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Carrick Smith

@carrickjsmith.bsky.social
173 followers 904 following 5 posts

Data analyst, physics grad. Boro fan. he/him.

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Reposted by Carrick Smith
Caroline Lucas @carolinelucas.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
My speech from the conference debate on 'Zionism is Racism’ motion
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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
The state of this. A lovely day out for Badenoch and Philp, playing dress up and making pronouncements about early release schemes - having left the country with one hundred available men's prison places, after fourteen years in charge. You read that right. One hundred places.
Opposition Leader Kemi Badenoch and Shadow Home Office Secretary Chris Philp, in high-vis police jackets enjoy a photo opportunity.
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Jessica Elgot @jessicaelgot.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
We are in the third drought in five years. We have the National Trust and NFU - those radical types - sounding the alarm on unprecedented temperatures. But so little from any single figure in politics talking about the climate crisis.
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James Murray @james-bg.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Now do the cost of continued reliance on gas... www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
thetimes.com
Net zero ‘will cost households £1,400 a year by 2030’
Cost of decarbonising the energy network and upgrading the grid is ‘unsustainable’, according to the Prosperity Institute think tank
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Resolution Foundation @resolutionfoundation.org · 26/07/2026
Is welfare spending ''out of control''? It's estimated to be 11.1 per cent of GDP this financial year. That's just 1.1 per cent of GDP higher than in 2007-08, and total welfare spending has actually fallen by 0.9 per cent of GDP since 2012-13 ⤵️
chart showing Social security spending as a proportion of GDP, by category: GB
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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
A very good point as usual from @jamesbowes01.bsky.social The main objective of Mahmood's proposals was always to kick out care workers (as she has more or less said). That was always an economically, politically and morally bankrupt policy. Without it, the whole package falls apart.
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Adam Schwarz @adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
When the story of why humanity didn't stop climate change is written, it will feature front pages like this. Even as the skies blacken with climate change-induced wildfires, right wing media continue their relentless crusade against measures to tackle it.
The Times: Net zero risks blackouts. Below a photo of French wildfires.
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Boo!-per Lund @cooperlund.online · 24/07/2026
You ever think about how all this is happening after Orban lost in Hungary
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
It's funny how no-one ever asks where the money is coming from when you announce a cut in immigration.
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Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
If they were skilled political operators perhaps they wouldn’t be on the backbenches, along with their chief, two years into a Parliament which began with a landslide election win?
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Luke Tryl @luketryl.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Seen a few people saying rough sleeping policy isn’t aimed at median public concern. Quite apart from any policy/moral imperative it really is - rough sleeping comes up time again in focus groups as one of the most visible signs of Broken Britain and community decline!
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
Weird how the right both believe Thatcher's council house sale is the best policy in history and that anyone who benefitted from it is bad and wrong.
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Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
The King has, for the first time, published a document setting how how much "tax" he pays. It's not actual tax - the Crown can't pay tax - but a funny kind of maybe-almost-not-really tax. A quick thread on what the document tells us (not much) and what it doesn't tell us (lots).
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Samira Shackle @samirashackle.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
I have to say, it's making me feel a little insane hearing commentators say Ed Miliband shouldn't be chancellor because of his "ideological zeal" for Net Zero, in a week where temperatures are so extreme that my kids are being sent home early every day and it's regularly 30 degrees inside my house
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Josiah Mortimer @josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
81 Labour MPs – 20 per cent of the Parliamentary Labour Party – have signed an amendment calling for a National Commission on Electoral Reform, "the largest ever call for voting system change by Labour backbenchers" Labour for a New Democracy says.
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Prof Ian Hall @ianhall.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Rare red warning. Risk to life. Stay out of the sun. Avoid unnecessary exposure. Picture editor: "Counterpoint: Run the fun-on-the-beach shots?" We won't improve heat coverage until we stop illustrating public health emergencies with beach photos. www.independent.co.uk/weather/heat...
independent.co.uk
UK heatwave live: Rare red weather warning issued as Britain braces for 40C heat
Britons have been warned to stay out of the sun and to avoid exercising between 11am and 3pm
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
DfE pupil data is out today and shows that the number of private school pupils has dropped 5.6% since VAT was introduced. Not 25% like the independent schools council predicted. Or the 50% we saw in some right-wing papers. 5.6%.
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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
All about the framing. Same people who were losing their minds about Starmer's *declared* small donations, screeching "WHAT INFLUENCE WAS LABOUR PEER BUYING IN EXCHANGE FOR A SUIT AND SOME EYEGLASSES???", now present Farage accepting millions of dodgy foreign crypto like some sort of achievement.
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Crypto billionaires help Reform cement fundraising lead
GETTY IMAGES
Paul Seddon
Political reporter
1 hour ago
Reform UK received £7m from two overseas British crypto billionaires
earlier this year, figures show, helping it cement its fundraising lead in recent months.
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Paula Surridge @psurridge.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
I've seen quite a lot of 'this is all because Restore have spooked Reform' posts today. But Restore didn't exist in summer 2024 and the playbook really doesn't look all that different to me.
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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 · 01/06/2026
Memories of the Summer of 1976 endure in the British memory, 35.9 °C, parched fields, standpipes in the streets. 50 years on and, in the last decade alone, temperatures above 36 °C have been recorded on six days in the UK and the UK’s highest record temperature now stands at 40.3 °C.
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Alex Hern @hern.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Labour seems to have internalised the Supreme Court judgment as though it was a damning referendum loss that saw the public reject its position, rather than a plainly incorrect reading of a single point of law
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Interesting that the idea of another EU referendum is regularly discussed on broascast media as something that would cause division and thus a bad idea. But plans to deport literally millions of people are discussed as administrative questions.
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Phil Harrison @mrpmharrison.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
I've said it before but we need to somehow restore the social cost of racism. It's always been there but it's spreading at least partly because people aren't made to feel ashamed of it any more.
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Tom Roberts @tpgroberts.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
You must understand: Lily, who works doing data analysis for the University of Bristol and lives in a house share is middle class. Brian, her landlord, who is a self employed plumber declaring around a third of his income is working class.
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Labour4PR 🌹🗳️ @labour4pr.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
❤️ Andy Burnham reaffirms his support for Proportional Representation ahead of the Makerfield byelection. @andyburnham.bsky.social @theguardian.com 🌹 #Labour4PR #ElectoralReform www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Andy Burnham to back electoral reform if he becomes prime minister
Labour’s Makerfield byelection candidate wants to make politics ‘less point-scoring, more problem-solving’
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Middlesbrough FC @mfc.co.uk · 19/05/2026
A statement from MFC: Middlesbrough Football Club welcomes the outcome of today’s Disciplinary Commission hearing. We believe this sends out a clear message for the future of our game regarding sporting integrity and conduct.
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
there’s some of this on the timeline this morning. “if you think Starmer is anti-trans then it’s not even worth pursuing a conversation” - you are being wilfully blind!
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
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Alexander Clarkson @aphclarkson.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Brexit increasingly resembles a form of necropolitics through which the will of the living is outweighed by the will of the dead
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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Has anyone actually tried to win this sort of area by being honest? Wouldn't that be real leadership? To say: "I know why you voted for this, but it's turned out badly and I think you know that. You now have a choice. Trust the next easy solution the same conmen offer you, or fix the damage." 4/
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Alex Sobel MP @alexsobel.co.uk · 18/05/2026
Local elections confirm it: we’re a five‑party system. Yet FPTP means seats don’t match votes and stability isn’t guaranteed. Govt’s restoring Supplementary Vote for mayors, so why keep FPTP for Westminster? The Representation of the People Bill is a start, but FPTP must go. #FairElections #PR #FPTP
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Russ Jones @russincheshire.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
How to change this debate. " Being outside the EU costs every UK household an average of £8,300 every year. But being inside again would only cost each UK household £38 every year. Do you still think we should stay out? "
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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
The pattern people in the progressive space must break (I include myself): I support Leader A; all teams except A are evil. A has disappointed me. I am transfering wholesale huge expectations overnight to B. I support Leader B; all teams except B, especially A, are evil. B has disappointed me, etc.
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Labour4PR 🌹🗳️ @labour4pr.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
💬 “Burnham also repeated his backing for proportional representation in Westminster elections, claiming it helps build a "new politics and a different way of thinking” @andyburnham.bsky.social also told @itvnewspolitics.bsky.social yesterday that this would mean a manifesto commitment to PR
mirror.co.uk
Andy Burnham unveils plans for UK changes to Mirror readers in first interview
Andy Burnham unveiled plans for reindustrialisation, taking stronger public control of essentials, and also called for a council house building programme on a scale not seen since after World War II
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Led By Donkeys @ledbydonkeys.org · 17/05/2026
Immigration make Britain brilliant
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Jessica Elgot @jessicaelgot.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
Have we ever had a future prime minister explicitly mugging off Andrew Neil this badly?
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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
That these racist thugs have morphed into "far right influencers" is central. Being a bigot used to be a hobby. It is now a profession. We don't have to treat the monetisation of hate as an inevitable phenomenon. We can regulate platforms - not to supress speech, but to remove financial incentives.
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Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
"Heat pumps just shift gas burning to the power station." Wrong. Even if 100% of electricity came from gas, a heat pump at SCOP 3.8 uses 51% less gas than a boiler. At a terrible SCOP 2.5, still 25% less. David MacKay made this point in 2008. The maths hasn't changed.
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Owen Winter @owenwntr.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
Reform are very good at moving the goalposts. They said they’d win Gorton and Denton (lost by 12pts), win Wales (lost by 6pts), destroy the Tories in 2026 (PNS rose vs 2025) and win six London boroughs (won one). Each time journalists concluded those outcomes were clear from the outset
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Morgan Jones @morganj0nes.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
I will say, when your leader was a Liberal Democrat until comparatively recently, this isn't a very convincing line
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Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
For years, the biggest criticism of renewables was simple: “What happens when the sun isn’t shining?” The answer is increasingly: battery storage. 24/7 solar power is no longer theoretical. In some places, it is becoming economic reality.
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Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
crucial context: Peter Mandelson was sacked from the first New Labour government for having a £373,000 *loan* (not a gift) from a Labour colleague (Geoffrey Robinson) to buy a house
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Josiah Mortimer @josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Big green energy news: The Dogger Bank South Offshore Wind Farms DCO application has today been granted development consent by DESNZ At 3GW, it's one of the largest single consenting decisions in UK offshore wind history. If/when it's built, it will provide enough energy to power ~3 million homes.
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Ed Davey @eddavey.libdems.org.uk · 15/05/2026
We won every seat on Richmond upon Thames Council last week. But that doesn’t mean we’ve changed our mind on electoral reform. It’s time the Government stopped defending a broken system out of self-interest and backed proportional representation.
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Robert Shrimsley @robertshrimsley.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Makerfield is a fitting seat. If Burnham really is the guy to stop Reform he will be able to stop them in Makerfield. If he can't then he probably isn't
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Dr Ellie Chowns MP @elliechowns.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Despite it being obvious that the time of two-party politics is over, the govt laid out no plans to introduce a fairer voting system in the King's Speech. That's why Green MPs tabled an amendment on the need to bring in proportional representation and make every voice heard.
A screenshot of the Parliamentary Order Paper for 14/5/26. Text reads "1. King’s Speech (Motion for an Address): Adjourned Debate [13 May]

Until 5.00pm (Standing Order No. 9(3))

Proposed subject for debate: Getting Britain working again

That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty, as follows:

Most Gracious Sovereign, We, Your Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, in Parliament assembled, beg leave to offer our humble thanks to Your Majesty for the Gracious Speech which Your Majesty has addressed to both Houses of Parliament." Underneath that further text reads "Amendment (b)

Dr Ellie Chowns

Siân Berry

Adrian Ramsay

Carla Denyer

Hannah Spencer

At end add ‘but respectfully regret that the Gracious Speech fails to include measures to introduce proportional representation for all national and local elections before the next General Election.’"
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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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Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
BREAKING: Reform UK leader Nigel Farage bought a £1.4 million property in cash shortly after receiving a £5m personal gift from billionaire donor Christopher Harborne, according to property records seen by Sky News.
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