Robin Wilson
@robinwilson250.bsky.social
Expert adviser to the Council of Europe on intercultural integration; foodie and footballer
The silliest notion in the Canute-like effort to 'stop the boats' in Britain is that this refugee movement is all worked up by 'people smugglers'. Being actually driven by domestic conflict & desperation, in the absence of safe, legal routes the boats keep coming: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
UK asylum policy causes more violence and deaths, say rights groups
Home Office drive to stop small boats crossing Channel is handing more power to people smugglers, report finds
www.theguardian.com
December 8, 2025 at 2:44 PM
The silliest notion in the Canute-like effort to 'stop the boats' in Britain is that this refugee movement is all worked up by 'people smugglers'. Being actually driven by domestic conflict & desperation, in the absence of safe, legal routes the boats keep coming: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
A chilling investigation of the intimidation and threats Putin's agents are using to try to prevent the seized Russian billions held by Euroclear being used to assist Ukraine's defence: euobserver.com/eu-and-the-w...
Bolshoi-loving banker threatened Euroclear CEO, amid EU talks on Russian assets
A French banker inside Euroclear, who flew to Russia 155 times for private reasons, allegedly tried to connect the company's CEO, Valérie Urbain, with Russian spies and threatened her when she decline...
euobserver.com
December 8, 2025 at 1:43 PM
A chilling investigation of the intimidation and threats Putin's agents are using to try to prevent the seized Russian billions held by Euroclear being used to assist Ukraine's defence: euobserver.com/eu-and-the-w...
Amid the ruins of war and in the shadow of the Holocaust, a transatlantic order based on universal norms was built and cemented peace. Putin's 'useful idiot' Trump is trashing it and Europe and the US lack the progressive, visionary leadership to rise to the challenge www.nytimes.com/2025/12/06/w...
Trump Has Long Disdained Europe’s Elites. Now, It’s Official.
www.nytimes.com
December 8, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Amid the ruins of war and in the shadow of the Holocaust, a transatlantic order based on universal norms was built and cemented peace. Putin's 'useful idiot' Trump is trashing it and Europe and the US lack the progressive, visionary leadership to rise to the challenge www.nytimes.com/2025/12/06/w...
Insightful explainer by the BBC's veteran middle-east corr on Syria one year after Assad's surprise downfall: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Syria without Assad is lighter - but now there are new problems
One year into his rule Syria's leader has won over Trump and much of the West, but at home people know his weaknesses.
www.bbc.co.uk
December 8, 2025 at 8:27 AM
Insightful explainer by the BBC's veteran middle-east corr on Syria one year after Assad's surprise downfall: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Post-agreement Northern Ireland is a socio-economic basket case, partly due to the sustained refusal of the populist parties London and Dublin were content to shoehorn into power to support the fiscal effort to raise revenue for public spending, never mind investment: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Stormont: Letters reveal tension over NI Executive finances
Ministers are due to discuss funding issues this week, in what is known as a monitoring round.
www.bbc.co.uk
December 8, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Post-agreement Northern Ireland is a socio-economic basket case, partly due to the sustained refusal of the populist parties London and Dublin were content to shoehorn into power to support the fiscal effort to raise revenue for public spending, never mind investment: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
The xenophobe Enoch Powell once said all politicians' careers end in failure (as would his) No: all *populists'* careers end thus. Snake-oil pedlars get found out when they have to govern--cf Johnson, Bolsonaro & Kaczynski, with Orban, Milei & Trump (again) to come www.irishtimes.com/world/us/202...
Donald Trump’s Republicans round on Speaker Mike Johnson as party unity frays
Congressional leader is lightning rod for growing discontent amid concern at next year’s midterms
www.irishtimes.com
December 7, 2025 at 2:39 PM
The xenophobe Enoch Powell once said all politicians' careers end in failure (as would his) No: all *populists'* careers end thus. Snake-oil pedlars get found out when they have to govern--cf Johnson, Bolsonaro & Kaczynski, with Orban, Milei & Trump (again) to come www.irishtimes.com/world/us/202...
The #Gaza nightmare, now largely unreported, continues: children still get killed by the IDF and nine out of ten of 2m+ Gazans lack homes--most living in tents, recently ravaged by floods, in an area <1/2 that of the strip to which they have been confined: www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...
‘Bloodshed was supposed to stop’: no sign of normal life as Gaza’s killing and misery grind on
The term ceasefire ‘risks creating a dangerous illusion life is returning to normal’ for Palestinians squeezed into the remaining 42% of their land behind Israel’s ‘yellow line’
www.theguardian.com
December 6, 2025 at 6:41 PM
The #Gaza nightmare, now largely unreported, continues: children still get killed by the IDF and nine out of ten of 2m+ Gazans lack homes--most living in tents, recently ravaged by floods, in an area <1/2 that of the strip to which they have been confined: www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...
Further evidence of how the EU is becoming defined by #xenophobia, via the conservatives' collusion with the far right and the Danish social democrats longstanding loss of moral compass: euobserver.com/Migration/ar...
Police will get powers to raid homes in new EU deportation bill
A controversial new clause in the EU’s migration policy overhaul would give police across the bloc the power to enter private homes in search of undocumented migrants facing deportation.
euobserver.com
December 5, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Further evidence of how the EU is becoming defined by #xenophobia, via the conservatives' collusion with the far right and the Danish social democrats longstanding loss of moral compass: euobserver.com/Migration/ar...
Is there any limit to the autocracy into which Tunisia descends before @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu stops financing the state to curb asylum-seekers trying to reach Europe, denied safe, legal routes to do so? www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/w...
Tunisia Arrests Opposition Figure in Widening Crackdown
www.nytimes.com
December 4, 2025 at 6:27 AM
Is there any limit to the autocracy into which Tunisia descends before @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu stops financing the state to curb asylum-seekers trying to reach Europe, denied safe, legal routes to do so? www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/w...
Europe's weak economic performance, due to pre-Keynesian fiscal rules and refusal of industrial policy, will not be improved by von der Leyen's deregulatory U-turn and associated uncertainty--but it will ease corporate duties and reduce citizens' rights: www.euractiv.com/news/counter...
Counterinsurgency: How Europe’s business lobby retook the Berlaymont | Euractiv
The EU’s 'simplification' drive is turning into a bonanza for corporate lobbyists
www.euractiv.com
December 2, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Europe's weak economic performance, due to pre-Keynesian fiscal rules and refusal of industrial policy, will not be improved by von der Leyen's deregulatory U-turn and associated uncertainty--but it will ease corporate duties and reduce citizens' rights: www.euractiv.com/news/counter...
Workers' in Amazon's Victorian workplaces are not of course free to form unions but they can express well-targeted concerns about how its profit-driven pursuit of #AI is diminishing worker autonomy while threatening the planet: www.theguardian.com/technology/2... #MakeAmazonPay
More than 1,000 Amazon workers warn rapid AI rollout threatens jobs and climate
Workers say the firm’s ‘warp-speed’ approach fuels pressure, layoffs and rising emissions
www.theguardian.com
December 1, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Workers' in Amazon's Victorian workplaces are not of course free to form unions but they can express well-targeted concerns about how its profit-driven pursuit of #AI is diminishing worker autonomy while threatening the planet: www.theguardian.com/technology/2... #MakeAmazonPay
It's an unmitigated tragedy that, just when Europe needs to lead the world away from the ecological cliff-edge, it is being unavoidably diverted by Putin's blind aggression into wasteful arms spending, benefiting only the corporations now enjoying a new market for death: euobserver.com/*/arfd36fd2c
EU arms firms' income surges due to Ukraine war
Revenue growth at top EU arms firms is outracing that of US giants in the Ukraine-war gold rush.
euobserver.com
December 1, 2025 at 1:58 PM
It's an unmitigated tragedy that, just when Europe needs to lead the world away from the ecological cliff-edge, it is being unavoidably diverted by Putin's blind aggression into wasteful arms spending, benefiting only the corporations now enjoying a new market for death: euobserver.com/*/arfd36fd2c
The increasingly xenophobic official climate across the EU risks replicating Japan's associated stagnation. Far better to focus on developing and tapping the talents of people on the move, as fast-growing Spain is doing: www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...
Nick Henderson: Ireland has choice on migration - follow the UK into the vortex or hold onto its values
What was different about the measures announced last week is that they target refugees – people who have already been through the process
www.irishtimes.com
December 1, 2025 at 10:01 AM
The increasingly xenophobic official climate across the EU risks replicating Japan's associated stagnation. Far better to focus on developing and tapping the talents of people on the move, as fast-growing Spain is doing: www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...
Ireland has failed to develop an integration plan to manage diversity and people movement--despite signing up to the Council of Europe template member states endorsed in 2022--and instead is following the UK into a xenophobic moral panic on #asylum and #refugees: www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...
Nick Henderson: Ireland has choice on migration - follow the UK into the vortex or hold onto its values
What was different about the measures announced last week is that they target refugees – people who have already been through the process
www.irishtimes.com
December 1, 2025 at 8:50 AM
Ireland has failed to develop an integration plan to manage diversity and people movement--despite signing up to the Council of Europe template member states endorsed in 2022--and instead is following the UK into a xenophobic moral panic on #asylum and #refugees: www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...
On top of ignoring the 'Brexit' elephant in the room, a floundering UK Labour shows no interest in the socioeconomic solutions offered by progressive social democrats elsewhere in Europe, preferring the ancient 'Treasury view', London centralism and xenophobia: www.socialeurope.eu/sir-keir-sta...
Sir Keir Starmer Wants Growth—Perhaps He Should Learn Spanish
Spain's socialist government has delivered economic growth three times faster than Britain's; Labour would do well to study how.
www.socialeurope.eu
November 30, 2025 at 12:44 PM
On top of ignoring the 'Brexit' elephant in the room, a floundering UK Labour shows no interest in the socioeconomic solutions offered by progressive social democrats elsewhere in Europe, preferring the ancient 'Treasury view', London centralism and xenophobia: www.socialeurope.eu/sir-keir-sta...
'Drain the swamp'? The ultimate narcissist, Trump (net disapproval rating now 14%) keeps dipping into the trough as he turns the institution of the presidency into a personal business vehicle and mafia-type organisation: www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
All the president’s millions: how the Trumps are turning the presidency into riches
From Vietnam to the Balkans, Donald Trump’s family has launched a global dealmaking blitz since his re-election
www.theguardian.com
November 30, 2025 at 12:12 PM
'Drain the swamp'? The ultimate narcissist, Trump (net disapproval rating now 14%) keeps dipping into the trough as he turns the institution of the presidency into a personal business vehicle and mafia-type organisation: www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
As ever with Trump, we are back to the question not only of Putin's role in his first election but also to what hold ex-KGB Putin has over him in power, constantly able to pull him back into line with Russian positions, as indicated in the ex-MI6 'Steele dossier': www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...
Lara Marlowe: Trump’s cynical, disgraceful ‘peace plan’ gave Putin exactly what he wants
In a normal country, Donald Trump and Steve Witkoff would be tried for treason for the way they capitulated to Kremlin demands
www.irishtimes.com
November 29, 2025 at 8:06 AM
As ever with Trump, we are back to the question not only of Putin's role in his first election but also to what hold ex-KGB Putin has over him in power, constantly able to pull him back into line with Russian positions, as indicated in the ex-MI6 'Steele dossier': www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...
Ireland's #homelessness statistic (and private rents) will continue to rise inexorably until and unless this now wealthy country taxes that wealth adequately to fund a massive programme of social housing: www.irishtimes.com/ireland/soci...
Number of homeless people in Ireland reaches new record high in October
Focus Ireland says many children now facing second or third Christmas in emergency accommodation
www.irishtimes.com
November 28, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Ireland's #homelessness statistic (and private rents) will continue to rise inexorably until and unless this now wealthy country taxes that wealth adequately to fund a massive programme of social housing: www.irishtimes.com/ireland/soci...
Because in recent decades 'r>g'--the rate of profit has exceeded growth--the share of the surplus from production going to rentiers ('the 1%') has soared. And because #wealth is so mildly taxed, the #inequality is perpetuated and then compounded via inheritance: www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...
Opinion: Rich are getting richer, poor are getting poorer and the middle class is disappearing
Reality of accelerating inequality across the globe is striking
www.irishtimes.com
November 28, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Because in recent decades 'r>g'--the rate of profit has exceeded growth--the share of the surplus from production going to rentiers ('the 1%') has soared. And because #wealth is so mildly taxed, the #inequality is perpetuated and then compounded via inheritance: www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...
Lots of good sense on the future of the BBC from the professional journalists who work there: www.nuj.org.uk/resource/bbc...
BBC workers call for board reform and sustainable funding
NUJ members at the BBC have outlined their vision for an impartial, universally available and funded BBC.
www.nuj.org.uk
November 28, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Lots of good sense on the future of the BBC from the professional journalists who work there: www.nuj.org.uk/resource/bbc...
Roisin O'Donnell's Nesting wins best novel in the Irish Book Awards--a compelling account of one woman's struggle to free herself from the coercive control of her partner, all the more insightful in that he avoids actual violence and manipulates their children: www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...
Irish Book Awards 2025: Roisín O’Donnell, Claire Gleeson and Manchán Magan among winners
Jacqueline Connolly, Andrew Porter, Cecelia Ahern, Andrea Mara, Elaine Feeney, Joseph O’Connor and Michael D Higgins also honoured
www.irishtimes.com
November 28, 2025 at 8:40 AM
Roisin O'Donnell's Nesting wins best novel in the Irish Book Awards--a compelling account of one woman's struggle to free herself from the coercive control of her partner, all the more insightful in that he avoids actual violence and manipulates their children: www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...
There's a pattern: MEP in Farage's UKIP bribed by Russia, Farage regularly appearing on RT, 'Brexit' funder Banks' meetings at Russian embassy pre- and post-referendum, Farage's pro-Putin statements ... 'useful idiots' in Putin's drive to divide and destabilise the EU: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Former Brexit Party MEP denies taking payment from pro-Russian campaign
A prominent former MEP for Nigel Farage's old party denies taking bribes in a pro-Russian campaign.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 28, 2025 at 8:30 AM
There's a pattern: MEP in Farage's UKIP bribed by Russia, Farage regularly appearing on RT, 'Brexit' funder Banks' meetings at Russian embassy pre- and post-referendum, Farage's pro-Putin statements ... 'useful idiots' in Putin's drive to divide and destabilise the EU: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Northern Ireland education minister from evangelical party drags feet on UK Supreme Court ruling challenging Protestant ethos of nominally state schools in region--once again showing 'unionist' politicians are motivated by sectarianism, not affinity with modern Britain: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
NI education: Schools told to continue providing RE based on 'holy scriptures'
Paul Givan's letter follows a court judgement that the Christian focused RE taught in Northern Ireland was unlawful.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 28, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Northern Ireland education minister from evangelical party drags feet on UK Supreme Court ruling challenging Protestant ethos of nominally state schools in region--once again showing 'unionist' politicians are motivated by sectarianism, not affinity with modern Britain: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
This has of course occurred to no one in the European Commission but if one really wanted to improve the competitiveness of European firms one should encourage the most diverse workforces--& so hospitality, not xenophobia--because of the evidenced link to innovation: www.euractiv.com/news/commiss...
Commission won't lead talks on 'return hubs,' EU migration chief says | Euractiv
That responsibly lies with EU capitals, Magnus Brunner said in an interview with Euractiv, as Brussels pushes ahead with an overhaul of the bloc's returns system
www.euractiv.com
November 27, 2025 at 6:16 PM
This has of course occurred to no one in the European Commission but if one really wanted to improve the competitiveness of European firms one should encourage the most diverse workforces--& so hospitality, not xenophobia--because of the evidenced link to innovation: www.euractiv.com/news/commiss...
Capital has persuaded the European Commission that deregulation is the answer to firms' weak #competitiveness. Yet while reduced regulation costs may enhance profits and dividends, they will do nothing to redress Europe's poor investment in #R&D and so innovation: www.socialeurope.eu/europes-indu...
Europe's Industrial Crisis: Invest Now or Accept Decline
Across 18 sectors, only aerospace and defence remain globally competitive—Europe must abandon naivety and act decisively.
www.socialeurope.eu
November 27, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Capital has persuaded the European Commission that deregulation is the answer to firms' weak #competitiveness. Yet while reduced regulation costs may enhance profits and dividends, they will do nothing to redress Europe's poor investment in #R&D and so innovation: www.socialeurope.eu/europes-indu...