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Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 16h

Poster on a British train.

#NewYork, I admire your gumption but 'Everything you love' for most of us doesn't include raiding our phones in case we've said naughty things about an ageing orange blob with a liar reflex.

Brits are not going to the #BigApple until that thing goes.

Train advertisement for tourism in New York

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Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 20h

Well of course she'd cut university places. She's competing on misery and hate with Farage.

Source: Times Higher Education
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Badenoch’s number caps plan would cut 100,000 university places

Tory leader to use conference speech to attack ‘debt trap degrees’ and pledge more money for apprenticeships

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Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 20h

Look, #Democrats, if you haven't the gumption to oppose #Trump at least ridicule the bejezus out of the slimeball. Irritate him. Laugh at him. Make jokes. Caricature him. Go to it.

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Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 1d

Nice to see long queues for #flu jabs in #Wokingham. There are fewer barking mad anti-science conspiracy nutters than the media portrays. #scienceworks.

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Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 2d

Trying to remember the last act of unselfish pro-social action I saw. And I can't recall one.

#Britain, you've become a petty shallow mess. Nice flags though...

Youre Aware There Are Other People In The World Right GIF

Alt: Youre Aware There Are Other People In The World Right GIF

media.tenor.com

Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 4d

Make all countries' *receipt* of secret information the act that triggers a charge and we stop this pussyfooting around and stop avoiding having to say what we all know, which is that China hoovers up intelligence.

Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 4d

FIRS can still work in that regime, so can NSIA, so can all the rest of the legislation because the transactions in scope are defined, not the nation. The fact China isn't in the enhanced tier for FIRS is only a sign you didn't need tiers in the first place.

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Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 4d

Decouple the act from the threat. If I pass information marked secret to China, the US or Peru I ought to go to jail, whatever our sotto voce 'threat assessment' says. If I pass non-secret (for example public domain) information to China, US or Peru I ought not to be charged. What's so difficult?

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Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 4d

Absurd. Update the National Security Act 2023 with a new definition of the crime of espionage as 'activity involving the passing of secret information by any individual to any foreign power'.
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Threat assessment of China led to spy case collapse, says CPS

The dropping of charges against two men last month prompted criticism from some ministers and MPs.

www.bbc.com

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Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 5d

How on earth can protesting be 'un-British'? What, for goodness sake, does that even mean? The man's taken leave of his senses. He's aiming to alienate everyone.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Keir Starmer asks students not to join protests on 7 October

The prime minister says it is "un-British" to hold pro-Palestinian protests on the second anniversary of Hamas's attacks on Israel.

www.bbc.com

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Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 6d

The rape of the #countryside around #Wokingham continues as councils pursue the all too obvious plan of creating a massive Wokingham - #Bracknell conurbation. Horrid.

Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 7d

The most unnerving thing found lying about in my bathroom this morning...

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Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 7d

What proportion of #ICE 'agents'(if they are indeed ICE and not #ProudBoys masked up) are female in these videos? Pretty much zero? #ToxicMasculinity field trip.

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Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 7d

If #Lemsip made #icecream. @benandjerrys.bsky.social, this is a big thumbs down.

Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 11d

'May I introduce you to General Stauffenberg?'

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Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 11d

Screaming child on my train - high pitched, high volume - and the parents are making zero effort to stop it. I sense they don't know how...

a young boy is laughing with his mouth open in a striped shirt .

ALT: a young boy is laughing with his mouth open in a striped shirt .

media.tenor.com

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Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 11d

All people normally hear from politicians are promises, 'commitments' (if I could wave my wand, anyone saying 'We are committed to...' would automatically disappear into the ether) and talking points.

*Doing* needs to win back ground from *griping* (a la Farage) - so...*do*! An orgy of *doing*!

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Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 11d

The number of suggestions following in the comments on this show that @martinlewis.moneysavingexpert.com is absolutely on the money (excuse the pun) here. Small is beautiful - and, given #Starmer finds it difficult to do *anything* without annoying lots of people he can't afford to upset, sensible.

Martin Lewis @martinlewis.moneysavingexpert.com · 12d

The govt should find 100 small things that piss people off & fix em, such as…

Ta to Politico for the vid, at its Labour fringe event, I explained that as big changes take time, govts should also have a team focused on small winnable change.

What little fixes'd you want?

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Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 12d

Certifiably insane. We all have to buy US chairs now?

Look, I know he'll back down, forget, change it to 'tariffs on Sweden only' or go off on another mad 'invade X!' rant, but #America, you gave us this idiot. It's your job to get rid of him.

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Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 13d

Well done the European team. Winning the #RyderCup despite the unsporting catcalls, shouting, hectoring noise from boisterous #MAGA -lite #US 'fans' is well deserved. Decency won.
www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/a...

Europe win Ryder Cup after sensational tussle with US at Bethpage, New York

Captain Luke Donald cements his status as a bona fide Ryder Cup legend as Europe hold off a spirited US fightback to win in New York.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 13d

This ridiculous 'hey' thing as a greeting is now in almost every UK TV programme.

Can we be clear - hay is cut dried animal food. It is not a way of saying hello.

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Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 14d

After 14 long years of corrupt, headline-focused, anti-liberal policy ftom the #Tory party I wished #Labour well. But what's their programme? All fathers to be toolmakers?

I don't get it: how can you be in opposition for 14 years and have nothing but knee-jerk policy? How?

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Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 14d

Reading 'Sketches by Boz' again for the first time in years and finding #CharlesDickens is an insufferable pr**k. He scoffs at everyone, the pathetic little twerp. Creations based on real people, invented to make that pipsqueak look good. Yes, by gum he can write - but he's still a stuck up pr**k.

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Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 15d

Watching #TheChelseaDetective: 'There's a pub where deaf people hangout...'.

What, all of us?

Mark Gray @markgray.bsky.social · 15d

Mr #Starmer, what do you stand for?

Please tell me, because all I am getting is,

1. votes of ageing hate-fuelled curmudgeons

2. something unbelievably vague about growth and 'leading' stuff internationally

3. nice hair.

*That's* what comes across.

a man in a suit and tie is smiling in front of a green background with hay written on it

Alt: Keir Starmer a suit and tie is smiling in front of a green background

media.tenor.com

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