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Reposted by Fr Jonathan Bish

Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 1h

*sighs*

open.substack.com/pub/jonn/p/n...

Fr Jonathan Bish @frjonathanbish.bsky.social · 1h

The UK has one of the lowest unoccupied rates in Europe. Empty homes aren’t a solution; they’re a complete red herring in talking about housing.

Fr Jonathan Bish @frjonathanbish.bsky.social · 2h

Well, you’ve got church bellringers on your side. Between that and pub goers you’ve got a nice Lib Dem-style wholesome coalition going.

a man on a horse is ringing a bell in a tower

ALT: a man on a horse is ringing a bell in a tower

media.tenor.com

Fr Jonathan Bish @frjonathanbish.bsky.social · 16h

I don’t know what this is, and I don’t want to google it…

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Omar Khan @omaromalleykhan.bsky.social · 1d

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter

Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

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Jo Kershaw @mthrjo.bsky.social · 1d

I live one town over from Dewsbury. Batley and Dewsbury have their problems, but it's not true that you just see "a single ethnicity", and there are plenty of people working hard to promote integration. There are, of course, some people who resist it, _and some of them are white_.

Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 1d

"You go to some places like Handsworth.. parts of Dewsbury, Bradford, Leicester, where you see.. a single ethnicity.. we don't think that's healthy thing"

Kevin Hollinrake is MP for Thirsk and Malton, which according to the 2021 census is 98% white.

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Hannah Swithinbank @hannahswiv.bsky.social · 1d

How a bunch of people are simultaneously obsessed with the greatness of England and Britain *and* with drubbing study of its literature and history is BAFFLING to me.

Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social · 1d

I cannot understand what these people think the purpose of human life is?

It is *not* "pursue joy, deal justly, love well, try to understand as much and see as much of this beautiful world and of the deepness, richness and variety of human culture and experience as you can before you die"?

Tim Worthington @outonbluesix.bsky.social · 1d

How is this repeatedly made into a policy issue - by *all* parties - when the blunt fact of the matter is that grown adults who are obliged to pay for their own education, and relentlessly pursued to repay their loans, should be able to study whatever the fuck they want.

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Fr Jonathan Bish @frjonathanbish.bsky.social · 1d

I don’t know, could be worse: you could have done Comp-Sci!

And speaking as someone with an allegedly high powered law degree, degrees may or may not have anything to do with what you end up doing: one of the more successful people I know ended up in software design after two theology degrees!

Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 1d

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.

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Fr Jonathan Bish @frjonathanbish.bsky.social · 1d

I mean that seriously, I’m not just drive by posting: why should I, a social democrat who takes the economic position we’re in as a country seriously and is concerned by how vulnerable we are to foreign and domestic extremism vote Green, rather than my usual parties?

Fr Jonathan Bish @frjonathanbish.bsky.social · 1d

A party that opposed the most important green transport project in a generation and persistently refuses to take the housing crisis seriously? What’s your definition of ‘better country’?

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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 4d

Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

Sick of scrolling through junk results, AI-generated ads and links to lookalike products? The author and activist behind the term ‘enshittification’ explains what’s gone wrong with the internet – and what we can do about it

www.theguardian.com

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Lottie @sellottie.bsky.social · 3d

It’s happened again

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Fr Jonathan Bish @frjonathanbish.bsky.social · 2d

There’s a couple of things in play. A lot of people know, say, that asylum seekers get £49 a week, but they’re much less likely to know that visas include the proviso of no recourse to public funds. Depends on you deal with immigration or not. And a lot of people just believe they’re being scammed.

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Fr Jonathan Bish @frjonathanbish.bsky.social · 2d

And nearly always when you get into the details of who shouldn’t/should count for asylum, it turns out they’re probably less hardline than the Home Office…

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Fr Jonathan Bish @frjonathanbish.bsky.social · 2d

I mean, I’ve seen the cards that say ‘no recourse to public funds’ on them. (And had a colleague refuse to apply for a grant from a charity he was probably entitled to as it might infringe that, no matter what I told him otherwise!)

Do people just… know nothing about how their countries work?

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Fr Jonathan Bish @frjonathanbish.bsky.social · 3d

Evergreen skeet!

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Fr Jonathan Bish @frjonathanbish.bsky.social · 3d

My experience is that there was a an absolutely huge gap between people’s beliefs about how their immigration systems work and how they actually work, and if you’ve had experience of the immigration system in the US or UK, you’ll spend a lot of time with one raised eyebrow when the topic comes up!

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 3d

my in-laws were genuinely shocked that I, an English person, could not simply come and work in the United States at will.

lorem ipsum 🇧🇷🇺🇸 @whiskeynachos.bsky.social · 3d

Believe it or not, this is only the second most naive and clueless thing I've been told about the immigration system. Number one belongs to my own mother, who was so insulated by my dad that she actually asked me "can't I just bring a relative from Brazil to help me care for the house?"

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Fr Jonathan Bish @frjonathanbish.bsky.social · 3d

The common law position is birthright citizenship; it’s where my instincts are. But it’s a LOT easier to have your US citizenship taken off of you than your British citizenship, so birthright citizenship is no guarantee of anything.

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Fr Jonathan Bish @frjonathanbish.bsky.social · 3d

I mean, that’s the vast majority of the non-American world you’re talking about (Lesotho, Pakistan and Tanzania, sort of, are the only non-tiny exceptions). I wouldn’t describe things as ‘bizarre and horrible’ because other countries don’t have the history of migration the Americas have.

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Fr Jonathan Bish @frjonathanbish.bsky.social · 3d

Better than most of the specialist one that you can buy from various ecclesiastical shops.

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Fr Jonathan Bish @frjonathanbish.bsky.social · 3d

Is it the nice white Muscatel dessert wine you can get on 5-for-6 occasionally? I think that’s what we used in a previous church!

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Fr Jonathan Bish @frjonathanbish.bsky.social · 4d

*Swanwick.

Fr Jonathan Bish @frjonathanbish.bsky.social · 4d

Fabulous theme!

Though I’m compelled to say that lots of people feel like they’re a failure if they’re stuck in the Swanick conference centre…

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Fr Jonathan Bish @frjonathanbish.bsky.social · 4d

My version of this would look so much more sophisticated if I had actually finished an album of Tenebrae singing modern choral music or Clare College’s recording of Imogen Holst’s choral works. As it is, my first one is the same as everyone else’s…

Will - Absolute Shower 🇺🇦 @showerabsolute.bsky.social · 4d

Show us the last four albums you listened to

(One is obvious)

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Fr Jonathan Bish @frjonathanbish.bsky.social · 4d

‘Unpopular policy.’

Tells you far more about how much American tech firms are out of touch with the realities on the ground, away from the Twitter algorithm.

Ipsos Poll showing 57% of Britons support ID cards while 19% oppose them.

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