@francescrook.bsky.social
4.2K followers 290 following 390 posts
Co-convenor of the Commission on Political Power https://commissionpoliticalpower.uk Francescrook.Substack.com
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francescrook.bsky.social
I was very proud to be awarded the Stockholm Prize in Criminology by the Queen of Sweden, jointly with Professor Bryan Stevenson
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fullfact.org
💷 Can asylum seekers claim benefits?
🏥 Do they get free NHS treatment?
📱 What about free iPhones?

Our new explainer answers some commonly asked questions about the support given to asylum seekers in the UK.
What support do asylum seekers get in the UK? – Full Fact
Full Fact is the UK’s independent fact checking charity
fullfact.org
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nearlylegal.co.uk
Your children (or more likely grandchildren) won't get to go to university is a bold pitch to potential tory voters.
resprofnews.bsky.social
Breaking: Tories would slash university places by 100k.

Student numbers cap plan billed as saving £3 billion to invest in apprenticeship funding.

Tomorrow, Badenoch will unveil plans to limit student numbers across all subjects.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...
Tories would slash university places by 100,000 - Research Professional News
Student numbers cap plan billed as saving £3 billion to invest in “doubled” apprenticeship funding
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
francescrook.bsky.social
I have a suggestion. Let’s all ignore Jenrick.
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davidallengreen.bsky.social
NEW

Freedom is just another word for "a gap in the law"

The Home Secretary wants to ban more things

By me

Substack
emptycity.substack.com/p/freedom-is...

Personal blog
davidallengreen.com/2025/10/free...
Home Secretary tells Sky News that “there is a gap in the law” when it comes to frequent, repeated protests on the same issue. Hence she will be giving police greater powers to move them to another location or time.
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ianbirrell.bsky.social
‘Dior handbags, which retail for between £3-5,000 and which, according to paperwork, cost between £50 and £60 to make’ - interesting Observer‬⁩ expose of slave labour and rip-offs in the luxury fashion industry observer.co.uk/news/busines...
Illegal practices tear the reputation of Italian luxury f...
It is an industry that thrives on quality, yet Italy’s top houses are being investigated for sub-contracting, black market mark-ups and sweat shop labour
observer.co.uk
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brumgreens.bsky.social
You should be angry at private companies making massive profits from our taxes to house the most desperate people in appalling conditions... And NOT the people forced to live in them.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Asylum hotel provider makes £180m profit despite claims of inedible food and rationed loo paper
Asylum seekers and charities tell BBC of
www.bbc.co.uk
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timbale.bsky.social
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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samfr.bsky.social
And we have even less protection here. Trump can't fire judges who have constitutional protection. A government here could pass a law allowing them to do so with a majority of one in the Commons.
timbale.bsky.social
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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adambienkov.bsky.social
The Greens requested an interview on the Laura Kuenssberg Show with Zack Polanski when he was elected leader, but were denied, with a promise to interview him during Green conference instead.

This was then scrapped citing the Manchester synagogue attack. Polanski is both Jewish and from Manchester
BBC Laura Kuenssberg Show Accused of Anti-Green Bias After Cancelling Zack Polanski Interview
The new Green Party leader was the only major party leader not to have been granted a conference interview on the flagship BBC show
bylinetimes.com
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declassifieduk.org
An Israeli pharmaceutical company that operates at the heart of the NHS has been aiding the Israeli military during its genocide in Gaza, Declassified can reveal.

Teva supplies around 14% of the prescribed medicine packs in Britain, and supports the IDF👇
www.declassifieduk.org/the-israeli-...
The Israeli firm aiding the NHS and IDF
Drugs corporation Teva makes one in seven of the medicines prescribed in the UK. It’s also backing the Israeli military during the genocide.
www.declassifieduk.org
francescrook.bsky.social
I’ve bought a return train ticket to Liverpool for £32, why is it almost three times this to go to Wales?
francescrook.bsky.social
I need your advice. I have read my way through Ann Cleves and most of Nicci French. I don’t like the overly violent murders, so please recommend me some good stories
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howarthm.bsky.social
⚖️ #LegalRights

🚨A new bill would enable the govt to take further steps to restrict judicial reviews and could even allow the prime minister to draw up a list of important infrastructure projects that receive automatic approval🚨

@francescrook.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Ministers to announce significant changes to UK’s planning system
Exclusive: Differences over changes to environmental and legal provisions to prompt economic growth hint at chaos at heart of government
www.theguardian.com
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timbale.bsky.social
Not a single mention of the NHS--not least in the section on what the Tories did in government that, in her words, "lost us the trust and confidence of the public". Unless the Party gets the extent to which the crippling of key public services helped lose them the election, then they're truly sunk.
Kemi Badenoch’s opening speech to Conservative Party Conference 2025
YouTube video by Conservatives
youtu.be
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andrewcutting.coe.int
Interesting: Leaving the #ECHR would be a grave mistake, writes former UK Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary Sir Robert Buckland KC👇

🔗 conservativehome.com/2025/10/05/r... via @conservativehome.bsky.social
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alexvont.bsky.social
I understand a court of appeal ruling is due this month on the question of whether a judicial review of the ban can go ahead in November. The government is opposing it, but I think they might be wiser to get this cleared up as soon as possible. The current situation looks awful & is not sustainable.
ayoub.bsky.social
Over 400 arrests of protesters in London thanks to the government’s refusal to admit that their decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist group has been a disaster

The Labour gov has so far arrested well over 1,000 people for holding up signs

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
Police make more than 440 arrests at Palestine Action protest in London
Officers arrest activists at silent vigil in support of banned organisation, as demos go ahead despite PM’s pleas
www.theguardian.com
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timbale.bsky.social
To be fair, even in the glory days debates in the main hall weren't always exactly packed, but still....
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mikegalsworthy.bsky.social
She was arrested for holding a sign reading:

“I do not support the proscription of Palestine Action”

How that would warrant arrest is very unclear. I wonder if the police here even understand the boundaries of the bizarre law they’ve been forced to enforce.
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robbhawkes.bsky.social
As more of my valued colleagues face the threat of redundancy, here’s a quick reminder that it takes years and years of public investment to train an academic. Cutting someone with this wealth of experience loose isn’t “saving” anything. It is a massive waste of our collective resources.
UK Universities in Crisis? Time to Transform Higher Ed Finance
by Rob Hawkes and Scott Ferguson Universities in the UK are in crisis. Job cuts in the sector are reaching ‘cataclysmic’ levels, with an estimated 10,000 already lost and many more at risk. Just da…
moneyontheleft.org
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sturdyalex.bsky.social
Many pundits today are pushing the line that everyone who protests the genocide in Gaza is basically either antisemitic or tolerant of antisemitism. But isn't that precisely the conflation of the actions of the Israeli gov't with all Jewish people, which is at the heart of this wave of antisemitism?
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josiah.writes.news
"In his relentless desire to transition into Reform and self-identify as Nigel Farage, [Welsh Tory leader] Darren Millar appears to have forgotten his own party’s manifestos and his own previous comments."
open.substack.com/pub/willhayw...
Outrageous Welsh Conservative hypocrisy
This is shameless
open.substack.com