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Simon Watkins

@simonwatkins.bsky.social
64 followers 49 following 419 posts

Lefty, occasional argumentative sod. Hates Tories, ITV, Tories, Brexiters, Tories, Trumpers and Tories. Also, food that’s not on plates. And Tories.

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James Felton @jimmfelton.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
[explaining to a child why they are living in poverty] for every hundredth pint i drink i can get one free pint
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Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Labour's changes to immigration rules, including potentially applying them retroactively, would be some of the most draconian anti-immigration policies in decades. They're the hostile environment on speed. This is pure cruelty as policy, with absolutely no merit to them archive.today/2026.02.03-2...
Dozens of Labour MPS threaten rebellion over Mahmood migration crackdown

Under new rules, migrants would have to wait at least 10 years to apply for indefinite leave to remain
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
To restore democracy and create a fairer, safer, greener world, we need massive taxes on the ultra-rich. As in the 1940s. People get confused about this. The main purpose of such taxes is *not* to raise revenue. The point is to stop the few dominating the many. It's an essential democratic measure.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
How much more evidence do we need? The ultra-rich and the governments supporting them will destroy everything for the sake of profit, power and pride. Nothing is precious to them - not human life, not the living world - except their own wealth and status. Our survival depends on resisting them.
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Simon Watkins @simonwatkins.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
This is like some Nuremberg Rally or Joseph Stalin speech, it is so delusional and crazy. Made-up and completely invented “facts” followed by standing ovations after every sentence! We are witnessing something really sinister. #StateOfTheUnion2026
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The Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Nine years to the day since Graham Linehan foresaw his own fate.
A screenshot from the Graham Linehan Facebook page, dated January 26, 2017. 

"Here's something to watch for: sub-par entertainers/hacks etc smelling that sweet right wing sucker money and making their move."
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Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 26/01/2026
Despite the focus on small boats, most refugees stay in poor countries. I went to Sudan, where nearly 1/3 of the population has left their homes, to see how the UN is coping with Trump's cuts and the west's retreat. Sudan is a brutal, forgotten war. Please do read: as.ft.com/r/7db76b9a-8...
as.ft.com
Adapt, shrink or die: the global crisis in humanitarian aid
[FREE TO READ] The UN’s outgoing High Commissioner for Refugees on the west’s retreat in Sudan, the folly of abandoning state-building and ‘necessary anger’
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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
I know it's hard to track all the threats to democracy out there right now, but this is at the top of the list.
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Dave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
This weekend I watched Nuremberg (2025), which ends with a shattering quote from RG Collingwood: "The only clue to what man can do is what man has done."
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Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
I know some people are cynical about everything now and just say “eh, what do you expect” at every new low, but really this is just astonishing and outrageous, and I don’t think we should shrug at that www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
White House posts digitally altered image of woman arrested after ICE protest
Guardian analysis shows images are the same, with Nekima Levy Armstrong looking composed in original but sobbing after alteration
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John Wiswell @wiswell.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Some safety tips for the big storm! Be safe, everybody.
IF THIS IS YOUR FIRST WINTER STORM, REMEMBER FOUR TIPS:
1. FILL UP YOUR TUB AND/OR POTS WITH WATER FOR YOUR TOILET.
2. DO NOT USE PROPANE HEATERS INDOORS. THE FUMES KILL.
3. EVERYONE STAYING IN ONE ROOM CONSOLIDATES WARMTH.
4. THE NORWEGIAN CAMP DIDN'T DESTROY ITSELF. ONE OF YOU IS THE THING.
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Fat Apollo, baby! @fatapollo.myatproto.social · 23/01/2026
THERE'S NO JOKE HERE!!!!!! WHAT IS THE JOKE????????????? (it's the Big Bang style of writing geek humour)
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Fat Apollo, baby! @fatapollo.myatproto.social · 23/01/2026
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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 22/01/2026
A 5-year-old boy was detained with his father by immigration authorities on Tuesday in Columbia Heights, Minnesota. A photo of the child standing next to a vehicle with an adult’s hand on his Spider-Man backpack has prompted outrage.
nyti.ms
Detention of 5-Year-Old by Federal Agents Incenses Minneapolis
A photo showed the boy with an oversized hat and Spider-Man backpack being held next to a vehicle as his father was detained. A Homeland Security spokeswoman said the man had fled and left the child.
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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
This week in San Antonio I met two traumatized young boys who were locked up for 6 weeks at Trump’s “baby prison” in Texas. Taken when they checked in for a routine hearing, their mother waiting in the car with their backpacks for school. It’s insane this is happening.
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Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
I wonder if Trump's fake "Board of Peace" will end up giving him a prize. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
theguardian.com
Trump claims world ‘richer, safer’ than year ago at launch of his ‘board of peace’
US president repeats claims to have stopped eight wars as he hosts signing ceremony at World Economic Forum
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Curious news @curiousnews.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
In 1932 The US Began The Infamous 'Tuskegee Experiment'. Could History Be About To Repeat Itself?
iflscience.com
In 1932 The US Began The Infamous 'Tuskegee Experiment'. Could History Be About To Repeat Itself?
Over 40 years, experimenters watched as hundreds of Black Americans went blind, suffered from organ failure, and died of a treatable disease.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 21/01/2026
The choice is impeachment and removal or calamity for the United States. I don't see how anybody watching Trump's speech in Davos can draw any other conclusion. He's a senile madman.
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Olga Nesterova @onestpress.onestnetwork.com · 21/01/2026
Meanwhile, U.S. Members of Congress appeared alongside George Simion, leader of Romania’s far-right AUR—a figure widely criticized for pro-Russian rhetoric and positions—while cutting a Greenland-shaped cake decorated with a U.S. flag.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
Trump thinks immigrants will destroy Europe. The truth is the opposite. This column is about the long arc of population change, the hybridity of European cultures, and the widely-misinterpreted results of demographic momentum. Big issues we need to understand. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
The facts are stark: Europe must open the door to migrants, or face its own extinction | George Monbiot
These are the facts: plummeting birth rates mean that without attracting immigration, many countries are sliding towards collapse, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Trump’s obsession with Canada and Greenland is probably just because of the Mercator projection
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Chris Boyd @paperghost.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
"but we source most of our news from here and-" source it somewhere else then. must thou harvest thy news from ye olde nonce shoppe of horrors my good sir?
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
Everybody should watch this and see this woman, who has a baby in her arms and is thrust into basically a standoff, develop courage in real time.
reddit.com
From the minnesota community on Reddit: ST. PAUL, MN: A sobbing resident calls 911 as federal agents force their way into her home to chase down a DoorDash driver who was just trying to deliver food.
Explore this post and more from the minnesota community
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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
the European mission to Greenland was fourth in the BBC news running order this morning, which feels a bit like doing a light "and finally..." item about the archduke's motorcade taking a wrong turn in Sarajevo
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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Hang on, is Michael O'Leary... right?
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Veles @menkvi.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
"unleash my inner entrepreneur"
media.tenor.com
a man wearing headphones and a hoodie is looking down .
ALT: a man wearing headphones and a hoodie is looking down .
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Veles @menkvi.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
Christian anarchism flag
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Robin Ince @robinince.bsky.social · 13/12/2025
Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.
This is the saddest day of my professional life.
Today is not only the final recording of the latest series of The Infinite Monkey Cage, it is my last ever Monkey Cage.
I never thought that I would have to leave the show. I always imagined going on until | dropped dead under the studio lights due to a brain aneurysm caused by my final attempt to understand notions of quantum gravity or the shock of being told about fly maggot infestations in the sacks of macaque monkeys.
I resigned in September, after sixteen years of dedication to the show,
A show that I named and helped develop over all those years.
Unfortunately, my opinions outside the BBC have been considered problematic for sometime, whether it has been voicing support for the trans community, criticism of Donald Trump, numerous other outlandish opinions, including once gently criticising Stephen Fry.
These things were considered to conflict with being a freelance BBC science presenterIn a recent meeting where BBC Studio executives again voiced problems with me, I realised my choices.
Obedience and being quieter to remain making Monkey Cage, or 'Resign and have the freedom to speak out against what I believe are injustices'.
•
I chose the latter.
It broke my heart.
I love this show and I love the audience, and it is because of the audience in particular, that this decision was so difficult to make.
I kept thinking about all the extremist voices promoting hate and division. They are being given so many platforms, while voices that represent kindness, open mindedness, empathy seem to be scarcer and scarcer.
I felt I couldn't pamper myself with the luxury of silence.
One of my many privileges is that I am able to resign and I can speak out even if it is to the detriment of my career.I have thought a lot about my heroes, Sinead O Connor, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, and so many more.
I think of Sinead's words, "the job of an artist is to be themselves at any cost".
James Baldwin said prejudice was really just a word for cowardice.
Audre Lorde, viewing her life, wrote that her only regrets were her silences.
I think of my father as I resign, he brought me up to believe in fairness , justice and kindness.
Though my heart is broken, it is also full of fire.
I apologise to our incredible listeners for my departure, your love of the show means a great deal.
I am so sorry to let you down.
I hope that you can understand my reasoning.
I have to accept that I am not what the current
BBC expects of their freelance presenters.Despite this I should add that I have always worked far more than my contracted hours to try and ensure the show was always the best it could be, as well as making myself accessible and responsive to the audience wherever and whenever I met them. Every night, we have recorded, I have been filled with determination to make the best show possible. This was not
"just a job"
I hope that with my departure I can be a better ally to the LGBTQ community, to the neurodivergent community, to activists fighting against those who aim to brutalise society, to those currently in prison on hunger strike, and to all those who fight for a more inclusive world.
From many conversations, I know there are many Monkey Cage listeners who support these communities and activists too.
The strawberry is dead.
Long live the strawberry. B
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Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
The idea that ideological statements were carved into bullets did seem just a little unlikely to say the least…
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sianushka.bsky.social @sianushka.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Good that the Guardian is calling Kirk “far right” and showings its readers his views - not “common sense”, not “conservative”, but far right conspiracy. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
theguardian.com
Charlie Kirk in his own words: ‘prowling Blacks’ and ‘the great replacement strategy’
The far-right commentator didn’t pull his punches when discussing his bigoted views on current events
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Simon Watkins @simonwatkins.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
Fiona Bruce perpetuating the myth that asylum seekers are the same as illegal immigrants. And not even challenged by shitty Peter Kyle. What a disgusting PoS both of them are! #bbcqt Don’t even get me started on Tory wanker Nigel Huddleston who’s praising the virtues of the illegal Rwanda scheme.
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John L @johnlf.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
I beg your pardon Microsoft? A 30+% increase? No thank you, subscription cancelled. 🤬
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BladeoftheSun @bladeofthes.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
How stupid are these people?
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Simon Watkins @simonwatkins.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Essence of “we’ve had enough of experts”. Look how that turned out. These people are morons. #Newsnight
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Simon Watkins @simonwatkins.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
Vive La France! #sixnationsrugby
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Rob Clarke @thatrobclarke.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
It is nearly 10 years since I sent an article to my good friend @gabundy.bsky.social on the subject of UBI. I didn’t know that studies have been made on this subject for decades. I’d never heard the term UBI before this. Anyway, here’s the article from my archives.
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M a r c u s 🏳️‍🌈🇧🇧🇬🇧 @marcusjdl.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Oh wow Clarkson has double standards about protest? SHOCKED
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Simon Watkins @simonwatkins.bsky.social · 26/11/2023
Doctor Who overnight rating; 5.08m - second for the night behind Strictly with 7.67m. Beat I’m a Celebrity which had 4.83m #DoctorWho
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