicted criminal and a racist?

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Excellent question from a member of the public at Poole Town Council, 25 June 2026. The answer - which was not provided by the Reform group leader - is Cllr Mark White, member for Hamworthy West and Turlin Moor, who had a restraining order made against him in 2015

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

What I'm getting from this is that Reform UK Ltd could prolapse through its staff, advisors AND leader all being as thick as shit.

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Yep - @theguardian.com pretending that Arron Banks threatening journalists is a New Thing, and thus omitting to mention that it threw Carole Cadwalladr to the wolves.

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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Of course Farage's 'policy' doesn’t work. It isn't intended to work. It's meant to cause a splash in the unthinking press (and GMB) and thereby get Doris at Number 33 Lambert Road, Peterborough to go 'Ooh at last someone is trying to do something about these awful boat crossings.' That's it.

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Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Reform scores hat trick of losses in Manchester despite the hype, the polling and the noise around Farage. Over to you now, Clacton. Deal the killer blow and vote Count Binface in August. The country could do with the laugh. And without that grifting loser. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

INDEPENDENT

Bev Craig elected mayor of Greater Manchester in huge Labour victory over Reform

Meanwhile, it is Reform's third disappointment in Greater Manchester this year, after failing to win in Gorton and Denton or Makerfield.
Nigel Farage's party were made early favourites by the bookmakers when this by-election was first mooted, having performed well in the local elections here, winning 24 of 25 seats available in Wigan in May.

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Jenrick always kept extremely dodgy company.

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

It would be so great if it turns out Jenrick knew all about this & ends up going to jail as an accessory.

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Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 19/07/2023

Under a Binface government, anyone who doesn’t accept human-made climate change as fact will be sent back to school, from Year 1 right the way to A Levels, to see if anything goes in the second time round. #VoteBinface

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Reform Party UK Exposed @reformexposed.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Turns out Rob Kenyon failed to attend his second of 2 Wigan Council Full Council meetings yesterday. That’s 2/2 he’s missed. No “he’s standing to be an MP” excuses this time. Seems the plucky plumber has plucked off.

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

BCP Council was second-highest in England in 2022-3 with 61 complaints against councillors, at least five of which were upheld against then-Tory Cabinet members. Surpassed only by East Riding of Yorkshire Council, which saw 532 complaints (though 512 related to the same issue - an anti-Corbyn tweet)

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Alex McKinstry @alexmckinstry.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Six weeks in, and it looks like the Echo's regretting its love-in with Safeguard Community Support Ltd - the Bournemouth vigilante group run by xenophobe Gary Bartlett and convicted criminal Ritchie Wellman ...

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tanglewoodsteve.bsky.social @tanglewoodsteve.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

There was a lot of good things to come out re #FuturePlaces at yesterday's A&G Committee meeting but a Councillor did his own "investigation" but only shared it at the last minute, as a resident it concerns me what else may have been found "privately" but not shared. www.youtube.com/live/409X8a5...

youtube.com

Audit and Governance Committee 16 July 2026 6.00pm | BCP Council

YouTube video by BCP Council

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