Ms Lesley Smith
@mslesleysmith.bsky.social
Ex Amazon and Revolut. Brent Labour Councillor for Queen’s Park ward. Love London, Norfolk. Politics, walking, running slowly…🇺🇦
Reposted by Ms Lesley Smith
New Swingometer! The Gorton and Denton By-election: A tale of Two Manchesters
open.substack.com/pub/swingome...
open.substack.com/pub/swingome...
The Gorton and Denton by-election: a tale of two Manchesters?
Unpopular incumbent + fragmented opposition + unusual seat = unpredictable contest
open.substack.com
January 28, 2026 at 7:21 PM
New Swingometer! The Gorton and Denton By-election: A tale of Two Manchesters
open.substack.com/pub/swingome...
open.substack.com/pub/swingome...
@t0nyyates.bsky.social Jen to come to blue sky drinks but you don’t follow me so can’t dm… 😳
January 27, 2026 at 6:48 PM
@t0nyyates.bsky.social Jen to come to blue sky drinks but you don’t follow me so can’t dm… 😳
A Squash and a Squeeze by Julia Donaldson, or Zog or the Snail and the Whale? Oliver Jeffers’ Lost and Found, How to Catch a Star or The Way Back Home, Shirley Hughes’ Alfie gets in First or Dogger… all brilliant
January 27, 2026 at 6:10 PM
A Squash and a Squeeze by Julia Donaldson, or Zog or the Snail and the Whale? Oliver Jeffers’ Lost and Found, How to Catch a Star or The Way Back Home, Shirley Hughes’ Alfie gets in First or Dogger… all brilliant
Reposted by Ms Lesley Smith
Take a stand
#RomanCatholics
#RomanCatholics
Pope Leo ally Cardinal Tobin of New Jersey urged Catholics to lobby to defund ICE/DHS as "lawless organization" on a Zoom call with hundreds on Sunday night. Explicitly compares the moral necessity of resistance now to resistance against fascism.🧵1/
January 27, 2026 at 3:14 PM
Take a stand
#RomanCatholics
#RomanCatholics
open.substack.com/pub/tinabrow...
Gripping read from an eye witness to the Murdoch dynasty’s gyrations.
Gripping read from an eye witness to the Murdoch dynasty’s gyrations.
Rupert Murdoch’s Poisoned Dynasty
Gabriel Sherman’s new book Bonfire of the Murdochs is full of juice.
open.substack.com
January 27, 2026 at 1:19 PM
open.substack.com/pub/tinabrow...
Gripping read from an eye witness to the Murdoch dynasty’s gyrations.
Gripping read from an eye witness to the Murdoch dynasty’s gyrations.
Reposted by Ms Lesley Smith
Took me a few days but I finally wrote up this good news story from the north west of the capital. Wouldn't it be nice if the doves idea caught on? www.onlondon.co.uk/walks-talks-... #london #truelondon
Walks, talks and doves for peace in London's Queen's Park
A small, local, interfaith initiative in the north west of the city is sending a large message to the rest of the capital and the world
www.onlondon.co.uk
January 26, 2026 at 8:50 AM
Took me a few days but I finally wrote up this good news story from the north west of the capital. Wouldn't it be nice if the doves idea caught on? www.onlondon.co.uk/walks-talks-... #london #truelondon
Should British Jews flee to America?
A reply to an invitation
open.substack.com
January 26, 2026 at 9:42 AM
Reposted by Ms Lesley Smith
Am beyond furious at the BBC bothsiding the latest murder on American streets. There isn't a "war of words" or "finger pointing". Watch the fxxxing videos. One side is fxxxing lying. This is shameful
January 25, 2026 at 9:38 AM
Am beyond furious at the BBC bothsiding the latest murder on American streets. There isn't a "war of words" or "finger pointing". Watch the fxxxing videos. One side is fxxxing lying. This is shameful
Reposted by Ms Lesley Smith
coin op meters still very common into the 90s
January 24, 2026 at 6:30 PM
coin op meters still very common into the 90s
Reposted by Ms Lesley Smith
My childhood home was built in the late 50s and didn’t have central heating until the late 70s. This was the norm for my friends. At the risk of going into Monty Python territory, as a kid I remember regularly waking to find ice on the inside of my bedroom window
January 24, 2026 at 9:02 AM
My childhood home was built in the late 50s and didn’t have central heating until the late 70s. This was the norm for my friends. At the risk of going into Monty Python territory, as a kid I remember regularly waking to find ice on the inside of my bedroom window
Reposted by Ms Lesley Smith
When my family came to the U.K. from America in 1965, central heating was considered to make you ‘soft’, and one of my teachers openly mocked the practice; at which point, the whole class turned to stare at me.
January 24, 2026 at 9:14 AM
When my family came to the U.K. from America in 1965, central heating was considered to make you ‘soft’, and one of my teachers openly mocked the practice; at which point, the whole class turned to stare at me.
Reposted by Ms Lesley Smith
One of the things I think we ought to do a much better job teaching is just how polluted cities were before the environmental movement / Clean Air Act and equivalents.
The Great London Smog killed 4000 people in London in 1952, and that was from burning coal in their houses! But it's forgotten.
The Great London Smog killed 4000 people in London in 1952, and that was from burning coal in their houses! But it's forgotten.
January 24, 2026 at 8:45 AM
One of the things I think we ought to do a much better job teaching is just how polluted cities were before the environmental movement / Clean Air Act and equivalents.
The Great London Smog killed 4000 people in London in 1952, and that was from burning coal in their houses! But it's forgotten.
The Great London Smog killed 4000 people in London in 1952, and that was from burning coal in their houses! But it's forgotten.
Reposted by Ms Lesley Smith
People younger than about 40-45 won’t have been aware of the upheaval that the dash for gas caused. Almost every street in the land being dug up to lay or improve the gas network, every home getting a gas boiler fitted to replace a back boiler etc. Remarkable transformation from, say, 1975 to 1985
January 24, 2026 at 11:19 AM
People younger than about 40-45 won’t have been aware of the upheaval that the dash for gas caused. Almost every street in the land being dug up to lay or improve the gas network, every home getting a gas boiler fitted to replace a back boiler etc. Remarkable transformation from, say, 1975 to 1985
Reposted by Ms Lesley Smith
Eyvind Earle • Turquoise •
January 23, 2026 at 11:42 AM
Eyvind Earle • Turquoise •
Ex- Conservative councillor pleads guilty to raping wife with other men over 13 years
www.thetimes.com/article/f320...
www.thetimes.com/article/f320...
Ex- councillor Philip Young pleads guilty to raping wife with other men over 13 years
Philip Young, 49, was arrested last year for crimes committed against Joanne Young, 48, who waived her right to anonymity
www.thetimes.com
January 23, 2026 at 3:46 PM
Ex- Conservative councillor pleads guilty to raping wife with other men over 13 years
www.thetimes.com/article/f320...
www.thetimes.com/article/f320...
Reposted by Ms Lesley Smith
Sky News: Danish PM Mette Freideriksen’s note in the visitors book when she visited UK today
January 23, 2026 at 4:59 AM
Sky News: Danish PM Mette Freideriksen’s note in the visitors book when she visited UK today
In better news, Cluj Napoca has ‘Green Friday’ every week and all the buses are free. So all the streets are full as are the buses. There are people everywhere. I assume retail sales get a big boost but also museums, tourist sites etc. It’s great. #Greenertransport
January 23, 2026 at 9:02 AM
In better news, Cluj Napoca has ‘Green Friday’ every week and all the buses are free. So all the streets are full as are the buses. There are people everywhere. I assume retail sales get a big boost but also museums, tourist sites etc. It’s great. #Greenertransport
Reposted by Ms Lesley Smith
The power outages and freezing conditions in Ukraine right now are insane. Greenland news and war “coverage fatigue” not giving it the presence in headlines it deserves. The humanitarian impact is absolutely staggering.
January 21, 2026 at 11:53 AM
The power outages and freezing conditions in Ukraine right now are insane. Greenland news and war “coverage fatigue” not giving it the presence in headlines it deserves. The humanitarian impact is absolutely staggering.
There is a case at the minute for not following daily (or hourly) news and just checking in once a week or so when you’ve cycled through several stages of a crisis already…
January 21, 2026 at 8:06 PM
There is a case at the minute for not following daily (or hourly) news and just checking in once a week or so when you’ve cycled through several stages of a crisis already…
Reposted by Ms Lesley Smith
I just woke up from a nap and somehow while I was asleep, everyone on the bus has figured out we are not going to the right place
January 20, 2026 at 1:57 AM
I just woke up from a nap and somehow while I was asleep, everyone on the bus has figured out we are not going to the right place
Reposted by Ms Lesley Smith
Many moons ago, as the FT's rookie political editor, I asked the Mail's legendary Gordon Greig why Scotland Yard gave his paper so many stories on the late night misdemeanours (drink, sex or mostly both) of Tory MPs. He looked at me with fatherly pity. "Because we pay them, dear boy, we pay them".
January 19, 2026 at 6:37 PM
Many moons ago, as the FT's rookie political editor, I asked the Mail's legendary Gordon Greig why Scotland Yard gave his paper so many stories on the late night misdemeanours (drink, sex or mostly both) of Tory MPs. He looked at me with fatherly pity. "Because we pay them, dear boy, we pay them".
Reposted by Ms Lesley Smith
Be good if those journalists who got quotes from Labour MPs about 'never here Keir' could go back and ask them how dumb they feel now. (I mean maybe they are actually that thick and stand by the comments 🤷♂️).
January 18, 2026 at 1:49 PM
Be good if those journalists who got quotes from Labour MPs about 'never here Keir' could go back and ask them how dumb they feel now. (I mean maybe they are actually that thick and stand by the comments 🤷♂️).
Reposted by Ms Lesley Smith
Delighted to see @BrentLabour restate its commitment to the #FreedomPass. @BrentCouncil funds 47,177 Freedom Passes from parking revenue, enabling elderly and disabled residents to make 14 million journeys each year. helping people keep active, independent, and connected.
January 17, 2026 at 11:29 PM
Delighted to see @BrentLabour restate its commitment to the #FreedomPass. @BrentCouncil funds 47,177 Freedom Passes from parking revenue, enabling elderly and disabled residents to make 14 million journeys each year. helping people keep active, independent, and connected.
Reposted by Ms Lesley Smith
Britain is one of the best places in recorded history to be born, live, work and grow old. Lots of room for improvement obviously but combat the pessimism, it’s the forerunner of fascism.
every provocateur who wangs on all the time about Britain being “broken” should be sent to an actual failed state or autocracy for a month as a learning experience, there’s no shortage of them
January 17, 2026 at 7:13 PM
Britain is one of the best places in recorded history to be born, live, work and grow old. Lots of room for improvement obviously but combat the pessimism, it’s the forerunner of fascism.
Delighted to see @BrentLabour restate its commitment to the #FreedomPass. @BrentCouncil funds 47,177 Freedom Passes from parking revenue, enabling elderly and disabled residents to make 14 million journeys each year. helping people keep active, independent, and connected.
January 17, 2026 at 11:29 PM
Delighted to see @BrentLabour restate its commitment to the #FreedomPass. @BrentCouncil funds 47,177 Freedom Passes from parking revenue, enabling elderly and disabled residents to make 14 million journeys each year. helping people keep active, independent, and connected.