Ben Williams
@bpwilliams72.bsky.social
700 followers 960 following 520 posts
Liberal sort. Rambler. Singer. Gamer. Occasional writer. Recovering politico. Former lots of things (inc. Lib Dem Leader's Chief of Staff, Cabinet Office SpAd, Head of Whips' Office). Yorkshire via Essex. Posting in a strictly personal capacity.
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Reposted by Ben Williams
marcuschown.bsky.social
Exactly the way I feel about London.

All my life London has been this great crossroads of the world. People from everywhere have brought new ideas, energised the city. It has been a joy to meet them. It breaks my heart that anyone should feel unwelcome here.
kathbarbadoro.bsky.social
I love living in a city full of immigrants and tons and tons of people who are not at all like me and not like each other. It makes us all better and it makes our city better. I know I’m preaching to the choir by saying this on the lib app but I sometimes just get so overwhelmed by how special it is
Reposted by Ben Williams
adambienkov.bsky.social
Labour have presided over a "doom loop of higher taxes, weaker borders and month after month of chaos" says Kemi Badenoch who was part of a government that raised taxes and immigration levels by record amounts, whilst changing leader no fewer than four times
Reposted by Ben Williams
iandunt.bsky.social
Calling English a 'rip-off degree' is one of the most blatant exhibitions of personal barbarism I've ever seen. You've demonstrated nothing but the poverty of your own mind.
Reposted by Ben Williams
psurridge.bsky.social
Question for today - will the 2029 UK general election be the first where the '2nd dimension' dominates vote choice (rather than also being important) - which looks like very bad news for the 'old' parties or /1
psurridge.bsky.social
You can see clearly the party space fragmenting as Reform dominate the authoritarian (and increasingly the 'moderate') groups but staying virtually at 0 on the liberal left. While the Greens move to a strong second place in the liberal left group but struggle outside that group.
Reposted by Ben Williams
stephenkb.bsky.social
I just think, both at an intellectual level (it means you oppose ID cards and then announce measures that require them) and at a 'how politician should present themselves for votes', that Badenoch just viscerally and indiscriminately hates Labour is a bit of a problem.
bpwilliams72.bsky.social
I am quite some way behind on the Kemi speech. Does it get any better? Or is it all confidence-lacking, self-affirming, 'knowing' blah? 😐
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mollyjongfast.bsky.social
She is not doing well
acyn.bsky.social
Schiff: This is supposed to be an oversight hearing when dozens of prosecutors have been fired simply because they worked on cases investigating the former president.

Bondi: What about the fires in California? Are the riots in LA serious?
Reposted by Ben Williams
seanjones.org
The judicial oath:

I [name], do swear by Almighty God that I will well and truly serve our Sovereign King Charles the Third in the office of [judicial role], and will do right to all manner of people after the law and usages of this realm, without fear or favour, affection or ill will.

/1
Reposted by Ben Williams
sundersays.bsky.social
The Bishop of Birmingham has written to the Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick about his comments about Handsworth
Reposted by Ben Williams
yougov.co.uk
Latest YouGov Westminster voting intention (5-6 October 2025)

Reform UK: 27% (-2 from 28-29 Sept)
Labour: 20% (-2)
Conservatives: 17% (+1)
Lib Dems: 17% (+2)
Greens: 12% (+1)
SNP: 4% (+1)

yougov.co.uk/topics/polit...
bpwilliams72.bsky.social
I can see the short term political advantage to us, but the prospect of the long term poisoning of the well is beyond appalling.
Reposted by Ben Williams
stephenkb.bsky.social
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.
paulbernal.bsky.social
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…
Reposted by Ben Williams
sundersays.bsky.social
The UAE is an authoritarian autocracy, a petro-state with no income tax for citizens, to bribe them for the lack of democratic voice or free speech

It is 85% migrant, a segregated society with a ban on integration in principle and practice, few rights, equal opportunities, nor voice for incomers
bpwilliams72.bsky.social
Having first helped manage defections in the 90s, I'm not going to deny the political momentum they generate. However, there is a curiosity about Reform absorbing in large volume all the politicos from a party they say is crap. At some point they basically become them. 🤷🏻‍♂️

www.bbc.com/news/article...
Five Conservative councillors in Kent defect to Reform UK
Reform UK welcomes one councillor from Medway Council and four from Gravesham Borough Council.
www.bbc.com
Reposted by Ben Williams
Reposted by Ben Williams
stephenkb.bsky.social
Kemi Badenoch’s weird inability to remember the war in Ukraine, the biggest issue on which a) she has a wedge with Farage and b) the country thinks the Tories did a good job is, well, weird.
Kemi Badenoch repeatedly refuses to say whether she admires Nigel Farage
The Tory leader says she believes her party's fortunes "always would get worse before they got better" as she rejects suggestions of a Reform pact.
news.sky.com
Reposted by Ben Williams
kylegriffin1.bsky.social
New on MSNBC: Trump's new acting U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan has recruited prosecutors from outside her office to take James Comey to trial, after being unable to find any federal prosecutors in her own office willing to pursue the charges, according to two people familiar with the selections.
Reposted by Ben Williams
sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com
"Wank is a speech act directed first and foremost at helping the speaker feel better about themselves, stated as an objective claim about the state of the world, that we are expected in discussion to treat with the epistemic authority of a claim about identity, but the content of the actual claim".
An essay on wank | deadSimpleTech
This captures well the uncomfortable, slightly disorienting feeling that wank creates when you're subjected to it, wherein you're expected to speak about and think about the statement as though it say...
deadsimpletech.com
Reposted by Ben Williams
timbale.bsky.social
I'm guessing Robert Jenrick might be hard-pressed to see a black face if he walked round his own constituency of Newark for 90 minutes, given the ethnic minority population of its main town looks to be smaller than the white population of Handsworth. (Source: citypopulation.de/en/uk/eastmi...)
Reposted by Ben Williams
stephenkb.bsky.social
I think it’s worse than this. Her “different category/different country” line shows she can identify racism on the right. It just also revealed that she is too much of a coward to confront it head on, and instead makes false equivalences.
dorianlynskey.bsky.social
Badenoch’s law:

Racism aimed at Badenoch by someone she thinks is on the left: very bad

Racism aimed at literally anybody else: fine
Reposted by Ben Williams
emergencybod.medsky.social
Yesterday Trump claimed that one year before 9/11 he wrote about how we "need to watch" Osama bin Laden, further claiming he told (a then 20 year old) Pete Hegseth about it.

The man has lost his damned mind.
Reposted by Ben Williams
iandunt.bsky.social
Coverage of Jenrick today basically amounts to sane-washing. He didn't criticise judges. He claimed there was a conspiracy by certain judges, who he had discovered and could number, to undermine British law and create open borders.
raksky.bsky.social
“… a sort of mad McCarthyite scream of paranoia and anxiety of the sort which he has now branded himself… he is living entirely inside of his little mind…”

Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social nails Robert Jenrick’s plans for “activist” judges during Sky News’ Press Preview.