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Nicola Kelly

@nicolakellywrites.bsky.social
22K followers 444 following 641 posts

Journalist, writer, author of ANYWHERE BUT HERE: Stories of the Search for Belonging in Modern Britain. linktr.ee/nicolakellywrites

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Reposted by Nicola Kelly
Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Hurrah for the creation of a National Care Service! It is so, so needed. You may not now, but you will at some point in your life. This will help millions of people, like my family. nicolakelly.substack.com/p/who-cares-...
nicolakelly.substack.com
Who cares? Hopefully Burnham does
On the National Care Service and why we desperately need it
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Frances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Anyone who has waded through the social care system for themselves or a loved one will know how meaningful this speech is. It will be a huge challenge - and undoubtedly not be perfect - but the pay-off could be genuinely lifechanging for so many.
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Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 29/09/2026
🚨BREAKING🚨 "Caring for other people's parents on poverty pay, but doing it with huge skill, humor, and humanity, holding a threadbare system somehow together, yet invisible to the political class of this country" "I want to speak directly today to our care workers. You are not invisible to me."
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Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Brexit has done more harm than good. YES.
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Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Don't know about you but I'm in floods of tears.
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Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Hurrah for the creation of a National Care Service! It is so, so needed. You may not now, but you will at some point in your life. This will help millions of people, like my family. nicolakelly.substack.com/p/who-cares-...
nicolakelly.substack.com
Who cares? Hopefully Burnham does
On the National Care Service and why we desperately need it
3234
Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Hottest ticket in town: Omar El Akkad with Yalda Hakim. Omar and I were on the same panel at the Edinburgh International Book Festival last year, paired up to talk about monster-making. Him on Israel, Gaza and colonialism; me on the scapegoating of migrants to Britain. He’s brilliant.
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Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Danny Thomas where he belongs: in custody.
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Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The urgent review should be looking at the far-right stabbing through dinghies at sea and attacking search and rescue crews - not migrants landing without interception. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Home Secretary hits out at 'unacceptable' migrant landings in Kent
The arrivals of two unescorted migrant boats mark the first uncontrolled landings recorded in the UK since 2025.
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Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This is what happens if you put hundreds of millions of pounds into border security in northern France. It pushes people further round the coastline, so they have to make longer, more perilous journeys and land further round the British coastline. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Urgent review after two migrant boats land on Kent beaches
Usually brought ashore by Border Security Command or the RNLI, these are the first uncontrolled landings since 2025.
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Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This is what happens if you put hundreds of millions of pounds into border security in northern France. It pushes people further round the coastline, so they have to make longer, more perilous journeys and land further round the British coastline. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Urgent review after two migrant boats land on Kent beaches
Usually brought ashore by Border Security Command or the RNLI, these are the first uncontrolled landings since 2025.
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Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
There are so many crimes in this thread you have to wonder what the police and Home Secretary think they are doing at this point.
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Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Yesterday Danny Thomas approached an RNLI crew in the Channel and repeatedly stabbed through a dinghy while one search and rescue worker was onboard. This goes beyond harassment to a dangerous new low. Very frightening moment.
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The resilience of immigration in these figures is really troubling. We need the reporting of the fall in small boat and general immigration to ramp up. Reform can come back as long as that issue reigns.
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Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I have spent weeks shadowing the RNLI and I can tell you, they do it out of nothing more than compassion. Wrote about the heroes I've met over the years in this free-to-read post. nicolakelly.substack.com/p/the-rnli-a...
nicolakelly.substack.com
The RNLI aren't traitors; they're heroes
I have spent weeks shadowing lifeboat crews. Here's what they do and what it's like.
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Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Thanks for the support. You can subscribe for more posts like this at the link below, all free to read. substack.com/@nicolakelly...
substack.com
Nicola Kelly | Substack
Journalist, writer, author of 'ANYWHERE BUT HERE: Stories of the Search for Belonging in Modern Britain'.
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Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
This week Piddington, the tiny Oxfordshire "village that roars", voted overwhelmingly to leave the UK if asylum seekers move nearby. I wrote about the far-right's new ground zero and why the government should stop talking about "legitimate concerns". nicolakelly.substack.com/p/piddington...
nicolakelly.substack.com
Piddington's legitimate concerns
How a tiny village became ground zero for the far-right
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Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
This week Piddington, the tiny Oxfordshire "village that roars", voted overwhelmingly to leave the UK if asylum seekers move nearby. I wrote about the far-right's new ground zero and why the government should stop talking about "legitimate concerns". nicolakelly.substack.com/p/piddington...
nicolakelly.substack.com
Piddington's legitimate concerns
How a tiny village became ground zero for the far-right
88825
Reposted by Nicola Kelly
James O’Brien @mrjamesob.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Cowardice versus Courage Cruelty versus Compassion Fascists versus RNLI volunteers podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
podcasts.apple.com
They terrorised lifeboat volunteers for saving lives
Podcast Episode · James O'Brien Daily · 18 September · 1hr 3min
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
A short thread on “legitimate concerns”. The phrase is used repeatedly by UK government ministers. The Home Secretary is at it again this week. But only ever - as far as I can tell - in one context: people’s response to the arrival of asylum seekers. Please read whole 🧵before responding - thanks
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Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
"RNLI crew members had been forced to take their permits off their cars after their tyres have been repeatedly slashed. Most of them have been pilloried at the school gates or turned away from local pubs. One man who worked in search and rescue had been beaten unconscious and hospitalised"
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Time to deport all these fighting age men terrorising our patriotic lifeboat volunteers www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Lifeboat station in Portsmouth forced to temporarily shut after far-right action
RNLI facility had been targeted by activists trying to stop asylum seekers landing in boats from the Channel
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Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I have spent weeks shadowing the RNLI and I can tell you, they do it out of nothing more than compassion. Wrote about the heroes I've met over the years in this free-to-read post. nicolakelly.substack.com/p/the-rnli-a...
nicolakelly.substack.com
The RNLI aren't traitors; they're heroes
I have spent weeks shadowing lifeboat crews. Here's what they do and what it's like.
341504485
Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
A friend is on her way to Portsmouth Uni to drop her daughter off. They've been warned by the uni of traffic tailbacks and been advised to avoid the area around the Guildhall as further far-right protests are expected today.
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Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Viral post about the RNLI over on Substack. Join me there. substack.com/@nicolakelly
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Jane @localnotail.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Daniel Thomas / Danny Tommo has today marched his private army of blackshorts to Daily Mail HQ to demand a new house for his mum within 48 hrs, after they doorstepped her for a feature on him. Apparently he plans to blockade them + cry at them until they do Bet those lads are glad of the balaclavas
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Mic Wright @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
A detail missing from The Times story… the woman who took the photo shared it to a Facebook group called ‘South east patriots’.
Facebook post showing the photo of three white women on a train with a group of black-clad, masked men being shared to a group called ‘South east patriots’
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HOPE not hate @hopenothate.org.uk · 08/09/2026
Did Kent Police ignore Dover blockade 999 call? We can reveal the story that undermines the public statement of Kent Police. 🧵
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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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Joel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I believe the RNLI are responding to legitimate concerns that people might drown.
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Lauren Starkey @laurenhstarkey.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Men will send me emails like this and then go rampaging on the streets of Dover and Portsmouth claiming they want to keep refugees out in order to “PROTECT OUR WOMEN!” Not a single one of the young male refugees I’ve worked with has ever spoken to me with such violent misogyny.
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Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The police knew the night before the Dover protests happened that far-right thugs had arrived in a village nearby and planned to use it as a launchpad. They showed “no interest” in the tipoff from locals.
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Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I've long argued that every newsroom should have an immigration correspondent who travels beyond Westminster to meet local communities, those on the frontline and, of course, new arrivals. Pleased to contribute to this excellent report @reutersinstitute.bsky.social.
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Emily Graham @emilyagraham.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Brilliant piece on the desperate need for social care reform - thank you @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social Arranging care in that moment of crisis is so tough but typical for so many families - at Care Rights UK, we often hear it described as a maze
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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I just knew we'd get this bollocks. Farage - like the Telegraph- doesn't want progress or anything to improve he just wants Britain to sit in a miserable slump in which he can holler constantly about "migrants" and drink pints in slow motion videos with people who pine for WW2.
Farage: Burnham's pledge
to house homeless will
attract more migrants
Reform leader says rough sleeping plan
sends message that you get 'everything for
free if you come by boat
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Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Excited to reread my incredibly over-annotated copy of Oedipus Rex from A-level days. Something genuinely heartwarming about realising I've always been this much of a geek.
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Aveek Bhattacharya @aveek18.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Last week: losing your way I read Anywhere But Here by @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social and felt despair about the asylum system And @mbarnfield.bsky.social on the politics of net zero, felt slightly reassured about the level if not the trend aveekbhattacharya.substack.com/p/readwatche...
aveekbhattacharya.substack.com
Read/Watched/Listened/Ate: You May Find Yourself
30: July 2026
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Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Hurrah for the creation of a National Care Service! Andy Burnham’s right: we need one urgently. Here's why. (A personal story)
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Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Andy Burnham has said that reforming the care system is a priority for him. He's long called for a National Care Service. Here's why we need one - and why delivering on that promise might be the test of his premiership. (Pls subscribe - it's free) open.substack.com/pub/nicolake...
open.substack.com
Who cares? Hopefully Burnham does
On the National Care Service and why we desperately need it
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Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Andy Burnham, "To me, carers should be the best paid people in society, not the worst" "Many people from other countries have been caring for my dad" Andy Burnham praises migrants to the UK who care for our elderly, a stark contrast to Keir-island-of-strangers-Starmer
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Just loving how John Cleese, now reduced to one of his own caricatures, rages about immigrants coming to the UK and failing to accept "our" culture, from his home in ... (checks notes) ... Nevis in the Caribbean.
Telegraph article: John Cleese: I trust Rupert Lowe more than any other leader
Monty Python star backs the Restore Britain founder in a series of social media posts
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Alona Ferber @aloner.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
On devolution, @jacktshaw.bsky.social on social care @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Jesus Christ.
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Refugee Council @refugeecouncil.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Today is the 75th anniversary of the UN Refugee Convention. To mark this anniversary, we're sharing the remarkable story of how Lord Alf Dubs escaped the Holocaust on the Kindertransport at just six years old.
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Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Andy Burnham has said that reforming the care system is a priority for him. He's long called for a National Care Service. Here's why we need one - and why delivering on that promise might be the test of his premiership. (Pls subscribe - it's free) open.substack.com/pub/nicolake...
open.substack.com
Who cares? Hopefully Burnham does
On the National Care Service and why we desperately need it
43916
Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Sally Hayden and I in conversation tonight, 6.30, Daunt Books Hampstead. Still a few tickets left. See you there!
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Sally Hayden @sallyhayd.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Two weeks until this event in Daunt Books Hampstead Heath, with the brilliant @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social. Do come if you're around London. The ticket is £6, which includes a complimentary glass of wine or soft drink. dauntbooks.co.uk/shop/events/... @4thestatebooks.bsky.social
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Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
My last signing queue! Always the best bit, hearing from audiences. Thank you thank you for all the support. What a 15 months.
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Anne Hawley💜🩶🖤🤍 @annehawley.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
This takes a turn you might not expect.
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Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Thanks for all the kind comments on this post. Tony would've been flabbergasted that anyone cared to read about him!
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