James Connelly | Lightnews

Light up
your news

About Privacy Terms Help

James Connelly

James Connelly

@jamescon.bsky.social

1.1K followers 2K following 150 posts

Emeritus Prof, Hull. Writing Collingwood bio / Philosophical Idealism, Environmental politics & ethics, Elections/electoral systems / Minsters Rail Campaign /[email protected] / https://hull.academia.edu/JamesConnelly .. more

Political science 33%

History 20%

more

Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, Steve Peers, Andrew Scott , and 4 more Ben H. Ansell, Steve Peers, Andrew Scott, Mark Priestley, Aurélien Mondon, James Connelly, Pam Jarvis

Sam Bright @writesbright.bsky.social · 20h

Toby Young, self-appointed king of free speech, is speaking in Hungary tomorrow about UK “censorship”.

He’ll be addressing a group funded by Viktor Orbán’s autocratic regime, which has seized control of the country’s media, judiciary, and routinely harasses its critics

Toby Young to Address Orbán-Backed Group on UK ‘Censorship’

Conservative peer and right-wing commentator Toby Young is due to deliver a talk tomorrow (25 November) at the in-house think tank of Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orbán. Young is being interviewed by Mat...

Reposted by James Connelly

Reform Party UK Exposed @reformexposed.bsky.social · 20h

Farage logic.

Reposted by James Connelly

Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 2d

As Trump and Putin work to crush Ukraine and destabilise Europe and Farage’s ally gets sentenced to 10yrs for taking Russian bribes, it’s a good time to revisit this excellent report on how the British rightwing has betrayed us all.
Brexit was their weapon of choice.
bylinetimes.com/2022/03/08/p...

Putin’s Plot Against ‘Great’ Britain – And How He Got Away With It

Peter Jukes tracks Vladimir Putin’s long war against the West and the allies he has found in the pro-Brexit establishment in the plot to derail Britain

bylinetimes.com

Reposted by Jonathan Portes, James Connelly

Anand Menon @anandmenon.bsky.social · 2d

Do we really think tinkering with rules about ILR etc will fundamentally change the incentives of those risking their lives, and those of their kids in dinghies? And is legitimising racism by seeing it as a logical reaction to policy failure really takes basis on which to proceed?

Reposted by Paul Matthews, Michael H. Whitworth, James Connelly

Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 2d

Actual analysis of the BBC’s coverage of Gaza is devastating for Prescott and the right wing attacks on the BBC. Ratio of Israeli-Palestinian deaths: 1 /34. Ratio of coverage of those deaths: 19 / 1.

cfmm.org.uk/bbc-on-gaza-...

BBC On Gaza-Israel: One Story, Double Standards - Centre For Media Monitoring

Reposted by James Connelly

LittleGravitas, →EU immigrant, UK→ emigrant, anti-Brexit @catanonim.me · 2d

Reminder.

Reposted by Stacy D. VanDeveer, James Connelly

Dr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they) @doctorvive.bsky.social · 2d

Good. I'm glad this is the headline. This is the real story. Thank you to the BBC.

Climate COP30 in Brazil fails to secure new pledges to cut
fossil fuels
• 22 November 2025

Reposted by James Connelly

Minsters Rail Campaign @minstersrail.bsky.social · 3d

gofund.me/37f231c0a

Donate to Minsters Rail Campaign, organized by Peter Hemmerman

The Minsters Rail Campaign are trying to restore a rail link from Beverley to York joining the … Peter Hemmerman needs your support for Minsters Rail Campaign

James Connelly @jamescon.bsky.social · 3d

gofund.me/37f231c0a

Donate to Minsters Rail Campaign, organized by Peter Hemmerman

The Minsters Rail Campaign are trying to restore a rail link from Beverley to York joining the … Peter Hemmerman needs your support for Minsters Rail Campaign

Reposted by Alan Lester, James Connelly, Pam Jarvis

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 3d

The same people who convinced the British public to back a catastrophic Boris Johnson premiership are now pulling the same trick again with Nigel Farage

www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/the-confid...

The Confidence Trick That Put Boris Johnson Into Power Is Now Being Used on Nigel Farage

The same people who convinced the British public to back a catastrophic Boris Johnson premiership are now pulling the same trick again with Nigel Farage

www.adambienkov.co.uk

Reposted by James Connelly, Olivier Mannoni

It’s Still Me! @itsstillme1.bsky.social · 3d

We know that’s not true!

Reposted by James Connelly

Minsters Rail Campaign @minstersrail.bsky.social · 3d

www.railmagazine.com/news/norther...

Northern outlines plan to grow passenger journeys by 30 million in five years

Northern unveils '30 by 30' plan to increase the number of journeys made on its trains.

www.railmagazine.com

Reposted by James Connelly

Minsters Rail Campaign @minstersrail.bsky.social · 3d

www.railmagazine.com/news/plans-f...

Plans for Leeds Bradford Airport parkway station still no closer to fruition

It's been nine years since plans for a new station were first announced.

www.railmagazine.com

Reposted by James Connelly

Ian Hall @ianhall.bsky.social · 4d

🌊 Climate change is now warming the deepest parts of the Arctic Ocean

phys.org/news/2025-11...

Climate change is now warming the deepest parts of the Arctic Ocean

While it is well known that climate change is heating the world's oceans, it was thought that the deep sea was safe from its effects—until now. Researchers have discovered that a rapidly warming part ...

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, James Connelly

Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 4d

Far right activists descending on my area to demonise people seeking asylum is a far greater threat to locals than single men being housed in a barracks because the same far right activists don’t want them in hotels.

Your Questions: Asylum plans in Crowborough www.bbc.com/news/article...

Plans to house asylum seekers in Crowborough army camp explained

The latest Home Office figures state that 540 men will be housed at the army camp in Crowborough.

Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR) @hcrichardson.bsky.social · 5d

Before the midterms of 1866, President Andrew Johnson called his congressional opponents traitors and said they should be hanged.

Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.

Reposted by James Connelly

Peter Clayton @petermclayton.bsky.social · 5d

Goldfinch #birds

Reposted by James Connelly

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 5d

Breaking news: A panel appointed by President Trump to review whether to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency has instead concluded that the agency should be more powerful and autonomous.

Noem at odds with Trump-appointed panel over future of FEMA

Instead of further shrinking and dismantling FEMA, the FEMA Review Council wants to make it more independent.

Reposted by James Connelly

Dr. Aaron Thierry @thierryaaron.bsky.social · 5d

Inspired by Aldo Leopold’s land ethic, Dr. Roberta Millstein reexamines this philosophy in light of contemporary ecology, sharing new interpretations of interdependence, land health, & the “biotic community,” offering a fresh take on how these ideas can guide modern conservation & restoration policy

Aldo Leopold and Environmental Stewardship | Dr. Roberta Millstein Lecture

YouTube video by Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics

Reposted by James Connelly

Minsters Rail Campaign @minstersrail.bsky.social · 5d

www.railmagazine.com/news/passeng...

New line passenger forecasts 'should be based on previous successes'

Campaign for Better Transport says forecasts should better reflect the success of routes such as the Elizabeth, Dartmoor and Northumberland lines.

www.railmagazine.com

Reposted by Steven French, Nazita Lajevardi, James Connelly

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 6d

We must copy Denmark Social Democrats' hardline anti-asylum measures in order to win back voters' trust, says Shabana Mahmood.

Meanwhile in Denmark:

Reposted by Steve Peers, Alison Phipps, Alan Clarke , and 1 more Steve Peers, Alison Phipps, Alan Clarke, James Connelly

Tanja Bueltmann @tanjabueltmann.net · 6d

Tried to get this published but no luck, so might as well ‘publish’ it here so it’s not a complete waste!

➡️ Stripping rights from refugees today endangers us all tomorrow

#asylum #Mahmood #history #humanrights

Stripping rights from refugees today endangers us all tomorrow

When I was 13, I visited a Nazi concentration camp for the first time, confronting my country’s dark history always—and rightly—a bedrock in my growing up.

One image from that visit has stayed with me ever since: a display of prisoners’ personal possessions.

It revealed a world in which those imprisoned were stripped not only of their freedom but of the last tangible traces of their humanity. That systematic erasure was the most important precondition for murdering millions.

Now, as a historian, I know that history does not flow into the present in a straight line, and direct comparisons are rarely appropriate. They certainly are not here.

But history is the one compass humanity has. Too often we choose to ignore it.

The Home Secretary’s proposals for changes to the UK’s asylum system represent such a moment of failure.

Yet the most troubling aspect of Labour’s frantic efforts to appear tough on immigration is not even the historical echoes that taking refugees’ possessions invokes. It is that cost recovery is not the real purpose of the rationale behind it.

The true aim is to appeal to a particular audience—those who take satisfaction in seeing people seeking refuge deprived of what little they have.

It is hard to imagine a more troubling approach to policymaking, and that becomes even clearer when we consider the Home Secretary’s proposals in context.

As of June 2025, there were 42.5 million refugees globally. Over 70% are hosted by low- and middle-income countries. The UK hosts 548,000 refugees; that is 0.78% of the UK population. Around 110,000 people are in receipt of asylum support; that is 0.15% of the UK population.

It is unconscionable that such a small and vulnerable population can be targeted with deliberate cruelty and weaponised for assumed political gain.

And that is all this will ever be. The core miscalculation is believing that adopting these positions will neutralise Reform.

Both historical knowledge and current research show the opposite. Mainstreaming extremist policies legitimises them further and aids only the original. Each step towards Reform’s territory simply gives Reform more power.

But our political discourse has been so degraded over the last decade that many no longer even recognise policies—or the language that frames them—as extreme.

That is how the Home Secretary can speak so casually of desperate people seeking sanctuary as recipients of a ‘golden ticket’ as though the context is Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory rather than countries torn apart by war and starved by famine.

Speak of her ‘moral mission’ to withdraw support, alleging that ‘illegal migration is tearing our country apart.’ And warn of ‘dark forces stirring up anger,’ oblivious to her own role: from the use of blurry, dehumanising images of refugees to spread falsehoods about their impact on communities, to the equally false description of refugee movements as illegal migration.

I suggest the Home Secretary find a mirror if she is keen to understand who is helping turn anger into hate.

Because it is the mainstreaming of far-right talking points that the Home Secretary’s proposals represent that is really tearing our country apart.

For when a policy looks like the far right, speaks to the far right and is hailed by the far right as being far right, it is far right. There is a reason Stephen Yaxley-Lennon is jubilant and speaks of ‘the Overton window having been obliterated.’

This makes a mockery of the Prime Minister’s recent comments on the urgent need to tackle racism. But it also raises alarming questions about the impact this will have on communities around the country, many of which are already deeply divided.

The proposed policies will do nothing for these struggling communities, because their problems simply do not stem from people seeking sanctuary with us. In fact: for as long as politicians focus on immigrants and refugees as the cause of our problems, they will fail to deliver for the British people.

But it is important to grasp the impact of the Home Secretary’s proposals as they carry broader consequences for all of us.

Suggestions for changes to how the European Convention on Human Rights is applied are particularly concerning. Requiring judges to prioritise ‘public safety’—falsely implying refugees pose a threat—would qualify human rights for a specific group.

And once one accepts that human rights can be qualified for one group, one creates tools that can be used against anyone.

So what these proposals really mean goes far beyond asylum policy. This is about the kind of country we will have in the future. If human rights are no longer universal, they become a means for exclusion and control.

That is why stripping rights from refugees today can only enable a system that endangers all our rights tomorrow.

And that is why our historical compass matters and why we have to use it now. Because that compass tells us without doubt that when first they come for one group that is never where it ends.

Reposted by Mary Bosworth, Brian Weatherson, Stuart White , and 1 more Mary Bosworth, Brian Weatherson, Stuart White, James Connelly

Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 6d

Me at the LRB blog on the atrocious refugee policy of Mahmood and Starmer

Christopher Bertram | ‘Core Protection’

Refugeehood is not supposed to be like this. The ideal envisaged by the Refugee Convention is that refugee status should...

James Connelly @jamescon.bsky.social · 6d

Reporters are not subordinates, hence they cannot be insubordinate: or, alternatively, they should always be insubordinate.

Reposted by James Connelly

Monica Marks @monicamarks.bsky.social · 6d

The lowest moment:

ABC’s Bruce asked a second Q: why won’t Trump release the Epstein files?

“I think you’re a terrible reporter,” Trump retorted. “You ask a man who’s hughly respected [Saudi’s MBS] an insubordinate & terrible Q. You’re a terrible person & a terrible reporter… No more Qs from you.”

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Leigh Sparks , and 7 more Brendan Nyhan, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Leigh Sparks, Daniel W. Drezner, Alan Richardson, David R. Miller, Andrew Rudalevige, James Connelly, Daxton R. Stewart, Maria Sobolewska

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 6d

Is it a threat to free speech when the President of the United States threatens to yank the broadcast license of a channel whose reporters are asking him challenging questions?

I ask because I feel like there used to be tons of pundits worried about free speech. Where'd they go?

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 6d

Trump in response to an Epstein question: "ABC, your company, your crappy company is one of the perpetrators. I think the license should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake and so wrong. And we have a great commissioner, a chairman, who should take a look at that."

Reposted by James Connelly

Tom Scott @tom--scott.bsky.social · 6d

Nigel Farage, career racist, Trump sycophant, Putin fanboy & close associate of multiple serious fraudsters, wants to make the BBC a "beacon for British values".

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 6d

Trump in response to an Epstein question: "ABC, your company, your crappy company is one of the perpetrators. I think the license should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake and so wrong. And we have a great commissioner, a chairman, who should take a look at that."

Reposted by James Connelly

Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 7d

Europe's electricity system is changing rapidly and often in places that don't make the headlines.

Look at Estonia - not that long ago and fossil fuels dominated around 90% of electricity generation.

Today solar and wind eat more and more into the share of fossil fuel-generated electricity.

Reposted by James Connelly

Phil Burton-Cartledge @philbc3.bsky.social · 7d

"Starmer, Mahmood, and McSweeney are testing to destruction the idea that stealing the far right's clothes will win them far right votes. They are about to be disappointed."

From Reform-Lite to Reform-Plus

Do you remember the lies Keir Starmer told to secure Labour's leadership? Under pledge six, 'Defend immigrants' rights', among other things ...

averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com