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Reposted by Michael

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 5h

‘Amoral, evil’: vitriolic backlash builds against comics who played Riyadh festival

Murder by bone-saw, lashings for rape victims, punitive amputation, jail for satirists … these are the human rights abuses fuelling the fury now being directed at the likes of Louis CK and Dave Chappelle. How have they reacted?

www.theguardian.com

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Chris Hanretty @chanret.bsky.social · 9h

Not quite sure why people putting the 14 words on signs get a ruminative essay on how the saltire has been used www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The battle for Scotland's flag: Why the right has adopted the saltire

The saltire has long been embraced by supporters of Scottish independence – but now it is being unfurled for a different cause.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Will Cooling @willcooling.bsky.social · 20h

Worth remembering that Labour MPs sat on their hands as the British Government basically did the same to our international development ministry at around the same time - what little money is still in the "international aid" budget is overwhelmingly spent in the UK

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

i desperately want everyone involved in the destruction of USAID to have to, st the very least, answer to the american people for the suffering and misery they have caused apnews.com/article/myan...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 20h

I would die for Alan Carr

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 21h

oh that’s Charlotte I think

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 21h

Love all these articles that are like “gosh, I didn’t just do it for the money, I actually did it because Saudi Arabia is changing for the better”.

So they paid for your performance and got your PR services as a free extra.

Ian Martin @ianmartin.bsky.social · 1d

ha ha ha

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I have been criticised for being part of the Riyadh comedy festival. This is why I did it | Omid Djalili

The headlines focus on money, but the gigs were great and I think there are different ways to achieve progress. Art, especially comedy, can be part of that, says stand-up comedian, Omid Djalili.

www.theguardian.com

Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 21h

She has indeed! And convinced Maria to go and re-pack her trunk her way.

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 21h

Currently reading Pride and Prejudice for the first time. I feel like the adaptations all capture Mr Collins’s ridiculousness, but tone down Lady Catherine’s. Part of his ridiculousness is that the object of his toadying is just as full of inane and incessant blather as he is!

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Tyron @tyron.bsky.social · 1d

Great and vital piece.

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 1d

funny that Matthew Syed joined the Tories saying only they would get the debt down and Kemi Badenoch was like “thanks Matt, welcome! would you like to do a speech at conference? btw we’re going to announce a massive new deportation force and scrap stamp duty with no replacement.”

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 1d

new case for Scottish independence just dropped

1) be independent
2) ???
3) increase average income

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Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 1d

Spot on from @stephenkb.bsky.social. And the other aspect of this nasty turn is the eliding of British ‘culture’ with ‘white British’, which will shock anyone who has watched TV or football, or listened to music, or read a book, or indeed breathed since 1980.

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 1d

One of the Conservative party's contributions to our country has been keeping people who think you can measure integration through skin colour out of office - what next, are they only going to be lukewarm on the property-owning democracy?

Thank the Tories for keeping Robert Jenrick out of high office

Shadow justice secretary’s comment about not seeing a ‘white face’ shows he does not understand integration

www.ft.com

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 1d

idk, I don’t think she had to have, like, a costed manifesto, but some sense of: ok, she thinks the government is going wrong, what’s her diagnosis of why other than just bad advisers

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 1d

Like obviously the deputy leader doesn’t get to set policy but I think the only policy issue she’s actually talked about is the two child cap, which was probably going to go anyway, and obviously I think that’s important but it’s not touching the sides of the bigger problem.

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 1d

Not that I don’t see the attraction of that obviously, but it feels like a missed opportunity to have any kind of substantive debate about where the government is actually going wrong.

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah just seems like it has suited everyone involved not to have any real disagreement or debate. I’d be feeling pretty short-changed if I was a Labour member.

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 1d

Oh sure, I’m not saying there haven’t been mistakes, I’m saying it’s weird that she’s not saying what she thinks they have been.

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 1d

She says “When we rely on a narrower and narrower set of voices, groupthink sets in, and that’s when mistakes and wrong turns happen.”

Ok: what mistakes and wrong turns are those?

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 1d

I’m sure there are reasons for her having such a content-free campaign - what she thinks members want to hear, not burning bridges with the leadership, playing it safe as she’s the frontrunner - but I return to my earlier tweet:

Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · Sep 8

Oh yeah that’s clearly the reason, but there’s always going to be voters you don’t want to upset, at some point you have to have coherent politics and talk about them in public or you’ll end up like Starmer!

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 1d

It has to be said that this is an absolutely rubbish closing pitch. Ironically winning as the change candidate without any clear vision for change is very Starmer of her. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Lucy Powell tells Labour it can’t sugarcoat how badly things are going

Frontrunner for deputy leadership addresses rally as opponent Bridget Phillipson pledges ‘second Labour term our children deserve’

www.theguardian.com

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 1d

got my first clear on Hades II!

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 1d

The Bishop of Birmingham has written to the Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick about his comments about Handsworth

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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 1d

not the bluesky moderation

Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 1d

new episodes of Slow Horses, Drag Race UK and Celebrity Traitors x2 all coming out tomorrow and Thursday when I’m busy every night this week with choir

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