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Nick Stone

@europeannick.bsky.social
1.5K followers 488 following 1.9K posts

Lots of politics, plenty of travel, public transport geek & delving into the Eurovision Song Contest. Autism & ADHD. My views are my own. Retweets not always endorsements.

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Reposted by Nick Stone
James Ball @jamesrball.com · 12h
"Burnham is taking a bet no other politician in recent British history has made: instead of platitudes or populism, he is trying to set out in plain terms a political offer, with trade-offs, and hope the public can be persuaded to back it. Even his critics must surely acknowledge it’s refreshing."
thenewworld.co.uk
Vigour, passion, purpose: Why Andy Burnham’s bold speech will be talked about for many years to come
On social care, PR, Brexit, water, housing and more, the PM signalled seismic change and a willingness to tackle the toughest issues
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Resolution Foundation @resolutionfoundation.org · 13h
The triple lock on the State Pension will be 'adjusted' from April 2030. What might that mean for the value of the State Pension? In this chart we show how the State Pension would have increased under various uprating measures, including the 'smoothed' triple lock announced by the PM today.
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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 14h
A c*** writes.
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Nick Stone @europeannick.bsky.social · 14h
Fck me.... Burnham's really going for it. Well impressed.
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Election Maps UK @electionmaps.uk · 18h
Westminster Voting Intention: RFM: 25% (+4) LAB: 24% (+1) CON: 19% (-2) LDM: 12% (=) GRN: 11% (-3) RES: 3% (-1) SNP: 2% (=) Via @yougov.co.uk, 27-28 Sep. Changes w/ 20-21 Sep.
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 19h
Every private conversation in Westminster: "Well the triple lock obviously has to go at some point". Every commentator on Burnham: "completely mad to propose getting rid of triple lock - political suicide".
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Parody Nigel Farage @parodypm.bsky.social · 21h
This two tier policing is disgraceful. It's as if there is one approach for people who helpfully film themselves committing crimes and another approach when there is insufficient evidence.
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Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Ed Miliband, 'Every experience I've had in the two months that I've been Foreign Secretary tells me: our future lies in a deeper, stronger partnership with the EU." So much more refreshing and honest than Keir Starmer's disastrous make Brexit work nonsense.
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Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
“The only system in which Nigel Farage can win a Commons majority is First Past the Post.” John Curtice
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Times this morning. Me in December last year. It was pretty damn obvious this would happen to anyone who did the maths. samf.substack.com/p/the-oversh...
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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Even the GB News presenter is thrown by his guest's suggestion that all asylum seekers be castrated. This is what happens when the narrative marches ever rightwards. It drifts out of everyone's control and requires individuals involved to suddenly realise 'no wait, f***, that's mad'.
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Lawrence Freedman @ldfreedman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Russia is stepping up its campaign to weaken Europe and undermine its support for Ukraine. @hannanotte.bsky.social provides an informed and lucid assessment of what Putin is put to, how far he might go, and how European countries should respond. (£/free trial). samf.substack.com/p/putins-cam...?
samf.substack.com
Putin’s campaign against Europe
How far will he go?
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Tony Tassell @tonytassell.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
“All great art makes you look at the world differently” - superb tribute by @stephenkb.bsky.social of the masterpiece that is the 7 Up series as.ft.com/r/bf39a93c-f...
as.ft.com
The ‘7 Up’ series: didactic social history as masterpiece
This vivid and complex account of life as it is lived has proved to be one of the great happy accidents of television
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Scott Bryan @scottygb.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I wrote about 70 Up worthwatching.substack.com/p/70-up-is-t...
worthwatching.substack.com
“70 Up” Is the Best Television This Year (So Far)
Welcome to the latest Worth Watching.
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Dylan Difford @dylandifford.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Case in point, there's not going to be an early election, because it's a lot risk for a very plausibly painful reward, if that.
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I suspect there may be some more collective spine finding now that the Dems are on course to take both Houses and Trump is looking very lame-duck-like.
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Richard Corbett CBE @richardcorbett.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Just 4 months after the local elections, Reform UK (RefUK) have lost 158 of their local councillors: -55 resigned -42 went Independent -28 defected -24 were kicked out -5 lost their seats -2 disqualified -2 suspended. Appalling record - and a waste of taxpayers’ money!
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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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Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
🔴 NEW Why Canada Could End Up With a Better Deal With the EU Than the UK By Alexandra Hall Hall Read below. ↓
bylinetimes.com
Why Canada Could End Up With a Better Deal With the EU Than the UK
As the UK continues to hesitate over drawing back towards the EU, Canada has spotted an opportunity, argues former diplomat Alexandra Hall Hall
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Russ Jones @russincheshire.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
If Totnes decided, in an unofficial referendum, to join the EU, I wonder how many pages of coverage the BBC would give to a cat that can play a banjo?
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Luke Tryl @luketryl.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
New polling on willingness to vote tactically finds a big left/right disparity -76% of Green voters would consider voting Labour tactically, 72% Lib Dem -74% of Lib Dems would consider Labour, 69% Green & 53% Tory -77% of Labour voters would consider Lib Dem, 62% Green, 49% Tory
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YouGov @yougov.co.uk · 14/09/2026
69% of Britons now have an unfavourable opinion of Nigel Farage (9-10 Sep 2026), the highest recorded by our tracker in the decade it has run Favourable: 24% (+1 from 13-14 Aug) Unfavourable: 69% (+2) Net: -45 (-1) yougov.com/en-gb/articl...
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George Eaton @georgeeaton.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Inheritance tax is paid by less than 5% of estates and couples can already transfer up to £1m in property tax-free. Abolishing it would be regressive, unmeritocratic and a bad use of £9bn.
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Dean Hochlaf @dhochlaf.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Updating political finance rules for an era where some individuals can mobilise the resources of mid-sized nation states just seems like the most obvious thing in the world to do, am amazed that there has been opposition within the labour movement to this
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
There's diminishing returns to this kind of money given caps on spending during elections. But it will allow them to hire a lot more organisers and potentially to cover costs of candidates so they attract more people.
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
A good source told me yesterday that the Tories are convinced there's going to be a summer 2027 election and are working to that timetable...
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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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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
It will be interesting to see what Reform's absorptive capacity is for £36m+. A lot of money for a new party to spend and the stuff they're looking for - constituency campaign managers and hq staff - are not exactly available in bulk off the shelf
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Alan Wager @dralanwager.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Donations from one crypto billionaire to Reform: £36m Total donations from Britain's entire trade union movement over the last five years, to the Labour Party: £33.9m A disaster. Foreseeable (and those on the left that worked to stop a donations cap should be ashamed). But disastrous nonetheless.
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
A reminder that Delo previously pled guilty in the US to violating money laundering protections and agreed to pay a $10 million fine for "willfully” breaking the law with his BitMex platform, which was described as "in effect a money laundering platform.” This is who owns Farage now
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kahu001.bsky.social @kahu001.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Police launch criminal investigation into Reform UK donations
The investigation, which follows a broadcast by Channel 4 News, is being folded into the inquiry that has been under way into other donations.
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Joerg Lau @joerglau.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
“The seismic nature of this moment goes far beyond party tactics. Germany is entering a period of political upheaval in which the core values of the postwar republic are up for dispute.” Some thoughts for the @theguardian www.theguardian.com/world/commen...
theguardian.com
Friedrich Merz is now on borrowed time. But that’s not why the AfD’s triumph is seismic | Jörg Lau
The anti-fascist consensus about our Nazi past is fundamental to German democracy. But that, shockingly, is being shattered, says Jörg Lau, an international correspondent for the German weekly Die Zei...
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
The AfD and Reform immigration policies are almost identical. There is no plausible reason for considering one far right and the other not.
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Adam Schwarz @adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Every new prime minister gets to celebrate their 50th day in office by restoring Liz Truss's rightful title of 'UK's shortest serving prime minister'. Congrats, Andy Burnham.
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Will the AfD winning in Saxony-Anhalt I've taken the paywall off the post I wrote last year about how memories of WW2 are being distorted by them and other radical right parties. "Never again?" samf.substack.com/p/never-agai...
samf.substack.com
Never again?
Memory entrepreneurship and the radical right’s assault on the postwar order
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Mujtaba Rahman @mijrahman.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Extraordinary result in Saxony-Anhalt - maybe the most consequential German state-election result of the postwar era. Headline is not simply that the AfD came first, but that the CDU has collapsed as the organising force of the state’s politics (from 37.1% in 2021 to 18.5% today)
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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Farage, a man who was doing Cameo videos for £70 a pop as late as March 2026, apparently turned up to a meeting to discuss a half-million donation and "wasn't really listening". What utter contempt he has for the very democracy, country, and people that he claims to love.
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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Huge turnout in the Saxony-Anhalt state election which the Far Right AfD is hoping to win. Turnout at 2 pm - 54.4 % and that excludes postal votes. For comparison: 2021: 27.1 % 2016: 35.4 % 2011: 28.5 % 2006: 20.1 % 2002: 30.8 %
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beaubodor.bsky.social @beaubodor.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Spontaneous departure of spontaneous protestors from Dover Priory Train Station, marching to catch a spontaneous train arrival. Kent Online www.kentonline.co.uk/dover/news/l...
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Tony Yates @t0nyyates.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
A vacuous, cowardly piece by the BBC here, which does little more than launder into the public domain the lies and excuses of Reform www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Nigel Farage tells BBC he 'wasn't listening' in foreign donor talks
The Reform leader also told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg that his family are "begging" him to leave his job.
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Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Andy Burnham is going to have to do a whole lot better than Keir Starmer in responding to masked fascists on the streets.
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David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Europe has a far right problem and the US government plus various tech bros are encouraging it. The centre right insofar as it remains is stuck in paralysis as to what to do, and much of the media likewise, including supposedly "progressive" titles (yes you, staggers).
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Robert Smith @bondhack.ft.com · 04/09/2026
Wonderful FT debut from the great @willoyd.bsky.social as.ft.com/r/96a0200e-4...
as.ft.com
Nigel Farage’s merry band used to enjoy conference. Not this year
After Reform UK was hit by an undercover sting, the old jokes did not land as they used to
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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 04/09/2026
Farage champions the wrong values, lies about them, and fails every test of competence delivering on them would require. This scandal gives us an opportunity and the evidence to say so, and we should. dmitryopines.substack.com/p/on-farage-...
dmitryopines.substack.com
On Farage, Values, Authenticity, and Judgement
Surprised my computer let me type his name and those nouns in the same line.
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Nick Stone @europeannick.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Was in the Brexit queue at Frankfurt Airport. Let’s blame a politician shall we? I blame grifter Nigel Farage. Mr Farage thought we could cut a special deal. Because he thinks he’s special. And now relies on a victim complex to dodge scrutiny.
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Zia Yusuf has tweeted this about the leader of Camden Council, Sagal Abdi-Wali, who has lived in Camden for over 35 years, after arriving as a child refugee in the early 1990s. (Nadhim Zahawi, born in Baghdad to an Iraqi Kurdish family, came to the UK as an 11 year old:should be asked about this)
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Reform UK, which promises to "defend free speech" at all costs, has again banned Byline Times from its conference
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
My main thought from that PMQs (which I rarely watch) is about Badenoch not Burnham (who was v nervous but tonally fine).... She desperately needs a way to disassociate herself from the Truss/Boris era and she doesn't seem to realise how much of a barrier that is to getting heard.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
For all that PMQs under Andy Burnham has been billed as a new approach it has taken mere minutes for a reference to the Liz Truss budgets and “14 years of failure” under the Conservatives. In fairness, making Andrew Griffith shadow chancellor is something of an open PMQs goal.
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