I’m a past winner of the Orwell Prize & won partly because I exposed Vote Leave’s unlawful activities. Michael Gove was its co-convener & refused to answer a single q. He’s now a judge of the prize & our world is truly one that Orwell would recognise bylinetimes.com/2025/11/25/m...

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... - my new article, if of interest please share.

My musical tribute to Pauline Collins who has died aged 85. She was brilliant and award-winning in the film Shirley Valentine. But I will always remember her as parlourmaid Sarah Moffit in the 1970s ITV drama Upstairs, Downstairs.

Dear GOD if you want to save money in the asylum system 1. LET ASYLUM SEEKERS WORK 2. FAST TRACK STATUS FOR EVERYONE FROM CLEARLY UNDAFE COUNTRIES like Sudan, Syria, etc 3. Run an asylum accommodation system that is NOT FOR PROFIT #r4today

A new investigation by Oxford University concludes that 'misleading media coverage is shaping public debate on immigration and human rights'. Pecksniff's Diary eastangliabylines.co.uk/pecksniff/pe...

No shame, no opprobrium: racism is priced in now. Of all the right’s victories, this one has been critical | Jason Okundaye

“Racism has become thoroughly detached from “serious” politics” It has been reduced to language. So, instead of fearing accusations of racism, politicians now exploit them as petty, name-calling distractions from what really matters. It’s an ugly, cynical deceit. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

British.

The joy of knowing that money buys the news agenda grows more overpowering each day

Today is World Mental Health Day. It’s a day that should be every day of the year. You are worthwhile, and you deserve to be here. #WorldMentalHealthDay #WMHD25 #MentalHealth

They were a child, that's been confirmed for hours and as of 16:52 BBC still hasn't updated. Nobody, absolutely nobody, risks a child's life crossing one of the world's busiest shipping routes if they see a genuine alternative. Labour needs to provide safety alternatives www.bbc.com/news/article...

You’ll be shocked to learn that all the people Nick Robinson mentions here as involved in UK “free speech controversies” are on or adjacent to the far right- Connelly, Linehan, T Robinson, Musk- as are most of the politicians cited, and that he ends with a plea to listen to both sides

💯. Progressives have to stop franchising out their consciences to the courts. Politics is about moral choices. The problem with Reform's proposal isn't that "the courts won't allow it". It's that it's grotesque and inhuman. If we're democrats, we must believe that this argument can be won.

This is aging well

Queen

Bear with me, I anticipate your disagreement. There is a clear pattern to the advice given to those who want to press back against rising racism. What it boils down to is that if you point out that racism is often being dressed up as “legitimate concerns” you will alienate people. /1

Here’s a poem called ‘English Roundabouts’.

Elon Musk openly called for violence on our streets yesterday. I hope politicians from all parties come together to condemn his deeply dangerous and irresponsible rhetoric. Britain must stand united against this clear attempt to undermine our democracy.

Hardly “well”, Peter Kyle. Get a bloody grip @labouruk.bsky.social You have a massive majority. Keep pandering to the Tories and ReFuk. And, guess what? They don’t like you any better for it. Meanwhile you are squandering the votes of those who would customarily support you. IDIOTIC.

I need you to understand what this country feels like right now for those of us who look different. I'm sitting here, trying to plan for Saturday, make sure I don't even need to go to the corner shop for milk, like it's Christmas Day or lockdown. Why? Because I live near where Yaxley-Lennon will 1/

The cost of a single place in a residential children’s care home in England has nearly doubled in five years to an average £318,000 a year, with private firms racking up huge profits as a result of market failure, according to the public spending watchdog. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

“It’s insane to still be saying ‘Israel has a right to defend itself’ when they are killing and ethnic cleansing.” @mehdirhasan.bsky.social slams British politician Michael Gove when he denies genocide in Gaza. Watch the full video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlNM...

Moskowitz: Do you think the Epstein list should come out? Farage: I have no opinion on it. Raskin: It’s been reported that he’s called for it to be released Moskowitz: I have it here. Do you agree with yourself?

If only the BBC would challenge Farage in this way rather than gleefully platformjng him. Labour could learn from this too!

1. Terrific that a US politician is holding Farage to account for his free speech hypocrisy 2. Why can’t we do this in the UK?? 3. Farage lies in this clip - claiming he doesn’t ban journalists from Reform conferences. I’ve been banned from the past two.

He’s always so shit in the face of decent questioning. Absolutely amazing how rarely it happens.

Democrat @raskin.house.gov excoriates Nigel Farage for banning journalists from Reform UK events: "I'm asking you a direct question. Why do you ban journalists who oppose your views from coming to your events? Why did you tell local government not to do interviews with your local newspaper?"

This is how to call out Nigel Farage. So clear

Rep. Jamie Raskin tears into Nigel Farage as a "far-right pro-Putin politician" and a "Donald Trump sycophant and wannabe".

The employee asked the girl and her mother if they needed help shopping. That’s it. That’s all. The misinformation, the insinuations (because the facts are inconveniently benign) are EXACTLY what was done to lesbians in the 80s. This is the product of hate and fear, not reality.

Irish President “I cannot really stand in a public venue & give a public speech & speak about our language when I see such incredible destruction of an entire people being taking place. Are we to watch children starving, women dehydrated who are trying to feed their children?..”

Here is a link to Khalidi's article: "I spent decades at Columbia. I’m withdrawing my fall course due to its deal with Trump." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Isn’t football so much better than men’s football?

4/10 of a sample of 900 of those arrested over the violence & riots last summer had prior reports for domestic abuse www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

As someone who lives half a mile or so from the hotel... NO-ONE apart from RW mouth-honks on local Facebook ever had a concern about the poor people housed at the Bell (the same people raging about solar farms, cyclists, and widening the pavements on the High Street.

NEW: Tony Blair's staff took part in a BCG project for the redevelopment of Gaza along the lines of the 'Trump Riviera' plan www.ft.com/content/0b1b...

What the actual fuck is that stunt pulled by the BBC on the beach at Boulogne sur Mer? The BBC and French police involved in a clearly staged event - police slashing a migrant dinghy in shallow water and the UK government then describing this is a "win"? This is a performance, not "news."

Tonight. Share everywhere. 🙏

In the not too distant future we will ask ourselves how we let these people weaponise antisemstism. Juliet Stevenson is one brave lady. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I'm genuinely struggling to believe that a company that exists in order to facilitate the signing of documents is encouraging people not to read the documents they're signing. I have nothing except profanity for this. What the actual literal God-given Kentucky-fried *fuck*.

What happened to the concept of “Responsibility to Protect?” Does it not apply to Palestinians? Do we only enforce it in some cases?

I could write on and on and on with ideas for concrete things our leaders could actually DO if they truly cared about Palestinians, and their own fine words about human rights. We have shown the ability to act in other contexts - Ukr, Serbia, Iraq, Kurds, Why not here?

They could offer to take in Palestinian refugees- those with desperately sick family members; sponsor aid programs

Western leaders could go to Gaza, to show support and highlight dire situation, just as they have done repeatedly to show solidarity with Ukraine by flying to Kyiv and being photographed with Zelensky. How about a collective visit to the Rafa border by Europe’s leaders, with aid, medicine, food etc

We could stop pretending that any criticism of Israel is only antisemitism; our leaders could join marches in support of the Palestinians, walk in solidarity, as Martin Luther King led peaceful marches for civil rights in America.

We could support war crimes cases against Israel at The Hague, submit evidence, as we have done in other war crimes cases, eg DRC, Libya, or Bosnian Serbian leaders. Or, if ICC gridlocked, we could support establishment of a special war crimes tribunal, like the ones for Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

We could require the BBC to report on atrocities in Gaza and not let it blacklist activists trying to highlight issues, or refuse to air documentaries. Israel forced our leaders to watch videos of 7 October. Let’s insist their public and all UN members watch videos of current situation in Gaza.

We could cut off all aid, trade and cooperation with Israel, and sanction more of their leaders personally, under the UK’s Magnitsky Act, which is supposed to hold leaders personally accountable for gross human rights abuses, as we have applied to Putin and his cronies.

We could send a flotilla of our own navy ships to Gaza with aid, or an army escorted convoy to the Rafa border, as we do in cases of natural disasters, instead of relying on teenagers like Greta Thunberg to try to do the same thing.