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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Bulgaria and Romania joined together, so there is a joint accession treaty. But it is much the same as Croatia.

bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Provision 2 Article 4 doesn't fit into 300 characters. The key parts are: "shall only apply in Croatia pursuant to a council decision to that effect," ",that the necessary conditions for the application of all parts of the relevant acquis have been met in Croatia." (they weren't until recently)

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Since 2022 Sinn Féin and the DUP have slumped, Alliance too. The SDLP increased its share, so too the Greens and UUP (which just overtook the DUP). But if the youth vote favoured nationalists, and every year another cohort turns 18, we should see an overall nationalist increase. It isn't happening.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Nonsense. Far from rejecting any such a proposal from the UK, the EU itself actually put forward a proposal for something quite similar to the Windsor Framework in February 2018. commission.europa.eu/system/files...

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Some public assistance (for example insulating the homes of the elderly, or free transport) reduces pensioners' costs but is not counted as a pension. This makes nation by nation comparisons difficult. Ireland spends less on pensions but its its elderly are also less poor than in the UK.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Fortunately Northern Ireland pensions and other related benefits amount to £3,738m (2024/2025) so well below that notional ceiling amount defined by the level at which the UK calculates it is already subsidising Northern Ireland.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

The area between the midlands and the north. Most of the red wall constituencies lies to the north of the oval but many of them are inside it.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Not so, the criteria set out by the UK Electoral Commission for a referendum wording are:

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Sounds very unlikely. What other deal is there ? There is nothing comparable to the benefits of EU membership. The only thing that even comes close is the USA and Trump will be long gone in 2028 if Farage ever sees power in 2029. The UK exports almost twice as much to Ireland as it does to China.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Dublin City Council actually has a left and green majority. PBPS 2 SD 10 Lab 4 Green 8 SF 9 = 33 out of 63 seats total. And that is discounting the four left leaning independents.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Here's my favourite from near St George's basilica on the island of Gozo in Malta. It almost looks like he's playing with his pet dragon which is gnawing on the tip of his spear.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Bring some rainproof clothing and boots. Ireland's climate can be somewhat damp and windy.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Unrestricted Birthright. Mostly in the Americas, yes. Even those with 'restricted' birthright it is sometimes just some hypothetical scenario which applies to hardly anyone born there, like if you joined an army which was at war with your country of birth.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

No that account was referring to a monetary motive for the organisation, not for individuals.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Yeah. This sounds very contrived. Slow-news-day drivel. I live in the EU (Malta). So.. I went on to amazon.co.uk searched for Wallace and Grommit and lo and behold whatever items came up 'Delivers to Malta'.🤷‍♂️ There is nothing in EU regulations preventing the shipping of Wallace and Gromit merch.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is one funder. As for the ethnic makeup, Democracy Volunteers do publish that, and it seems to broadly reflect the ethnic makeup of England and Wales, albeit under different categories.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Ireland exports about €18.904 billion of food and drink per year (meat, dairy, seafood). Ireland imports about €12.912 billion (vegetables, fruit, tea, coffee, tobacco). So overall Ireland produces more than enough food and drink exports to pay for its imports.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

I doubt it. Unemployment in Northern Ireland is remarkably low. Labour force participation is low by rUK comparison: Usually due to people >16y/o <64y/o who are sick, retired early, in full-time education, disabled, or carers. But still higher than Italy.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

They already cut their own taxes. Here's a graphic of Richard Tice's tax affairs.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Pants on fire asshole !!! Here's the same photo being used by a different barefaced lying troll four days ago (long before Khameni 's death was confirmed). And I don't care what timezone it is in Moscow or whatever other fascist hellhole you live in.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

Setting aside that neither the dubious 44.36% nor the completely made up 47% are actual majorities. 🙄 The Nationalist result wasn't even 44.36%. SF 30.9% + SDLP 8.7% = 39.6% + Aontú 0.9% = 40.5%. People Before Profit (PBP) and The Green party identify as "Other" in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Not all it was. The Liberal Democrats, normally at disadvantage at turning votes into seats in a first-past-the-post election, performed much better than normal at doing that in 2024. So did Labour.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

Bannon is a Nazi. Like Musk he performed a Nazi salute. He mimicked Musk's earlier Nazi salute. He did it to incite extremists white supremacists and antisemites in the GOP to racist violence. And it worked, leaked Telegram messages show how in the months since, Nazis took control of the GOP youth.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

I actually checked Ed Davey's Bluesky post. None of the replies so far justified the Manchester attack or even mentioned Gaza. Davey leads the UK's third largest party and is a frequent poster to Bluesky.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Many of the citations are very non specific, and for a very good reason. It was a circular firing squad. The medal heroes were killed and wounded by their own artillery and bullets. K Troop is between women and children in the ravine and their artillery, A and I troops dismounted behind the ravine.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

It is already being called BritCard. A Labour affiliated think tank is publicising it as that, incurring the entirely foreseeable opposition of Northern Ireland, and Scots and Welsh Nationalists. If the idiots who came up with the scheme didn't spot that obvious problem, what else have they missed ?

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

Too late... A Labour think tank already called it BritCard and the name stuck.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

Construction workers category encompasses a pretty varied collection of occupations, many of them highly skilled requiring 5 years or more of training. There really isn't an average anymore than it is possible to average apples and oranges.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

Yes all. Including the residents of Northern Ireland whose peace settlement (which they voted in favour of in a 1998 referendum) references the ECHR seven times.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

If his behaviour was repetitive and subject to routine I would expect to see times of day when he either tweets or doesn't tweet (other than when he's asleep). Not seeing any such pattern.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

Giuliani did not contest that the statements he made about the two Georgia election workers were false.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

This is a 2022 graph for skills shortages in Scotland. It doesn't exactly scream: 'we need more people with degrees'.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

I expect that they will try to downplay or hide their involvement in ICE for the rest of their lives for shame or fear of retribution. They know how history will see them. Just for comparison the none of the Black and Tans who rampaged through Ireland in the 1920s wrote about it.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

Manipulated into praising Hitler by him. A few weeks ago he announced a upgrade to Grok sourcing because he didn't like it using Media Matters and Rolling Stone as sources. To please something calling itself catturd.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

This nonsense regarding Georgia bugs me so much. There is nowhere in Georgia where anyone can apply for a visa to visit Ireland (Georgians have to travel to Bulgaria to do so). Yet Ireland is one of a tiny handful of European states forcing Georgians to get a visa to come here. It is ludicrous.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Here's why. Ungrateful Penguins.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

Now factor in that Malta and the UK were bombed by Fascists. Norway, Denmark, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland, Greece, former Yugoslavia, and the Netherlands were occupied. What is the one thing you could do to sabotage a premium EV car brand in Europe ?

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

Concocting an unnecessary immigration problem with a draconian soundbite fix. 1) There is no Irish embassy in Georgia, so Georgian nationals need to travel to Bulgaria to get a visa. 2) Meanwhile Ireland is one of only a handful of European counties to which Georgians don't have visa-free access.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

This is such a crock. A costly and epic fail by our department of foreign affairs. 1) There is no Irish embassy in Georgia, so Georgian nationals need to travel to Bulgaria to get a visa. 2) Meanwhile Ireland is one of a handful of European counties to which Georgians don't have visa-free access.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

This is codswallop. An costly and epic fail by our department of foreign affairs. 1) There is no Irish embassy in Georgia, so Georgian nationals need to travel to Bulgaria to get a visa. 2) Meanwhile Ireland is one of a handful of European counties to which Georgians don't have visa-free access.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Holdings of listed shares by Irish residents stood at €1,826 Bn Q1 2024. That is 1.826 trillion friggin euros !!! www.centralbank.ie/docs/default... On which Ireland collected just €1.6bn CGT in 2022 (on all assets, not just quoted stocks). Stockholders are hoarding because of insane CGT rules.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

The problem is finding a home. Just now, Ireland is experiencing an acute housing shortage. There were 30,330 new dwelling completions in 2024 (32,525 in 2023). This is to accommodate net population increases of 97,600 (2023) and 98,700 (2024). That is one new dwelling per three new residents.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

Not evenly spread by region. The wealthiest regions also have the most immigrants.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Only compared to states which once were protestant majority states I would say Even then many of those states now have more atheists than either. For example in another reply on this thread you compared Belgium to Netherlands. Actually Netherlands has more catholics than protestants.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Norway was ranked second-least antisemitic country in the ADL survey. In 2024 Noway joined Ireland and Spain in recognising an independent Palestinian state. Pro-Palestinian sentiment is not motivated by antisemitism. There is no proof of that.

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bendav.bsky.social @bendav.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Ireland (Western Europe Tab) has an index score of 21, Poland (Eastwern Europe Tab) of 40. Azerbaijan (Asia Tab) 53. Making Azerbaijan more antisemitic than either Ireland or Poland according to this survey. www.adl.org/adl-global-1...

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