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Graham Evans

@mars164.bsky.social

170 followers 260 following 1.3K posts

Retired HR manager who's followed, and often participated in, party politics since my early teenage years.

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Graham Evans @mars164.bsky.social · 15h

You have to have a licence to use the BBC i-player, but not Netflix or Amazon Prime. On the other hand to use the services of the latter you have to pay a subscription, and have an internet connection. Nothing in life comes for free.

Graham Evans @mars164.bsky.social · 15h

Perhaps you should. Indeed many commercial news websites are critical of the BBC website as they see it as unfair competition .

Graham Evans @mars164.bsky.social · 18h

The BBC News Channel has extensive coverage at 6 o'clock.

Graham Evans @mars164.bsky.social · 18h

If the BBC is going to be dismantled by a Reform govt no matter what it does or says now, it might just as well go down with its integrity intact and stop pandering to the pro-Reform agenda set by right wing newspapers.

Reposted by Graham Evans

sharonfisher68.bsky.social @sharonfisher68.bsky.social · 23h

Graham Evans @mars164.bsky.social · 1d

I served for many years as a FE governor and heard rhetoric so many times from both Tory and Lab ministers, but nothing changed. Ministers responsible for FE fell into two categories. One group believed in vocational education, but had no clout. The other saw it as just a step on the greasy poll.

Graham Evans @mars164.bsky.social · 1d

This can only be achieved if local councils and HAs are allowed to borrow much more to build housing for rent, or private companies are given tax incentives to do so. 2/

Graham Evans @mars164.bsky.social · 1d

Affordable housing was always a con. It is just a mechanism in which relatively wealthy buyers cross-subsidised somewhat less wealthy buyers. It does little or nothing to address the housing crisis, which is fundamentally a need for more affordable housing for rent. 1/

Graham Evans @mars164.bsky.social · 1d

Corbyn had lost the confidence of his parliamentary party which is essential in our parliamentary democracy, yet he used his control of the NEC and the absurd rules of the Labour Party regarding deposing a leader to hang on and deliver Johnson his 80-seat majority.

Graham Evans @mars164.bsky.social · 1d

Authoritarianism flows/flowed thru the arteries of Labour under both Corbyn and Starmer.

Graham Evans @mars164.bsky.social · 1d

The NEC should be representative of the boad spectrum of Labour opinion, but under both Corbyn and Stamer it is/was nothing but a Praetorian Guard, there simply to defend the leader against any opposition or contrary views.

Graham Evans @mars164.bsky.social · 3d

I'd give the SNP a decade in govt after Scexit. It would fall apart thereafter because its raison d'être would have vanished. During the interim Scotland could even go backwards economically.

Graham Evans @mars164.bsky.social · 3d

Most of Scottish trade is with the rest of the UK (rUK). Unless Scotland can do a deal with rUK on the lines of NI it would get the worst of all worlds because EU membership wouldn't come anytime soon.

Graham Evans @mars164.bsky.social · 3d

I've no objection to the Lib Dems working with the SNP in Holyrood, but the SNP couldn't even work successfully with the Scottish Greens, and they actually support Scexit.

Graham Evans @mars164.bsky.social · 3d

The SNP relies on an inductive fallacy :

Some small EU members are economically prosperous, therefore because an independent Scotland would be a small European state it will be prosperous.

Graham Evans @mars164.bsky.social · 3d

The Greens of England and Wales have long refused to say whether they support the union. Well at least we now know they don't. The Lib Dems support the integrity of the United Kingdom whereas Scottish Nationalists promise unicorns frolicking in mystical forests.

Graham Evans @mars164.bsky.social · 4d

I won't vote for Reform because I'm a Lib Dems, but so long as there's not a Reform govt I'd take a degree of satisfaction in seeing Tory MP Katie Lam lose to Reform.

Graham Evans @mars164.bsky.social · 4d

Vote Labour as the lesser of two evils is hardly the basis of an inspiring election campaign.

Graham Evans @mars164.bsky.social · 4d

There's a niche position on the left that a Green party can occupy, but the growth in support now is a direct result of disenchantment with a Lab leadership that no longer thinks it needs a broad coalition of voters. The leadership styles of Corbyn and Starmer are fundamentally not that different.

Graham Evans @mars164.bsky.social · 4d

That's still ridiculous. Anyone with a GCSE in German or Spanish will quickly acquire adequate fluency by working and socialising alongside native speakers in the relevant country. The same applies to English.

Graham Evans @mars164.bsky.social · 4d

18 months into office and this looks increasingly like a govt desperately thrashing around to find some way to counter the ethnonationlism and little Englander mentality that seems to have infected right wing politics.

Reposted by Graham Evans

Richard Lowe @richardlowe.bsky.social · 7d

On Farage, Gill, and Russia:

'Stunned?' Farage's Admission He Knew Nathan Gill but Not His Kremlin Associates Does Not Stand Up to Scrutiny

Insiders have told Byline Times it is 'inconceivable' the Reform Leader did not know about his close aide's pro Russian statements

bylinetimes.com

Reposted by Graham Evans

Billion Dollar Brain MDANT @harryhpalmer.bsky.social · 7d

#Reform #Farage #Russia

Paul Marshall @pmarsha11.bsky.social · 8d

"I have worked with Nathan Gill over a period of years and he's been terrific, he's never, ever, let me down. He's as honest as the day is long."
Nigel Farage
BBC News 2016

Welsh election: UKIP's Farage backs 'terrific' Gill

UKIP leader Nigel Farage backs the party's Welsh leader Nathan Gill as

Graham Evans @mars164.bsky.social · 8d

Of course in the short term the government needs to increase its tax revenue, but it shouldn't be at expense of damaging the long term health of the economy.
taxpolicy.org.uk/2025/10/11/r...

Could we have stopped Revolut’s founder from leaving the UK?

Nik Storonsky, the billionaire founder of Revolut, has reportedly left the UK and become tax resident in Dubai – a move that could save him more than £3 billion in UK capital gains tax.

taxpolicy.org.uk

Reposted by Graham Evans

Foxy @foxinsoxuk.bsky.social · 8d

The man that Badenoch and Farage want to copy.

A warning from the South Atlantic

Ben Nelson @bennelson.bsky.social · 8d

In Argentina, President Javier Milei has screwed the economy up so badly he needs a $20 billion bailout. That’s because his “free market” economics don’t actually work. www.currentaffairs.org/news/this-is...

This is Why You Don’t Let Libertarians Run Your Country

In Argentina, President Javier Milei has screwed the economy up so badly he needs a $20 billion bailout. That’s because his “free market” economics don’t actually work.

www.currentaffairs.org