Just… awful.

JFC. I have no words.

Excellent, if depressing, article by @lewisgoodall.com - describes exactly the lack of any underlying, driving political values or objectives behind Starmer or Labour.

If you feel the need to do something in the wake of the Manchester attack why not donate to the Community Security Trust, the organisation that works to keep jews in Britain safe cst.org.uk/donate-now

If you don’t like being called a racist, maybe don’t make a career of saying things that appeal to racists, don’t create a political party that keeps attracting racist candidates, don’t fawn over racist world leaders, and don’t make a convicted racist the guest of honour at your party conference.

Over decades we have reduced racism by making it fucking socially unacceptable for racist pond life to espouse their views without it being made *completely clear* to them that this illiberal, anti-scientific and morally bankrupt bullshit is NOT ON. No cuddles and understanding for this behaviour.

Some very hard hitting analysis coming out today. I’m glad we have people like @benansell.bsky.social and @stephenkb.bsky.social able to wade through and dissect the laughable “memo” going around Labour MPs. I had fallen asleep long before I finished it.

This is an excellent piece of analysis

No, no - we're all comedy caricatures up past Watford Gap. It's why 40% of the mark on my Ancient Egyptian Literature module here at Manchester this semester is actually for successfully stealing hubcaps, 40% for whippet training, and 20% for an interpretative dance about Brookside.

This is the powerfully disturbing reality of the state’s treatment of trans people over the last two decades (made worse by the shifting goalposts on the recognition of same sex relationships)

The AfD qualified for three mayoral run-offs in cities in North Rhine-Westphalia today, and lost all by big margins. The lesson is not that we have overdone the AfD's rise, but that we do perhaps sometimes underestimate the counter-mobilisation effects - including in east Germany, incidentally.

As Ta-Nehisi Coates points out to Ezra Klein (who doesn't listen), for a certain % of the population hatred is an energy is in its own right, not merely an unfortunate response to difficult circumstances. It is not rational or appeasable or a symptom of something else

Getting mighty tired of the meme on here of “oh, it is just so difficult for the government to set the agenda”. The government (which literally employs thousands of press officers) is setting the agenda - it’s just that it is setting it on toxic ground it can’t win.

Well don't I feel stupid

I particularly enjoy the "But Stephen, why won't you trade [some leftwing thing I am either indifferent or actively opposed to] to feeling safe in your own country?" types.

Yesterday in Chancery Lane…

Mrs R: "There was a woman on the ward today who didn't want to take paracetamol. We've had to explain that we're not giving it to her because she's got a fever and we want her to feel better, but because she's got a fever and if we don't get her temperature down then her baby is going to die."

Wonderful news. A salutary reminder of the absolute benefits of scientific progress, and the absolute evil of conspiracist bollocks. Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time www.bbc.com/news/article...

What on Earth is this? An "in depth" BBC article about free speech in the UK that only cites examples of right-wing/ 'anti-woke' speech being suppressed. How can you mention Lucy Connolly but completely ignore Palestine Action / Just Stop Oil? Gob-smacking. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Obviously I am not naive enough to think we can rely on these guys for their morality or competence, but I really thought *self-interest* would have kicked in by now

BBC headline signed Chris Mason at Farage conference: “Reform conference shows party's growing ambition like never before.” Laura Kuenssberg, BBC headline for LibDem conference: “Ed Davey loves clowning around, but is it time the Lib Dems got serious?” Fuck you, BBC.

I wrote something about feeling like a guest in a country that is my home. bestforbritain.substack.com/p/my-place-o...

Yup, total Assad and Russia apologist scumbags. Fuck them and their chalky fucking ice cream

All of this.

Hi. It’s the late 70’s here. Just two quick reminders: racists and fascists are bad. White racist fascist South Africans are very bad

Great article by @jburnmurdoch.ft.com, telling us all what we long suspected: but with data this time… on.ft.com/41GDfH3 The end of the gatekeepers

Once again: just listen to @danneidle.bsky.social when these questions come up

The Telegraph says Ms Rayner sought advice from "a conveyancer and two experts in trust law". So how could they all get the law wrong? A 🧵 with some speculation. (Pure speculation, but based on my experience of how clients and advisers behave.)

Jeremy Hunt didn't avoid stamp duty. The rule in question isn't a "Tory loophole". It's not a loophole, and was enacted by Labour in 2003. More detail: taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/06/03/t...

The tax system is a mess, stamp duty particularly messy, and the higher rate for additional properties beyond messy. So I'm generally forgiving of people who make mistakes. The problem here is that Ms Rayner has previously said stuff like this:

Here's the thing. If you're buying a house and everything is simple, you can ask your conveyancer how much stamp duty to pay. If things are complex - e.g. there's a trust - this is a very bad idea. If Ms Rayner just asked her conveyancer then that was a mistake.

What's the difference between tax avoidance, tax non-compliance and tax evasion? This. Likely Ms Rayner is in category 4 - "non-compliant".

It's very unusual for someone to pay the wrong amount of stamp duty when they're receiving tax advice. There are probably three possibilities: (1) Ms Rayner got the law wrong (2) She didn't take the right advice (3) She didn't disclose all the facts to the law firm.

Obviously reducing the independence of sentencing guidelines will make it easier to argue that there isn’t undue political interference in sentencing. No, wait…

I’m contrasting this to what happens in my line of business when very senior people are let go - careful mutually crafted messages thanking them for their contributions and wishing them well is the norm…

Are you young, highly educated and driven, and want to contribute to our stagnant economy with its aging population and low productivity? Well out you go

Government has absorbed, correctly, that there is a conscious project to roll back a half century of making Englishness and Britishness identities based on more than ethnicity, but has no plan beyond going 'I too like flags' to defend it.

However, the Lib Dems did... Which may be a good opportunity to remind people that if you want a party that does stand up against such things - libdems.org.uk/join

Heading North. Oh Scotland, Scotland, Scotland… 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

“He will try to take it from you. You know to whom I refer.”

Happy to leave this here because, with over 70 MPs, you won’t hear any reporting of the LibDems whatsoever from the BBC, lets alone anyone else.

As we've seen across history, the populist playbook used by Farage is ugly, powerful and incredibly destructive. We know where it will lead if we don't stop it.

But is it though? The UK already has a highly progressive tax system, with median earners taxed much less than some other comparable EU countries. It seems to me that this is part of a comforting “you won’t have to pay, the wicked rich people will have to” narrative that doesn’t stack up. 1/3

1716. A man comes to a village, "DOCTOR MIRACLE" on one side of his cart. He's selling a potion, only one silver, that makes dicks harder. 1717. Many dicks fall off, gangrenous. 1725. Same man is back with an elixir, only two gold, guaranteed to grow dicks back, bigger. And the dickless queue up.

The fact that an anti-migrant politician, who tells us every single day that he doesn't like immigration, is saying it once again, is not in any way news

The UK has very progressive income taxation compared to continental Europe. Usual response is to say oh tax evasion by the rich but that is a small group of the top earners. European style welfare states usually require European style taxes. But what that actually means is median taxpayer pays more.

Reminder that about 100,000 trans people and allies showed up for London Trans Pride a month ago. Mainstream media coverage: tumbleweed.

As it is, I accidentally happened across a protest against the Chinese embassy in London yesterday which I’m pretty sure was bigger than any of these individual protests and maybe them collectively. And…basically zero coverage.

But do not be fooled. This is the disguise of a man who is seeing far more than most of us ever see, and he’s hiding in plain sight. He is a genius who has changed photography, one of the great artists of our time. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...