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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 16m

I have to speak my truth:

I wish people on The (Celebrity) Traitors would just spell each other’s names correctly

Reposted by Michael

John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 1h

Then maybe now would be a good time to clarify your position on the UK's commitment to NATO and its allies.

In particular, whether you still support collective security as currently envisaged by Article V.

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Reposted by Michael

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 2h

One of the big strategic choices I discussed in this week's post on Labour's budget options.

samf.substack.com/p/staying-al...

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 43m

Melinoë be like

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Reposted by Michael

JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 19h

Only really, really crap bosses - I mean epically bad bosses - publicly blame junior staff for mistakes. Good bosses take ownership of them and then work internally to ensure they do not happen again. Absolutely shameful stuff here.

Sean Kemp @seankemp.bsky.social · 20h

Slightly amazed at his description of this as a ‘low-level mistake’. Just a completely untrue implication of Government corruption on prime-time TV. No biggie! www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

BBC airing false claim about Euan Blair blamed on young producers ‘marinated in social media’

Broadcaster apologised after Have I Got News For You falsely said former PM’s son had won digital ID contract

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Michael

Sean Kemp @seankemp.bsky.social · 20h

Slightly amazed at his description of this as a ‘low-level mistake’. Just a completely untrue implication of Government corruption on prime-time TV. No biggie! www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

BBC airing false claim about Euan Blair blamed on young producers ‘marinated in social media’

Broadcaster apologised after Have I Got News For You falsely said former PM’s son had won digital ID contract

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Michael

david alexander @davidalexander.bsky.social · 3d

but i can and will say stuff like holy shit way to diminish your accomplishments here and for what?

Taylor Swift says she's not playing the #SuperBowl
Halftime Show because "I am in love with a guy who does that sport on that actual field."
"Like, [professional football] is violent chess. That is gladiators without swords. That is dangerous. I am, [for] the whole season, locked in on what that man is doing on the field. Can you imagine if he's out there every single week, putting his life on the line, doing this very dangerous, very high-pressure, high-intensity sport, and I'm like [she puts on a ditzy voice and face], 'I wonder what my choreo should be? I think we should do two verses of "Shake It Up," into "Blank Space," into "Cruel Summer," that would be great!' This has nothing to do with Travis — he would love for me to do it. But I'm just too locked in."
Read more here: https://variety.com/2025/music/news/ taylor-swift-explains-why-shes-not-playing-super-bowl-halftime-fallon-1236541829/

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 21h

that line is always funny because did she not say that in the same interview, or at least the same time period, as when she said maternity leave is too generous

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 21h

Feels borderline impossible to get through a politics podcast without someone saying the Tories are regicidal, but they’ve got a leader most of them didn’t support to begin with, who is unpopular and ineffective, who has no serious agenda, and the bar to keep her is “she announced a fake tax cut”.

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 21h

And what changed the mood music was, what, one single PMQs where she managed to have a consistent line of questioning, and a conference where she’s completely U-turned on her entire declared approach to policy formation and defended straightforward racism from a member of her shadow cabinet?

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Reposted by Michael

Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 22h

hmmmmmmmmmmm

surely the point of being a digital native and being Online is to be able to sniff out stuff like this

not sure the BBC gets to put this on our people

Michael Savage @michaelsavage.bsky.social · 22h

NEW: A false claim about Euan Blair found its way into Have I Got News For You.

It was from an X post seen almost 3m times - and it was wrong.

Production chief blames a "digital native" culture.

A very online media class drinking in social media = danger:

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

BBC airing false claim about Euan Blair blamed on young producers ‘marinated in social media’

Broadcaster apologised after Have I Got News For You falsely said former PM’s son had won digital ID contract

www.theguardian.com

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 22h

independence thermometer at half mast

The National @scotnational.bsky.social · 23h

BREAKING: Ash Regan has quit the Alba Party

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 23h

Is there ever not a Big Number 10 Shake-Up on the go?

(Also, re: the screenshotted paragraph, if the departing advisers understood exactly what Keir is trying to do, then they’ve got lightning in a bottle, because I don’t think anyone else does.)

Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 23h

This doesn't seem encouraging.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

One special adviser said: “Carys and Muneera were the finest policy minds in that building, and understood exactly what Keir is trying to do. Their departure leaves an enormous hole, and people fear this is part of a wider pattern of a progressive clear-out.”

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 1d

Bridget Phillipson says “I’ve never said that, for example, there’s no money left to pay for [scrapping the two-child cap]”. Well, maybe she didn’t literally say that. But she was happy to do the media round scolding welfare rebels and linking it to the cap a few months ago.

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 1d

the complete lack of interest in Emily Thornberry’s deputy leadership campaign suggests they won’t

Lewis Goodall @lewisgoodall.com · 1d

I do wonder if Labour might look at the sorts of people dominating the discourse and dominating the content wars and maybe, just maybe, rethink the sorts of grey figures they routinely put up for interviews, instructed at that to be as cautious as possible. Things have changed. Their comms hasn’t.

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Reposted by Michael

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 1d

‘Amoral, evil’: vitriolic backlash builds against comics who played Riyadh festival

Murder by bone-saw, lashings for rape victims, punitive amputation, jail for satirists … these are the human rights abuses fuelling the fury now being directed at the likes of Louis CK and Dave Chappelle. How have they reacted?

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Michael

Chris Hanretty @chanret.bsky.social · 2d

Not quite sure why people putting the 14 words on signs get a ruminative essay on how the saltire has been used www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The battle for Scotland's flag: Why the right has adopted the saltire

The saltire has long been embraced by supporters of Scottish independence – but now it is being unfurled for a different cause.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Michael

Will Cooling @willcooling.bsky.social · 2d

Worth remembering that Labour MPs sat on their hands as the British Government basically did the same to our international development ministry at around the same time - what little money is still in the "international aid" budget is overwhelmingly spent in the UK

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 2d

i desperately want everyone involved in the destruction of USAID to have to, st the very least, answer to the american people for the suffering and misery they have caused apnews.com/article/myan...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 2d

I would die for Alan Carr

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 2d

oh that’s Charlotte I think

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 2d

Love all these articles that are like “gosh, I didn’t just do it for the money, I actually did it because Saudi Arabia is changing for the better”.

So they paid for your performance and got your PR services as a free extra.

Ian Martin @ianmartin.bsky.social · 2d

ha ha ha

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I have been criticised for being part of the Riyadh comedy festival. This is why I did it | Omid Djalili

The headlines focus on money, but the gigs were great and I think there are different ways to achieve progress. Art, especially comedy, can be part of that, says stand-up comedian, Omid Djalili.

www.theguardian.com

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 2d

She has indeed! And convinced Maria to go and re-pack her trunk her way.

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 2d

Currently reading Pride and Prejudice for the first time. I feel like the adaptations all capture Mr Collins’s ridiculousness, but tone down Lady Catherine’s. Part of his ridiculousness is that the object of his toadying is just as full of inane and incessant blather as he is!

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Reposted by Michael

Tyron @tyron.bsky.social · 2d

Great and vital piece.

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 2d

funny that Matthew Syed joined the Tories saying only they would get the debt down and Kemi Badenoch was like “thanks Matt, welcome! would you like to do a speech at conference? btw we’re going to announce a massive new deportation force and scrap stamp duty with no replacement.”

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