Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 10h

People are losing trust in politicians and it's all the immigrants' fault www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Border failings in Europe are eroding trust in nation states, warns Mahmood

Home secretary to tell meeting of interior ministers that international cooperation is way to curb irregular migration

www.theguardian.com

Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 18h

"a forensic examination of the shenanigans, rules flouting, and, in some cases, potential law breaking by Morgan McSweeney and the people around him"

Phil Burton-Cartledge @philbc3.bsky.social · 18h

"... what Holden has accomplished is a detailed, meticulous exposure of right wing perfidy. It sounds like a dossier of damnation, and one whose evidence could form the basis of civil and legal cases against the Labour Party in general, and McSweeney and his boys in particular."

Uncovering Starmer's Fraudulent Politics

I was privileged enough to score an invite to Tuesday morning's presser for Paul Holden's The Fraud , a forensic examination of the shenanig...

averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com

Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 18h

Doubtless the CEO of Team Starmer will soon be recommending him for the Victoria Cross www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Trump posthumously awards Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom

President granted the US’s highest civilian award to the far-right commentator who was assassinated in September

www.theguardian.com

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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 18h

One of the Farage Falange councillors who fell prey to sudden indisposition in the face of the work involved appears to have surfaced in Wales thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2025/10/poli...

The Curmudgeon: Political Animal

thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com

Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 1d

Apparently the juvenile who was put in charge of Warwickshire county council after the original leader found himself lacking in patriotic pluck and gumption has complained of being pushed in Nuneaton thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2025/10/poli...

The Curmudgeon: Political Rough and Tumble

thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com

Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 1d

"could be asked" - sounds dashed robust www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 1d

For those who came in late, a minister of the Church of England confirms that God doesn't care about aptitude or value in His henchmen t.co/gRzhVfsnIs

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/13/orthodoxy-and-women-in-the-anglican-church

t.co

Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 2d

A corpse and a robber baron fighting over a wasteland

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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 3d

Alongside pride and hatred, perhaps the most obtrusive Christian virtue is the ability to see past the beam in one's own eye in order to point out the mote in someone else's thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2025/10/bear...

The Curmudgeon: Bear Witness Unto the Truth

thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com

Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 3d

Just do what normal people do and bite your damn nails www.theguardian.com/fashion/2025...

‘Rashes, pain, blisters and bleeding’ … are we glossing over the dangers of manicures?

Gel and acrylic varnishes have been blamed for a host of unpleasant side-effects, stretching far beyond the fingertips. Some ingredients have been banned – but will that be enough to make the process ...

www.theguardian.com

1

Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 3d

Besides the devastating originality of the joke, Graun cartoonist uses saltire sweatshirt to make Scotland part of England www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Madeline Horwath on St George returning to England – cartoon

The St George’s flag is more popular than ever. It’s more complicated for England’s patron saint

www.theguardian.com

1

Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 3d

A question of priorities, evidently

Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 3d

You'll burn for ever if you don't do as you're told, but a slain and resurrected fundamentalist preacher might be able to help www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

You won’t believe what degrading practice the pope just condemned

Communication must be freed from clickbait and misguided thinking, head of Catholic church tells journalists

www.theguardian.com

Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 3d

"When the costume department tried to steer her in a different direction, Woody Allen intervened, telling them: 'Leave her. She’s a genius. Let her wear what she wants.'" www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc...

Diane Keaton’s style: she dodged the stamp of the machine

A world-class beauty who didn’t lead with her looks, she broke all the rules of celebrity dressing with a sunny smile

www.theguardian.com

Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 3d

Rah www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Gaza PhD student ‘heartbroken’ as family blocked from entering the UK

Manar al-Houbi’s husband and children refused entry despite her winning a scholarship to cover tuition fees, living costs and housing for them all

www.theguardian.com

Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 3d

Since the lawsuit is apparently over copyright, not "offence", it looks as if a) Forde's entire comment is a total irrelevance, and b) they could easily have got away with it by calling him Victoria Bore and changing the colour of the hat www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

Spitting Image comics decry lawsuit over depiction of Paddington Bear

Al Murray and Matt Forde say action over portrayal as foul-mouthed drug addict is attack on freedom of expression

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Philip Challinor

Phil Burton-Cartledge @philbc3.bsky.social · 3d

"For the first time the right are open and honest about what they're about, and it's best for us to face them as they are ... There are no good Tories. Only class conscious defenders of a decaying system."

What Happened to One Nation Conservatism?

The jamboree of delusion and extremism that was Conservative Party conference birthed a small, fleeting genre of political centrist-to-soft...

averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com

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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 4d

Britain's independence from the Strasbrussels dictatorship may not yet have brought quite the advertised benefits, but nearly half of His Majesty's subjects are still charitable enough to try and muddle through thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2025/10/even...

The Curmudgeon: Even A Border May Be Too Strong

thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com

Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 4d

Centrist hokey-cokey www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Macron reappoints Sébastien Lecornu as French prime minister

Lecornu, who resigned as PM on Monday, is tasked with urgently delivering a budget to parliament

www.theguardian.com

Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 4d

"His novel The Melancholy of Resistance is a comedy of apocalypse, a book about a God that not only failed but didn’t even turn up for the exam" newyorker.com/magazine/201... via blckdgrd.com/2025/10/his-...

Madness And Civilization

The very strange fictions of László Krasznahorkai.

newyorker.com

Reposted by Philip Challinor

Phil Burton-Cartledge @philbc3.bsky.social · 5d

Not helped by the fact a centrist government is undoing our freedoms by attacking the right to protest and banning organisations it finds politically inconvenient.

David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · 5d

The UK is in collective denial about the damage a populist nationalist government could do given thd absence of checks and balances in our system. Not sure why, since we had a pretty close run a few years ago.

Melissa Jo Peltier @melissjpeltier.bsky.social · 5d

As an American watching our best & most crucial institutions crumble in less than a year under Trump, I suggest you make as many of these changes now, while you can.
We didn’t, obviously.

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Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 5d

A borough council in Kent has served up a timely reminder of what life could be like when the Church was more than a Ruritanian minority cult thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2025/10/endu...

The Curmudgeon: Enduring Values

thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com

Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 5d

A peculiar political bag lady is trying to scare up funding for her fourth season ticket onto the Washington gravy train by pledging to pursue the truth about UFOs thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2025/10/watc...

The Curmudgeon: Watch the Skies, Not the Scum

thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com

Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 5d

ICC convicts another non-Caucasian www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

ICC convicts former Sudan militia leader for war crimes in Darfur

Janjaweed commander Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman, known as Ali Kushayb, found guilty over atrocities

www.theguardian.com

Philip Challinor @pchallinor.bsky.social · 5d

Christmas symbol turns batshit www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Grisly recording reveals bat catching, killing and eating robin mid-flight

Before the Spanish study, some scientists had been sceptical about the mammals attacking migratory birds

www.theguardian.com