@westerneuropean
@westerneuropean.bsky.social
830 followers 1.9K following 420 posts
Retired university administrator. Interests include: Climate change, Brexit, UK Economy, Politics, Education, History and Music. Based in Devon, UK
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Reposted by @westerneuropean
mrjamesob.bsky.social
Lords Heseltine & Kinnock seem more alive to these self-evident truths than most members of the Commons. Similarly, I find thinkers with direct lived experience of far right dictatorship, Greeks of a certain age for example, crystal clear about what’s happening now.
bbcnewsnight.bsky.social
“You described Reform and other parties across Europe today as among the 'right wing equivalents of the fascists in the 1930s'. Why?”

“Because that’s what they are”

@vicderbyshire.bsky.social asks Lord Heseltine about remarks he made at Conservative Party Conference.

#Newsnight
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jacquep.bsky.social
Is it just me or has the search function stopped working?
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chadbourn.bsky.social
If we’re drawing up a list of people who should be in jail…
Donald J. Trump • O @realDonald Trump
Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers!
Governor Pritzker also!
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rmcunliffe.bsky.social
"While Britain was redefining what a woman is, China was building five nuclear reactors," says Kemi Badenoch.

I cannot be the only person curious about how these two things are related
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timbale.bsky.social
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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robertsaunders.bsky.social
The "line to take" for Badenoch's supporters seems to be "we've changed leaders too often in the past".

So which of those leaders should *not* have been removed?

Liz Truss? IDS? May, after those huge defeats? Johnson, despite lying to Parliament?

The problem isn't the firing. It's everything else
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seatsixtyone.bsky.social
I hereby declare Belgrade reconnected to the rest of Europe from today! MAV is selling through tickets Budapest-Belgrade from €26. (Photo courtesy of @hvondelen.bsky.social)
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stephenkb.bsky.social
Kemi Badenoch, a woman who excuse-makes for obvious racism and can't condemn it without doing mimsy false equivalences, talking about 'courage', is it?
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iandunt.bsky.social
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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samfr.bsky.social
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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benansell.bsky.social
Spot on from @stephenkb.bsky.social. And the other aspect of this nasty turn is the eliding of British ‘culture’ with ‘white British’, which will shock anyone who has watched TV or football, or listened to music, or read a book, or indeed breathed since 1980.
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sjwrenlewis.bsky.social
Y'days post: The uphill struggle to stop Reform mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...
Only two political parties are likely to stop a Reform government: Labour and Reform themselves. While Starmer at their conference showed Labour can fight Reform, they also fight against their core vote.
The uphill struggle to stop Reform
Making political predictions is foolish, but I can only see two political parties that can stop a Reform government in the UK: Labour and ...
mainlymacro.blogspot.com
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jamessmithrf.bsky.social
This is the quintessential read on household wealth inequality Britain - is well worth your time.
resfoundation.bsky.social
🚨 New research published today

'Before the fall' looks at what has happened to the distribution of household wealth in Britain and the impact on families.

Read it here 👉 buff.ly/Ya8kInK
Senior Economist Molly Broome: 
"Wealth gaps in Britain are now so large that a typical full-time employee saving all their earnings across their entire working life would still not be able to reach the top of the wealth ladder. These gaps are doubly concerning as wealth mobility in Britain is low – people that start life wealthy tend to stay wealthy, and vice versa.
Rising house prices and changes in the value of pension promises account for most of the growth in wealth gaps since the early 2010s, rather than any active behaviour on the part of individuals, such as buying homes or acquiring new assets.
Soaring wealth and an acute need for more revenue has prompted fresh talk of wealth taxes ahead of the Budget next month. But with property and pensions now representing 80 per cent of the growing bulk of household wealth, we need to be honest that higher wealth taxes are likely to fall on pensioners, Southern homeowners or their families, rather than just being paid by the super-rich."
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nplusonemag.com
It’s hard to identify anything functional about Trumpian stupidity, which is less a form of organizational inertia than a slash-and-burn assault on the very things—universities, public health, market data—that help make the world intelligible. www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/pol...
Stupidology | William Davies
The challenge posed by this political crisis is how to take the stupidity seriously without reducing it to a wholly mental or psychiatric, let alone genetic, phenomenon. Stupidity can be understood as...
www.nplusonemag.com
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willdunn.bsky.social
I wrote about the Tory conference, having watched most of it on GB News:
www.newstatesman.com/politics/con...
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robfordmancs.bsky.social
A reminder of how Mrs Thatcher's Conservative party in 1983, an era featuring much more widespread racial prejudice in the public, approached the issue of race and national identity:
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eciu.net
ECIU @eciu.net · 3h
Heating engineers urged to sign up to heat pump ‘giveaway’ for their own homes

The ‘start at home’ initiative aims to boost roll out of the clean technology that will be key to phasing out fossil fuel home heating.
buff.ly/Y9B8b2S
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chrisgiles.ft.com
Excellent overview of the backlash against QE globally...

... let's be clear though. The losses are everywhere, but unlike the UK which accounts for them upfront, they are generally brushed under a carpet elsewhere (they still exist though)
on.ft.com/4mTPho6
The populist shadow hanging over central banks and QE
[FREE TO READ] The massive bond purchases are being unwound at a time of fierce political criticism of the monetary authorities. The controversy could limit options in future crises
on.ft.com
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bearlypolitics.co.uk
Once again, the Telegraph seems shocked that the EU is acting like… the EU.

This is exactly what sovereignty looks like when you’re on the outside.
Ruthless EU has just taught Starmer a painful lesson
Steel tariff threats are a reminder of how Brussels really feels towards post-Brexit Britain
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noahbarkin.bsky.social
Gaining momentum across Europe. Kill the monster
profjacob.bsky.social
🚨🚨 #Denmark aims to ban #socialmedia for children under 15. PM Mette Frederiksen says "We have unleashed a monster" to Danish lawmakers. 🧵https://www.politico.eu/article/denmark-mette-frederiksen-partially-ban-social-media-children-under-15/
Denmark aims to ban social media for children under 15, PM says
“We have unleashed a monster,” Mette Frederiksen tells Danish lawmakers.
www.politico.eu
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darrigomelanie.bsky.social
I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.
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ledredman.bsky.social
It's been clear to me from the start that Russia and Iran provoked Hamas into the attacks on Israel. The Israeli response was entirely predictable and it has successfully divided and damaged Western politics. Imagine how much more pressure and attention would be on Russia's genocidal war otherwise.
francesryan.bsky.social
This is devastating but hard to think of more important journalism. 18,457 children have been killed in Gaza (many more not accounted for). Here, The Guardian prints their names and beautiful faces and tells us what they were like before Israel stole their lives. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...
Young lives cut short on an unimaginable scale: the 18,457 children on Gaza’s list of war dead
Every name on a list compiled by health authorities in Gaza of the child victims of Israel’s offensive
www.theguardian.com
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