Dr Margaret Prior

Tshirt says 'I don't want to take my country back. I want to take it forward'

You can also buy this awesome tshirt (in red or black) from my lovely friends at TShirtMe

I don't think it's hyperbole to suggest Greta Thunberg is literally, in every meaningful way, tougher & a better leader than any elected official. Every single one. Some much more than others.

Methods, policy, practicalities, those are all beside the point. You need passion, drive & humanity

I hate to sound like some ancient old throwback, but I don't recognise the country I am living in.

When did racism become acceptable again?

Why do we have to rely on ageing retired Engand fullbacks for guidance on the misuse of flags?

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Reform poised to raise Kent council tax as Musk-inspired attack on costs falters ANNA GROSS - KENT Kent's local authority will probably raise council tax rates next year as Reform UK strugglesto find big savings under an Elon Musk-inspired cost-cutting drive. Kent was one of 10 councils that Nigel Farage's rightwing populist party seized in a swath of local election victories in May. He vowed to save "a lot of money" by abolishing "wasteful" spending. But Diane Morton, Reform's cabinet member for adult social care on Kent county council, told the Financial Times that services were already "down to the bare bones". "We've got more demand than ever before and it's growing." she said, stressing she did not believe access to those services should be limited. "We just want more money." As with many local authorities in England, the bulk of declined to say whether council tax Kent's budget went on adult and chil- would be raised but other Reform coun- dren's social care, as well as on children cillors said they wanted to avoid hitting with special educational needs, which the full 5 percent. together accounted for about 50 per Reform's experience highlights some cent of its £2.5bn annual expenditure. of the obstacles it may face in national All councils have a legal duty to bal- government if it won the next general ance their books and will set next year's election and pursued its pledge to slash budgets in February or March. Ahead of taxes and spending. "Everyone thought that, most councils in England are we d come in and there were going to be expected to increase council tax by 5 per these huge costs we could cut away but cent, the maximum allowed. there just aren't," said a third senior "I think it's going to be 5 per cent," Reform cabinet member in Kent. Morton said of where Kent would land Farage has set up a Reform Depart- on tax rises, adding that every 1 per cent ment of Government Efficiency team - increase equated to an extra E10mn. modelled on Musk's "Doge" i…

Anyone remember Reform promising to go into their new councils with DOGE-style units to slash “waste” and stop taxes from rising? Yeah, it went exactly as you’d expect if you put people in charge who have no idea how anything works.

I need a Latenite Archival BabbyGonz calendar to remind me there are still some pure things in this world ❤️

YouTube video by hamrecords Moody Blues - Go Now [HD]

The teenage disco I used to frequent many years ago got us all out with Go Now by the Moody Blues www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2L3...

Saw someone say, “Stop hoarding books, we don’t need paper books anyway” and I can’t express how misguided this is. Online libraries disappear, digital books can be altered, and with Big Tech seeking to destroy history and literacy, print media has never been more essential.

PM wants to change how international law used in asylum cases The UK needs to

Oh FFS. One day he says mostly the right things, but the next he reverts to form. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Nigel Farage: Labour rhetoric incites violence against Reform Reform UK leader will claim in a speech today that Keir Starmer’s labelling of his migrant plan as ‘racist’ has endangered the safety of his candidates and activists

*Irony Klaxon explodes*

Farage says Labour is inciting violence against Reform by calling them racist.

It certainly appears the United States murdered an innocent fisherman who was a husband and father to four children, claimed he was a "narco-terrorist," posted a video of the execution, and then made jokes about it

Not just high readerships, but also a lot of people who see these images when looking for their usual paper, queueing to pay for other things, sitting opposite a Times / Telegraph reader on the train ... The impact is huge, so yes, it can't - and shouldn't - be ignored.

Is there a reason I ask that the Times are using a picture of asylum seekers in a boat to describe rules for migrants who came on legal routes such as skilled worker visas for doctors?

Mahmood demands migrants earn right to settlement in UK New tests will include learning English to a high standard, paying National Insurance and not claiming benefits.

Migrants already "earn the right to settlement" through extortionate visa costs, which can run into tens of thousands of pounds. They prop up key services, including through the Immigration Health Surcharge.

Pushing the hostile environment on steroids helps no-one.

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

There is a key moral distinction between immigration policy on new arrivals, no matter how draconian, and on people who have already been granted status, on set conditions. It is about being a country that keeps its word. If we're not that, we might as well fucking give up now.

Intrigued

Precisely. Starmer should be openly calling out the racism and bigotry at every opportunity.

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

Listen up, Starmer and McSweeney 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

For the Guardian, @turnbulldugarte.com and I discuss our research that clearly shows one thing: Labour's anti-immigration strategy will only strengthen Reform and weaken its own electoral prospects. It won't win voters back but ultimately normalizes the far right

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Keir Starmer The Left ignored immigration fears for too long. It's time to give communities back control Only a plan for patriotic national renewal led by Labour will counter the rise of the populist Right

The first essential part in doing that is in recognising where some on the Left went wrong on the issue of immigration. There is no doubt that for years, Left-wing parties, including my own, did shy away from people's concerns around illegal immigration. It has been too easy for people to enter the country, work in the shadow economy and remain illegally.

Equally, the belief that uncontrolled legal migration was nothing but good news for an economy should never have been accepted on the Left. It is not compassionate Left-wing politics to rely on labour that exploits foreign workers and undercuts fair wages.

To counter it, we must make and win the case for patriotic national renewal, based on enduring British values. Our country is still the proud, tolerant, diverse island it has always been, full of fierce and fair-minded Britons. True patriotism means choosing renewal for the common good rather than stoking grievances and seeking to divide.

Well, this is a hot mess of dog whistles and utter nonsense. For a speech claiming to tackle "toxic" and "poisonous" rhetoric Starmer leans heavily into pandering to the usual misinformation about migrants and portraying anti-immigration ideals as "patriotic"
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09...

Nigel Farage swans around peddling hate on Nick Ferrari’s phone-in | John Crace From immigrants eating the king’s waterfowl to sharia law in London, it’s all there in our Nige’s relativist world

"It’s an object lesson in how to perfect the 30-minute hate." www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

The memes really do do themselves

Please don't give him ideas

Imagine being these world leaders and experienced diplomats and just having to sit there and listen to this maniac talking absolute dangerous bollocks for hours. It’s sometimes hard to believe this is real life.

I’m autistic. Not because of Tylenol.
Not because of vaccines.
Not because of some headline.
I’m autistic because that’s how
my brain works. Stop treating us
like a problem. Start listening to us.

Quite. The problem is with BBC (Farage) News. Not with the rest of the BBC, home of Peaky Blinders, Gone Fishing, Detectorists, 6 Music, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, Would I Lie To You, some brilliant podcasts and so much more

And autistic people

He didn't write it on his own, and he didn't 'make' it.

A lot of sensible people get squeamish at labelling Nigel Farage “far-right”, but his policy of cancelling the legal status of tens of thousands of settled immigrants can not be politically described as anything else.

Reform are campaigning on a policy of cruelty & xenophobia.

Black cat with white bib and nose spots sitting in a basket

The cat who lets me live in his house is called Bob. (He was called Beau but that made him get a bit full of himself.) Bob shares his birthday with @gidcoe.bsky.social. Bob's 4 today, Gid's probably a bit older. Happy birthday to both of them ❤️

Civilians made up 15 of every 16 people killed by Israel in Gaza since March, data suggests Report from independent conflict tracker Acled indicates one of the highest civilian death rates since start of war

In other words, 94% of those killed in Gaza since March 25 were civilians - up from 83% in the first 1.5 years of this genocidal war.
Another symptom of stage 2 of the Gaza Genocide under Trump: fewer casualties so far, but targeting almost entirely civilians.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...