Sue Lukes

YouTube video by Michael Spicer The Room Next Door - Donald Trump and the New Guy

My goodness, I missed this by @michaelspicer.bsky.social. It is as near to perfect as a thing can get. I actually did an honest-to-Betsie spit-take at the Poundland joke. And the meta coda is out of this world.

youtu.be/gDH0Tz8Yb9I?...

‘One in, one out’: what has happened to asylum seekers forced to return to France? In rare interviews, some of those sent back across the Channel after arriving in the UK on small boats describe what happened next – and the risks of a system organised to get rid of them

Policies that make no real difference to migration, apart from 24h of headlines, have devastating consequences for the people affected

Last time a Reform politician said the minimum wage should be cut we looked into his businesses & found three of his former employees had won employment tribunal claims against him.

But despite what the tribunal ordered, he didn't pay a single judgment
www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2025...

Palantir's most recent scandal, covertly working with Topham Guerin to discredit the work of Good Law Project, is just the latest in a career littered with this kind of activity, beginning with the "Team Themis" scandal in 2011. They've been doing this for decades.
goodlawproject.org/how-palantir...

So, so many people fell for the bullshit these guys were peddling. No one has recanted, apologized, vowed to change the way they do things, anything.

✊🏽 Today is World Social Justice Day, reminding us that equality, dignity & fairness must be for everyone.

At African Rainbow Family, we stand with LGBTIQ+ refugees & people of African heritage.

🌍 Support & connect ➜ zurl.co/aWxBt
#SocialJustice #EqualityForAll

Labour minister falsely linked journalists to ‘pro-Kremlin’ network in emails to GCHQ Exclusive: Josh Simons pressed intelligence officials to investigate reporters, in emails described as ‘McCarthyite smear’

Simons was also involved in telling security officials that another journalist was “living with” the daughter of a former adviser to Jeremy Corbyn. Officials were told by Simons’ team that the former adviser was “suspected of links to Russian intelligence”.

Labour minister falsely linked journalists to ‘pro-Kremlin’ network in emails to GCHQ Exclusive: Josh Simons pressed intelligence officials to investigate reporters, in emails described as ‘McCarthyite smear’

Exclusive: Josh Simons claimed to be “surprised” and “furious” at a PR agency’s work to investigate journalists on his behalf. He had been personally involved in naming them to British intelligence officials and falsely linking them to pro-Russian propaganda. w/ @dansabbagh.bsky.social

Environmental change, hunger and hardship in the UK | Trussell This review explores how environmental issues impact people facing hunger and hardship in the UK and how green policies should support people most affected.

Read @trusselluk.bsky.social evidence review showing how environmental issues affect people facing hunger & hardship esp heavily. Volatile prices, floods, heatwaves, inadequate housing, unaffordable insurance. Policy change could bring opportunity, if done fairly. www.trussell.org.uk/news-and-res...

Tackling climate change could help end the need for food banks Trussell and Friends of the Earth argue that a greener future could reduce the need for food banks. Here's how.

Thanks for @bigissue.com publishing this article by me & Mike Childs of @friends-earth.bsky.social, calling for climate action that tackles poverty.

Draws on @trusselluk.bsky.social 's new report exploring the links between environmental issues and food bank need.

www.bigissue.com/opinion/tack...

Do not use milk, antacids, honey, lemon juice, onions, vinegar, urine, baking soda or anything other than clean water to deal with tear gas or pepper spray.

Most of the time it’s best to just do nothing.

Evil doesn't quite cover it .

‘Is university still worth it?’ is the wrong question The graduate earnings premium isn’t really measuring what most people think

Turns out (says @jburnmurdoch.ft.com) it's not so much an oversupply of graduates in the UK (the same would be true of other similar countries but it's not) as an undersupply of the kind of jobs that a better-performing, more productive economy would supply.

Rights groups urge airlines to halt ‘one in, one out’ deportation flights British and French activists write to Air France, AlbaStar, Titan and Corendon airlines over ‘shameful involvement’

We've written to the four airlines carrying out deportations under the cruel and inhumane UK-France agreement.

They are: Air France, Titan Airways, AlbaStar Airlines & Corenden Airlines.

We call on them to end their complicity, now.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Shame on NYU Langone for ending gender-affirming care & kicking trans New Yorkers to the curb. It's a violation of their promise to treat all people equally, kindly, and respectfully — and a violation of NYC's human rights law as well. Bending the knee is bad; denying people care is even worse.

❓ @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social @bbc5live.bsky.social @itvnews.bsky.social @channel4news.bsky.social @bbclaurak.bsky.social @vicderbyshire.bsky.social @lbc.co.uk @mrjamesob.bsky.social @financialtimes.com ❓

Vintage portrait of a young man in a suit and tie.

19 February 1901 | A Czech Jew, Pavel Bloch, was born.

He was deported to #Auschwitz from the #Theresienstadt ghetto on 28 September 1944. He did not survive.
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▶ Video about the history of Auschwitz: https://youtu.be/Fxnl5HTygrs

Lost my phone in London, with four credit cards and £150 cash in the case. Returned to me within 21 minutes. This hellhole of a city eh.

May Virginia Giuffre's memory be for a revolution.

Someone welding is the background to this text overlay that reads making or taking? public attitudes to wealth creation and extraction

We've released new polling this morning on wealth creation which sends a clear message to policymakers:

Back Britain’s genuine wealth creators - and take on the extractive practices draining our communities.

🔗Read more: fairnessfoundation.com/making-or-ta...

[Scene: exterior of Buckingham Palace. A voice comes from inside] Hello and welcome to the media training session! [Scene moves to Interior, a room in the palace. THE QUEEN stands before a screen, hosting a workforce MEDIA TRAINING session for the Royal Family, who are all seated on chairs.]
 THE QUEEN:  As you know we had to cut the PR budget, so I thought I’d do it myself Now then: today’s topic is a common PR danger: ‘Avoiding Association with Sex Traffickers’. So - Question 1. What is the best way to avoid association with sex traffickers?
 Is it: (a), Don’t associate with sex traffickers. (b) Travel 3,500 miles to stay in a sex trafficker’s house to tell them you don’t like them. (c) Something else? [The Royal family all raise hands, apart from Andrew] THE QUEEN: Ooh what a lot of hands! THE QUEEN: Andrew? ANDREW: Um
 ANDREW: Is it (c)… Release detailed records of your sweating history to Newsnight…? [The Queen stares at Andrew for a beat] THE QUEEN: [Same image as last panel, her face unchanged]: Let’s do the picture round. THE QUEEN: Which face says, “I had nothing to do with the sex trafficker?” [on the screen behind her are two faces labelled (a) and (b), one depicting a normal smiley face, the other depicting Andrew’s massively guilty expression from the BBC interview] [Ends]

From 2019, after the Emily Maitlis interview

(I share a page with something called ‘Kids Quiz' in the guardian, which is why we used the phrase ’sex trafficker’ here, and not ‘paedophile’. You can't really throw that word around on the Kids Quiz page)

Here's some info on the Equality Act. ... Basically, you'd only want to repeal this if you wanted to make things as difficult, painful and cruel for people – like you would if you were going to found a British ICE.

Put the above together with the Polymarket/Substack thing below and the resulting information crisis will be verrry intense bsky.app/profile/rach...

Honestly, the deliberate intent with which the US is lowering regulatory standards relating to tech is going to do so much lasting international damage. We all love to give Ofcom a hard time, but what hope do they have when the USD is creating a repo of nightmare fuel for LLMs?

My job is basically pointing out the worst things that can happen when you use a technology. Some of my clients need that information to be politically neutral, but the need for political neutrality doesn't take account of the current US govt being an actual nightmare machine.

Hey Siri, show me the Library of Babel but let's make sure it only contains the worst and most nightmarish content ever produced.

This absolutely defies belief.

Carmakers to win reprieve in £11bn UK motor finance redress scheme Regulator’s planned climbdown follows lobbying by banks and car groups with in-house lenders

Carmakers to win reprieve in £11bn UK motor finance redress scheme.

Millions of drivers will miss out compensation for the car loan scandal.

Regulators side with corporations, they are required to promote growth of the sector.

Who protects people?
archive.ph/1hJL0

There will be many people coming together to think about legal challenges.

HOWEVER

There is still the opportunity for a political solution. There are many Labour MPs v.unhappy.

There is a mass lobby in parliament on 11 March 2026 docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Britons living in EU face repayment hikes amid Reeves student loans row Exclusive: UK graduates in Germany, Belgium and possibly other countries informed of rises as salary threshold is cut

Britons living in EU face repayment hikes amid Reeves student loans row.

Choice - Stay in the UK, be unemployed, claim dole OR go and work in EU, make higher loan repayments

How many would sever links with the UK?

Most European countries do not charge University tuition fees

UK system is a mess.

Huge number of Londoners to vote tactically to stop Farage becoming PM, new polling The YouGov survey also cast doubts on whether Reform UK can win a Commons majority at the next general election

Huge number of Londoners to vote tactically to stop Nigel Farage becoming Prime Minister, polling reveals