Richard Haviland
@rfhaviland.bsky.social
Former civil servant, enjoying the freedom to speak my mind. Published in Times, Byline Times, Bylines Scotland, West Country Voices. Member of European Movement in Scotland.
Pinned
I wrote this over three years ago for @bylines.scot
With a BBC reporter this week telling us that the RNLI are ‘coming under increasing scrutiny’, it feels like things have only got worse.
With a BBC reporter this week telling us that the RNLI are ‘coming under increasing scrutiny’, it feels like things have only got worse.
A good indication of somebody’s politics these days is whether they think the World War II was about fighting fascism or whether they think it was about fighting foreigners.
September 18, 2026 at 12:39 PM
A good indication of somebody’s politics these days is whether they think the World War II was about fighting fascism or whether they think it was about fighting foreigners.
There is a word for what is happening but few journalists will use it.
What on earth is happening?
September 18, 2026 at 11:22 AM
There is a word for what is happening but few journalists will use it.
Reposted by Richard Haviland
just learned this today
September 17, 2026 at 5:18 AM
just learned this today
Reposted by Richard Haviland
When someone tells you they’re happy to accept genuine refugees, they usually go on to argue that these days there are no genuine refugees.
September 17, 2026 at 3:09 PM
When someone tells you they’re happy to accept genuine refugees, they usually go on to argue that these days there are no genuine refugees.
Reposted by Richard Haviland
Time to deport all these fighting age men terrorising our patriotic lifeboat volunteers
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
Lifeboat station in Portsmouth forced to temporarily shut after far-right action
RNLI facility had been targeted by activists trying to stop asylum seekers landing in boats from the Channel
www.theguardian.com
September 17, 2026 at 4:18 PM
Time to deport all these fighting age men terrorising our patriotic lifeboat volunteers
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
Reposted by Richard Haviland
In May of 1940 there was a mass panic in Britain - stirred up by the tabloid press - about 'fighting aged men' who had come to Britain as 'refugees' posing a threat to the women and children of this country - and essentially forming a 'fifth column' that could, at any moment rise up against everyone
WW2 Soldiers in Croatia: Ivan Janjic Storefront
ALT: WW2 Soldiers in Croatia: Ivan Janjic Storefront
static.klipy.com
September 17, 2026 at 1:59 PM
In May of 1940 there was a mass panic in Britain - stirred up by the tabloid press - about 'fighting aged men' who had come to Britain as 'refugees' posing a threat to the women and children of this country - and essentially forming a 'fifth column' that could, at any moment rise up against everyone
Reposted by Richard Haviland
Where does this end? Trying to lynch the paramedics that come to treat the victims of the next pogrom?
Remind me how grannies with placards against genocide should be prosecuted as terrorists, but these "patriotic citizens with legitimate concerns" get carte blanche for violence and vigilantism.
Remind me how grannies with placards against genocide should be prosecuted as terrorists, but these "patriotic citizens with legitimate concerns" get carte blanche for violence and vigilantism.
RNLI closes Portsmouth lifeboat station after huge anti-migrant protests
RNLI volunteers were branded ‘traitors’ after bringing migrants ashore
www.independent.co.uk
September 17, 2026 at 2:56 PM
Where does this end? Trying to lynch the paramedics that come to treat the victims of the next pogrom?
Remind me how grannies with placards against genocide should be prosecuted as terrorists, but these "patriotic citizens with legitimate concerns" get carte blanche for violence and vigilantism.
Remind me how grannies with placards against genocide should be prosecuted as terrorists, but these "patriotic citizens with legitimate concerns" get carte blanche for violence and vigilantism.
Every time I hear about the village that dog-whistled - sorry, roared - and see that obnoxious fool quoted, I think of this passage in Ian McEwan’s latest novel.
September 17, 2026 at 6:56 PM
Every time I hear about the village that dog-whistled - sorry, roared - and see that obnoxious fool quoted, I think of this passage in Ian McEwan’s latest novel.
This is excellent and covers a great deal of ground - from what the latest developments in Yemen mean for us all, to the UK’s complicity in civilian deaths in Yemen, which I’ve not seen or heard reported before.
Thanks to Trump’s failed war, Iran controls the Gulf and its ally the Houthis now control the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia now faces economic crisis, further driving global inflation. The endless consequences of a stupid war continue to mount. I spoke to @ionacraig.com
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/b...
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/b...
The Houthis Strike Back - Iona Craig on the Red Sea and the Crisis in World Energy Markets
Podcast Episode · Behind The Lines with Arthur Snell · 17 September · 50min
podcasts.apple.com
September 17, 2026 at 5:42 PM
This is excellent and covers a great deal of ground - from what the latest developments in Yemen mean for us all, to the UK’s complicity in civilian deaths in Yemen, which I’ve not seen or heard reported before.
Reposted by Richard Haviland
Woman cries.
Farage laughs.
I give you Reform.
Farage laughs.
I give you Reform.
Just look at the glee on Nigel Farage’s face as he watches a Piddington resident cry about the overt racism she, her Caribbean heritage husband, and their two children have felt in the village during the referendum.
Time and again he’s showing us exactly who he is.
Time and again he’s showing us exactly who he is.
September 17, 2026 at 10:17 AM
Woman cries.
Farage laughs.
I give you Reform.
Farage laughs.
I give you Reform.
When someone tells you they’re happy to accept genuine refugees, they usually go on to argue that these days there are no genuine refugees.
September 17, 2026 at 3:09 PM
When someone tells you they’re happy to accept genuine refugees, they usually go on to argue that these days there are no genuine refugees.
Reposted by Richard Haviland
I would love to ask a prominent BBC journalist to give me an example of an illegitimate concern. Is seems to me that it has become a question not of fact, logic, or ethics but of volume. If a big enough proportion of a village was anxious about Bigfoot or Chemtrails, BBC would cover it in a way...
September 17, 2026 at 12:15 PM
I would love to ask a prominent BBC journalist to give me an example of an illegitimate concern. Is seems to me that it has become a question not of fact, logic, or ethics but of volume. If a big enough proportion of a village was anxious about Bigfoot or Chemtrails, BBC would cover it in a way...
Woman cries.
Farage laughs.
I give you Reform.
Farage laughs.
I give you Reform.
Just look at the glee on Nigel Farage’s face as he watches a Piddington resident cry about the overt racism she, her Caribbean heritage husband, and their two children have felt in the village during the referendum.
Time and again he’s showing us exactly who he is.
Time and again he’s showing us exactly who he is.
September 17, 2026 at 10:17 AM
Woman cries.
Farage laughs.
I give you Reform.
Farage laughs.
I give you Reform.
Wonderful thread
A personal story about that phrase “young men of fighting age” applied to asylum seekers.
As many of you know I took in a young Ukrainian woman under the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
As part of that process, soon after she arrived we were visited by the local authority rep and a Fire Brigade rep.
As many of you know I took in a young Ukrainian woman under the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
As part of that process, soon after she arrived we were visited by the local authority rep and a Fire Brigade rep.
I'm not surprised but I'm truly disgusted that this narrative of "dangerous fighting age men posing a threat to women and children" is genuinely doing the rounds on the media with almost no push back at all.
This is 1930s level stuff.
This is 1930s level stuff.
September 16, 2026 at 10:33 PM
Wonderful thread
Reposted by Richard Haviland
I'm not surprised but I'm truly disgusted that this narrative of "dangerous fighting age men posing a threat to women and children" is genuinely doing the rounds on the media with almost no push back at all.
This is 1930s level stuff.
This is 1930s level stuff.
September 16, 2026 at 6:44 PM
I'm not surprised but I'm truly disgusted that this narrative of "dangerous fighting age men posing a threat to women and children" is genuinely doing the rounds on the media with almost no push back at all.
This is 1930s level stuff.
This is 1930s level stuff.
They didn’t just hear the roar, they heard the dog whistle too.
“We are listening”. FFS, Labour, do you only listen to racists?
This is your brain on Meta.
September 16, 2026 at 8:11 PM
They didn’t just hear the roar, they heard the dog whistle too.
Reposted by Richard Haviland
A Reform Member of the Welsh Parliament has spoken in defence of colonialism.
Joe Martin is the MS for Caerdydd Penarth.
It was just a day after Reform's leader in Wales Dan Thomas resigned after being arrested and bailed on suspicion of assault and coercive or controlling behaviour.
Joe Martin is the MS for Caerdydd Penarth.
It was just a day after Reform's leader in Wales Dan Thomas resigned after being arrested and bailed on suspicion of assault and coercive or controlling behaviour.
September 16, 2026 at 2:56 PM
A Reform Member of the Welsh Parliament has spoken in defence of colonialism.
Joe Martin is the MS for Caerdydd Penarth.
It was just a day after Reform's leader in Wales Dan Thomas resigned after being arrested and bailed on suspicion of assault and coercive or controlling behaviour.
Joe Martin is the MS for Caerdydd Penarth.
It was just a day after Reform's leader in Wales Dan Thomas resigned after being arrested and bailed on suspicion of assault and coercive or controlling behaviour.
Message for journalists. It IS possible for normal, everyday people to move from ‘not far right’ to ‘far right’. That’s the whole point of propaganda. And that’s what much of the media is facilitating.
Bravery.
Very nice to hear a sane voice from Piddington. Serious respect to this woman, who is apparently already being othered by more bigoted villagers.
September 16, 2026 at 9:37 AM
Message for journalists. It IS possible for normal, everyday people to move from ‘not far right’ to ‘far right’. That’s the whole point of propaganda. And that’s what much of the media is facilitating.
Reposted by Richard Haviland
Very nice to hear a sane voice from Piddington. Serious respect to this woman, who is apparently already being othered by more bigoted villagers.
September 16, 2026 at 8:34 AM
Very nice to hear a sane voice from Piddington. Serious respect to this woman, who is apparently already being othered by more bigoted villagers.
Reposted by Richard Haviland
All day Piddington's womminfolk have been telling news how they will be terrified of "hundreds of young men nearby, free to come and go as they please." NOT ONE JOURNALIST has asked: "How did you cope when it was an army base? Who came and went then? Nuns?"
Soon as you ask that, all becomes clear.
Soon as you ask that, all becomes clear.
The people of Piddington have spoken. I say, grant them independence. Border controls. Visas to cross into the UK. Tariffs on goods. No GBP. No NHS. No benefits or pensions.
Let us know when your little lilywhite enclave has gone all Mad Max and you started eating each other. BUH-BYE!
Let us know when your little lilywhite enclave has gone all Mad Max and you started eating each other. BUH-BYE!
September 15, 2026 at 10:45 PM
All day Piddington's womminfolk have been telling news how they will be terrified of "hundreds of young men nearby, free to come and go as they please." NOT ONE JOURNALIST has asked: "How did you cope when it was an army base? Who came and went then? Nuns?"
Soon as you ask that, all becomes clear.
Soon as you ask that, all becomes clear.
Reposted by Richard Haviland
What the hell is going on here?
"Samusocial de Paris documents signs of violence after detention and transfer under ‘one in one out’ schemeMultiple injuries including bruising and fractures have been documented by a health service supporting people returned to France under the controversial “one in, one out”…"
— The Guardian
— The Guardian
Many asylum seekers removed from UK to France arrive injured, charity health service finds
Samusocial de Paris documents signs of violence after detention and transfer under ‘one in one out’ scheme
www.theguardian.com
September 14, 2026 at 2:57 PM
What the hell is going on here?
Reposted by Richard Haviland
think what's interesting about this too is that I have no sense of how others feel about this - we're clearly in a minority on this website by being stridently anti-AI, but does that really mean other people don't.....meaningfully care about the phenomenon below? I find that so weird to contemplate!
It is so mentally corrosive to try to ascertain, every day, whether the images I am seeing or the texts I am getting or the phone calls I am receiving are real - produced by a human who is trying to communicate something with me, even indirectly. It makes me feel insane and paranoid all the time
September 14, 2026 at 7:23 AM
think what's interesting about this too is that I have no sense of how others feel about this - we're clearly in a minority on this website by being stridently anti-AI, but does that really mean other people don't.....meaningfully care about the phenomenon below? I find that so weird to contemplate!
Reposted by Richard Haviland
“UK Lawyers for Israel has demanded Shabana Mahmood proscribe the Nobel Peace Prize-winning charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), known in English as Doctors Without Borders”
Pro-Israel pressure group demands terror ban for Doctors Without Borders
www.thenational.scot/news/2654617...
Pro-Israel pressure group demands terror ban for Doctors Without Borders
www.thenational.scot/news/2654617...
Pro-Israel pressure group demands terror ban for Doctors Without Borders
A PRO-ISRAEL lobbying group has called on the Home Secretary to ban one of the world’s leading health charities under terrorism laws.
www.thenational.scot
September 13, 2026 at 7:44 PM
“UK Lawyers for Israel has demanded Shabana Mahmood proscribe the Nobel Peace Prize-winning charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), known in English as Doctors Without Borders”
Pro-Israel pressure group demands terror ban for Doctors Without Borders
www.thenational.scot/news/2654617...
Pro-Israel pressure group demands terror ban for Doctors Without Borders
www.thenational.scot/news/2654617...
Reposted by Richard Haviland
Many members of the Israeli establishment – from former PMs to judges, generals and academics – vehemently oppose the actions of settlers in the West Bank and support sanctions. You wouldn’t know it from the criticism aimed at Ed Miliband app.prospectmagazine.co.uk/story/74705/...
Confronting Jewish terrorism is not an act of Jew hate
Many members of the Israeli establishment vehemently oppose what is happening in the West Bank. You wouldn’t know it from the criticism aimed at Ed Miliband
app.prospectmagazine.co.uk
September 12, 2026 at 8:31 AM
Many members of the Israeli establishment – from former PMs to judges, generals and academics – vehemently oppose the actions of settlers in the West Bank and support sanctions. You wouldn’t know it from the criticism aimed at Ed Miliband app.prospectmagazine.co.uk/story/74705/...