Good grief.

Huh? How do you do a "balancing" program when one candidate did an insurgency trying to overturn the election and the other...didn't? Would Prescott have been satisfied with an hour of people telling BBC journalists why they didn't try and stoke a riot to overturn Trump's second win?

It’s the laziness that’s so galling. You have one of the easiest jobs in media. Do a little bit of work.

Trump is like a toddler: time he spends asleep is to be prized, not resented. Every minute he sleeps is a minute he is not tantruming or breaking things or smearing his own shit on things.

Gary Lineker in shock BBC return.

Davie wasn't really responsible for the stuff the BBC is being accused of right now, much of which happened years ago, and the pressure on him was quite limited (you could tell because the BBC wasn't headlining on it all week), so it's possible he'd just had enough

ultimately you cannot appease people whose purpose in life is to destroy you bsky.app/profile/drje...

the right winger who was appointed to lead the BBC in the hope of appeasing right wingers has been driven out by right wingers for not appeasing right wingers enough and the BBC has the chance to do the funniest thing ever

Kudos @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social. These people are heroes.

Thanks for sharing @rorycj.bsky.social - and well done to the @sheffieldtribune.bsky.social team. Read their note today and join as a member to get behind them.

Warren Poppies has barely finished when Warren Christmas gets going.

The automated problem factory!

I don't usually care much for conspiracy theories, but that is usually only because they aren't so extremely demonstrably true. We are actually witnessing a coordinated attack on all our democracies by the richest people in the world. World War 3 is a class war!!! www.authoritarian-stack.info

Liverpool built and demolished theirs in 2019 www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/stories/come...

There’s a great and very detailed website on the London Ringways plans here Hours of fun reading and hundreds of rabbit holes. www.roads.org.uk/ringways

This is fascinating. The plans to re-make our cities for the car would have seen US- style raised motorways across our cities. Most were never built but a few were. 🧵

China and the truth about the stealth takeover of UK universities | The Independent share.google/bArWA3nEl8uf...

Whatever else you think of Kemi Badenoch, walking backwards down steps in those heels was some achievement.

The attention the Tory party in the media and in the Commons are giving to this story is a reflection of just how far off the deep-end both have gone in recent times. Sure, they have a long-term vested interest in trying to undermine faith in the Beeb. But this is such a non-issue for most voters.

The BBC is apologising for its Panorama edit. It shouldn’t. First, the narrative is true: Donald Trump *did* incite the Capitol riot. Second, the apology won’t appease those attacking it. So why not at least stand for something? Wrote this on it earlier this week: inews.co.uk/news/world/b...

Read the full text of the speech here: via NPR (Trump responded by slashing NPR’s funding, we know why) www.npr.org/2021/02/10/9...

Disturbing that the BBC is being accused of ‘faking’ Trump’s odious 6 Jan 2021 speech. The BBC was justified in editing his (long) speech & even if he regarded the Proud Boys et al as ‘peaceful & patriotic’ all they heard & acted on was his order to ‘fight’. The BBC must stay firm.

As @johndickie.bsky.social shows, in his book Mafia Brotherhoods, the 'Ndrangheta and Camorra started as prison gangs. These gangs then gained a grip on the wider society. What is going on in our prisons is very dangerous, not just for the people in the system but for all of us.

It's obviously absurd to blame David Lammy for the mess the system is in when he's been there a few months and the last government drove it into a wall. But it's this government who need to figure out some solutions.

To be honest one of the scariest things you'll read this year. A prison system permanently on the brink because it will never be a priority for scarce public resources, but politicians will not admit that.

This will have to be done.

So much for Farage being a ‘man of the people’.

Jokes aside, ending scarcity is logically impossible. Scarcity of what? Vanity? Sexual encounters? Offspring? Japanese Wagyu? Tickets to Mars? Anyone who sells such a prospect, whether it's Marxists or tech billionaires, looks sus as hell.

I’m with Vince. And 2p on income tax plus 2p off NICS to raise £6bn feels like being hung for half a lamb. www.ft.com/content/9e56...

Whole bunch of us volunteered to check bags in on a British Airways flight from Madrid to Heathrow, after an appeal to ease pressure on cabin space. None of our bags appeared on the carousel. Some people have air tags, so we know they are in the building, but no-one can find them.

Please take a minute to scroll through this—and share it. It's the story of our time. The Authoritarian Stack: How Tech Billionaires Are Building a Post-Democratic American—And Why Europe Is Next. www.authoritarian-stack.info

this is incredibly lucid and valuable research.

City of London lawyer Andrew Milne bought up hundreds of freeholds on homes across Sheffield before advising leaseholders that, if they didn’t pay him exorbitant sums (upwards of £25,000), he’d see them in court. Well done @sheffieldtribune.bsky.social @joshiherrmann.bsky.social for exposing this.

Excellent @chrisgiles.ft.com piece putting the panic about ‘out of control welfare spending’ into perspective. www.ft.com/content/ee67...

Can't believe someone a) had the data to write this paper b) wrote this paper www.nber.org/papers/w3434...

Rare opportunity. We are currently recruiting for a member of our senior leadership team to take forward our work on productivity and growth. Do get in touch if interested. www.resolutionfoundation.org/about-us/opp...

Why should we switch 2p of tax from National Insurance to Income Tax? ⤵️ Income Tax raises more money and spreads the burden more fairly. The switch would raise £6 billion, and leave the vast majority of payslips unaffected.

Excellent analysis of Mayfield Review from @benbgeiger.bsky.social & @louisemurphy.bsky.social @resolutionfoundation.org - Review has the right diagnosis & analysis of problem & drivers. - UK labour market isn't in crisis, but does have a long-running problem with disability inclusion. 1/n

That we would all - all! - be better served if he were just going for the honest “we didn’t spend enough on this, under our new plan we will cut x/raise taxes on y to spend more on it” (there’s a Policy Exchange paper he could nick!) just creates this sense of “ugh, why are we doing this, Bob?”

I feel like I could live with the brass neck - it is the seemingly successful way that he and others have brainwashed themselves into thinking “our crumbling justice system” has an explanation beyond “we didn’t spend enough money on it” that I can’t stand.

Top investigation this, and great local journalism

This legislation is fit for purpose where there is consumer harm from misleading and/or aggressive behaviour, requires no proof of dishonesty and importantly gives relevant enforcers targeted investigative power & can seek undertakings/obtain injunctions to put a stop to the conduct in short order.

This goes way beyond a lawyer acting unethically. If Milne knows the statements he's making are false (and it seems likely he does) then it's fraud.

Shocking article in the Sheffield Tribune. A solicitor, Andrew Milne, buying up freeholds of houses and then making (false) threats to the leaseholders to bully them into buying the freehold at a huge premium.

This debate always makes me worry there’s something a bit wrong with me in that I don’t think the past is something you should draw pride or shame from. I have benefited from the British empire more than most Brits, but ultimately I am *not* my maternal great-great-great-grandfather!

Letters may be legally founded, but may still be an offence under s.40 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970 if designed to be harassing or distressing www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1970/3...

On X the Tory Shadow Treasury Minister Gareth Davies has been “batting for builders” and complaining of a fictional ‘Reeves Landfill Tax’ and a ‘Reeves Builders Tax’. Where are the Labour rebuttals?

Asylum seekers, housed in hotels in Manchester, are reaching out in their own words to address the concerns of the local community. Please take a minute to read their letter, & share it with the people in your life who need to hear the truth about the people they are protesting.

Human trafficking. Rupert Lowe makes more money from using Elon Musk’s website than any other MP. There is money to be made from mass deportations and talking about mass deportations.

Rupert Lowe has been paid nearly £47,000 by X since last year's general election. That make him Elon Musk's top earning MP, with Nigel Farage getting 'just' £14,000, Richard Tice £6,000 and Lee Anderson £4,000