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Michael

@michaeljsc.bsky.social
1.5K followers 699 following 5.4K posts

tweeting about: politics, pop culture, general nonsense

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 15h
having been thinking about the PM’s speech, I think it’s genuinely great to have someone willing to set out an argument properly, and if he can follow through on some of the direction-of-travel stuff on electoral reform, Europe, social care it will make a serious difference
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 20h
Polanski’s “tax the rich” is the same as Badenoch’s “cut benefits”, a one-size-fits-all funding source that appeals to their prejudice but would never generate anything like the money they claim, and prevents them ever having to engage with serious politics
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The Prophet Cassandra @prophetcassandra.bsky.social · 21h
It feels very dour to be like "yes that was a great speech, great presentation from Andy. It also does not change the critical, terminal, government killing problems of this policy programme which were the same critical, terminal, government killing problems Keir had." but you know.
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Will Cooling @willcooling.bsky.social · 22h
The problem is it's nonsense If the state takes charge of delivering public services, that does not give individuals more control or agency. It actually gives them less because they're facing a monopolistic provider This is why both Churchill et al and Thatcher/Major sold privatisation as freedom
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 22h
fascinated by the product proposition of the BBC News website’s live blogs of speeches/debates. the PM is speaking now - follow along with us! and then it’s last updated 5 minutes ago with what he said 10 minutes before that
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 22h
the thing is, voters can see that Labour weren’t saying this was (a) real or (b) a problem until after the big immigration surge had already happened. it is a clearly fake thing to say, at odds with his supposed call for more authenticity from politicians
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Ben @cinemashoebox.bsky.social · 22h
"immigration control weakened by Brexit" five-dimensional dogwhistle triangulation-ass line
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
me at the start of a new Free Time period in Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Hard to square “we are absolutely, positively, not going to have an early election” with having a conference where all the big announcements start “in the next manifesto, …” unless the intended message is “we are taking the next two years off”.
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
If you are going to end the triple lock, you’re better off just ending it. Talking about a process of maybe ending it in the next Parliament, following some sort of review, feels like a way of minimising the fiscal saving while maximising the political pain.
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
- large immigration surge partly down to big one-off factors - the right demands settlement reforms to stop them staying - Mahmood concedes - Labour MPs stop it being retrospective, removing the point of it responding to the surge - future immigrants have to wait longer to settle for no good reason
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Ciaran @ciaranmcgurdy.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
If you want to cut pensions, cut pensions now. Making cutting pensions a manifesto pledge has to be one of the most insane thing I have ever heard
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
SNP latest:
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Look, I know he was a speechwriter and not the chancellor, but it’s hard to take Starmer people saying “Then there is the fiscal arithmetic. We all know the funding settlement is tight in the later years of this parliament.”
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Tom Roberts @tpgroberts.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
You see this with Trump as well, a weird refusal to accept that having a knowledge based economy is "winning."
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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This is *not* the result of "the success of Mahmood's reforms", but of earlier measures/other factors. Her proposals could make it considerably *worse* in future years. A few other points linked below.. archive.ph/0psJ8
Falling migration numbers could cost the chancellor as much as £7bn in fiscal headroom as he writes his first budget, The Times has been told. 

Government insiders believe that John Healey, who already faced an uphill battle to balance the books next month, is likely to have an even bigger challenge after immigration significantly undershot projections from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). 

The Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank estimated last month that the success of Shabana Mahmood’s reforms, which have seen net migration cut to the low hundreds of thousands, could cost Healey some £4bn. 

Labour sources familiar with the budget process, however, said that the figure was now closer to £6.5bn. The OBR’s migration forecasts have been consistently higher than real numbers in recent years.

Treasury officials, who have long expected Mahmood’s reforms to cause a hit to headroom, described the number as “pure speculation” but did not deny that Healey would have to contend with a larger funding gap than expected because of falling migration
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
the way he writes the moment where the centurion looks at the cross and says “truly this was the son of God” is unreal. two bars of music
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
deeply shameful thing for any politician to say let alone a centre left one. they don’t even realise how abnormal this is
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Edinburgh council should make it a jailable offence to put cones on stuff. tragic yearning to be Glasgow when Edinburgh’s literally better
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
idle thought having just dropped my phone: it’s soooooo good that phones are way more resilient than they used to be
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Banjon @beardybanjo.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"what if we continued the work of George Osborne to hollow out the broad tax base, but with lefist vibes?"
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
We’ve got a Labour government that is fiscally irresponsible and failing to get a grip on public service reform. Seems like fertile territory for our traditional centre right party. Let’s just see what they’re up to— oh. Oh no.
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Chaminda Jayanetti @cjayanetti.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
adult care reform was always going to have to be phased in, and after Labour wasted two years twiddling its thumbs it's not a huge surprise that major change won't come this side of an election. not really Burnham's fault - blame Starmer/Reeves/Streeting
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
the second paragraph here is sending me, because it’s also true of me* and the thought of using it to proclaim I know more about Christianity than the actual Church of England…! *technically to 15 but we both mean GCSE or equivalent
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
once again the actual "story" behind Tilly Norwood is how the company's PR firm continues to get these stories placed in ostensibly legit outlets over and over despite zero demonstration of the supposed phenomenon being written about ("AI movie star Tilly Norwood") being real
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George Eaton @georgeeaton.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Your regular reminder that UK taxes are average by western standards and low on middle-earners. Labour figures, especially, should not fall into the trap of pretending that we have a “high” tax burden and that taxes are to blame for the living standards crisis. www.arguably.uk/p/the-tax-tr...
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
enjoyed the new Sense and Sensibility, and I think it provides a nice different take than the 1995 one (but the 1995 one is better)
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
'Starmer's failure is because we're post-material' is one of those analyses that you only believe if you flatly ignore who 'the remaining Labour voters in May 2026 were' and 'who the voters Labour lost under Starmer were'.
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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Mahmood's rationale remains the same. Fewer (legal, working) migrants => less racism Nothing to do with integration. No evidence. I'd add this *doesn't* show she hates immigrants (FTAOD don't think she does). It shows her contempt/distrust/fear of ordinary Brits.
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Steamed Buns @aremay.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Banned from driving for -7 years- for doing this? No! Permanent ban! We are so soft on drivers!
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
unless we’re getting an announcement this weekend that the policy is changing then this seems *very strong* from someone bound by collective responsibility
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
so, amid the pre-Budget speculation, has anyone written a substantive piece about how the government could find substantial spending cuts? feel like a lot of the support for doing so has been pretty vibes-based but it’s actually an important question given the other constraints
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
ok some quick hot takes here: - some smaller British/Irish shows should be on here, most notably Derry Girls but I also think Big Boys - Bake Off has probably earned its slot via establishing a widely copied format but the show itself is stale - Downton Abbey is better than The Crown
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Jordan @jordanpfot.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Soe Noire sharing a post by the bar asking their patrons to pay him, and then sharing a post exposing how bad the bar is……nobody is doing it like him.
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
still sort of struggling to believe that amidst everything else going on, Andy Burnham popped up this week to say we should bring back drinking in stands at football.
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Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 25/09/2026
Sorry, what? Diplomats talk to each other. Miliband has also spoken to his Israeli counterpart. The French foreign minister also met Araghchi this week. X is such a sewer of bad, motivated takes.
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James Butler @piercepenniless.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
When was the last time our Secretary of State for Culture displayed anything approaching this degree of public enthusiasm for our world-class arts industry? Has she been seen anywhere? Given impending charter renewal... did she even bother to visit a single prom?
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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
"The party is rather like a computer which has been programmed to beat humans at chess: it is getting better and better at the game, all the while being incapable of understanding why it is playing in the first place."
economist.com
The Liberal Democrats are Britain’s pointless party
They are getting better at politics but have lost their purpose
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
spider breeding season is wild, just had a big-ish one walk up onto the footstool and stare at me on the couch. sir the lights are still on, you’re meant to be out of sight and out of mind
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Jordan @jordanpfot.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
‘School wasn’t for me’ suuuuch a though-terminating cliche.
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
*bangs head against wall forever* Apparently the way Burnham thinks we get parity of esteem is by saying vocational quals are for non-academic kids.
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
tv church services love having absolutely no liturgy at all
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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
yes, I think people trying to turn it into Discourse are missing one crucial element: it was a very well-written and crafted story.
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Can’t argue with their reasoning really but it’s a pretty sad sign about car dependence that the only way in to a shop is via the car park at the back.
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Braverman should be asked if she rejects Ed Miliband being English (Jewish European parents). It would be highly racialised to say "no, Jews can't be Englieh for 5-6 generations" which is her logic. But perhaos even more racist to say "Miliband yes, Sunak no" (on visible skin colour, not ancestry)
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Will Cooling @willcooling.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Racist thugs forming paramilitaries to close ports, attack refugees, intimidate the free press & threaten the RNLI are legitimate concerns but making a sport with known issues regarding violence & wider anti-social behaviour, ban alcohol at pitchside is discriminatory. Give me a fucking break
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Mrs. Detective Pikajew, Esq. @clapifyoulikeme.favrd.social · 23/09/2026
Special update to this story for the chronically online only
serene_necrosis 2w
I don't even live in your town, but I hope your venue gets firebombed for robbing my fellow immunocompromised people of their Saturday plans just to scrape extra revenue from ablists. Sorry disabled people aren't making you enough money or whatever. You are functionally following the business plan of target. Hope your business crashes and burns, "with love".
Reply*Ace*
@Serene_Necrosis
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It's not lost on me that I have received a huge amount of hate from so-called "leftist" accounts since changing my pfp to include a hijab-inspired secular accessorization.
1:03 AM • 8/23/25 • 116 Views
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
re: lesbian bar story, if this was old twitter at least five people on here would have changed their display names to DJ Harsh Noise Boyfriend
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
one neat trick to make me sit next to you: put your bag on the seat when you know it’s going to be standing room only
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
btw you might be thinking “I’ve seen loads of screenshots on the feed, I don’t need to read the whole piece” but take it from me, you do
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