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Reposted by Antony Carpen

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 16m

Shortly after accusing all other political party leaders of believing in "the magic money tree", Kemi Badenoch announces her plan to completely scrap stamp duty, without any word on how she plans to pay for it

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Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 52m

Spot on from @stephenkb.bsky.social. And the other aspect of this nasty turn is the eliding of British ‘culture’ with ‘white British’, which will shock anyone who has watched TV or football, or listened to music, or read a book, or indeed breathed since 1980.

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Emma Jacobs @emmavj.bsky.social · 1h

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Jim Waterson @jim.londoncentric.media · 1h

Without one I just couldn’t balance work/kids and would have given in and bought a car. The biggest challenge for mass take-up is everyone’s buying them through regressive Cycle to Work tax dodge. So a £5k bike costs 12 x £241 monthly payments if you’re high earner or 12 x £416 if you’re in poverty.

Oxford Clarion @oxfordclarion.bsky.social · 19h

Electric cargo bikes can replace many everyday car trips for the average family and “reshape suburban family mobility”, say Oxford University researchers. 49 British households were loaned e-cargo bikes for school runs, shopping trips, family outings and other day-to-day use.

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 1h

So many questions, but my main one is:

Why is St. George riding the dragon?

Sebastian Dobson @sebdobson.bsky.social · 1h

Reform: Lefties are disrespecting our national saint!

Also Reform:

(Spotted at rally held yesterday by N.E. Lincolnshire County Councillor Oliver Freeston)

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 3h

Badenoch and Co see education only as a means to a massive income in some soul destroying career.

Devoid of imagination and the power of knowledge they view life entirely through the prism of the CV.

My advice always is to study what interests you and the rest will follow

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Antony Carpen @acarpen.bsky.social · 5h

NEW BLOGPOST: “The challenge of council engagement vs gamed algorithms and inflammatory content” cambridgetownowl.com/2025/10/08/t... On under-resourced #localgov face-to-face engagement vs over-resourced under-regulated ‘talk’ channels.

The challenge of council engagement vs gamed algorithms and inflammatory content

Cambridge City Council debated the contents of a report on improved forms of local engagement. But what real impact can they have in the face of gamed algorithms hotwiring social media users toward…

cambridgetownowl.com

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Ruxandra Serban @ruxandrasrbn.bsky.social · Nov 23

Did this increase in UQs empower backbench MPs as Speaker Bercow intended?

✅Yes - there are more backbench UQs (N) than ever before.

📊 But backbench UQs are still a lower proportion than those from the opposition frontbench. UQs are a frontbench-dominated procedure.

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UCL Constitution Unit @conunitucl.bsky.social · 6h

NEW BLOG: Prime Minister's Question Period in the Canadian House of Commons: Lessons in parliamentary reform

@ruxandrasrbn.bsky.social explains how Canada's experiment with a Prime Minister's Question Period procedure between 2017 and 2025 worked and how it differed from the traditional model.

Prime Minister's Question Period in the Canadian House of Commons: Lessons in parliamentary reform

Between 2017 and 2025, the Canadian House of Commons operated a Prime Minister’s Question Period procedure, introduced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In a new published article summarised here, Ruxandra Serban explores how this procedure worked, and how it differed from the traditional Question Period model.

constitution-unit.com

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Antony Carpen @acarpen.bsky.social · 14h

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority recruited a group of 23 members of the public and got them to discuss MPs' pay and funding. The results? cambridgetownowl.com/2025/10/07/t... 👀 (Turns out ordinary people can do politics if given a decent chance).

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Antony Carpen @acarpen.bsky.social · 10h

This is getting to Boris levels of truth-telling by Bobby-J!

Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 13h

Bill Jenrick (father) LinkedIn:

"I served a 5 year apprenticeship at AEI Manchester and qualified as a Management accountant. Then I worked as an accountant...."

Robert Jenrick (son) : "...gas fitters like my dad"

James Austin @jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 23h

I know plenty of politicians 'working classify' their backgrounds, but this from Jenrick is taking the piss.

His father's linked in is here: uk.linkedin.com/in/bill-jenr...

He was a managing accountant who ended up as the Managing Director of Cannon Industries

Antony Carpen @acarpen.bsky.social · 11h

@anna4labour.bsky.social @karenlibdem.bsky.social @bethgardiner-smith.bsky.social Re the committee meeting at The Guildhall earlier.

Antony Carpen @acarpen.bsky.social · 11h

NEW BLOGPOST: "The challenge of council engagement vs gamed algorithms and inflammatory content" cambridgetownowl.com/2025/10/08/t...

The challenge of council engagement vs gamed algorithms and inflammatory content

Cambridge City Council debated the contents of a report on improved forms of local engagement. But what real impact can they have in the face of gamed algorithms hotwiring social media users toward…

cambridgetownowl.com

Antony Carpen @acarpen.bsky.social · 11h

“[The Mayor] blamed online disinformation, external and said otherwise there was “no obvious local cause for this at all”. At least one of those sentenced over the disorder has admitted being influenced by social media.” <<-- How do you begin civic engagement in a scenario like this?

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Antony Carpen @acarpen.bsky.social · 11h

NEW BLOGPOST: "The challenge of council engagement vs gamed algorithms and inflammatory content" cambridgetownowl.com/2025/10/08/t...

The challenge of council engagement vs gamed algorithms and inflammatory content

Cambridge City Council debated the contents of a report on improved forms of local engagement. But what real impact can they have in the face of gamed algorithms hotwiring social media users toward…

cambridgetownowl.com

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Reposted by Antony Carpen

Anthony Painter @anthonypainter.bsky.social · 14h

I think I finally know who Theresa May was describing when she talked about the "anywheres". And they are all in on the Reform Party.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 16h

Party donor Nick Candy says "I cherish the values we grew up with here in the West. But today you are more likely to find the values we grew up with in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.’

Via Sam Leith in the Spectator
www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...

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Antony Carpen @acarpen.bsky.social · 14h

...and Michael Heseltine (on TV earlier) on the benefits in 1994 archive.org/details/9412... - noting his point on wide share ownership vs the warning from 1987 in the above publication.

Antony Carpen @acarpen.bsky.social · 14h

There are some history projects for any students out there interested in comparing the warnings from the 1980s/1990s with how the world turned out afterwards. archive.org/details/8701... from 1987 is one example ->

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Antony Carpen @acarpen.bsky.social · 14h

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority recruited a group of 23 members of the public and got them to discuss MPs' pay and funding. The results? cambridgetownowl.com/2025/10/07/t... 👀 (Turns out ordinary people can do politics if given a decent chance).

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Reposted by Antony Carpen

Stuart Hoddinott @stuarthoddinott.bsky.social · 19h

I'm increasingly convinced this is a huge driver of dissatisfaction with govt

Council tax is one of the most visible taxes that people pay, it goes directly out of their bank account and they get a letter about it going up every year

Yet bin collection frequency falls and libraries close

Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 22h

It is also deeply unhealthy to have local govts who don’t provide many visible/valuable services for most residents (because they lack the resources). Encourages distrust and populism - “what am I paying my council tax for? The council does nothing for me.”

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 22h

Amazed this is still going ahead - basic and obvious problem is that essentially everything local government does now is for the poor. You can’t move it around without really hurting poor people somewhere!

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Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 17h

You can see the full unmitigated trainwreck here. ~AA

www.youtube.com/watch?v=riaV...

Kemi Badenoch refuses to say whether she admires Nigel Farage

YouTube video by Sky News

www.youtube.com

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 16h

Jenrick being the loudest member of the Conservative party has already been a huge contributor to the poisoning of our politics. We really don't need any four-dimensional chess about him becoming leader. When it happens, it will be a terrible day for our country.

Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 23h

A Tory party under Jenrick might take a few of the racist votes from Reform, but they’d haemorrhage bucketloads to the Lib Dems.

So, on balance…

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Ros Taylor @rostaylor.bsky.social · 15h

Put the wig on the fish. Do it

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Techpriest @techpriest.bsky.social · 15h

It won't happen, but I wish there was a single broadcaster or journalist with the gumption to corner Jenrick on the spot and ask him "was Downing Street a failure of integration under it's last occupants? Because you didn't seem to have a problem taking a job in a British Asian PMs cabinet"

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Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 15h

I for one am looking forward to the cringe Robert Jenrick apology tour where he visits various ethnic groups in Britain and tries to integrate.

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Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 20h

I was on a panel at Conservative conference today where the UAE model was seriously proposed as a direction to take Britain’s immigration system.

Jo Kershaw @mthrjo.bsky.social · 20h

Or the maid, with the employer with grabby hands and nothing to eat but bread and noodles, no bedroom, and no way to leave.

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

‘Every day I cry’: 50 women talk about life as a domestic worker under the Gulf’s kafala system

Denounced as giving a ‘veneer of legality to slaveholding’, the kafala labour code persists, allowing employers to abuse women, who vanish from society. This is the testimony of some of those workers,...

www.theguardian.com

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