Maria Sobolewska

‘Thick as Thieves’: Nathan Gill and Nigel Farage’s Putin Problem Far from being distant from the Reform UK Leader, insiders told Byline Times that the former MEP convicted of bribery was one of Farage’s closest aides, while we reveal how Gill worked on the Kremlin’...

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@bylinetimes.bsky.social can now reveal that, during the crucial period when convicted Reform leader Nathan Gill was most active, working directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most senior ally in Ukraine, he was also one of Nigel Farage’s closest confidantes 1/12

Two years after the October 7 attacks: British Jewish views on antisemitism, Israel and Jewish life

New from Institute of Jewish Policy Research: most comprehensive study of Jewish attitudes
> Rising experience + perception of antisemitism:feel less safe
> Growing (now majority) criticism of military campaign in Gaza; rising attachment to Israel
(July 2025 fieldwork)
www.jpr.org.uk/reports/two-...

This Israeli government decision to host Tommy Robinson will widen the growing gulf between the Netanyahu government and the British public, including the broad majority of Jews in Britain (3/4 of whom dsapproved of Netanyahu, before this new link to this anti-Muslim racist UK far right convict).

Please join me in congratulating Woman on her appointment

Identity Crisis How Labour can rebuild their voter coalition

New post:

"Identity Crisis"

Labour keeps trying to appeal to a lost white working class vote + alienating middle-class grads / ethnic minority voters that are a much bigger part of their coalition.

Why? And how can they rebuild their coalition more effectively?

open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/i...

I know, prize winning terribleness. I feel bad enough!

Interesting but not me, the superior @samfr.bsky.social

Agh sorry 😱

It seems to me that OUP going through something as I had the same experience earlier this year

Brits want Nigel Farage to step away from the Brexit shredder Polling commissioned by POLITICO shows wide public support for Labour’s EU reset.

Polling commissioned by POLITICO shows wide public support for Labour’s EU reset

www.politico.eu/article/uk-w...

Symbolic aspects of it all and communication seems entirely out of control for them.

When and how they lost the ability to talk to the working class without sounding like RUK is an interesting q, but I suspect it all sounds like cos play to those voters and persuades no one while definitely alienated the rest of their electoral coalition. Again why they can’t see it is curious 3/

All values we hold dearly form an identity, and being a liberal cosmopolitan can be as strong an identity as being working class. This is why language around policy matters so much more than Lab seems to realise.
Mimicking RUK language is not enough on one side and unacceptable on the other side 2/

This is excellent from @samfriedman.bsky.social explaining why Lab seems to ignore that they’re losing more votes on left than right. Identity is SUCH a strong motive for them I agree- but, as the now old chestnut Brexitland shows- identity is SUCH an important motive for voters on their left too. 1

Part of the burden of Jewish history is being touched, and proud, that the British police rushed to the site of this atrocity and that the reaction of the British prime minister was to send police reinforcements to synagogues. For millennia, this was not so. It is not taken for granted.

A call for those outside the Jewish community to share a message of solidarity when Yom Kippur ends at 723pm tonight. Please do join if you can. This is an initiative coordinated by the Together coalition, talking among networks of all faiths + none this afternoon
bsky.app/profile/sund...

My wife is supposed to be doing synagogue security duty on Saturday. It's terrifying.

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 call ‘straight from populist playbook’

People recognised as refugees fleeing persecution & granted the right to live in the UK to be denied the right to be joined safely by their spouse & children.

This Labour govt is a moral void, a stinking darkness, an empty hollow of cowardice & contempt. #r4today www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

I can’t even process this. The Jewish community in the UK is tiny. We will all be feeling this more deeply than I can explain.

The unfulfilled promises of upward mobility and support for radical left parties in Western Europe In recent decades, educational expansion has produced a large swathe of university graduates which labour markets are increasingly less able to absorb…

An important new paper from my talented, but BlueSky-less PHD Jose Lopes

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A critique of pure stupidity: understanding Trump 2.0 If the first term of Donald Trump provoked anxiety over the fate of objective knowledge, the second has led to claims we live in a world-historical age of stupid, accelerated by big tech. But might th...

My essay on stupidology (originally published in N+1) is in today's Guardian www.theguardian.com/news/2025/oc...

Genuinely mad, and they'll lose their few remaining supporters to the Lib Dems over this.

Presumably she's barely got a month left in the role.

Manchester synagogue attack latest: police say suspect shot after four people injured by vehicle and stabbings Police say they are responding to an incident in Crumpsall, Greater Manchester Greater Manchester Police said a suspect has been shot and four people have suffered injuries caused by a vehicle and stabbings at a synagogue in Crumpsall north of the city. The force said: Police were called to the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue, on Middleton Road, Crumpsall, at 9.31am by a member of the public, stating he had witnessed a car being driven towards members of the public, and one man had been stabbed. GMP declared PLATO and a major incident at 9.37am. Shots were fired by Greater Manchester Police firearms officers at 9.38am. One man has been shot, believed to be the offender. Continue reading...

Manchester synagogue attack latest: police say suspect shot after four people injured by vehicle and stabbings

Thousands of rogue bosses get away with not paying tribunal awards The government scheme ‘enforcing’ money owed to workers has been unsuccessful in a staggering three-quarters of cases

🚨 Our new investigation out today reveals how thousands of people who've taken their bosses to employment tribunals & won, never got paid, even after they approached the government for help.

This has serious implications for the Employment rights bill.
www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2025...

Just as a point of reference, fewer people, on average, are provided with asylum, per year, under family reunification routes as attend an average Birmingham City home game. It really isn't a lot, but it is a vital route, and it isn't "automatic" as the routes are already restrictive. 2/

Really enjoyed this one!

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 call ‘straight from populist playbook’

Every time this man opens his mouth nowadays something extremely unpleasant and largely misleading comes out. What fresh hell is a ‘golden ticket’ - it’s a basic human right to family reunion you [redacted]

I think Jonathan is being too polite: this policy is straightforwardly stupid. Other countries will make attractive offers that encourage hard-working, capable, and interesting people to choose them over us, and the UK will be worse off for it. And for what?

www.facebook.com/share/r/19kj...

Delaying ILR/settlement/citizenship for this group would very likely leave them to the mercy of a future Reform/Tory govt -and to policies which Starmer and Mahmood have (rightly) explicitly described as racist.

A real litmus test for Labour.