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Ally Tibbitt

@allytibbitt.me
4.3K followers 1.2K following 1.1K posts

Journalist | Audience @uk.theconversation.com | Trustee of @mysociety.bsky.social | Co-editor of @gairlochtimes.org.uk | Based in Scottish Highlands but often roaming. Contact via @Signal.org username: allytibbitt.92

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Ally Tibbitt @allytibbitt.me · 29/09/2026
Why would pensioners vote Labour at the next election? We have publicly owned water, we have free social care, we have proportional representation (at Holyrood at least)... Cheaper electricity perhaps... but that's not guaranteed to last.
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Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 29/09/2026
🚨 BREAKING 🚨 Burnham: "I will not allow it to continue like this. Today I can confirm Angela Eagle will present a strengthened water bill to Parliament. The center piece of that bill will be this. The repeal of Margaret Thatcher's ideological ban on public ownership of water companies."
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Ally Tibbitt @allytibbitt.me · 29/09/2026
Camera phone fun trying not to spook the butterfly.
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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
An AI-enhanced version of a grainy image that appears to be authentic and shows several men being arrested in relation to the ongoing incident at RAF Fairford is currently being shared on multiple platforms. A SynthID check reveals that the enhanced image was generated with OpenAI.
AI-enhanced version of an authentic image showing arrests at RAF Fairford
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Ally Tibbitt @allytibbitt.me · 28/09/2026
Closing Grangemouth was dumb. "The number of refineries in the UK has dwindled since the start of the century from nine to four, causing the UK’s reliance on diesel imports to climb from 14% of the UK’s diesel consumption in the early 2000s to 54% last year." www.theguardian.com/money/2026/s...
theguardian.com
‘Half my day’s pay goes to filling up my car now’: diesel crisis ripples across Britain
Small traders and drivers bear the brunt of a refining shortage taking UK diesel towards £2 a litre as wars wipe out about a fifth of global supplies
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Ed Conway @edconway.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
This @lrb.co.uk piece from Arthur Downing is just a fantastic tour d'horizon of Britain's energy system. A must-read for anyone hoping to navigate the coming decade. Remember: energy is more or less EVERYTHING! www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
Arthur Downing · Asset Sweating: Britain’s Energy Crisis
Britain has private ownership while making the state responsible for planning via subsidies. The result is a zombie...
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Ally Tibbitt @allytibbitt.me · 25/09/2026
Crypto mostly for crime #3585838 www.ft.com/content/1477...
ft.com
US seizes bank accounts of payments group linked to Tether
Prosecutors allege Capstone illegally moved hundreds of millions of dollars for the crypto companies at the direction of a Caribbean bank
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The Conversation UK @uk.theconversation.com · 25/09/2026
Drug testing has found potent synthetic opioids and other unexpected substances in products sold as heroin, diazepam and cannabis.
tcnv.link
More than one in three illicit drug samples contain unexpected substances, testing finds
Drug testing has found potent synthetic opioids and other unexpected substances in products sold as heroin, diazepam and cannabis.
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ct @cteeze-nuts.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I can't recommend highly enough this thread in which meta's muse model is shown to be so poorly hardened that it will tar its own VM filesystem and let you download it neuromatch.social/@jonny/11732...
neuromatch.social
jonny (nonvenomous) (@jonny@neuromatch.social)
Attached: 1 image Not only confirming this, its extremely easy. Almost no prompt injection resistance lmao
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Gijs Brekelmans @gys.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Meta removed a video by a satirist wearing Meta glasses asking unrecognizable Meta personnel about Meta glasses. Meta's ground for doing so - and please appreciate the irony here - is... harassment.
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Electoral Reform Society @electoralreform.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
A full 60% of people think that wealthy donors give money to gain influence, whilst only 6% believe it is driven by a desire to support that party. buff.ly/G2blkKO
buff.ly
Our democracy is not for sale – it’s time to cap political donations - Politics.co.uk
The fundamental question of any democracy is “who gets a say?”. How is power distributed, shared – and in whose interests does our democratic system work? Increasingly, voters sense the answer is not…
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Ally Tibbitt @allytibbitt.me · 24/09/2026
Having led a campaign for proper continuous segregated bike lanes on Leith Walk a long time ago, it's very pleasing to read this. Build bike lanes and they will come... Who knew? www.scotsman.com/news/transpo...
scotsman.com
More bikes than cars recorded on Edinburgh rush hour route for first time
Highest figures also notched up on major Glasgow cycle routes too
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Ally Tibbitt @allytibbitt.me · 23/09/2026
Looking forward to Reform selling this. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Thinktank linked to Reform UK calls for abolition of state pension
‘Radical’ report likely to influence party’s platform also proposes abolishing inheritance and capital gains taxes
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Ally Tibbitt @allytibbitt.me · 22/09/2026
A loophole worth closing? www.londoncentric.media/p/londons-mo...
londoncentric.media
London’s most expensive house, Reform UK’s treasurer, and a massively reduced tax bill
A £265m mansion in the heart of the Chelsea • Sold by billionaire Nick Candy and his ex-wife Holly Valance • Bought by a Labour-donating hedge fund boss • Why was the tax bill so small?
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Louisa Loveluck @leloveluck.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Barred from deporting asylum seekers back to places they face jail or death, Trump struck 35 secret deals to send people to places which will deport them there instead. - 25,000 people deported - $410 million spent. - UN aid used to sweeten the deals. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
theguardian.com
Banished to alien lands: Trump’s secret deportation deals
After a plane journey in shackles, an Iranian woman found herself in the middle of Africa in a country she did not know existed. She is one of thousands deported from the US on the back of shadowy dea...
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Ally Tibbitt @allytibbitt.me · 20/09/2026
Do you use AI to make posters and social media flyers? You might find this helpful: john.hartnup.uk/2026/06/07/a...
john.hartnup.uk
AI-generated posters don’t have to be horrible
The problem
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Ally Tibbitt @allytibbitt.me · 20/09/2026
UK "Single Market" latest: Proposal for English Whisky producers to use different, more easily met, definition of "Single Malt." www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=...
theyworkforyou.com
English Whisky: Single Malt Definition
– in the House of Commons at 1:55 pm 15 September 2026
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Reunite Families UK @rfuk.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
🚨 £5bn. The Home Office made almost £5bn in profit last year from visa, citizenship and immigration fees — more than it gets in corporation tax from energy, gas, water, sewage and hospitality combined. 🧵
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Alan Rusbridger @arusbridger.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
If you add in £130m losses on “Reform TV” (aka GB News) the effective subsidy of Farage’s party from just four men tops £200m. You just have to join the dots app.prospectmagazine.co.uk/story/75017/...
app.prospectmagazine.co.uk
Farage and the £130m even his detractors have missed
GB news has provided relentless positive PR for Nigel Farage while racking up tens of millions in financial losses. And now there is a new channel in the offing
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Ally Tibbitt @allytibbitt.me · 18/09/2026
That far-right goons were able to close down a community run library and language school in Glasgow was bad enough. And now this. Extraordinary that RNLI and their volunteers get so little support from authorities they need to close a life boat station.
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Oxford Clarion @oxfordclarion.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The councillor who chairs Piddington Parish Council, near Bicester, says that yesterday’s stunt referendum – in which the village voted to leave the UK in protest against an asylum centre – was “an example of democracy in operation”. Tim McNally himself gained his role without a contested election.
Tim McNally, chair of Piddington Parish Council, on GB News
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mySociety @mysociety.org · 14/09/2026
For now, just save the date & sign up for updates at tictec.mysociety.org/tictec-updat... - lots more to come about this global summit on how high-quality deliberative participation can be enhanced through digital tech, in democracies around the world. Hope to see you in Edinburgh! #TICTeC
TICTeC presents: Digital Democracy Edinburgh
Exploring practical technology to build democratic resilience
SAVE THE DATE 11-12 March 2027
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Jessica Elgot @jessicaelgot.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Labour sending out fundraising emails off the back of the Harborne and Delo donations. Yes chaps, that’ll do it.
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Rod McMillan 🍉 🇸🇩 🇺🇦 📚 @morewretchthansage.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Far Right attacks on the #RNLI are more than rhetorical scapegoating - the underlying tension is a fundamental opposition in political philosophy - Anarchist adjacent Mutual Aid vs. Nationalist Welfare Chauvinism. #Kropotkin #ReformUK #Anarchy morewretchthansage.substack.com/p/kropotkins...
morewretchthansage.substack.com
Kropotkin’s lifeboats: Anarchists - to the rescue! ‘we must help’
Far Right attacks on the Royal National Lifeboat Institution demonstrate two fundamentally opposed political philosophies, cosmopolitan humanitarian mutual aid against nationalist welfare chauvinism.
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Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
or to put it another way, good news for first time buyers
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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Easy to donate: rnli.org/support-us/g...
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Daniel Gover @danielgover.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
After MPs voted against assisted dying legislation today, a new piece from me on the outcome: 'Why did MPs vote to reject the assisted dying bill – and what happens now?' @uk.theconversation.com theconversation.com/why-did-mps-...
theconversation.com
Why did MPs vote to reject the assisted dying bill – and what happens now?
It’s the end of the road for this particular bill.
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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
90 years ago, Parliament responded to the rise of Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts by passing the Public Order Act, which banned political uniforms, private militias and the threat of force for political objects. The debates make very resonant reading today. Here's the Liberal Robert Bernays. (Short 🧵)
You cannot conduct a fair match when one side is playing with a ball and the other with bombs and, if democracy is to survive, it must be conducted according to definite and recognised rule. One of them is that no political party should resort to any weapon other than reason and argument. The introduction of private armies, as I see it, strikes at the root of democracy. I know it is contended that the Blackshirts are not armed and, therefore, are not an army, but I do not think that argument can be upheld. … Uniformed men in military formation suggest, and are meant to suggest, the idea of force. It is no argument to reply that at this or that demonstration no force is intended. It is an inescapable fact that a uniform in politics symbolises force, to be used either now or in the future.
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mySociety @mysociety.org · 08/09/2026
Did you get today's newsletter, all about the recent additions to TheyWorkForYou? There are lots! If not, you can read it here (and subscribe top left of that page): mailchi.mp/mysociety.or...
An MP stands to contribute to a debate in the House of Commons
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Ally Tibbitt @allytibbitt.me · 08/09/2026
Scotland not fairing well in comparisons with England www.enlighten.scot/scotland-and...
enlighten.scot
Scotland and the 2025 PISA results - Enlighten
There is one modicum of comfort for Scotland in the PISA results that were published on 8 September. Science has bounced back a little from the harm caused by shutting schools during Covid. But this i...
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
One reason England does so well is our second generation immigrants outperform their peers which is not true in most OECD countries. We are also very good at integration. And it's v sad that this is never acknowledge in debates on immigration.
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Bright water @mikerrobo.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Probably paid
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 04/09/2026
The amount of oil use avoided by EVs in China in the first half of 2026 is the same as the amount of oil USED BY THE ENTIRE UK www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-chi...
a chart showing projected avoided oil use
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Ally Tibbitt @allytibbitt.me · 03/09/2026
Mysteries of the Algorithm: * Why does Google News send me football push notifications when I keep telling it not to? * Why does Facebook keep pushing me Reform / Restore / Far-right content when I always tell it not to?
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Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 03/09/2026
Reform U.K.: the state is bloated and can't spend money efficiently, but we will find the perfect people to fix it... some folks from NHS and military procurement!
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Daniel Sugarman @danielsugarman.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
The world's most notorious custard-pie thrower is dead. What an obituary. He got Bernard-Henri Lévy seven times.
​Known to his army of fans as L’Entarteur or Georges le Gloupier, Godin launched his career as a serial deflator of egos in 1969, when he planted a tarte à la crème on the face of the French novelist Marguerite Duras (“She has a kind of intelligence and cleverness that serves only her own vanity,” he complained), and he went on to “pie” a cast list of celebrities for sins ranging from pomposity to “choosing to function in the service of the capitalist status quo”.The same could not be said of Bernard-Henri Lévy, one of France’s “new philosophers,” whose provocative views on sex, frequent appearances on television and penchant for white silk shirts unbuttoned practically to the navel, had made him a cult figure – and one of Godin’s most satisfying victims.

Levy once declared: “I am the most gifted writer of my generation,” and often boasted of his reasonableness and tolerance, but he was forced to endure footage being repeatedly shown on French television of himself, covered in cream, during a visit to the Belgian city of Liège, trying to strangle Godin and shouting: “Get up, or I’ll kick your head in.”Noël Godin was born on September 13 1945 and came to pie-throwing after a rebellious youth in which he scandalised the priests in the confessional by speaking of his “horrible sexual life”, and was thrown out of Liège University after emptying a pot of glue over the head of a law lecturer who had helped write the constitution for the Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar.

He found work at Friends of Film, an obscure magazine published by the Belgian Catholic League. It had a tiny readership, which was just as well, as Godin made up most of his articles. In one he claimed that Louis Armstrong had once been a cannibal and had invested in a film called The Vegetables of Good Will in which Claudia Cardinale played a giant endive.

In another he conjured up a fictional blind Thai filmmaker named Vivian Pei, describing her film, The Lotus Flower Will Never Again Grow on the Edge of Your Island, in such convincing terms that an Asian film specialist travelled to Thailand in an effort to track her down.“We’re very careful not to hurt people,’’ he explained. “Well, they are hurt, but always in their amour-propre.”

In 1995 Godin published an autobiography, Cream and Punishment. His other targets over the years included the New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard (who charmed his assailant by hailing the attack as a homage to silent film), the French politician Nicolas Sarkozy, the choreographer Maurice Béjart and the Ryanair chairman Michael O​’Leary. He tended not to pick Belgian victims, he explained, because few would notice if he did.
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Simon Usherwood @simonusherwood.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Looking like a No then, with even Reykjavik being more equivocal than anticipated www.ruv.is/english/2026...
ruv.is
Iceland votes: EU accession talks referendum - LIVE BLOG - RÚV.is
Welcome to RÚV's live referendum night coverage. Here, you will find the results as they come in, right through the night.
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UK Politics News // Papernaut @ukpolitics.papernaut.co · 30/08/2026
THE FERRET: More than three-quarters of Scottish salmon farms certified as “sustainable” breached ASC rules in 2025. No green-tick accreditations were removed unless farms gave them up voluntarily, while campaigners warned consumers could be misled. - by Daniel Shailer
theferret.scot
Three-quarters of 'sustainable' salmon farms broke environmental rules. None lost their accreditation.
We looked at inspection reports from the body which certifies “highest standard” farms with a public-facing ‘green tick’ — and found there have been breaches of its rules at dozens of fish farms.
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Ally Tibbitt @allytibbitt.me · 30/08/2026
At stake is not only the survival of one Italian hacker collective. It is whether maintaining infrastructure for radical movements can itself be treated as terrorism;... and whether a provider can be held.. responsible for every claim transmitted through its machines. micahflee.com/the-server-c...
micahflee.com
The Server Called Paranoia: Defend Autistici/Inventati
For twenty-five years, an Italian hacker collective has built communications infrastructure designed to survive censorship, surveillance and police raids. On August 26, the United States designated it...
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Julia Cushion @juliacushion.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Should public data have to pay for itself? 🤑 We think charging for data risks reducing the value of public data and locking useful datasets away for the long term. Quick summary of our response to the government’s call for evidence: www.mysociety.org/2026/08/27/t...
mysociety.org
The problem with making public data pay for itself
The government is looking at whether public bodies should have more freedom to charge for access to their data, and we've responded to its call for evidence. There are good reasons to be cautious abo...
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Gairloch Times @gairlochtimes.org.uk · 27/08/2026
It's another bumper #westerross round-up: 🟡 Popular #Gairloch business announces closure 🟡 Police appeal for info on stolen quad bike 🟡 School inspection report calls for improvements 🟡 Wester Ross town named as location for new Tesla Supercharger site. gairlochtimes.org.uk/crumbs-closi...
gairlochtimes.org.uk
Crumbs closing, quad stolen, and call for school improvements
Read to the end to listen to some trad tunes from the Badachro Inn
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Nuffield Trust @nuffieldtrust.org.uk · 27/08/2026
Our Senior Policy Analyst @sallygainsbury.bsky.social has served a Notice of Appeal asking the Information Rights Tribunal to review the ICO decision to allow the government to withhold its impact assessment of the 2025 pharmaceutical trade deal with the US. @theasrstein.bsky.social explains why 👇
nuffieldtrust.org.uk
UK-US medicines deal: the public interest in publishing the evidence behind it
The Information Commissioner's Office decided last month that the Department of Health and Social Care can continue to withhold the government’s impact assessment of the UK-US pharmaceuticals trade de...
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
New immigration stats show that the numbers of asylum seekers in hotels is down to 16k - falling 50% in a year. Small boat crossings down 23% in the year to June. Numbers waiting for initial decision down from almost 180k to 40k.
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Ed Conway @edconway.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
✍️ Want to understand the bonkers nature of the modern economy? Take a ride with me on the 30,000 mile journey the cod in a fish finger takes between being caught off the coast of Scotland and consumed in a British home 🤯 Promise I'm not making this up👇 edconway.substack.com/p/the-30000-...
edconway.substack.com
The 30,000-mile fish finger
There’s a good chance the cod on your child’s plate has been around the world and back. Not that you’d learn any of that from the label...
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YouGov @yougov.co.uk · 26/08/2026
Reform voters, and to a lesser extent Tories, are much likelier to think they hold the most common public view across several topics that our survey suggests is not the case, most notably: -2024 rioters -Trans ID -Bregret -Business reg -Lockdowns -Israel-Palestine -Trump yougov.com/en-gb/articl...
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Ally Tibbitt @allytibbitt.me · 27/08/2026
Single UK Market latest... cc @davidgreen4csr.bsky.social @mareetodd.bsky.social @ariane-burgess.bsky.social wonkhe.com/blogs/the-tr...
wonkhe.com
The Treasury is bankrupting three nations' universities
With funding reviews underway in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Justine Pedussel and Jim Dickinson worry none will examine the hidden accounting rules driving the crisis
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Ally Tibbitt @allytibbitt.me · 26/08/2026
Narwals as scientific instruments. theconversation.com/narwhals-are...
theconversation.com
Narwhals are helping scientists map warm water hidden in Greenland’s fjords
Tags on these deep-diving whales are providing vital data from places research ships struggle to reach.
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Ally Tibbitt @allytibbitt.me · 26/08/2026
Will seek out the Blaggis! Supper next time I'm passing Seahouses. Ofc now wondering if they do it with chippy sauce...
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Ally Tibbitt @allytibbitt.me · 25/08/2026
👀 brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/who-watche...
brokenbottleboy.substack.com
Who watches the Watchman? Reform UK’s new ‘investigative journalism’ front revealed
The story of a brave reporter infiltrating the migrant boats is a perfectly tooled piece of propaganda designed to give Nigel Farage a new version of the same old story.
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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Narrator: Richard Tice is divorced from his wife of 24 years with whom he shares 3 children. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...
independent.co.uk
Couples with children should be married, Reform UK’s deputy leader says
Richard Tice also said ‘British-born children’ are a ‘good thing’ and should be encouraged
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