Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleDan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 9hHow Burnham is going to try and balance proposals for a National Care Service, while supporting Mahmood's immigration policies is going to...interesting, and by "interesting" I mean fundamentally unworkable. It just cannot work with the hostile immigration policies being pushed. 310130
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistlePhil McDuff @mcduff.bsky.social · 6hNot only is it not as serious a constraint as people think, it's also self-fulfilling when the crude Keynesianism once again constrains growth and the cycle repeats. 111
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleRose Ruane @regretteruane.bsky.social · 10hMade an appointment at le salon du kitchen scissors & once again, I’ve given myself a fringe that’s a cross between the Dave Hill in a Romulan Slade tribute band & something a cruel 17th century priest might inflict on a woman accused of pridefulness, consorting with imps or strumpetry 131417
Reposted by Michael Birtwhistleonlycans @onlycans.bsky.social · 8hYou would have bumped into several of the top 5000 bluesky transsexuals! 141
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleCEO Johnny Cans @oldmatecans.bsky.social · 10hCooked the books to bring in £100 mill of undeclared revenue a year for 9 years. Tried to hide it when investigated. Still claiming innocence. Everton got deducted 6 points for a one year breach of £19.5 mill, and had to pay Burnley £35 mill in compensation. It's really, really bad. 071
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleBrían Hanrahan @hanrahanistan.bsky.social · 10hhide in the library 2534
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleRoland Bates @rolandbates.bsky.social · 10hMy disgraced son-in-law is basically Geoff Norcott without jokes. Imagine that!! 211
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleBeth Stratford @bethstratford.bsky.social · 14hWell, I for one am an economist who supports rent controls! Here’s why 🧵: Markets only work well if: -buyers & sellers have roughly equal power -producers respond to price signals & expand supply in response to scarcity -buyers can walk away if prices get too high 9240100
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleBeth Stratford @bethstratford.bsky.social · 14hOpponents of rent controls typically argue that rent controls would lead to landlords selling up. Of course that presents risks. But it also presents a historic opportunity. Because when a landlord sells, the home does not vanish – only the owner changes! 1389
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleBeth Stratford @bethstratford.bsky.social · 14hI started looking seriously at rent controls when I realised that even a huge increase in house-building & housing benefit spend wouldn’t touch the sides of this crisis. (Bear in mind that renters in poorest quintile (5th) spend 63% of income on rent!) This👇 is p.7 of www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/pub... 1261
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleAlex Partridge @alexpartridge87.bsky.social · 10hThere's crisis comms and then there's crisis comms. Fair play to the City admin for just posting through it I suppose. 15916
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleZack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 11hWe have the chance to cut bills, end the sewage scandal and stop the rampant profiteering. But instead it's more half-measures, and kicking the issue into the long grass. 19421137
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleIain Nicol @iainnicol.com · 19hRed diesel is legal to burn to heat homes, hospitals, and places of worship. As is charcoal! I'm sure their defence will be pointing this out. 051
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleAdam Farrer @adamjfarrer.bsky.social · 11hSome people would hate to have a neighbour using what might be the last good weather of the year to stand in her garden and have a shouty phone call, but some people aren't nosy bastards like me who just want to know exactly what it is that Maria did. 291
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleMetal Gear Solidarity @mgearsolidarity.bsky.social · 16hThe labour party is full of people like this. The best possible reason for this happening is that Josh MacAlister is almost criminally ignorant of the systems he is talking about, but it's just so much more likely this is what they want to do. They want to lie. The labour party is full of cunts. 13311
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleJason @greedyrunner.bsky.social · 15hI fondly remember the days when chart bands played town halls, student unions, and other modest venues, and tickets didn't cost more than a budget package holiday. 132
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleTristan Grayford @tristangrayford.scot · 15hIf a party which currently holds power promises to deliver on something but only after the next election that is a non-pledge. It is utterly meaningless and can be completely ignored. 0223
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleTristan Grayford @tristangrayford.scot · 18hBurnham is stacking a whole lot of things under a list of "Todo, IF we win the next General Election" and quite a lot fewer things under "Todo, currently, whilst we hold power with a huge majority" 712530
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleRob Palk @robpalk.bsky.social · 15hRemembering when for no good reason i pretended to be Nabokov ranking various bears 1176
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleZack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 16hWhy is the Government going after pensioners? It's time to tax the rich 1901325352
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleEd Poole @edpoole1975.bsky.social · 15hAnd giving a universal benefit makes sure the needy get it and taxing it back from people with higher incomes makes sure it's fair. Telling a visually impaired 96 year old they need to fill in their financial details on the online portal is not going to ensure the people who need support get it. 2231
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleBeefcake Dad @jeffsreturn.bsky.social · 17hGoogling Tony Blair Arms Deal to find out what the deal is with those arms 14873210
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleStrictlyChristo 🇺🇦🌻 @strictlychristo.bsky.social · 29/09/2026This also sums up the American healthcare experience pretty well. American healthcare is a travesty. This is the bad place. 43689033325
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleGareth Watkins @garethwatkins.bsky.social · 19hThere's a weird puritan streak to how this article is written where the writer keeps noting that the people who run the business side of porn are normal - they wear gilets and work in 'nondescript offices', as opposed to what? A building shaped like a giant cock? www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...theguardian.com‘Online sex workers literally have to bare it all’: why Patricia Nilsson is exposing the world’s biggest porn bossesAs a business journalist, Nilsson began rigorously reporting on the power players of the adult industry, who prefer to remain in the shadows. Along the way, she uncovered how porn has shaped the inter... 1522735
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleChris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 18hSee?! This is how you do it. 2408
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleChris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 19hHonestly, yes. All businesses should theme their architecture, furnishing, stationery and outfits around the point of their business like a 1960s Batman villain. 4308
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistlePlashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 28/09/2026The uni also has a director of Change and Improvement. He didn’t like it when I asked when he would turn his hand to the latter. 3332
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistlePhil McDuff @mcduff.bsky.social · 19hWe've been doing "let's scrap [benefit] to fund [promised future public service] for close to two decades now, and while we have succeeded in scrapping benefits we do not seem to have funded any more public services. And somehow we still don't have any money. 59030
Reposted by Michael Birtwhistlepoliticaliverpool.bsky.social @politicaliverpool.bsky.social · 18hWe’re back to a failure to understand that the neoliberal cuts in one area to fund another has no fertile ground for cuts, there is no area with fat to trim, everything was reduced to almost nothing during the “austerity years” and was never replaced, every area will have pushback 0103
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleSinan Kose @thesinankose.bsky.social · 18hSo on the one hand Labour has made the mostly correct assessment that pensioners don't really vote for them anyway so they can punish them, but has incorrectly assumed any other age cohort is remotely interested in them and that some of us like our parents who are almost retirement age. 1343
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleThe Ranty Highwayman @rantyhighwayman.bsky.social · 22hSeeing Oxford Street is being pedestrianised in October, it is pretty clear from @london.gov.uk's Transport for London project page that anyone cycling is of no interest as they are not mentioned. tfl.gov.uk/travel-infor...tfl.gov.uk 3359
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistlePhil McDuff @mcduff.bsky.social · 18hWe are two decades into "let's cut benefits x to pay for service y" and while benefit x continues to be cut, service y never materialises. Why will your way be different this time? 141
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistlePhil McDuff @mcduff.bsky.social · 18hBasically you're trying to punish boomers by implementing a policy that will have barely any impact on property owning boomers but *will* have serious impacts on the people coming up behind them who already are renting into their 40s and haven't got the housing wealth or final salary pensions. 132
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleSTC @blobbystc.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Getting rid of the triple lock is bad, actually 2316
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleGordo! @posting.fan · 19hliving in Britain is listening to very Sensible People happily talking about how we need to reduce the benefits 'burden' in the cruelest way possible while being cheered to do it, but any suggestion that we abolish the monarchy or reduce our military budget is treated as the ideas of a rambling fool 1429471
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleArthur Snell @snellarthur.bsky.social · 19hFunny thing I recall the debate back when it was linked to inflation not earnings which was seen as unfair and at the time I thought "link to inflation seems a fair basis for a state benefit" and now that earnings rarely keep track with inflation of course the distinction has switched the other way. 2268
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistlePhil McDuff @mcduff.bsky.social · 20hThe fundamental structural problem with the British economy is that, for decades now, "working for a living" is a mug's game compared to living off asset inflation and rents, and even as the wheels come off that system nobody has any inclination to change it. 19227
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleSam Turner @renrut-mas.bsky.social · 20hThere's some deep doublethink happening. It's a universal benefit (which is provably better than means tested) and it's aimed at a group who are more likely to be on a low income than the working age population. Versus: yeah but some boomers bought houses for 50p 1296
Reposted by Michael Birtwhistleรℓσαɳε ℓყรɓεƭɦ @sloanelysbeth.bsky.social · 20hpensions are welfare. this government is announcing yet another welfare cut. jus bcos it hits older ppl doesn’t mean you should be cheering it on. 🙄 99725
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleCluster Block🌈 🍉 @clusterblock.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Quick clarification because i’ve seen discourse containing vocab errors. Dogging: involves cars. Straight people do this type. Cruising: the gay kind. Cruising ground: the location. Often wooded. Cottaging: crusing in toilets. Named because they often looked like little cottages in parks. 193
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleAndy Hearn 🏳️⚧️🇵🇸🏳️🌈⚽️🎶🌈 @andyhearn24.bsky.social · 28/09/2026There's nothing worse than an establishment shill, they're already out in force declaring the triple lock on pensions to be unsustainable because they've been told it's unsustainable. It's the worst pension in the developed world, to suggest we can't keep the protections it has is utterly false. 34112
Michael Birtwhistle @salfordmh.bsky.social · 28/09/2026🎵I'm wealthy, I'm wealthy, I'm so, so wealthy🎵 020
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleDr Jo Kershaw @mthrjo.bsky.social · 28/09/2026In theory you can’t pick brambles/ blackberries after tomorrow, but this year that ship sailed some time ago… 3382
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleTympanic & Frisketty @luckyerica3.bsky.social · 28/09/2026People are like 'mental health is this nebulous, fluctuating, mysterious public health issue' and no, we absolutely know what people need and it's quantifiable. Give people money. 092
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleAmelia Clark - Lover of Flagons @gingertotty.bsky.social · 03/09/2026V proud of the pretend firstborn. Who can now herd his sheeps over some bridge in Lancaster, or summat… :) In other news - my nibwork needs practise! #heraldry #lancaster #freeman #calligraphy 2193
Reposted by Michael BirtwhistleNew-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Great moments in Scottish engineering history: James Watt tries to work out how his phone attaches to his selfie stick. 8642181