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Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath.bsky.social · 9h

It may be that not everyone who is concerned about immigration or who supports Reform is a racist, but they do believe things that are told to them by racists.

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 9h

No, it's not. It's all a lie. The blunt truth is across 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.

Iain Mansfield @igmansfield.bsky.social · 10h

Outstanding piece by Stephen Daisley.

Ethnicity is no barrier to Britishness - it's culture and integration.

That means 'smaller cohorts and aggressive integration policies' - and tackling the institutions that 'have amplified grievance narratives and radical anti-Western ideologies'.

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Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath.bsky.social · 1d

"Gottle of geer!"
You could spend a very long time trying to work out who was the dummy in this ventriloquist act.

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Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath.bsky.social · 1d

"Who are you?" I said.
"Cheesenose," he tapped his snout. "Knows cheese."
"Then he tucked the wedge of Double Gloucester into the pouch of his cheek, gave a saucy wink, turned and, with a flourish of his tail, was gone."
"Can mice wink, Dad?"
"Dunno, son. This one could."

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Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath.bsky.social · 1d

Have they defected or has that big fella eaten them all.

From the BBC website
Headline: "Five Conservative councillors defect to Reform UK"
Image: A very large man in a dark blue suit shakes hands with a much smaller man in a pale grey suit. They are both wearing Reform rosettes, but there is the sense that the larger man may be weighing up his latest snack.

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Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath.bsky.social · 2d

The money was only resting in my account.

Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath.bsky.social · 5d

Never been able to get a saddle on one.

Bambi looked tasty though.

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Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath.bsky.social · 5d

That made me laugh out loud, which the sleeping wife did not find funny. Well done that man

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Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath.bsky.social · 5d

"Wrongly"

She "wrongly" said NI voted for Brexit.

"Mistakenly" implies she knew the correct answer but misspoke. This is clearly not the case. She believed what she said.

Not "mistakenly", "wrongly".

BBC News - Badenoch mistakenly says NI voted in favour of Brexit
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Kemi Badenoch mistakenly says NI voted in favour of Brexit

In a BBC NI interview, the Tory leader said the "last time I checked, Northern Ireland did vote to leave".

www.bbc.com

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Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath.bsky.social · 5d

It's a good job he didn't ask Daddy, who would have given an impromptu two hour lecture on the structure of the Roman army from pre-Marian reform to the fall of the Byzantine Empire... Or so the Internet tells me

Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath.bsky.social · 6d

I am also available for weddings and bar mitzvahs

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Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath.bsky.social · 6d

Politics shouldn't just be about making people feel comfortable in their prejudices, it's supposed to be about persuading them of the superiority of your opinion through argument. But you can't even start that process if you are terrified of telling people you disagree with them.

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Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath.bsky.social · 6d

One of the reasons why our politics is awful at dealing with the big issues (climate, poverty, global injustice) is because the focus on placating the "median voter"—mollycoddling prejudices and comforting ignorance.

Politics that doesn't try to change people is managerialist masturbation

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Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath.bsky.social · 6d

The "smart people" who say you can never tell the "median voter" that they were wrong about something (Brexit, immigration, racism...) infantilizes the voter. Insulating voters' from the consequences of their choices disconnects them from the practice and reality of politics and weakens democracy.

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Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath.bsky.social · 6d

It is okay for political parties to sometimes tell people that they are wrong or that their views are unacceptable.

Debate over disagreements —and that includes the occasional stand-up row— is the essence of democracy and without that grit in the machine you can't have honest political interaction

The New Statesman @handle.invalid · 7d

Crying racism only hurts Labour

Activists like it, but the median voter will feel attacked.

📊 @bwalker.uk

Crying racism only hurts Labour

Activists like it, but the median voter will feel attacked.

www.newstatesman.com

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Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath.bsky.social · 8d

In a shoe bombardment things can quickly turn Ugg-ly.

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Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath.bsky.social · 9d

Mahmood should take her policy to its logical conclusion.

Don't just make immigrants do tests to earn the leave to remain, make everyone do a test.

Why should you get to stay in this scepter'd isle, this other Eden, just because you're born here?

If you fail you get shipped to the Isle of Wight

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Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath.bsky.social · 10d

Presumably, since I only buy one brand of bottled water, I have been lucky.

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Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath.bsky.social · 10d

It's weird. I've heard loads of people make that point, but I honestly don't see the difference...

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Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath.bsky.social · 10d

This is a simple, sensible, idea - to make manufacturers use standardized (not identical) packaging to enable more effective recycling...

...I can hear the heads of everyone in the packaging industry popping at the very thought

www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

A radical idea to fix plastics recycling

Making all shampoo or detergent bottles look the same isn't anti-capitalist, and it's the only way to make a truly circular economy for plastics, says Saabira Chaudhuri

www.newscientist.com

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Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath.bsky.social · 10d

I see the NFL is moving Croke Park to Cote D'Ivoire... Wonder what their coddle is like?

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Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath.bsky.social · 10d

Ditto

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Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath.bsky.social · 10d

Look, I'm not saying that the hammering the Americans have taken so far in The Ryder Cup is because the golf gods are taking retribution against a nation whose President is a proven, habitual, golf cheat...

...but it *might* be.

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Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath.bsky.social · 11d

They could have shown any of a million small, modern, prefab/modular home designs (like those below), but they went with something that immediately undermines the idea.

We should be churning these out by the tens of thousands.

A modern, modular/prefabricated home designed in Sweden

A modern, modular/prefabricated home designed in Germany

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Martin McGrath @martinmcgrath.bsky.social · 11d

Fucking annoying The Guardian tops a piece on (the entirely sensible) idea of prefabricated homes as a way to address the housing crisis with pic of something from the 1950s.

Modern prefabs can deliver energy efficient, comfortable and desirable housing.

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Build prefab homes to address harm to ‘generation of homeless children’, says Labour MP

Siobhain McDonagh urges parliament to pass renters’ rights bill to stem no-fault evictions in England

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Martin McGrath

Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 @marikamikiashvili.bsky.social · 11d

Mzia, the conscience of Georgia.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

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