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Ben 🔶🔰

@benaskewgale.bsky.social
112 followers 166 following 89 posts

Politics, software engineering, and gaming. Liberal and Georgist. Python and Rust. All views are my own.

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Reposted by Ben 🔶🔰
Tom Gordon MP @tomgordonld.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I listened to Ed Davey on the Today programme this morning, and frankly, I think he missed the point. The idea that we're keeping the triple lock to help millennials is at best for the birds, and at worst downright insulting. I say that as a millennial.
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Scott Wortley @scottwortley.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
10/10. No notes.
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Ben 🔶🔰 @benaskewgale.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Absolutely loved this episode. Wish I’d heard about Rawls’ framework sooner.
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Morten Morland @mortenmorland.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Thursday’s @thetimes.com cartoon times.newsprints.co.uk/morten-morla...
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👻 Jack Djinn Wail 🧞 @jacktindale.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Just get rid of Grade II entirely - if you want to put a heat-pump and double-glazing in a nice but otherwise entirely generic 18th Century cottage then you do that. You own it. You should basically be allowed to do what you want with it.
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Steff Aquarone MP @steffanaquarone.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Britain is an island 🇬🇧 So why don't we have a Coastal Minister? Today, I've written to the incoming PM repeating my calls for one who can fight for the investment, jobs & opportunities our coastal communities deserve. It's time the coast had a voice at the heart of Government.
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Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
The Brexit vote was ten years ago, was it? Well, the results of that have been shit. No redeeming features at all. Just shit. Shame on everyone involved.
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Steve Akehurst @steveakehurst.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
They’re calling it the quote on British politics that ended the need for all other quotes
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
What Reform did today was an incitement to rioting and an insult to a grieving family. This bloke should have hung his goddamn head in shame.
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Met Office - weather and climate @metoffice.gov.uk · 25/05/2026
We’ve provisionally recorded the UK’s highest daily minimum temperature for May on record 🌡️ Temperatures didn’t fall below 19.4°C at Kenley Airfield overnight, provisionally breaking the previous May record of 18.9°C set back in 1944
A map of the UK showing a provisional record high minimum temperature for May of 19.4 Celsius, recorded in Kenley airfield, Greater London
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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
“Voluntary” price caps in a ruthlessly competitive and low margin sector, while loosening sanctions on a murderous regime. Good day for the grown ups are back in political charge, sensible and calm economics, etc
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Owen Winter @owenwntr.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
The local elections in one chart. Labour has been squeezed between the Greens in young wards and Reform in older working-class wards www.economist.com/britain/2026...
Chart showing the lading party by ward % age 50 or older and % with a managerial or professional occupation. Between 2021 and 2024 Labour won wards with a majority of young or working-class voters, in 2026 the Greens won younger wards while Reform UK won older working class wards
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Toby Buckle @polphilpod.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
politicians & press alike insist we can never tell anti-immigrant voters they're wrong—but they are, & we should! my latest for @liberalcurrents.com www.liberalcurrents.com/respecting-r...
liberalcurrents.com
Respecting Reform Voters Means Telling Them They’re Wrong and Immoral
Understand politics with this one weird trick: just tell the truth about the far right.
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Sam Dumitriu @samdumitriu.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Failed legal challenges have delayed major infrastructure projects like new roads and power stations by a collective 32 years. Labour recently changed the law to cut the time it takes to throw out anti-infrastructure lawsuits. And it's working. www.samdumitriu.com/p/the-planni...
samdumitriu.com
The Planning and Infrastructure Act is working.
It just got harder to delay infrastructure with bogus lawsuits
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Ben 🔶🔰 @benaskewgale.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
Land Value Tax would solve this. Tax land not income.
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
The fuel shortage has left me depressed about British politics in a way I never have been before, in that not a single party has avoided either saying or doing something incredibly stupid and completely removed from how anything actually works.
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ironeconomist.bsky.social @ironeconomist.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
The greens out here with their anti environment policies again. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
'Industrial scale' solar farms attacked by Norfolk's Green
The county council's Green leader says solar panels should be locally owned and put on roofs.
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John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 03/04/2026
🚨NEW BLOGPOST 🚨 The Hormuz crisis has a real chance of causing energy shortages in the UK. The government is insisting it's business as usual, and opposition parties are arguing for fiscal measures that will stoke shortages. Neither is serious. open.substack.com/pub/joxleywr...
open.substack.com
Nightmare Fuel
On scarcity, subsidies, and who really pays the price.
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Globe Emoji Žižek Capital @cesigno.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
nobody is allowed to pay market price for anything, and you cannot explain markets to voters. refusal to explain this and pretend it is about greed means voters will blame the govt in 2 weeks when your fake policies don't change things.
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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 09/03/2026
oh cool, we're at the "I have this knot of anxiety in my chest which I can't do anything about because it's entirely due to the overall geopolitical situation" stage again, nice, happy Monday everyone
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ironeconomist.bsky.social @ironeconomist.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Financial market participants dragging themselves to the office:
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
RIP “I feel liberated. We can say ‘retard’ and ‘pussy’ without the fear of getting cancelled . . . it’s a new dawn.” - you had a great run as the best quote in the FT from people who really would benefit from reading the FT, there's a new sheriff in town.
subs.ft.com
Subscribe to the Financial Times
A subscription to the Financial Times provides you with the insights and perspective you need to succeed, now.
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Python Software Foundation @python.org · 13/01/2026
@anthropic.com is investing $1.5 million in the PSF, focused on security. These funds will make an enormous impact on the PSF and the security of millions of #Python and @pypi.org users. Please join us in thanking Anthropic for this landmark gift! Read more on our blog:
pyfound.blogspot.com
Python Software Foundation News
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YIMBY Alliance @yimbyalliance.org · 16/12/2025
NEW: Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook has just announced the BIGGEST EVER reforms to national policy to deliver more homes! Here are the five biggest: 🧵
Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook in the Commons
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Julianna 💎 @batariangal.eurosky.social · 15/12/2025
An astronaut, staring at a floating David Cameron and George Osborne, asks “wait, it’s all Cameron and Osborne’s fault?” Another astronaut, pointing a gun at the first astronaut’s back, responds “always has been”
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Ben 🔶🔰 @benaskewgale.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
Finished “Service Model” by @aptshadow.bsky.social last night. Loved it and laughed out loud multiple times. Particularly at the description of the “Conservation Farm Project”.
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Ben 🔶🔰 @benaskewgale.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
I've written about Type Driven Design in Python. No, it isn't as mad as it seems. bengale93.github.io/2025/12/07/t...
bengale93.github.io
Type driven design in Python
Type driven design is the idea of trying to put as much of the logic of your program into your types. It allows you to enforce business logic at compile time rather than runtime.
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Ben 🔶🔰 @benaskewgale.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
Not sure how “Somebody I used to know” ended up as my most listened track. Top artists are as expected though.
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Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
The Blue Labour right have become the Militant of 2025 - a tiny but hyperactive and densely networked sect working relentlessly to drag Labour towards their niche pursuits and away from the values and priorities of core Labour voters.
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
The modal British voter thinks that pensioners are the group who gets the least good deal from the state! You can't have a serious conversation either about shrinking the state or expanding the tax base from that starting point!
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
It's all so supine and pathologically risk averse. A government trying to survive day to day, too scared to take the kindness of big decisive action which would repair the country and win an election. An unbelievable wasted opportunity.
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Ben 🔶🔰 @benaskewgale.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
🎶 Backbenchers to the left of me, bond markets to the right. Keir I am, stuck in the middle with you 🎶
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Ben 🔶🔰 @benaskewgale.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
Pensioners have a patriotic duty to downsize
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Python Software Foundation @python.org · 27/10/2025
TLDR; The PSF has made the decision to put our community and our shared diversity, equity, and inclusion values ahead of seeking $1.5M in new revenue. Please read and share. pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-... 🧵
python.org
The official home of the Python Programming Language
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Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan @london.gov.uk · 22/09/2025
Thousands of Londoners have indefinite leave to remain. They have legal rights and are our friends, neighbours and colleagues, contributing hugely to our city. Threatening to deport people living and working here legally is unacceptable.
theguardian.com
Farage vows to scrap indefinite leave to remain, placing thousands at risk of deportation
Reform UK plans to force non-citizens to apply for visas with high salary thresholds and no access to NHS services
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Ed Davey @eddavey.libdems.org.uk · 13/09/2025
Our democracy is too precious to be a plaything for foreign tech barons. Elon Musk doesn’t care about the British people or our rights. He only cares about himself and his ego.
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Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
We should abolish stamp duty: taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/06/09/s...
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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
"Asylum seekers should not be allowed to work!" "Asylum workers should not be subsidised at the public expense!" - and loop.
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Ed Davey @eddavey.libdems.org.uk · 26/08/2025
As we've seen across history, the populist playbook used by Farage is ugly, powerful and incredibly destructive. We know where it will lead if we don't stop it.
youtu.be
- YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
Members of my family were tortured and killed in the Holocaust because countries like Britain said it wasn't their problem. Everyone said never again. And here we are. It's sickening beyond belief.
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Naomi Smith @pimlicat.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
We need land value taxation www.theguardian.com/money/2025/a...
theguardian.com
Reeves considers replacing stamp duty with new property tax
Exclusive: Treasury examines options including tax on homes sold for more than £500,000 as well as overhaul of council tax
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Steff Aquarone MP @steffanaquarone.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
🌊 Coastal communities are facing rising tides, crumbling cliffs & shrinking services. They're on the frontline of the climate crisis - but too often overlooked in Westminster. We need a dedicated Coastal Minister. Here's why 👇 #ProtectOurCoast
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Election Maps UK @electionmaps.uk · 04/07/2025
Benfieldside (Durham) Council By-Election Result: 🔶 LDM: 28.3% (+17.3) 🌹 LAB: 27.4% (+0.8) ➡️ RFM: 25.6% (-6.6) 🙋 Ind: 15.7% (-8.0) 🌳 CON: 1.6% (-5.0) 🌍 GRN: 1.4% (New) Liberal Democrat GAIN from Reform. Changes w/ 2025.
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Toby Nangle @tobyn.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
6. Why did long gilts hate PMQs? Possible answers: a) Reeves seen as a fiscal hawk within Labour; PMQs raises chance of a new deficit-loving ChX; b) Govt seen as likely to collapse, and have you seen Reform UK's plans? c) UK revealed as fundamentally unserious country
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Ben 🔶🔰 @benaskewgale.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
I think the British public should be held responsible
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Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
More from me about why the wealth tax is DOA, and how we could and should tax wealth more effectively, on the Making Money podcast: buff.ly/BE3Ujsw
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Morten Morland @mortenmorland.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
Tuesday's @thetimes.com cartoon times.newsprints.co.uk/morten-morla...
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Peter Foster @pmdfoster.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
But populists can't be the only ones telling compelling stories. There has to be a progressive narrative too, but you can't build credibility overnight. Years of cravenness and timidity take their toll. A plague on all their houses. ENDS
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Ben 🔶🔰 @benaskewgale.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
Wondering if these changes to immigration are our equivalent of tariffs. Voters need to “touch the stove” to understand why the Tories kept immigration so high. Rejoining the single market would be the better solution but that’s never going to happen 🙃
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John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 10/05/2025
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