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Sam Ackland 🔸

@samackland.bsky.social
104 followers 267 following 113 posts

The official account of Sam Ackland. I’ve taken the 🔸10% Pledge (@givingwhatwecan.bsky.social) to give to effective charities.

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Reposted by Sam Ackland 🔸
Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 10/10/2026
"My days-long decisive victory over Iran is now in its 8th humiliating, oil-price-inflating month, so I'm going to go secure like a day's worth diesel by helping Putin pay the bills on his >4 year long 3 day military special operation."
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Peter Jukes @peterjukes.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Look at the graph of US support for Ukraine, and how it disappeared when Trump entered his second term. The Russia hoax was never a hoax
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Glory to Ukraine
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Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
JOINT STATEMENT OF THE FOREIGN MINISTERS OF CANADA, DENMARK, GERMANY, FRANCE, ITALY, JAPAN, THE NETHERLANDS, UNITED KINGDOM "As committed supporters of the ICC we regret and strongly disagree with the announcement of sanctions to be imposed upon the Court by the United States."
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Duncan Robinson @duncanrobinson.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6ac7c3... half-man, half-machine
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George Eaton @georgeeaton.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Excellent example of how an active state can support start-ups and economic dynamism – credit to Burnham for moving swiftly.
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James O'Malley @jamesomalley.co.uk · 09/10/2026
The Green Party need to kick out the antisemites and get back to what the party was supposed to be all about: Opposing solar farms and high speed rail.
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Humanists UK @humanists.uk · 09/10/2026
'Everyone has the right to speak freely about religion, and no one should ever face punishment for doing so, much less be put to death. And yet, Anojan Sivarasa has been condemned to die because of a post made on Facebook.' @andrewcopson.bsky.social. www.themirror.com/news/world-n...
themirror.com
Anger as man sentenced to death for Facebook comment
The comment was reportedly screenshotted and passed to Saudi authorities and to his employer, which led to his arrest
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Twlldun @twlldun.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Right winger discovers national identity changes over time, film at 11
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Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
"Inheritance tax is unpopular because the Tory press has scared people into thinking it will apply to them, when it usually won't" This is mostly not true. Most people think IHT is unfair even when informed how it works: buff.ly/rH0FyN7
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Chasing after Reform voters clearly hasn't worked, and can't work. There is an audience of politically homeless people with centre-right economic views, but no love of the online right's viciousness. But a few tax bribes won't be enough to get that group back by itself...
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Twlldun @twlldun.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Astounding Badenoching. Pure, liquid Kemi.
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Twlldun @twlldun.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Polanski ran with the line on the today program that the government set the by-election date to benefit from the Zionism is racism vote, btw.
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Good!
ft.com
Should you say ‘thank you’ to ChatGPT?
If we don’t watch our manners with machines we may forget to treat people with respect, too
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Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 08/10/2026
You're abolsitely right--my last answer was *misleading*. as.ft.com/r/0ea04572-d...
as.ft.com
OpenAI annualised revenues $20bn less than previously signalled
AI group recently told investors the critical figure was approaching $50bn in September, far less than the $70bn that was widely reported
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Restore is such a weird mix of fascism and random mad boomer Facebook shit.
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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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Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
This does in fact seem obvious to everyone apart from the people who came up with the policy.
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James O'Malley @jamesomalley.co.uk · 07/10/2026
Holy shit. Someone has decompiled the Adobe suite, rebuilt it in Rust and released it as open source. Either all software is dead or the US copyright laws are about to receive an update. getartcraft.com/apps
getartcraft.com
Crafting Apps: open-source creative tools
Image editing, vector illustration, video, photography, PDFs, motion graphics and page layout: seven native, open-source apps from the ArtCraft team, built in Rust and free to use.
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Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
"I'm going to offer you a massive tax cut". Tribal audience cheers. Interviewer: "how will you pay for that and keep key spending promises?" "No, you can't draw me into a trap of discussing hypotheticals"
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Ulrike Franke @rikefranke.eu · 06/10/2026
Basically all European states have financial issues and basically all are discussing (further) restricting social services/support/etc for the wealthier. See UK re childcare above £100 000. I totally get it. However: we need to acknowledge that this is creating a social contract problem.
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Pisspoor response from a pisspoor leader, who clearly does not have the moral clarity or the conviction to prevent racism in his party greenparty.org.uk/2026/10/05/z...
greenparty.org.uk
Zack Polanski reaction to Zionism is racism motion - Green Party
Green Party leader Zack Polanski said: “Antisemitism and criticism of the Israeli state are, and must always be, completely distinct – blurring the line between the two is not only wrong but antisemit...
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Pascal @pascallth.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
The UK does need to rethink its air defences, but given the likely direction of any missiles, an integrated effort with other European countries would make more sense
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I continually struggle to reconcile “Kemi Badenoch, who as business secretary went ‘getting rid of all retained EU law would be the act of a nutty arsonist’ and backed Rishi Sunak in 2022” with “almost everything Kemi Badenoch does and says as leader of the opposition”.
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James Austin @jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I still haven't seen a single person be able to defend or explain why you'd vote against this amendment or why it was unacceptable. It's the smoking gun as to exactly what the Zionism is Racism motion aims to achieve.
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Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Robert Jenrick’s handling of donations to his failed 2024 Tory leadership campaign has come under fresh scrutiny, after the UK donor at the centre of the row claimed that the politician and his senior campaign staff knew about the involvement of an overseas donor. www.ft.com/content/38a5...
ft.com
Reform UK’s Robert Jenrick faces fresh accusation from campaign donor
British businessman Phillip Ullmann says the politician was aware of his relationship with potentially illicit US donor
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George Eaton @georgeeaton.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The tax trap means a parent with two children needs to earn £137k until they are better off in cash terms than when they earned £99k. This is one of the most severe tax distortions in the world. www.arguably.uk/p/britain-ca...
arguably.uk
Britain can’t afford the £100k cliff edge
High marginal rates are penalising work rather than rewarding it
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George Eaton @georgeeaton.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The Tories are right to pledge to scrap the £100k childcare trap – and Labour should have acted first (as I wrote here). It’s not progressive for workers to be left tens of thousands of pounds worse off when they take on a promotion or more hours. www.arguably.uk/p/britain-ca...
arguably.uk
Britain can’t afford the £100k cliff edge
High marginal rates are penalising work rather than rewarding it
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The Economist @economist.com · 04/10/2026
Zack Polanski has tried to accommodate the Green Party’s left wing. The party's leader needs to grasp that his movement has been taken over by zealots—and seize it back from them
bit.ly
Britain’s Greens have voted, shamefully, to say Zionism is racism
It is a damning moment for a political party with pretensions to power
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Toby Nangle @tobyn.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Cool chart mapping: 1) researcher's understanding of AI substitutability (y-axis); 2) need to have a human present to take responsibility (x-axis), where size of bubble = number of US jobs cepr.org/index%2Ephp/...
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Jessica Elgot @jessicaelgot.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
I’m afraid if this kind of motion falls, intention is pretty clear
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Jessica Elgot @jessicaelgot.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
It's hard to see how the Green party's motion today will avoid an investigation by the EHRC, given Labour was previously found in breach.
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Hugo Rifkind @hugorifkind.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Yes. I keep reading pained and earnest explanations of how this targets and marginalises Jews across the board, written by people who somehow don't realise this is literally the point.
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The thing that gets me about these lurid anti-Zionist statements, like the one the Greens just passed, is that it is *so fucking easy* to criticise the Israeli government without engaging in that type of language.
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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 04/10/2026
This was the Greens chance to push back against the extreme antisemitic entryism into their party over the last year. They missed it entirely. What happens next in the party is likely to be very grim, indeed.
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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 04/10/2026
The "zionism is racism" motion that has just passed on the Green Party's conference floor is truly gross, and deeply racist. The party's MPs deserve some credit for opposing it, though they should've done so more stridently and sooner. This is now a millstone around the party's necks. Deservedly.
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The Economist @economist.com · 04/10/2026
What if AI cut labour’s share of national income by ten percentage points? Our analysis finds that a majority of governments that rely on taxing workers would be crippled
bit.ly
How the AI boom could worsen the rich world’s fiscal crunch
Even with higher growth, taxes may be harder to find
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
A Conservative leader who passes up an opportunity to free themselves of the triple lock is not “doing well”, sorry. The point isn’t just to make the map blue!
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Daniel Sugarman @danielsugarman.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Green Party conference just voted in favour of this motion, and this time, in the hall itself, specifically voted against an amendment which would have removed the element about “Zionist Synagogues”. As a result, for most Jews the Green Party will now be considered to have a policy of antisemitism.
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ironeconomist.bsky.social @ironeconomist.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The really bad thing about these changes is they don’t engage with the real reason for self-employment and subcontracting - tax. There are no employers NI contributions on self employed sub contractors! Painting this as about rights misses why it’s good for both sides!
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Jonathan Wilson @jonawils.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
City should be stripped of titles and the roll of honour left blank. www.theguardian.com/football/202...
theguardian.com
Let there be blanks instead of Manchester City’s name on trophies: there was no honour there | Jonathan Wilson
The spaces can stand as a memorial to these lost years both as a rebuke to an era of greed but also a tribute to the Premier League’s hunt for justice
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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 03/10/2026
Negotiations to end the war in Ukraine "have expanded to include a multibillion-dollar oil deal that would benefit Middle Eastern business executives with ties to the two main U.S. negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner" reports @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/10/03/u...
nytimes.com
U.S.-Russia Talks on Ukraine Now Involve an Oil Deal Tied to Trump Allies (Gift Article)
President Vladimir V. Putin brought up a sale of Russian energy assets with President Trump’s envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, pushing a deal that raises new questions about conflicts of inter...
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Sam Ackland 🔸 @samackland.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
🤪
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John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 03/10/2026
So much space in British politics to not be weird about foreign policy, and yet...
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ironeconomist.bsky.social @ironeconomist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
In the simplest and most reductive way, the Uk political class seems to have resolved to pay 4% of gdp a year to investors to avoid raising taxes by 2% if gdp a year. It sounds mental when you put it like that but that’s actually the situation.
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Prof Bill McGuire @profbillmcguire.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Mind-boggling - just mind-boggling Now expected to peak at an extraordinary 4.2C in December
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The Economist @economist.com · 03/10/2026
Many politicians like to lump high earners together as “the rich”, a cash-cow that can be forever milked. Register for free to learn why it’s not that simple
bit.ly
Britain overtaxes well-paid workers
To the benefit of average earners and the super-rich
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
It's quite hard to believe she's still managing to keep the Tory score below Sunak levels despite Labour losing two years, fiscal mess, and Farage being cosmically unpopular.
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James Dart @jamesdart.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
This will (hopefully) make your day slightly better
theguardian.com
Comedy wildlife photography award finalists 2026 – in pictures
A selection of the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards 2026 finalists – from a shortlist featuring a caiman wearing a wig, a leopard doing a handstand, a strutting white-tailed eagle and a polar bear appeari...
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Captain Haddock @realcaptainhaddock.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Microsoft branding nightmare re AI risks to humanity
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