Author | Lightnews

Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 9h

See they're keeping quiet about the rail worker Samir Zitouni who was critically wounded after putting himself in the way of the knifeman to halt his progress

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Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 11h

It's a 'tell' that the policy they're pursuing is definitely not progressive.

Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 12h

Elon, Nigel, Yax, 'Bobby J' & the rest will be spitting feathers over this
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Cambridgeshire stabbing attack: ‘heroic’ train worker praised for saving passengers’ lives

LNER employee Samir Zitouni, who was hospitalised after Saturday’s incident, hailed by police for ‘incredibly brave’ actions

www.theguardian.com

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Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 13h

There's a binary choice at the heart of this between what used to be called hard & soft Brexits. Labour have committed to maintaining a hard Brexit; ironically its failure is a large part of why Reform are thriving

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Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 14h

Yes but Labour's 'sensible' tendency voted for it & ruled out making any meaningful change to it while in office.
They may have inherited it; now, in every sense it's their Brexit

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Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 3d

So here's a handy graphic produced by EU Commission at the time, showing how UK red lines limited the deal on offer. A 'soft Brexit ' was on offer at the outset & no less quick or easy than what in the end was tortuously negotiated by Boris Johnson
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/michel...

Hard Brexit Explained In One 'Killer Graphic', Brussels-style

Barnier ridicules May. But UK insists it will get a 'bespoke' deal

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

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Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 3d

You may be missing the point that it was UK govs decision to accept neither the '4 freedoms' or ECJ jurisdiction which defined the Brexit deal, not EU rules. Had they, a mechanism would have been found to enable UK staying within SM&CU, & been no more problematic than doing the deal we did

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Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 3d

That's why Theresa May had to specifically rule it out is it?

Sorry you're too dull to argue with

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Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 3d

Check your history, you're making it up as you go along. Theresa May specifically ruled out staying in SM & CU, to the EU's surprise, & that defined the type of deal on offer.

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Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 3d

That's semantics.
We clearly could have remained fully aligned on trade with EU- effectively being 'in' SM & CU

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Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 3d

They said whatever suited their purpose at the moment they said it.
I think their final position was we would leave SM to join up with the vast free trade zone extending 'from Iceland to the Russian border'

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Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 3d

There was no good deal.
The least bad deal would have been to retain our place in SM & CU. Doing that would have underlined how pointless Brexit was; so they didn't

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Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 3d

Just maybe advertising campaigns with diverse casts give better results, & that's all there is to it

Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 5d

UK politics has forgotten to take its meds

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Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 5d

It's a distortion, not a summary - the ' defence force' part of IDF being important context that gives the phrase uttered a different meaning to the headline reporting it

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Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 5d

Yesterday R4's 6 o clock news devoted it's top 15 minutes to various 'migrant crime' stories. It's very hard to see how there's not an agenda

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Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 5d

They will notice the impact on understaffed health & care services; then they'll blame migration because, like a Reform MP watching adverts it's more to do with a feeling there's too much melanin in the mix than any objective reality.

Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 6d

Worth remembering that back in the 80's Israel boosted Hamas as a counter to the secular, nationalist Palestinian groups who dominated it's politics

euintelligence.com/big-players/...

Fact Check: Yes! Israel Created Hamas (Here Is Proof)

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is marked by complexity and nuance, encompassing various actors, ideologies, and historical events. Among the key players is Ha

euintelligence.com

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Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 7d

It's the wrong question. Unlike 1945 or 1997 there was no serious political project, they've been found out fairly quickly & another majority is out of the question.
So the question is how does Starmer avoid being the midwife for Reform?

Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 7d

It's not the populism that counts - it's what's behind it. The most successful populist leader, FDR, was also the most significant US president of the 20th Century ( in a good way). Just because the message is delivered in simple terms, doesn't mean it's wrong

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Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 7d

If it was she wouldn't have said it. The political tragedy of the last 5 years is how a fear of challenging the crescendo of dog whistles has led to a place it can now be said out loud

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Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 8d

Except it's in addition to €500 bn infrastructure investment fund which you'd have seen had you read through.The point being they're addressing their problems at the scale needed & looking at the next 30 years not GDP growth in 2025. It's way beyond what UK could do, given our borrowing costs

Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 8d

The bottom line is Germany can do this :
www.chinadailyhk.com/hk/article/6...
While Britain can't.

Germany unveils massive investment plan to boost economy amid crucial reform

The initiative, dubbed "Made for Germany", was announced at a business summit attended by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and executives from leading German and international companies.

www.chinadailyhk.com

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Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 11d

Odd though that both Welsh & Scottish nationalists are more internationalist in outlook & pro trans national alliances than the 'big beasts' of UK politics.
There's a difference between the small nation that recognises interdependence of states & the 'big' nations belief in its exceptionalism

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Gareth Edwards @gedw23.bsky.social · 11d

Local beat vocal. Good news

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