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Reposted by Matt Osbourn

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 1d

One of the Conservative party's contributions to our country has been keeping people who think you can measure integration through skin colour out of office - what next, are they only going to be lukewarm on the property-owning democracy?

Thank the Tories for keeping Robert Jenrick out of high office

Shadow justice secretary’s comment about not seeing a ‘white face’ shows he does not understand integration

www.ft.com

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 1d

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.

Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 2d

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…

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Paula Surridge @psurridge.bsky.social · 2d

Fitting that the first Yougov Con/LibDem tie should appear during a conference where the Conservatives seem to have again forgotten the LibDems exist.

YouGov @yougov.co.uk · 2d

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...

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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 2d

Under any other leader Jenrick would have been sacked for saying this.

Under Badenoch he'll probably get a promotion www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Robert Jenrick complained of ‘not seeing another white face’ in Birmingham neighbourhood

Shadow justice secretary criticised for suggesting he could tell how integrated Handsworth was based on short visit

www.theguardian.com

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Matt Osbourn @poshgeordie.bsky.social · 3d

Pathetic (from Starmer)

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 3d

Keir Starmer’s spokesman asked about Israel detaining British citizens who were on the Gaza aid flotilla, while in international waters, replies that it is a “matter for the Israeli Government”

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Cllr Richard Kemp CBE @cllrkemp.bsky.social · 4d

Civil Liberties – a dividing line between Lib Dems and Labour

The optics of the arrest of the blind, elderly and those in wheel chairs in London yesterday were appalling. The words from Labour about arrests for peaceful protest were spine chilling.

Civil Liberties – a dividing line between Lib Dems and Labour

The optics of the arrest of the blind, elderly and those in wheel chairs in London yesterday were appalling. The words from Labour about arrests for peaceful protest were spine chilling.

richardkemp.wordpress.com

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Helen 🏳️‍⚧️✊🏻💕 @mimmymum.bsky.social · 3d

Sophie Ellis-Bextor hits out at transphobia: “These people make trans people their whole personality and spend their entire day being angry” 💯

“There was a time when Pride felt like a celebration of the shoulders people were able to stand on, but now it feels like an absolute political necessity”

Sophie Ellis-Bextor hits out at transphobia: "These people make trans people their whole personality"

Sophie Ellis-Bextor has criticised increasing levels of transphobia in the UK and overseas in a new interview.

www.nme.com

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Paula Surridge @psurridge.bsky.social · 3d

Maybe the answer to political apathy, trust, and populism is for everyone to be a local councillor for a few weeks.

James Ball @jamesrball.com · 3d

*gasp*

“Everyone thought we’d come in and there were going to be these huge costs we could cut away but there just aren’t,” said a third senior Reform cabinet member in Kent.

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Matt Osbourn @poshgeordie.bsky.social · 5d

Comedic acting and writing gold ❤️ youtu.be/7vNAbCxyxMA?...

Kitty - Patricia Routledge (1929-2025)

YouTube video by comedy_express

youtu.be

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Matt Osbourn @poshgeordie.bsky.social · 6d

Farewell to the wonderful Dame Patricia Routledge 😥

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Keeping Up Appearances star Patricia Routledge dies at 96

She also starred in Alan Bennett's TV monologues and played BBC One's crime-busting Hetty Wainthropp.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Matt Osbourn @poshgeordie.bsky.social · 6d

Happy birthday!

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Richard Wingfield @richardwingfield.bsky.social · 7d

Labour cannot have it both ways. Starmer talks about compassion in the asylum system, and within days splits up the families of those granted asylum. This on top of forcing doctors and nurses coming here from abroad to do community work to prove that they contribute to this country. Just shameful.

Starmer to end asylum ‘golden ticket’ of resettlement and family reunion rights

People granted asylum will have to earn right to invite family in plan charities say is ‘straight from populist playbook’

www.theguardian.com

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William Tench @williamten.ch · 7d

We simply refuse to build dense in most of this country and are paying the price

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

UK fifth-worst country in Europe for loss of green space to development

Exclusive: 1,680 football pitches of protected natural land in England, Wales and Northern Ireland lost in five years

www.theguardian.com

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 7d

yep: if you wanted to design a policy that would drown more children in the channel, ending family reunion as a pathway to asylum would certainly be high on your list

Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 7d

And, as an aside, for a government which bangs on about "smashing gangs", cutting one of the only routes available to people to seek asylum in the UK is a pretty surefire way to ensure that even more people, especially women and children, are forced into making channel crossings. 5/

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Duncan Robinson @duncanrobinson.bsky.social · 25d

Shot, chaser

Young men more likely to vote Green than Reform. Young men second most progressive group of any demographic. Combined right-wing vote barely bigger than Green vote alone for young men

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Matt Osbourn @poshgeordie.bsky.social · 9d

Logging on to Bluesky at the moment almost always results with me being incandescently angry with Labour - for their cruelty, cowardice, and utter political stupidity...

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Stephen Harte @sjharte.bsky.social · 9d

For Women Scotland don’t care of the damage that will be done to trans kids by their cruel bigotry.

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 9d

Scottish government says school pupils must use toilets on basis of sex

Schools must provide single-sex toilets and are encouraged to also offer access to gender-neutral or other facilities Schools must provide separate toilets and changing rooms for boys and girls to be used on the basis of a pupil’s biological sex, the Scottish government has said in updated guidance. Transgender pupils can no longer use “the facilities they feel most comfortable with”, as was previously the case, but schools were encouraged to offer gender-neutral facilities or access to disabled and staff toilets for the relatively small number of children affected. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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Dan @sirstan74.bsky.social · 10d

This finding seems so obvious and unsurprising, particularly as the Tories undertook the exact same experiment in the last government.

How is it that the current government contains the only people not seeing it?

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Our research makes it clear: by capitulating to the right, Labour is driving voters to Reform UK | Tarik Abou-Chadi and Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte

Mimicking Farage on immigration is senseless. Labour voters feel betrayed; anti-immigration voters see through the ruse, say academics Tarik Abou-Chadi and Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte

www.theguardian.com

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Matt Osbourn @poshgeordie.bsky.social · 10d

Political ineptitude of the highest order

James Ball @jamesrball.com · 10d

“Starmer has tied what was supposed to be a quiet series of improvements to digital public services to the most contentious political issue moving. He has done so by promising it will help tackle illegal working – a claim even his own ministers don’t find credible.”

The ID cards disaster is another sign that Starmer has lost it

The PM has failed to spot voters’ anti-big-government streak, enraged his own party and reunited the warring Farage and Boris Johnson

www.thenewworld.co.uk

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Matt Osbourn @poshgeordie.bsky.social · 10d

Yep - this is once again performative cruelty and nastiness rather than using the opportunity of their enormous majority (and moral standards) to actually remind people how successful and positive immigration and integration has been for and in the UK

Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 10d

Further to this, all the characteristics mentioned by Mahmood already have to be met to get ILR (salary, English, life in UK test, clean criminal record, no welfare benefits) other than this weird Duke of Edinburgh style volunteering thing that they cannot possibly implement.

James Ball @jamesrball.com · 10d

I do think we sometimes forget:
1. We need high-skilled migrants to keep the NHS working, and to grow the economy
2. High-skilled migrants have a *lot* of choices over where to go

And

3. We’ve been getting less attractive as a destination for years anyway (wages here famously suck)

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Matt Osbourn @poshgeordie.bsky.social · 10d

a man wearing a shirt that says super is holding a laptop

Alt: a man wearing a shirt that says super is holding a laptop, closes it and throws it out of window

media.tenor.com

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Jack Nicholls @theveryliberaljack.bsky.social · 10d

If you have to earn fundamental rights, they aren't rights, they are baubles handed down by the state.

This is now essentially a Reform-lite government. They didn't even need to win an election. People need to stop confusing left with liberal, not that they are very left either.

##tabloidlabour 🥀

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Richard Wingfield @richardwingfield.bsky.social · 10d

I hope @torstenbell.bsky.social will immediately apologise for this. Yes, politics is about taking on your opponents, but comments about people's appearance and size should be out of bounds. Really disappointing to hear this from a Labour minister. 🥀

William Tench @williamten.ch · 10d

I’d rather a “fat bloke in a wetsuit” than a wet bloke with no spine

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Matt Osbourn @poshgeordie.bsky.social · 11d

Pardon this indulgence once again - but it’s been about two weeks short of a year since I made the decision to seriously lose weight - and I have now reached the point of 50kg lost (that’s about 8 stone in old money)… Both photos (one last night, one in Sep 24) taken by @lfranca.uk ❤️ #weightloss

Picture of me from September 2024, when 50kg heavier wearing my progress pride flag t-shirt

Picture of me now (Sep 25) at 50kg lighter - and wearing my Abba sweater and holding glass of red wine

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Jeff Livingstone @defjeff.bsky.social · 12d

Pitiful turnout of racists on their ‘big’ day in Newcastle. Good work whoever got this banner in their line of sight on the Tyne Bridge too. (pics from The Chronicle)

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