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Roland Smith

@rolandmcs.bsky.social

24K followers 350 following 5.8K posts

Tracking the decay of the Right and patrolling the culture war's boundaries. Former Fellow of the Adam Smith Institute. Now centrist. Telegraph watcher. https://open.substack.com/pub/rolandmcs buymeacoffee.com/rolandsmith

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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · Nov 10

Long thread on how Brexitism started and evolved over 75 years, drawing from Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon's 'Continental Drift'.

Global Britain, Free Trade, Cakeism, Federalism, anti-federalism, EEA, Winston Churchill, Empire, 52-48 referendums, Enoch Powell, 1975, Thatcher.... It's all here. /1

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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 2h

'Hmm, will the abolition of stamp duty persuade me to vote for a Trump-lite Tory Party?'

I worry that more voters than we imagine would answer 'Yes'.

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Reposted by Roland Smith

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 2h

Kemi Badneoch ends her speech by saying she stands for a country "where people are judged by the content of their character, not the colour of their skin"

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Reposted by Roland Smith

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 2h

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 · 2h

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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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 2h

arnold schwarzenegger is wearing a black leather jacket and a gray shirt .

ALT: arnold schwarzenegger is wearing a black leather jacket and a gray shirt .

media.tenor.com

Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 2h

She is way too smug and pleased with herself after she lands what she sees as a killer point (or just receives great applause). Imagine Thatcher doing that.

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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 2h

And now abolishing stamp duty on property purchases.

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 3h

Good to see the Conservative Party committed to keeping the deficit down by *checks notes* spending £2 billion giving tax breaks for private education, creating a massive new deportation force and pledging to maintain pensioner benefits.

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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 2h

The Tories just cannot shake off that legacy, which I guess is why people now hacked off with Labour seek something different and see a cheeky chappie with a pint promising the earth.

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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 3h

I hear Kemi Badenoch is trying to re-establish Conservative Party credentials on the economy, debt, and immigration, as though their 14 years in government never happened.

bsky.app/profile/adam...

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 3h

Labour have presided over a "doom loop of higher taxes, weaker borders and month after month of chaos" says Kemi Badenoch who was part of a government that raised taxes and immigration levels by record amounts, whilst changing leader no fewer than four times

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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 3h

If only the individuals looked/sounded like they were having a crisis of confidence. See, for example, Mark Littlewood, former leader of the IEA, now promoting Liz Truss.

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Reposted by Roland Smith

James Austin @jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 6h

This is my basic theory for a lot of what is going on with the centre right atm

The ideas failed utterly and now there is a total crisis of intellectual confidence

Indy @indy.bsky.social · 1d

It nags at me that people are dancing around the fact that one reason centre-right think-tanks are in an intellectual crisis moment is because we've spent over a decade where lots of their ideas were tried out and didn't pan out as advertised.

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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 3h

A Mr Enoch Jenrick from Herefordshire writes: 'But neither said "you're English".'

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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 3h

Move along, nothing to see here...

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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 5h

Exactly like the Right.

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Reposted by Roland Smith

Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 6h

She's nothing if not predictable, is she? I know the Tories aren't keen on anything Green these days, but pretty much all they've done this week is recycle stuff they've been banging on about--for the most part fruitlessly--for the last decade and a half. And today it's "Mickey Mouse" degrees. 🙄

Badenoch: Curb students taking 'rip-off' degrees such as English

The performing arts, sociology and anthropology are among the subjects the Conservatives would like to cut

inews.co.uk

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Reposted by Roland Smith

Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 6h

It's properly unconscionable that the Home Office has created this situation. It should never have been allowed to happen and once it did happen it should have been immediately reversed.

The New World @thenewworldmag.bsky.social · 6h

🚨BREAKING: The metropolitan police
arrest a man for carrying a copy of our magazine. This is a threat to both journalism and freedom to protest

Aaliyah 🇮🇪🇵🇸 ‼️SAVE GAZA‼️ @aaliyahxx.bsky.social · 13h

Watch | A man was arrested in London for holding up The New World magazine, featuring the "sign of the times" with the words:

"I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action"

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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 5h

I'm seeing/hearing more and more of these analyses stating (directly or indirectly) that Russia is now on its way to defeat.

The Bunker podcast – News without the nonsense @bunkerpod.bsky.social · 7h

The draft and the furious – Is Russia running out of soldiers?

@gavinesler.bsky.social is joined by @tashlindstaedt.bsky.social to find out how long can Russia sustain a war that’s quietly draining its people, its economy, and its future?

Listen here 👉 linktr.ee/bunker_pod

#podcast #Russia

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Reposted by Roland Smith

Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 6h

"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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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 6h

Conservatism really has become a gateway drug to Faragism.

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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 6h

Brutally on target from @rafaelbehr.bsky.social.

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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 6h

'Don't call me racist', says racist.

The News Agents @newsagents.bsky.social · 7h

"He invokes white faces. He is the one who chooses this as his metric."

Robert Jenrick defended his comment about not seeing "another white face" in a Birmingham area, saying he was only criticising the lack of integration, not focusing on skin colour