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Reposted by Colin Lawson

Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social · 14m

🧵🚨

The UK’s independent scientific bodies are highly vulnerable to politicisation - over the past 5 months I've been working with @martinmckee.bsky.social to map out their vulnerabilities and it's not good news.

Today our report is published!
www.ucl.ac.uk/policy-lab/n...

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UK’s arm’s length public bodies are highly vulnerable to politicisation

Seven in ten Britons say it is important for top scientific institutions to be independent in exclusive new polling.

www.ucl.ac.uk

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Reposted by Colin Lawson

Pat Bagley @bagleycartoons.bsky.social · 2h

Here’s what I know

MAGA controls the media messaging

MAGA controls the levers of state-sanctioned violence (army, police)

It’s fascism from here on out as long as they have those two things

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Colin Lawson @colindlawson.bsky.social · 3h

They are right though. The TQ+ movement has reshaped Europe’s laws & policies using strategies that bypass democratic scrutiny. This has far-reaching consequences: undermining women’s rights, removing safeguards for children & adolescents & eroding free speech.
athena-forum.eu/publications...

Report: Beneath the surface - Athena Forum

Read how gender identity is reshaping Europe.

athena-forum.eu

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Reposted by Colin Lawson

Protect Democracy @protectdemocracy.org · 3d

BREAKING: Today, we're suing. Federal forces in the Chicago area are brutally suppressing free speech with tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash grenades. Journalists, clergy, and demonstrators have been attacked for peacefully protesting against the government. This is an unconstitutional assault.

BREAKING: Lawsuit challenges violent Illinois ICE enforcement. Press, clergy, and protesters sue DHS for violating First Amendment

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Reposted by Colin Lawson

Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 6h

If a news organisation is making -200% margin after five years, it is not a commercial operation and should be assumed to have a different purpose.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 8h

The channel lost £33 million to communicate its content to a large audience
www.business-live.co.uk/enterprise/g...

GB News suffers huge loss despite doubling revenue and growing audience

The TV channel, whose well-known presenters include Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, fell to a pre-tax loss of £33.4m in the year to 31 May, 2024

www.business-live.co.uk

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Reposted by Colin Lawson

Sarah Taylor @saturngirl.bsky.social · 7h

No no no you’ve got this all wrong. It’s the asylum seekers’ fault 🙄

Oxfam EU @oxfameu.bsky.social · 10h

📢 EU Billionaires’ wealth surges by over €400bn in first half of 2025.

That’s over €2bn a day.

🔗https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/eu-billionaires-wealth-surges-over-eu400-billion-first-half-2025

#TaxTheRich

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Reposted by Colin Lawson

Colin Lawson @colindlawson.bsky.social · 18h

Pressured by Transgender Activists, Dr. Gordon Guyatt Backs Out Of His Own Research.
By imperilling a paper on gender-transition interventions for youths, the evidence-based expert joins a suppressive trend seen in academic publishing in paediatric gender medicine.
www.nysun.com/article/pres...

Pressured by Transgender Activists, Star Academic Backs Out Of His Own Research

By imperilling a paper on gender-transition interventions for youths, evidence-based medicine expert Dr. Gordon Guyatt joins a wider suppressive trend…

www.nysun.com

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Colin Lawson @colindlawson.bsky.social · 18h

Pressured by Transgender Activists, Dr. Gordon Guyatt Backs Out Of His Own Research.
By imperilling a paper on gender-transition interventions for youths, the evidence-based expert joins a suppressive trend seen in academic publishing in paediatric gender medicine.
www.nysun.com/article/pres...

Pressured by Transgender Activists, Star Academic Backs Out Of His Own Research

By imperilling a paper on gender-transition interventions for youths, evidence-based medicine expert Dr. Gordon Guyatt joins a wider suppressive trend…

www.nysun.com

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Reposted by Colin Lawson

Dr Priest @pennypriest.bsky.social · 2d

"Peter Mandelson lost his job for being friends with a paedophile. Donald Trump, who was friends with the same paedophile, was given a state banquet hosted by a King whose brother lost his job because he was friends with the same paedophile.“

Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla.bsky.social · 4d

And he’s back!!

Sunday isn’t Sunday without Stewart Lee. We were so thrilled at @thenerve.news that Stewart came with us.

His satirical columns for the Observer were some of our most-read content: funny, surreal, angry true. Essential weekend reading.

www.thenerve.news/p/stewart-le...

DOUBLETHINK DOES DOUBLETIME

STEWART LEE

www.thenerve.news

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Reposted by Colin Lawson

Rev. Algernon Briarwick @adult-human-male.bsky.social · 1d

The truth of "gender affirming care" - this should be obligatory watching for anyone still trying to deny this international medical scandal.

substack.com/home/post/p-...

Breaking the Spiral of Silence on the Scandal of Gender-Affirming Care

Mia Hughes' Speech to the 2025 Reclaiming Conference in Calgary

substack.com

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Reposted by Colin Lawson

Rev. Algernon Briarwick @adult-human-male.bsky.social · 1d

For example, the entire basis of gender affirming care most often cited (that medical non-intervention increases risk of suicide) has been officially admitted by American Civil Liberties Union as baseless.

www.city-journal.org/article/aclu...

ACLU Attorney Confesses: Transgender-Suicide Claim is a Myth

An astonishing moment took place yesterday at the Supreme Court during oral arguments in U.S. v. Skrmetti, the case that challenges Tennessee’s ban on

www.city-journal.org

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Reposted by Colin Lawson

Colin Lawson @colindlawson.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, a girl who doesn't conform to regressive gender stereotypes doesn't need a special name or category like tomboy or trans. She just needs to be left to live her best life, loved and respected for who she is and not encouraged to be something she can never be.

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Reposted by Colin Lawson

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 1d

The Bishop of Birmingham has written to the Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick about his comments about Handsworth

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Reposted by Colin Lawson

Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 2d

Four parties within a 5 point swing of first place and five parties on 12% plus.

This would be pure chaos under first past the post.

Election Maps UK @electionmaps.uk · 2d

Westminster Voting Intention:

RFM: 27% (-2)
LAB: 20% (-2)
CON: 17% (+1)
LDM: 17% (+2)
GRN: 12% (+1)
SNP: 4% (+1)

Via @yougov.co.uk, 5-6 Oct.
Changes w/ 28-29 Sep.

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Reposted by Colin Lawson

Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 1d

Shoutout to the Boomers, really showing everybody else up in 2025

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Colin Lawson @colindlawson.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, a girl who doesn't conform to regressive gender stereotypes doesn't need a special name or category like tomboy or trans. She just needs to be left to live her best life, loved and respected for who she is and not encouraged to be something she can never be.

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Reposted by Colin Lawson

Chris Grey @chrisgrey.bsky.social · 1d

This really needs to be said and understood. What makes it worse, if possible, is that it is not coming out of any genuine crisis or emergency. It is a deliberate attempt to whip up anger and grievance in order to capitalise upon it & in Jenrick's case purely to advance his leadership ambitions.

Tanja Bueltmann @tanjabueltmann.net · 2d

I say this with the bluntness it requires: they will get people murdered if this continues. This is not just populism anymore either: it’s completely unhinged and a deliberate choice that does endanger lives. I am not saying this lightly at all.

Screenshot of an Express article; it says: Robert Jenrick lists 30 'activist judges' he vows to axe in war on UK's open border

In a bold move, Robert Jenrick is set to unveil a controversial plan targeting what he calls 'activist' judges, at the Conservative Party conference.

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Reposted by Colin Lawson

Colin Lawson @colindlawson.bsky.social · 2d

For over a decade, gender identity policies have reshaped Europe’s laws & institutions through undemocratic “soft-law” measures, eroding women’s rights, child safeguards, data integrity, and free speech while quietly redefining Europe’s legal and political framework:
athena-forum.eu/publications...

Report: Beneath the surface - Athena Forum

Read how gender identity is reshaping Europe.

athena-forum.eu

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Reposted by Colin Lawson

Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 2d

Journalist Edward R. Murrow used his platform on CBS to criticize the witch hunts led by Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s.

This is what real journalism should do — hold power to account, not capitulate to it.

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Reposted by Colin Lawson

Adam Schwarz @adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 2d

Heseltine at the Tory conf:

"Fascists of the 30s are back... Trump's language coincides with words here... The immigrant has replaced the Jew as the problem. We must make clear we will never have any part in the populist extremism of Farage... We don't need Trump's mouthpiece anywhere near No. 10.”

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Reposted by Colin Lawson

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 2d

Hadn't realised lots of trusts were no longer prescribing gluten-free food for coeliac kids.

My son is coeliac and his food is so much more expensive. We don't get on prescription because we can afford it but for a family in poverty that's a massive issue.

www.independent.co.uk/news/health/...

NHS suggests coeliac children use food banks as doctors blast ‘cruel’ cuts

Clinicians warn of ‘shocking levels of ignorance’ over ‘cruel and risky’ decision to cut gluten-free prescriptions

www.independent.co.uk

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Reposted by Colin Lawson

BremainInSpain @bremaininspain.com · 2d

This is what the far right do when confronted with their toxic hate .. they respond in feigned outrage repeating learned rhetoric while ensuring the person questioning them can’t get a word in edgeways so it looks like they’ve won

You see it from Trump, Farage, Tice, Tommy Robinson - It’s textbook

Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 2d

Wow. Robert Jenrick doubles down by branding a black journalist's questions "ridiculous" and saying that the problem is not his comments, but "journalists like you who pop up and try to knock me down", adding that "this is the reason why terrorist attacks happen". ~AA

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Reposted by Colin Lawson

Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 2d

If you can't see how this will end, then you're not paying attention (not least to what's going on on the other side of the Atlantic).

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Colin Lawson @colindlawson.bsky.social · 2d

For over a decade, gender identity policies have reshaped Europe’s laws & institutions through undemocratic “soft-law” measures, eroding women’s rights, child safeguards, data integrity, and free speech while quietly redefining Europe’s legal and political framework:
athena-forum.eu/publications...

Report: Beneath the surface - Athena Forum

Read how gender identity is reshaping Europe.

athena-forum.eu

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Colin Lawson @colindlawson.bsky.social · 2d

Tax authorities examine finances of key Nigel Farage ally.
Exclusive: HMRC conducts scoping exercise into Reform UK backer ‘Posh George’ Cottrell’s income from business and wealth:
www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Tax authorities examine finances of key Nigel Farage ally

Exclusive: HMRC conducts scoping exercise into Reform UK backer ‘Posh George’ Cottrell’s income from business and wealth

www.theguardian.com