Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 10/10/2026Well this looks even sillier now. Political communications shouldn’t be left to easily excitable activists. 000
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 02/10/2026An interesting comms decision by the Green Party here to brief their internal polling which shows that if they convince a full 30% of 2024 Labour voters to switch to them… they’ll still lose. 010
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Two very happy homo(wner)s. Now schlepping all our earthly possessions up the road to the new house 🏡 020
Reposted by Martin McAuleyThe Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Pondering the difference between “social media star” and “content creator”. #Strictly 101016
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Politics is ultimately the nexus between human opinions. Art is a form of expressing human experiences, emotions and opinions. They’re parallel concepts. Hard to imagine how Sheeran could have taken a worse position to defend among a community of artists. And it’s, deservedly, backfiring big style. 000
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 24/08/2026A colleague told me her husband went into M&S the other week for a pair shorts but came out scandalised asking who would wear anything as short as they’re selling. Me and every gay man I know is the answer. We are now the M&S demographic. Our time has come. 010
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 21/08/2026This must be a great time to buy eclipse glasses. The bottom has really fallen out of that market. 010
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 25/07/2026The Friday night of Belfast Pride might be my favourite 🏳️🌈 020
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 23/07/2026Second year we’ve been third in the Belfast Pride quiz 😅 010
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 21/07/2026Jim Hacker may not have been a fan of the brief but Secretary of State for Northern Ireland is one of the few cabinet posts that still has its own grace and favour pad at Hillsborough Castle. Not a bad silver lining for Chris Bryant! 010
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 20/07/2026It’s not a proper clearout until Burnham sacks that layabout Larry. 010
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 20/07/2026The bar is low but that was a good start for Burnham. Engaging, no notes (bonus points), setting out an actual narrative with the start of some good messaging and story telling and a big eye catching promise on ending rough sleeping. No lectern a good call too (superficial as it is). 010
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 19/07/2026Sunday funday runday. Little before and after the Belfast Pride Run 🏃♂️ 040
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 18/07/2026My feed has been pummelled with recommendations for this. So we’re giving it a go! 001
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 17/07/2026Married a 3x Pride Award winner with Quire Belfast 😍 020
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 17/07/2026Have I volunteered for a gay charity run? Yes. Will I be dragged across the line by paramedics? Possibly. Am I vibing with the run shirt? Absolutely 😅 120
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 24/06/2026I would like to be photographed exclusively surrounded my marble from now on please. 010
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 21/06/2026It’s 33°C and we’re strongly considering never returning to Ireland. 020
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 20/06/2026This is the discourse I’m here for. Is he more The Gloaming or The Corrs? www.irishtimes.com/world/uk/202...irishtimes.comHow Irish is Andy Burnham, the possible next British prime minister?Ancestral links suggest Makerfield byelection winner is somewhere between Joe Biden and Tony Blair 000
Reposted by Martin McAuleySam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 14/06/2026Long read on Northern Ireland’s week of chaos: What it’s like inside a riot, being threatened by paramilitaries at a 'peaceful protest', being assaulted by a masked man, and why we can expect this to return again and again and again.belfasttelegraph.co.ukNI’s snarling serpent isn't migrants, but mob rule of thugs who assaulted me under nose of the policeMingling among the Belfast rioters, I saw a child being led by his father’s hand to get a better view 4366
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 14/06/2026Cartoon characters have an angel and a devil on each shoulder. I have only devils. And I am also the devil. I need at least 3 coffees before any human interactions today 020
Reposted by Martin McAuleyMartin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 12/06/2026It is quite literally unfathomable. For reference a million seconds ago was last Monday. A trillion seconds ago was the year 29,684 BCE. Just a damning indictment of our moral and political priorities that one person can amass that kind of capital without intervention. 293
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 12/06/2026Sun’s out so I will be staring off into the middle distance and topping range balls 20 yards every week for the foreseeable ⛳️ 010
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 12/06/2026Car crash. If you’re going to agree to do a media round defending a critical government policy document, you should have read it first. If you haven’t (even for NS reasons), you’re volunteering to be mugged off on national TV and you are a fundamentally unserious person. 010
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 12/05/2026Wonder if Downing Street civil servants have commissioned a new lectern yet. Carpenter will need a bit of time to get whittling. 010
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 11/05/2026Starmer’s claim that ‘the country will never forgive us’ if there’s the ‘chaos’ of a leadership challenge seems to me to completely overlook the fact that people in Britain are experiencing chaos under his premiership and the evidence, from actual elections, is that they already won’t forgive *him*. 000
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 08/05/2026I’m *starting* to think Morgan McSweeney might not have been the strategic genius we were led to believe 🤔 000
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 02/04/2026Downing Street comms not hugely regarded over the last 18 months (to put it mildly) but one of the interesting things they’re doing is really plugging an active influencer strategy to reach established audiences. It’s a bit rough around the edges (and cringe) sometimes. But interesting. 000
Reposted by Martin McAuleyAlex Hern @hern.bsky.social · 11/03/2026www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... the audio here is genuinely jaw-dropping in the context of repeated claims from Polanski that the Sun interview was entrapment in which he was baited into saying things he didn't believebbc.co.ukZack Polanski stood by breast enlargment hypnosis claimA newly unearthed interview from 2013 casts doubt on the Green Party leader's claim to have apologised. 485522
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 27/02/2026Starmer has changed the British political landscape remarkably (in the short term at least). Just nowhere near the way he wanted. Disaster. 020
Reposted by Martin McAuleyRTÉ @rte.ie · 22/02/2026NASA has set 6 March as the earliest possible launch date for Artemis II, the first crewed flyby mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. www.rte.ie/news/world/2026/0220/155…rte.ieNASA sets date for first crewed Moon flyby in 50 yearsNASA has set 6 March as the earliest possible launch date for Artemis II, the first crewed flyby mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. 021
Reposted by Martin McAuleyThe Irish Times @irishtimes.com · 21/02/2026‘I hope everyone at home is just as proud as well’ - Andy Farrell hails Ireland’s ‘special day’irishtimes.com‘I hope everyone at home is just as proud as well’ - Andy Farrell hails Ireland’s ‘special day’Head coach delighted with how both his experienced and novice players showed up in victory over England at Twickenham 0184
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 14/02/2026Today we bought a car, had a rake of pints, watched Ireland win and then went for a doughnut. Pretty successful Valentine’s 😍 020
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 13/02/2026We got new kitchen knives yesterday and I have, of course, sliced the top of my finger off using them for the first time trying to cut a bit of sourdough. Happy Friday 🤕 010
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 09/02/2026Boucher Road Playing Fields is a shite music venue. Annoying to get to, no signal so there’s always a crowd who haven’t got their tickets downloaded, the queue for a pint is 7 hours long and the dystopian march home across the three-abreast railway bridge is grim. Belfast should be more ambitious. 011
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 08/02/2026Only met Morgan McSweeney a few times but undoubtedly his biggest success was convincing so many people, himself included, of his own brilliance. Others are probably better positioned to judge the substance of that… 000
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 29/01/2026This is right - funding for opposition is deficient and amounts to less than 2 members of staff in practice. When party funding was renegotiated recently, there was a push against properly funding opposition parties. Makes the work of the SDLP/UUP opposition in 2016/17 more remarkable. 000
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 26/01/2026Gordon Lyons & the DUP obviously feel very hard done by today (having been found to have breached the Ministerial Code of Office AGAIN). But there were families forced from their homes who then saw the place they were given shelter torched. They’re the victims. Has Lyons met and apologised to them? 100
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 22/01/2026I’ve heard Jon Burrows say, a few times, that Opposition needs reformed to have ‘shadow’ Ministers. Entirely a UK Parliament tradition that wouldn’t change the operation of our system at all. But I haven’t heard him acknowledge that would require cooperation with other parties in the Opposition 🤔 110
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 19/01/2026We were at Cape Canaveral a couple of years ago and this was the big project they were excited about. Class to see it start to take shape www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...bbc.co.ukArtemis II: Nasa's mega Moon rocket arrives at launch padFinal preparations now get underway for the first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. 000
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 19/01/2026Really muddled thinking from Jon Burrows on Good Morning Ulster today. By denying him a contest, Robbie Butler hasn’t just deprived him of a bit of legitimacy, he hasn’t given him an opportunity to clarify his thinking about what the UUP needs or is for. Which it sounds like he sorely needed. 000
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 17/01/2026The smarter move for Burrows would be to seek to build a broader consensus with a range of parties on the issues they can cooperate on. If he wants to squeeze Alliance and pull back some of that eroded UUP ground, he needs to look pluralistic, not entrenched. 120
Reposted by Martin McAuleyJim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 17/01/2026if the Labour defector to Reform is Kate Hoey that would be the dampest squib ever 7440844
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 16/01/2026Respectfully, most people would struggle to pick Robert Jenrick or María Corina Machado out of a lineup. Not saying the stories aren’t interesting - they’re compelling drama but they’re being profiled far, far above their public interest value. 010
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 13/01/2026Telling, isn’t it, that we can geoblock the RTÉ player on the basis of commercial broadcasting licenses for a football match but the UK Government is on the fence about geoblocking a different website which is creating sexualised images of children. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...bbc.co.ukX could 'lose right to self regulate', says StarmerIt is currently illegal to share deepfakes, but the law against creating them has not yet come into force. 000
Martin McAuley @martinmcauley.bsky.social · 13/01/2026I’m unlikely to be competing in the Commonwealth Games so the flag doesn’t really bother me. This reaction is instructive though - for all the unionist political parties demanding (rightly) to know what compromises will be made in a new Ireland, they’re unwilling to make ANY themselves today. 111