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Reposted by Dr Simon Ubsdell

Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Voters loathed the Tory party when they booted them out in 2024.They really needed to shake off their disgrace with humility and better ideas. They haven’t. They’ve doubled down. More Brexit, more austerity, more anti-immigration ugliness, more tedious arrogance… and no good reason to vote for them.

Party seems to have learnt nothing from 2024 defeat
John Oxley

The Conservative Party is keen to show it is now ready to return to government, two and a half years after a
historic defeat.

Their self-soothing explanation posits that defeat came from not being able to do what they wanted

No such pivot is happening at the current conference. The Tories have come to Birmingham calling for a return to orthodoxy, with similar lines about cutting benefits and regulation. Even so, they seem trapped by the same contradictions
- pledging to cut benefits, but not the winter fuel payments and triple lock on pensions that go to their voters.
There is no "hug-a-hoodie" moment in Birmingham. The Conservative Party is not indicating that it has changed or seeking to broaden its appeal. It is doing the opposite: it is a party returning to its core, restating all the old ideas voters have rejected but louder.

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Dr Simon Ubsdell @simonubsdell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

But of course. Who expected anything else from these awful people?

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Sean Morrow @snmrrw.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Never forget that David Ellison's Skydance Media was originally created so he could be an actor. Skydance's first film was 'Flyboys' starring James Franco and... David Ellison. David and his daddy invested $60m to make Flyboys. It grossed $17m Here's a bit of David's acting:

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Chaminda Jayanetti @cjayanetti.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The thing is, this isn't some gotcha memory test about "what precise amount of money will this cost/raise" of the type beloved by interviewers in election campaigns. It's the most basic question imaginable - "how will this thing work?" She has no idea.

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Georgina Wright (on leave) @georginaewright.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

1. Yes the EU would welcome the UK back in but talks wd remain v tricky unless UK changed many of its red lines. Few think that will happen any time soon, so time wd be better spent on forging closer ties. All the while maintaining warm words and support for negotiations in future.

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Parody Nigel Farage @parodypm.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Reform Councillor and group leader Ryan Coogan has been arrested for making false statements on nomination papers. It’s a mystery why a party whose leadership are under investigation by the police, NCA and Parliamentary Commissioner seems to attract so many dodgy characters...

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Jason Scott-Warren @jes1003.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

got a letter in the Times today, much mangled by their editors so they would have room to fit in the obligatory denialist.

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Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

As long as the Tories are threatening to leave the ECHR, they aren’t a serious party. Consider it the ultimate red flag. Any party who’d take this entirely unnecessary and ruinous risk with our rights and our country’s security and wellbeing should never get its hands on power. (Letter, Times)

Value of the
ECHR
Sir, In dangerous times, serious countries do not retreat into splendid isolation. They build alliances, multiply their influence and strengthen institutions. Key among those is the 46-member Council of Europe, at its heart the European Convention on Human Rights.

As former independent reviewers of terrorism legislation we have seen at close quarters that the ECHR is not just a human rights instrument. It is a national security asset. Terrorist networks, hostile states, organised crime gangs and people smugglers do not respect borders. Tackling them requires arrangements for the closest possible co-operation with our neighbours, including through joint investigations and police access to European passenger, fingerprint, DNA and vehicle data.

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Badenoch is first post-war Leader of Opposition to fall into third place in party polls for any sustained period (most of 18 months, Jan 2025-Sept 2026) Michael Foot did fall into third place but for only a very short period in Spring 1982: Labour often first, then a narrow second

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Niall Ó Conghaile @nialloconghaile.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

PS this is often dismissed by pro-Europeans in the UK, but public statements really matter. Europeans want to hear actual positivity about Europe from a UK PM PPS but he has got people talking about UK relations PPPS what happens when Burnham is knocked back is the key, that's when options open

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Niall Ó Conghaile @nialloconghaile.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Fascinating chat with a diplomat from a major European country this wee. In short, Burnham's speech has not had a big impact. The position, they say, is that UKG wants broadly speaking full access to the European single market. However: A 🧵

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Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 02/10/2026

Sadiq Khan in The Guardian: "We must be honest about the fact that reversing it is the best chance we have to get Britain back on track." www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2…

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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

“With births barely exceeding deaths, and likely to fall, idea UK faces inexorable immigration-driven population growth is detached from reality. The long-term challenge is how we sustain the workforce, public services and tax base as the population ages.” www.thetimes.com/article/uk-p...

thetimes.com

UK population grows at slowest rate since 1998, ONS figures show

The slowdown is largely due to the ongoing fall in net migration

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

We're repeatedly told that asylum seekers pose a threat to the good people of our country... Reading about the threatening and violent treatment of elderly and open minded locals in Crowborough I get the impression that the real threat comes from closer to home. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

On Facebook and other platforms, people
who are known to support the asylum
seekers have been threatened with acid
attacks, petrol bombs and rape. The dossier.
which has been seen by the Guardian, also
claims that several local businesses have
been threatened by far-right agitators, along
with a church where some asylum seekers
worship. One man was punched in the throat
after he held up a "Love Thy Neighbour"
sign, while an elderly couple were falsely
accused of supporting sex offenders. In yet
another case, a 92-year-old church volunteer
was reportedly woken at 3am for two nights
in a row by a man standing outside her
home, shining a torch through her window
and shouting abuse

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Musa Okwonga @okwonga.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

“It’s hard to admit this from a modern perspective, but historical fascism’s lust for violence didn’t make it repulsive but extremely attractive to a lot of German voters. And we are seeing similar things with the AfD today, where fantasies of violent retribution seem to be integral to campaign events on market squares…If the AfD is voted into power, one of the most highly advanced economies in the world could experience something similar to what happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

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Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Manchester City cheated Premier League rules, the Commission found. Did it also cheat HMRC? We've examined the decision and leaked Mancini documents. We think City likely failed to pay £12m in tax. There should be a criminal investigation. Thread:

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Dan of the Year @downwithdan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

When you have no concept of how people engage with music

nicksaraev ~
@nicksaraev
X.com
I am not joking when I say this.
Spotify, Apple Music, and streaming in general is over.
Al music is now very, very good. You just don't know yet because all Al music circulating today is from ~2-3 generations ago.
Suno v6 pro et al has solved infinite personalized music.

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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Free movement *does* benefit migrants by giving them more freedom/options, and improves labour market flexibility overall. These are good arguments for it, compared to a managed system, that I've made many times. Burnham's "it gives us Gastarbeiter" is both false and regressive.

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Chris Grey @chrisgrey.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Brexit revisited. New, unscheduled, post on my Brexit & Brexitism Blog on why Burnham's conference speech was a significant development in the Brexit saga, the questions and concerns it raises, and why it might come to be seen as a historic moment: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2026/09/brex...

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Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

'Brexit in its current form has caused more harm than good and I think around 60% of the British public now hold that view' Andy Burnham says rejoining the EU could be among options the government could examine to reshape the UK's long-term relationship with Europe

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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

A country that will not fix its mistakes is a country that has given up on the future. And Brexit was, it’s now clear, a terrible, terrible mistake inews.co.uk/opinion/brex...

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Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Oh god yes. The naysaying on this… and in fact on anything hopeful… is beyond tedious. Where does anything start? With persuasion. Not the end product. We can’t know all the answers now but we can enthuse about the campaign, the idea, the hope… Why stamp so pedantically on that?

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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Have now slowly re-read the ruling, and it is even more damning than at first reading. The ruling pretty much sets out Manchester City was fraudulent on a systemic long-term basis. Not just mere non-compliance, but ‘concealments’ and ‘disguises’. Also some MCFC witnesses were ‘dishonest’.

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Dr Simon Ubsdell @simonubsdell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Oh, I’m pretty sure we know what the “good“ is meant to be. Don’t we?

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 29/09/2026

Jack Smith: "Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation ... rather than accept his defeat in the 2020 election, he engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results and prevent the lawful transfer of power"

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Dr Simon Ubsdell @simonubsdell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

“More harm than good” does perhaps seem to imply that he sees positives to Brexit ... which need to be retained. It will be a phrase that has been agonised over.

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Dr Simon Ubsdell @simonubsdell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Oh, he’s definitely a hardcore magic guy.

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Niall Ó Conghaile @nialloconghaile.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

And thirdly, he has to get off the immigration buzz when talking to and about Europe. All they want is for us to take asylum-seekers off their hands. The sole beneficiary is the UK. I can't see lectures on this meeting with approval at all; quite the opposite. 3

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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 29/09/2026

Exclusive: Donald Trump supports a new plan to offer Russia sanctions relief in exchange for the release of political prisoners—a move likely to outrage Ukraine, Europe, and even some of his allies in Congress, @shustry.bsky.social reports.

bit.ly

A Most Trumpian Plan to Make Nice With Russia

Trump’s envoy wants to trade Russian political prisoners for U.S. sanctions relief, creating a path to business deals before the war in Ukraine ends.

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wirralexpat.bsky.social @wirralexpat.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

These aren’t the immigrants Farage is looking for Previous SKY news anchor thinks it could bring the government down What on earth has happened to these people?

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

the cornell case has me thinking about christine blasey ford and how she so bravely testified in 2018 about how future supreme court justice brett kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her. i'm thinking about what i wrote at the time and how nothing has changed:

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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Farage posted this at 12.38 today. It has been hopelessly overtaken by events and shown to be entirely wrong (British nationals involved and they've been released on bail - not very terrorist-like). And if you believe anything Trump says, you are a credulous moron.

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Dr Simon Ubsdell @simonubsdell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

John Le Carré missed a trick. He never realised the sublime sexiness of having subtly malign foreign operatives drive around in white transit vans.

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Dr Simon Ubsdell @simonubsdell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

John Healey’s email to me as a Labour voter is not just toxically ideological, it’s also offensively stupid. Read the country, mate. Your reactionary masturbatory fantasy about “the British working man” is a reactionary masturbatory fantasy. You call it hope. It call it despair.

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Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 28/09/2026

Almost all of Meta's PR about Muse was about how careful they had been to set it up not to do things like this, how they delayed the launch by months to carefully design it so it could be trusted. And then...

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Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The Times - which has v much joined in the rightwing clamour to reduce immigration - now reporting that Mahmood’s “success” has cost the economy £4- to £7Bn. Would they like to now honestly confirm that fewer people = less spending power for all. There’s a high price to pay for this nasty obsession.

Patrick Maguire
Chief Political Commentator Oliver Wright Policy Editor

Falling migration numbers could cost the chancellor as much as £7bn in fiscal headroom as he writes his first budget, The Times has been told.
Government insiders believe that John Healey, who already faced an uphill battle to balance the books next month, is likely to have an even bigger challenge after immigration undershot projections from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
The Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank estimated last month that the success of Shabana
Mahmood's
reforms, which have cut net migration to the low hundreds of thousands, could cost Healey some £4bn.

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JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

This is the fundamental difference between Labour and the right. The latter craves power and relishes using it. Labour is terrified of it because of an imposter syndrome rooted in the belief - shared by the right - that England is a right wing country which sometimes allows Labour to govern.

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Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Tom Tugendhat in Sunday Times insists on leaving the ECHR to tackle “soaring” immigration. What a miserable rat. Lying to us all. Betraying our country’s best interests. Threatening to flounce out of our human rights framework, trashing our treaties and torching our protection from abuses of power.

The Tories are planning to make the ECHR a dividing line at the next election. Last week the party announced plans to deport every foreign criminal, apart from those convicted of the most trivial offences, and said their plan for ECHR withdrawal meant only the Conservatives were equipped to take on the problem of soaring immigration. One of the problems withdrawal would create is a legal dispute over whether it breaches the Good Friday agreement, which committed the UK to fully incorporate the ECHR into Northern Ireland's justice system. Tugendhat said the issue had not yet been raised in his conversations with lawmakers in the US, adding:
"There's a lot of work to be done."

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Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan @london.gov.uk · 27/09/2026

A new, publicly-owned bus company for London - with routes, fares and timetables set for the benefit of Londoners and visitors, not for private profit. The first route run by Buses for London will start next year. www.mylondon.news/news/transpo...

mylondon.news

TfL confirms when new publicly owned London bus company will launch

Sir Sadiq Khan has described it as a "bold new approach" for London's bus system

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Dr Simon Ubsdell @simonubsdell.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

If you let yourself be known as a philanthropist, you generally aren’t.

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Dr Simon Ubsdell @simonubsdell.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Not really much of a philanthropist then. Or is “f*ck children’s health” the new philanthropy?

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Dr Simon Ubsdell @simonubsdell.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

A very good thread on the Labour Party’s craven terror of acting.

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David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

So no amount of polling showing freedom of movement or rejoin is popular is going to be believed by the cautious of the Labour Party, which is many of them at high levels. Added to which few of them know or care much about the EU, they just took it for granted.

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David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Since I'm not going to Liverpool this year to discuss, a short state of play on UK EU relations and the Labour Party. The very short version - they're terrified. And trying to find ways to avoid the question none of which will work.

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Chris Grey @chrisgrey.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

For years I've heard people like this complain "we aren't allowed to say what we really think". This is presumably the kind of thing they used to feel obliged to keep to themselves.

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The clip here. via @matthewstadlen.bsky.social bsky.app/profile/paul...

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Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

What’s your legacy Johnson? Brexit. Total collapse of trust in politics. And this. The small boats symbolise your dishonesty and your failure. You’re responsible for nothing but damage. Not one good thing. Not one proud moment. You’re forever a shameful disgrace who threw his own mandate in the bin.

Boris Johnson @BorisJohnson
X.com
It's a disaster, and it can all be traced to Labour ideology. Burnham has no mandate from the people. He has no real ideas, and no plan.
BORIS JOHNSON: UK is defenceless against migrants without...

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Olga Nesterova @onestpress.onestnetwork.com · 26/09/2026

Putin claims that the rights of Russian speakers in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia are being violated. We’ve heard that about Ukraine before the invasion. And no, nobody is violated.

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