Sign in

Ian Ridley 🔶

@iankridley.bsky.social
251 followers 229 following 199 posts

Data Manager; PhD in Climate Physics; Lib Dem. Local cllr stuff @ianridleyld.bsky.social . Runs on about cricket, astronomy, politics & Babylon 5

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Pete Fraser @petefrasermusic.bsky.social · 17h
My kingdom for a politician that points out that seeking asylum is perfectly legal, and that a country offering it is not only good but an obligation.
110524
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 13/10/2026
Deirdre Costigan MP: "Many of my constituents voted to leave the EU because they were bombarded with lies, from the mythical £350 million a week for the NHS that never appeared to the lie that immigration would come down when it actually trebled."
standard.co.uk
'Bombarded by lies': London MPs rage against Brexit as Sadiq Khan says rejoin EU
Quitting the European Union has been ‘an unmitigated disaster and has left us poorer as a result,’ says Marsha De Cordov
421882
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Edward Driftwood @edwarddriftwood.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
The fact that The Times has descended to the level of insanity of the Sun, Telegraph etc. is underpriced and seems to go unnoticed by many people who still see it as "one of the better ones" is worrying. That this blindness by them in turn isn't being commented on is worrying as well.
1288
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Earl Russell LD @earlrussell.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
I cant access this article but there have been virtually no applications since the virtual ban was lifted two years ago. Pleased to hear this as it is a concern but I worry 'sharp increase' is doing some heavy lifting here. On shore wind linked to community energy could be doing so much more.
021
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Rafael Behr @rafaelbehr.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
I was on the telly.
1181882427
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Jonathan Calder @lordbonkers.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Liberal England: The only Tory MP to gain a seat at the last election is under threat "Leicester East? It's just a saga now."
liberalengland.blogspot.com
The only Tory MP to gain a seat at the last election is under threat
The only Conservative to gain seat for the party at the last general election is in danger of deselection, reports BBC News : Leicester East...
054
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
"You can be very confident that the Russians will take any divisive issue in our politics, whether that is Brexit, whether that is Scottish independence, whether that is migration, any one of these, and they will try and stir the pot," Sir Richard Moore told Andrew Marr.
lbc.co.uk
Former MI6 chief 'very confident' in Burnham's assertion Russia meddled in Brexit vote | LBC
The former intelligence chief's comments come despite Nigel Farage insisting 'there was no Russian interference' in the 2016 Brexit vote
511027
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Graham Bett @grahambett.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Remember this? www.theguardian.com/politics/201...
theguardian.com
Nigel Farage's relationship with Russian media comes under scrutiny
The Ukip leader's Euroscepticism makes him a shoo-in at the Russian state broadcaster that is often called Putin's mouthpiece
043
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Josh Self @josh.politics.co.uk · 12/10/2026
There’s been some negative comment about Burnham “shooting from the hip” as prime minister But his comments on the @therestpolitics.bsky.social podcast have prompted Farage to opine about Brexit AND Russia – two issues on which he is exposed 1/...
56016
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
The London Economic @thelondoneconomic.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
The numbers on social media posts from the likes of Nigel Farage and Richard Tice aren't looking so good today in the wake of Ukrainian strikes on Russian data centres.
thelondoneconomic.com
Reform figures see social media engagement drop as bot accounts 'fall silent'
The social media engagement on posts from Reform UK figures appears to have dropped in the wake of Ukrainian strikes on Russian data centres.
47242
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Earl Russell LD @earlrussell.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Our energy security is our national security. Labour need to think again. If our Heat Pump industry is to grow it needs certainty not constant chaos. We are significantly of track to meet government targets. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Ministers preparing to slash heat pump subsidies to fund defence spending
Exclusive: Some of £2bn savings needed from energy budget expected to come from boiler upgrade scheme, sources say
052
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Gareth Epps @garethepps.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Fair point. The fact that Davey twice made tax policy on the hoof without consulting his shadow CS might be an indicator as to why he no longer has one.
043
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Mark Thompson @markreckons.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Why on earth does this BBC piece on Burnham telling an interviewer the UK security services confirmed Russian interference in the Brexit referendum require a response from a pro Brexit pressure group? It's literally our Prime Minister telling us about election security. It's nothing to do with them.
The prime minister told The Rest is Politics podcast that upon arriving in No 10, he had asked about possible Russian interference in the 2016 vote, adding: "I've had the clear answer that, yes, there was."

"I think we've been too much on the back foot on that actually and we haven't informed people sufficiently about the extent to which people are seeking to disrupt the political process from overseas," he added.

Burnham did not provide further details about the type or extent of Moscow's activity during the Brexit referendum.

Britain Unbound, a pro-Brexit campaign group, said Burnham's comments were "another crude attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the decision that the British people made in 2016".

It said that foreign interference in UK elections was "obviously unacceptable" but added: "There is no good reason to believe that Russian intervention influenced the outcome of the referendum in 2016.
781426338
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Liz Jarvis MP @lizjarvis.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Andy Burnham is right to say that Farage has given Britain a decade of division and drift with Brexit - the Tories should take full responsibility for that too. Neither should be allowed anywhere near Government. www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...
mirror.co.uk
Nigel Farage 'very significantly responsible' for UK's miserable decade says PM
Andy Burnham launched a rare personal attack on Nigel Farage as he tore into Brexit 'lies' over migration and accused the Reform UK chief of giving Britain a 'decade of division and drift'
610832
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Luca @lucagalletti.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
….aaaand they’re OFF 🏁 #ASMR #OddlySatisfying IG: @marblebrosasmr youtube.com/@marblebros-...
2594246756
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
NEW: Prime Minister Andy Burnham finally breaks a decade of UK govt silence…& reveals there was ‘clear’ Russian interference in the Brexit vote. 1/
20559312420
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Worth reading this thoughtful piece by @neildotobrien.bsky.social (Neil O'Brien MP). Most of this is politics/values, but some of the detail isn't right. buff.ly/9x2WQM7
buff.ly
Cutting inheritance tax
Why it is right to cut it - and why the critics are wrong.
74716
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Dan Snow @thehistoryguy.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
This a million times. People of colour being dragged on to debate maniacs about imaginary labels & race science is an abomination. proper ‘how German are you’ Nazi shit Note that people like me with white migrant parentage never asked to defend our identity Englishness. Is. A. Made. Up. Thing
252040532
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
FPL General @fplgeneral.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Friday Pod 🎙 pod.fo/e/69f7e4
141
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Planet FPL (James) @planetfplpod.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
GW6 🎲 Intention is to roll to 2FTs 🧢 Haaland 📉 1.3m 💷 2.0 ❌️ No Deadline Stream from me. On my way to Manchester (priorities/paying for my sins etc etc) 💚 Please support other creators live streams 🤞 Good luck everyone 🤝 #PlayItYourWay
1191
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
There is a lot of perceived impunity for both toxic but lawful racism + actual crimes. A very visible policing taskforce being smart, selective about which cases to go for with rapid charges + convictions could shift the sense of impunity (The govt had been sending the opposite signal)
313521
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Armando Iannucci @aiannucci.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
bbc.co.uk
Strong Message Here - Super Intelligence (with Stewart Lee and Carole Cadwalladr) - BBC Sounds
A look at the rebrand of AI. Is it really super?
1426653
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Alisdair Calder McGregor @acmcgregor.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
A thing I pushed for - unsuccessfully - at LibDem Federal Policy Cmte, some years back, was for us to adopt a policy of eliminating Stamp Duty on downsizing and permitting some degree of tax-exemption on the proceeds of such sales being distributed to adult children.
182
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Luke Taylor MP @luketaylorld.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Latest team out on the doors in Holborn and St Pancras supporting Patrick Stillman today. So many soft Green voters saying they can no longer vote for Zack, and are backing Patrick to stand up to the terrible Labour Council, and be a part of a real opposition group of 70+ LD MPs in Parliament.
1196
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Unofficial BBCNews (UK) Bot @bbcnews-uk-rss.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Bank of England reveals the four animals to feature on banknotes
bbc.co.uk
Bank of England reveals the four animals to feature on banknotes
The decision comes after nearly half a million people cast their votes from a shortlist of 18 creatures.
135117
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Ed Davey @eddavey.libdems.org.uk · 07/10/2026
Badenoch has spent half her conference making unfunded promises, and half lecturing the country on fiscal responsibility. We’re all still paying the price for Conservative financial mismanagement. Liberal Democrats will act as the firewall stopping her handing No 10 to Farage.
1133569
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Jonathan Calder @lordbonkers.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
"Yes, in this area there may be a large number of people from an Asian background, but people from all over do travel here for all sorts of reasons, whether to shop or eat."
theguardian.com
‘I feel perfectly safe’: white Lutonians on the town’s supposed no-go zones
Little if any sign Bury Park is a place where any group might fear to tread, despite Tory MP’s comments to the contrary
022
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Pippa Heylings 🔶 MP for South Cambridgeshire @pippaheylings.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
The Tories love wrapping themselves in the flag, but there's nothing patriotic about scrapping the Climate Change Act, Natural England and the Environment Agency. After this summer's wildfires, that's reckless. I'll fight it every step of the way.
14016
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Oxfordshire County Council @oxfordshirecc.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
🚌 Thanks to the congestion charge, 40,000 more bus journeys are being made in Oxford each week. Watch Luke Marion, Managing Director of Oxford Bus Company, explain the increase they’ve seen.
272
Ian Ridley 🔶 @iankridley.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I always thought that Severed Dreams was the second best episode of Babylon 5. Endgame is really challenging that on this watch #ukb5watch
120
Ian Ridley 🔶 @iankridley.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
The effects on this were sooo cool when it first came out. Still are #endgame #ukb5watch
000
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Paul Lewis @paullewismoney.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
The King’s cut from your electricity bill bit.ly/4yx46ng he gets 12% of crown estate profits through the Sovereign Grant
bit.ly
Crown Estate sea bed auctions could add £38 a year to energy bills
The business that manages the King’s land has put wind farm projects at risk with move away from capped fees for developers, a University of Oxford study warns
127356
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Pisspoor response from a pisspoor leader, who clearly does not have the moral clarity or the conviction to prevent racism in his party greenparty.org.uk/2026/10/05/z...
greenparty.org.uk
Zack Polanski reaction to Zionism is racism motion - Green Party
Green Party leader Zack Polanski said: “Antisemitism and criticism of the Israeli state are, and must always be, completely distinct – blurring the line between the two is not only wrong but antisemit...
7964199
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Wayne Myers @conniptions.org · 05/10/2026
If the main thing you want to do right now is to read a long, rambling, angry response by a non-Zionist Jewish now ex-Green Party Of England And Wales member to the not-so-hilarious antics of yesterday, then have I got the post for you: wayne.conniptions.org/2026/10/05/w... (It may not be, tbf)
wayne.conniptions.org
Why I Am No Longer A Green
I joined the Green Party of England and Wales in 2014.
67015
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Gareth Epps @garethepps.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Presumably the answer is to build more hospi….. oh wait. Because 20mph zones save lives. That’s why road casualties are down in Lib Dem Oxfordshire and up in Tory Buckinghamshire.
043
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Sarah Owen MP @sarahowen.org.uk · 05/10/2026
It is deeply irresponsible for any politician, let alone a senior Conservative, to peddle the same far-right nonsense about Luton that we see from the likes of Yaxley Lennon and Reform.
theguardian.com
Tory shadow minister claims Luton has ‘no-go zones’ where ‘white people won’t go’
Blake Stephenson tells fringe meeting at Tory conference that the town is ‘a very dangerous place’ with ‘ghettoes’
37541143
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Can you imagine the derisory coverage and outright mockery if any other party with single-digit MPs decided to "declare a General Election" and go on a bus tour? Yet when this outlandish nonsense comes from Farage, it is treated as somehow brilliant. "Subscribe to continue..." No thanks. I'm good.
Farage to launch general election campaign with national tour
Reform leader to begin in Yorkshire next week where party sees ‘many Cabinet scalps to be had’ in Labour heartlands

Annabel Denham
Senior Political Commentator
Show biography
Annabel Denham
Published 26 September 2026 6:00am BST

1610

Gift this article free

Add us as preferred source
Nigel Farage campaigning in Southend-on-Sea for the local election in May
Nigel Farage campaigning in Southend-on-Sea for the local elections in May Credit: Geoff Pugh for The Telegraph
Nigel Farage is to “fire the starting gun” on Reform UK’s general election campaign with a nationwide tour beginning next week, The Telegraph can reveal…
103754179
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 05/10/2026
I think a fundamental thing of Badenoch's politics is that she *doesn't* think in practical terms, or see politics as a process of doing stuff.
7426
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Kevin Maguire @kevmag.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The Conservative Party is “authoritarian” and attacking the “free press” by banning journalists from its conference when Kemi Badenoch called Reform precisely that for doing the same. bylinetimes.com/2026/09/30/k...
bylinetimes.com
Kemi Badenoch's Conservatives Block Byline Times From Conference After Condemning Reform for Journalist Ban
The ban comes just weeks after the Conservative leader called Reform's barring of critical journalists from their conference an "authoritarian" attack on the free press
1327992
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The ability to pour hundreds of millions of pounds into a loss-making TV channel, bent on wrenching British politics sharply to the right, is yet another of the ways in which extreme wealth is trying to remake UK democracy. It needs to be part of any serious conversation about political funding.
541904772
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
London & Southeast🔅 @thesnowdreamer.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
2026 has likely finished with 85 days exceeding 25C at #London Heathrow Airport this is a staggering 25 days above next highest year, 2018. We've never known anything like it.
14822
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Your weekend reminder that Nigel Farage wants to - leave the ECHR - repeal the Equality Act - Strip back workers rights - Lift restrictions on exploitative zero-hours contracts - repeal the Renters’ Rights Act which abolishes no fault evictions He is not on your side youtu.be/KxOQRt8PQys?...
youtu.be
If UK media actually explained Nigel Farage’s policies to the public no one would be supporting him
YouTube video by Peter Stefanovic
591033505
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
South-East London for Europe (Selfe) @selfe.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
#Brexit - President Macron is spot on here. Brexit has been an utter disaster. #BrexitDisaster #RejoinEU #JoinEU
12508185
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Tom Gordon MP @tomgordonld.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I listened to Ed Davey on the Today programme this morning, and frankly, I think he missed the point. The idea that we're keeping the triple lock to help millennials is at best for the birds, and at worst downright insulting. I say that as a millennial.
1620356
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 01/10/2026
Two million? Doesn't the graph show a drop of about 20 million?
3133
Ian Ridley 🔶 @iankridley.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
That's Reform's ban on the free press. Fascists are going to fascist....
000
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Fergal @fergalc.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
This is just a sentence that gets progressively more fabulous with each word
223066
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Simon Evans @drsimevans.carbonbrief.org · 30/09/2026
Some people say UK should stop building clean energy and should extend its reliance on gas power instead Choosing my words carefully, I would say that it's an interesting time to be making that argument www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-win...
carbonbrief.org
Analysis: Wind and solar save UK from gas imports worth £5.9bn during Hormuz crisis - Carbon Brief
The UK has avoided gas imports worth £5.9bn since the start of the Hormuz crisis as a result of record electricity generation from wind and solar.
47619
Reposted by Ian Ridley 🔶
Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
When historians reflect on this regime, cruelty will be the word most often used to define it. www.commondreams.org/news/trump-dep…
commondreams.org
'Monstrous' US Deportation Hearings for Children Who 'Have No One' Shock Consciences | Common Dreams
Children as young as 3 facing deportation orders without legal representation in immigration court hearings. How can we
26845101991