Paul Roberts
@paulrobertsnhs.bsky.social
Until 2024, a long-serving NHS Trust CEO. Still active in and around the NHS. Interested in healthcare, equality, news, politics, Ukraine, cricket (Somerset), rugby (Exeter), football (Bristol City) and life.
my brilliant colleague @robertshrimsley.bsky.social on the threat from Elon Musk’s X platform www.ft.com/content/f270...
So much of the right these days have a massive patriotism problem. This guy: - is a tax exile (left long before this govt) - hates his own country while complaining he doesn’t get big enough subsidies from it - laments the manufacturing hit from a Brexit he supported www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Billionaire Manchester United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe says he has lost confidence in UK
Ineos founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe tells the BBC he thinks the country is "on the slide" and calls for more investment in the North Sea.
bbc.co.uk
Presumably Reform will now change tack and start supporting the government on more prisoner early release!
Kevin Schofield@kevinschofied.bsky.social · 4d agoHuge Blow For Reform UK As Party's Welsh Leader Quits After Police Arrest www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/huge-b...
One of my South African friends is frequently travelling from the west country to Piddington Station. I hope she’s still allowed to go.
Kremlev, the Russian who sponsored Don Jr's wedding, is a former member of the Night Wolves biker gang, went to China with Putin and is personally sanctioned by Ukraine for his role in abducting children. He praises Stalin on social media www.propublica.org/article/dona...
Donald Trump Jr.’s Wedding Bankrolled by Putin-Linked Russian Oligarch
The oligarch, Umar Kremlev, spent hundreds of thousands on expenses like renting out a private island. He appears to have met Trump Jr. only recently, but he attended the intimate wedding with a large...
propublica.org
Some details: Kremlev, the Russian who sponsored Don Jr's wedding, is a former member of the Night Wolves biker gang, went to China with Putin and is personally sanctioned by Ukraine for his role in abducting children www.propublica.org/article/dona...
Donald Trump Jr.’s Wedding Bankrolled by Putin-Linked Russian Oligarch
The oligarch, Umar Kremlev, spent hundreds of thousands on expenses like renting out a private island. He appears to have met Trump Jr. only recently, but he attended the intimate wedding with a large...
propublica.org
Your regular reminder: If the Russians stop fighting, the war ends. If the Ukrainians stop fighting, their land will be occupied, their leaders will be killed, their history and language will be erased, their children will be kidnapped to serve Russia.
Opinion: My donation to Reform is a philanthropic gift to our country - The Telegraph A bizarre piece. Doesn’t mention the ethnonationalistic policies nor the platforming of people who want to burn refugees alive. He does mention a number of important issue on which Reform have zero credibility.
Obviously politicians who believe in democracy, supported by media who also value democracy need to stop the buying of our politics by wealthy individuals with specific business interests. But…. Money can’t buy a party decent values, credible policies or worthy leaders. Reform loses on each count.
Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · last wk.Harborne has given Reform £36 million to match Delo's £36 million. The Telegraph describes it as a "show of force" from Reform's donors. The two men's £72 million is greater than all of the spending by all political parties on the 2024 GE www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...
The Americanisation of UK politics. We have an opportunity to stop this buying of UK politics by rich people who want to buy influence. Is it too late?
Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · last wk.Harborne has given Reform £36 million to match Delo's £36 million. The Telegraph describes it as a "show of force" from Reform's donors. The two men's £72 million is greater than all of the spending by all political parties on the 2024 GE www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...
Harborne has given Reform £36 million to match Delo's £36 million. The Telegraph describes it as a "show of force" from Reform's donors. The two men's £72 million is greater than all of the spending by all political parties on the 2024 GE www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...
telegraph.co.uk
This Neo-Nazi is attempting to target RNLI volunteers. The police have to act, and the Prime Minister should be making a public statement.
90 years ago, Parliament responded to the rise of Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts by passing the Public Order Act, which banned political uniforms, private militias and the threat of force for political objects. The debates make very resonant reading today. Here's the Liberal Robert Bernays. (Short 🧵)
How could an associate professor in divinity at Cambridge be expected to know that lying is bad? thecritic.co.uk/mone...
It took a lot: the threat of an IPSO investigation, insults and rank hypocrisy from Michael Gove, refusal to publish a right to reply & a last minute excision without consultation, but at last I got The Spectator to publish a counter to its propaganda war against Project Spire.
Where is the organised intellectual beating heart of liberal Christianity to counter this deeply disturbing alliance between the European & American far right and conservative Christianity? In a democracy Orr has the right to do (most of) this but there must be equally well organised alternatives.
Tony Tassell@tonytassell.bsky.social · 2w agoJames Orr and the gospel of the new British right - great piece by @helenwarrell.bsky.social and @ramshodgson.bsky.social as.ft.com/r/20e4e472-1...
James Orr and the gospel of the new British right - great piece by @helenwarrell.bsky.social and @ramshodgson.bsky.social as.ft.com/r/20e4e472-1...
James Orr and the gospel of the new British right
Reform’s policy head is a Cambridge theologian with an enviable contact book and a belief in ‘faith, family and flag’
as.ft.com
Exclusive: President Trump signs executive order to alter 1 Samuel so that the Bible will now declare that Goliath won and that David was a loser.
Lisa@footenotes.bsky.social · 3w agoDunno, Scott, maybe tariff the 80% of New England’s gasoline and diesel that comes from Canada? Or tariff 90% of Boston Logan's jet fuel?
Went to see my favourite band The Cure on Friday. 'End song' was captivating. About loss of a personal/historical era, confronting mortality and acceptance of ageing. I do much work around healthy ageing. This song has a raw honesty about the losses that come with age. m.youtube.com/watch?v=gA5p...
Endsong
YouTube video by The Cure - Topic
m.youtube.com
BBC’s coverage of Reform’s welfare plans is frankly bizarre. Headlines in Ten, leading on some radio networks. Reform are not even the official opposition and the plans have less credibility than Count Binface. Will BBC News do the same for Lib Dem and Greens policy two years out from an election?
In the 1920s the Italian Fascists gave us the “Camicie Nere” imported to the UK by Oswald Moseley. Now, in the 2020s British fascists led by Danny Tommo, are giving us the comedy version, the “Pantaloncini Neri”!
1/9 The Spectator seems to have it in for me, which makes me very proud, given that even its own former political editor has described it as “one of the most influential media apologists for bigotry, hatred and racism”. spectator.com/article/why-...
Project Spire is the Church of England’s Chagos deal
The Church of England can always be relied upon to walk into a room just as everybody else is leaving. The question of whether we have reached ‘peak woke’ – the high watermark of Americanised racial p...
spectator.com
This is mostly a decent piece but nobody should use the word “establishment” without defining it. It has become a playground insult, just as “woke” a few years ago. Here is defined as “not me”! Establishment outrage at diversity hires is a masterclass in hypocrisy www.thetimes.com/article/4e35...
Establishment outrage at diversity hires is a masterclass in hypocrisy
The elites frothing at the mouth over the plagiarism row professor owe everything to class, not merit
thetimes.com
Periodically, I look up the meaning of 'Woke Right', but the explanations never stick in my head, probably because insofar as it makes any sense at all, it applies (in my opinion) to all of the 'modern' Right: Playing the victim ✔️ Purity spirals ✔️ Not trad Conservatives ✔️ Identity politics ✔️
Roberts’s first law of Newspaper Commentary. In August, the year of our Lord 2026, thou shalt find a way to slip in a reference to Jason Arday!
Extraordinary that Amol Rajan didn’t ask Zia Yusuf about the apparently illegal fincancing scandal consuming Farage and Reform. We’ve not heard anyone from Reform on The BBCR4 Today Programme for weeks and when we do he is completely let off the hook.