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Paul Martin

@spartaboro.bsky.social
227 followers 208 following 239 posts

All views cobbled together from books I've read, films I've seen and songs I've heard.

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Reposted by Paul Martin
Andy McDonald MP @andymcdonaldmp.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Labour will close loopholes that allow bosses to avoid statutory obligations, such as paying the National Minimum Wage or holiday pay, to workers. A vital step to stop exploitation at work. #LabConf26 www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...
mirror.co.uk
Nearly one million workers in 'bogus self-employment' to benefit from clampdown
EXCLUSIVE: Nearly a million workers stuck in 'bogus self-employment' that denies them basic rights are expected to benefit from a clampdown on abuses unveiled at Labour’s party conference
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Nadia Whittome MP @nadiawhittomemp.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
We must ensure it’s delivered publicly so that: - every pound of taxpayers’ money goes to care instead of profit - care workers get the standardised pay and working conditions they deserve - every person receives the same high-quality, joined-up care no matter where they live [2/2]
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
That’s because the decision has already been made. The issue being debated is merely the post-hoc justification. Where decisions happen and where debate happens are different places. The idea that debate leads to policy outcomes is a fiction designed to create an impression of democratic consent.
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RMT Union @rmtunion.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Avanti nationalisation should not leave outsourced workers behind Rail union RMT demanded today that Avanti West Coast outsourced staff be bought into direct employment after the government announced the train company will be brought under public ownership by next March. rmtunion.org/3Vhc0CB
rmtunion.org
Avanti nationalisation should not leave outsourced workers behind, says RMT
Rail union RMT demanded today (September 28) that Avanti West Coast outsourced staff be bought into direct employment after the government announced the train company will be brought under public owne...
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Paul Martin @spartaboro.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Poor Danny Tommo seems to have forgotten where he lives - but we can help searchlightmagazine.com/2026/07/poor...
searchlightmagazine.com
Poor Danny Tommo seems to have forgotten where he lives - but we can help | Searchlight
Facing five charges over his Dover antics, Danny Tommo informed police he's of no fixed abode. Curious, since Searchlight knows exactly where he lives. ...
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Paul Martin @spartaboro.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Jail the racist fuck. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Police arrest far-right activist Daniel Thomas after dinghy slashed in Channel
Thirty-seven-year-old in custody on suspicion of crimes including criminal damage with intent to endanger life
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Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan @warringtonruncorn.com · 22/09/2026
INDUSTRIAL GROWTH: The new Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan album. Released 30 October 2026. Available to pre-order from Bandcamp now! youtu.be/w8LIkEWVtT8
youtu.be
YouTube
Share your videos with friends, family, and the world
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Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
🔴 Jason Arday: The Story Behind the Story of The Times' 'Impossible Data' The newspaper of record failed to distinguish between corrections & retractions in the work of the late Cambridge University academic, fuelling the media storm that engulfed him. Special Investigation by @nafeez.bsky.social:
bylinetimes.com
Jason Arday: The Story Behind the Story of The Times’ ‘Impossible Data’
The newspaper of record failed to distinguish between corrections and retractions in the work of the late Cambridge University academic, fuelling the media firestorm that engulfed him
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Our rapid disillusionment with political leaders is treated by much of the media as some kind of pathology. But what I see is these leaders backtracking on their promises, dashing people's hopes and serving the ultra-rich ahead of the rest of the population. Why wouldn't we be disillusioned?
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Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
A professor writes: (Jason Stanley) The problem is that journalists failed to do basic journalism. Not a single reporter seems to have checked’ Jason Arday’s citations. The ‘quantifiable metrics’ of his work. Prof Stanley did: ‘Arday is easily comparable to the leading scholars in the field’
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I'd say "Something for nothing" culture is getting paid £100,000 a year of public money, plus expenses, for a job that you then fail to turn up to for months on end
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Nigel Farage suggests the police advised him against attending the result of the Clacton by-election. Essex Police completely deny this, telling the BBC "we have a proportionate and robust policing operation to ensure the safety and security of all participants in the count"
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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Labour Government thinks they can distract you tinkering around the edges. But refuse a wealth tax, rent controls, water nationalisation, an end to genocide & an end to oil & gas. They need to know the Green Party is growing & won't be distracted. Join.greenparty.org.uk
join.greenparty.org.uk
Join the Green Party
Join the Green Party from just £6 a year. Become a member today - join the only party standing up for people and planet.
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Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
As @georgemonbiot.bsky.social has pointed out, somehow the 'legitimate concerns' phrase never gets used as regards climate change or pro-Palestine protests
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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Crop yields down, our countryside scorched and over 2800 people are dead due to this summer's heatwaves. Meanwhile fossil fuel giants are raking in record profits. We must end this rampant profiteering, and cut fossil fuels from our energy mix as soon as possible.
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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Today fossil fuel billionaires celebrate because it's the 1st July and once again - the energy price cap is going up. It doesn't have to be this way. Join the movement to end Rip Off Britain. Join.greenparty.org.uk
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Paul Martin @spartaboro.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
I've been ro several Industrial Coast events. They're never boring. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/j...
theguardian.com
Noise, blood and confetti: how Industrial Coast built a radical arts scene in ‘dark, deprived’ Middlesbrough
The Teesside town struggles with drugs and social discord – but inspired by its magical light and mercurial artistic spirit, some say it has the best cultural scene in the UK
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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
For those of us who see Palestinians as human beings, this was Starmer's defining moment. It is not sustainable to behave in this way while leading the nominally progressive party in a two party system. Starmer's unpopularity is not one of life's great mysteries. www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8_s...
youtube.com
Keir Starmer denies saying Israel 'has the right' to withhold water and power from citizens in Gaza
YouTube video by LBC
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Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Chris Sidoti: "I have 3 questions for Israeli people.. what kind of people are your soldiers who would allow a 14 year old child to bleed to death over a 45 minute period.. what kind of people are your military leaders.. what of people are your leaders.."
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Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
A UN commission of inquiry report details how Israel deliberately kills Palestinian children Chris Sidoti recounts how Israeli soldiers shot a 14yr old in the occupied West Bank, then stood around him for 45mins while he bled to death, preventing any help from getting to him.
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Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Starmer lied his way to the top, took every freebie he could get, targeted the sick and disabled, demonised & scapegoated refugees, gave a top govt job to a billionaire paedophiles best pal, enabled & armed a genocide. Beth Rigby tells us it was a very dignified speech.
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North East Bylines @northeastbylines.co.uk · 14/05/2026
There are already concerns about some of Sunderland's new councillors | Peter Sagar
northeastbylines.co.uk
Reform in Sunderland: the chaos begins
There are already concerns about some of Sunderland's new councillors
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Robert Hutton @roberthutton.co.uk · 12/05/2026
For people wondering "why do Labour MPs think Starmer has to go?" the fourth paragraph of this sets it out.
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Henry Dyer @direthoughts.com · 11/05/2026
Harriet Harman apparently mixing up DMs with tweets this morning (now deleted).
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Compass @compassoffice.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Ipsos polling shows Andy Burnham is Labour's most popular figure - and the only one with genuine cross-party appeal among progressives. If Labour wants to build a coalition big enough to beat Reform in 2029, blocking him from Parliament would be a gift to Farage.
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Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
The Green Party’s @zoegarbett.bsky.social is the new Mayor of Hackney Great result.
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Compass @compassoffice.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
In Peterborough, no seats were won with a majority with some winning margins below 30%. First Past the Post has reached breaking point. All it offers now is instability unfairness, and random results. It will do the same in 2029 if no action is taken.
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Nigel Farage's beaming face is featuring heavily in the local elections coverage, but the truth is that the real architect of Reform's gains is the man whose disastrous 'Blue Labour' strategy we were confidently told would prevent them bylinetimes.com/2026/05/08/l...
bylinetimes.com
Local Election Results 2026: Morgan McSweeney’s ‘Blue Labour’ Legacy Lives On
Keir Starmer's former adviser's strategy of focusing on Reform-sympathetic 'hero voters', whilst spurning Labour's natural supporters on the left, has led to a disastrous set of local election results...
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Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
"It is Labour values.. around bringing communities together" Keir Starmer employed the language of Enoch Powell & Cooper played her part in Labs campaign scapegoating refugees staying in hotels that contributed to the far right trying to burn them down She thinks we're idiots
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Paul Martin @spartaboro.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
"Say almost anything about Palestinians, however inflammatory, and your career will remain intact. Oppose their destruction, and you will be vilified." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Zack Polanski’s Jewish identity is being erased because he is leftwing | Owen Jones
The leader of the Green party has faced antisemitic attacks, and yet his thoughts on the subject don’t count as far as the rightwing UK press is concerned, says Guardian columnist Owen Jones
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Josiah Mortimer @josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
For a year-and-a-half, I've been attempting to get to the bottom of a photograph showing Nigel Farage posing with far-right activists. Our new investigation casts fresh doubts on Farage’s claim that he refuses to associate with extreme elements of the populist right bylinetimes.com/2026/05/06/r...
bylinetimes.com
Reform UK Refuses to Explain Why Nigel Farage Met and Posed with Man Criminally Convicted for Violent Attack on Anti-Racism Meeting at a Church
For a year-and-a-half, Byline Times has attempted to get to the bottom of a photograph showing the party’s leader with far-right activists. Now, this newspaper's findings cast fresh doubts on Farage’s...
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Recent Telegraph and Times cartoons of Green Party leader Zack Polanski, challenged for deploying antisemitic tropes + caricatures of a Jewish politician, by the Green party and by others.
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Paul Martin @spartaboro.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
This is antisemitism. Protesting a genocide is not antisemitism.
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Birmingham 81 @birmingham81.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Happy birthday to Ian McCulloch. Here are Echo & The Bunnymen performing Crocodiles at the Futurama 2 festival in 1980
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Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
🔴 'The Mandelson Scandal Shows how Labour Became Part of the Establishment It Once Existed to Challenge' "Proximity to wealth and power was not a by-product but the point. Politics became about managing optics and markets, not challenging vested interests or redistribution" @labourlewis.bsky.social
bylinetimes.com
‘The Mandelson Scandal Showed how Labour Became Part of the Establishment It Once Existed to Challenge’
The departure of the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney – over his appointment of ally Peter Mandelson as US Ambassador – does not change the systemic culture absorbed by the party which...
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Paul Martin @spartaboro.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Just the same old same old.
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Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
Police arrest 523 including 87-year-old during mass protest in central London against ban on Palestine Action “This is not policing. This is the state criminalising dissent.” www.lbc.co.uk/article/poli...
lbc.co.uk
Police arrest 523 including 87-year-old during mass protest in central London against ban on Palestine Action | LBC
The force said 523 people aged between 18 and 87 were arrested for showing support for a proscribed organisation during the demonstration at Trafalgar Square.
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Paul Martin @spartaboro.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Fucking hell. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...
theguardian.com
US troops were told war on Iran was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’, watchdog alleges
Religious freedom group says 200 troops sent complaints of superiors using extremist Christian rhetoric to justify war
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Paul Martin @spartaboro.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Unfuckingbelievable. Get these ghouls gone.
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Paul Martin @spartaboro.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Absolutely Orwellian.
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Paul Martin @spartaboro.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Starmer facilitating illegal war.
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News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
BREAKING: The US war in Iran has begun. Explosions and screams heard here in the Iranian city of Bushehr. No approval from Congress. No UN approval. No public debate. Just illegal war. (🎥 Hafsah Malik)
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Paul Harper @paulharper.mu.social · 28/02/2026
Love it. So good to see real people in political positions, not fake focus group-driven cyphers.
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Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Bridget Phillipson: "We shouldn't lose sight of the young women who suffered.." Every cabinet minister, including Phillipson, knew Mandelson had stayed at Epsteins house after he was convicted & none of them spoke out publicly when he was appointed. Where was this concern then?
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
I'm guessing that the "Jes" in this message is that other moral paragon, Jes Staley, though I can't be sure. A Labour government minister, channelling the demands of his finance-bro chums. This, my friends, is how it happens. This is why we don't get what we want, or what we vote for.
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Nesrine Malik @nesrinemalik.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
This week’s column is on how it is impossible to talk about the death of the rules based order without tracing its stages of demise, from the war on terror to Gaza.
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Lots of people saying Keir Starmer had no good options and that blocking Burnham from standing was the least worst one. Why I now think the opposite is the case bylinetimes.com/2026/01/26/w...
bylinetimes.com
What Keir Starmer Should Have Done With Andy Burnham
The PM's decision to block Burnham from standing in the Gorton and Denton by-election risks handing the seat to Nigel Farage, and ultimately triggering his own downfall. It didn't have to be this way,...
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Jim Waterson @jim.londoncentric.media · 24/01/2026
This is one of the strangest and most screwed-up stories I’ve worked on. www.londoncentric.media/p/tiktok-lon...
londoncentric.media
Who's secretly filming fake TikToks inside Londoners' homes?
We tracked down the viral video account invading people's houses to spread false claims about immigrants.
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Jonathan Ladd @jonathanmladd.com · 22/01/2026
It’s hard to accurately describe what is happening in Minneapolis without sounding crazy. Unmarked rental vans all over the city, with people in military gear and no id jumping out of them to take captive anyone who looks nonwhite or who makes political speech they disagree with.
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Cold War Steve @coldwarsteve.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
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