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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 8h

(pronounced "old timmers")

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 9h

Gough way (near me) rhymes with cough. Is that the same with Gough street?
Slough is a good one. (Rhymes with cow)

Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 9h

Right. Because - for Americans - we're non rhotic, so we don't say the r in irk anyway. Second syllable in Southwsrk is basically a schwa sound. Suth /ə/k (with a soft th)

Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 21h

I hope all politicians including Farage appreciate political future is unpredictable; unelected prime ministers can happen within our party system, and so an authoritarian PM from across the political spectrum is possible; and institutions need to be strengthened against this. See below for how⬇️

Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 22h

We've seen how a Trump administration has taken over scientific bodies, so independent research is suppressed if its findings aren't what he wants, and outputs just become govt propaganda. Could the same thing happen here, if a future PM wanted to do the same? Important analysis ⬇️

Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social · 23h

🧵🚨

The UK’s independent scientific bodies are highly vulnerable to politicisation - over the past 5 months I've been working with @martinmckee.bsky.social to map out their vulnerabilities and it's not good news.

Today our report is published!
www.ucl.ac.uk/policy-lab/n...

1/11

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 22h

We've seen how a Trump administration has taken over scientific bodies, so independent research is suppressed if its findings aren't what he wants, and outputs just become govt propaganda. Could the same thing happen here, if a future PM wanted to do the same? Important analysis ⬇️

Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social · 23h

🧵🚨

The UK’s independent scientific bodies are highly vulnerable to politicisation - over the past 5 months I've been working with @martinmckee.bsky.social to map out their vulnerabilities and it's not good news.

Today our report is published!
www.ucl.ac.uk/policy-lab/n...

1/11

UK’s arm’s length public bodies are highly vulnerable to politicisation

Seven in ten Britons say it is important for top scientific institutions to be independent in exclusive new polling.

www.ucl.ac.uk

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 1d

Right! I assumed it was a portmanteau word for genitalia.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, agree. As @gabrielmilland.bsky.social and @stephenkb.bsky.social have pointed out, it's exactly the same things people would have said about our grandparents. Exploiting the Manchester attack to try to divide our communities with this nonsense is appalling.

Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 2d

I hope and believe that most of my fellow Jews will join me in saying that it is sickening that anyone should justify this outpouring of execrable racist bile by claiming that it's for our sake.

Iain Mansfield @igmansfield.bsky.social · 2d

Outstanding piece by Stephen Daisley.

Ethnicity is no barrier to Britishness - it's culture and integration.

That means 'smaller cohorts and aggressive integration policies' - and tackling the institutions that 'have amplified grievance narratives and radical anti-Western ideologies'.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 1d

Also encourages property speculation. And when did that ever do any harm?
bsky.app/profile/adsq...

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 1d

Or worse, if there's now more speculation.
bsky.app/profile/adsq...

Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 1d

On the other hand: stamp duty is a brake on property speculation - buying to sell on in six months making a profit from rising prices. So, scrapping it incentivises this behaviour, which makes prices more volatile and bubbles more likely.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 1d

Yep. Possibly exacerbated by speculation.
bsky.app/profile/adsq...

Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 1d

On the other hand: stamp duty is a brake on property speculation - buying to sell on in six months making a profit from rising prices. So, scrapping it incentivises this behaviour, which makes prices more volatile and bubbles more likely.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 1d

You won't be able to afford that home anyway if prices have gone up in a speculative property bubble (which scrapping stamp duty makes more likely)
bsky.app/profile/adsq...

Reposted by Adam Squires

Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 1d

On the other hand: stamp duty is a brake on property speculation - buying to sell on in six months making a profit from rising prices. So, scrapping it incentivises this behaviour, which makes prices more volatile and bubbles more likely.

1 2 1

Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 1d

On the other hand: stamp duty is a brake on property speculation - buying to sell on in six months making a profit from rising prices. So, scrapping it incentivises this behaviour, which makes prices more volatile and bubbles more likely.

1 2 1

Reposted by Adam Squires

Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 2d

It's a mark of how profoundly silly Stephen Daisley is that, in writing about the Manchester attack, he targets people like my great-grandfather, a Jew who lived in Ancoats, Cheetham Hill and Crumpsall for fifty years and never learned English.

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 2d

No, it's not. It's all a lie. The blunt truth is across the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them.

Iain Mansfield @igmansfield.bsky.social · 2d

Outstanding piece by Stephen Daisley.

Ethnicity is no barrier to Britishness - it's culture and integration.

That means 'smaller cohorts and aggressive integration policies' - and tackling the institutions that 'have amplified grievance narratives and radical anti-Western ideologies'.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 1d

Could add prof @chrischirp.bsky.social who runs www.trumpactiontracker.info

Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 1d

"OK the number two priority"

Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 1d

"And one more fascinating thing....
There was barely references to Reform and Nigel Farage."

Thanks Chris.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 1d

But at least he analysed the policies in the policy blitz, right?
[Star wars meme]

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 2d

bsky.app/profile/adsq...

Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 2d

Right. Also Tiberias 1938, Haifa Oil refinery 1947, Kfar Etzion 1948, Hadassah medical convoy 1948 and many many others. Full list here. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
It was a cycle of violence - each revenge for another. Attempts to pretend one half didn't happen are so weird.

List of killings and massacres in Mandatory Palestine - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 2d

bsky.app/profile/adsq...

Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 2d

Yes, absolutely agree. (Also: *Professor* Christina Pagel 😁)

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 2d

bsky.app/profile/adsq...

Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 2d

So you're arguing the mirror image of your "perhaps the issue can be summed up as" Israeli line that you were using satirically above. Acts carried out *on* Jews (incl Oct 7th) must be contextualised and justified, acts carried out *by* us should not.
bsky.app/profile/adsq...

Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 2d

Right. Also Tiberias 1938, Haifa Oil refinery 1947, Kfar Etzion 1948, Hadassah medical convoy 1948 and many many others. Full list here. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
It was a cycle of violence - each revenge for another. Attempts to pretend one half didn't happen are so weird.

List of killings and massacres in Mandatory Palestine - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 2d

I'm not comparing it to the Shoah. The words were used in the clip I posted. I think it's true but don't think it's worth arguing over. I am equally prepared to say "the worst day of atrocity to befall us in living memory" if it makes you happy.

Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 2d

You are seriously arguing that Hamas would equally plausibly have attacked Arab villages in Israel?