May Bulman

The global far-right is brainwashing a town near you 📝 A guest essay...

🔴 The global far-right is brainwashing a town near you

Fascist memes are changing Britain, and the government is totally out of its depth.

The richest man on earth owns X.

The second richest man on earth is about to be a major owner of TikTok.

The third richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

The fourth richest man owns The Washington Post.

See the problem here?

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’

The idea that being a refugee is somehow a “golden ticket” is genuinely awful. These are people who the government have recognised are in need of protection. Do they think people chose that? That that’s what people wanted?

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Larry Ellison's £257m patronage has reshaped the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) into a well-funded engine of techno-solutionism. Our essay of the week tracks the symbiotic relationship between the TBI and Oracle.

By @petergeoghegan.bsky.social & @maybulman.bsky.social

buff.ly/rt5ONlT

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Authoritarianism is on the rise globally. Join us at #Lab25 to understand this challenge & build a movement to resist.

@labourlewis.bsky.social, @minnierahman.bsky.social, Shabna Begum, Amna Abdullatif, @maybulman.bsky.social (@lighthousereports.com) & @joemulhall.bsky.social (@hopenothate.org.uk).

Estimates of the size of the "shadow economy"

France 7%
Germany 7%
Italy 8%
..even Estonia 7%

UK: 5%

Idea that ID cards are some kind of panacea...

www.ey.com/content/dam/...

This. We have had ID cards in Italy since always and people can readily see how the shadow economy is doing there

& who published a report calling for digi ID cards & claiming they’ll reduce small boats the day before Starmer’s ID plan was trailed?

None other than the Tony Blair Institute, whose huge influence on Starmer’s govt & closeness to its tech donor we revealed this wk bsky.app/profile/mayb...

The idea that digital ID cards will stop people working in the shadow economy and thus reduce small boat crossings is baffling

The very nature of the shadow economy (the only way asylum seekers can find work) is employers don’t check documents.. That would obviously continue with ID cards

afaict the evidence base that digital ID will reduce the number of people migrating to the UK is "Macron says so". I hope he is duly flattered. Digital ID will be useful for many people, unusable for others, but fundamentally the issue here is with employers who don't do right to work checks

Inside the Tony Blair Institute A former PM, Trump's 'CEO of everything' and NHS data - what could go wrong?

🔴 NEW: Larry Ellison’s £257m bet on Tony Blair

Our investigation with @lighthousereports.com reveals how the Tony Blair Institute has been accused of pushing the interests of tech tycoon Ellison — Trump’s “CEO of everything” — and his company Oracle

democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-the...

Inside the Tony Blair Institute Who really benefits from the former PM’s tech evangelism?

Great (read scary) investigation into the Tony Blair Institute, its relationship with a US tech billionaire & efforts to get NHS health data opened up for AI

I also had no idea TBI was so big: 900 staff!

HT @petergeoghegan.bsky.social @maybulman.bsky.social

www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

Blair and the Billionaire Insiders reveal how Larry Ellison’s money turned Blair’s institute into a tech sales and lobbying operation for Oracle

This isn’t just about Tony Blair and Larry Ellison. It shows how Big Tech is gradually gaining power and influence across govts, pushing an AI/tech-first agenda that puts profits ahead of people, and could be damaging to us all

www.lighthousereports.com/investigatio...

Another, Martin Akuagwuagwu, said TBI would push technology and AI solutions on countries with more fundamental issues to contend with

‘They have issues around hunger, poverty, mass unemployment – and we’re getting them to commit towards some fancy projects like using drones and AI’

Elsewhere, ex-TBI staff describe a sea change in culture following the Ellison funds, with AI boosterism that silenced nuance & forced them to engage in ‘tech sales’ for Oracle in countries around the world

‘It felt icky,’ said one. Another said the focus became 'more tech, big tech, all the time’

TBI staff have been brought into govt. Tom Westgarth was seconded to the dept for tech (Dsit) to work on the AI Opportunities Action Plan, w/ his salary paid by TBI

More recently, Kirsty Innes, who worked at TBI for 4 years, has been appointed special advisor for new tech secretary Liz Kendall

In the UK, TBI is unusually close to govt, and it's advised ministers on AI policies that serve Oracle’s interests, including on unifying valuable NHS data

Ellison has expressed interest in NHS data, saying it has an ‘incredible amount of population data’, but that it's ‘fragmented’

We spoke to 29 TBI insiders & obtained FOI docs to reveal TBI’s symbiotic relationship with Ellison, among the world’s richest men (2nd only to pal Elon), & his tech firm Oracle

We find TBI's become a vehicle for AI boosterism & ‘tech sales’ in UK & around the world – w/ potentially harmful effects

Inside the Tony Blair Institute Who really benefits from the former PM’s tech evangelism?

Glad to have got this over the line

How Tony Blair is lobbying on behalf of Big Tech

His Institute (TBI) is pushing AI solutionism on Starmer’s govt, which is embracing it w open arms, as TBI donor & tech billionaire Larry Ellison is set to reap the benefits

www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

UK anti-slavery commissioner condemns Shabana Mahmood’s asylum comments Home secretary’s remarks about ‘vexatious’ claims will have real-life impact on trafficking victims, says Eleanor Lyons

Let's get some facts right. There is absolutely no evidence that migrants "abuse" the NRM. Want to know how many bad faith applications were made in the last quarter? 1, according to the government's own data.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

NEW: French police have caused the deaths of dozens of people by intercepting small boats at sea

These violent tactics are deployed now off the French overseas island of Mayotte

Under pressure from the UK, France now plans to start intercepting boats in the Channel

This is where that could lead ⬇️

Pendant un an, avec @lemonde.fr @spiegel.de @thetimes.com @artefr.bsky.social, nous avons enquêté à Mayotte sur la manière dont la police arrête les #kwassas, ces petits bateaux qui tentent de rejoindre l’île

Nous révélons l'utilisation de tactiques dont les conséquences peuvent être mortelles 🧵

NEW: French police have caused the deaths of dozens of people by intercepting small boats at sea

These violent tactics are deployed now off the French overseas island of Mayotte

Under pressure from the UK, France now plans to start intercepting boats in the Channel

This is where that could lead ⬇️

REVEALED: French police have caused dozens of drownings by violently intercepting small boats trying to reach overseas territory Mayotte.

Similar tactics are being proposed for the Channel, to try to stop people from reaching the UK.

Today, 100s of families are still searching for answers about their missing children. Our 9 month investigation, interviewing over 100 witnesses, survivors, and staff, and gathering official documents to reveal how Syria’s children were stolen and how international silence enabled this tragedy.

Tommy Robinson’s march was a drunken, coked-up mess He claimed the world was watching, but most of London barely noticed - and much of what was on view was appalling

“A row of men lean against the metal shutters that keep them out of Westminster tube station, as they piss through the bars directly onto the steps on the other side. Nearby a furious man in his early 30s yells ‘bring the cocaine here now, mate’. It is not yet 2pm.”

Today people went around my neighborhood in north east London spray painting St George’s crosses onto people’s homes. Many of these houses have non British people living in them.

This is getting very dark, very quick.

‘I’ve seen at first hand that stopping the boats is simply an impossible task’ After a week in which four people, including two children, died while attempting the perilous journey across the English Channel in small boats, May Bulman watches the seemingly futile attempts being ...

Last week I watched 3 overcrowded boats leave a French beach in as many hours

Despite UK-funded police + equipment being out in full force, it wasn't possible to stop them w/o putting lives at risk

Throwing more money at security + tougher tactics is futile
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Brilliant work by my colleagues revealing how Assad's regime stole Syrian children and used them to blackmail parents, with thousands still missing to this day

Highly recommend reading/watching the coverage in the BBC and Observer (links in the story below)

Trois migrants sont morts lors d’une tentative de traversée de la Manche, et trois personnes sont portées disparues après un autre accident maritime Cela porte à au moins 23 le nombre de décès survenus lors de telles tentatives depuis le début de l’année, selon un comptage de l’AFP à partir de données officielles.

Three people died trying to cross the Channel last night, including two children. A woman died earlier in the day. Three others are missing

www.lemonde.fr/internationa...

I was in Northern France over the weekend and witnessed boats launching on Sat morning. Plan to share something on that soon