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Karen Smith

@velvetinab.bsky.social
448 followers 449 following 115 posts

Cat slave; interested in/occupied with yarn and textile crafts, art, human rights, language, nature, family/social history; autistic.

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Reposted by Karen Smith
Ruth Watson @ruthwatson.eurosky.social · 19/09/2026
Even a stopped clock... but it needs to be said. Shame on @andyburnham.bsky.social for not having the leadership and spine to be the one to say it.
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Séamas Aloysius @seamusaloysius.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
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Dr Surekha Davies, Historical Monster Consultant (she/her) @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
This. To think otherwise is to condone wage theft & exploitation. No, the money doesn't need to come out of your also-tiny paycheque. The billionaire class spent decades robbing people, the planet, and infrastructure, buying politicians to order to re-write laws to normalize abuses like this.
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Adrian Littlejohn @yorksfella59.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Now here's something I think remarkable. Look very carefully. This isn't a high quality monochrome photo of a bygone street scene. It's a pencil drawing! By the artist Stuart Walton, born in Dewsbury in 1933. I love it!
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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
🔴 Something Tom Watson won't tell you: Five police forces in the East Midlands working with Palantir on a controversial surveillance programme are ending their involvement Exclusive by Democracy for Sale and Liberty Investigates. democracyforsale.substack.com/p/revealed-f...
democracyforsale.substack.com
Revealed: Five police forces to drop Palantir surveillance tool
Exclusive: Palantir's UK policing ambitions take a hit as East Midlands forces end their involvement in a controversial data pilot.
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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Piddington's independence ref is being presented as a quaint 'crumpets and muffins' comedy of plucky country folk. It's much darker and nastier than that and shows how deeply entrenched the bigoted 'fighting aged men on boats' narrative runs. Me for @noosphere.app www.noosphere.app/passport-to-...
noosphere.app
Passport to Piddington
Last week an Oxfordshire village declared independence from the United Kingdom - ostensibly in protest at a local refugee centre. But is something darker going on?
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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
There is no middle ground with the kind of people who attack the RNLI. We don’t need to ‘listen’ to them. We need to tell them where to go.
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Julia Métraux @juliametraux.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
For @motherjones.com, I looked into how Meta could be using disabled people to promote its Meta glasses to the masses. As one expert told me, “companies have used accessibility...as a Trojan horse for a tool that poses significant privacy and security threats.” www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
Is Meta using disabled people to promote its glasses?
AI glasses are a double-edged sword for disabled people, who face unique risks from surveillance.
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Dave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Former Labour deputy leader joins Oswald Mosley's grandson at Palantir.
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Laura Gordon @lauragordon.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I am the local LD councillor and I have not supported this campaign. No one asked me to, presumably because they knew what I'd say. This just absolutely, categorically untrue.
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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 18/09/2026
It is incredibly important that political violence does not succeed. The far-right mob that shut down Portsmouth wanted this outcome. If the state wishes to avoid more of these actions, it needs to make sure this RNLI branch reopens *immediately*, or as close to that as humanly possible.
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River @riverlorien.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Amazing RNLI volunteers calling @mrjamesob.bsky.social have inspired us to donate again today. The thugs and their political 'leaders' can't be allowed to win. @lbc.co.uk #lbc
rnli.org
Donate to the RNLI and help save lives at sea
Your donations really make a difference. We depend on your generosity to educate people to stay safe and prevent tragedies on and offshore. Donate here.
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Pablo Nepomnaschy @pablonep.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Not new, and not discovered...still great news. I offer a, perhaps, more accurate, less colonizing, title: "Western scientists describe a felid known to local communities as Tilcayo. It is the first description of its kind in over a century"
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minderbinder8.bsky.social @minderbinder8.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Great reviews on the App Store
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Ruth Watson @ruthwatson.eurosky.social · 18/09/2026
Find your spine. Do what is right, even when it is scary. Take a stand. History might not remember you but at least you can sleep at night.
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Nick from Toy-Fu @toyfu332.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Ian Hislop from @privateeyenews.bsky.social pointed out that during WW2 the RNLI rescued German and Italian crews, because their remit is the preservation of human life. They rescued people who were actively at war with our country, and they didn't face this level of hostility. This shit must stop!
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Sam @spinebusterkeaton.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
It’s actually incredible to me: some of the most remarkable people in the country - simultaneously among the most brave, the most skilled, and the most kind - being violently targeted by losers who’ve had their brains melted. And nobody who’s in a position to do so is standing up for them.
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JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Genuine evil has been unleashed in England.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
A short thread on “legitimate concerns”. The phrase is used repeatedly by UK government ministers. The Home Secretary is at it again this week. But only ever - as far as I can tell - in one context: people’s response to the arrival of asylum seekers. Please read whole 🧵before responding - thanks
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Ben Cadwallader @caddymation.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
isn't this also v much like how we as a nation liked to pat ourselves on the back for the kindertransport scheme during WWII while glossing over the fact we only took those Jewish refugee children because the opinion was a big 'No' to their parents coming here too?
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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Instead of questioning what was going on and why.. the establishment, the media and even otherwise sane people all jumped on board with it - and here we are again. If you want to learn more about this really shitty chapter in British history it's all there in my current book... under 'Dunera'
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Bran Mac Muffin @branmacmuffin.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Next week's column: "My son has blocked me on multiple social media accounts and has gone no-contact, I have no idea why"
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Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Any lives lost due to this closure should be laid firmly at the feet of the far-right agitators who caused this. The way in which anti-asylum activists are putting more and more people at risk should be a wake up call that it is time to genuinely combat them, rather than pandering to their ideology.
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Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This is the very definition of "trafficking" not "smuggling". Trafficking and smuggling are two distinct things. For one thing, trafficking is not limited to immigration, while smuggling requires crossing an international border. 1/ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Five men jailed over £1.6m people smuggling conspiracy
Five men are sentenced over a network bringing Vietnamese migrants to the UK.
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Praxis, for migrants and refugees @praxisprojects.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
The hostility toward the RNLI should be a wake-up call. Organisations supporting migrants and refugees have been warning for years that abuse toward those who help others is escalating. @minnierahman.bsky.social explains how civil society must stand together: www.independent.co.uk/voices/rnli-...
independent.co.uk
If we don’t stand up to the far-right for our RNLI heroes, what will it take?
Complacency and inaction from successive governments mean the wave of far-right abuse has now reached our heroic lifeboat volunteers, writes charity CEO Minnie Rahman – and it shows what charities kno...
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Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 17/09/2026
🇨🇦 First Canada, now potentially New Zealand and Australia? ❓ Where is Britain? Isolated and vulnerable in a multipolar world. Burnham must go for full EU membership and put us back at the top table of this new and exciting European project.
euronews.com
Metsola: Australia, New Zealand could be next EU 'associated members'
Metsola tells Euronews pitch for “associate membership” with Canada will strengthen cooperation with like-minded countri
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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I would love to ask a prominent BBC journalist to give me an example of an illegitimate concern. Is seems to me that it has become a question not of fact, logic, or ethics but of volume. If a big enough proportion of a village was anxious about Bigfoot or Chemtrails, BBC would cover it in a way...
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MwahahahahahadScientist @mads100tist.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
We are at a critical point in which we need to decide whether we like our job and whether we like our colleagues, and whether we like our community, and what we can do to make it stronger. Otherwise, isolationism will lead to communities going the way of the Dodo 🧪
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Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The government have been poor on this, but the police have absolutely given up on their basic functions.
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Ben Taylor @vox-dei.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
That they have had to do this is disgusting. In what other context would we tolerate doxing and threatening rescue workers? This is a failure from the police to the politicians, frankly, these people should be having the book thrown at them.
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Dr Jo Kershaw @mthrjo.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Using big words may not demonstrate all that much, but the assumption of a certain kind of British person that if it requires more than two syllables, it must be pretentious nonsense is even sillier. And in this instance it was definitely the right word.
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Colin @cognitivedistance.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Every ten minutes, Richard Tice says that "Britain is broken". Meanwhile, Durham's Reform-led Council is genuinely broken. Reform broke it. The fantasy that a motley bunch of nasty, racist, inexperienced, selfish and corrupt incompetents are going to "fix" Britain, becomes more silly every day.
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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
So this is pretty damning but this pull-quote is going to stick with me for a bit.
White text on black background:

"The classic is, it will get the side of the body incorrect and say right when you've said left...so you need to check things pretty closely, especially things like drug doses," he said.
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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Wow.
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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I'm not surprised but I'm truly disgusted that this narrative of "dangerous fighting age men posing a threat to women and children" is genuinely doing the rounds on the media with almost no push back at all. This is 1930s level stuff.
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Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
This seemingly idiotic Piddington bullshit needs to be called out for what it is, rather than as some justifiable act of communal victimhood. And any responsible govt minister and media outlet would say so too. Nothing ‘legitimate’ about this. Just nasty prejudice thinking it’s got a point.
If that sounds crude, it's because the politics of this are very crude and we should be clearer about what these people are really saying.
It is essential to the anti-refugee right that asylum seekers are never presented as desperate people in need of help, but instead as an invasion force. That is where the language of fighting-age men and sexual violence comes from. We barely even notice it anymore, but our entire narrative around asylum has shifted into an invasion storyline, which even a few years ago was only heard in the wilder territories of the far right.So instead she does what Labour ministers did under Kier Starmer and will now evidently do under Andy Burnham, and pretends that all this ignorant zombified racist Facebook tosh is, in fact, reasonable and valid.
If only our problems could be solved by ushering this village out of the UK and putting it into some kind of international quarantine zone. But unfortunately, they can't, because there is nothing special about Piddington. It is consuming the same poisoned media diet as the rest of the country and parroting the same toxic lies.
It can be stopped of course. But that means we have to challenge it, rather than pay lip-service to it.
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M a r c u s 🏳️‍🌈🇧🇧 @marcusjdl.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Bonnie Greer famously sat with her back to the BNP’s Nick Griffin when he appeared on Question Time in 2009. There was much criticism of the BBC platforming the far right, Now every episode of Question Time is wall to wall far right talking points with open arms and a seat kept warmfor Reform
Author and critic
Bonnie Greer dies aged 77
Culture
16 Sep 2026, 13:41
GETTY IMAGES - picture of Bonnie Greer an elder Black woman with short red Afro hair wearing a black button up shirt 

Paul Glynn
Culture reporter
British-American author and cultural commentator Bonnie Greer has died at the age of 77 after a brief illness, her husband has said.
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The government needs to learn there is no way of housing asylum seekers that will please a large section of the population, and even less so the hard right They should house people in the most practical way while focusing on processing claims fairly and efficiently, and maybe talk about it less
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Kresen Kernow @kresenkernow.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Interested in tracing your family tree? 👩‍👧‍👦🌳 Join us on Saturday 19 September, 10am-2pm, to chat with Cornwall Family History Society. Get tips on getting started, breaking down research brick walls, and using Kresen Kernow's resources. #FamilyHistory @cornwallfhs
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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 16/09/2026
Fair play to the wife of a Caribbean man and mother of mixed race children being informed by the BBC reporter that she’s in the minority in her community regarding immigration and responding with, “Yes, I’m surrounded by bigots.”
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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 16/09/2026
Fair play to her for very clearly and plainly explaining that the fascist thug currently seeking any event to exploit to increase his public profile is inseparable from this debate, and that her neighbours are welcoming him in.
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👻madeline bOoOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 16/09/2026
But the more important issue remains that a) asylum camps are unethical and b) asylum seekers should not be isolated from amenities and resources and c) pinseltown is absolutely isolated and scarcely resourced and not capable of meeting the needs of 1200 vulnerable refugees
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Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I *hate* this "digital divide" framing for AI; even libraries marshal it to justify their "AI literacy classes," ensuring all have "access" for self-actualization and economic opportunity. Maybe instead some folks are sufficiently literate, and they're instead choosing *principled refusal*.
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Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Good plan, Australia and Canada. Huge sigh, UK. How long do we wait, how much do we lose, how stupid do we have to be?
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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Ed Sheeran didn’t need to come out in favor of Palestinian rights. He just needed to come out against fat cat censorship of a fellow artist who did support Palestinian rights. How embarrassing that he couldn’t even do that.
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Spooky Snigdha @snig.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Talk TV and GB News broadcast hate, the media was out of control this summer tearing apart the life and achievements of Jason Arday: nothing from Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary. Racists in Piddington vote to leave the UK, and up she pops, clapping like a seal. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Piddington in Oxfordshire votes to leave UK over asylum plans
Piddington residents vote over proposals to house up to 1,256 male asylum seekers nearby.
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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 16/09/2026
I'm sorry, but what on *Earth* is that quote from Lisa Nandy? Who does Labour think its voters are? Does anyone in the party have any kind of theory of how they win the next election that isn't just slammjng the "appease racists" button over and over again until it starts working?
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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Rep. @aoc.bsky.social : “To see what Patriots owner Robert Kraft did to line up all the stadiums to censor speech in that one specific way… this isn’t just about one artist.”
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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 16/09/2026
The doomsday eugenicist cult has "highly specialized minds" that allows them to see these things he says. No matter how much documentation we provide journalists they choose not to see this.
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