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Brendan Paddy

@bjpaddy.bsky.social
2.2K followers 2.2K following 3.4K posts

Looking to make the outdoors for everyone as director of Ramblers Scotland but these are personal views. Expect pics of walks, posts on politics/world news, risidual overseas aid and guest appearances by a small hairy murderer named Pixie.

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Reposted by Brendan Paddy
Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 10h
🔴 We asked Tony Blair's think tank about charging businesses £500k for political access at party conferences and why one of its sponsor's logos disappeared after our reporting last week on TBI's alleged cash for access scheme This is what they said
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Eoghan Daltun 🌍 @irishrainforest.bsky.social · 15h
Why must it always be about planting trees, when they managed just fine for 100s of millions of years before people came along? Just let them seed out. Yes, planting does have a role, but so often the underlying subtext is continued human domination of nature. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Half a million trees to be planted in England in three years, says government
Exclusive: Environment secretary Angela Eagle to make pledge as part of efforts to protect against extreme weather
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Brendan Paddy @bjpaddy.bsky.social · 16h
Survey of a large area of the Cairngorms with plane-based lasers & AI shows 40% of trees are young, illustrating the huge scale of natural regeneration that is possible when overgrazing is controlled www.countryfile.com/news/scotlan...
countryfile.com
Scotland’s forests are making a remarkable comeback with millions of new trees – aerial maps reveal the secret that caused this | Countryfile.com
A major success for British rewilding is unforming in Scotland as we speak.
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Brendan Paddy @bjpaddy.bsky.social · 18h
@saveourwildcats.bsky.social celebrates landmark 50 Scottish wildcat releases www.savingwildcats.org.uk/news-events/...
A grid of 50 small, individual photos of wildcats in various natural, outdoor environments.
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Saving Wildcats @saveourwildcats.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Wild-born kittens are doing well 🧡 The littluns stay with their mum for four to six months before dispersing to find territories of their own. Unlike their parents, kittens cannot be fitted with GPS-radio collars, so the team rely on trail cameras and public sightings to keep track of them 🐾
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Brendan Paddy @bjpaddy.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Thanks to whoever recommended the 'What to carry, what to burn' podcast. The first episodes manage to turn most exploration/adventure stories on their head, simply having two women tell the true story of third, Ada Blackjack of the Iñupiat. www.whattocarrypod.com
The slate-blue interface shows the podcast cover art—a silhouetted hand holding a small flame—alongside text detailing "Ep 1: The Friendly Arctic," the release date "12 May 2026," and the series name.
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
"Its now becone OK to say Brexit has been an economic disaster. Better late than never" says ex-Cabinet minister Hilary Benn. It brought a lot of poison to politics & to the relationship, but a lot of that has "drained" & closer trade deal is of mutual interest, he says @policyatkings.bsky.social
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Melanie Mitchell @melaniemitchell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
👀 Florida attorney general to OpenAI: (www.myfloridalegal.com/sites/defaul...)
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Duncan Hothersall @dhothersall.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Another appeal, which he's v unlikely to win, but the whole point is the generation of these headlines and the normalisation of the claim that homophobia is protected under the Equality Act. It is not, but these people have endless cash to spend to try to find a court that will set such a precedent.
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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
One additional 'quick fact': if your name is John, the Nobel committee is twice as likely to award you the Prize for Physics, compared to scientists who are female - Number of physics prizes to a John: 10 - Number of female physics Nobel laureates: 5 Best wishes to all the John-hopefuls this yr 👩‍🔬⚛️
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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Burnham aiming for a change to the UK’s voting system.
theguardian.com
Andy Burnham expected to say he will push ahead with electoral reform plans
Exclusive: Labour conference speech will kick off process that could replace current system with proportional representation
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Josie Glausiusz @josiegz.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
“There’s a feeling today that Britain only found out about the Holocaust at the end of the war. But in 1942 [...] you couldn’t really escape this information in Britain. It was in every newspaper. It was on the BBC," said historian Martin Winstone www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
Britain knew about the Holocaust as it happened. A new exhibition reckons with that truth
Research draws upon reporting and witness testimony, while a permanent memorial is planned for London
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David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Ending the triple lock isn’t the same as cutting pensions. Thatcher linked the state pension to inflation rather than earnings growth with the result that the value of pensions fell relative to earnings. The triple lock was designed to reverse than trend. It’s done its job. Restore the earnings link
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Praxis, for migrants and refugees @praxisprojects.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
We welcome the Gov's announcement of new safe routes. But more is needed. Labour can talk about "fairness" when it scraps earned settlement plans and delivers safe routes for all instead of punishing thousands of people who have worked in this country for years. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
UK to open new refugee resettlement routes for Afghan women and Palestinians
Exclusive: Move by Shabana Mahmood comes after closure of Afghan scheme last year but experts say numbers too small to deter Channel crossings
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Simon Pittaway @simonpittaway.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
@hannahslaughter.bsky.social and I have just published our take on the ONS's new productivity estimates. They don't change the unavoidable reality of UK economic stagnation, but they do challenge the consensus on its causes. A short summary ⤵️
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Simon Wren-Lewis @sjwrenlewis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
New post: Populist tendencies on the UK left, and the puzzle that never was mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2026/09/popu... The OBR provides a fiscal forecast, and nothing more. It help make evidence based decisions, rather than finding evidence to justify politically motivated decisions.
mainlymacro.blogspot.com
Populist tendencies on the UK left, and the puzzle that never was
Don’t shoot the messager The Treasury Select Committee (TSC) has just published a report on the Office of Budget Responsibility, the ...
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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I know there is a hell of a lot going on right now. But not all of it is bad. Some is astonishingly good - like the results of this study from June. Cervical cancer is a terribly cruel thing. This might, at long last, be the beginning of the end of it. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
BBC News headline "Young women now have 'close to zero' risk of cervical cancer death after HPV jab"
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Brendan Paddy @bjpaddy.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
So much for all the frothing racists leaping to try to link this to immigration before the facts were known www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c6...
bbc.co.uk
RAF Fairford suspects to be released on bail, head of counter-terror police says
Five UK nationals, all in their 20s and from London, were arrested near the base on Sunday morning.
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404 Media @404media.co · 28/09/2026
Executives working on AI at Microsoft and OpenAI admitted what its critics have been saying all along: LLms are predatory pieces of technology that have been built on what a Microsoft executive called “an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions.” www.404media.co/doom-loop-op...
404media.co
‘Doom Loop’: OpenAI and Microsoft Admits LLMs Are Destroying the Web and Built on Theft
"Millions of people around the world will soon consider large models ‘hoovering up’ all their work to be an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions."
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Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Luxury retailers want taxpayers to fund a 20% tax break for foreign tourists. They paid consultancy Cebr to claim this will raise £2.6bn for the UK. That convinced Sadiq Khan and Kemi Badenoch. But it's false: a free lunch. Four basic errors mask a £600m loss. Thread:
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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Can't help admiring Brits' persistent attachment to the idea that supply and demand doesn't operate in the housing market and their concomitant refusal to admit that a place is only ever worth as much as anyone is prepared to pay for it.
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Brendan Paddy @bjpaddy.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
news.stv.tv/scotland/pol...
news.stv.tv
Police Scotland launch advert amid violence against women and girls ’emergency’
On average 200 cases of violence against women and girls is reported daily in Scotland
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Brendan Paddy @bjpaddy.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“Excessive noise including playing any form of audio at a volume that can be heard by other passengers and which may cause a disturbance” welcome to many but hard to see it being enforcable? www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2026/09/25/e...
deadlinenews.co.uk
Edinburgh bus users could be thrown off for loud music or speakerphone calls
BUS users in Edinburgh could be kicked off for playing loud music or making speakerphone calls after Lothian Buses changed its rules.
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Commissioner for Human Rights @commissionerhr.coe.int · 25/09/2026
I am alarmed by the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Oleshky, a town in the temporarily occupied parts of the Kherson region of Ukraine. 1/4 #humanrights #Ukraine #Oleshky #Kherson #humanitarianlaw
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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 27/09/2026
Women trying to succeed in Silicon Valley AI and effective altruist spaces are reporting feeling serious social pressure to attend sex parties - where people have reported being sexually assaulted, like below. Events like Aella’s “Slutcon,” which is happening again this weekend.
Ann Pierce
@itsannpierce
20h
I am disheartened by this as well. I already lost a bunch of followers for agreeing with @tautologer, but it's saddening to see local nerdy women being caricatured as Karen-like outsiders and getting pushed out of the scene. This is exactly why you hear so few concrete, names-attached stories of sexual harrassment and assault. I'm told there is a history of discrediting these because the "slut normalization" thing is top priority and these stories get inconveniently in the way of spreading this ideology.
I got roped into attending last year's Saturday Slutcon party because so many local and out-of-town friends were there (to echo sentiments @tautologer expressed about "slut events becoming central to the larger scenes). Mostly I hung out with people I knew and that was great. But in the course of my 3-ish hours there, there were 2 times my "no" was not accepted by a man I didn't know, and I was physically pushing a huge guy off of me who was rubbing his penis on me, who continued to do it despite my physical force against him, and after I finally wriggled away from him, told him I wanted to dance alone etc., he came back and did it again.
This was scary and bad, but it didn't even cross my mind to report this because one of the other people who didn't accept my "no" earlier in the night was the bartender (an officially sanctioned authority at the event), and I knew the event was organized exclusively by women into CNC (who are vocal about how rapey behavior turns them on), so I figured this sort of thing would just get me laughed at. And anyway, I heard there were a lot of other incidents like it. Later though, someone encouraged me to report this story to the organizers, and despite my embarrassment I did, so *they know* that this and other incidents happened. This is why they cut the Saturday night party this year and created a larger training program for the flirt girls - *because* of things like this last year. Yet the narrative bein…People who haven't been to Slutcon are saying "it's just group therapy," "it's just innocent flirting." But the environment is much like a sex party in that many people are nude, there is making out and sex acts happening out in the open. I think it's pretty unreasonable to expect that every nerdy girl who likes rationalist bloggers or is into EA/AI safety should automatically be comfortable with this! That if she's not, there's something wrong with her, we don't want her in our scenes, etc.
Not to mention, it's explictly an event *for men*, where men are the clients and the "flirt girls" are the product. Last year I overheard an exchange where a man felt "led on" by a flirt girl and was trying to get her punished/kicked out. (A dynamic that seems inevitable in this context!)
Anyway- it does sound like they've upped their consent education a lot this year, are more organized, and that's good! As I've told my friends who are attending: I hope they have fun!
I heard several accounts last year of women who had no problems and really enjoyed the event. That's great!
Just... can we live in reality about this? There are real reasons why male-female sexual dynamics are tricky.
Encouraging autistic men who can't yet read body language to go around asking to see womens' boobs is maybe a bit ill-advised. Maybe not everyone should be/identify as a slut; maybe it's not for everyone.
And yeah, filtering the Bay Area Al safety scene down to only women who are super comfy with this eliminates *most* women - including many of the really smart, nerdy, weird women who've been in the larger scenes for years. What a loss for humanity.
I absolutely understand why people with a minority sexuality would want to create belonging, would want to create spaces for people like themselves. But why do it like this/at this cost?
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Brendan Paddy @bjpaddy.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Really love the new-ish Joshua Burnside album, which has to my untrained ear a wonderful clarity, as well as tender, personal lyrics about love and unrequitable longing, about something other than a romantic partner, for once. Fantastic last night at the Pleasance open.spotify.com/album/6AsWzH...
open.spotify.com
It's Not Going to be Okay - Album by Joshua Burnside | Spotify
Joshua Burnside · album · 2026 · 10 songs
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SW20ed #Edinburgh @sw20.info · 27/09/2026
A small European capital with a castle on a hill, cobbled streets, busy tourist industry and historic buildings - there many lessons Edinburgh could learn from the car-free city centre of Ljubljana.
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The City of Edinburgh Council @edinburghcouncil.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The latest results from the @cyclingscotland.bsky.social traffic survey, shows the continuing success of building high-quality cycle lanes in encouraging more people to cycle in #Edinburgh Find out more at cycling.scot/news/scotlan...
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Ramblers Scotland @ramblersscotland.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Congratulations to all involved with St Cuthbert's Way, which has just been named among "50 inspirational travel destinations" in Lonely Planet's Best in Travel guide. The book says the 62-mile route is "perhaps the closest thing modern Britain has to a Camino de Santiago". Have you walked it?
bbc.co.uk
St Cuthbert's Way gains global recognition as a travel experience
St Cuthbert's Way - from Melrose to Lindisfarne - rubs shoulders with the world's top travel experiences.
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Brendan Paddy @bjpaddy.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Veteran BBC Africa correspondent Mark Doyle dies aged 67 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Veteran BBC Africa correspondent Mark Doyle dies
Doyle was best known for reporting on African conflicts in the 1990s and 2000s, notably in Rwanda and Sierra Leone.
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Brendan Paddy @bjpaddy.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Irish, banjo playing, night-lover - if he'd started playing Rocky Road to Dublin we'd have been done but luckily Joshua Burnside stuck to his own tunes, rather brilliantly
A male guitarist, and a banjo play & female cellist playing on stage  in front of a red curtain
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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 25/09/2026
I see a lot of people complaining about the undoubtedly stressful conditions at present on London's roads. But I see few people complaining about motor vehicles. Yet in the last 24 hours three vulnerable road users have died after being hit by people driving motor vehicles.
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Brendan Paddy @bjpaddy.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I can't help feeling that if science met 'wellness' there'd be stern words, if not actual fisticuffs
Sign in Wellness shop saying 'wellness meets science'
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Brendan Paddy @bjpaddy.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"Let's not relegate reading to the 'wellbeing' part of our lives" "Some of these books aren't going to make you feel better. They're going to make you see the world differently."
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Brendan Paddy @bjpaddy.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Sounds significantly more targeted than the earlier scheme with the intention of 1) helping those who would struggle to buy without support 2) focusing on modest homes 3) focusing on encouraging new build
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Communities Secretary Angela Rayner stands by her criticisms of the Home Secretary's settlement proposals. The govt was consulting on the proposals. The pre-consultation reforms have little support in government (and the Home Secretary had signalled some kind of retreat on care workers at least)
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Kevin Schofield @kevinschofied.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Would it even be Labour Party conference without a good Cabinet split? www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/cabine...
huffingtonpost.co.uk
Cabinet Splits Erupt As Angela Rayner Condemns Shabana Mahmood's Immigration Crackdown
A former cabinet minister has also accused Andy Burnham of not doing enough to grow the economy.
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Jamie Smart @jamiesmart.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Can’t eat a sandwich until you subscribe to sandwiches. Can’t eat today’s sandwich until it has applied daily sandwich updates. Sandwich now has adverts even though you paid for ad-free sandwich. Can pay again to have less sandwich adverts. Now you can eat the sandwich, but it’s smaller.
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Brendan Paddy @bjpaddy.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
White House restores access to media outlets banned by Trump after judge's order www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Trump media ban: White House restores access to CNN, Politico and MS NOW after judge's order
CNN, Politico and MS NOW were allowed back into the White House after some of their staff were earlier turned away.
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Mikhail Klimentov @leadergrev.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
For nearly two years, I've been investigating a pattern of ominous legal letters sent to journalists by defamation counsel representing Bobby Kotick. That investigation is finally live. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKwp...
youtube.com
Inside Bobby Kotick's Campaign Against the Press
YouTube video by People Make Games
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Rachel Cunliffe @rmcunliffe.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Can anyone explain to me why this article doesn't mention anywhere that small boat crossings are down 42% from last year? That doesn't mean it's not an issue 781 people arrived in one day. But it seems like the sort of context a reputable news source might mention www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
No 'switch' to stop small boats, Lucy Powell tells BBC
Labour's deputy leader was speaking to BBC local radio ahead of the party's annual conference
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Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
First thug sentenced for violent disorder in Portsmouth - two years' sentence www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Man jailed for bottle throwing at Eastney migrant protest
Del Somerville, 42, pleaded guilty to violent disorder following an overnight protest at Eastney.
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Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Hampshire police say man was arrested on suspicion of destroying ships or endangering their safety under the Aviation & Maritime Security Act 1990, criminal damage, criminal damage with intent to endanger life, & conduct endangering ships, structures or individuals under Merchant Shipping Act 1995
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Dan Snow @thehistoryguy.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
England is a made up thing. It has no basis in the ineluctable laws of nature. Its extent is defined by Edward II getting his arse handed to him. Athelstan conquering York. The Welsh of Cumbria were incorporated, the Welsh of Gwynedd were not. It is a political idea, an aspiration - not taxonomy.
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ironeconomist.bsky.social @ironeconomist.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The bond market is once again on the front page of the FT and I am once again reminding you that bond markets only do this when they are extremely distressed.
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Chris Giles @chrisgiles.ft.com · 23/09/2026
Had some fun talking to @timharford.ft.com on More or Less about whether people not at home might actually be on holiday www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
bbc.co.uk
More or Less - Has the UK’s productivity puzzle been solved? - BBC Sounds
Tim Harford investigates bad productivity data, AI carbon, nuns and quiet album ends.
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Reuters @reuters.com · 23/09/2026
New Zealand says China is its most persistent state-backed cyber threat reut.rs/4xRSri0
reut.rs
New Zealand says China is its most persistent state-backed cyber threat
New Zealand's cyber security agency said China was the country's most persistent and capable state-backed cyber threat, as foreign actors targeted government ​agencies and organisations in sectors including health, education and information technology.
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Brendan Paddy @bjpaddy.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Christ on a bike - the entire moral & economic panic about the UK being an outlier on productivity was based on a decade long ONS failure to keep up with other nations on approaches data gathering on hours worked www.ft.com/content/560f...
ft.com
UK productivity grew twice as fast as thought after 2008 financial crisis
New official figures put Britain more in line with peer countries in terms of output per hour worked
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Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Nick Candy and Holly Valance. Britain’s most expensive house. A £265m sale. Usual consequence: £32m of stamp duty. But five small flats were included in the sale. By an extraordinary happy accident, that cut the tax by £18.5m. The curious sale of Nick Candy’s mansion A 🧵:
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Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Worrying scenes in the Channel today, for all interested in asylum policy and maritime tactics. A small boat from Normandy spent more than 30 hours at sea. Those on board now on their 2nd rescue vessel as Border Force forced to play cat and mouse with far-right activists who have their own boat.
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