Politico: Kent County Council controlled by Reform UK, 'is likely to raise council tax rates next year after its cost-cutting “DOLGE” program struggled to find savings, the FT reports. Council Cabinet member Diane Morton said local services were already “down to the bare bones”' Exactly as warned.

Strangest claim so far?

A work of art

Has France finally become completely ungovernable?

As a local government journalist of many years I could have easily told these plonkers that there is nowhere left to cut in local government. Actually anyone could have told them that.

Warrior and legend.

Beautiful relaxed morning in New Brighton... not...

What an admirably clear statement from the Jewish Leadership Council, especially when all of those involved must surely have been dealing with so many other urgent challenges in safety, security and grief + shock today before having this further divisive and distracting intervention to address too.

German authorities have confirmed drones circling Munich were military grade. Not sure how much longer NATO countries can keep up the pretense…

“These journalists and commentators saying Starmer has blood on his hands? I think it’s outrageous.” Keir Starmer - whose wife and children are Jewish - is being accused of anti-Semitism and blamed in the wake of the synagogue terror attack. @jonsopel1.bsky.social | @lewisgoodall.com

I genuinely wonder how much longer Europe intends to tolerate this and what further aggression it’s willing to let Russia get away with. You can be sure Russia is going to check this.

The Highway Code changed in 2022, but a recent survey found that only 16% of people understood them 🤯 We're encouraging everyone to refresh their knowledge, whether you drive, cycle, walk or ride 🚴🚗 Read more: https://liverpoolexpress.co.uk/drivers-urged-to-update-their-highway-code-knowledge/

if your response to this - a basic statement of sympathy about an attack on a synagogue - is to bring up Israel, please delete your account

It would be better to name her than to just say a woman was named Archbishop! "Sarah Mullally will be first woman to lead Church as Archbishop of Canterbury"

just parent your fucking kids oh my god!!!! no one made you have them!! be a responsible adult!

The near consensus view was that Keir Starmer's conference speech was his best yet. I heard something different. I think it was born of a profound weakness- and in its own way set up his own future failure. My latest goodallandgoodluck.substack.com/p/keir-starm... open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...

I sincerely hope so

Russian satellites have been stalking British military satellites on a weekly basis, Major General Paul T Tedman, Commander of UK Space Command, told the BBC. The Russian satellites have “got payloads on board that can see our satellites and are trying to collect information from them.”

Heartbreaking & distressing testimony from children kidnapped by Russia as part of their genocidal acts in Ukraine but we must not look away. I was kidnapped by Russia at 16 — like so many Ukrainian kids www.thetimes.com/article/f8e4...

BREAKING: Reform council ENDS its ban on local journalists after legal threat. Blames a misunderstanding. Victory here for Nottinghamshire Live and local journalism: www.theguardian.com/media/2025/o...

July 24, 2024

Terrorism seeks to divide - journalists shouldn’t do their job for them. After an appalling Yom Kippur synagogue attack, @davidyelland.bsky.social warns the media’s chase for ever more ‘extreme’ opinions risks feeding that divide.

She's so tragic

The pro worker party. Day one employments rights, if you can afford to defend them.

I've just discovered that the @theguardian.com has now got a entire team to write NIMBY articles. Explains a lot. I assume they'll be covering the wider effects of NIMBYism; climate catastrophe, housing crisis, collapsing infrastructure in the same way?

More chaos for Reform in Wales - after their former leader was convicted of pro-Russia bribery

feels a bit weird that we keep having these stories about individual cyber attacks but without anyone really joining the dots and going "okay, shall we maybe talk about this as a major global story"

Richard Tice during an interview "Keir Starmer literally used the words: take up arms and go for the enemy" What a lemon Firstly (& most importantly) he DID NOT say that. Secondly you can’t wang on about language you don’t like AND parade Lucy Connolly like a mascot. Make your mind up.

“Parenting doesn’t stop when kids are 14. We still need to have the hard conversations with young men.” Playwright Suzie Miller on her new work Inter Alia - exploring modern masculinity and motherhood - tells @maitlis.bsky.social why parents must talk openly about sex to their children.

Dashing twink in the back at 1 minute 30

Public views of Reform,July 2024 Need to do more to keep out candidates with racist views: 64% to 9% (+55) Risk bringing prejudice to immigration debate 51% to 20% (+31) Say things they shouldn't say 45% to 24% (+21) Mainly dangerous + divisive 43% to 28% (+15) Racist 41% to 30% 29% on fence

Reform whining about incitement against Farage is another misstep (just looks pathetic). After a summer where they got to control the narrative they're flailing around a bit now.

BREAKING: A company linked to Tory peer Baroness Michelle Mone breached a government contract of nearly £122m to supply surgical gowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, the High Court has ruled. The £121.9m sum must now be repaid by the company, PPE Medpro news.sky.com/story/firm-l...

And @sophyridge.bsky.social was lovely!

Ok it has now stopped to be funny.

These are some of the most extreme restrictions on immigration in years. We're told to see them as benign because they're less bad than Farage's far-right extremism. But they are still terrible.

My Labour conference takeaways: Labour feels scared of its own shadow despite its huge majority Labour is slowly realising they can’t sit fighting far-right populism out SW1 needs to stop using Twitter because it’s riddled with far-right accounts giving an inaccurate view of UK public sentiment

This is true, however I had the smallest amount of debt possible from uni loans (other than not taking the loans) and I will still never pay mine off. This is despite getting into a good job relatively quickly. The whole model is broken.

Can't think of many better illustrations of how badly we have botched housing policy than the fact that our bill for housing homeless families (£2.8bn pa) is now higher than the money we spend each year on new affordable housing (£2.3bn) www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/english...

I do think we sometimes forget: 1. We need high-skilled migrants to keep the NHS working, and to grow the economy 2. High-skilled migrants have a *lot* of choices over where to go And 3. We’ve been getting less attractive as a destination for years anyway (wages here famously suck)

Coming into contact with politicians and their teams I'm realising they're all powered by gays

LBC currently discussing whether it's OK to suggest that some Reform voters are bigots and racists. Coming up at 8pm: "Is the pope an adherent to Roman Catholic beliefs, is Luxembourg a micronation and do bears shit in the woods?"

⚡️ Moldova's election infrastructure targeted in mass cyberattacks during consequential parliamentary elections. The targets included Moldova's Central Electoral Commission website, according to the Information Technology and Cyber Security Service. kyivindependent.com/moldovas-ele...

Finally someone calling it what it is

Fort Perch Rock puss

Craig hates him I love it #Strictly

Drag is as much a part of British culture as fish and chips, so the right can fuck off if they start on this. I’m not on the other place anymore, and for that I’m very glad. #Strictly #SCD

Gunna be voting for La Voix every week no matter what just so people know #strictly