Fr Jonathan Bish
@frjonathanbish.bsky.social
930 followers 410 following 1.1K posts
Vicar of the Batley Benefice in West Yorkshire. I like steam trains, Anglo-Catholicism, travel, history, politics, choral music, wine and more.
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Reposted by Fr Jonathan Bish
youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com
something quite brain-melting about the hard right's position apparently now being "we hate all Muslims and distrust Muslim states, aside from that one Muslim place that still has slavery because that sounds fun"
Reposted by Fr Jonathan Bish
joxley.jmoxley.co.uk
Deliveroo is a business almost every bit of British politics should have an incentive to regulate out of existence, and yet...
dmk1793.bsky.social
Reading @londoncentric.media and reflecting on how everything wrong with Britain can be seen through Deliveroo:
- much of the economy is fraudulent
- people don’t go outside
- workers are underpaid and insecure
- the immigration system is broken
- society is being eroded by Big Tech
frjonathanbish.bsky.social
Hello 30-to-50-feral-hogs-discourse, my old friend.

(I mean, having seen the wretched beasts, I think people who talk about this have a point!)
Reposted by Fr Jonathan Bish
mthrjo.bsky.social
“It seems to me appropriate, almost inevitable, that when that great Imagination which in the beginning, for Its own delight and for the delight of men and angels and (in their proper mode) of beasts, had invented and formed the whole world of Nature, submitted to express Itself in human speech,…
Reposted by Fr Jonathan Bish
frjonathanbish.bsky.social
This is going to make him so mad.

On the other hand, this is exactly what the Peace Prize is for.
adamjschwarz.bsky.social
The Nobel Peace Prize 2025 has been awarded to Venezuelan democracy activist María Corina Machado.

The Nobel Committee recognised her “struggle to achieve a just & peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

In other words, exactly the opposite of what Trump is doing to the United States.
frjonathanbish.bsky.social
This was how I learned Trump didn't get the prize, and I have to say, it was a great way to find out!
frjonathanbish.bsky.social
I see they’ve found photos of the committee at church that’s pioneering new work with ‘The Young People.’
frjonathanbish.bsky.social
The UK has one of the lowest unoccupied rates in Europe. Empty homes aren’t a solution; they’re a complete red herring in talking about housing.
frjonathanbish.bsky.social
Well, you’ve got church bellringers on your side. Between that and pub goers you’ve got a nice Lib Dem-style wholesome coalition going.
a man on a horse is ringing a bell in a tower
ALT: a man on a horse is ringing a bell in a tower
media.tenor.com
frjonathanbish.bsky.social
I don’t know what this is, and I don’t want to google it…
Reposted by Fr Jonathan Bish
omaromalleykhan.bsky.social
I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter

Between 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
Reposted by Fr Jonathan Bish
mthrjo.bsky.social
I live one town over from Dewsbury. Batley and Dewsbury have their problems, but it's not true that you just see "a single ethnicity", and there are plenty of people working hard to promote integration. There are, of course, some people who resist it, _and some of them are white_.
saulstaniforth.bsky.social
"You go to some places like Handsworth.. parts of Dewsbury, Bradford, Leicester, where you see.. a single ethnicity.. we don't think that's healthy thing"

Kevin Hollinrake is MP for Thirsk and Malton, which according to the 2021 census is 98% white.
Reposted by Fr Jonathan Bish
hannahswiv.bsky.social
How a bunch of people are simultaneously obsessed with the greatness of England and Britain *and* with drubbing study of its literature and history is BAFFLING to me.
naomialderman.bsky.social
I cannot understand what these people think the purpose of human life is?

It is *not* "pursue joy, deal justly, love well, try to understand as much and see as much of this beautiful world and of the deepness, richness and variety of human culture and experience as you can before you die"?
outonbluesix.bsky.social
How is this repeatedly made into a policy issue - by *all* parties - when the blunt fact of the matter is that grown adults who are obliged to pay for their own education, and relentlessly pursued to repay their loans, should be able to study whatever the fuck they want.
frjonathanbish.bsky.social
I don’t know, could be worse: you could have done Comp-Sci!

And speaking as someone with an allegedly high powered law degree, degrees may or may not have anything to do with what you end up doing: one of the more successful people I know ended up in software design after two theology degrees!
iandunt.bsky.social
Calling English a 'rip-off degree' is one of the most blatant exhibitions of personal barbarism I've ever seen. You've demonstrated nothing but the poverty of your own mind.
frjonathanbish.bsky.social
I mean that seriously, I’m not just drive by posting: why should I, a social democrat who takes the economic position we’re in as a country seriously and is concerned by how vulnerable we are to foreign and domestic extremism vote Green, rather than my usual parties?
frjonathanbish.bsky.social
A party that opposed the most important green transport project in a generation and persistently refuses to take the housing crisis seriously? What’s your definition of ‘better country’?
Reposted by Fr Jonathan Bish
frjonathanbish.bsky.social
There’s a couple of things in play. A lot of people know, say, that asylum seekers get £49 a week, but they’re much less likely to know that visas include the proviso of no recourse to public funds. Depends on you deal with immigration or not. And a lot of people just believe they’re being scammed.
frjonathanbish.bsky.social
And nearly always when you get into the details of who shouldn’t/should count for asylum, it turns out they’re probably less hardline than the Home Office…
frjonathanbish.bsky.social
I mean, I’ve seen the cards that say ‘no recourse to public funds’ on them. (And had a colleague refuse to apply for a grant from a charity he was probably entitled to as it might infringe that, no matter what I told him otherwise!)

Do people just… know nothing about how their countries work?
frjonathanbish.bsky.social
My experience is that there was a an absolutely huge gap between people’s beliefs about how their immigration systems work and how they actually work, and if you’ve had experience of the immigration system in the US or UK, you’ll spend a lot of time with one raised eyebrow when the topic comes up!
beijingpalmer.bsky.social
my in-laws were genuinely shocked that I, an English person, could not simply come and work in the United States at will.
whiskeynachos.bsky.social
Believe it or not, this is only the second most naive and clueless thing I've been told about the immigration system. Number one belongs to my own mother, who was so insulated by my dad that she actually asked me "can't I just bring a relative from Brazil to help me care for the house?"