Very good post by @iandunt.bsky.social on how the UK mediascape rewards right wing extremism. Goodwin‘s elite theory always struck me as outlandish. See here encompass-europe.com/comment/who-...

The defection of Suella Braverman, who was sacked twice from Government in disgrace, spent £700m of taxpayers' money to send four volunteers to Rwanda on a deportation scheme that was then scrapped and has a public approval rating of minus 32 is currently being described as a "major coup" for Reform

Where are the poppy patriots? Why are they completely silent on this grotesque insult to our armed forces and specifically the 2,000 UK service and civilian personnel who were injured and the 457 who died in Afghanistan?

Mike Johnson: Trump was “taking seriously the modern and dynamic threats that China and Russia pose to our global security...” How about supporting Ukraine rather than attacking Greenland then?! US politics increasingly becoming an insult to our intelligence! 🙄🙄🙄 www.ft.com/content/2091...

Dear working class, Here’s what Trump really thinks of you! 😒

a decade is a long time in politics

Amazingly, Zahawi only got round to deleting the below after the press conference announcing his defection to Reform.

More appalling news from dystopia central www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Shutting down X is no longer a matter of free speech. It is a matter of child protection.

You and your wife drop your 6-year-old off at school. You just moved here. You see ICE terrorizing your new neighbors. You film them, as is your legal right. Your wife complies with orders. She is then shot in the head. You still have to pick up your child later today. This could be you.

So Boris Johnson, Prince Phillip, Andrew Bonar Law, Freddie Mercury, George I, George II, Richard E Grant, Douglas Carswell, Rudyard Kipling, Cliff Richard, Joanna Lumley and Spike Milligan weren't British? Interesting www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

God honestly. Doesn’t this just sum up Reform. And their plastic patriotism. Can’t even give a straight answer or follow the rules on their unbelievably naff merch. So on brand. Oh well. You sell or wear one of these, you’ve told us all we need to know about you. (iPaper)

Letter to the FT that stingingly sums up Brexit and the shit creek we now find ourselves in. A terrible idea (naive, prejudiced and uninformed) that has deeply divided us and left us poorer and less secure… but unwilling to face up to the damage we’ve done to ourselves. While the EU moves on.

Fox hunting is a revolting sport. It's only survived in any form because it's done by ghastly, entitled, influential and aristocratic people who feel it's the God given right to charge about the place in silly costumes tearing animals apart for no good reason.

This is the same group that seems to have an open invitation to appear on every single BBC political programme going, without ever declaring their funding

this shit is just beyond parody, man

wtf is a FIFA peace prize? that's like being an NFL laureate in physics

When will people in power start standing up and speaking out against this effing piss-take? 🤔

21st century British patriots: living in France and using their elected office to promote foreign powers' interests against payment! 🤮 At least the story starts getting a little bit of airtime - although nowhere near as much as the enormity of the scandal would deserve! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Oh look. There really are "no go areas" in England. And they're marked by St George's flags www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Really good by @newsagents.bsky.social about the coup at the BBC. The cui bono? question is key here: Billionaire-owned right wing competitors trying to sink our public broadcaster. Crucial time for the BBC. Let’s hope HMG makes the right move next. Oh wait! 😒 www.globalplayer.com/podcasts/epi...

What you’re witnessing is a populist assault on the BBC. This is not an institutional scandal in any meaningful sense of the word. It is an attack on public service broadcasting. iandunt.substack.com/p/extra-edit...

Yep. And to think that so many people think this man is some sort of hero is such a sign of our twisted times.

Oh dear Lord! 🫣😱😳🤯🤷🏼‍♂️

I’m intrigued by reporting on the Caerphilly by-election. I mean bookies had Reform to win. They didn’t. Focus in the media (even the good ones) is on Labour losing. We expected that. Reform non-win is the bigger story here? Compare with reporting on Dutch right-wingers coming second. 🤔

Superb reporting by @peterjukes.bsky.social in @bylinetimes.bsky.social on Farage, Putin & Nathan Gill. The sort of reporting you’d want the BBC to do and should really be career-ending for Farage if @teamlabouruk.bsky.social or the Tories knew what they were doing! bylinetimes.com/2025/10/04/t...

Are mainstream economists losing influence over policy making? "The ‘Appallingly Bad’ Dismal Science: Of the Increasing Irrelevance of (the Wrong Kind of) Economics" www.gerhardschnyder.com/blog/2025/8/31/the-appallingly-bad-dismal-science-of-the-increasing-irrelevance-of-the-wrong-kind-of-economics

❓ Does the British state have what it takes for its industrial strategy? ❓ Merve Sancak and I doubt it. Importantly, it lacks the willingness to be 'anti-business' in the right way to be 'pro-business' in the long run... Read our piece on Encompass Europe: encompass-europe.com/comment/does...

"The UK is very good – much better than most European countries – at integrating migrants, because most Britons, and most migrants, want integration... The rhetoric and policy we saw yesterday will take us backward to a much uglier, and more dangerous, place." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This is interesting: UK Labour are not only digging their own electoral grave by adding water to Reform’s mill, but also undermining centrist/progressive parties’ case against anti-immigration in other countries! 👏🏻 Well done Keir!

That went well. Alienated your voter base and MPs, Reform voters still hate you and The Mail still drags you because, unlike Reform, they don’t think you really *believe* in racist policy. I mean, who saw that coming? *points at self* You win by stopping this bullshit.

Spot on by @pmdfoster.bsky.social ! 👏 The most astonishing thing though is: It is so obvious and yet none in Labour seems to take notice/understand/act...beyond frustrating seeing the country slip into Reform's dirty grip...

All this while refusing to call out Brexit as one of the main factors for Britains low growth and the rise in immigration after “Brexit got done.” Which allows Farage to evade his responsibility for the situation he now so happily exploits. This all helps only Reform.

The Farage effect. Pretty stark. bsky.app/profile/adam...

Super interesting piece in the FT on MAGA’s appropriation of René Girard’s philosophy of mimetic desire and scapegoating! 🤯 Fascinating how one of the most anti-intellectual movements in recent times draws inspiration from a “deep-thinker”… on.ft.com/3YGjRZh

If true, depressing and stupid, negatively impacting on Labour's growth focus & screwing one of UK's few strategic advantages & success stories, when overseas students aren't even the focus of anti-immigration ire - which won't be deflected by this.

This 100% 👇🏻 …

Frantically learning all the wrong lessons. People who want Reform policies will vote Reform. People who want Labour policies ... well, perhaps they'll just have to vote Green. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Hey British media, It’s no surprise that if you give Farage the run of the place, he’ll start winning. Time to do your actual jobs and start interrogating him on his Brexit shitshow, his funding, his Trumpiness, his idiotic manifesto, his real plans for the NHS… instead of drumrolling him into No.10

Yes Keir, we’ve noticed! 🙄🤦🏼‍♂️

How does this come as a shock to anyone? It was crystal clear that this would happen given the government’s policies! 🙄

“[In 2024] Labour won more votes than all other parties combined [in Runcorn]. Yet less than a year later, Reform has captured the seat, overturning a majority of 14,700.” By McSweeny/Starmers logic that’s bc in July 2024 Lab was more like Reform than it is now? 🤔 theconversation.com/reform-wins-...

“Telling voters the Reform leader is right, but they shouldn’t vote for him, is no more likely to work for Labour than it has for the Tories”…Yepp seems blindingly obvious…and yet somehow Labour seems hellbent on trying and defy basic logic and experience!

Sadly Labour’s conclusion from this defeat will probably be “Oh look we need to be more like Reform to win” rather than “Oh people don’t like us trying to imitate Reform” - Hopefully they’ll start looking at polls to realise people are less bothered about foreigners, more about climate than Reform!

Nigel Farage still insisting that he has "never ever, ever suggested anything other than the NHS should be free". Here's what he's said in the past behind closed doors

Under my glorious rule, anyone contributing to the Comment pages of the Telegraph would agree to have the headline tattooed to their forehead should circumstances demand it…

Important post in fhe @bylinetimes.bsky.social on media ownership in the UK. It seems increasingly likely that British public and authorities will only wake up to the danger of having right-wind illiberals in charge of the media when it’s too late… …see Hungary journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

🔴How a ‘Populist’ Media Has Mainstreamed the Far Right Right-wing daily papers in the UK do not represent ‘public opinion’ – they simply reflect the radical right views of those ‘who own and run them’, argues Julian Petley bylinetimes.com/2025/04/29/f...