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bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates
@bencoates1.bsky.social
4.5K followers 600 following 2K posts
Author - 'THE INVENTION OF AMSTERDAM' out now! (https://amzn.to/2QJx3bh). Writer, aid worker, speechwriter, recovering Tory. Columnist @ADnl; articles NYT, Telgraph, New Statesman, Groene Amsterdammer etc. Buy my new book, it’s good!
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bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · Apr 17
A nice review in the TLS:

“The Invention of Amsterdam…. captures Coates’s infectious enthusiasm for his adopted home… The author… is an effortlessly charming guide… and has an excellent eye for the fetching fact”
www.the-tls.co.uk/world/travel...
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bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · 51m
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_ri...
High rising terminal - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
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bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · 1h
On the other hand, Wilders is now describing a handful of crusty students standing on a train track as “pure terror”. Seems like he scares quite easily?
a man is crying and talking on a cell phone .
ALT: a man is crying and talking on a cell phone .
media.tenor.com
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bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · 2h
Extinction Rebellion, a group which wants us to fight climate change more urgently, is blocking low-carbon public transport because it’s a part of an anti-palestine economic system, or something. Seems like maybe they haven’t thought things through.

www.ad.nl/binnenland/a...
Activisten Extinction Rebellion lopen spoor op bij Amsterdam Centraal, treinen stilgezet
De activisten van Extinction Rebellion (XR) hebben woensdagavond opnieuw treinsporen geblokkeerd. Ditmaal bij station Amsterdam Centraal. De politie is volop aanwezig op het station.
www.ad.nl
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Reposted by Ben Coates
keithwdickinson.bsky.social
Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 9h
Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.
theverge.com
The Verge @theverge.com · May 26
Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry
Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry
Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.
buff.ly
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bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · 3h
Source: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Evaluating the impact of two decades of USAID interventions and projecting the effects of defunding on mortality up to 2030: a retrospective impact evaluation and forecasting analysis
USAID funding has significantly contributed to the reduction in adult and child mortality across low-income and middle-income countries over the past two decades. Our estimates show that, unless the a...
www.thelancet.com
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bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · 3h
A study in the Lancet estimated that U.S. foreign aid cuts could cause 14 million additional deaths by 2030, including over 4.5 million children under five.

4.5 million. Children under five.

And the people doing this say they’re “pro-life”.
jamellebouie.net
jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 5h
i desperately want everyone involved in the destruction of USAID to have to, st the very least, answer to the american people for the suffering and misery they have caused apnews.com/article/myan...
Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.
apnews.com
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bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · 4h
Oukoopsedijk
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bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · 8h
boef
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bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · 10h
www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...
Senator Cees van de Sanden stapt uit VVD, ‘we zijn ons liberale kompas kwijtgeraakt’
Cees van de Sanden, namens de VVD lid van de Eerste Kamer, stapt uit de partij en gaat verder als onafhankelijk lid van de senaat. Dat heeft Van de Sanden woensdag bekendgemaakt in een interview met d...
www.nrc.nl
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bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · 10h
Dutch senator Cees van de Sanden quits the VVD, saying his party has “lost its moral compass” & is “increasingly drifting away from its own core values: freedom, responsibility, tolerance”. Their immigration policy is “simply the PVV election manifesto, legally impossible & completely undesirable”
👏
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bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · 10h
(Not generally a fan of breaching paywalls as they’re there for a reason, but will make occasion exceptions for things which seem important!)
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bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · 10h
“Unfortunately, the idea that black and brown people are aliens who arrived without permission, and with no link to Britain, to abuse British hospitality remains the defining political narrative of my lifetime”

- a powerful piece on Jenrick’s racism

Un-paywalled here:

archive.ph/2025.10.07-1...
sathnam.bsky.social
Sathnam Sanghera @sathnam.bsky.social · 1d
I've responded to Robert Jenrick's vile comments in @thetimes.com

www.thetimes.com/life-style/c...
I sang Jerusalem with Robert Jenrick at school — he’s wrong about race
The Conservative MP has complained that, visiting Handsworth in Birmingham, he didn’t see ‘another white face’. You can’t judge whether someone is integrated by skin colour, argues fellow Wulfrunian S...
www.thetimes.com
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bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · 12h
Spotted yesterday: someone carrying a “Keep our children safe” banner while screaming in the face of riot police and helping launch fireworks at a police drone
basdn.bsky.social
basdn.bsky.social @basdn.bsky.social · 12h
So AZC’s are indeed magnets for criminal behavior - of the homegrown sort
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bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · 12h
there is a whole wave of 2010-20 era leaders who seemed impressive while in office but in retrospect glossed over structural problems and helped dig the world into its current hole. Merkel, Rutte, Obama, Cameron, Trudeau…
stephanfaris.bsky.social
Stephan Faris @stephanfaris.bsky.social · 12h
"The former German chancellor remains unrepentant."

Angela Merkel’s non-apology tour www.politico.eu/article/ange...
Angela Merkel’s non-apology tour
The former chancellor refuses to reckon with her fraught legacy on the war in Ukraine, instead invoking Covid and a missed chance for talks.
www.politico.eu
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bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · 12h
One thing that surprised me at last night’s anti-refugee protest: the handful of black people participating.
Like, you’re entitled to your views, and minorities can be conservative too - but I’m really not sure those skinhead guys setting off flares in Defend the Nederlands hoodies are your friends
bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · 1d
Anti- refugee protest, Nieuwerkerk a/d IJssel.
Hundreds of pretty ordinary people here but also a good few thugs, feels like it could get nasty fast
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bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · 1d
Protest is fizzling out now, looks unlikely to kick off.

“Ik heb honger”, the man in a Defend Netherlands hoody says. “Ik wil naar huis”. (I’m hungry, I want to go home).

Credit to the police for keeping things cool. In plenty of other countries there’d have been dogs and teargas.
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Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · 1d
Outside the council chamber where they are currently discussing building an asylum centre
Fireworks, drones, sirens, lots of ‘Defend Nederland’ banners, chants about Hamas
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bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · 1d
Anti- refugee protest, Nieuwerkerk a/d IJssel.
Hundreds of pretty ordinary people here but also a good few thugs, feels like it could get nasty fast
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bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · 1d
the Rutte-less VVD is in freefall. It’s not impossible they’ll win as many seats as JA21, or half as many as GroenLinks.
If they had any sense they’d do a Mark Carney and swap out Dilan for someone with a bit of momentum

www.dutchnews.nl/2025/10/clou...
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bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · 1d
the YouGov website
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bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · 1d
So you’re saying adult lives don’t count? 😡
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bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · 1d
There is still some good in the world
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Reposted by Ben Coates
rtl.nl
RTL Nieuws @rtl.nl · 1d
Burgemeester Duitse Herdecke voor haar huis neergestoken #nieuws
Burgemeester Duitse Herdecke voor haar huis neergestoken
De burgemeester van het Duitse Herdecke NoordrijnWestfalen Iris Stalzer zou voor haar huis zijn neergestoken. Dat melden Duitse media. Volgens Bild zou de vrouw in kritieke toestand verkeren.
www.rtl.nl
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bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · 1d
If some minor Trump functionary had said this we’d be outraged at the threat to democratic norms etc
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bencoates1.bsky.social
Ben Coates @bencoates1.bsky.social · 1d
the perfect summary of the current state of the Conservative Party:
adambienkov.bsky.social
Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 1d
Robert Jenrick thanks the Conservative "Tweeters and TikTokers" who are "getting things done".

"You are making the world a better place," he says.
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