Michael
@michaeljsc.bsky.social
tweeting about: politics, pop culture, general nonsense 🏳️🌈 (@michael__42 in the other place)
The amount of money that would be needed to put public services on a meaningfully better path is not actually that insane, and Labour voters wanted and expected them to act accordingly!
It’s wild that breaking a dumb manifesto pledge you’ve broken in spirit anyway is unthinkable, but carrying out one of the most radical reforms to the justice system in centuries without mentioning it in the manifesto is perfectly fine
Imagine coming up with a proposal so stupid, so unworkable, so thoughtless, that it makes Robert Jenrick look sane by comparison.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
November 25, 2025 at 5:31 PM
The amount of money that would be needed to put public services on a meaningfully better path is not actually that insane, and Labour voters wanted and expected them to act accordingly!
Reposted by Michael
It’s wild that breaking a dumb manifesto pledge you’ve broken in spirit anyway is unthinkable, but carrying out one of the most radical reforms to the justice system in centuries without mentioning it in the manifesto is perfectly fine
Imagine coming up with a proposal so stupid, so unworkable, so thoughtless, that it makes Robert Jenrick look sane by comparison.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Jury trials could be scrapped except in most serious cases
Only cases of alleged murder, rape or manslaughter will be decided by a jury under new proposals to cut court backlogs.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 25, 2025 at 5:11 PM
It’s wild that breaking a dumb manifesto pledge you’ve broken in spirit anyway is unthinkable, but carrying out one of the most radical reforms to the justice system in centuries without mentioning it in the manifesto is perfectly fine
Reposted by Michael
Will be a “tough sell” in interviews to explain how continuing to reduce fuel duty while imposing a new charge on EVs fits with the EV transition
November 25, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Will be a “tough sell” in interviews to explain how continuing to reduce fuel duty while imposing a new charge on EVs fits with the EV transition
Reposted by Michael
November 25, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Reposted by Michael
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
Reposted by Michael
Has no one in the BBC heard of the Streisand effect?
Did everyone think, "oh, Rutger Bregman, he'll be cool with this"?
Did everyone think, "oh, Rutger Bregman, he'll be cool with this"?
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Has no one in the BBC heard of the Streisand effect?
Did everyone think, "oh, Rutger Bregman, he'll be cool with this"?
Did everyone think, "oh, Rutger Bregman, he'll be cool with this"?
Rachel Reeves has a strange understanding of smorgasbords
November 25, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Rachel Reeves has a strange understanding of smorgasbords
Rachel Reeves has a strange understanding of smorgasbords
November 25, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Rachel Reeves has a strange understanding of smorgasbords
Reposted by Michael
UK now at the point where the former Chair of the Racial Equalities Commission is calling for campaigns of terror against people of colour on the streets of the UK
Trevor Philips in the Times, calling for a Trump/Miller-style of random deportations based on skin colour.
archive.ph/RlXPj
archive.ph/RlXPj
November 24, 2025 at 11:05 PM
UK now at the point where the former Chair of the Racial Equalities Commission is calling for campaigns of terror against people of colour on the streets of the UK
Reposted by Michael
Yeah the pre-emptive nihilism people display is *very obviously* a self-fulfilling prophesy and extremely in fact part of shifting our cultural norms in exactly the direction Farage et al would prefer. Care, care simply because it matters, and it matters to you. Say as much publicly.
All the supposedly progressive people saying 'Nigel Farage's racism doesn't matter. His fans love it'.
It matters whether the leader of the party leading all the opinion polls is an outright racist. It matters if he called black people 'wogs' and said 'gas them' to Jews. Not everything is a game
It matters whether the leader of the party leading all the opinion polls is an outright racist. It matters if he called black people 'wogs' and said 'gas them' to Jews. Not everything is a game
November 25, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Yeah the pre-emptive nihilism people display is *very obviously* a self-fulfilling prophesy and extremely in fact part of shifting our cultural norms in exactly the direction Farage et al would prefer. Care, care simply because it matters, and it matters to you. Say as much publicly.
Reposted by Michael
Properly moving xkcd
xkcd.com/3172/
xkcd.com/3172/
Fifteen Years
xkcd.com
November 24, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Properly moving xkcd
xkcd.com/3172/
xkcd.com/3172/
Reposted by Michael
The great thing about this is the fearless interviewer. Imagine if all journalists were fearless seekers of truth instead of folding in the face of Farage's prickly blustering.
“I would never ever do it in a hurtful or insulting way”
Nigel Farage responds to allegations of racist behaviour from when he was a teenager at school
@itvnewspolitics.bsky.social
Nigel Farage responds to allegations of racist behaviour from when he was a teenager at school
@itvnewspolitics.bsky.social
November 25, 2025 at 6:14 AM
The great thing about this is the fearless interviewer. Imagine if all journalists were fearless seekers of truth instead of folding in the face of Farage's prickly blustering.
Reposted by Michael
"My beloved working class" - i.e. the one that exists in his head, but in real life has always rejected this particularly ugly strain of 'you don't deserve commercial television, nice holidays or little luxuries' whenever Labour have taken it to the public.
November 24, 2025 at 11:44 PM
"My beloved working class" - i.e. the one that exists in his head, but in real life has always rejected this particularly ugly strain of 'you don't deserve commercial television, nice holidays or little luxuries' whenever Labour have taken it to the public.
Reposted by Michael
“Bearing down on the cost of living” latest:
UK supermarkets set to be hit by higher business rates after Treasury U-turn
Chancellor expected to use Budget to include large retail premises in the top band of the property-based levy
www.ft.com
November 24, 2025 at 10:40 PM
“Bearing down on the cost of living” latest:
Reposted by Michael
A lawyer for Nigel Farage (27th Oct 2025) promised "proceedings would be issued forthwith" if the Guardian were to publish "any allegation suggesting that Mr Farage engaged in, condoned, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour"
A bluff?
The paper has done so
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
A bluff?
The paper has done so
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
November 24, 2025 at 9:37 PM
A lawyer for Nigel Farage (27th Oct 2025) promised "proceedings would be issued forthwith" if the Guardian were to publish "any allegation suggesting that Mr Farage engaged in, condoned, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour"
A bluff?
The paper has done so
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
A bluff?
The paper has done so
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Michael
Imagine praising "Latino parents are now so afraid to be seen out and about that they have a rota to walk the Latino children" and not wondering where your humanity went?
Trevor Philips in the Times, calling for a Trump/Miller-style of random deportations based on skin colour.
archive.ph/RlXPj
archive.ph/RlXPj
November 24, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Imagine praising "Latino parents are now so afraid to be seen out and about that they have a rota to walk the Latino children" and not wondering where your humanity went?
This article is such drivel. In one paragraph here we have the up is down assertion that cutting immigration would help “Reeves’s numbers add up”, and the suggestion that we need to choose migrants rather than them choosing us (are we going to lift them off the street in their home countries?)
November 24, 2025 at 9:29 PM
This article is such drivel. In one paragraph here we have the up is down assertion that cutting immigration would help “Reeves’s numbers add up”, and the suggestion that we need to choose migrants rather than them choosing us (are we going to lift them off the street in their home countries?)
Reposted by Michael
oh, I appear to have started a Substack by accident gileswilkes.substack.com/p/the-fiscal...
the fiscal rules, again?
people don't like them. Their better ideas just recreate them
gileswilkes.substack.com
November 24, 2025 at 4:00 PM
oh, I appear to have started a Substack by accident gileswilkes.substack.com/p/the-fiscal...
Reposted by Michael
"I was confident that Ryanair would match your public spiritedness by refunding you the £100 fee as a goodwill gesture. I was naive."
Some epic shithousery from Ryanair here, impressive.
Some epic shithousery from Ryanair here, impressive.
Ryanair expects me to take the financial hit for helping others
Ryanair expects me to take the financial hit for helping others
As a doctor I stepped in to tend to an elderly passenger … but it won’t waive £100 transfer fee to rebook
www.theguardian.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:59 AM
"I was confident that Ryanair would match your public spiritedness by refunding you the £100 fee as a goodwill gesture. I was naive."
Some epic shithousery from Ryanair here, impressive.
Some epic shithousery from Ryanair here, impressive.
One line that bugged me in one of them is that they decided not to take the pain of raising income tax when it was only going to raise a few billion.
Well, yes, because they were going to do the stupid Resolution Foundation NICs cut with it! How about just raising income tax?
Well, yes, because they were going to do the stupid Resolution Foundation NICs cut with it! How about just raising income tax?
Summarised all the Budget preview pieces to save you time:
Reeves was going to raise income tax but since the forecast is a bit better she won’t. Instead she’ll just do a bunch of tweaks and freezes that will annoy everyone and not leave her enough headroom to avoid the same thing next year. 1/2
Reeves was going to raise income tax but since the forecast is a bit better she won’t. Instead she’ll just do a bunch of tweaks and freezes that will annoy everyone and not leave her enough headroom to avoid the same thing next year. 1/2
November 23, 2025 at 11:21 PM
One line that bugged me in one of them is that they decided not to take the pain of raising income tax when it was only going to raise a few billion.
Well, yes, because they were going to do the stupid Resolution Foundation NICs cut with it! How about just raising income tax?
Well, yes, because they were going to do the stupid Resolution Foundation NICs cut with it! How about just raising income tax?
Summarised all the Budget preview pieces to save you time:
Reeves was going to raise income tax but since the forecast is a bit better she won’t. Instead she’ll just do a bunch of tweaks and freezes that will annoy everyone and not leave her enough headroom to avoid the same thing next year. 1/2
Reeves was going to raise income tax but since the forecast is a bit better she won’t. Instead she’ll just do a bunch of tweaks and freezes that will annoy everyone and not leave her enough headroom to avoid the same thing next year. 1/2
November 23, 2025 at 11:18 PM
Summarised all the Budget preview pieces to save you time:
Reeves was going to raise income tax but since the forecast is a bit better she won’t. Instead she’ll just do a bunch of tweaks and freezes that will annoy everyone and not leave her enough headroom to avoid the same thing next year. 1/2
Reeves was going to raise income tax but since the forecast is a bit better she won’t. Instead she’ll just do a bunch of tweaks and freezes that will annoy everyone and not leave her enough headroom to avoid the same thing next year. 1/2
Reposted by Michael
Unnerving how much this government just convinces itself of things where you go “well, it would be lovely if that were true”.
November 22, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Unnerving how much this government just convinces itself of things where you go “well, it would be lovely if that were true”.
Incredibly difficult piece to read (which is why I’m only sharing it a day and a half after everyone else).
Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world
Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world
A year-long investigation reveals how mothers lost children after being radicalised by uplifting podcast tales of births without midwives or doctors
As Esau Lopez was asphyxiated for the first 17 minutes of his life on Earth, the atmosphere in the room remained serene, even ecstatic. Acoustic music crooned from a speaker in a modest two-bedroom apartment in a suburb of Pennsylvania. “You are a queen,” murmured one of three friends in the room.
Only Esau’s mother, Gabrielle Lopez, felt something was wrong. She was pushing hard, but her son would not be born. “Can you help [him] out?” she asked, as Esau crowned. “Baby is coming,” the friend replied. Four minutes later, Lopez asked again, “Can you grab [him]?” Another friend murmured, “Baby is safe.” Six minutes passed. Again, Lopez asked, “Can you grab [him]?” Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 23, 2025 at 11:06 PM
Incredibly difficult piece to read (which is why I’m only sharing it a day and a half after everyone else).
Reposted by Michael
Investors warn Rachel Reeves against delaying fiscal pain in UK Budget on.ft.com/4ps1eDe
Investors warn Rachel Reeves against delaying fiscal pain in UK Budget
Chancellor has abandoned a planned income tax rise that would have kicked in quickly
on.ft.com
November 23, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Investors warn Rachel Reeves against delaying fiscal pain in UK Budget on.ft.com/4ps1eDe