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Val

@valmel.bsky.social
1.4K followers 963 following 652 posts

Pro EU. Hate Brexit. An oldie who seems to buck the voting trend. Truth matters. Love theatre and art - these matter in life and should be valued.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Val
Jill Rutter @jillongovt.bsky.social · 3h
Question to academics and economists out there: how many children who inherit houses from their parents worth over £ 650k (double inheritance tax threshold) or £ 1m do not already own their own home? @arunadvani.bsky.social @helenmiller.bsky.social @timharford.ft.com
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Parody Nigel Farage @parodypm.bsky.social · 7h
The person responsible for carrying out the totally independent investigation into Reform and clearing the party of all wrongdoing has been identified.
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mimij9.bsky.social @mimij9.bsky.social · 6h
Basically Badenoch has just told the North, the Midlands, the South West, Scotland, Wales and N Ireland to go fuck themselves. Her policies are aimed at the well off and very rich in London and the South East. Well at least she isn’t trying to pretend anymore.
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John Crace @mrjohncrace.bsky.social · 8h
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
All hail the Kult of Kemi – captain, coach and owner of the Conservatives | John Crace
The Tory leader is now too big for the party to allow her to fail, so everything she does is acclaimed a work of genius
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Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social · 3h
Chris Philp,"In the last year I've acquired an obsessive on-line stalker. A strange man called Zia" "Poor Zia is constantly on twitter pretending to be the shadow Home Secretary" "All I can say is that anyone who spends all day fantasising about being me is in urgent need of a very good therapist"
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Patrick - Here for the craic❗️🤷🏼‍♂️😉 @paddyopatrick.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Farage is hugely concerned that the Treasury isn’t getting taxes he claims are lost because tax dodging super rich are leaving UK Farage & Tice are passionate about tax going to HMRC Fun fact — both of them used off shore tax schemes to avoid huge sums of tax, they don’t see why they should pay it
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Peter O’Hanraha-hanrahan @peterohanrahah.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
£121bn that they don't want to pay tax on.
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
New post: Burnham has opened the door to a "rejoin" manifesto pledge. The politics make more sense than a lot of people seem to realise. I look at what it would involve at every step from pledge to referendum. There are significant barriers but it can be done. samf.substack.com/p/the-route-...
samf.substack.com
The route back into the EU
Back in 2022 I wrote about the long-term prospects for undoing Brexit and made two predictions.
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 06/10/2026
Israeli settlers beat press photographer as soldiers watch in West Bank
theguardian.com
Israeli settlers beat press photographer as soldiers watch in West Bank
Jaafar Ashtiyeh was covering violence against olive farmers when settlers set upon him with the butts of their guns Armed Israeli settlers beat a photographer in the presence of Israeli soldiers, hospitalising him, as he covered worsening settler violence against olive farmers in the occupied West Bank. Jaafar Ashtiyeh, a 58-year-old veteran photographer for Agence France-Presse in Palestine, was assaulted by a group of settlers, who beat him with the butts of their guns, despite him being marked as press. He was assaulted in view of about a dozen armed Israeli soldiers. Continue reading...
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mimij9.bsky.social @mimij9.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott enjoying the huge crowds at this Tory Party conference.
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South-East London for Europe (Selfe) @selfe.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
#Brexit - President Macron is spot on here. Brexit has been an utter disaster. #BrexitDisaster #RejoinEU #JoinEU
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Josiah Mortimer @josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
🔴 Conservative Plan to Scrap Solar Rules for New Homes Would Lock Millions Into Gas Use Pledge to abolish the Future Homes Standard is branded ‘a plan for poor housing and high bills’ by fuel poverty campaigners, as the solar sector urges the party to think again bylinetimes.com/2026/10/05/c...
bylinetimes.com
Conservative Plan to Scrap Solar Rules for New Homes Would Lock Millions Into Gas Use
Pledge to abolish the Future Homes Standard is branded 'a plan for poor housing and high bills' by fuel poverty campaigners, as the solar sector urges the party to think again
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Welsh Underground Network @welshundergroundnetwork.cymru · 04/10/2026
Don't let royalty get comfortable in Cardiff 🚫👑🚫 15th of October, 10:30am All republicans are encouraged to attend. We need numbers and solidarity to show this corrupt monarch away. Meet at the Mermaid Quay car park for a quick briefing before moving to the Senedd steps
Title: Windsors out of Wales

Image of WUN protestors at previous royal visit, with a red anti-monarchist flag reading: I lawr a’r brenin! (down with the king!)

Date 15th October, 10:30 am

Text: Meet at the Mermaid Quay Car park before wakling to Senedd 

WUN and PGC symbols
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
It’s not been fully spotted but to pay for 50,000 extra prison places the Conservatives have said they would cut foreign aid to £1bn a year, or 0.03% of GDP, a 90% cut. This would not even cover UN and World Bank contributions. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
theguardian.com
Conservative plans to slash aid budget would ‘irreparably damage’ UK’s global credibility, charities say
Party’s pledge to reduce aid budget from £9bn a year to £1bn to fund new prison places branded as ‘posturing’
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Peter Cook: Brexorcist in Chief: Reboot Britain @brexitrage.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
@phronesispartners.bsky.social Avoid these people - they conduct research for @ukgovernment.bsky.social but are not organised and conduct duplicate studies which are not obvious to those taking part. They then refuse to pay for people's time given in good faith.
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Edinburgh 4 Europe @edinburgh4eu.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Write to your UK MP via the web page below and ask them to attend the UK Parliament debate on 12 October about the UK’s relationship with the EU. www.europeanmovement.co.uk/contact-mp-a...
europeanmovement.co.uk
Ask your MP to stand up for our future in Europe
On 12 October, Parliament will debate the UK's future relationship with Europe, after a government petition got over 100,000 signatures. Will you write to your MP to ask them to attend the debate?
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Support the National Trust by voting for Council members by 11:59pm on 30 October 2026. Quickvote is convenient if you're short of time or worried about inadvertently voting for Restore Trust's Bonigala, Cristea, Goldman, Mealing or Omrani. In our often bad times, the Trust's doing good things.
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Daily Herald #FBPE #NAFO 🇬🇧🇺🇦🇬🇱 @dailyherald.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
A timely reminder to Nigel Farage that his Council of Chaos, Durham is just one councillor away from falling in to No Overall Control. He seems to be the only person that has any confidence in Andrew Husband and Darren Grimes. #CouncilOfChaos
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Ash Oro @ashoro.co.uk · 05/10/2026
This is the fourth incident today, and the 13th incident in a week. A fire is currently burning in the engine room of this vessel, which for anyone that has never served on a ship, is terrifying and life-threatening. This is escalation of violence toward merchant sailors and still isn't reported!
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Chris Packham @chrisgpackham.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Delighted to be joining @NewScientist.com Live again this year with Megan – get your tickets at live.newscientist.com
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The Daily Britain @thedailybritain.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Helen Whately went on Channel 4 News to explain Kemi Badenoch’s new plan for diagnosing what has gone wrong with Britain. Krishnan Guru-Murthy had a rather obvious question: “How long do you think its going to take for people to forget you ran the country for 14 years?”
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Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 05/10/2026
👏 Rachel Blake MP: "The case for a closer relationship with Europe is no longer ideological. It is practical. It is economic. And it is patriotic. "The time has come to stop treating EU membership as an unsayable idea. It should be part of the national conversation about Britain’s future."
huffingtonpost.co.uk
Rejoining The EU Must No Longer Be 'An Unsayable Idea', Declares Labour MP
Writing for HuffPost UK, Rachel Blake says overturning Brexit “should be part of the national conversation about Britain
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Prof. Eliot Jacobson @climatecasino.net · 06/10/2026
Breaking News! Code UFB!!! For the first time in recorded history, the Niño 3.4 sea-surface temperature (SST) is above 30.0°C, reaching a preliminary SST of 30.06°C on October 5th. The Niño 3.4 SST anomaly is now 3.41°C above the 1991-2020 baseline. Everything is not fine.
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South-East London for Europe (Selfe) @selfe.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Just Sayin' #Eu #Brexit #Brexitreality #Brexitshambles #Brexitisnotworking #Brexitisntworking #Brexitchaos #rejoinEU #ReasonsToRejoin #ECHR #refugees #ErasmusPlus
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Cold War Steve @coldwarsteve.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
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Cold War Steve @coldwarsteve.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
'Playing dumb is Tucker’s [Tucker Carlson] MO. His goal is to advance the politics of nativism, ie put white people first, but doesn’t have the guts to say it, so instead “just asks questions”.' 'Herein lies the Right’s biggest problem: since 2016 it has become untethered from conservatism.'
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
For the sake of a slogan achieving nothing except great concern and distress to British Jews, Green members have probably destroyed any hope that a party - their party - which consistently and clearly opposes the #genocide will join the next government. Genius. 🤦‍♂️ www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Labour figures rule out working with Greens after ‘Zionism is racism’ vote
Minister says they could not see parties cooperating, while official says coalition should be formally ruled out
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David @zero-4.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
So Badenoch doesn’t have the figures but is insistent that she’s completely right Her phenomenal arrogance blinds her to her overwhelming incompetence #bbclaurak
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Just the dumbest collection of halfwit confetti emerging out of that conference. Tax cuts everywhere, paid for with imaginary spending cuts. Huge spending projects with precisely zero utility, except to anchor their 'defence day' narrative. Clowns.
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fife4europe #FBPE #RejoinEU @fife4europe.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
With Parliament set to debate the UK rejoining the EU, making your voice heard directly to your MP is vital. Hiding behind old Brexit red lines won't repair our economy or international standing. Have you emailed your MP yet? Use the EM link 👇 #FBPE www.europeanmovement.co.uk/contact-mp-a...
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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
incredible this will get little to no coverage
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Chasbell 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇮🇪🇮🇹🇨🇦 @chasbell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
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Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 06/10/2026
A newly elected Reform UK councillor has been arrested on suspicion of making false statements in nomination papers. Reform UK is haemorrhaging the people it recruits. We keep track of all of them: bestforbritain.org/reform-uk-defect…
independent.co.uk
Reform councillor arrested over election paperwork
Elected representative for Nigel Farage’s party arrested on suspicion of making false statements in nomination papers
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M Meerkat @kackbro.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Well Said,Pope Leo.......
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James Murray @james-bg.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The pitch here seems to be, ‘we’ll build the houses and infrastructure we failed to build during the 14 years we were in government, but we’ll do it in the most damaging and lowest quality way possible’. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Tories to pledge to scrap Environment Agency and Natural England
Shadow chancellor will also promise to scrap affordable homes regulations as part of strategy to refocus on growth
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I'm sure this'll go down great at conference. I am absolutely not sure that scrapping an organisation called Natural England will go down so well at the election.
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Ash Oro @ashoro.co.uk · 05/10/2026
Ummm - no it really is the war on Iran that you started, had no concept of what it meant and still lie about daily. Just because throughput is up, that does not account for the increased costs in insurance and operations. Let alone the dozens of innocent sailor's lives lost from missiles.
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Brexit Bin 🇪🇺 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 @brexitbin.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Kemi Badenoch lives in a fantasy world of denial where ... 🔹️The water is clean. 🔹️Brexit is a success. 🔹️Trickle-down works. 🔹️Austerity delivers growth. 🔹️The Tories are still relevant. 🔹️... and Kemi Badenoch is as intelligent and popular as she thinks she is. 🤦🏻‍♂️
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Ed Davey @eddavey.libdems.org.uk · 05/10/2026
All carers need a break sometimes – and far too many carers don’t get them. This week, my wife Emily and I are taking our first two nights away as just us for over 18 years. When we’re back, I’ll keep fighting to guarantee respite breaks for every carer.
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South-East London for Europe (Selfe) @selfe.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
As Badenoch embraces her inner Boris Johnson in an effort to out-brexit Farage, it's clear that the "party of business" isn't a serious party when it comes to the UK economy.
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Nicole @nicamsterdam.eurosky.social · 05/10/2026
Morning traffic in Amsterdam.
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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.These arrangements expressly depend on internationally agreed human rights standards, applied by a supranational court. We detect no political willingness to excuse the UK from compliance with standards to which the rest of Europe already subscribes. As authoritarian powers grow more aggressive and democratic institutions face mounting pressure, Britain should not be abandoning one of its greatest postwar achievements.
The question is not whether we can afford to remain within the ECHR. It is whether, in an increasingly perilous world, we can afford not to.
Lord Carlile of Berriew, Lord Anderson of Ipswich, Sir Max Hill
Independent reviewers of terrorism legislation, 2001-18
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Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 06/10/2026
I wonder why Badenoch couldn't say that London benefitted from Brexit 🤔 The reality is that neither London nor any other region in the UK has benefitted from Brexit - the opposite is the case. That's why our polling with YouGov shows that 628 out of 632 constituencies want to rejoin the EU.
independent.co.uk
Kemi Badenoch refuses to say if Brexit has benefitted London
The Tory leader insisted that voters were not interested ‘in having a row’ over the debate to rejoin the EU
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Thanks again to @mrjamesob.bsky.social for highlighting Kemi Badenoch's banning of journalists she doesn't approve of, which very few other journalists in the country seem willing to mention for some reason inews.co.uk/opinion/bade...
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Ash Oro @ashoro.co.uk · 06/10/2026
Additional to this - Al Jazeera and Indian media are now reporting this as an attack that caused serious injuries. 12 of the 17 crew reported as being injured in an attack, which correlates with this one but may be another unreported attack.
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Ash Oro @ashoro.co.uk · 06/10/2026
Another incident in the Strait of Hormuz, the 14th such attack in the last week. It is a late report, so may have happened any time int he last 24 hours, but another tanker struck, and more violence against seafarers that is going unreported by most media channels.
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Mike Galsworthy @mikegalsworthy.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
🚨 In case you hadn’t noticed… …mainstream media is rapidly getting replaced by alternative and grassroots news efforts. That’s a combination of citizen frustration with mainstream media - an increased ability to DIY in digital media. So where is it all going? And how do we ensure standards?
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Russ Jones @russincheshire.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
From Katy Brand on Insta www.instagram.com/p/DeJq9Xvo-o...
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Simon Gosden @simongosden.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
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