Mark Doidge
@markdoidge.bsky.social
970 followers 330 following 1K posts
Sociologist at Loughborough researching sport, environmental sustainability, antiracism & refugees. Member @fanseurope, trustee @britsoci
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markdoidge.bsky.social
This week Luis Rubiales is facing trial for sexual assault of Jenni Hermoso after Spain won the 2023 World Cup. Today we’ve had our paper on the incident published.
Reposted by Mark Doidge
Reposted by Mark Doidge
jamesomalley.co.uk
It's almost exactly four years since Tim Shipman's notorious "Boris Johnson squats like a giant toad" tweet.

Seems like important context given how we often talk as though the next election – four years away – is a done deal.
Reposted by Mark Doidge
edmorrish.bsky.social
you know that critique of ai that says it’s like taking a forklift to the gym and expecting to get stronger? well this bit of that guardian article about people using chatgpt in dating apps kinda proves it correct
Which is why the man who greeted her inside the pub – polite, pleasant but oddly flat – felt like a stranger. Gone was the quickfire wit and playful rhythm she’d come to expect from their exchanges. Over pints he stumbled through small talk, checked his phone a little too often, and seemed to wilt under the pressure of her questions. “I felt like I was sitting opposite someone I’d never even spoken to,” she says. “I tried to have the same sort of conversation as we’d been having online, but it was like, ‘Knock, knock, is anyone home?’ – like he knew basically nothing about me. That’s when I suspected he’d been using AI.”

Rachel gave her date the benefit of the doubt. “I thought maybe he was nervous,” she says. But she’d been “Chatfished” before, so when the gap between his real and digital selves failed to close on their second date, she called it off. “I’d already been ChatGPT-ed into bed at least once. I didn’t want it to happen again.”
markdoidge.bsky.social
Incredible how across Europe and the US all those proud patriots who claim to love their country are effectively doing the work to undermine their own countries for a foreign power
samfr.bsky.social
New post just out:

The relationship between Russia and the European radical right goes well beyond Reform's Nathan Gill being bribed.

In this post I trace the history back to the 1990s and look at the threat it poses now.

(£/free trial)

open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/r...
Russia and the rise of the radical right
Marine Le Pen meets with Putin before the 2017 French Presidential election (Photo credit Mikhail Klimentyev/AFP via Getty Images)
open.substack.com
Reposted by Mark Doidge
dieworkwear.bsky.social
seems like a non-insignificant percentage of rage against the machine's fanbase are young republican men driving SUVs bopping their head to anti-oil, pro-immigrant songs thinking the lyrics are about how they wish their suburban parents would get off their back
Tom Morello tweets: "Fascinating that all those “don’t tread on me” posers and their AR-15’s are nowhere to be seen and government tyranny is instead being opposed by a guy in an inflatable frog suit."

Someone named Manny replies: "@grok
 why do some people say Tom Morello and band mates are RAGE FOR THE MACHINE and not against ?"
Reposted by Mark Doidge
democracyactionnet.bsky.social
Breaking: Disturbing scenes out of Portland, 2025 — authorities warn the situation could escalate.
Reposted by Mark Doidge
arfurztowcrate.bsky.social
Thatcher said "The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."

The trouble with capitalism is that if you run out of other people's money, you can do it again with a new limited company
Reposted by Mark Doidge
danielsohege.bsky.social
At least one senior Labour official seems to finally remember they aren't in Reform.
The changes won't just harm economy and country, they'll destroy families and force more people into becoming undocumented, leading to more deportations. They need scrapping not pausing.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Sir Sadiq Khan calls for pause on new immigration rules
The mayor of London said the changes had "moved the goalposts".
www.bbc.com
Reposted by Mark Doidge
aurelmondon.bsky.social
Regardless of what one thinks of the Greens and Zack Polanski, there is something refreshing and much needed about seeing a politician name far-right discourse as it is

No more euphemising, no more "populism", "legitimate concerns" etc - accurate & damning depictions instead as needed
zackpolanski.bsky.social
Greens growing. Reform ratttled.

PS - I changed my name back to my family's original Jewish name because I'm proud of being Jewish. If Tice think that makes me a weirdo, I think that makes him an antisemite.

Join.greenparty.org.uk
Tice "green party leader Zack Polanski is a weirdo. Changed his name, claimed hypnosis could increase women's breast size, thinks me should compete in women's sport, thinks women can have a penis. Other than that he's fine. Vote Green. Get weirdo."
Reposted by Mark Doidge
zackpolanski.bsky.social
Ever since I finished Question Time, Reform have massively been on the attack.

Including a rant from Richard Tice entirely designed to distract from Reform and Russia.

Everyone should know about Nathan Gill, the bribes from Russia and the link to Reform.
Reposted by Mark Doidge
aurelmondon.bsky.social
Why people don't trust mainstream politics is a mystery...
Two headlines in a row

Tony Blair and Nick Clegg hosted dinner giving tech bosses access to UK minister

Boris Johnson breached rules designed to stop abuse of contacts made in public office, watchdog finds
markdoidge.bsky.social
The Conservatives are becoming irrelevant and trying to find more extreme rhetoric to make them visible but only encouraging Reform. Labour should recognise that chasing this actually leads to their own demise
sundersays.bsky.social
Shadow Justice Secretary has made a symbolic gesture of support for Quran burning, both in law & apparently in practice too
Reposted by Mark Doidge
sundersays.bsky.social
Shadow Justice Secretary has made a symbolic gesture of support for Quran burning, both in law & apparently in practice too
Reposted by Mark Doidge
davidwearing.bsky.social
When centrists affirm and validate racist grievance politics - that refugees are a burden, that racists have "legitimate concerns" about refugees - they empower the far right to take steps like the below, which would be unthinkable had the underlying assumptions not been turned into a common sense.
sundersays.bsky.social
Restore Britain's convoluted way of calliing for Britain to take no refugees at all.

UK should only ever give refugee status to genuine asylum seekers from neighbouring countries, which, given every one of our neighbours is a safe country "would effectively mean scrapping our whole asylum system"
Reposted by Mark Doidge
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
This is like writing about someone hoping to get a Best Actor Oscar despite not appearing in any films
Reposted by Mark Doidge
adambienkov.bsky.social
Call me crazy but I've got a sneaking feeling that putting the country in charge of a politician who likes to encourage people to publicly burn religious texts won't work out too well
Reposted by Mark Doidge
adambienkov.bsky.social
Nigel Farage accuses teachers of "poisoning our kids" on race issues.

Here's a reminder of what teachers and fellow pupils at Farage's own school remember of his own views on that subject.

www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/nigel-fara...
Reposted by Mark Doidge
chrischirp.bsky.social
🧵🚨

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
Reposted by Mark Doidge
markthomasinfo.bsky.social
“You’re banned, you can’t chant that, you’re nicked for holding a sign, you’re kids are poorer, you’re colder, you have to have an ID card and the racists have legitimate concerns in our island of strangers… now vote for us or Farage wins.”
Reposted by Mark Doidge
snig.bsky.social
Robert Jenrick's comments about Handsworth represent more of his abhorrent racism. There's no way he can look at the colour of someone's face and tell how "integrated" they are. Also, he went to Handsworth during a bin strike to make a video about litter to smear that community. #ToryRacism
Robert Jenrick

Robert Jenrick complained of 'not seeing another white face' in Birmingham neighbourhood

Shadow justice secretary criticised for suggesting he could tell how integrated Handsworth was based on short visit

Rowena Mason Whitehall editor

Tue 7 Oct 2025 06.57 BST

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Robert Jenrick complained about visiting an area of Birmingham where he "didn't see another white face" and said it was not the kind of country he wanted to live in.

After highlighting the lack of white people, the shadow justice secretary said it was not about "the colour of your skin or your faith" and he wanted people to live alongside each other.

i He told the dinner: “I went to Handsworth in Birmingham the other day to do a video on litter and it was absolutely appalling. It's as close as I've come to a slum in this country.

But the other thing I noticed there was that it was one of the worst integrated places I've ever been to. In fact, in the hour and a half I was filming news there I didn't see another white face.

"That's not the kind of country I want to live in. I want to live in a country where people are properly integrated. It's not about the colour of your skin or your faith, of course it isn't. But I want people to be living alongside each other, not parallel lives. That's not the right way we want to live as a country." The area's independent MP Ayoub Khan said: "The claims made by the shadow justice secretary are not only wildly false but also incredibly irresponsible. He has misrepresented a storied and diverse community, awkwardly distorting the product of an all-out bin strike to fit his culture-warrior narrative filled with far-right cliches. According to Birmingham city council, the ethnicity of Handsworth is 25% Pakistani, 23% Indian, 10% Bangladeshi, 16% Black African or Black Caribbean, 10% mixed or other ethnic group and 9% white.
Reposted by Mark Doidge
ottoenglish.bsky.social
UAE has no democratically elected institutions, no free speech and an appalling human rights record.

Its economy functions on completely different metrics to the ours & ranks well below us for GDP

No serious person would ever think that we should emulate it.

But here's Tice calling us decadent