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Juliet Baker Sparks

@julietjbaker.bsky.social
217 followers 488 following 25 posts

Buckinghamshire, UK Interests: NHS (patient experience), disability & access, brain tumours, stroke, education, politics, radio, Bruce Springsteen, what's going on in the world.

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Reposted by Juliet Baker Sparks
Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The Conservative party Shadow Culture Secretary to speak at conference tomorrow about how to "defend press freedom", whilst her own party bans journalists whose coverage they don't like
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Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
In addition to being the UK's most Kremlin-sanctioned newspaper, Byline Times has now been banned two years running from both Conservative and Reform UK party conferences. Judge us by our critics, and subscribe to support our work: subscribe.bylinetimes.com @peterjukes.bsky.social
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Scribbler Pen @scribblerpen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The more you read this, the more it beggars belief. Do politicians and civil servants think disabled young people get magically un-disabled (and un-discriminated against) if you take away social security? That cutting Motability would help get them to work? How? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Key disability benefit for young people may be axed under major welfare changes
Exclusive: Plan under discussion involves intensive support to help young people into employment
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Tim White @twmcltd.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I'm still on my "day job" as I start the daily thread for Day 1682 of Russia's all-out war on Ukraine. And it really is all out now, nothing spared Kyiv in particular, schools, hospitals, malls and bridges all "fair game" for the war criminals even 500km from the front.
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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
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Alice Roberts @profaliceroberts.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Reform want to indoctrinate our children. Freedom of (and from) belief is a human right. humanists.uk/2026/09/10/s...
humanists.uk
Reform UK Braverman promises 'consequences' if pupils don't sing hymns
Reform UK has said schools will face ‘consequences’ if they fail to make pupils regularly sing hymns and the national anthem under a Reform government. The party’s education spokesperson, Suella Brave...
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Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
📌 ICYMI — Rupert Murdoch Flew Kemi Badenoch and Her Deputy to Mediterranean for Summer Trips Worth £12,000 — @josiahmortimer.bsky.social The Conservative leader and Alex Burghart MP held "off-site meetings" with the billionaire media mogul in August
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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Paula Peters @paulapeters19.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
#UniversalCredit Severely disabled teen wins 3 months benefits battle after sanction threat www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottis...
dailyrecord.co.uk
Severely disabled teen wins three-month benefits battle after 'sanction' threat
Connor Donnelly’s mum and dad Steve and Helen had been told there were 'work-related requirements' for their wheelchair-bound, blind, nonverbal son’s Universal Credit claim.
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Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Tory leader Badenoch registers gift of £8,177 for Murdoch meeting in Greece. Travelling abroad to beg favours from Murdoch. What has she promised him? I wonder how far she has travelled specifically to meet victims of Tory austerity, real wage cuts and people queuing at hospitals and food banks.
bbc.co.uk
Badenoch registers gift of £8,177 for Murdoch meeting
The Murdochs' News Corp company paid for flights and accommodation for the Conservative leader and her husband to travel to Greece.
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Torsten Bell @torstenbell.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
So much of the right these days have a massive patriotism problem. This guy: - is a tax exile (left long before this govt) - hates his own country while complaining he doesn’t get big enough subsidies from it - laments the manufacturing hit from a Brexit he supported www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Billionaire Manchester United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe says he has lost confidence in UK
Ineos founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe tells the BBC he thinks the country is "on the slide" and calls for more investment in the North Sea.
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Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 20/09/2026
Nigel Farage leads a political party. He’s a sitting MP. And he hosts his own primetime show on GB News. We believe Ofcom should investigate whether he broke impartiality rules on 15 September 2026. Use our template to write a letter to Ofcom's CEO:
bestforbritain.org
Tell Ofcom's CEO: How can Farage be impartial presenting a programme on party donations? - Best for Britain
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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 18/09/2026
woman currently using the cafe's toilet as a cubicle to take a work call from (??) is an exciting new frontier in the "have people forgotten how to behave in the world" discourse we've been having here lately
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Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
A personal story about that phrase “young men of fighting age” applied to asylum seekers. As many of you know I took in a young Ukrainian woman under the Homes for Ukraine scheme. As part of that process, soon after she arrived we were visited by the local authority rep and a Fire Brigade rep.
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Dr Steve Taylor @drstevetaylor.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Sat in an empty room waiting… Waiting for a bed, a test, a Doctor, a nurse, a result, a cure …. Hoping for the best The healthy & wealthy decide what is best but we all need & want the best Let’s invest in the best #NHS not the adequate or stretched or thin NHS @yvettecooper-mp.bsky.social
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Peter Whitewood @pwhitewood.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
It’s not only the absurdity of a billionaire funding a campaign against the ‘establishment’, but Reform increasingly frames politics as a permanent struggle against the enemy.
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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 12/09/2026
It does give Reform's "enemies" a frame, too: Reform is on the side of the crypto criminals – both Delo and "posh George" – who are paying its bills. Accepting major contributions from one convicted criminal looks unfortunate. Two looks like carelessness.
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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Reform is the richest party in Britain. Its leaders are almost all millionaires. It is funded almost exclusively by billionaires. It has a supportive TV station and widespread media backing. So naturally, this donation comes with the usual attack on "elites". www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Reform UK given record £36m donation by British crypto billionaire
Ben Delo was convicted in US for failing to implement adequate anti-money laundering controls but pardoned by Trump
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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
The ability of the richest & most powerful men in the world to position themselves against "the elite" - a category that excludes the world's richest man, its biggest media magnates, the UK's richest party & the biggest donors in UK history - may be the most effective lie in modern political history
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Luke Turner @luketurner.com · 31/03/2026
I can now reveal that crypto billionaire Ben Delo—pardoned by Trump after a conviction for anti-money-laundering violations—privately funded the failed libel action brought against me by neo-Nazi conspiracy theorists Nina Power and Daniel Miller to the tune of at least £300,000.
Ben Delo, Nina Power and Daniel 'DC' Miller.
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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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Robin Ince @robinince.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I think this will be my high point of the year
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Michael J. Stern @michaeljstern.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
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Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
How is it possible that Trump’s medical advisors cannot spot that he is mentally unfit to be president? Surely their professional competencies should be challenged? The rules should be publicly spelt out about their duties to the constitution.
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Lauren Starkey @laurenhstarkey.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Men will send me emails like this and then go rampaging on the streets of Dover and Portsmouth claiming they want to keep refugees out in order to “PROTECT OUR WOMEN!” Not a single one of the young male refugees I’ve worked with has ever spoken to me with such violent misogyny.
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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I want the Prime Minister to look into a TV camera and say the RNLI are heroes, that we do not change policy by street violence in this country, and that he expects any criminal action to face the full force of the law. That's it. That's all he has to do.
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Dominic Minghella @dminghella.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Fascists know they are in a battle for the soul of this country, and they won't let fundraising law, or qualms about beating up dissenters, get in their way. If they win power, they are clear: they will crush resistance. The rest of us are meekly hoping 'someone' will stop them. There is no someone.
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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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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
A Reform government would force schools to sing the National Anthem and if they don't oblige parents will be encouraged to report them to the authorities. Yeah that's not like really scary and authoritarian schoolsweek.co.uk/reform-there...
schoolsweek.co.uk
Reform: 'There will be consequences for not singing anthem'
Braverman believes parents will tip her off if heads don't follow her anthem and hymns rules
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John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 06/09/2026
So in one week: 1) Reform get stung for dodgy finances, and the regulators play pass the parcel about enforcement 2) Farage announces plans to largely dismantle independent scrutiny of govt, and barely any press discussion of it 3) Masked thugs blockade a port, with narry a word from senior govt
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David Mead @seethingmead.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Easier Tim might have been to arrest them - for the very old crime of wearing a political uniform in public (under the Public Order Act 1936) or the very new one of interfering with a key national infrastructure under the 2023 Public Order Act…and then remove balaclavas
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Phillips OBrien @phillipspobrien.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
For the 1 millionth time, all Witkoff is doing in praising Putin is speaking for Trump and as Trump would like. Criticising Witkoff for it without criticising Trump is complete moral cowardice.
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Fionna O’Leary @fascinatorfun.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
And there was me thinking that wearing masks at protests had been made a criminal offence….or maybe that’s just for environmental or pro Palestine protests. This would be far more frightening to encounter than old gals quietly holding placards
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Omz2468 @omz2468.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Hi @bbcnews.bsky.social Reform are a party of 8 MPs, less than the SNP. Therefore, they do not have a 'Shadow Home Secretary' The Shadow Home Secretary is Chris Philp. Maybe you need BBC verify to check your own reporting...
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Robert Hutton @roberthutton.co.uk · 05/09/2026
How could an associate professor in divinity at Cambridge be expected to know that lying is bad? thecritic.co.uk/mone...
Ah yes, James Orr. A lot of us had been hazy about what it is exactly that associate professors in a divinity department do all day. It doesn’t seem to involve a lot of work: Orr is often to be seen at Reform events in London, which take up the whole morning even for those of us with offices down the road. Now we know he was also sipping cocktails while discussing ways in which wealthy foreigners might be able to get round the laws that ban them donating to the party.

The associate professor of divinity was filmed explaining to an undercover reporter that so long as everyone kept their mouths shut, there was no way that the authorities would ever find out. Orr spent four years as a postdoctoral fellow in theology, ethics and public life at Oxford, and it would be fascinating to know at what point he developed this theory of What the Electoral Commission Don’t Know Won’t Hurt Them. Perhaps he was off sick the day they opened the gospel of Luke: “What you have said in the dark will be h
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Tom Roberts @tpgroberts.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I appreciate they would deny it, but they spent the last two days arguing about if some ethnicities can be British, announcing they'd declare a state or emergency to push through their policies, and now this, it's a very straightforwardly fascist movement.
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Still no reply from Kemi Badenoch's spokesman on whether her supposedly newfound commitment to a free press in relation to Reform banning critical journalists from their conference, will extend to her lifting her ban on me attending Conservative conference this year.
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
The Nigel Farage and Reform foreign donations scandal excluded from all but one national newspaper front page this morning. No sign of it at all on the front pages of the two papers which splashed the polls secretly funded by a Reform donor earlier this year
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Robert Smith @bondhack.ft.com · 04/09/2026
One thing that I love about the film is how it captures a very distinct social setting and milieu. Lunch at Rules. G&Ts at Mark’s. A champagne reception at Oswald’s. Pints in a Shepherd Neame’s pub in Westminster. Discussion of Black Velvets over oysters by the sea.
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Robert Hutton @roberthutton.co.uk · 04/09/2026
With all respect to the BBC, the reason this story "matters" is not about whether it distracts from Reform's conference. It "matters" because it is important our leaders are not conspiring to break the law.
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 03/09/2026
Genetically modified pig kidney keeps man alive for record nine months
theguardian.com
Genetically modified pig kidney keeps man alive for record nine months
Organ kept Tim Andrews off dialysis and acted as a ‘bridge’ while he waited for a human transplant in the US A genetically modified kidney from a pig called Wilma has kept a 66-year-old man with kidney failure alive for a record nine months and successfully acted as a “bridge” to a human transplant in a world first. Tim Andrews was seriously ill with end-stage kidney disease caused by type 2 diabetes and had only a 9% chance of receiving a human kidney within five years, against a more than 40% risk of dying or being removed from the waiting list. Continue reading...
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Tim White @twmcltd.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Day 1653 of this damned conflict. There are many days when I just want to stay in bed all day. I remember days before Russia's all-out war, before Covid, before 2014's original invasion. The happiness in Ukraine of two civilian led revolutions, Eurovision, Euro2012. This is THE daily🧵
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Dave Johnson @dcjohnson.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Journalist who writes about corruption and democracy is banned from covering Reform's conference. Because he writes about corruption and democracy. @petergeoghegan.bsky.social democracyforsale.substack.com/p/ive-been-b...
democracyforsale.substack.com
I’ve been banned by Reform. But this isn’t really about me.
My press accreditation for Reform’s conference was revoked. This should concern us all.
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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Still - the Reform ban list at least makes for a useful who's who of trusted media sources.
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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Reform - the party of free speech - has banned multiple reputable sources from attending their conference. They no more believe in scrutiny than I believe that singing Pixie men in braces live in large numbers on Saturn.
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Garry Stone @garrystone.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
#R4Today made it part of their 'celebrations' of the Bayeux Tapestry and pressed Osborne about it. Then a piece about the 'numbers' asking "when will we see a significant drop" whilst neglecting to spell out that the numbers had halved.
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Net migration is at its lowest level, outside of the pandemic, for fourteen years, small boat numbers are collapsing and yet you still can't move for 'migrant crisis' stories in the British media
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Harry Smith @harry-smith.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
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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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Peter Jukes @peterjukes.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
People have banged on for months about Jason Arday using Carter Ruck to reply to journalists. Nobody paid attention when both Reform UK and the Conservatives banned @bylinetimes.bsky.social from their conferences
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Isabelle Roughol @isabelleroughol.com · 02/09/2026
I didn't expect Reform to be fans of us, but to dismiss the reporter who just won the Paul Foot award as "a blogger" is kinda hilarious for people who pretend to be anti-establishment. #indiemedia I guess @petergeoghegan.bsky.social got his weekend back 😂 www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Reform UK bans three journalists who have investigated party from its conference
Guardian City editor Anna Isaac, investigative reporter Peter Geoghegan and broadcaster Michael Crick refused entry
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