Andrew Kerr
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andrewkerr9000.bsky.social
Andrew Kerr
@andrewkerr9000.bsky.social
750 followers 2.5K following 1.6K posts
Social liberal, software engineer. #UBI #LVT. May also post about defence and armed conflict. He/him.
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andrewkerr9000.bsky.social
It's a little over 10 years since the report of the Chakrabarti inquiry within Labour.

This is its advice on use of the word "Zionism".

labour.org.uk/wp-content/u...
Zionism and Zionists Further, submissions to my Inquiry have demonstrated how contemporary Zionism is viewed by a range of people who describe themselves as its critics and supporters of different political persuasions. At first glance, dictionary definitions seem straightforward enough (e.g. Oxford: "A movement for (originally) the re-establishment and (now) the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel"), but even these contain subtle, yet significant, variations (see e.g. Webster: "an international movement originally for the establishment of a Jewish national or religious community in Palestine and later for the support of modern Israel"). Even more importantly, language evolves constantly with events, politics and identity. Crucially, I have heard testimony and heard for myself first-hand, the way in which the word "Zionist" has been used personally, abusively or as a euphemism for "Jew", even in relation to some people with no stated position or even a critical position on the historic formation or development of modern Israel. This has clearly happened so often over a number of years as to raise some alarm bells in Jewish communities, including amongst highly orthodox people who, whilst perhaps most "visibly Jewish" (e.g. in dress and or observance), would never see themselves as Zionists. A further complexity comes from left-wing British Jewry, including, but not exclusively, young people becoming increasingly critical of, and disenchanted with, Israeli Government policy in relation to settlements in the West Bank and the bombardment of Gaza in particular. This has led to some people personally redefining their Zionism in ways that appear to grant less support to the State of Israel and more solidarity to fellow Jewish people the world over. A further complexity still arises from those people who are uncomfortable with criticism of the State or Government of Israel or who are suspicious of repeated criticism of Israeli policy in a way that they see as disproportionate or out of synch with human rights abuses by other states and governments around the region or the world. It seems to me that it is for all people to self-define their political beliefs and I cannot hope to do justice to the rich range of self-descriptions of both Jewishness or Zionism, even within the Labour Party, that I have heard. What I will say is that some words have been used and abused by accident and design so much as to blur, change or mutate their meaning. My advice to critics of the Israeli State and/or Government is to use the term "Zionist" advisedly, carefully and never euphemistically or as part of personal abuse.
October 7, 2026 at 8:29 AM
Reposted by Andrew Kerr
cameroncorduroy.bsky.social
just checking the till here Pete, and i think you're missing a rather important one
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 7d
Hegseth: "Send me to right the Redcoats, send me to fight the communists, send me to fight the Islamists. Send me."
September 30, 2026 at 10:24 PM
Reposted by Andrew Kerr
jdportes.bsky.social
This is *not* the result of "the success of Mahmood's reforms", but of earlier measures/other factors. Her proposals could make it considerably *worse* in future years.

A few other points linked below..

archive.ph/0psJ8
Falling migration numbers could cost the chancellor as much as £7bn in fiscal headroom as he writes his first budget, The Times has been told. Government insiders believe that John Healey, who already faced an uphill battle to balance the books next month, is likely to have an even bigger challenge after immigration significantly undershot projections from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). The Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank estimated last month that the success of Shabana Mahmood’s reforms, which have seen net migration cut to the low hundreds of thousands, could cost Healey some £4bn. Labour sources familiar with the budget process, however, said that the figure was now closer to £6.5bn. The OBR’s migration forecasts have been consistently higher than real numbers in recent years. Treasury officials, who have long expected Mahmood’s reforms to cause a hit to headroom, described the number as “pure speculation” but did not deny that Healey would have to contend with a larger funding gap than expected because of falling migration
September 28, 2026 at 6:35 AM
andrewkerr9000.bsky.social
Well, there goes another of my favourite Youtubers.

(tl;dr: allegations of plagiarism of wikipedia and other textbooks in his co-authored textbook, plagiarism in videos, exaggeration of academic credentials, and his hedge fund not very successful)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za5I....
Patrick Boyle: The Copy-Paste Professor
YouTube video by Gurubusters
www.youtube.com
September 25, 2026 at 11:17 AM
Reposted by Andrew Kerr
faineg.com
The U.S. AI industry is being run by a batshit rationalist sex cult, and no, I am not being hyperbolic - they’re genuinely Like That:
Erin Redwing @realizingerin I went to an rationalist/EA Al doomer event last night with the goal of meeting someone who could calmly explain to me the argument for how they get to the conclusion that Al will kill everyone. Because these are rationalists, I expected to find people who could lay out a serious extinction pathway, walk through the assumptions and intermediate steps, identify choke points where negative pathways could potentially be regulated, and entertain disagreement about where their assumptions might break down. My experience was the exact opposite. The people I spoke to seemed psychologically unable to entertain the possibility that their conclusion (that Al literally kills everyone, which was a point that many would not even budge on) might be wrong. Their most extreme conclusion was treated as an axiom. I had multiple people walk out of conversations with me when I questioned their inevitable extinction premise. At one point during a panel, the moderator asked everyone in the audience who was still skeptical of Al doom to raise their hands. About half the room did. He then told all of the skeptics to leave the panel and go with one of the speakers, who would answer their questions separately. They filtered out all the skeptics, and continued the panel only with the subset who accepted their extreme position. I genuinely felt like a heretic just for questioning whether superintelligent Al inevitably leads to the extinction of humanity, or entertaining the possibility that the future might actually turn out well. That does not mean Al safety is fake. Obviously there are serious questions about rapidly advancing Al systems and what happens as they become much more capable. Those are exactly the conversations I went there hoping to have. But what I encountered was an apocalyptic death cult. These people are not rational. They are deeply afraid, they reinforce that fear in one another, and they have become so emotionally committed to apocalypse
September 15, 2026 at 8:06 PM
Reposted by Andrew Kerr
dhochlaf.bsky.social
Seen a few comments suggesting more labourers would run counter to union demands for higher wages and I'm begging people to understand economies are dynamic, more people will stimulate demand as well as supply, there are plenty of places with much larger populations that boast stronger wage growth
jdportes.bsky.social Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 23d
It's a rare policy that would be welcomed by both business and trade unions - and at the same time would *improve* the UK's fiscal position.

Dropping these proposals - for which there is no economic, moral or political case - would be one.

www.ft.com/content/8a00...
Unions demand softening of UK immigration reforms
Proposals will ‘punish’ low-paid migrants doing essential work in public services and create a new staffing crisis in social care, says motion passed at TUC
www.ft.com
September 15, 2026 at 7:15 AM
Reposted by Andrew Kerr
josiahmortimer.bsky.social
£72m for Reform over the weekend could be just the tip of the iceberg

There's nothing to stop Elon Musk giving, via a UK X subsidiary, £300m to Restore Britain today

Or a Trump ally giving £500m to Farage via a UK-registered firm

There's a v narrow window to tackle big money in the elections bill
September 14, 2026 at 10:02 AM
Reposted by Andrew Kerr
jmiers230.bsky.social
I did a somewhat deep dive into the recent OpenAI and Anthropic "hacks" for an upcoming interview.

IMO, the AI companies are better off running with the "rogue AI" story because the real story is actually pretty embarrassing.

Like making your Wi-Fi password "wifi" embarrassing. 🧵
September 13, 2026 at 1:12 PM
andrewkerr9000.bsky.social
This is the government policy paper on proscribed organisations.

I am of course wondering whether Patriot Platform could or should be proscribed.

www.gov.uk/government/p...
Proscription criteria What is a proscribed organisation? Under the Terrorism Act 2000, the Home Secretary may proscribe an organisation if they believe it is concerned in terrorism, and it is proportionate to do. For the purposes of the act, this means that the organisation: commits or participates in acts of terrorism prepares for terrorism promotes or encourages terrorism (including the unlawful glorification of terrorism) is otherwise concerned in terrorism What is meant by ‘terrorism’ in the proscription context? “Terrorism” as defined in the act, means the use or threat of action which: involves serious violence against a person; involves serious damage to property; endangers a person’s life (other than that of the person committing the act); creates a serious risk to the health or safety of the public or section of the public or is designed seriously to interfere with or seriously to disrupt an electronic system. The use or threat of such action must be designed to influence the government or an international governmental organisation or to intimidate the public or a section of the public, and must be undertaken for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause.
September 11, 2026 at 1:12 PM
Reposted by Andrew Kerr
hopenothate.org.uk
Two RNLI volunteers were pictured in Portsmouth this weekend while responding during the Patriot Platform protest. The far right responded by identifying them and branding them “traitors”.

This is what the far right’s “peaceful” activism looks like.
September 8, 2026 at 8:42 AM
Reposted by Andrew Kerr
bretdevereaux.bsky.social
Basically, the United States is running short of key munitions because the insecure man-children running the country keep firing off expensive stand-off emotional support munitions as a desperate act of gender-affirming self-care.

Alas, there are not enough TLAMs to make Trump or Hegseth into men.
nicholasgrossman.bsky.social Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · Sep 5
The Iran war is the main reason for the US munitions shortage, but the Trump regime has done multiple things to cause it.

They tried a similar cowardly bully strategy in Yemen in 2025: talk big, fire off advanced missiles while avoiding riskier action, fail to accomplish anything, then quit.
Trump operation against Houthis cost more than $1 billion
President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between the U.S. and the militant group, but there are still real questions about what the expensive strikes achieved.
www.nbcnews.com
September 5, 2026 at 3:28 PM
andrewkerr9000.bsky.social
This is correct. Under 2023 Public Order Act section 7 interfering with the use of key national infrastructure such as a harbour is punishable by up to 1 year in prison.

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/1...
7Interference with use or operation of key national infrastructure (1)A person commits an offence if— (a)they do an act which interferes with the use or operation of any key national infrastructure in England and Wales, and (b)they intend that act to interfere with the use or operation of such infrastructure or are reckless as to whether it will do so. (2)It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under subsection (1) to prove that— (a)they had a reasonable excuse for the act mentioned in paragraph (a) of that subsection, or (b)the act mentioned in paragraph (a) of that subsection was done wholly or mainly in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute. (3)A person who commits an offence under subsection (1) is liable— (a)on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding the general limit in a magistrates’ court, to a fine or to both; (b)on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, to a fine or to both. (4)For the purposes of subsection (1) a person’s act interferes with the use or operation of key national infrastructure if it prevents the infrastructure from being used or operated to any extent for any of its intended purposes. (5)The cases in which infrastructure is prevented from being used or operated for any of its intended purposes include where its use or operation for any of those purposes is significantly delayed. (6)In this section “key national infrastructure” means— (a)road transport infrastructure, (b)rail infrastructure, (c)air transport infrastructure, (d)harbour infrastructure, (e)downstream oil infrastructure, (f)downstream gas infrastructure, (g)onshore oil and gas exploration and production infrastructure, (h)onshore electricity generation infrastructure, F1... (i)newspaper printing infrastructure [F2, or (j)life sciences infrastructure.]
September 5, 2026 at 3:29 PM
andrewkerr9000.bsky.social
new Left4Dead mod just dropped
cee.wtf cee @cee.wtf · Sep 4
throng.cee.wtf i've invented a new way to browse bluesky
September 5, 2026 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by Andrew Kerr
hopenothate.org.uk
This morning at 7:30am, a group of men dressed in black and their faces covered, gathered in Dover.

The men, members of the anti-migrant vigilante group Patriot Platform, proceeded to block the port of Dover and several roads nearby.

Our briefing:

hopenothate.org.uk/2026/09/05/p...
Patriot Platform’s masked members march on Dover – HOPE not hate
At approximately 7:30 this morning, hundreds of black-clad members of Patriot Platform, a far-right vigilante unit, blockaded roads in Dover. They marched north east off...
hopenothate.org.uk
September 5, 2026 at 12:25 PM
andrewkerr9000.bsky.social
Farage loses the head-to-head against every other party leader (of a party running in England) - and by a wide margin except versus Hypnoboobs.

Burnham wins against every other leader.

The inevitability of the nativist right has been overstated.
yougov.co.uk YouGov @yougov.co.uk · Sep 4
Who would make the better PM?

Burnham 52% vs Farage 22%
Burnham 50% vs Polanski 8%
Burnham 44% vs Davey 9%
Burnham 42% vs Badenoch 26%

Badenoch 45% vs Farage 16%
Badenoch 39% vs Polanski 20%
Badenoch 33% vs Davey 24%

Davey 38% vs Farage 24%
Davey 28% vs Polanski 14%

Polanski 31% vs Farage 27%
September 5, 2026 at 7:49 AM
Reposted by Andrew Kerr
aphclarkson.bsky.social
Worth comparing Trump and the wider US Right's rhetoric towards Canada now with the kind of rhetoric Putin used on what he viewed as the "Historical Unity of Ukrainians and Russians" in the 2010s and early 2020s
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · Aug 31
Trump on Canada: "They think they're a state, but they're not a state"
August 31, 2026 at 2:55 AM
andrewkerr9000.bsky.social
Yiannopolous was one of Bannon's Breitbart writers.

www.splcenter.org/resources/ha...
August 28, 2026 at 9:03 PM
andrewkerr9000.bsky.social
Two way heat pumps powered by solar can provide cooling and also lower carbon emissions.

Heat pumps are ~4 times as energy efficient for heating than fossil fuel boilers/furnaces because they move heat rather than create it.

And because they are electric they can be powered by renewables.

1/3
yougov.co.uk YouGov @yougov.co.uk · Aug 25
Europeans see reducing heat-related harms via more widespread adoption of air conditioning as a greater priority than keeping carbon emissions down

Britain: 48% (net +25)
Spain: 48% (+22)
Germany: 45% (+19)
France: 45% (+12)
Poland: 41% (+21)
Italy: 35% (+3)

yougov.com/en-gb/articl...
August 26, 2026 at 12:25 PM
andrewkerr9000.bsky.social
New Labour commissioned and then ignored the Jenkins Commission.

One of its requirements was for "stable government", which the commission interpreted as not "imposing a coalition habit", i.e. it wanted to keep absolute Commons majorities.

1/2

researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/RP...
The voting system advocated by the Jenkins Commission is a variant of the Additional Member System used in Germany, and adopted in New Zealand, following a referendum in 1993. Other electoral systems under discussion were the Single Transferable Vote, the Alternative Vote, and other party list systems. The Commission was asked to observe the requirement for broad proportionality, the extension of voter choice, need for stable government and the maintenance of a constituency link and it concluded that there was no perfect system: STV required very large constituencies; AV on its own was not proportional ; party lists could not offer the same type of constituency link, would be likely to lead to long- term coalitions and were open to manipulation by party bureaucracies. 7. The Commission recommends that the proportion of Top-up members needed for broad proportionality without imposing a coalition habit on the country should be between 15% and 20%. A decision on the exact proportion of Top-up members should be governed by the considerations set out in paragraphs 151-154 of this report, which relate to other changes in the pipeline such as the reduction in the number of Scottish seats and the work of the Boundary Commissions. 15-20 per cent would give a substantial degree of proportionality to election results, without any need to emulate the 50/50 split used in Germany. The Committee defended the decision to accept a measure of proportionality, rather than a fully proportional system, by admitting that ‘we would not wish to propound a system which would involved persistent coalition. Reverting to the comparison made with the German system, one aspect which we find difficult to defend…has been the permanent hinge position of the very small Free Democratic Party.’ (para 122).
August 26, 2026 at 11:33 AM
andrewkerr9000.bsky.social
Fossil fuel producers are ultimately responding to consumer demand.

Spoiler alert: that is you.

If there were no demand there would be no production.

If they ceased producing fossil fuel tomorrow, you'd notice.

1/3
abilutangwa.bsky.social Abilu Tangwa. @abilutangwa.bsky.social · Aug 22
100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions. They told YOU to recycle better while they polluted more. Don't fall for it. Hold systems accountable. #ClimateCrisis
August 22, 2026 at 12:46 PM
Reposted by Andrew Kerr
sodrock.bsky.social
Miller helped carry wounded sailors to safety aboard the West Virginia. He then hopped on a AA gun and despite no training at all shot down at least one plane despite being under constant attack. He was later killed action aboard the USS Liscome Bay during Operation Galvanic
cnn.com CNN @cnn.com · Aug 20
The US Navy is working to rename an aircraft carrier under construction that was set to honor a Black sailor hailed for his heroic actions during the attack on Pearl Harbor, and there have been internal conversations about renaming it to honor President Trump, sources say. https://cnn.it/4hFq6a6
August 20, 2026 at 10:22 PM
andrewkerr9000.bsky.social
BREAKING: FIFA fine Argentinian FA nearly half a billion * over World Cup incidents

www.fourfourtwo.com/team/fifa-re...
FIFA reveal huge Argentina punishment in response to World Cup incidents
Argentina's football federation and a number of players have been sanctioned by FIFA for their actions at the 2026 World Cup
www.fourfourtwo.com
August 21, 2026 at 9:04 PM
Reposted by Andrew Kerr
daznewman.bsky.social
If people have worked through the night to count votes because of a pointless by election you have caused then you should have the courage to stand on the platform and say thank you to them. #Clacton
August 14, 2026 at 4:57 AM
Reposted by Andrew Kerr
harrytaylor.bsky.social
Astonishing. The Press Association understands Essex Police did not tell Nigel Farage, or any other Clacton candidate, not to attend the count.

This is after after his and Reform UK's claim Essex Police advised him against it due to a "credible threat".
August 14, 2026 at 4:16 AM
Reposted by Andrew Kerr
robfordmancs.bsky.social
Little piece from me for @arguablymag.bsky.social on why we Westminster electoral reform is more plausible now than it has been for generations www.arguably.uk/p/electoral-...
Electoral reform has never been closer
The three key ingredients are now in place
www.arguably.uk
August 12, 2026 at 8:36 AM