Britain is a serious country but in their fecklessness, this generation of leaders and particularly this labour govt are extraordinarily skilled at turning it into a running joke www.bbc.com/sport/footba...

www.ft.com/content/2b4b... We are prone to hoping that the good chap leader makes up for the problems of our institutions and to hope that those same institutions protect us from the worst instincts of the terrible chap. Trumps illustrates the folly of the latter

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Practically all British steel towns voted for Brexit. Isn’t it time to let them face the consequences of their political choice? Why must the rest of us also reeling from the impact of their poor choices continue to subsidise it?

Even more reason for Trump to invade Venezuela 😂 news.sky.com/story/nobel-...

So, Pete Hegseth called America’s generals and admirals back to Quantico to fat-shame them?

So, the free speech lobby only ever wanted free speech for the far-right?

It’s entirely appropriate that the funeral (if indeed it turned out to be one) of the Conservative and Unionist Party is being presided over by an immigrant and a woman no less. It’s a befitting collapse from within under the weight of its own contradictions

Harvard University said Monday it will resist the Trump administration’s demands to change its governance structure to stop antisemitism on campus, saying the government is overstepping its authority www.wsj.com/us-news/educ... Finally, someone grows a pair but how long before they capitulate?

This time, the North Koreans might be airlifted by Russia’s new ally, the United States. news.sky.com/story/north-...

How’s Pap test still being done in Canada? The UK switched over nearly 10 years ago

America has a new circle of friends. news.sky.com/story/europe...

If America is abandoning Europe, isn’t it time to leave the Americans to manage their Pacific problem? ukdefencejournal.org.uk/british-airc...

So much has been set riding on Keir Starmer’s US trip that he is bound to disappoint. Europe will have to either face up to to the decisions it needs to make or keep doodling while the rug is pulled from under its feet.

Perhaps the most confusing thing about the Trump foreign policy is not its abandonment of any pretensions of values. What’s most disconcerting (and consequential) is a successful super power turning revisionist against the world order it has spent decades building and over which it presides.

Out of office, Michael Gove discovers realism and dishes out generous advice to Labour…on how to clean up the mess he and his chums created in govt www.spectator.co.uk/article/get-...

Europe? Is there any such thing as “Europe”? on.ft.com/4355G37 European countries clash over sending troops to Ukraine

Should Trump decide to make good on his threat to annex Canada, all the evidence suggests that the overwhelming majority of Americans would be no better than Russians who support Vladimir Putin.

At what point would Americans realise that this is no longer funny?

It doesn’t seem to matter what inanity Trump and his circus come up with, the UK right wing media is so far up the Trump wazoo that they’d write a rousing hagiography to anything. www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...

Here’s hoping Europe will have the backbone to hit back hard. It may be time for a global alliance against a rogue American govt. As America’s institutions and media capitulate, that may be the only hope to rein in Mr Trump. news.sky.com/story/canada...

It’s literally 1984 in America. “Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past” www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

Playing with DeepSeek 1. Anything uncomfortable to the CCP is “beyond its current scope”

Entirely appropriate to respond thus: LOL! news.sky.com/story/trumps...

I don’t know how long they can hold out for but I’m cheering Columbia on…finally someone grows a pair to stand up to the big bully news.sky.com/story/trump-...

Dunno how anyone listens to Trump and hears “positive” but never mind

This could be the single most consequential decision made by by the short-fingered vulgarian www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/u...

It’s been a minute since unemployment was a political or even economic issue. Mrs Reeves may have opened a Pandora’s box. Even if Labour’s growth policies work, ppl who lost their jobs from these cuts are unlikely to find jobs in the new data centres or building sites news.sky.com/story/sainsb...

It’s MAGA’s world out there uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/meta-ad...

It’s surreal watching Sergei Lavrov advocating for the sovereignty of the people of Greenland against the onslaught of Donald Trump and America’s newfangled Lebensraum ideology.

European govts and voters have spent decades fretting about election interference from Russia and maybe even China. They have been left completely unprepared to fight what is now a rearguard action against interference from an eccentric billionaire in cahoots with the leader of the free world.

Today, I’ve had seven emails from the kid’s school and five emails from work. It’s clear where I’m needed more. Time to pack in the day job and focus on emails and assignments from school!

It used to be assumed that Big Money is a problem almost unique to America’s dysfunctional democracy an ocean away. How many people foresaw this American problem becoming a threat to European democracies?

The pitiful state of Britain, its media and political leadership: An eccentric US billionaire gets to set the political agenda by his ignorant tweets😢 news.sky.com/story/politi...

The UK’s right wing media prizes ideological affinity over any pretentions of patriotism. Is that normal?

I don’t think I remember such extensive house cleaning in American corporations prior to previous changes of govt but my memories only go so far. Some will argue that it reflects how far they’d swung woke before now but did they swing woke to appease the govt? www.semafor.com/article/01/0...

AI with Chinese characteristics🤭

The “new normal” is neither new nor normal. news.sky.com/story/trump-...

Economic growth in developing countries may provide opportunities for the most talented and educated (who wld otherwise migrate) to stay back and thrive. But it would also then enable a far greater number of less educated people to afford to emigrate.

When you hear the Chinese and Russians talk about the end of the West’s world order, it sounds preposterous. When you see voters, the media, and leaders in Europe and America working very hard to undermine it, any doubts you would simply vanish. It’s at least the beginning of the end.

Whither the “Geopolitical” Commission?

I don’t understand the aim of these scaremongering campaign. The question to ask is, how is it that our govt has left us so vulnerable to Russia? What do politicians gain by advertising this vulnerability, an unusual approach given they’d normally cover things up? news.sky.com/story/russia...

Who would have thought that the Revolution people have lived in fear of on these isles for hundreds of years would start -In Wales -With tractors -By cuddled farmers no less! news.sky.com/video/farmer...

Would it matter if the hospitals are failing for reasons other than leadership such as a shoddy infrastructure? Would sacked managers pitch up in another region and get hired again? League tables to reveal failing NHS trusts www.bbc.com/news/article...

One would expect the right wing media to be “patriotic”, nationalist even. Strangely, the UK’s right wing media prioritise their kindred feelings for Trump over any pretensions of patriotism to the UK. They seem all set to cheer any bollocking and pain the UK gets from Trump 2.0. Surreal

Too little too late www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11...

“…community sick and tired of being sick and tired” 😪 Apparently, we’re not allowed to say that what the besuited fella is talking is absolute gobbledygook. Nonetheless, it’s gobbledygook. He & his fellas could go ahead and vote for it. It’d still be gobbledygook! news.sky.com/video/us-ele...

Kemi Badenoch understands Nigeria,the Frankenstein creature of British colonialism. She understands it so well that she walks around with a giant map of the country, & not infrequently, unfurls the map to warn British people of the consequences of their worst ideas gazettengr.com/uk-conservat...