I’ve been unable to write / play / compose for almost a year now, but I’m okay with silence. Thanks in a large part to this guy… ❤️🙌 #talktalk #markhollis

More than 70,000 have signed the petition for enquiry into Russian influence in UK politics. At 100,000 we can ask for a debate in parliament. #Brexit Please sign and share. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74...

Today we’ll get latest net immigration figures - They’ll show immigration for work is plummeting. Why is this not part of the discussion on Rachel Reeves balancing her books & stalled growth? For every 100,000 drop in net immigration, the OBR adds £7bn to the deficit. #r4today

I say this mostly because Reform and certain journalists friendly to them seem determined to start a “white flight” narrative since net migration has dropped so dramatically. It’s not true. It’s not even close to true.

The number of British citizens emigrating hasn’t increased, btw. Outward migration is up, but the increase is mostly non-EU migrants leaving the UK. The methodology counting emigration of British citizens changed in 2021, which increased the number, and it’s been pretty much flat ever since…

Abysmal, mindless, utterly zombified. You can't even call it policymaking because that implies a degree of thought which simply isn't present. Pretty soon they might actually hit Cameron's 'tens of thousands' target and then they'll shit themselves with horror at the consequences.

"We will always be on the side of working people", Farage's 'Letter to the Nation' says today. What he neglects to admit is that Reform plans to cut £300+ billion from the public services that these "working people" rely on every day.

Dear media, don’t interview billionaires about how they should be taxed. That’s like criminals attempting to set their own prison sentences, ignorant nut jobs giving vaccine advice, and politicians telling the poor how to survive on baked beans. They should all be invited to go and fuck themselves.

“Also for legal reasons, we’re not able to tell you what that line is.” From a media law perspective: BS. There is no "legal" reason for not publishing that line. www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...

So sad to see our flags hijacked like this, to engender division and exclusion. Absolute opposite of patriotism.

Today's migration stats illustrate the migration doom loop in action... (from my presentation at the IMF last week)

Nigel Farage has spent £1m taking out adverts in the papers to distract from the Nathan Gill Russian bribe scandal. We can't let him buy himself out of this. We need an investigation into Russian influence in our politics.

The simple and incontestable fact which the BBC are preventing their staff from stating is that Donald Trump is the most openly corrupt president in American history.

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What pathetic, craven BS.

This. There is only one difference between an immigrant and an expat, and it is what makes the word expat inherently racist. (Arguably there is a second, which is wealth, but this is often linked to the first)

The iPaper and GMB have Kwasi Kwarteng giving his expert opinion on the Budget. Kwasi Kwarteng. Yep.

these questions are just legitimate concerns

Not only did Brexit not provide any extra money for the NHS - as liar-in-chief Boris Johnson promised - but Brexit is impoverishing the UK each year by an amount of money not far off the annual NHS budget. Thanks Farage.

Taxes to do not pay for public services. Govt money creation, mainly via the issuing of bonds, does. But, putting aside that lie, I would pay more tax for better public services. The problem is so much has been privatised that our taxes are creamed off by profiteering private firms. That I object to

Totally agree. Government finances are entirely different from personal finances. Nobody has a money printing press. The govt does. However, our financial journalists continue to spread financial illiteracy, with talk of “balancing in the books“, “maxing out on the country’s credit cards“ etc

These two old beauties have just arrived - cheap as chips off eBay, and I'm in heaven. (RAC South Wales - pub: 1935, lovely maps, quaint adverts & illustrations) (Travels in Egypt, pub: 1913, lovely photos of locations, & diagrams of artefacts).

It’s a cold, miserable day today. So I’ve knocked up this… Diced lamb from the Farmers’ Market, smoked lardons, shallots, carrots, stock, white wine, garlic, rosemary & thyme, plus basic seasoning. It’s been on about 4 hours, and I’ve just added leeks. To be served up with a buttery mash.

🚨The Petition calling for a public inquiry into Russian influence on UK politics & democracy has now rocketed past 55,000 signatures! Let’s get it to 100,000. If a petition is what it’s going to take let’s get this done! petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74...

Exceptionally nasty, in the quote below. Do you notice how, if the press wants damning evidence of Farage’s hateful views and behaviour, all they have to do is ask whether anyone has encountered it?

BBC censoring the Reith Lecture to remove reference to Trump being the most openly corrupt president in American history. Not sure why, he is American President. He is openly corrupt. No other American president has been as openly corrupt. It says nothing about comparative levels of corruption

Please sign this petition for a public inquiry into Russian influence on UK politics. I don't care if you're left or right, Reform or Corbynite - we can't allow a hostile foreign nation to run riot in our political ecosystem. Sign and share. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74...

And did absolutely nothing to stop them.

Carole Cadwalladr asks why the Labour gov are choosing not to investigate Russian interference in British elections and referendums

The petition for a public inquiry into Russian influence on UK politics and democracy is now up to 45k. Let's get it up to 50k before midnight. Please keep sharing the petition far and wide. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74...

Left: Shabana Mahmood as Lord Chancellor, "It is right that we have an independent judiciary in this country" Right: Labour have removed a judge who was due to hear and rule over the legality of the proscription of Palestine Action Labour are interfering in the independence of our judiciary

In ‘but it’s not a bubble’ news.

Surreal.

If multiple people can remember someone being horribly racist, even by the appalling low bar of the racist 1970s, that is entirely noteworthy. As an adult Farage fanboyed Enoch Powell - the most infamous racist of the 1960s - and long cited him as his political hero. And that's noteworthy too.

It's 2029, and a Reform government has sworn in its first batch of politically appointed judges. Suddenly, the Labour Party remembers why jury trials mattered.

Three more school contemporaries who witnessed Nigel Farage’s teenage racism reject the Reform UK leader’s suggestion it was just “banter”, describing it as targeted, persistent and nasty.

New lock-screen ❤️ #spiritofeden #talktalk #markhollis

"Failure" here assumes DOGE was actually about cutting financial waste. If however it was all about massive data and information grabs on every individual and organisation in the USA in an unprecedented and unparalleled data heist - then it may well have succeeded 100%.

"Just off out to do a bit of nourishing and friendly racial abuse"

This is exactly what the recent Trump-BBC 'scandal' was designed to achieve. The BBC is now self-censoring criticisms of Trump in the name of "impartiality"

Jesus wept. This government is absolutely pitiful.

'Banter'...

Someone really needs to explain the Striesand Effect to the BBC. And also tell them to stop being so pathetic.

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I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

This is what happens when you rely on your partnership with OpenAI

My attendance record in the European Parliament was the 4th worst out of 751 MEPs, yet I managed to turn up to vote AGAINST plans to tackle Russian misinformation. Thankfully this is of no interest to the media.

New post: a #MotoGP concessions primer: - A reminder of how concessions worked this year - How concessions will handle the 2027 rules and Pirelli switch - A look at whether the concessions system has actually functioned as intended. motomatters.com/analysis/202...

Then our security services need to step in.