"a luxury pen"? He's no Ronnie Biggs

The Right: “We just really want migration reduced to sustainable levels.” Migration promptly falls off a cliff edge. Also the Right: “NO! NOT LIKE THAT!” Instead of celebrations, we got fannywobbles - and that tells you everything you need to know about the decades-long migration debate.

There is significant money being pumped into these right and far right parties. The govt. have taken steps to tackle it but need to go further. Farage and Reform are constantly in my Facebook feed (and I pay not to see ads)

Excellent read

[Bracket City] May 23, 2026 www.theatlantic.com/games/bracke... Rank: 🔮 (Puppet Master) 🎹 Total Keystrokes: 52 🎯 Minimum Required: 52 Total Score: 100.0 🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪🟪

It's a pretty solid offering, with some positive messaging from a politician who can actually point at some achievements.

Do I think cometh the hour, cometh Burnham? No. Do I think it's ok that he mentioned potholes in a speech? Sure. May be a London-centric view that it wasn't important? But in the provinces potholes are emblematic of zero progress and underfunding.

Aside from policy (and he's committed plenty of unforced errors there) Starmer is just utterly terrible at connecting with the voters. Most are simply left underwhelmed. But many actively dislike him. It's not something he can change.

It's a shame that one of them has to win #AltmanMusk #r4today

How very Bluesky that Burnham's speech to <checks notes> the Great North, a collaboration set up to bring together "Combined Authorities, local councils, business, universities and government" is being criticised as being too provincial.

[at the final exam for becoming a tube driver] well you passed all your tests, you know the underground like no-one else, safety is your chief concern, but [pause] what's that? please repeat what you've just said? oh dear it looks like you're able to speak intelligibly, this just won't work, sorry

Just catching up with #bbclaurak - and amused by Jo Coburn's facial expressions as Will Self enjoys the exuberance of his own verbosity

WTF is wrong with Labour voters?

Labour has caught the Conservative bug, they are saying on Radio 4. But who is the Labour Liz Truss?

One of the biggest mistakes by the government was to tolerate and pander to this group. Far right extremist thugs posing as patriots, who should have been clamped down on from day one www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

FInally, one regulator will look at Nigel Farage and his (changing) explanation of the secret £5m he pocketed. Even Ofcom has shown a twitch of life But the media regulator still doesn’t get it app.prospectmagazine.co.uk/story/73586/...

Andy Burnham will force Keir Starmer to quit as PM by standing in by-election after by-election until Labour loses its majority.

I was looking for a seat and then I found a seat and heaven knows I'm miserable now

Nigel Farage says the £5m gift he got from a crypto billionaire was a ‘reward for campaigning for Brexit for 27 years’ On May 5, Mr Farage told the BBC the money was ‘the only way I can protect myself for the rest of my life’ as he was the ‘most attacked, physically, politician of modern times’

Wes: enough of incrementalism! We just need to get on with things! Also Wes: I might challenge for the leadership later, or maybe tomorrow. We'll see.

www.maptap.gg May 1394🎉 95🏅 99🎯 95🏆 93🏆 Final score: 951 Absolute howler to finish

Streeting? Hmm.

Powerful from @jessphillipsmp.bsky.social and I'm sure the sentiments expressed are shared

Polanski again with the avoidable #r4today

The locals are, I think, the excuse. The real issue is that the country has taken against Starmer. Not saying it’s fair or that I agree, but would be churlish to deny. And that is the one thing that Starmer cannot fix.

After months of pressure, Ofcom has finally opened an investigation into GB News over a notoriously one-sided interview with Donald Trump in November 🔥🔥🔥 /1 www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

NEW ANALYSIS: What's going on in Spain? Spain's wholesale electricity price in early 2026: €44/MWh. Italy: €127. Germany: €96. UK: €103. Wind+solar now deliver 44% of generation. Gas sets the price in just 9% of hours, down from 55% in 2022. Full analysis: janrosenow.substack.com/p/spain-just...

I wonder why all these wealthy individuals are donating very large sums of money to Reform UK. I guess it must be because they care so deeply about the lives of the average working person. donation.watch/en/unitedkin...

We need more of this.

Very interesting read about Putin's anxieties and Ukraine's growing drone capabilities.

One of the things EU leaders will tell you, BTW, is that they have no interest in starting the long and complex accession process if there's a serious risk of Reform entering government and revoking it. It's startling how little attention even pro-EU voices in the UK pay to…the EU.

It isn't just the Left

"43 million in taxes - you're not telling me there aren't some savings to be made there" Yes sure, but also some waste. The Conservatives were not known for their love of public service waste. New Reform councillor for Essex speaking on #r4today

I stand by my comment from a month or two back: Reform are going to win fewer than 80 seats at the next general election.

20mph in fossil fuel vehicles is often no more efficient than 30mph. "Cut UK speed limits to reduce Iran war impact on consumers, thinktank urges" www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Do we have a follower with experience in Kotlin and Compose? We added our first Compose module (~1.5k LOC) and are looking for a quick code review, mainly about the high-level architecture. Let us know if you are interested! forum.antennapod.org/t/looking-fo... #Kotlin #AndroidDev #WearOS

🤣😂

it’s worth reading every word of this brilliant, excoriating column by Fraser Nelson

Today's The Week in Polls compares those who have made local election predictions to different chess world champions. Who is the Capablanca of the predictors? And will the Karpov outperform them? Sign up to get pawns and potholes at 6pm: theweekinpolls.substack.com

Depressing for supporters of Starmer that his overreach on protests was so easily dealt with by Polanski today on #bbclaurak

Morning

Comrade Trump continues his streak of destroying the American empire's grip on the world, hastening the renewables transition, de-dollarizing trade, and killing the world's suicidal habit of entrusting its digital life to America's defective, enshittified tech: pluralistic.net/2026/04/20/p... 1/

World record made in Europe: The world’s longest railway tunnel is being built under the Alps www.euronews.com/my-europe/20...

The absence of a viable competitor to Uber in this space is bad for users and workers alike. Monopolies are clear signs of a failed system.

April forced choice preferred PM head to heads 🌹 Starmer loses to Badenoch and Davey and ties Polanski and Farage 🌳Badenoch leads all 4 match ups 🔶 Davey beats Starmer, Polanski and Farage but trails Badenoch ➡️ Farage trails Badenoch and Davey, narrowly Polanski and ties with Starmer

(I make a "mouth" with the side of my hand and draw little eyes above it) Richard Dawkins: hmmmm (I put lipstick around the "mouth") Richard Dawkins, suavely: well hello

[Bracket City] May 2, 2026 🟡 (Medium) www.theatlantic.com/games/bracke... Rank: 🔮 (Puppet Master)