Sean Madden
@seanmadd.bsky.social
PhD Candidate at Birmingham Law School. PGTA. TWAIL, Postcolonialism, Human Rights, Climate Change, and Global Agribusiness. Warwick LLM. Eco-Socialist. Vegan🌱. Books, music, travel, AVFC. He/him.
Even if he wanted to, Farage couldn't condemn racism without a lot of his base considering it 'woke'.
November 25, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Even if he wanted to, Farage couldn't condemn racism without a lot of his base considering it 'woke'.
Reposted by Sean Madden
After today's Sunday Mirror exposé about Ryan Bridge, Simon Murphy is unsurprisingly being attacked by Raise the Colours who accuse him of "talking shi*t about our movement". Thank you to Simon for exposing these people for who they really are.
Thrilled to have won the Orwell Prize for reporting homelessness among such an impressive group of finalists. Thank you to the judges, @orwellprize.bsky.social, my brilliant @mirror.co.uk colleagues & editors, charities who helped with our coverage & to those who trusted us to tell their stories.
November 23, 2025 at 1:21 PM
After today's Sunday Mirror exposé about Ryan Bridge, Simon Murphy is unsurprisingly being attacked by Raise the Colours who accuse him of "talking shi*t about our movement". Thank you to Simon for exposing these people for who they really are.
The only positive from that half is it's only 1-0 despite Villa still being asleep.
November 23, 2025 at 2:57 PM
The only positive from that half is it's only 1-0 despite Villa still being asleep.
The Green Climate Fund needed $100bil pa in '09, and at COP30, $120bil for adaptation and mitigation by '35 is supposed to be a success?
A deal that appeases petrostates and omits fossils is beyond worthless - without even thinking about agribusiness. Another wasted year and we've run out of years.
A deal that appeases petrostates and omits fossils is beyond worthless - without even thinking about agribusiness. Another wasted year and we've run out of years.
November 22, 2025 at 5:36 PM
The Green Climate Fund needed $100bil pa in '09, and at COP30, $120bil for adaptation and mitigation by '35 is supposed to be a success?
A deal that appeases petrostates and omits fossils is beyond worthless - without even thinking about agribusiness. Another wasted year and we've run out of years.
A deal that appeases petrostates and omits fossils is beyond worthless - without even thinking about agribusiness. Another wasted year and we've run out of years.
This rhetoric underpins every dismissive and hostile attitude to cyclists and cycling infrastructure: only drivers are legitimate road users.
Compare and contrast the Government language.
£3,750 EV grant on a £35k car: ‘helping families’.
Cycle to Work: ‘subsidising leisure’.
And yet cycling delivers TEN TIMES the impact of electric cars for reaching net zero. It’s almost like narrative, not data, is driving policy.
£3,750 EV grant on a £35k car: ‘helping families’.
Cycle to Work: ‘subsidising leisure’.
And yet cycling delivers TEN TIMES the impact of electric cars for reaching net zero. It’s almost like narrative, not data, is driving policy.
November 21, 2025 at 10:46 AM
This rhetoric underpins every dismissive and hostile attitude to cyclists and cycling infrastructure: only drivers are legitimate road users.
I feel like a broken record but honestly, what is the point of Ofgem? A captured 'regulator' for a broken, privatised system.
November 21, 2025 at 8:03 AM
I feel like a broken record but honestly, what is the point of Ofgem? A captured 'regulator' for a broken, privatised system.
When Labour are done watering down human rights and vilifying asylum seekers, and public services are still crumbling, wages stagnating, and the wealth gap increasing, where do they go next?
November 17, 2025 at 1:18 PM
When Labour are done watering down human rights and vilifying asylum seekers, and public services are still crumbling, wages stagnating, and the wealth gap increasing, where do they go next?
Pointless, monstrous, dehumanising cruelty towards those forced to flee the most dangerous places on Earth.
Alongside the interference in jurisprudence on Article 3 and 8 rights, what is this Labour Party other than a gift to Farage?
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Alongside the interference in jurisprudence on Article 3 and 8 rights, what is this Labour Party other than a gift to Farage?
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Asylum seekers’ jewellery could be seized to pay for processing costs, says Home Office minister
Idea borrowed from Denmark is latest attempt to reduce number of people seeking asylum in UK
www.theguardian.com
November 17, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Pointless, monstrous, dehumanising cruelty towards those forced to flee the most dangerous places on Earth.
Alongside the interference in jurisprudence on Article 3 and 8 rights, what is this Labour Party other than a gift to Farage?
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Alongside the interference in jurisprudence on Article 3 and 8 rights, what is this Labour Party other than a gift to Farage?
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Shabana Mahmood's despicable rhetoric and asylum system changes only lend legitimacy to the far right, and damage hard-won human rights provision for *everyone*.
They'll never attract the voters Labour are desperately courting.
They'll never attract the voters Labour are desperately courting.
November 16, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Shabana Mahmood's despicable rhetoric and asylum system changes only lend legitimacy to the far right, and damage hard-won human rights provision for *everyone*.
They'll never attract the voters Labour are desperately courting.
They'll never attract the voters Labour are desperately courting.
You gain nothing by apologising to fascists.
November 15, 2025 at 9:14 AM
You gain nothing by apologising to fascists.
Reposted by Sean Madden
Sickening rhetoric by Home Secretary. Denying access to human rights isn't "protecting the public". This is Labour further demonising those seeking asylum in language very reminiscent of the far right. Yes, some break the law, so should be prosecuted within the law. Removing rights is not the answer
November 13, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Sickening rhetoric by Home Secretary. Denying access to human rights isn't "protecting the public". This is Labour further demonising those seeking asylum in language very reminiscent of the far right. Yes, some break the law, so should be prosecuted within the law. Removing rights is not the answer
Finally. Overt politicisation of this role was always a terrible idea.
Police and crime commissioners to be abolished, government to announce
Police and crime commissioners to be abolished, government to announce
System introduced in 2012 across England and Wales has faced criticism from police chiefs
*
UK politics live – latest updates
The controversial system of police and crime commissioners is to be abolished by the government, the Guardian has learned.
Under the system, introduced under the Conservatives, all 43 police forces covering local areas across England and Wales had to answer to an elected official. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 13, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Finally. Overt politicisation of this role was always a terrible idea.
Reposted by Sean Madden
Let's stop pretending that the billionaire media, endlessly attacking the BBC, has the slightest interest in balance, impartiality and accuracy. They won't be happy until the BBC is more rightwing than Vlad the Impaler. And then it still won't be enough.
November 11, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Let's stop pretending that the billionaire media, endlessly attacking the BBC, has the slightest interest in balance, impartiality and accuracy. They won't be happy until the BBC is more rightwing than Vlad the Impaler. And then it still won't be enough.
Reposted by Sean Madden
NEW | if the BBC *is* biased, it’s not against the right…
Arsonists cosplaying as fire fighters: Why the right-wing war on the BBC is succeeding
brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/arsonists-...
Arsonists cosplaying as fire fighters: Why the right-wing war on the BBC is succeeding
brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/arsonists-...
Arsonists cosplaying as fire fighters: Why the right-wing war on the BBC is succeeding
The resignation of Tim Davie as BBC Director-General is the next stage in the corporation's collapse into cowardice.
brokenbottleboy.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 3:10 PM
NEW | if the BBC *is* biased, it’s not against the right…
Arsonists cosplaying as fire fighters: Why the right-wing war on the BBC is succeeding
brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/arsonists-...
Arsonists cosplaying as fire fighters: Why the right-wing war on the BBC is succeeding
brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/arsonists-...
Reposted by Sean Madden
Once every 20 years or so, the director-general of the BBC is forced to resign for being insufficiently rightwing. Alastair Milne in 1987. Greg Dyke in 2004. Tim Davie in 2025. The great irony is that the BBC was in all cases profoundly biased towards established power. But just not biased enough …
November 10, 2025 at 5:44 AM
Once every 20 years or so, the director-general of the BBC is forced to resign for being insufficiently rightwing. Alastair Milne in 1987. Greg Dyke in 2004. Tim Davie in 2025. The great irony is that the BBC was in all cases profoundly biased towards established power. But just not biased enough …
Bias against the right is a resigning matter for the Director-General. Bias against the left is BBC News policy.
November 9, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Bias against the right is a resigning matter for the Director-General. Bias against the left is BBC News policy.
Unelected commissioners mandating the ideologically-motivated, illiterate sale of hundreds of millions of pounds worth of civic assets, for a Section 114 order erroneously issued, responsibility for which shouldn't lie with the public anyway.
What's happening in Birmingham is a national scandal.
What's happening in Birmingham is a national scandal.
Find out what's gone - and what could be next to go - in today's story:
www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/revealed-the...
www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/revealed-the...
Revealed: The 1,000 assets flogged off by Birmingham’s bankrupt council
The city's green spaces could be the next to go
www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk
November 6, 2025 at 10:48 AM
Unelected commissioners mandating the ideologically-motivated, illiterate sale of hundreds of millions of pounds worth of civic assets, for a Section 114 order erroneously issued, responsibility for which shouldn't lie with the public anyway.
What's happening in Birmingham is a national scandal.
What's happening in Birmingham is a national scandal.
Reposted by Sean Madden
Remember this, whenever someone says "alternative proteins - yuck!"
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Beef, pork, chicken: the world loves cheap meat. If people knew what really goes in it, that love affair would be over | Devi Sridhar
Antibiotic use in farming is now rampant. How meat is produced in China may mean the drugs you need here won’t work, says Prof Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburg...
www.theguardian.com
October 21, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Remember this, whenever someone says "alternative proteins - yuck!"
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
This entire situation is deeply perturbing for a number of reasons, but not least because: despite the order focusing on a small number of football hooligans, both media and government seem determined to provoke unnecessary fear amongst Jewish communities, and incite hostility towards Muslims. Why?
Sky are absolutely determined to push the antisemitism line regardless of the reality of the situation.
Sky News is platforming a guy who says he's from a Jewish Aston Villa supporters group, but it turns out that the guy a) isn't Jewish, b) the group doesn't exist, and c) he works for the right wing Henry Jackson Society, whose website says he 'specialises in disinformation'. Well, quite.
October 19, 2025 at 7:03 AM
This entire situation is deeply perturbing for a number of reasons, but not least because: despite the order focusing on a small number of football hooligans, both media and government seem determined to provoke unnecessary fear amongst Jewish communities, and incite hostility towards Muslims. Why?
Sky are absolutely determined to push the antisemitism line regardless of the reality of the situation.
Sky News is platforming a guy who says he's from a Jewish Aston Villa supporters group, but it turns out that the guy a) isn't Jewish, b) the group doesn't exist, and c) he works for the right wing Henry Jackson Society, whose website says he 'specialises in disinformation'. Well, quite.
October 19, 2025 at 6:13 AM
Sky are absolutely determined to push the antisemitism line regardless of the reality of the situation.
The criminal justice system is just one of our crumbling, underfunded public services, and in a city whose council is starved of funding and unable to provide essential amenities, the Home Office is willing to pour in money in order to accommodate a group of football hooligans?
Just beyond bizarre.
Just beyond bizarre.
The UK Government is expecting West Midlands Police to lay out what additional resources could allow them to police the game safely, with both #AVFC & Maccabi Tel Aviv fans. The Safety Advisory Group meeting is expected to take place early next week.
www.nytimes.com/athletic/672...
www.nytimes.com/athletic/672...
Police ordered to review decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from Aston Villa game
The review of the decision is set to take place on Friday, with a decision expected on the same day.
www.nytimes.com
October 18, 2025 at 12:06 PM
The criminal justice system is just one of our crumbling, underfunded public services, and in a city whose council is starved of funding and unable to provide essential amenities, the Home Office is willing to pour in money in order to accommodate a group of football hooligans?
Just beyond bizarre.
Just beyond bizarre.
Reposted by Sean Madden
Show up for Stirchley.
October 18, 2025 at 5:03 AM
Show up for Stirchley.
Reposted by Sean Madden
A bleak dystopia where Sharia law predominates, while economic and cultural divisions mean that the different communities live parallel, segregated lives.
Oh, wait, that’s Dubai …
Oh, wait, that’s Dubai …
October 18, 2025 at 8:24 AM
A bleak dystopia where Sharia law predominates, while economic and cultural divisions mean that the different communities live parallel, segregated lives.
Oh, wait, that’s Dubai …
Oh, wait, that’s Dubai …
Reposted by Sean Madden
It's apparently perfectly fine for senior political journalists to call for the deportation of British Muslim politicians now, with zero consequences
October 18, 2025 at 8:10 AM
It's apparently perfectly fine for senior political journalists to call for the deportation of British Muslim politicians now, with zero consequences