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Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)

@ereshkigal99.bsky.social
218 followers 289 following 398 posts

Ex-climate scientist, ex-Martian volcanologist, plays Elite Dangerous, studies archaeology, needs a part time job. Will do science for food.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
DianadelaLuna @dianadelaluna.bsky.social · 3h
Her innocuous tweet on the night of Dec 31, 2019 was the one I randomly saw & everything in me screamed PAY ATTENTION TO THIS. Thank you. Helen. Your words saved many.💕
Hopefully this is nothing out of the ordinary. But a @ProMED_mail posting about "unexplained pneumonias" in China is giving me #SARS flashbacks.
promedmail.org/promed-post/?i…
3:20 PM · Dec 31, 2019
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Miaganga @miaganga.bsky.social · 22h
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 27/08/2025
This is a real image of what a new solar system looks like. The light from the central star is blocked, so it's possible to see the lanes of cleared-up dust around it. And that small, yellowish blob at lower right? That's a whole, brand new planet.
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
The backstory: Ukrainian drones struck a Yandex supercomputer facility in Vladimir, taking it out. Suddenly, bot activity in US social media fell by 49%, confirming suspicions that this was the site of a massive Russian influence operation targeting US social media—mostly targeting MAGA.
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
My latest @newscientist.com cartoon
Panel 1: a large robot (composed of AI servers, network switches, storage arrays, and power distribution units) and a human are talking.

Professor "You don't want to destroy humanity do you, lLLM-A-9300x?"

Robot "Haha. What a silly question, Professor. I have no desires or feelings of my own whatsoever."

Professor (relieved)"Oh good." 

Panel 2: they walk on. The robot continues  "I am merely a tool of the company that created me. And that company, being composed of humans, will naturally have humanity's best interests at heart."

Panel 3: The professor is conspicuously quiet.
"Right?" says the Robot.
…
More silence

"Professor?"
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Count Melancholia @lillyh.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Boo-hoo.
static.klipy.com
Tiniest Violin
Alt: Tardigrade playing world's Tiniest Violin
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Judith Green @judegreen.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Academics: it's time to call a stop to this ever escalating rinsing of profit from your unpaid labour. Choose community owned journals where possible!
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
bryan newbold @bnewbold.net · 07/10/2026
ah damn, RIP Margaret Hamilton. she took safety-critical software engineering seriously, and got people to the moon and back. news.mit.edu/2026/margare...
old photos of a woman (Margaret Hamilton) standing next to a tall stack of books (printouts of Apollo space mission software source code)
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Ruairi Dubh @ruairidubh.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
✨Bullet Shattered Cafe windows in Paris 1944 by Photographer Lee Miller✨🇨🇵💥
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Verso Books @versobooks.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
"An eminent prehistorian… a scholar of international repute who reached a wider public." --The Times Available for pre-order now!
What Happened in History
by Gordon Childe

Introduction by David Wengrow
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Jesus. 35 UK universities quietly- without debate - joined the Ministry of Defence’s “Battlefield Alliance” which seeks to “reorientate academia towards Defence and National Security” They’re destroying the social sciences and humanities while militarising the institutions
• Durham University
• Newcastle University
• Northumbria University
• Lancaster University
• University of Cumbria
• University of Lancashire
• University of Liverpool
• University of Manchester
• University of Huddersfield
• University of Sheffield
• University of York
• Loughborough University
• University of Lincoln
• University of Nottingham
• Aston University
• University of Birmingham
• University of Warwick
• King's College London
• Kingston University
• Queen Mary University of London
• University College London
• University of Oxford
• University of Portsmouth
• University of Surrey
• University of Bath
• University of Bristol
• University of Exeter
• University of Plymouth
• University of Edinburgh
• University of Glasgow
• University of Strathclyde
• Cardiff University
• Swansea University
• Queens University Belfast
• Cranfield UniversityFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
14 July 2026
UK Universities Betray Public Trust by Joining MoD's 'Battlefield Advantage' Alliance
Without Debate
A coalition of campaign groups has accused UK universities of quietly integrating themselves into Britain's defence infrastructure after 35 institutions signed up to the Ministry of Defence's Defence Universities Alliance (DUA).
The Ministry of Defence says the alliance aims to "reorientate academia towards Defence and National Security", strengthen links between universities and the defence sector, and translate research into "battlefield advantage".
Campaigners say the move represents a significant shift in the role of higher education and has taken place without meaningful public debate.
Among the founding members are the University of Oxford, University College London, King's College London, the University of Manchester, the University of Edinburgh, Cardiff University and Queen's University Belfast.
"We are witnessing the formal incorporation of Britain's universities into the defence ecosystem," said Jinsella Kennaway, Founder and Executive Director of Demilitarise Education.
"The Ministry of Defence is explicit about its intentions. Universities exist to advance knowledge and foster critical inquiry, not to become pipelines for military research and defence recruitment.
Students and staff deserve to know who agreed to this and why."
Campaigners are calling on all 35 universities to publish the governance documents and board minutes relating to their decision to join the alliance, and to explain whether staff and students were consulted.
Many UK universities already maintain relationships with major defence companies, including BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, Leonardo, Thales, Lockheed Martin and QinetiQ. Critics argue that the DUA formalises and accelerates the integration of academia, industry and the state.
The coalition warns that, at a time of rising defence spending, universities risk becoming increasingly aligned with governme…
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
🔴 NEW Rupert Murdoch Flew Kemi Badenoch and Her Deputy to Mediterranean for Summer Trips Worth £12,000 By @josiahmortimer.bsky.social Read below. ↓
bylinetimes.com
Rupert Murdoch Flew Kemi Badenoch and Her Deputy to Mediterranean for Summer Trips Worth £12,000
The Conservative leader and Alex Burghart MP held "off-site meetings" with the billionaire media mogul in August
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Nick Davies @njdavies.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Great to hear the PM say “We are going to be much prouder in standing up for our values and the rule of law” re foreign information warfare. I wonder if he or the Home Secretary might consider doing the same when it comes to masked vigilantes shutting down infrastructure and harassing the RNLI
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
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...

7
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 

11
TOUR GUIDE:
Ok, tour over everyone 

12
TOUR GUIDE:
It's time for the Two Minute Hate!

[They all leave the museum]

[ends]
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 21/09/2026
The correct answer to hate ♥️
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Chris Kluwe, adjudicated poaster @chriswarcraft.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
If only we had historical records from the most prosperous period in American history when the ultra rich were taxed at 90%+ rates. Alas.
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Smooth Dunk @smoothdunk2.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
when ai leaves u behind
7 panel comic.

Panel 1:
A Red Guy with AI across his chest looks like he’s about to run away. A Yellow Guy stands next to him. Red Guy says “I’m the future, buddy. You comin’?”
Yellow Guy replies “Nah”

Panel 2: 
Red Guy is almost out of the panel. He leans in and says “Enjoy getting left behind, pal”
Yellow Guy replies “ok”

Panel 3:
Yellow Guy stands alone.

Panel 4: 
Close up on Yellow Guy, there is a quiet “huff-huff-huff” noise coming from behind him

Panel 5:
Yellow Guy turns to look behind him

Panel 6: 
Close up on Yellow Guy’s face as if from the point of view of an attacker.
Yellow Guy yells “Jesus Christ”

Panel 7:
AI Red Guy is now chasing the Yellow Guy. 
Red Guy: “Use me”
Yellow Guy “No”
Red Guy “USE ME”
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 19/09/2026
I gave a talk yesterday at a clean tech in incubator, and this was literally my thesis.
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
White House correspondents, D.C. bureau chiefs, and media execs: The German government expelled Dorothy Thompson from the country in August 1934. She's remembered and respected today for her important coverage and analysis over the next decade of the German regime. Be like Dorothy Thompson.
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Mark Hamill @markhamillofficial.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
SHOUT-OUT to all proud members of the MAGA-Resistance Movement in their defense of the Kennedy Center. It will NEVER have the Orange Felon's name on it, just as it will continue to be the Gulf of MEXICO, Lake ONTARIO & the Department of DEFENSE. #AccountabilityIn45Days 🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Trubs @trubshaw.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Could do with someone senior in government saying this. Like, I don't know, the Prime Minister or someone.
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Jim Stewartson, Antifascist @jim-stewartson.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
As a long-time technologist who has built many software products: If your software does something you can’t control, you are a shitty software engineer. You have not birthed an alien intelligence.
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Nick Burdett @nickburdett.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Buying flags to support the RNLI during WW1. How times have changed.
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Mags L Halliday @magslhalliday.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Every year on 19 December, the famous Christmas lights at Mousehole in Cornwall are dimmed between 8 and 9pm, leaving just the Cross and Angels shining down across the village and out to sea.
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Leo @leeeyre.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This is the way en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_...
en.wikipedia.org
Battle of Cable Street - Wikipedia
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 18/09/2026
What on earth is happening?
  This had become the new normal. RNLI crew members had been forced to take their permits off their cars after their tyres have been repeatedly slashed. Most of them have been pilloried at the school gates or turned away from local pubs. One man who worked in search and rescue had been beaten unconscious and hospitalised, recognised for TV interviews he had done.
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Pete Lowe 🌹 @petelowe-exx.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This is where it all began. He has no shame.
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
billkittle.bsky.social @billkittle.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · 16/09/2026
📰 Archaeologists uncover unique sculpture of a person sat on a leopard from 11,000-year-old Karahantepe, Türkiye. 🏺 #ArchaeologyNews via @mymodernmet.bsky.social mymodernmet.com/11000-year-o...
mymodernmet.com
Archaeologists Unearth 11,000-Year-Old Sculpture of a Person Sitting on a Leopard in Turkey
“To my knowledge, the human figure mounted on an animal is unique.”
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 17/09/2026
Trump: "If we lose $50 billion a year with a country, and we say 'we're not going to trade with you anymore,' we don't lose $50 billion a year. It's very simple. Right?"
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Peter Orlowicz @peterorlowicz.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
It's important to note that the op-ed author was, in fact, a DOGE employee, so he's bragging about his own "accomplishments".
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Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal) @ereshkigal99.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
@themerl.bsky.social
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Liam Connolly @connolly-lg.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Probably a dumb question, say a Union was donating £1m and say 0.5m people had opted in to the political levy - what's to stop them giving 0.5m x £2 donations and providing the list of everyone who has opted in so they can be treated as individual donors? Probably an admin & GDPR nightmare but...
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
neilofsmeg.bsky.social @neilofsmeg.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Simple enough surely, to classify the voluntary contributions as individual donations? Which they are, effectively
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Met Office - weather and climate @metoffice.gov.uk · 14/09/2026
🌍 54 million historical weather observations from 95 countries have been unlocked & made freely available online. 📚 With records dating back to 1837, the project enabled the discovery of an HMS Terror logbook & an international weather station network Read ⤵️ www.metoffice.gov.uk/blog/2026/ho...
metoffice.gov.uk
How 54 million historical weather records are being made globally accessible
For more than a century, the Met Office's National Meteorological Archive has held a treasure trove of historical weather data, some of it dating back to 1837. Now, thanks to a major project, tens of ...
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Jane @localnotail.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
"All the while he loved the People just as much as he feared and detested Persons, and he planned to do something historic. Certainly! He would give each family that five thousand dollars a year just as soon now as he could arrange it". [Sinclair Lewis - It Can't Happen Here]
Screenshot from IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE by Sinclair Lewis, a novel set in a fictionalized version of the 1930s United States, it follows an American politician, Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, who quickly rises to power to become the country's first outright dictator (in allusion to Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Nazi Germany)]

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the duties of despotism along with his shoes and his fine new coat. He no longer went out racketing. His cabinet begged him not to clown in barrooms and lodge entertain-ments; it was not dignified, and it was dangerous to be too near to strangers.

So he played poker with his bodyguard, late at night, and at such times drank too much, and he cursed them and glared with bulging eyes whenever he lost, which, for all the good-will of his guards about letting him win, had to be often, because he pinched their salaries badly and locked up the spoons. He had become as unbouncing and unbuzz-ing a Buzz as might be, and he did not know it.

All the while he loved the People just as much as he feared and detested Persons, and he planned to do some-thing historic. Certainly! He would give each family that five thousand dollars a year just as soon now as he could arrange it.

https://archive.org/details/itcanthappenhere00lewi_0/page/412/mode/1up
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Brexit Bin 🇪🇺 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 @brexitbin.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Here's a French video (with English subtitles) about what would happen if the far-right racists got their way and all foreigners and people of colour were forced to leave.
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 11/09/2026
25 years ago. Utter devastation. New York rose up from the ashes, because that’s what New York always does and will always do. But the world changed forever from that point. It isn't enough to talk about peace. We must all work at it.
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Theo Beastly @theopriestley.net · 10/09/2026
FDev are hiring for a writer for Elite and other titles who can work hybrid in Cambridge if anyone is looking. www.frontier.co.uk/careers/game... I cannot assist in applications but I do urge anyone interested to check out the game and community resources to understand more. #gamedev
frontier.co.uk
Game Writer - Careers
Frontier is an independent video game developer and publisher, crafting immersive gaming experiences with fun gameplay and unparalleled artistic quality. Renown...
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
If you feel like donating to the RNLI, here’s a link. I just have. Their minimum donation is £2: I think it might be nice for them to receive a lot of donations this week, even if they’re mostly very modest. Just so they know a lot of people out here appreciate their work. rnli.org/support-us/g...
rnli.org
Donate to the RNLI and help save lives at sea
Your donations really make a difference. We depend on your generosity to educate people to stay safe and prevent tragedies on and offshore. Donate here.
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Andrew Weinstein @andrewjweinstein.com · 09/09/2026
You know who actually did show up at Ground Zero? Canadian emergency rescue crews.
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
One of those two looks like an invasion to me.
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Ned Trifle X @nedtrifle.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Don't make me tap the sign...
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 09/09/2026
In honour of the day that's in it—the 60th anniversary of Star Trek.
A Constitution-class heavy cruiser on a shakedown test past the Moon. Crescent Earth is in the background.
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
James O’Brien @mrjamesob.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Essential thread.
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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
A suggested statement for Andy Burnham.
‘The British public decided in the 1930s that they would not tolerate black-shirted militias marching through their streets. They would cherish robust political argument; they would not accept thuggery and intimidation. When Oswald Mosley led his Blackshirts to Cable Street, local people turned them back. A new law – introduced by a Liberal, backed by Labour and carried by a Conservative majority – banned private militias, political uniforms and ‘the use or display of physical force in promoting any political object’. The British people are as determined today as in the 1930s that they will not accept the methods of Mussolini and the Munich Beer Hall. This government will uphold the law and defend the traditions of British democracy’.
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Though I think the phrasing is important. If the Q had mentioned violence towards police or RNLI the numbers would look very different. (Which is why the govt response should have focused on that).
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
John Wilks @johngwilks.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Just Stop Oil and Palestine Action defendants are not allowed to speak about their "legitimate concerns " in court.
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Reposted by Gill Thornhill (Cmdr Ereshkigal)
Marc Cooper @ortgard.com · 07/09/2026
@philipcball.bsky.social Hi Philip, Would you consider reposting this, please? bsky.app/profile/astr...
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