Martin Wheatley
@martinhwheatley.bsky.social
Public service reform, housing, environment, active travel
Zelenskyy: "When our strikes reached Yandex data centers, it suddenly became little easier to breathe on many social media platforms. Many people noticed it. There was less hate, less division, fewer provocations because there were fewer bots. It's pretty clear where those bots were coming from.
Er, no I am pretty confident their commanders would refuse orders which would lead to murder charges and potentially The Hague. And Jenrick knows it.
Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · yesterdayRobert Jenrick for Reform says that Royal Marines using "lethal force" on small boats could end it in days. "Deploy the Royal Marines into the Channel. If they need to use lethal force then they'll be able to do so. I think the problem would come to an end within a matter of days."
When Ukraine destroys Russian data centers, hoards of aggressive right-wing bots disappear & the internet becomes friendlier. So much of politics is driven by the internet & so much of the internet is driven by Russians who want to hurt us. Shouldn’t we do something about that, given that we know it
Public executions were not abolished out of tenderness towards the criminal. They were abolished because of the effect on the people watching, and the dangers of making human death a source of commercial entertainment. Here's Charles Dickens in The Times, after witnessing an execution in 1849.
There’s a serious glitch with the Telegraph Benefits Street story, either with the CSJ analysis or the reporting of it Benefits Streets: The neighbourhoods where majority of adults are on welfare www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/686e310...
Benefits Streets: The neighbourhoods where majority of adults are on welfare
Use The Telegraph’s look up tool to find out how many people in your area are claiming out-of-work benefits
telegraph.co.uk
Should the British government be on a website whose owner uses it to call for the executions of British journalists? Might be an interesting one to put to any ministers coming up for interviews?
Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · 4d agoThis is a call for the retrospective execution of politicians and journalists (fantasising about trials after the revolution) Here he has a shared project with the radicalised X site owner Elon Musk on socialising action against "traitors" + preparing for civil war
A shadowy network of hedgehogs and owls, operating at the highest levels of the British establishment.
Sagal Abdi-Wali came to the UK aged 7 having fled the war in Somalia with her family. She has thrived. Leader of Camden council and now the MP for Holborn and St Pancras. A narrative that runs counter to all we are told about refugees. Congratulations www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Labour fends off Green party to win Holborn and St Pancras byelection
Victory by Sagal Abdi-Wali in north London seat will be a relief for Andy Burnham in high-stakes battle for the left of British politics
theguardian.com
New post: The Tory conference represented a clear change in strategy. But so far the shift has been largely superficial and rhetorical. There are three big problems with making the strategy work - and it is not at all clear they're resolvable. samf.substack.com/p/the-three-...
The three big problems with the Tories’ new strategy
The Tories have finally noticed their only route back to power goes through the prosperous seats in the home counties and city suburbs lost to the Liberal Democrats and Labour.
samf.substack.com
FACTCHECK: UK Conservatives double the ‘cost of net-zero’ after spreadsheet blunder The Tory "Right Way" booklet makes an erroneous claim about the cost of cutting emissions, possibly taken from a Jan26 thinktank report, and deffo the most idiotic error I've seen for a while 🧵
Something about our media culture which platforms ignorance and idiocracy. When I lived in London, an electrician with a sturdy e-bike and huge panniers did a few jobs in our house, and I was aware of a jobbing builder who cycled mainly. Bulky materials can be delivered to site by the supplier.
Brandon - "Fietser"@americanfietser.bsky.social · 5d agoI’ve hauled a ladder on my own cargo bike, and contractors in the Netherlands do it every single day. The limits of what's possible aren't dictated by the physical capability of the bike, they're dictated entirely by the quality of your infrastructure.
Exclusive: the government doesn’t want you to know who’s advising it on civil service reform medium.com/state-of-the...
Exclusive: the government doesn’t want you to know who’s advising it on civil service reform
The short version
medium.com
A lot to unpack here, not a lot of it good for the housing association concerned. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Tenant called a tramp by his housing provider felt 'worthless'
Beyond Housing apologises for an “unacceptable” comment and workers’ mocking behaviour.
bbc.co.uk
I want to talk about this story and removing levies from bills. As always I'm going to explain it all in layman's terms so people who are not energy nerds can understand what these debates about how to lower their energy bills actually mean www.theguardian.com/money/2026/o...
Chancellor plans major intervention to help poorer UK households with rising energy bills
Exclusive: Officials working on further radical changes that would change how much energy companies could charge customers
theguardian.com
Main beneficiaries of Tory plans to cut inheritance tax, scrap stamp duty on primary residences and abolish the mansion tax would be affluent existing home owners (ie traditional Tory voters). Would mean a short-term boost to house prices and probably housebuilding too but at what long-term cost?
🧵 Matt Goodwin demanded to be fact-checked live on air when he claimed the UK spent "£100 million PER YEAR on family planning and condoms in Pakistan". He then 'corrected' himself to £74.3 million, saying it was based on a "major news story from October 2025" He was, of course, still wrong... 1/30
He should come to Cambridge Tesco on a Saturday morning and see families stacking shopping in cargo bikes. If second parent has conventional bike with panniers, week's shopping is easy-peasy.
Peter Walker@peterwalker99.bsky.social · last wk.Shadow roads minister Greg Smith says: “You can't do the family shop or a family of five on the back of a bike.” This will be news to anyone with a cargo bike or a trailer.
Housebuilding proposals are economically illiterate. (Broadly) price of new homes reflects market prices generally. If you cut production costs, benefit goes (in some combination) to landowners and developers, not buyers www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Tories to pledge to scrap Environment Agency and Natural England
Shadow chancellor will also promise to scrap affordable homes regulations as part of strategy to refocus on growth
theguardian.com
Things which are not like the “Third World”: Lack of fibre broadband in a nice village in Kent where the average house price is between £700,000 to £900,000, where residents can go about their business openly and shamelessly wearing red trousers.
‘Don’t let Kent village become a third-world broadband dead zone’
A rural Kent village is in danger of becoming a “third world dead zone” when a broadband provider pulls out, residents fear.
kentonline.co.uk
Terrace of local stone cottages, Ratley, Warwickshire, presumably for Southam Rural District Council #ukhousing @municipaldreams.bsky.social
We're repeatedly told that asylum seekers pose a threat to the good people of our country... Reading about the threatening and violent treatment of elderly and open minded locals in Crowborough I get the impression that the real threat comes from closer to home. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
For once, Hegseth makes perfect sense here, if not in the way he thinks!
Mark Chadbourn@chadbourn.bsky.social · 2w agoHegseth: “Americans want to serve when they’re led by strong patriots, not by weak weirdos. “Makes sense.”
This isn't a particularly great speech but compared to Starmer it's Demosthenes.
She does this every single week. As someone who studied and taught journalism for several years, if a student handed in a piece like this it'd get a very, very low mark. And yet this is supposed to be one of the BBCs top political 'journalists'. If they need to save £500m I know where to start...
Will Jennings📉🗳️@drjennings.bsky.social · 2w agoThe way sources are attributed in this article is an absolute masterclass in Westminster code/speak. "one cabinet minister" "Another minister" "one MP" "one senior figure" "a minister" "an insider" "One influential figure" "One prominent figure" "one senior figure" "A senior source" One minister"
Help to Buy is back! Or rather, a new version - more tightly targeted and less likely to overinflate the housing market. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Andy Burnham announces new homes scheme for first-time buyers
Exclusive: Policy initiative for England will help more young people on to property ladder, prime minister tells Guardian
theguardian.com
BBC has been so often challenged about misleading usage of "e-bike" that one assumes they just don't care. Police don't have power to seize legal e-bikes so by definition those sold are illegal e-motorbikes. And, yes 🙄 police auctioning illegal items www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
E-bikes seized by police sold on at auction, BBC finds
Thousands of electric motorbikes are confiscated annually because they are suspected of being driven illegally or used in a crime - most are destroyed, but last year police sold at least 161.
bbc.co.uk
Not saying the BBC News has lost focus but they currently have a live stream of the UK's biggest vegtable competition on their front page.
You may have seen social media posts misrepresenting the Labour candidate in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, Sagal Abdi-Wali, as an asylum seeker. Ms Abdi-Wali came to the UK as a child refugee in the 1990s, and is now listed as a British citizen. fullfact.org/politics/Sag...
