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Peter Black @peterblackwales.bsky.social · 18h

New blogpost: An unusual venue peterblack.blogspot.com/2025/10/an-u...

Following on from my post two weeks ago about Margam Castle, this week I am focussing on the remarkable Orangery nearby. This building wa...

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Peter Black @peterblackwales.bsky.social · 1d

New blogpost: Starmer takes another step towards authoritarianism
peterblack.blogspot.com/2025/10/star...

Starmer takes another step towards authoritarianism

As if it isn't bad enough that valuable police resources are being utilised to arrest peaceful protestors expressing their views on a questi...

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Peter Black @peterblackwales.bsky.social · 1d

New blogpost: Tories embrace Liz Truss budget rules peterblack.blogspot.com/2025/10/tori...

Tories embrace Liz Truss budget rules

Kemi Badenoch's speech at the Tory conference was interesting, not so much for its content, as the direction she is proposing to take her pa...

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Peter Black @peterblackwales.bsky.social · 2d

New blogpost: Another Brexit crisis peterblack.blogspot.com/2025/10/anot...

Another Brexit crisis

The Independent reports that the British steel industry has been plunged into crisis after the European Union announced plans to slap 50 pe...

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Peter Black @peterblackwales.bsky.social · 3d

New blogpost: Labour's Reform-lite policy threatens NHS peterblack.blogspot.com/2025/10/labo...

Labour's Reform-lite policy threatens NHS

The Guardian reports on claims by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) that the NHS and social care would cease to function under the governm...

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Peter Black @peterblackwales.bsky.social · 4d

New blogpost: Reform's local difficulties peterblack.blogspot.com/2025/10/refo...

Reform's local difficulties

Tempting as it is to aay 'I told you so', I will refrain for the time being given that so many others are saying it about Reform and their s...

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Reposted by Peter Black

Jonathan Calder @lordbonkers.bsky.social · 5d

It appears you can now be arrested for expressing disagreement with government policy. No wonder Labour is losing voters to the Lib Dems and Greens.

Mike Galsworthy @mikegalsworthy.bsky.social · 6d

She was arrested for holding a sign reading:

“I do not support the proscription of Palestine Action”

How that would warrant arrest is very unclear. I wonder if the police here even understand the boundaries of the bizarre law they’ve been forced to enforce.

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Peter Black @peterblackwales.bsky.social · 5d

New blogpost: Labour's authoritarian drift peterblack.blogspot.com/2025/10/labo...

Labour's authoritarian drift

As if it isn't bad enough that Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, is proposing to take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights if th...

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Peter Black @peterblackwales.bsky.social · 6d

New blogpost: Reform Party's fracking threat
peterblack.blogspot.com/2025/10/refo...

Reform Party's fracking threat

The Independent reports that new research has found that more than 180 constituencies are threatened by Reform UK’s controversial pro-frack...

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Peter Black @peterblackwales.bsky.social · 7d

New blogpost: Swansea's forgotten village peterblack.blogspot.com/2025/10/swan...

Swansea's forgotten village

The Wales-on-line website has a fascinating article about a forgotten village buried beneath waves in Swansea bay. They remind us that th...

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Peter Black @peterblackwales.bsky.social · 8d

New blogpost: Labour's leadership contest deferred peterblack.blogspot.com/2025/10/labo...

Labour's leadership contest deferred

Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham may have sought to patch things up with the Labour leadership by denying that he has any ambition to usurp St...

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Peter Black @peterblackwales.bsky.social · 9d

New blogpost: The pandemic profiteer peterblack.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...

The pandemic profiteer

The stunt by campaigners Led by Donkeys to rename Michelle Mone's yacht 'Pandemic Profiteer' finally secured an official nod yesterday, whe...

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Peter Black @peterblackwales.bsky.social · 10d

New blogpost: Care in crisis peterblack.blogspot.com/2025/10/care...

Care in crisis

The Mirror reports on demands by the GMB union that the UK employs enough carers to look after our aging population. They have argued tha...

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Peter Black @peterblackwales.bsky.social · 11d

New blogpost: The UK is not as divided as the far right claim peterblack.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-...

The UK is not as divided as the far right claim

Nation Cymru reports on a mega-opinion survey of 45,000 people that, they say, shatters the far-right’s “destructive portrayal” of a divide...

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Peter Black @peterblackwales.bsky.social · 12d

New blogpost: Compulsory digital ID cards - a hacker's paradise peterblack.blogspot.com/2025/09/comp...

Compulsory digital ID cards - a hacker's paradise

The Guardian has an excellent article on the dangers created by mandatory digital ID cards in which a cybersecurity expert warns that the p...

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Peter Black @peterblackwales.bsky.social · 13d

New blogpost: Resistance grows to compulsory digital ID card plan peterblack.blogspot.com/2025/09/resi...

Resistance grows to compulsory digital ID card plan

As I write this, Keir Starmer is poised to stand up in the Labour Conference and propose the introduction of compulsory digital ID cards by ...

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Peter Black @peterblackwales.bsky.social · 14d

New blogpost: Not so much a castle as a mansion peterblack.blogspot.com/2025/09/not-...

Not so much a castle as a mansion

This week's local history post takes us just outside Swansea to the lovely Margam Park, home of the Talbot family, after whom Port Talbot wa...

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Peter Black @peterblackwales.bsky.social · 15d

New blogpost: Labour at war with each other peterblack.blogspot.com/2025/09/labo...

Labour at war with each other

The Guardian reports that Labour’s internal warfare broke into the open on Thursday as Keir Starmer and several cabinet ministers criticise...

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Peter Black @peterblackwales.bsky.social · 16d

New blogpost: For Trump read Farage peterblack.blogspot.com/2025/09/for-...

For Trump read Farage

Ed Davey went full on in his criticism of Nigel Farage and Reform in his conference speech on Tuesday . He asked representatives what kind o...

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Peter Black @peterblackwales.bsky.social · 17d

New blogpost: Gatwick expansion raises questions about Labour's environmental credentials
peterblack.blogspot.com/2025/09/gatw...

Gatwick expansion raises questions about Labour's environmental credentials

The Guardian reports that Gatwick airport’s £2.2bn second runway plan has been given the go-ahead by the transport secretary, Heidi Alexand...

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Peter Black @peterblackwales.bsky.social · 18d

I think you need to answer the 24 questions at the end of my post. The ID cards you refer to are all voluntary, a state-led compulsory digital card is the start of a slippery slope to authoritarianism. It is certainly not a tool I want Nigel Farage to have control over

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Peter Black @peterblackwales.bsky.social · 18d

New blogpost: Why Liberal Democrats must oppose ID cards peterblack.blogspot.com/2025/09/why-...

Why Liberal Democrats must oppose ID cards

We have been here before of course, when Tony Blair tried to introduce ID cards back in 2004 or thereabouts, arguing that they would assist ...

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Peter Black @peterblackwales.bsky.social · 19d

New blogpost: Time for the Lib Dems to acquire a harder edge peterblack.blogspot.com/2025/09/time...

Time for the Lib Dems to acquire a harder edge

I have never been one to embrace flags, the nation state or easy patriotism, so the display of flags at Saturday's Lib Dem conference rally ...

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Peter Black @peterblackwales.bsky.social · 19d

I will be signing books at the Lib Dem Image stand in the exhibition hall at 11.30am today. Come and say hello, and buy a book or two.

Peter Black @peterblackwales.bsky.social · 20d

New blogpost: Government failing the charity sector peterblack.blogspot.com/2025/09/gove...

Government failing the charity sector

As the chair of a charity mysef, I am very conscious of the impact that recent government measures have had on the sector. Costs have increa...

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