Worth remembering when looking at the horrific scenes in the US right now that both Reform and the Tories have pledged to bring in ICE-style organisations to the UK if they win power

Ice are pepper spraying civilians for observing and chasing school busses. Unbelievable to see this. www.globalplayer.com/podcasts/epi...

NEW: A second US citizen killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis, a 37 year old man. Officials say the man had a handgun and there was an “armed struggle.” Anyone who has been in Minneapolis recently will not be surprised. As our report says, it’s been made into a powder keg.

Great to see some renewed interest in Nigel Farage’s sumptuous lunches How about this one when he launched a European Revolution with Steve Bannon, who was being backed by Jeffery Epstein all the time bylinetimes.com/2025/11/19/d...

“Meghan. Amber. Monica. Britney. Countless others…Different stories, same outcome: when there’s drama, women become the punchbag” Comedian and author @tovaleigh.bsky.social for the Nerve www.thenerve.news/p/tova-leigh...

The call for supervision in schools is getting louder! @talkingheadsoak.bsky.social talkingheadssupervision.co.uk

In October, ICE grabbed Maher Tarabishi. He was a 24/7 caregiver for his disabled son Wael. At the time of Maher’s detention, disability advocates warned that taking away Wael’s caregiver put his life at risk. Wael died on Friday at age 30. ICE caused his death. They didn’t get to say goodbye.

Board of Peace - Season 1

What do you have to believe about people to see this kind of cruelty as justified?

💬 Almost half of school leaders needed mental health support in the past year, with nearly three quarters saying their job has affected their wellbeing, a new survey has found

January 22, 2026

The necessary post-Trump consensus www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2026/01...

"People are scared, terrified, they're not leaving their homes, they have to deliver groceries to their neighbours." Lewis Goodall meets anti-ICE protesters on the streets of Minneapolis, where tensions remain high after the killing of Renee Nicole Good www.thenewsagents.co.uk/article/minn...

At Minneapolis airport, @maitlis.bsky.social watches on as shackled ICE deportees board an aircraft. "It's one of the most dystopian, the most chilling things, I think i've ever witnessed." "The plane doesn’t have a name or number, it’s a 'dark plane' - it doesn’t officially exist."

"Who is we?“ As we wait for events in Davos to unfold, a thread about a question posed to me in London a few weeks after the invasion of Ukraine, and why I am thinking about it today, on a day of severe crisis for the Western Alliance. 🧵

… including payments for promoting gold, presenting on GB News and from his friend George Cottrell, within 28 days. Reform UK leader apologised for what he described as administrative errors by his team.

NEW: NEW: Standards commissioner finds Nigel Farage committed seventeen breaches of MPs code of conduct. He failed to declare £333,000 in outside interests (more than 3x MPs annual salary)…

In fact this is *£380k* - around FOUR times an MP’s salary

The biggest miscalculation of the Trumpists is about human nature. They assume we're all selfish and cowardly and can be cowed into silence or submission or surrender, which is to say they seem to base their version of human nature partly on themselves and partly on their scorn for the rest of us.

As government is poised to issue 'tougher guidance' on smartphone bans, one headteacher who already enforces a strict ban has spoken to Schools Week about the effect it's had on pupils, backlash from parents, and why he thinks legislation is needed schoolsweek.co.uk/the-school-t...

Compare & contrast. This is Trump’s demand for Greenland. And this is Hitler’s for the Sudetenland. There is no difference. The language. The unstoppable need to dominate. The megalomania. It’s the same. And Keir Starmer’s response is appeasement. We are in that moment. 1/

NEW: Stop Normalizing Fascism. Seriously, if not now, when? 1/

My latest on failure in both the US & UK to acknowledge what we are seeing with our eyes & hearing with our ears. The old world is over. And we have to act fast. open.substack.com/pub/broligar...

Gordon Brown outlines a bold new proposal for democratic international cooperation, as America’s neighbours & Europe try to negotiate with Trump’s whims, imposing change by threats, tariffs & tantrums, limited only by his own “morality”. Will the idea have legs? www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Dolly Parton is 80 today. Instead of hoarding wealth and buying social media platforms to spread hate she spread literacy and made sure kids had books to read 🦋📚

Silence doesn’t always mean people are coping.  An open door policy isn’t a wellbeing strategy. Most people won’t make a point of coming to find to you tell you something until it is a big problem.   Find out what the little things are before they become big things!

It's that magical time of year when private jets descend on a Swiss mountain village to discuss climate change and poverty! Anyway, here's my annual reminder. I'll stop posting this when they stop avoiding the real issue: their own massive tax avoidance 💰

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... terrifying article. The best time for Britain to avoid descent into authoritarianism was 2016. The next best time is now.

When “Operation Raise the Colours” started attaching flags to lampposts, you couldn’t analyse it in the media without the reply, “it’s just people innocently expressing national pride”. Now the same people are travelling to France to intimidate refugees. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

NEW: Another Conservative MP defects to Reform, just days after Robert Jenrick. Andrew Rosindell becomes Reform’s seventh MP. Put another way 43% of Reform’s serving MPs were Conservative MPs and were not elected as Reform.

Suggested title: "Journalism is dead. Long live journalism." (A quote from @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social) Getty photographer tackled by ICE throws his camera to another journalist.

TRAITORS, Episode 11 #Farage #Reform #MAGA #Greenland #Tariffs #Denmark

The bright spot of January- the return of Grand Slam tennis. Loving Alcaraz outfit - lime green for a further burst of brightness. Whether participating in or watching I so enjoy sport for being able to distract me from real world events #Wellbeing #AusOpen

January 17, 2026

Find some spine, UK and Europe. Where’s that fabled spirit of resistance? Tell Trump to sod off. Close his golf courses. Take the gloves off. Badenoch kicked out Jenrick before he quit; what are we waiting for with Trump? Do we have to suffer abject humiliation? Enough. Enough already.

We may be weak individually, but collectively we’re stronger than we think and have tools we can leverage- military based, bond markets, overflight rights, Diego Garcia, trade deals, sanctions. Trump is a corrupt, authoritarian leader - we’d have long ago sanctioned his type in other countries.

If you are in anyway concerned about children in the uk, this post should concern you and expose how money is being sucked away from the children most in need of high quality services. I am grateful for @martinbarrow.bsky.social persistence in exposing the residential care market

Some BIG news for the UBI community: "Following a review of international travel conditions and visa accessibility for participants, a decision has reluctantly been reached to relocate the 2026 BIEN Congress from University of Pennsylvania, USA, to Toronto Metropolitan University Toronto, Canada."

The toxic politics of might and money www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2026/01...

January 15, 2026

Where is the most expensive place to be a teacher? Common wisdom says London, hence the salaries in the capital being higher. But @jabedahmed.bsky.social has found that many more cities across the country face similar cost of living challenges without the pay uplift. www.tes.com/magazine/new...

I wrote about illegal children’s homes, a symptom of failure across the care system open.substack.com/pub/martinba...

Important 🧵 from @martinbarrow.bsky.social about how providing the homes children need has become a financial management issue. When care becomes debt management rather than care focused, society has failed its children. More evidence of need for politics/economics of care/compassion

🔴 A Year of Living Dangerously in Trump’s America I no longer feel safe to speak or act freely in a country where people are being arbitrarily detained and killed and where the truth is becoming whatever Donald Trump 🔗 https://bylinetimes.com/2026/01/15/a-year-of-living-dangerously-in-trumps-am…

Keep watching - Trump and his circle almost have their precious goal: invoking the Insurrection Act. As per said before: a great deal of what is being done is simply Trump and his circle working backwards from this objective.

🔴A Year of Living Dangerously in Trump’s America I no longer feel safe to speak or act freely in a country where people are being arbitrarily detained and killed and where the truth is becoming whatever Donald Trump says it is, reports @alexhh.bsky.social bylinetimes.com/2026/01/15/a...

I don’t think I’ve read anything quite so sobering and quietly terrifying about Trump’s America.

It is in no way “law enforcement” to beat up an American 10th grader and steal and sell his possessions.

Trump wants a list of Jews. CAN YOU SEE WHAT’S HAPPENING YET? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

This may come as a shock to you, but I wrote a thing. Begins with ICE violence in Minnesota, ends with the Buddhist walk for peace across the Southeast. Discusses the profound weakness of the administration in the middle.