Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 6hThis is not a great idea from the Tories obviously but I don’t want to punish them for maybe trying to look at what our weakness are and thinking about how they might be addressed. Maybe I’m being too generous though and this is just more importing dumb American headlines. 000
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 6hIMHO the main problem with our defence policy is that this is generally how it’s treated. You’re right the oppo shouldn’t be trying to solve every technical problem etc but an incoming government should really have some idea what it wants one of the biggest departments to achieve 100
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 17hA sombrero and maracas?! Are they trying to get bake off cancelled again? I’m scared for when the yanks wake up tomorrow #GBBO 020
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Isn’t this that crazy person that keeps supporting Putin 000
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 06/10/2026It’s ok chaps, we don’t need any weapons, we’ve got “institutions”. I am very intelligent 000
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 06/10/2026I think you’ve exhausted my ability to be polite. You’ve not said anything constructive or actually said anything to defend your own position apart from alluding your own smug genius. Bore somebody else. 000
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 06/10/2026What they do to protect our skies? You mean escorting the odd Russian jet? Watching on radar? If that’s what you then it’s you that’s being naïve! By defence I mean our ability to defend ourselves in an actual war. With weapons. That don’t currently exist. 100
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 06/10/2026I don’t think we need an iron dome but I’m not going to punish them too much for noticing that we have no air defence. 140
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Well yes. If the challenge is defending the UK then the scale of air defence we actually need is pretty significant. You can’t get by with a couple of batteries defending London. It’s ok though we’ll just keep bickering over the percentage of GDP spent and how much infantry that buys us. 110
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Once again begging people to think & talk about defence in terms of the outcomes they want to achieve instead of centring budgets of headline capabilities. If the goal of the MoD is to defend the UK then we absolutely need much, much better air defence. 030
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 06/10/2026The UK, to all intents and purposes, has no air defence. The chances of the kind of war where these islands are under attack is low but the potential cost is incredibly high. We’d be defenceless and get flattened. We don’t need “iron dome” but don’t make fun of the Tories too much please. 350
Reposted by MichaelJosh Self @josh.politics.co.uk · 05/10/2026NEW: Lib Dem MPs urge Greens to defect after ‘Zionism is racism’ vote @timfarron.bsky.social: “Real Greens are welcome in the Lib Dems” @jessbrownfullermp.bsky.social: “You can find your political home in the Liberal Democrats” @luketaylorld.bsky.social: “You are welcome in the Liberal Democrats”politics.co.ukLib Dem MPs urge Greens to defect after ‘Zionism is racism’ voteLiberal Democrat MPs have invited Green members to defect after the party’s conference voted for a motion declaring Zionism a form of racism. 135624
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 04/10/2026I agree with this but I guess I would much rather it all be random so I didn't have to worry about casting decisions affecting the gameplay. But then I have no idea whether leaving it to chance is unthinkable among those who make it TV for important reasons I don't understand 000
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Wow Amol is annoying. Very pleased with himself isn’t he? #TheTraitors #CelebrityTraitors 000
Reposted by MichaelAdam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 02/10/2026The 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 25592251
Reposted by MichaelRobert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 02/10/2026The 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. 541898772
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Unironically yes. IMHO if arts funding was distributed to those who wanted to commission works of art we would have a lot more high quality and popular public works of art than we do now. Not all of it. Obvs there has to be some space for the stuff that nobody would choose to pay for 000
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Under PR systems such as STV you would have a few local MPs and the almost everybody would have a local MP that represents them politically as well as geographically! 010
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Yeah the hopium that keeps Labour politicians backing FPTP is surprising! But no because this isn’t just about the government, it’s also your MP. 100
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026I actually can’t believe you’re going to tell me it’s bad that Israel has a Coalition government when you (incorrectly) believe it has 35% of the vote when we currently have a government that only won 34% of the vote 000
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026The coalition government in Israel represents a combined 50% of the vote. 100
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026To circle back to beginning “meh” is a much easier response to have when you’re the one benefitting from the disproportionate result 100
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026PR isn’t a magic wand that can make unpopular things popular. What it does do is prevent unpopular parties wielding absolute power and implementing their own unpopular policies. 100
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Well if it had been a coalition we probably would have some record of that 010
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026I’m sorry you failed to make the correct inference. My point was that liberals have always supported electoral reform even when doing so would have helped the conservatives and that it is not some sort of wish to exclude conservatives as you claim. 110
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026In 1929 the Conservatives won the most votes but didn’t win the most seats. An abject failure for an undemocratic system. Proportionate systems deliver accurate results they don’t deliver the result you want. 110
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Because everybody knows in advance of the election what policies they will demand in a coalition and which parties they would be prepared to work with. 100
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026I suppose it is easier to engage with arguments you imagine I support 100
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Where is this strawman? You must be having a fun convo with it 000
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026The fact that they’re coalitions and still can’t the support of the majority is a bad thing! 000
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Yes they’re coalitions which is another reason the system is bad because it forces parties into stupid factional dishonest internal that limit voter choice at the ballot box. 100
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026It’s literally undemocratic to be ruled by a minority. It’s the definition. 000
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Coalition governments in proportionate systems by definition have to have majority support to get majority power. That’s the whole point! It is a bad thing that we have been ruled by minorities for a century! 000
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026No, in proportional systems the parties and voters go into elections able to be honest and open about what policies they can implement and what compromises they will make and the voters understand that. It’s our stupid system that makes coalitions worse. 200
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Proportionate electoral systems do in fact deliver majority consent to their governments. This happens all the time in countries with more democratic voting systems. Instead we get governments and policies that the majority opposes. 000
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026It is not a healthy democracy when a government has power of the majority conferred on it when they were too unpopular to win a majority of the vote. 2/3rds of the voters opposed Labour at the election 100
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026It’s not democracy when the government rules without majority consent. It’s basically the opposite of democracy. 100
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Well yes it’s hard to argue against people who just don’t believe in democracy 100
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026And when you add up all the “losers” you realise that they almost always outnumber the “winner” but there bites all go in the bin and we get a government with absolute power despite only a 3rd of people voting for them. 100
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Yes they ldo! If you don’t vote for the winner then your vote is not represented in parliament at all. That’s the whole mechanism that results in the commons being so wildly disproportionate and is being ruled constantly by governments with minority support. It’s just easy to ignore when you win 000
Michael @michael-fox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Not only are Suella’s own parents both immigrants but her father was forced to leave his home country (Kenya) because of discriminatory laws on nationality. I don’t know how she sleeps at night. No matter how hard you try to be “one of the good ones” the fascists will still get you in the end 000