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Chris Roberts

@chrisjroberts.bsky.social
177 followers 377 following 477 posts

Trying to stay sane in an increasingly mad world. Light relief offered by Leyton Orient.

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Reposted by Chris Roberts
Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
The combination of "everyone has to be in a car all the time" and "everyone is now performing for a camera and creating content all the time" is a bad combination and not a sign of a healthy society.
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Call me old-fashioned, but I just think that if you are announcing £10bn of spending, then if the Shadow Treasury team and the leader's office are doing their jobs properly, the leader should have clearer answers to these questions:
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Simon Boyne @simonb84.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Tories: Pro congestion pro road deaths
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Chris Roberts @chrisjroberts.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Imagine believing that scrapping bus lanes or slower speeds in limited areas are good ideas. May as well campaign on slower journeys by bus and more fatalities.
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The Leyton Orientear @leytonorientear.com · 03/10/2026
A club which seems to have lost its way, in full sight of a stadium half full of tourists
leytonorientear.counterpress.media
Second-half slump sees Plymouth take command at Brisbane Road • Leyton Orientear • Leyton Orient FC independent news
Leyton Orient fell to a 0-2 defeat against Plymouth Argyle after a damaging start to the second half at Brisbane Road. The O’s had competed well before the break, but goals from Bim Pepple and Will Ev...
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Tom Davies @tomdaviese17.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Feel utterly meh about #lofc at the moment - we're not awful, we've got some decent players, but we're not going anywhere as a team. The better teams in this division are obviously a class above and our majority owner's focused on substanceless development dreams
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Will Hayward - Wales Journo @willhaycardiff.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
EXCLUSIVE Reform MP Sarah Pochin asked a question about the impact second homes have on rural areas, just 48 hours before buying a £800k second home in Wales… willhaywardwales.substack.com/p/reform-mp-...
willhaywardwales.substack.com
Reform UK MP buys £800k Welsh second home just days after questioning their impact
Is this a case of politicians saying ‘do as I say, not as I do’?
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The Leyton Orientear @leytonorientear.com · 01/10/2026
Ironic that we now have a genuine football man as PM, and his two clumsiest interventions so far have both been on the subject of football. Here’s @tomdaviese17.bsky.social on the first of them, and how Burnham is not reading the room
leytonorientear.counterpress.media
Drinkers For The Booze Ban • Leyton Orientear • Leyton Orient FC independent news
Ex-Ear Editor Tom Davies outlines his thoughts on Andy Burnham's misplaced interest in lifting the ban on alcohol in the stands at football matches.
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NationCymru @nation.cymru · 01/10/2026
Senedd Members have rejected a Reform motion calling for the Welsh Government to scrap default 20mph speed limits
nation.cymru
Senedd Members reject Reform bid to scrap 20mph speed limits
Ella Groves – ICNN Senedd Reporter Senedd Members have rejected a Reform motion calling for the Welsh Government to scrap default 20mph speed limits. The proposal was defeated by 51 votes to 37 follow...
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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
It’s a mark of the corruption of our whole way of thinking about the world that trying to meet a planetary emergency is routinely described as “ideological”, while continuing to accelerate it is presented as “pragmatic” and “economic”.
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John Harris @johnharris1969.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This is what consistently leaves this country stuck & broken in the most basic ways
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The Leyton Orientear @leytonorientear.com · 24/09/2026
We were delighted to welcome Britain’s leading historian on football fanzines to our exhibition on Saturday. Here’s the delightful article he wrote about it, which includes new detail we didn’t even know about ourselves! @fanzinefc.bsky.social
footballfanzineculture.blog
40 Years of the Leyton Orientear.
This weeks blog starts with some pissed up mates in the pub making a list of all the things they’re fed up about. This sounds like a great idea for a sitcom, the start of Men Behaving Badly perhaps…
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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Just as well those committing wrongs against the RNLI are not holding placards supporting a proscribed organisation, else they would really be in trouble.
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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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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Some of the worst abuses in the history of the American Republic were perpetrated in the name of “national security.” But none have used it as mendaciously as Trump.
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Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

1
Wide shot of the BRITISH MUSEUM. There are suggestions of fascism around the streets - tanks, barricades, an Orwellian 'Big Brother'-style poster on a wall. A voice of a TOUR GUIDE emanates from the museum:

TOUR GUIDE:
So the Tapestry tells acrucial chapter of our nation's history...

2 
[Cut to interior of museum. A long Bayeaux-style TAPESTRY is on display, and the Tour Guide is speaking to a tour group]

TOUR GUIDE [smiling]:
How modern fascist Britain was created. 

3
TOUR GUIDE:
The Tapestry begins here with the 2008 Crash, then austerity, then the AI Crash...

4
TOUR GUIDE:
...and by the end of the room it's just full-on fash. 

5
CHILD IN TOUR GROUP [gesturing to the tapestry]:
What's this middle bit?

TOUR GUIDE:
This is the 2026 Battle of Legitimate Concerns 

6
TOUR GUIDE:
[show a reporter standing next to the Dover protests]
Here's the media saying the government have got to do something about the legitimate concerns...

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CHILD:
...About the failure of capitalism?

TOUR GUIDE:
No about brown people on boats

8
CHILD:
[pointing at boats crossing the sea on the tapestry]
Are these boats the mega-dinghies?

TOUR GUIDE:
Not all of them

9
[we see one of the boats  is a giant yacht]
TOUR GUIDE:
That one's a superyacht,
carrying money from the American fascists to the British ones.

10
TOUR GUIDE:
You see really it's as much a story of convergence as it is of conflict.

[An alarm sounds in the museum]
DING DING DING DING 

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TOUR GUIDE:
Ok, tour over everyone 

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TOUR GUIDE:
It's time for the Two Minute Hate!

[They all leave the museum]

[ends]
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Cold War Steve @coldwarsteve.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
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Alan Rusbridger @arusbridger.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Last week - when all the front pages headlines were about Farage and his £72m - Farage fronted his own GB News show ….to talk about Farage! He compared his critics to communists and then interviewed other guests - about himself! app.prospectmagazine.co.uk/story/75017/...
app.prospectmagazine.co.uk
Farage and the £130m even his detractors have missed
GB news has provided relentless positive PR for Nigel Farage while racking up tens of millions in financial losses. And now there is a new channel in the offing
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Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
my brilliant colleague @robertshrimsley.bsky.social on the threat from Elon Musk’s X platform www.ft.com/content/f270...
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Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I have spent weeks shadowing the RNLI and I can tell you, they do it out of nothing more than compassion. Wrote about the heroes I've met over the years in this free-to-read post. nicolakelly.substack.com/p/the-rnli-a...
nicolakelly.substack.com
The RNLI aren't traitors; they're heroes
I have spent weeks shadowing lifeboat crews. Here's what they do and what it's like.
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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 18/09/2026
It is incredibly important that political violence does not succeed. The far-right mob that shut down Portsmouth wanted this outcome. If the state wishes to avoid more of these actions, it needs to make sure this RNLI branch reopens *immediately*, or as close to that as humanly possible.
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Andrew Wasylyk @andrewwasylyk.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Tonightah 👇
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The Leyton Orientear @leytonorientear.com · 17/09/2026
Please join us before the game on Saturday to celebrate our fortieth birthday, and have a poke around the great new (old) #LOFC museum Details 👇
leytonorientear.counterpress.media
Forty Years of the Leyton Orientear • Leyton Orientear • Leyton Orient FC independent news
On 13th September 1986, a group of Orient fans launched their home-made, heartfelt, humble fanzine. Four decades on, a new exhibition in the Club museum looks back over its legacy.
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Jane @localnotail.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Solidarity with this Piddington resident ♥️✊ #Newsnight
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Desarrayed @desarrayed.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Literally holding a monument for ransom 
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Reform in Wales having quite a bad day. Announced in the last 5 mins: • Leader Dan Thomas steps down due to "personal reasons" (he was arrested). • Reform MS Sarah Cooper-Lesadd defects to Plaid, saying Reform are "far more interested in division, opposition and headlines than finding solutions"
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The Leyton Orientear @leytonorientear.com · 14/09/2026
While preparing for Saturday's exhibition, our researchers have uncovered something at the British Museum that challenges all our assumptions about when #LOFC issues with set pieces began...
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Reposted by Chris Roberts
Tom Davies @tomdaviese17.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
This is partly self-promotion corner I knowbut this looks a fine collection of events. YOU SHOULD ATTEND leytonorientear.counterpress.media/features/for...
leytonorientear.counterpress.media
Forty Years of the Leyton Orientear • Leyton Orientear • Leyton Orient FC independent news
On 13th September 1986, a group of Orient fans launched their home-made, heartfelt, humble fanzine. Four decades on, a new exhibition in the Club museum looks back over its legacy.
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Reposted by Chris Roberts
Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
🔴 More than 80% of all the donations ever received by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK have come from just two cryptocurrency billionaires, new Democracy for Sale analysis reveals. “If that isn’t a massive corruption risk I don’t know what is.” democracyforsale.substack.com/p/breaking-8...
democracyforsale.substack.com
BREAKING: 80% of Reform’s funding comes from two crypto billionaires
“If that isn't a massive corruption risk I don't know what is.”
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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
This is absolute madness Labour - and I’d say what’s left of the centre right - is an existential battle against oligarchy But it hasn’t a clue that it is
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
If you have a big story about Reform and approach them for comment it seems they go quiet and then quickly give the news to a friendly outlet (ie the Telegraph). Lesson seems to be: don’t approach Reform.
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Must just be a coincidence that two of Reform's main donors have been convicted of money laundering related offences (Delo and George Cottrell).
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Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
nothing says “party of the ordinary workers” than taking a £36m donation from a crypto tycoon convicted in the US in 2022 for failings in an anti-money laundering programme before being pardoned by Donald Trump
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The Leyton Orientear @leytonorientear.com · 10/09/2026
Loads going on this season… including this: the next installment of “Orient Memories” starring Barry Lakin and @tomdaviese17.bsky.social, Ear Editor back in these infamous times, who also had a cameo role in the documentary #LOFC
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Robert Shrimsley @robertshrimsley.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
It's hard to think of anything less British than the morons doing this to the heroic RNLI
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When Saturday Comes @wsc.co.uk · 10/09/2026
Out now, the story of the fanzine movement that changed football – as told by WSC contributor and podcast host @danielgraywriter.bsky.social Get your copy (WSC subscribers save £3): www.wsc.co.uk/shop/fanzine/
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Nick Pettigrew @nick-pettigrew.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I just think that risking your life at a moment's notice to save people you've never met in exchange for no money is a better expression of patriotism than dressing up like a Poundshop paramilitary and intimidating families with kids trying to get onto a ferry.
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Mic Wright @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
This is written like it’s a comical seaside farce rather than about the actions of a racist mob www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/politic...
portsmouth.co.uk
Protestors confuse Pakistan cricket team for migrants after gathering at hotel
Misinformation caused groups of people to gather at The Marriott Hotel
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Football Fanzine Culture @fanzinefc.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
A great day here at FFC towers as this modern classic from @danielgraywriter.bsky.social fell through the letterbox. BUY IT NOW!
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Rob Derr @deeppurple64.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
This is beautiful stuff @claypipemusic.bsky.social claypipemusic.bandcamp.com/album/furlon...
claypipemusic.bandcamp.com
Furlongs, by Gilroy Mere
10 track album
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
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HOPE not hate @hopenothate.org.uk · 08/09/2026
Two RNLI volunteers were pictured in Portsmouth this weekend while responding during the Patriot Platform protest. The far right responded by identifying them and branding them “traitors”. This is what the far right’s “peaceful” activism looks like.
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
One reason England does so well is our second generation immigrants outperform their peers which is not true in most OECD countries. We are also very good at integration. And it's v sad that this is never acknowledge in debates on immigration.
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Thangam Debbonaire @thangamdebbonaire.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
A very useful guide from @stephenkb.bsky.social to the difference between legitimate concerns and racism, and how that muddled approach leads to muddled policy. Also. Racist thuggery isn’t protest. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
giftarticle.ft.com
Labour’s muddled migration policy won’t stop thuggery
A government that can’t distinguish between ‘legitimate concerns’ and open racism is only making things worse
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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
‘Yet the emergence of Patriot Platform is not necessarily a sign that the far right is getting its way.’ This from @trillingual.bsky.social in @lrb.co.uk is really worth a read www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/se...
lrb.co.uk
Daniel Trilling | Masks Off
The emergence of Patriot Platform is not necessarily a sign that the far right is getting its way. Radical right-wing...
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David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Lowe going even lower. An official carrying out the policies of an elected government is threatened with imprisonment. What's going on here is deeply disturbing.
Rupert Lowe

A high-ranking official in the Home Office is today ordering where to send those invaders that arrived in Portsmouth last night.

Which is the next Piddington, or Epping, or Crowborough, or Thetford?

I want that man or woman to know that if they give the order to place hundreds of unvetted young men into a British community, then a Restore Britain Government will aim to prosecute them.

This is retrospective.

If we win power, and we're already the fourth largest political party through membership, that official will be dragged through the courts.

With prison the ultimate aim.

Currently, we are fourth favourite with the bookmakers to win the most seats well ahead of the Lib Dems and the Greens. For a six month old party, that is impressive.

But we need more.

Lend us your support and give this threat real teeth.

That official needs to know that there will be consequences for their actions.

Not in 2029, but now. Today. 2026.

That is what Restore Britain is promising the British people.

Consequences.
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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 07/09/2026
A short, slightly more optimistic thread on recent events. I really hope he's right!
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Dorian Lynskey @dorianlynskey.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Street fascism doesn't start with beatings. It starts with an intimidating show of force. To call that "peaceful" is absurd.
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Mic Wright @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
NEW | On fascism on the streets and the front-pages… STOP THE BLOKES With fascism on the streets of England again, The Times uses its front-page to deliver the same message beneath a thin veneer of respectability. brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/stop-the-b...
brokenbottleboy.substack.com
Stop The Blokes
With fascism on the streets of England again, The Times uses its front-page to deliver the same message beneath a thin veneer of respectability.
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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Nick Robinson on Today is literally talking about ‘legitimate concerns’ after second night of organised men dressed in black - sorry ‘protesters’ - mobilising en masse in another littoral town. This is how street fascism is normalised
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