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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

yes and all those figures pre date the afghan schemes I refer to. Sorry I have better things to do than carry this on.

Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

just read the rest of the thread , its obviously anecdotal, but unlike others on here its based on involvement and trying to help,.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

as I said, when you actually get some facts, it may be worth continuing this dicussiuon. Until then bye bye

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

brought here, mostly from other European countries, where they had settled after being brought out from Afghanistan. If you don't think there are societal tiers of asylum seekers then you need to get involved and see for yourself.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

So down here in my small village. 12 families houses in MoD accommodation under the 2nd wave of the Afghan scheme. These families were from the Afghan elite, except for one family, the husband of which worked in the Afghan security services. These people didnt arrive by boat, they were

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

but the current system doesn't address that, it actually prohibits "dealing with it". if you want to have a discussion on this, then best to appraise yourself of the reality, not what you believe is the case.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

given MoD homes which had lain empty for years and were refused when requested for local families, sticks in my claw, and I am someone who will defend the asylum system to my last breath. If you want to defuse anger, you have to address perceived unfairness.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

its not to pander to the far right, it's to m kale it clear to those that know little, but are whipped up by propaganda, that this is being addressed. As someone who has volunteered with asylum seekers myself, but who also works with local families in a housing crisis, seeing very wealthy families

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

This is clearly not the norm, but many arriving under the Afghan scheme did. If we are to defuse the anti asylum seeker feeling, we do have to address these unfair anomalies as they are used by the far right and media to stoke anger

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

That’s not actually the case. Many asylum seekers don’t arrive by boat and many have significant assets and income. I had one to stay immediately post asylum grant in the gap between him getting housing. He had an ongoing income and significant assets but wasn’t assessed. He thought it was crazy

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

How is that panel politically balanced . Disgraced Tory , disgraced Tory now promoting Reform and LD. It’s not even an attempt at representation. It’s the exact opposite. The sooner BBC management has a new broom, the better

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

I voted Lib Dem down here in Devon to get rid of an awful Tory and, to be fair, the new MP seems a decent chap who cares about the local community, however Davey’s bandwagon jumping makes me cringe. If populism is to be defeated we need leaders who make and support properly considered judgement.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

And that is why Zack should never be anywhere near power.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

She’s correct. Having a country with an average adult reading age of between 9 and 11 is a major cause of our current problems. The vast majority of people have no ability to absorb any complex information so immediately grasp at someone peddling simple solutions.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

The desire to label mild versions of these conditions isn’t in my view helpful. It implies there is something wrong, when the reality is that we are just different and that’s something to celebrate. It also belittles the serious and complex versions of these conditions.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

Yes, the lack of self awareness is breathtaking. I often wonder if these people actually have any idea of that fact that they are demeaning the history of some of the great journalists who filled their roles in the past. The gulf in ability, intellect and, most of all, integrity, is a chasm.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

or initiatives that the media doesn’t wish to cover and, even when it does, only via the filter of opinion pieces. I have been around a long time and it didn’t used to be like this. We had reporting of policy in detail and then, clearly separated opinion pieces. We need to get back there.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

and concentrating on gotcha, gossip and operating to open political agendas. Now we will hear policy outlined in full and questions of that policy or any other issue they wish to raise. Isn’t that more transparent than the current system which means the public simply don’t hear about any policy

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

The article is fascinating in that it reveals a mindset that the lobby holds when it says the Government didn’t consult on this. The media want to be the filter of all government announcements, even those involving the media. They have forfeited any claim to that in recent years by ignoring policy

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

Ah I see what you mean. An obvious mistake when one sees so called political correspondents behaving like influencers on a daily basis.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

Naomi Smith on Quiet Riot was putting forward the idea that this change has been driven by Darren Jones moving to No 10. The change of comms has been marked in recent weeks. If it’s Darren then he impresses more and more.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

If that’s the case then it doesn’t seem to ever happen. Day after day we see Ministers on TV trying to talk about an announcement and the interviewer talks about gossip and gotcha until the last 40 seconds then allows them to speak before saying “we’ve run out of time”.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

It’s weird, all the guys who wear red rosettes have heads that look like black squares when photographed. Who knew ? 🤷‍♂️

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Have to say I don’t really blame them. With the current media bias from mainstream outlets they need to start talking directly via press conferences or they will never get awareness of what they are doing and why. Take the last week with so many good things announced almost totally ignored by media

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Perhaps we also should be questioning the pointless waste of police time by the individuals concerned. By all means protest for the people of Gaza but, supporting people who throw pyrotechnics at staff being evacuated from a building because they had attacked it, doesn’t do anything for them.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Meanwhile we have a criminal justice system unable to prosecute guilty people in any sensible time frame and innocent people unable to clear their name. Perhaps this lot need to get real and deal with the practicalities of the current situation.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

That’s because they were happy destroying the Tories until that point. Clickbait news doesn’t like stable boring government, so it works on gotchas and taking a few words out of context to create a sensational story.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

We’ll see. I have been watching political coverage for 5 decades and have never seen anything like this media environment. If one looks at what is actually being done by government currently there is loads of good stuff, however anything positive is studiously ignored.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Do you really think any other leader will survive ? If the media get the taste for blood by downing Starmer, won’t they simply tear the next leader apart? Starmer is not a great communicator but I don’t know any leader that could survive the onslaught he has faced.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Reporting by end of March 2026, just in time for the May election campaign.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

speech was made and therefore never even considered it. The Powell speech was known as the Rivers of Blood speech, not the Island of Strangers because the latter was just words used in it. It’s classic Britain, obsessed with some past reference rather than the realities of the present.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Because it’s a phrase that suited the message he was actually putting accross, about a broken system creating problems and division for immigrants who have given so much to our society.I suspect the speech writer, was probably not even born when Powell was alive let alone in the 60s when the

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

It’s always hard to work out whether a) people don’t read things b) people are incapable of reading and understanding things Or c) group think has overwhelmed people’s thought processes so completely that they can no longer see what is in black and white in front of them.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

No, the majority of the British public didn’t read his speech, they read the coverage, and,if you did, you have managed to read into the words on the page things that aren’t there.I have also read Powell’s speech and the only similarity is a three word phrase used in a completely different context.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

and with that reply you broadcast that further dialogue was pointless

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Perhaps read the speech rather than the reports and the comments and I suspect you will be less concerned.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

I couldn’t read the book if I tried, I would keep hearing Bob Seely’s patronising bluster and have the fact free nonsense he came up with on every TV appearance rattling around my head. I thought we might be lucky enough to have heard the last of him.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

Does number 3 make bad coffee ? 🤣

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Canada is in a much stronger economic position than UK and can afford to be “elbows up”. Taking on Trump is great for sound bites, but not good for the economy. The mid terms are now just over 10 months away when this guy could be neutered. Timing and context is everything in politics

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

You seem unable to grasp the difference between media reports of the speech and the actual words spoken. The words are facts, the media report is opinion. You also claim to “know” what someone else is saying when their words say something different. The words are facts, and you have an opinion.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

The fairest way would have been to lift the tax free threshold and either left the upper thresholds unchanged or raise them at a slower rate. That would have put more money to the lowest paid but not hit the tax take from middle and higher incomes, it would have probably also been electoral suicide🤣

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Yep, I read it at the time as couldn’t believe he had said what was being claimed and sure enough, he didn’t. I then tried to put his actual words on here in response to these claims but, as social media does, group think based on false facts, led to abuse of someone trying to post the facts.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

I did wonder. Reality is so difficult to find these days.

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Mark Johnson @braunton-mark.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

but being different and holding different views shouldn’t necessitate disrespect and ill manners unless the views are abhorrent, and even then, if one loses it completely, then the argument is lost. BTW Pluribus is excellent in so many ways. Really makes one think about big societal issues.

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