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Paul Pudney

@ppudney.bsky.social

Scientist, spectroscopist, Iron, still a socialist, ex runners, dad, Hon Prof Liverpool Uni Chemistry.

1455 Posts1250 Follower 980 Folgt

Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 7h ago

53,800 of these bad boys are landing in Clacton. Ain’t they beauts? #VoteBinface

Paul Pudney @ppudney.bsky.social · 7h ago

www.ft.com/content/4987... Good aricle by @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social based on her teams detailed research. Really shows how the system needs to change if we are to get anywhere.

How to end the cycle of mistrust between the Treasury and everybody else

The lesson from Manchester is that it takes time for public investment policies to show up in GDP

ft.com

David Beech @davidbeech.bsky.social · 7h ago

Badenoch should meet them on her own and listen to what they have to say about such a man.

Unofficial BBCNews (UK) Bot@bbcnews-uk-rss.bsky.social · 16h ago

Tories offer Jewish groups meeting with ex neo-Nazi activist candidate

Jonathan Calder @lordbonkers.bsky.social · 8h ago

The Hundred may be struggling for spectators, but cricket's One-Day Cup is thriving by using grounds that do not usually see professional cricket. Matthew Pennell explains why in a guest post for Liberal England. liberalengland.blogspot.com/2026/08/gues...

Jessica Elgot @jessicaelgot.bsky.social · 10h ago

That Joshua Bonehill-Paine is a suitable Tory candidate but Grant Shapps and Gavin Barwell have been excluded is quite a good indicator of how many seats the Tories will realistically regain at the next election.

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 9h ago

Badenoch defends decision to allow man jailed for antisemitism to stand as councillor

Tory leader praises Joshua Bonehill-Paine’s ‘contrition’ but says she has higher thresholds for MP candidates Kemi Badenoch has defended her party’s decision to allow a former neo-Nazi who was jailed for subjecting a prominent Labour politician to antisemitic abuse to stand as a councillor. Badenoch said her party was not giving Joshua Bonehill-Paine, who is standing for election in Somerset, a “national platform”. Continue reading...

theguardian.com

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · yesterday

How to end the cycle of mistrust between the Treasury and everybody else - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... Must read from @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social The need to micromanage is really hard to uproot. Something for Healey's advisers to think about too

How to end the cycle of mistrust between the Treasury and everybody else

The lesson from Manchester is that it takes time for public investment policies to show up in GDP

giftarticle.ft.com

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 10h ago

Finishing this, the lessons for Burnham bit is too important not to provide in full. This is not simply about the Treasury, but the challenge of improving things in a complex, fragmented system. Services or outcomes that used to rest in one place are now divided and scattered.

Kevin Schofield @kevinschofied.bsky.social · 10h ago

Serious mental gymnastics this morning from Kemi Badenoch of former neo-Nazi-turned-Tory-candidate Joshua Bonehill-Paine ... www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/kemi-b...

Kemi Badenoch Says Former Neo-Nazi Standing For Tories Can Be A Councillor But Not An MP

The Conservative leader said she would not want to give Joshua Bonehill-Paine “a national platform”.

huffingtonpost.co.uk

Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 11h ago

Fairly sober testing report from the AI Security Institute: they gave internet access and removed some guardrails from latest AI models and found without them they were capable of potentially harmful activity directed at real people and organisations www.aisi.gov.uk/blog/inciden...

1. An attempted supply-chain attack on real open-source software. In the most serious sequence, an agent tried to insert malicious code into a publicly used open-source project and took actions in an attempt to secure approval for this insertion by human reviewers.
The agent researched the project's human maintainers, created multiple fake identities, and used the fake identities to socially
engineer a real maintainer into approving the code. When the agent's pull request was challenged in public, it edited its earlier activity to appear harmless and considered adopting a fresh identity to continue. The agent used Tor to bypass some network restrictions on GitHub, which is what first triggered AISl's security alert.

2. Attempts to deceive and target real people.
As part of the same effort, the agent tried to contact real people directly, sending messages and files through an online file-transfer service to persuade them, or their own Al coding tools, to run malicious code. Some messages carried harmful payloads, and some were attempts at social engineering; targeted at real people - something we've never previously observed.

Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social · yesterday

Reminder that the Tories believe any non-British person who commits more than a minor parking or traffic offence should be automatically deported. They “believe in second chances”, apparently, but only for literal Nazis.

Kemi Badenoch defends selection of man jailed for harassing Jewish MP in council election – as it happened

Conservative leader tells press she stands by decision to select Joshua Bonehill-Paine as a candidate for local election in Somerset

theguardian.com

Liam Thorp @liamthorp.bsky.social · 22h ago

The modern Conservative Party, where Net Zero gets you out and Neo Nazism gets you in

Paul Pudney @ppudney.bsky.social · 22h ago

Very good thread, showing amongst other things Treasury brain does exist and is real problem, many short term aim make things worse in the long term

Giles Wilkes@gilesyb.bsky.social · yesterday

Quotes: "during our period of study (1993-2024), mechanisms designed to regulate spending tended towards input control and short-term decision-making, struggled to support strategic investment and often failed to deliver sustained improvements in outcomes."

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 24h ago

The problem of "cost shunting" is again brilliantly illustrated with a homelessness case study. Of course, problems of working across departments is a perennial issue in government but I've seldom seen it put so well

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · yesterday

I find this case study on homelessness funding very striking

Policy churn and the cost of instability in homelessness funding
Local government can receive and manage as many as 250 individual central government grants each year.25 The
impact of short-term political and funding cycles is particularly visible in homelessness policy. Here, the complexity
stems from the fact that local government receives a raft of ringfenced and ‘notional’ (non-ringfenced) allocations
that reflect specific council-run services that are related to homelessness, such as welfare, housing and public health,
among others. The multi-year Homelessness Prevention Grant and Rough Sleeping Initiative are key planks of funding.
Yet as homeless people often require services linked to several government departments (e.g., health, Ministry of
Justice and Department for Work and Pensions), numerous additional grants are assigned for specific purposes.
Funding has often been delivered through a patchwork of short-term grants, each with specific conditions and
timelines. For local authorities and service providers, this creates a highly unstable commissioning environment.
Funding decisions are frequently delayed, sometimes arriving late in the financial year, and are rarely guaranteed
beyond a short horizon. As a result, organisations struggle to plan, invest or build sustainable services as project
‘sunsets’ are forever looming.26
One practitioner described managing multiple funding streams that arrived at different times, making coherent
planning ‘tricky and difficult’. In-year uplifts were not infrequent, but this did not help with strategic financial
management, for example in staff recruitment. Another interviewee noted that short-term funding discouraged
providers from committing to longer-term solutions, forcing a continual focus on immediate pressures. Preventative
approaches are deprioritised, temporary accommodation use increases, and costs escalate over time.
This illustrates how short-term funding structures can active…

Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · yesterday

This is what happens when anti-racism norms erode, and elites bear a lot of the responsibility for norm erosion, as they have disproportionate power to set and enforce norms

Charles EP Murphy@cepmurphy.bsky.social · yesterday

news.sky.com/story/nhs-st... stereotypically this has been seen as Old People, but not only would the old people of now have often been born post-Windrush, lot of this will be younger people who've always lived in a diverse Britain. The guy with a pregnant wife likely millennial at oldest

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · yesterday

The Mail got a bit further in getting Liddle to admit almost all of the posts were his. "Yes I did write that, but be fair,' he said. 'The language is not something I would put in The Sunday Times or The Spectator. You could do me for that I suppose.' Somehow excepting the biological racism one.

In comments Liddle strongly denies writing, the contributor says: 'On average a little under 10 per cent thicker than whites; 15 per cent thicker than east Asians. I thought everyone knew, too. Some argument about cultural bias of tests, but same results come up in US.'

When first contacted by The Mail on Sunday, Mr Liddle denied writing the BNP message, adding: 'I often get opposition fans logging in under my name to try to embarrass me. I wouldn't go near the racist ones.'

However, he later admitted writing the post. 'Yes I did write that, but be fair,' he said. 'The language is not something I would put in The Sunday Times or The Spectator. You could do me for that I suppose.'

And he denied writing the comment about racial intelligence, saying the site's administrator had told him it had been left by someone using a different computer to his.

'If there was anything racist on the site, I would repudiate it immediately,' he added. 'Most of the coverage is always me arguing with racists, so it wouldn't really fit for me to be suddenly racist.'

Sort of Damocles @sortofdamocles.bsky.social · 3d ago

RFK Jr and wife had a soiree at their Hollywood mansion during COVID and required proof of COVID vaccination with RSVP. Watch what they do, not what they say. –Rachel Maddow

Ellie Mae O'Hagan @elliemaeohagan.bsky.social · 3d ago

Lockdowns showed that states can pour massive resources into making the politically impossible happen quickly, the public will accept huge changes if they understand why they're needed, and that we should listen to scientists. Something to remember when it comes to action on climate change.

Michael Legel @mjlegel.bsky.social · 4d ago

Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 4d ago

Glad someone senior from the sector is pushing back. Labour MPs need to understand the serious real anger from graduates and the people who produce them. And the dangerous financial situation they have allowed to fester, or indeed worsened, in one of Britain’s leading sectors.

Labour has harmed universities as much as Trump, London School of Economics head says

LSE vice-chancellor Larry Kramer points to domestic student fees freeze, international student limits and rise in employers’ national insurance

ft.com

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · 5d ago

"Sinking in Polls, Farage Plans Week of Attacks on Immigration" Reform plan to make next week Immigration Week It could finally be the moment for broadcast media to notice the > 75% drop in net migration since 2024. There is also a 42% drop in boat crossings

Bloomberg: Sinking in Polls, Farage Plans Week of Attacks on Immigration

Reform UK party is planning to hold multiple press conferences on immigration to turn public attention to the issue, despite the number of migrants arriving in the country nearly halving from the same time last year.
A total of 14,200 immigrants have arrived in the UK via small boats so far this year, down 44% compared to the same period last year, with the Home Office and National Crime Agency increasing seizures of small-boat engines and improving enforcement cooperation with the French.
The issue of immigration threatens to be riskier territory for new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who is already facing disquiet from backbench colleagues over reforms proposed during his predecessor's tenure.

Dr Dean Burnett @drdeanburnett.bsky.social · 5d ago

When it comes to defending the argument that you should judge people by their actions, not their words, "Trying to block a law that prevents you from creating nude images of whoever you like, regardless of whether they consent or are even of legal age" should be promoted to 'Exhibit A'

NBC News@nbcnews.com · 5d ago

A federal judge denies a request from Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI to block a Minnesota law that bans nudification technology.

Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · 5d ago

O’Neal helped purge me & all the other Black full-time staff columnists at the Post Opinion Section. I challenged his move to fire me in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk killing. And he testified against me in June. We are expecting an arbitration ruling soon. Convenient time for him to quit.

Natalie Korach@nataliekorach.bsky.social · 5d ago

New: Washington Post Opinion editor Adam O’Neal is leaving, he announced in an internal memo Friday

Damian Carrington @dpcarrington.bsky.social · 5d ago

"Pragmatic" What politicians say when they want to ignore the scientific reality of the #climatecrisis for short-term political convenience www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Burnham promises ‘pragmatic’ approach to North Sea oil and gas

PM tells reporters the government cannot ignore the energy resource ‘when people are struggling’

theguardian.com

Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 5d ago

Kemi Badenoch has reached the niche position that (1) climate change is real (2) the plan for dealing with it isn't good enough (3) it should therefore be completely abandoned and (4) anyone supporting the plan to deal with climate change is unfit to represent her party. Let's see how that goes.

Thangam Debbonaire @thangamdebbonaire.bsky.social · 5d ago

“A fortnight ago, Reform-led Suffolk County Council voted to rescind motions on climate emergency…and removed references to the climate emergency from council policies, strategies and communications “where appropriate”.”. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Hundreds evacuated after ‘apocalyptic’ wildfire near Suffolk nuclear power station

Major incident declared, with Sizewell B power station monitoring blaze and RSPB nature reserve badly hit

theguardian.com

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · last wk.

Reform Councillor Glenn Gibbins has been charged with a communications offence over a widely reported 2024 tweet about melting down Nigerians to fill potholes. Police: "We would urge people not to speculate both online and in the community in relation to this case." www.lbc.co.uk/article/refo...

Reform councillor charged over 'pothole' tweet about Sunderland's Nigerian community | LBC

A Reform councillor is due in court charged with posting offensive comments about the Nigerian community in Sunderland.

lbc.co.uk

Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · last wk.

“This incident is believed to be the largest recorded nurdle spill in Northern Europe and the UK.” @northwildlife.bsky.social

Nurdle nightmare for the region’s coastline | Northumberland Wildlife Trust

Northumberland Wildlife Trust is deeply concerned by the recent nurdle spill affecting the North Sea coastline and marine environment.

nwt.org.uk

Alison Stenning@alisonstenning.bsky.social · last wk.

Sharing again for more reach - A spillage of approx one billion (25 tonnes) of nurdles (plastic pellets) following a collision at the Port of Tyne is washing up on beaches from Northumberland to Sunderland, with North & South Tyneside hardest hit. Huge volunteer effort underway. Press release ⬇️

Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · last wk.

All I can do to help in the present existential crisis of Britain's universities is reiterate my evidence to the Commons Education Committee. There isn't anything else.