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Rob Hewes

@u2itfc.bsky.social
728 followers 111 following 116 posts

50 years an Ipswich Town fan, Freeman of Colchester, liberal rationalist, genealogist ITFC

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Reposted by Rob Hewes
Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 2h
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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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 23h
Burnham speech: An astonishing moment of radicalism and commitment iandunt.substack.com/p/burnham-sp...
iandunt.substack.com
Burnham speech: An astonishing moment of radicalism and commitment
It’s easy to be cynical, but it would be false. Something extraordinary is happening here.
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Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 21h
Burnham made Farage seem “angry, thin-skinned… absurd. What we witnessed today was a masterclass in political communication which makes Farage look like an amateur” Finally. The confidence that comes with emotional intelligence. It could make all the difference. iandunt.substack.com/p/burnham-sp...
iandunt.substack.com
Burnham speech: An astonishing moment of radicalism and commitment
It’s easy to be cynical, but it would be false. Something extraordinary is happening here.
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Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 29/09/2026
🚨 BREAKING 🚨 Burnham: "Homes, water, energy, transport, care, broken up and sold off." "The British right talk about taking back control. Never let them forget they are the ones. That gave it away in the first place."
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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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Rob Hewes @u2itfc.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Nick and @rafaelbehr.bsky.social discussing all of the red lines that the Burnham Government - and even the Conservatives SHOULD be voicing, promoting and implementing. It still feels like Labour are clinging desperately to that Ming vase while the fascists are banging on the door
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Nick Cohen @nickcohen.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Why can’t Labour fight the new Blackshirts?” Piece from me on Burnham’s extraordinary failure to take on the extreme right-wing forces that our rampaging through this country
nickcohen.substack.com
Why can’t Labour fight the new Blackshirts?
Fear, cowardice and stupidity rot the centre-left
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Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Kent police said 'no arrests were made' of the people who blocked a port and roads. There's your two-tier policing, folks www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cm...
bbc.co.uk
Port of Dover delays: Disruption as masked 'stop the boats' protesters block roads
Hundreds of demonstrators, wearing black with their faces covered, caused delays to traffic reaching the port.
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Mike Galsworthy @mikegalsworthy.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Just copy & share everywhere please. Absolutely thumping.
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Jørgen Heszlein @heszlein.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
New estimate of Elon Musk’s death toll just dropped www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Corrupt, embarrassing, an utter failure: Trump's catastrophic handling of America's 250th anniversary iandunt.substack.com/p/ice-ice-ba...
iandunt.substack.com
Ice, Ice Baby: America's national decline
The 250th anniversary is corrupt, embarrassing and an utter failure. It's the perfect encapsulation of Trump's US.
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Rob Hewes @u2itfc.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Really recommend listening to this, for an insight into lives that are so little known about or understood, but so vital to the global trade that we all depend on. Found it absolutely fascinating.
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Rob Hewes @u2itfc.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Britain can choose to be a partner in [Europe] or accept a role as adjunct. Or it can be circumscribed by the Brexit cult of sovereignty that sees regulatory harmonisation with Europe as colonisation but welcomes subordination to US tech giants and industrial lobbies, which it calls free trade.
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Rob Hewes @u2itfc.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Lovely bit of #ipswich nostalgia, set to a piece of music produced by AI youtube.com/watch?v=fk0d...
youtube.com
Ipswich Remembered - A Window To The Past
YouTube video by Worco Histories
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Tanja Bueltmann @tanjabueltmann.net · 16/05/2026
The state of things. A thread 🧵
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Rob Hewes @u2itfc.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Great discussion between two of my favourite commentators and columnists @nickcohen.bsky.social and @rafaelbehr.bsky.social
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Philippe Auclair @philippeauclair.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
Chelsea and Man City in the FA Cup final. No other English clubs have systematically ignored, bent or broken the rules like both have done. In terms of trophies won, no other English clubs have been as successful over the past decade and a half either. The moral of the story - is that there is none.
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@BonoITFC @bonoitfc.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
It's a beautiful day 💙 #itfc
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Rob Hewes @u2itfc.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
stopreformuk.vote
stopreformuk.vote
Stop Reform and the Tories
Stop Reform and the Tories in the UK Parliament, Local Elections, the Senedd, and the Scottish Parliament.
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
You can still be shocked can't you, even after years of this shit. That sentence chilled me to my bones. To see an American president say that. To see him boast about it.
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Paul Carnahan @pacarnahan.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
This week, Brexit finally killed our family business. We cleared out our warehouse, handed back the keys, paid the final bills and said goodbye to our last employee. What was once a thriving firm died a slow, sad death, all thanks to Farage, Johnson and the gullible idiots they conned. 1/18
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
In Trump we've got the most transparent President in history in terms of saying what he's thinking and talking to journalists on the record. And it's entirely useless because what's happening in his brain is a monkey playing cymbols.
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Rob Hewes @u2itfc.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Excellent interview with Russell Osman - well worth a listen - especially for #itfc fans of my vintage!
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Alice Roberts @profaliceroberts.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Imagine how much money we’ve wasted. Imagine how much could have gone into the NHS, public services, tackling poverty… Will anyone be held responsible though? For the lies that were told, the false promises made? Perhaps a brexit tax on all the corporations that cashed in? I’M SO CROSS!
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@BonoITFC @bonoitfc.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Mark Ashton, Your time at the club has to end now I'm afraid. As CEO & Chairman the buck stops with you and as fans we've been lied to and gaslit. This IS the end. Not the end of the beginning. Not the beginning of the end. The end. All the best, thanks for 99% of what you've done. #itfc 💙
afraid.as
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Jack Saundrs @jacksaundrs.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
This week's #itfc blog - on something unforgivable bluewhitenotes.beehiiv.com/p/speechless
bluewhitenotes.beehiiv.com
Speechless
When your football club just does something unforgivable
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Mark Heath @mark-heath.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Ipswich Town is a special football club. They’ve got so many things right over the past five years and beyond. But they got this badly wrong - and now they should apologise. My thoughts ⬇️ #itfc www.eadt.co.uk/sport/259698...
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Nick Ames @nickames82.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Politics and football don’t mix? Tell that to Ipswich’s players, who are not happy about Farage’s visit. What a mess, and many tough questions still to answer: www.theguardian.com/football/202...
theguardian.com
Ipswich Town have hard questions to answer after Nigel Farage PR disaster | Nick Ames
Reform’s use of the football club has shocked fans and left the ownership red faced but how did it happen?
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@BonoITFC @bonoitfc.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Today I did the same and wrote to #itfc
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@BonoITFC @bonoitfc.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
The political party in question has posted a video of the visit yesterday. There is footage showing a shirt being signed. If you screenshot and zoom in it looks to me like it says "To Mark" I wonder which Mark at #itfc had this shirt given to them? Enquiring minds etc
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Jack Saundrs @jacksaundrs.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Not an email I expected to have to send to be honest #itfc
Letter to Ipswich Town CEO Mark Ashton: 

Dear Mr. Ashton, 

I am writing as a long-time season ticket holder and supporter of the ITFC Foundation. I have never been moved to write a letter of complaint to the club and am far from a serial griper, but waking up to images today of Reform UK using the football club (the football club I have supported my whole life) for their propaganda was too much to bear. 

How, for instance, does this fit with the work the foundation does with refugees of which the club is rightly so proud? How will it feel for the numerous players in the squad with refugee and migrant backgrounds to see the club's badge associated with the kind of politics that looks to criminalise their families?

Putting aside for a moment the actual politics of Reform and how far they are from the inclusive values of the club, Ipswich Town FC is supposed to be for everyone in Ipswich, Suffolk and beyond. How can it fulfil that role whilst allowing Portman Road and the ITFC brand for these purposes?

I know the club has made a statement disclaiming any official involvement in the visit with Reform/Farage simply booking a normal stadium tour, but surely it is the job of the club hierarchy and media team to get ahead of these things and proactively prevent the use of the club for political purposes? Or as a bare minimum get out a statement indicating disapproval for the club and its brand being used in this way?

In 30 years of supporting the club through good times and bad, I have never been more disappointed in the club than I am today.

Best wishes,

Jack        
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@BonoITFC @bonoitfc.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
̶R̶u̶n̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶T̶o̶w̶a̶r̶d̶s̶ ̶A̶d̶v̶e̶r̶s̶i̶t̶y̶ Running away from Diversity Sandwiched in-between the clubs annual Foundation fixture and an #ITFC womens fixture, the club hosted Nigel Farage at Portman Road today. We don't know what the purpose of Farage's visit was. Maybe #itfc can clarify? Really disappointed
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Mark T. Sneed @marktsneed.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
What is the point of the Constitution if this criminal is not impeached and removed? Seriously.
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Kate from Kharkiv @kateinkharkiv.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Francis Fukuyama on Trump: "The world has become a very dangerous place because the most powerful country is under the control of a ten-year-old boy. That boy discovered a flamethrower in his parents’ backyard and is now enjoying the ability to burn things up with it."
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Independent Media Australia. @indymediaaus.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/03/2026
Quit ChatGPT: right now! Your subscription is bankrolling authoritarianism | Rutger Bregman | The Guardian #AUSpol #QuitGPT #AI www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2…
theguardian.com
Quit ChatGPT: right now! Your subscription is bankrolling authoritarianism | Rutger Bregman
As a historian, I’ve studied the major consumer boycotts of history. We can take down ChatGPT and send a powerful signal to Silicon Valley, says author and historian Rutger Bregman
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Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Trump: All of the people that died through the roadside bombs. Died and are right now walking around with no legs.
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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Lindsey’s diplomacy working wonders in UAE.
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Rob Hewes @u2itfc.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Looks over shoulder and sees looking glass disappearing into the distance www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Melania Trump to lead UN security council session, White House says
First lady to preside over meeting on ‘children, technology and education in conflict’ in New York next month
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Rob Hewes @u2itfc.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Who could possibly have seen THIS coming! www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
theguardian.com
Drop in overseas workers is ‘car crash’ for UK hospitals and care homes, say experts
Care roles hit particularly hard by UK’s lurch to the right on migration, according to analysis of Home Office data
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Omg. WTF is Happening? @lalahaenzy.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue
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Bruce Springsteen @brucespringsteen.net · 28/01/2026
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free
youtu.be
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)
YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen
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James O’Brien @mrjamesob.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
They murdered a nurse who cared for military veterans & then called him a terrorist.
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Lewis Goodall @lewisgoodall.com · 21/01/2026
Meanwhile, Britain finds itself lost between two worlds. We were told we didn’t need Europe, we could rely on the transatlantic relationship. They couldn’t have been more wrong.
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James O’Brien @mrjamesob.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
‘Terrible things are happening outside… Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared. Women return… to find their families gone.’ Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
ICE detains five-year-old Minnesota boy arriving home, say school officials
Superintendent says Liam Ramos and his father were taken into custody while in their driveway and sent to Texas
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Rob Hewes @u2itfc.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
A Declaration of Independence From The Mad King open.substack.com/pub/therickw...
open.substack.com
A Declaration of Independence From The Mad King
It's time.
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Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
👇👇👇👇
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Marina Purkiss @marina-purkiss.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
This makes no sense… An MP can wake up one morning, ditch the party you elected them for, & sign up to a completely different manifesto… No thanks If they defect to a different party, we should get a vote Sign the petition & help make that law. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...
petition.parliament.uk
Petition: By-elections to be called automatically when MPs defect to another party
When an MP decides they want to defect to another party a by-election should be automatically triggered to allow the constituents the opportunity have their democratic right to agree or not with their...
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James O’Brien @mrjamesob.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
We've spent ten years being proved right about all the things the loudest, biggest voices in the UK media insisted, often obnoxiously, we were wrong about. The real kicker is that there's no consolation whatsoever in being correct. Brexit, Putin, Johnson, Truss, Trump, Twitter, Netanyahu etc etc...
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Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 13/01/2026
❓"Do you think that Brexit has actually delivered what people were promised?" ⬇️ "An economy that look's like it's 8% smaller. Trade down 18% on 5 years ago. Food and drink down 24%." ❌ "16,500 firms have stopped trading with Europe." 📝 "Paperwork costs appear to be about £8.5 billion/year."
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