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Sam McDermott

@montyzoomer.bsky.social
184 followers 810 following 5 posts
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Reposted by Sam McDermott
Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Kemi Badenoch wants to exempt the family home from inheritance tax. But that creates a perverse incentive for elderly people to *upsize* to save IHT. That could double the cost of the policy, and push £100bn+ from savings into housing. A 🧵 on bad tax cuts.
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Luiza Jarovsky, PhD @luizajarovsky.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Norwegian humor is on another level. Here's how the Norwegian Consumer Council explained @doctorow.pluralistic.net's concept of 'enshittification':
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Treblig 🇺🇦 @camtreblig.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
This being an item on Radio 4 is such a perfect encapsulation of political and media class brain worms: -it’s deeply racist; -it’s nasty and mean spirited; -it’s a totally manufactured “controversy” being kept alive by people in the Westminster bubble; -and as a topic, it’s so fucking BORING!
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James Murray @james-bg.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The pitch here seems to be, ‘we’ll build the houses and infrastructure we failed to build during the 14 years we were in government, but we’ll do it in the most damaging and lowest quality way possible’. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Tories to pledge to scrap Environment Agency and Natural England
Shadow chancellor will also promise to scrap affordable homes regulations as part of strategy to refocus on growth
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Duncan Robinson @duncanrobinson.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
God imagine if Starmer had gone ahead with that income tax rise, providing money to knackered state, building fiscal credibility and lowering inflation. At least ducking it let him keep his job Hang on
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Burnham speech: An astonishing moment of radicalism and commitment iandunt.substack.com/p/burnham-sp...
iandunt.substack.com
Burnham speech: An astonishing moment of radicalism and commitment
It’s easy to be cynical, but it would be false. Something extraordinary is happening here.
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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
If I never hear from Sharon Graham, ever again, it will be several months too soon. She is typical of the intellectual dishonesty plaguing this country, which demands radical change, but objects to anything actually changing.
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Oisín McGann @oisinmcgann.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
FORTY-TWO BILLION. Anthropic lost FORTY-TWO BILLION dollars in one year. The inevitable world-changing, ultimately efficient technology that everyone wants apparently.
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Sean Jones KC @seanjones.org · 29/09/2026
The rush to speculate that asylum seekers are responsible for every crime in the news is a sort of opportunistic informational terrorism. Until it’s disproved it stokes fear and hatred. When it is disproved there are no adverse consequences and they know that they only have to be lucky once.
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Imogen Shaw @imogenshaw.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Taking this opportunity for shameless self-promotion, if you want to read into the background of Burnham’s upcoming announcement on Great British Grid, here’s me for Renewal over the summer ⬇️ @renewaljournal.bsky.social renewal.org.uk/blog/the-gri...
renewal.org.uk
The Grid Theory of Everything
The UK’s electricity grid is a problem. It has been underinvested in for decades, leaving it low on capacity and poorly designed to accommodate the rapid rollout of new renewable energy generation. C...
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Times this morning. Me in December last year. It was pretty damn obvious this would happen to anyone who did the maths. samf.substack.com/p/the-oversh...
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Thomas I-G @thomasig.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Because good luck building things, anything, if your world-leading university sector continues to crumble under broken funding models.
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Pawel Swidlicki @pswidlicki.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Still, at least all the people urging drastic reductions in migration will congratulate the government for enacting their policy preferences, acknowledge this inevitable trade-off and not make opportunistic attacks on the government for having lost control of the public finances.
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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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Tom Jenkins @tomoljenkins.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Here is the trailer for Alex Gibney’s ‘Musk’ launch on 9October that has been banned by YouTube, TikTok and Meta, citing “political” content. X won't even take Bleecker Street's calls. The distributor is appealing. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFTf...
youtube.com
MUSK | Official Trailer HD
YouTube video by Elevation Pictures
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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 23/09/2026
I think once black clad men are interfering with rescues at sea, we are past "legitimate concerns". Once they're attacking boats, and risking the lives of everyone on board, it's just thuggery. The Home Secretary's statement is on the side of criminals. There's no other way to read it.
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James Austin @jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
A) 70/80 hour weeks? Right. When are you working on air con? 9 at night? B) NHS, free education, welfare system, bin collections, roads, wider state services. Go fuck yourself Dave
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Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Thomas Edison in 1910. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves on this net zero business, lads
Someday some fellow will invent a way of concentrating and storing sunshine to use instead of this old, absurd Prometheus scheme of fire.
I'll do the trick myself if someone doesn't get at it....
This scheme of combustion in order to get power makes me sick to think of—it is so wasteful.... We should utilize natural forces and thus get all of our power. Sunshine is a form of energy, and the winds and the tides are manifestations of energy. Do we use them? Oh no; we burn up wood and coal, as renters burn up the front fence for fuel.
We live like squatters, not as if we owned the property. There must surely come a time when heat and power will be stored in unlimited quantities in every community, all gathered by natural forces. Electricity ought to be as cheap as oxygen, for it cannot be destroyed.
Now, I am not sure but that my new storage battery is the thing. 167
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Dr Chris Smith @spyhistorian.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
"The British historians wrote almost as if Britain had introduced Negro slavery solely for the satisfaction of abolishing it." Eric Williams, still on point all these decades on. All is changed while everything has stayed the same.
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Willard Foxton @willardfoxton.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I think it's absolutely mad that today there's a *national news story* about 400 oil platform workers losing their jobs, and the government being blamed. 25% of the UK TV industry lost their jobs in the last 4 years and we never hear a peep about it! Some jobs are 'real jobs' I guess.
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Lots of talk of growth ahead of the Budget, as if it were a baroque puzzle. Our problem is basic. It's that we no longer support the things which facilitate growth: Europe, immigration, higher education, tax simplification, policy stability. These are all choices and could stop making them anytime.
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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 19/09/2026
I think it should be a source of deep embarrassment – and perhaps even shame – that Rishi Sunak has spoken out on this before Andy Burnham has.
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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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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
How the BBC’s latest platforming of the bigoted views of the anti-migrant billionaire tax exile Jim Ratcliffe is the sign of a national broadcaster that is increasingly losing its way www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/how-the-bb...
adambienkov.co.uk
How the BBC Mainstreams the Right’s Anti-Migrant, Anti-British Agenda
The BBC’s platforming of the bigoted views of billionaire tax exile Jim Ratcliffe is just the latest sign of a national broadcaster that has lost its way
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NewsThump @newsthump.com · 15/09/2026
NEWS! Nigel Farage vows to protect democracy from ordinary workers pooling their money to compete with billionaires buff.ly/qRoxEU6
newsthump.com
Nigel Farage vows to protect democracy from ordinary workers pooling their money to compete with billionaires
Nigel Farage has vowed to protect British democracy from the terrifying prospect of hundreds of thousands of ordinary working people pooling small amounts of their money to compete politically with…
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Mrs. Betty Bowers @mrsbettybowers.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
It's disgraceful enough of Donald Trump to skip the 9/11 Memorial in New York City, but to go golfing in Ireland instead—just to promote one of his properties—shows Trump's contempt not just for this solemn anniversary, but also for decency itself.
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Andrew Copson @andrewcopson.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Dismayed by defeat of the assisted dying bill. Nothing was won today – no new palliative care funding, no new disability support. And the suffering that brought this bill to parliament remains.
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Sam McDermott @montyzoomer.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
The next season of Clarkson’s Farm has taken a turn
Poster for Digger movie with picture of Tom Cruise holding a spade
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András Forgács W @andraswf.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
"There is a legitimate debate to be had about immigration, but" is the new "I'm not racist, but"
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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
"Newcastle voters are tired with the mainstream media's constant 'gotcha' journalism. Taking old social media quotes out of context has become a boring cliché." Well that's one way to deal with everyone noticing your councillor is an absolute fuckhead.
chroniclelive.co.uk
Newcastle Reform UK councillor apologises for anti-Muslim social media posts
Deleted X posts in the name of Benwell, Scotswood and Denton Burn councillor Daniel Astley include claims that Muslims "rape white English girls and commit terrorist attacks"
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Heather Stewart @guardianheather.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
“The idea that you could be here for the next 10, 15 years and you’d still have no legal right to remain in the country … how the hell do you plan?..It cuts across any effort to integrate at all.” www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
‘Fundamentally unfair’: Burnham must overhaul migration reforms, says TUC general secretary
Paul Nowak says changes to immigration rules risk overstretching social care and fuelling far-right sentiment
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Josiah Mortimer @josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Reform UK has been removed from the Alliance for Proportional Representation. It comes after a Q&A at conference where Reform MP Danny Kruger said: “On PR there is a significant danger [Lab.] will try to introduce it...Reform’s position is we support First Past the Post.” Reform's 2024 manifesto:
Proportional Representation Voting for the
House of Commons
Large numbers of voters have no representation
in parliament and new parties are shut out of the
political system. Voter turnout could be some 10%
higher with PR. A referendum is needed.
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Sara Gibbs is Scary Enough Already @sararoseg.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Do not talk to Jews like this. Ever.
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Dorian Lynskey @dorianlynskey.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
The shit Justin Webb gets away with. Now he wants to decide who is Jewish enough. What a heel
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Athena Kugblenu @athenakugblenu.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I don't want to give any of these idiots justification for their line of questioning, but I do think that critical race theory is more or less absent from mainstream journalism. It's already notoriously undiverse, on top of that you have people who don't understand the fundamental dynamics prejudice
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Adam Brown @adamlbrown.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I'm 100% convinced that if the gov launched a major crackdown and comms offensive, arrested everyone involved, used every media channels to highlight what a bunch of Nazis, traitors, criminals, Russian assets and nonces they all are, they'd destroy Reform and win the next election with a landslide
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Even leaving any politics at all aside: as general rule, no state can allow a group of masked men to be able to close down critical infrastructure. This is basic stuff.
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Tom Roberts @tpgroberts.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I think the obvious answer, bad as it is, is that this is sincere. He does basically agree that their concerns are legitimate, does think net emigration will stop the worst of the actions, and agrees with Mahmood that it's existential It's why she's still in place.
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George E. Osborn @georgeosborn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I think we're at the point where we can incredibly comfortably say that your attitude towards Reform, Restore, MAGA, the AfD etc is how you'd have responded to fascism in the 1930s
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
One reason England does so well is our second generation immigrants outperform their peers which is not true in most OECD countries. We are also very good at integration. And it's v sad that this is never acknowledge in debates on immigration.
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Marcus Chown @marcuschown.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Weasel words from Labour We all know privatisation - of water, rail, energy... - has been a disaster We lost something we owned & an inferior service was sold back to us at an inflated price And of course there was inadequate investment in infrastructure Labour weasling outoff re-nationalisation
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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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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Watching BBC News and it's striking to hear the presenters repeatedly referring to the AfD as "far-right" whilst refusing to ever say the same about the hundreds of actual masked blackshirts currently swarming British ports
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LBC @lbc.co.uk · 07/09/2026
This is @mrjamesob.bsky.social's London.
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Nadia Whittome MP @nadiawhittomemp.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
When blackshirts are marching through the streets of Dover and Portsmouth, the focus shouldn’t be on the disruption they cause, but on their fascist ideology and deliberate intimidation of migrants and people of colour. [1/2]
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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Robinson is far from alone. Had police on talking about the ‘peaceful protesters’ and, so far, Labour’s response to Dover and Portsmouth has been to talk about understanding the protesters These are literal street fascists!
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Try:We respect democ protest, properly expressed, but this was completely different+unacceptable. We will not tolerate uniformed militias intimidating public as well as disrupting normal life. We will back policing to ensure boundaries are clear & those who cross the line are deterred & sanctioned
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Parody Nigel Farage @parodypm.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Oops, I seem to have been caught red handed taking illegal foreign donations and being a corrupt sack of shit.
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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
What really struck me watching Channel 4 investigation into Reform is that the wilful breaking of electoral law isn’t an accident - it’s by design At every turn it’s Reform - Orr, Dan Jukes - saying how to break the law Exactly why I’ve been banging on about weak election law for so long
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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 03/09/2026
There's a lot here to be sickened by, but for some reason the "do you understand what's happening?" really got me. What's happening, Zia? Explain it to us. Use your words. Say it out loud. No no, not "wink wink, nudge nudge, you know..." Why is it a problem she's nominated? Say it, coward.
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