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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 15h

And how do you make joining the EU without a referendum, having left as a result of a previous referendum, stick in a political system designed to maximise policy volatility?

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I fundamentally don’t believe you can be a fully civilised country for as long as you have the death penalty.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Quite. It shouldn’t be hard to prioritise encouraging the centre-right to do some anti-racist gatekeeping over shouting “Gotcha!” at the Leader of the Opposition. The crumbling of norms in this area is far too serious for us not to.

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David Anderson @bricksilk.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Letter printed in The Times today

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Daniel Sugarman @danielsugarman.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Although it feels like I am shouting into the void about this sometimes, I want to share some further thoughts on the “Zionism is Racism” motion which the Green Party is due to debate in the next 16 hours. Just to address various points which I think people in general should know. A thread:

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

There are many questions about the prospects for EU membership if we’re going to reopen it, but one of them is how you make it stick in a political system designed to maximise policy volatility where the losing side is very unlikely to accept accession as settled or legitimate.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I can’t decide whether my continuing instinct on electoral reform - that nothing will happen because a right-wing government will reject it, a re-elected Labour one will decide majorities are lovely or a Labour-led one will lose a referendum - is born of experience or congenital pessimism.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

On Bluesky's outbreak of "just do it"-ism: I don't much like referendums, but sometimes they serve as a legitimator and a check and balance. As a lifelong electoral reformer, I don't think MPs can tenably change the basics of how they are chosen without direct reference to the voters.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Maybe this is an unfair selection of a quote from one Lib Dem MP, but I find it remarkable how they can refer to Burnham as "articulating Lib Dem values better than we do" without even considering things like civil liberties or refugee rights. bbc.co.uk/news/article...

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Indeed. I think it is radically underestimated how much of a challenge it is, and always has been, to square a UK political system which minimises checks and balances and therefore maximises scope for policy volatility with an EU whose lifeblood is rules and institutions which last over time.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I respectfully think this fails to engage with the substance of the argument. Other things being equal, lowering the indexation of our pensions will make the gap with our parents larger as a function of compound interest. Our parents' pension wouldn't have benefited from as many years of it as ours.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I don't know whether I think the correct "share of earnings" principled threshold will have been met by April 2030, but I agree that *at some point* the full triple lock had to go. But let's not kid ourselves: those of us with many years to go before we retire lose much more than current pensioners.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I am in two minds. Part of me thinks social care is just one of those things where you just have to spend political capital ruthlessly and early in a parliament without warning, rather than hoping the public will swallow hard truths no one likes on a topic no one wants to think about in advance. 1/

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Hello from Athens. Despite being 40, I apparently look young enough to get addressed with the second person singular. I am more than vain enough to appreciate this, and if this is just a matter of changing social norms in Greece, I prefer not to know.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Re the Lib Dems’ tax pledge: the idea that you can agree a deal to re-enter the single market, have it up and running within 12 months of winning an election, and guarantee to be able to spend tens of billions of pounds on tax cuts as a result is an insult to the intelligence of the electorate.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I am torn between being relieved that Denmark/Greenland have bought time for the EU plus European NATO and being uncomfortably aware that we will probably take it as a sign we don’t need to panic rather than a breathing space to prepare ourselves.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I’ll accept an England/Russia : UK/USSR analogy in one sense: both England and Russia have been majority components of plurinational states and substantially, but incompletely, elided their sub-state and state-wide identities as a result. Going beyond that, you don’t deserve to be taken seriously.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

To my surprise, I have a take on Ed Sheeran: I think it should be OK for musicians to just say "I just want to make music, that's my job, and I have no wish to pin my political opinions on my sleeve", but I also think the "place of safety and sanctuary" stuff is inanely trying to have it both ways.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I wonder a) whether Von der Leyen has really got enough member states on side to make this a runner (I have not forgotten the fate of 'reverse enlargement') and b) whether this ends up turning into an association agreement (which does exist and has a similar name).

ft.com

Ursula von der Leyen backs Canada’s ‘associate membership’ bid

European Commission president endorses Mark Carney’s proposal for deeper ties with the bloc

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Piddington is a small part of a seat which, even with Reform riding high nationally, Electoral Calculus has as a Lib Dem hold and 53%-41% to the centre/left. Labour only won 16% in 2024. Sometimes you can just conclude a few people have done a stupid thing and needn’t be dignified with a response.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Irish nationalists need no cue from me, but Micheál Martin is obviously right. Linking Northern Ireland (where HMG is obviously constrained* in a Border poll) to Scotland/Wales (which are and will be seen as existential to a British state) is obviously deeply ill-advised.

rte.ie

Taoiseach, Sinn Féin clash in Irish unity debate

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has suggested Sinn Féin may set back the cause of Irish unity by aligning itself with Scottish and Welsh pro-independence parties.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

All other issues aside, why earth would "those driving the campaign for Irish unity ... continually reference the endorsement of the most powerful man in the world", given that he is about as popular as the Black Death and scabies combined in both Ireland and Northern Ireland?

bbc.co.uk

What's next after Donald Trump's united Ireland comments?

At a press conference on Saturday, the US president said he would "love to see" a united Ireland.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

On a side note: I also think the NHS is one of Britain’s national totems, and from a state-/nation-building point of view, we just don’t have enough of those to shred the ones we do have.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

The argument that social insurance would weaken cost control and that this is probably a good thing is the argument I’ve always accepted as a decent one for more radical NHS reform, even though I’m small-c conservative on this overall. I do respectfully disagree with Stephen on the politics. 1/

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

At the risk of exposing myself as old and cynical, I simply do not believe enough Labour MPs are ever going to sign away the prospects of repeated Labour majority governments to make electoral reform happen. “53% of MPs are in favour of a review” won’t cut it.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

This isn't the most important thing now, and clearly "Yookay" discourse comes from a toxic fringe, but I hope people on the left don't respond by reacting against "British" and "Britain". It would be a mistake to hand over terms which have a lot more national resonance than "UK" to the racist right.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Not that this is ever going to affect me, but technically Reform now want to discriminate against me in social housing because I was born in Norway. I’m pretty sure I am not the intended target.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

It is a bit weird, by the way, that the current Tory Party has so little to say about the risks of curriculum reform. Improving schools is more or less the only big thing they have to their unambiguous credit in their last period in power!

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I often think this discussion is bedevilled by the way a knowledge-rich curriculum and the role of testing have been conflated with academisation and free schools. There is no inherent reason these have to go together.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I find the moralising tone of this stuff (Sodha’s post, not Jordan’s) very wearing. And I suspect this reaction is, mostly and for most of us, about where we find more agreement and less disagreement *on the issues we post about most* (which isn’t necessarily the same as our overall politics).

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

If you can’t be a Tory legislator while supporting the ECHR or Net Zero but you can while saying this, I think that will tell us something pretty important and unedifying about the current Tory Party.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

I think you can have any two of rigid and narrow main parties, a voting system which makes it much harder to have sustainable multiparty politics and a reasonably healthy democratic system (which might or might not be to my taste among types of liberal democracy), but you can't have all three.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Obviously England and Wales isn’t the US, but people here often don’t realise that fines for individuals are calculated based on relevant weekly income. There are lots of problems with this (notably getting some people to share their actual income), but we do try.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

It remains astonishing to see the US' President blowing up its credibility. The core message I'd draw if I were Japan, South Korea or Taiwan isn't that different from the one I draw in the UK, even if US interest is greater in Asia: plan on the basis that you might well be abandoned in a crunch.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

What gets me about this is that the right position, the simple position and the self-interested position if you are on the left in a liberal democracy - "political violence is wrong, 4D chess to justify it is wholly uncalled for, and we lose out when that position frays" - are so obviously the same.

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Musa Okwonga @okwonga.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

From this review- “Think of all the diligent, decent black academics who have been lumbered with the embarrassment of having Arday as a figurehead” - no, think of *why* black academics are held collectively responsible in ways that white academics are not

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

I am in my local café, with two people in front of me sharing their love of Corbyn, sadness about his fall, temptation to join the Greens to back their "anti-Zionism isn't anti-Semitism" wing etc, and I am struggling not to ask them whether hardened racism is really their #1 progressive priority.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

I am torn between thinking it's at least vaguely positive that even the Telegraph might recognise the importance of drawing a line when it comes to literal Restore, remaining contemptuous that they don't have a line way before that, and being sceptical about how long that line will last.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Then it should be overruled, and I’m pleased Sadiq is leaning in that direction as far as he is able. This is a London-wide issue, not just an organised-NIMBYs-in-Soho issue, and Westminster Council shouldn’t be able to unilaterally wreck the London-wide centre of entertainment and nightlife.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

1) I think people’s history of extremist views, reformed or not, is a legitimate consideration when deciding whether you want them in elected office. 2) I think Kemi Badenoch really needs to reconsider her belief that anyone questioning calls under her leadership must axiomatically be ignored.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Totting is also perfectly foreseeable. I find it hard to be sympathetic to people falling foul of it - or, for that matter, to the general trivialising of speeding. The perceived arbitrariness is a function of not cracking down earlier, not bonkers punitiveness.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Somewhat strangely, it doesn’t seem to have crossed Rhiannon’s mind that the families she says are unfairly hit by fines for non-attendance might also disproportionately be among those whose children suffer most from missing school.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

I think he’s a frothing-at-the-mouth loon. Unhappy though it would be, there is no state in the world more willing to accept the secession of part of the metropole than the UK … if a majority clearly want it. The nationalists’ problem is that they don’t have that clear majority.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

18% in London! I am utterly bewildered.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

This is good as far as it goes. But a) these numbers presumably suggest most Republican voters still disagree with all this and b) the American people experienced Trump in power once and still put him back in. So far as long-term trust in the US goes, we still can’t put the genie back in the bottle.

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

One thing I will say for Andy Burnham (there are other good things, to be clear) is that the man clearly has good music taste. Yes, I know Morrissey is awful as a person, but I am adopting the "death of the author" principle when it comes to The Smiths.

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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

I feel like the way of dealing with such behaviour is to look these people right in the eye and say, very gently, "You think your right to park matters more than homes these children?" Then when they reply just repeat it with slightly different emphasis.

newsshopper.co.uk

Hundreds slam proposals to turn car park into children's home in Bromley

Plans to build a children’s home on a car park in Bromley have been slammed by nearby residents who call the current parking situation “a…

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Re Anas Sarwar, I find it a remarkable and ill-judged signal to Scotland from a new Prime Minister - who presumably wants to embody a fresh start - to make the man who led Scottish Labour to its worst-ever Holyrood result a UK minister. It doesn’t exactly scream “we hear you”, does it?

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Nervous Social Democrat @nervoussocdem.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

I am being unfair and I know I am being unfair, but the bit which irritates me is "My work is done." Yes, Keir, all credit to you for the election, but that phrase implies a triumphant culmination as of today, and I think even your greatest fan will struggle to make that portrait stick.

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