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Tom Hayes

@tomhayes.bsky.social
5.2K followers 2.5K following 1.3K posts

Irish, lives in France, labour relations consultant, writes about Brexit, the world of work, and EU issues.

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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 1h
Another photo of Rich Men North of Richmont.
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 4h
You have to wonder what Farage's campaign themes will be: "Brexit Was A Bust - Keep Britain Broke". "Who Needs Economic Growth?" "A Country Fit For Crypto". "Expel all Europeans". Add your own. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Burnham’s reopening of Brexit debate is ‘biggest boost in my career’, says Farage
Reform UK leader tells supporters PM’s move has ‘opened up a huge flank to us’
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 22h
Let's not get carried away with any of this stuff. It will be at least 10 years before the UK has a new relationship with the EU, if ever. Nothing fundamental before the next general election - 3 years away - and then years of negotiations. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...
irishtimes.com
Finn McRedmond: The Brexit ‘I told you so’ button is tempting for Ireland, but we should hold fire
In Ireland’s interests to work with Andy Burnham as obligingly as possible on the Europe question
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Easy to do a deal if you agree not to discuss the most difficult issues, to kick the can down the road. What will this "summit" actually deliver? Not much that will move the dial on EU/UK relations. Maybe it will just end up being a "Beach Boys" summit - Good Vibrations. www.ft.com/content/ef10...
ft.com
Burnham clears path to EU summit with post-Brexit breakthrough
UK and Brussels to go ahead with key November meeting after agreeing to kick talks on industrial subsidies into next year
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Time for football clubs to be owned by their fans and not by rich men from wherever? www.nytimes.com/athletic/764...
nytimes.com
Manchester City have become ‘Sham FC’. They deserve the heaviest punishment (Gift Article)
Nine years of wrongdoing - as laid out in the independent commission's damning judgment - disfigured English football
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Who will want to play for Mafia City? www.theguardian.com/football/202...
theguardian.com
Sham City: verdict on financial breaches is damning and punishment must be severe | Jonathan Wilson
How can Manchester City be trusted under these owners after they were found to have devised £900m of ‘sham’ contracts?
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Politics is back. The UK electorate will be offered choices. The dead hand of Brexit is no more. Politics is about courage. The courage to go and do things. Burnham is showing that he has the courage to make choices. www.ft.com/content/d740...
ft.com
Andy Burnham says rejoining EU an option for the UK
Prime minister says ‘going all the way’ is an option as government reviews relations with 27-country bloc
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
You got to love the gender balance in this photo. A collection of Rich Men North of Richmond. Where are these singers just when you need them?
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Happy to give it a lash. We could call it something like: "Peeling the Orange: Only the Pips are Left".
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Time for Ireland to join Schengen?
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Maybe you should put scaffolds under the walking machines so they can get a sense of superiority as they look down. After all, is that not the whole purpose of the march, to project dominance? Or maybe as their power declines, to rage against the dying of the Orange light.
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Since when do 14 seats out of 348 constitute a "surge"? www.irishtimes.com/world/europe...
irishtimes.com
What does far-right surge in French Senate election mean for next year’s presidential poll?
Marine Le Pen hails ‘breakthrough’, while hard-left party also gains seats
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Then apply to join the EU. Anything less is rubbish.
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
In this week's Scribblings, I muse on whether Tony Blair has drunk Trumpian Kool-Aid. hayest.substack.com/p/scribbling...
hayest.substack.com
Scribblings
Blair has Drunk Trumpian Kool-Aid
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I decided to do up the WH like a Chinese restaurant in your honour.
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Reads a bit like: "We shouldn't suffer because of Brexit. Brexit wasn't really our fault. Others made us do it. Can we sort of pretend it did not really happen, except, of course, for freedom of movement, which we will never agree to." www.ft.com/content/8748...
ft.com
Burnham to press EU chief to let UK participate in ‘Made in Europe’ policy
British prime minister to hold meeting with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Some European thoughts in this week's Scribblings. hayest.substack.com/p/scribbling...
hayest.substack.com
Scribblings
Notes from Europe.
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Here we go again. Can we be out, but also in, at the same time? I think you will find that the answer will be no. www.ft.com/content/c70c...
ft.com
On the EU, let Canada and Odysseus inspire Burnham
This wily prime minister can find a way to take advantage of new possibilities for a ring of outer nations
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
We are out and want to stay out - no free movement of people for us - but we also want to be in - we want free movement for cars, but not people. Good luck with that argument.
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Give then independence. Put border posts around the town. Exclude the town from the NHS and all other government services. Le the town go its own way.
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
EU/Canada associate membership. Just tears in the rain.
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Let's be clear about this. The EU did no such thing. UVD floated an idea. She is just the president of the European Commission. She is not the president of Europe, even if she thinks she is. It is the Member States which will decide this. Canada will not be an associate member of the EU anytime soon
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Where is Dan Hannan and the Anglosphere just when you need them? The shame of it. Canada and Australia throwing in with the EU. Can NZ be far behind? The next thing you know, Aussies will be speaking French.
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Doesn't this just come down to: "It's not fair that we are being treated like a third country just because we left the EU. We demand that we be treated like an EU country". www.ft.com/content/439d...
ft.com
The EU’s ‘Made in Europe’ policy spooks British industry
Bloc’s proposed restrictions threaten to cut UK companies out of valuable supply chains, including cars, energy and chemicals
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Does Lisa Nandy actually exist?
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
"President Trump on Monday rejected calls from leading artificial intelligence executives for new limits on the technology, writing on social media that the only guardrail the industry needed it already had: “a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT.” Tad of delusion here.
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
I may be wrong, but I think this is called "Brexit, the problems of being outside the EU but at the same time wanting EU benefits. Tough old world. www.ft.com/content/1823...
ft.com
EU-UK reset talks delayed again amid tension over ‘Made in Europe’ rules
Summit pushed back until late November against backdrop of challenges facing UK industry
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
If that is the case, I suppose Lowe had better start at the beginning and start rounding up all those Normans who came over with William the Conqueror in 1066 and diluted the "ethnoculture identity" of the old Anglo-Saxons.
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Trump said: "I think the River Liffey should be renamed the Rio Dublino and should become a hard border to deter those from south of the river trying to get to the Northside. Build a wall. Make the Northside Great Again."
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
It is always after midday somewhere in the world. Time is relative.
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Excellent podcast involving my old friend Derek Mooney. Pour yourself a glass of wine and have a listen.
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
If only the UK gov had a culture secretary who could get a grip on these matters. Just a thought.
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Where is the outrage on the front page of the Telegraph at this attempt to buy a UK election? Say two trade unions had given Labour £72m. What do you think the Telegraph would be saying? You know the answer.
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Some thoughts about Ireland in this week’s Scribblings. hayest.substack.com/p/scribbling...
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
As I said in an earlier post, what would the Telegraph be saying is a union had given Labour £35?
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Which shows you trade unions do not always get things right. Which of them is now going to step up and give Labour £35m?
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I may be wrong, I very often am, but I suspect that this means that Reform will now not win the next general election. It has left itself open to the charge that it has been bought by two crypto billionaires. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Christopher Harborne matches £36m Reform donation of Ben Delo
Party leader, Nigel Farage, says he is humbled by the contributions from cryptocurrency billionaires
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
As I have already posted, imagine the outrage from the right-wing media if a trade union bunged Labour £35m. But it is OK for Reform to take £35m from a dodgy crypto dealer.
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Imagine the front-page outrage in the Telegraph, Daily Mail, and the rest if a trade union gave Labour £35m. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/09...
telegraph.co.uk
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I do not live in the UK. I live across the Channel in France. But if I did live in the UK, I would be buying a polo shirt that had the RNLI logo on the front and on the back: "I support the work of the RNLI". www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
RNLI steps up security after abuse by far-right agitators over small boat rescues
Volunteers told to consider not wearing charity-branded clothing and to shut lifeboat stations if they feel in danger
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Well, I don't know about you, but this looks to me like bribery, an attempt to buy votes. Even if it works, thereafter the cheque will forever be in the post, arriving on the 12th of never. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
US citizens will receive $5,000 if Republicans win midterms, Trump claims in lengthy convention speech
President makes offer that would cost US over $1tn and asks voters to ‘pretend that I’m on the ballot’ despite being deeply unpopular among electorate
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
A few random thoughts in this week's Scribblings on job losses and populism. hayest.substack.com/p/scribbling...
hayest.substack.com
Scribblings
In Search of Lost Times
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
According to The Economist: "Speaking at Reform’s annual rally, Mr (Jordan) Bardella (of the RN) said his party would do “everything in its power” to stop illegal migration out of France if it won the presidency." Funny. I thought the RN policy was to stop illegal migration into France.
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Interesting article. "We've lost our industrial jobs, so we are going to vote for Farage". Do they think Farage will get them their jobs back? The man whose life's work was to pull the UK out of the biggest market in the world, the EU. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
‘Capitalism is dying’: in Luton, these former car workers have a moral tale for our times | Aditya Chakrabortty
Abandoned by the company they worked for, let down by Labour and their unions – now they watch their friends turn to Reform for answers, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Ah, the Bardella Tapestry
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I see Reform have thrown a Christian to the lions. What you would expect of a man who wants to be Caesar
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Maybe The Terminator was not fiction after all. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/03/t...
nytimes.com
How OpenAI Limited the Probe of Its Bots’ Hack of Hugging Face
A nonprofit’s study of how OpenAI’s A.I. agents were able to break into Hugging Face’s infrastructure wasn’t allowed to look at the incident’s full scope.
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
If you do a trade deal with the EU, it sticks. Do a trade deal with Trump's US, and it could be gone like the wind tomorrow, depending on the mood Trump wakes up in. www.ft.com/content/0d2b...
ft.com
UK failing to capitalise on Brexit, top Trump trade official says
Jamieson Greer says Britain’s alignment with EU is a ‘problem’ for a US trade deal
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Tom Hayes @tomhayes.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I don't know about you, but this seems to me to be little more than: we want a return to a country of white, traditional families where the man goes to work, and the woman has babies, stays at home to look after the children and cooks dinner. Wrapped up in theology. www.ft.com/content/c2d0...
ft.com
James Orr and the gospel of the new British right
Reform’s policy head is a Cambridge theologian with an enviable contact book and a belief in ‘faith, family and flag’
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