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Ramzy Alwakeel

@journoramzy.bsky.social
678 followers 931 following 333 posts

Deputy editor (news and investigations), @hyphenonline.com. How We Used Saint Etienne to Live out now. Propaganda account for pop music, social housing and local news. He/him 🏳️‍🌈

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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 6h
🔴 EXCLUSIVE from @lucascumiskey.bsky.social: cash spend on ESOL in England has fallen nearly 40% in real terms since 2009-10 despite rising demand. It's the most complete survey of ESOL spend in England since 2016-17. hyphenonline.com/2026/10/05/e...
hyphenonline.com
Revealed: ESOL budget has fallen 39% in real terms since 2009 - Hyphen
Department for Education funding for English lessons has dropped by equivalent of £117m despite rising demand, exclusive data reveals
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
🔴 Sadiq Khan was quizzed last week about Hyphen's finding that police have referred scores of babies and toddlers to Prevent. He admitted he was "confused and puzzled" by what we uncovered & would task deputy mayor for policing with looking into it. hyphenonline.com/2026/09/17/p...
hyphenonline.com
Sadiq Khan urged to probe Met referrals of babies to Prevent - Hyphen
Most referrals of young children to Home Office counter-terror scheme in England and Wales were made by police, new data shows
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
🔴 A mosque was turned down for security funding from the Home Office in May on the basis that it had breached a 'code of conduct' that was published at 4.45pm the previous day. The mosque had submitted its application three years earlier. hyphenonline.com/2026/09/14/p...
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
It's six months since the government said it would appoint a "special representative on anti-Muslim hostility" – in other words, an Islamophobia tsar – to help tackle the crisis of rising hate against Muslims. So where are they?
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
We asked five British Muslims how 9/11 changed their lives 25 years ago. 'I thought, "oh my gosh, it’s aliens. It’s got to be an alien attack. Who would do this?" And then I said to my friend: "If it’s anything to do with Muslims, we’re screwed."'
hyphenonline.com
UK Muslims remember how 9/11 changed their lives - Hyphen
On the 25th anniversary of the attacks that ushered in the ‘global war on terror’, a teacher, a civil servant and an imam look back
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Muslim and Jewish leaders have called for Andy Burnham's government to go further on climate resilience following a punishing summer of extreme weather. “We live on the same planet... this is an area where interfaith cooperation is critical.” hyphenonline.com/2026/09/09/f...
hyphenonline.com
Faith leaders urge Andy Burnham: go further on climate resilience - Hyphen
Imams and rabbis unite to call for better preparation for extreme weather as a result of climate change: 'We live on the same planet'
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
This week marks four years since riots broke out involving Hindu and Muslim communities in Leicester. My colleague @sajeraj.bsky.social visited the city to find out what's been done to repair community relations – and why cuts to an adventure playground could be a disaster for the recovery.
hyphenonline.com
Leicester riots: why park cuts could set back city’s recovery - Hyphen
Grassroots groups working to bring together Hindu and Muslim communities say the hard graft was left to them — and austerity isn’t helping
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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
New from 404 Media: we solved which AI company is buying massive shipments of rare books, scanning and destroying them to train AI. We put an Apple AirTag in a rare book, followed it. It ended up at an Amazon facility. Its logo is a dinosaur ripping through a book www.404media.co/we-tracked-a...
404media.co
We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility
We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books.
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Is this like "all of us strangers"
A photo of a bag of bagels, branded: EVERYTHING BAGELS
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
50 green groups write to Andy Burnham demanding he be clear that climate change is the cause of the current extreme heat crisis. Greenpeace, WWF, Friends of the Earth and others say "the British public deserves leadership that speaks honestly about the nature of the challenges the country faces"
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
🔴 EXC: we spent nine months battling the Home Office for the release of basic data about the 'protective security for mosques' scheme. After two interventions from the ICO, we've finally got it. hyphenonline.com/2026/08/14/p...
hyphenonline.com
Home Office mosque security scheme leaves hundreds in limbo - Hyphen
Exclusive: 510 mosques applied for funding to beef up security between July 2024 and November 2025. Just 199 were granted help in that time
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Was good to be part of this discussion yesterday with @joshih.bsky.social, @helenawadia.bsky.social and @mathildamall.bsky.social. What's to blame for the decline in local news? I argue it was the sector's acquisition by large corporations, and the rewiring of priorities that came with that.
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
This revelation is, or should be, abject humiliation for Burnham. It ought to precipiate a frenzied PR cleanup operation many times larger than that spent on whether or not Pc Harper's killers could be released early. But I won't hold my breath.
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Dan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
I have written up the "Dobby's Grave" chortle, with my concerns about what it *really* says about the problems with British infrastructure ... backofmind.substack.com/p/chortle-on...
backofmind.substack.com
chortle on a chortle
an underestimated obstacle to infrastructure
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Earlier this year, the DfE was hoping for a 2027 rollout of halal student finance – but with UCAS deadlines looming it is yet to commit to a launch date, meaning the window is closing for yet another cohort of Muslim students. Story by @lucascumiskey.bsky.social: hyphenonline.com/2026/08/06/h...
hyphenonline.com
Still no launch date for halal student finance, government admits - Hyphen
A pre-tender notice earlier this year pointed to a 2027 rollout for alternative student finance, but time is running out
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Great analysis by @generationrent.bsky.social: a loaf of bread would cost nearly £7 if grocery prices had risen in line with private rents during my lifetime. Can't wait for the usual suspects to tell us how there's no crisis of housing affordability though. www.generationrent.org/2026/07/23/g...
generationrent.org
Generation Rent unveils the ‘Cost of Renting Receipt’ (PRESS RELEASE) - Generation Rent
Generation Rent has today unveiled the ‘Cost of Renting Receipt’*, laying bare the huge increase in the cost of private rents since the 1988 Housing Act.  The campaign group’s analysis** […]
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flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
This is weirdly wrong. The MPs under discussion sat on their hands doing and saying very little through obviously disastrous policies, comical bad performance and abysmal, if not actually terrifying polling. And it wasn’t polling that moved them, it was *getting walloped in multiple elections*.
Josh Glancy @joshglancy
The great pollster Lyndon Crosby on how polling has warped our politics
A
fter literally hundreds of polls, Labour MPs buckled under the pressure and decided to select
Andy Burnham as prime minister.
Nothing focuses an MP's mind like the prospect of losing their seat. But this constant drip-feed of public polls, which although accurate are only
mathematical models and not the same as an actual election (and I say that as someone whose company carries out polling has become part of the political process.
They have led the media and politicians to focus inwards on the political "game" and not outwards on good policy and long-term leadership. It is a weekly diet of "if an election was held today the government would lose" and tortuous analysis by pundits.
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Dan Kaszeta FRHistS @dankaszeta.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Buses, famously for the richer classes and upper orders.
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Tom Joudrey @tomjoudrey.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
I wrote about how the genre of "true crime" smugly validates our own moral superiority and enacts rituals of public humiliation. And I wrote about trying to avoid these traps when I created my own podcast, Passenger Seat.
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
🔍 The practice of housing asylum seekers in hotels has come under huge scrutiny in the last few years. Both the Tories and Labour have pledged to move more people into what’s called “dispersal housing”. Much less gets written about this – but we’ve been investigating it. 🧵
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Hyphen @hyphenonline.com · 21/07/2026
An asylum seeker was stabbed 16 times in Home Office accommodation, Hyphen has learned. Alieu Barry’s horrifying ordeal came after alleged warnings to the housing provider Serco about his housemate’s mental state. 📷KC Nwakalor
Alieu Barry in his room in Stoke-on-Trent, July 2026. Photography for Hyphen by KC Nwakalor
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
🔴 We fought the Home Office for nine months to see the outcome of an internal investigation into the death of Mehrab Omrani, who lay dead in asylum housing for up to four months, still wearing an ankle tag. They initially said we couldn't have it as it contained (among other things) personal data.
Email exchanges between us and the Home Office showing us requesting the outcome of the investigation, them saying it was exempt under 'health and safety', 'personal data' and 'information provided in confidence', then eventually 9 months later: 'The Home Office has not conducted a separate internal investigation.'
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Processes around burials in the UK and particularly London are 'chaotic' and 'odd'. Sadiq Khan's old headteacher was among those whose family struggled to find burial space when he died. Now Khan is being urged to help fix it, as @weronikas.bsky.social reports 👇 hyphenonline.com/2026/07/16/l...
hyphenonline.com
London needs city-wide burial strategy, Lib Dems urge - Hyphen
Call comes from London Assembly Lib Dem leader Hina Bokhari — who battled to get her dad, Sadiq Khan’s old headteacher, buried locally
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Our story (@hyphenonline.com) today about one of the Huntingdon train heroes and his struggle in the months since the stabbings is so heartbreaking and so damning - this guy put his life at risk to help strangers and in return he's been badly failed by everyone. hyphenonline.com/2026/07/09/h...
hyphenonline.com
Huntingdon train attack hero still waiting for trauma therapy - Hyphen
Raza Mustafa Aslam was stabbed as he stood between the knifeman and fellow passengers on board an LNER train last year
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Centre for London @centreforlondon.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
💳 Delivering the homes London needs will require investment. Our latest research has costed a plan that would provide an additional £912m a year to scale up social and affordable housebuilding. Read more ⏬ centreforlondon.org/publication/...
centreforlondon.org
Delivering the Homes London Needs: what will it take?
London’s housing crisis is arguably the greatest challenge facing the capital. It touches the lives of almost every Londoner. Yet, our housing system is failing to meet need – destabilising...
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
🔴 Green co-deputy leader @mothinali.bsky.social writes in @hyphenonline.com today: where was Nigel Farage’s outrage when the far right put my family, and many others, in danger? hyphenonline.com/2026/07/08/m...
hyphenonline.com
Mothin Ali: Where was Farage outrage when my family was at risk? - Hyphen
Farage has ‘never been angrier’ than when his daughter’s address was made public. But he and his followers have put many more in danger
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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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Jessica Elgot @jessicaelgot.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
sorry what?
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
EXC: Andy Burnham's Greater Manchester Combined Authority lobbied govt to hand control of the 'protective security for mosques' scheme to local authorities, @hyphenonline.com can reveal. With Burnham now eyeing No10, could it happen sooner rather than later? hyphenonline.com/2026/06/24/g...
hyphenonline.com
Burnham could get mosque security funding devolved - Hyphen
Exclusive: Greater Manchester Combined Authority is in discussions with the Home Office about taking control of the scheme
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Renters' Reform Coalition @rentersreformco.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
So the government CAN bring in rent caps... 👀 www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
thetimes.com
Keir Starmer to cap ground rent early after pressure from MPs
The bill, paid by more than four million leaseholders, will be limited to £250 by late 2027 — a year before ministers had promised
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
A bit of good, if bittersweet, news on a Friday. A Staffordshire woman's plea to find a stem cell donor for her leukaemia-stricken mum appears to have been responsible for a 1,600% increase in Black potential donors signing up to the register, and no that isn't a typo.
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Tom Usher @tomusher.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
really hungover so can't express this well but something about being at the emirates last night with everyone celebrating just felt like the complete antithesis of everything the right has tried to imagine london is. people want to get along, they just need a reason to be happy and have purpose
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Hyphen @hyphenonline.com · 19/05/2026
‘For the next few months, nothing will get done.’ Shehab Khan asks Labour MPs for their views on the leadership drama. hyphenonline.com/2026/05/19/a...
hyphenonline.com
Labour leadership drama has ground the government to a halt - Hyphen
Next month’s byelection in Makerfield will determine whether Andy Burnham can launch a leadership challenge
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
🔴 NEW from @lucascumiskey.bsky.social and @sajeraj.bsky.social: mosques could lose security funding if they 'undermine' the govt online. New code of conduct states orgs 'must be careful not to bring themselves into disrepute or otherwise undermine the work of the Home Office or wider government'.
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Humanists UK @humanists.uk · 12/05/2026
Great reporting from @hyphenonline.com on the challenges of developing a more inclusive and pluralistic RE curriculum in Northern Ireland, where all religion and belief groups besides the the four largest Christian churches have historically been excluded.
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
🔴 EXC: Northern Ireland's all-Christian primary school RE syllabus is being rewritten to be more pluralist after a 7yo (and her dad) successfully sued the government. But non-Christian groups, including Muslims and Humanists, say they're still being shut out.
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Plaid Cymru is now the largest party in Wales. Here's what its leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said about Plaid's offering to Welsh Muslims when @sajeraj.bsky.social interviewed him for @hyphenonline.com earlier this year. hyphenonline.com/2026/02/03/p...
hyphenonline.com
Plaid Cymru leader vows to protect Wales from Reform UK - Hyphen
In a Hyphen interview, Rhun ap Iorwerth appeals for Welsh Muslims to join ‘coalition’ against ‘negative politics’ of Nigel Farage’s party
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
🔴 NEW: Hannah Spencer has been savaged for her comments about MPs turning up to vote while drunk, including and especially by her own colleagues. But politicians and staffers – both Muslim and non-Muslim – who spoke to @sajeraj.bsky.social echoed her concerns hyphenonline.com/2026/05/06/d...
hyphenonline.com
Drinking in parliament: staffers echo Hannah Spencer’s concerns - Hyphen
The Green politician came under fire after criticising MPs who turned up to vote under the influence. But colleagues say she’s got a point
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Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
These numbers should be amplified everywhere there is a flat surface. The 3,000 person sample size was statistically significant. The direction of travel is positive but runs directly contrary to the perception born in the echo-chamber of Twitter-brained media and politics. (H&CC is a client)
RTE 100

Year-on-year datasets tracking changes in public sentiment in Ireland between 2024 and 2025 show
that 66% agree that immigrants contribute positively to Irish culture and community, which is up 2% up from 64% in 2024.
79% believe working-class people are struggling due to systemic inequality which is also up 2% from 77% in 2024.
Those who believe wealthy people are successful because they were given more opportunities than others has risen from 63% in 2024 to 69% in 2025.
The number of people who support the freedom of transgender people to live their lives is up 5% up from 70% in 2024.
80% agree that Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities face greater barriers to success than white people, up 5% up from 75% in 2024.Research Framework
Ireland in Focus draws on multiple sources of data to provide a clearer understanding of how hate, disinformation and far-right mobilisation are evolving across Ireland in
2025. This includes H&CC's analysis of far-right developments in political organising, informal networks and far-right agitators, giving insights into how narratives, mobilisation and organising strategies are emerging and shifting.
company Dynata. The data was independently weighted by Ireland Thinks using demographic and methodological controls such as age, gender, ethnicity and voting behaviour at time of poll fielding to ensure representativeness and statistical robustness. The consistent methodology across both waves allows for reliable year-on-year comparison of sentiment and social trends and the large sample size gives high levels of statistical significance.
Ireland in Focus also draws data from 89 communities' crisis responses (49 in 2024 and 40 in 2025) supported by H&CC to capture how local communities responded in real time to moments of tension, protest and disinformation.
Ireland in Focus, assesses public attitudes through two large, nationally representative, anonymous surveys conducted in 2024 and 2025, each with approximately 3,000 respondents via independent polling
The consistency in design across both years provides a robust basis for tracking how attitudes are shifting - making this one of the first datasets of its kind in Ireland to capture changes in public sentiment over time. Finally to understand how narratives were spreading and evolving in the public sphere, narrative benchmarking was analysed using a commercial social media research tool.
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
We published this piece last year when people started painting red crosses on roundabouts. Happy St George's Day. hyphenonline.com/2025/09/01/s...
hyphenonline.com
Why St George’s story doesn’t belong to the far right
From Ethiopia to Palestine, the figure has been embraced as a symbol of faith and resilience by people around the globe
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
🔴New from @sajeraj.bsky.social on @hyphenonline.com: can anyone fix Britain's largest local authority? With no party predicted to win a majority, it's likely some sort of coalition will run Birmingham after 7 May. Whether that's good or bad depends on who you ask. hyphenonline.com/2026/04/23/b...
hyphenonline.com
Local elections 2026: 600 candidates vie to fix Birmingham - Hyphen
The UK’s largest council goes to the polls on 7 May 2026. Some 600 candidates are lining up to try and make the city normal again
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Reuben Willmott @reubs.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
1976: Neil Tennant was 22 years old and 10 years away from the release of the first Pet Shop Boys album. He was working as an editor at the British division of Marvel comics, his first job after getting a degree in History. Here’s a photo of him in his dungarees at the Pocketeers launch
Neil Tennant is the one in glasses The Pocketeer I had as a kid and still have
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Emiliano Mellino @mellino.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
I’ve spent the last year investigating how the UK's broken employment tribunal system lets rogue bosses evade justice. But this is the craziest case,by far. A restaurant chain that lost 21 tribunal claims over several years, yet never paid a single one🧵 www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2026...
thebureauinvestigates.com
Meet the restaurant boss who flouted judges’ orders for years
Jason Wells’ restaurant chain has cheated workers, lost 21 tribunal claims – and not paid a single one
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Amplifying this as Liza is a friend and comrade of literally decades and has been in touch with Hammam for a long time. His story is horrendous.
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
I just got a phone call about someone delivering a new oven and the gay anxiety about casually saying to someone (for instance) 'I'm not in but my husband is' never goes away does it? In 0.04 seconds my brain considered both 'housemate' and 'friend'. We have been married for ten years.
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
🔴 Palestine Action activists have alleged medical mistreatment and violations of their human and religious rights during their time on remand. My colleague @weronikas.bsky.social reports from their press conference for @hyphenonline.com: hyphenonline.com/2026/03/25/f...
hyphenonline.com
Palestine Action hunger strikers allege mistreatment - Hyphen
Heba Muraisi, Qesser Zuhrah and Kamran Ahmed held a press conference in London after being cleared of aggravated burglary and granted bail
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
How Kemi Badenoch's spokesman responded when I asked if she agrees with her Shadow Lord Chancellor that Muslims praying in Trafalgar Square is an "act of domination"
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Henry Dyer @direthoughts.com · 18/03/2026
perhaps @seththevoz.bsky.social might know how many Conservative frontbench MPs are members of all male private members' clubs?
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Hyphen @hyphenonline.com · 18/03/2026
Keir Starmer has criticised Tory leader Kemi Badenoch for failing to act over ‘appalling’ comments against Muslims made by her shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy. @sajeraj.bsky.social reports⬇️ hyphenonline.com/2026/03/18/n...
hyphenonline.com
Starmer and Badenoch clash over Nick Timothy’s anti-Muslim comments - Hyphen
Nick Timothy MP said Muslims including the mayor of London Sadiq Khan praying in Trafalgar Square was an ‘act of domination’
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Ramzy Alwakeel @journoramzy.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
🏠 Buried in housing data published by the government last month is something that should be getting more attention. In the year to March 2025, English councils granted planning permission for just 7,384 social rent homes – 3% of the total 235,000 homes that they greenlit. 🧵
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