💪 A strong public service broadcaster is crucial for a functional democracy. 🗣️ Without a trusted source of information, voters are at danger of being misled and manipulated 🎥 The BBC is not perfect, but it is indispensable. https://bit.ly/3XhSymX

🇷🇺❓ "Zia Yusuf claimed that it was “unreasonable” to link Gill’s crime with the softer stance that the party and Mr Farage have taken on Vladimir Putin’s Russia and its criticism of the Ukraine war." What do you think? https://bit.ly/3K90hAU

A very bizarre interview by the leader of Reform UK... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c87lx0981nro

⬇️Brexit has made Rachel Reeves' job a lot more challenging. 🇪🇺Trade barriers with our largest market have been disastrous for our economy. ❌“We have known Brexit was bad news since economists said before the referendum that Brexit would be bad news!” https://bit.ly/3K9spE4

New analysis by the House of Commons library estimates that Brexit is costing the Treasury up to £90bn a year in lost tax revenue. To fix our nations finances we must get closer to Europe and fix the problems caused by Brexit... https://bit.ly/4pobLzs

"A £20 billion black hole combined with the narrative knots Reeves has weaved for herself in the past, the story-telling options are meagre," writes Joe Mayes ahead of tomorrow's budget. Read here: https://open.substack.com/pub/bestforbritain/p/the-impossible-story-of-the-2025

Did you ever racially abuse fellow pupils? It was years ago. Did you ever racially abuse fellow pupils? Not in a hurtful way. Did you ever racially abuse fellow pupils? Not with intent. Did you ever racially abuse fellow pupils? Not genuine abuse. 😮🫣😬😱 ~AA

🚨🚨 New report! Brexit has cost our economy 6 to 8% of GDP. That equates to circa £66billion in lost tax revenue.

"A cryptocurrency backed by one of Nigel Farage’s biggest donors has been used to help Russia fight its war against Ukraine, British investigators say." It's not "ancient history" if you're knee-deep in it, Zia... ~AA www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

According to Zia Yusuf, Reform UK's former leader in Wales being convicted of taking money to undermine British national interest in favour of Russia is "ancient history". 😂🤣😂 He was sent down for ten years three days ago. Three. Days. Ago. ~AA www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Striking bit of @moreincommonuk.bsky.social's pre-budget briefing (watch in full on their channels). Voters think means-testing winter fuel benefit was *WORSE* that partygate and as bad as profiteering on PPE. And gov't breaking its pledge on tax would be worse than all of the above. 👀👀👀 ~AA

This is how the JD Vance (seemigly Kremlin-drafted) Ukraine "Peace Plan" went down with *Republican* lawmakers. No wonder Trump is distancing himself from it, at a rate of knots. NB McCaul was Trump's national security adviser during his first campaign. ~AA

It really is so absurd to claim "I get small business because I worked in a MacDonalds once and what business needs is another massive costly upheaval in four years, just as they have absorbed the last change." Even before you add the fact that she is unlikely to be Tory leader by next summer.

Badenoch's arrogantly delivered, noxiously apocalyptic assault on employment rights aside, it's quite something to claim that only you understand business, then ask business, instead of adjusting to a new law, to plan on the remotest chance that you will become PM and undo it all in four years.🤣 ~AA

ICYMI: Reform’s UK only member of the Welsh parliament has been suspended for using a racial slur in a WhatsApp group. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/reform-laura-jones-suspended-racial-slur-senedd-b2869040.html

Busines and Trade Secretary, Peter Kyle: "When you win an election... you start off where the other lot left off, and the extent of challenges that Brexit left us, that some of the other periods of intense instability left us... you can't fix that in one month, in one budget, or in one year." ~AA

Two key differences, I think, have so far saved the UK from full-on MAGA madness: our relationship to religion and our regulation of guns. We should be fully prepared for the far right to start prodding both. ~AA www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

🔁 "The contradiction could hardly be sharper." 🟢 "While Reform rails against Net Zero targets and has pledged to scrap local climate-resilience programmes, its own councils sit in some of England’s most flood-exposed zones." https://bit.ly/4poJQPV

CBI chief Rain Newton-Smith tells gov't: "Change course on Employment Rights... The minimum wage, the last Labour govt's defining reform has endured because it was built in partnership with us." Hmm. Was it? Some of us are old enough to remember it was introduced in the teeth of CBI opposition. ~AA

Letter: "New polling by Best for Britain shows three in five Brits now see Brexit as a failure with seven in 10 of these voters blaming Nigel Farage. His silence on the subject speaks volumes." ~AA www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/2564170...

The latest bot-talking-point on X and FB, spread via Reform groups, seems to be "Doctors, Nurses, and engineers don't arrive by small boat". Only problem with that is... some do exactly that. ~AA

"One of the terrible ironies is that Reform’s leader, Nigel Farage, is now capitalising on the unpopularity of a government whose laudable aims have been frustrated by the economic damage caused by a Brexit behind which he was the prime mover." ~AA observer.co.uk/news/busines...

"Brexit didn’t behave like a normal economic shock. There was no singular collapse or dramatic turning point. Instead, it created a rolling fog of uncertainty that has lasted almost a decade. It made it impossible for thousands of firms to plan." ~AA eastangliabylines.co.uk/news/brexit/...

Good morning, gorgeous BfB fellow travellers. This is @sturdyalex.bsky.social with this week's pre-budget news round-up. Stay tuned for breaking stories, analysis, (my often wrong) opinion, and the best video - always, with an internationalist flavour. ~AA

🇬🇧 "In this country we like to think that we live in a meritocracy." 💷 "Clearly this isn’t the case, when there is a record wealth gap in Britain today, with a mere 50 families owning more wealth than the poorest half of the population" https://bit.ly/4oU6fVv

🏥 “Deep tensions” over Brexit hampered the pandemic response in Northern Ireland and contributed to a disconnect between the approaches taken by the governments in Dublin and Westminster, the UK’s Covid-19 Inquiry has found. https://bit.ly/3K9jxOv

Being led on a merry dance... ⭐ @mortenmorland.bsky.social

❌ "Mr Farage’s outright denials need to be judged against the testimonies of the more than a dozen people." ⚖️ "The public has a right to ask: who is telling the truth? Mr Farage’s fitness for office may rest on the credibility of the answers he gives." https://bit.ly/43LbZY

"So far, rich countries have pledged just $788.8m to the UN’s fund. That’s 44 US cents for each of the 1.8 billion citizens in the Climate Vulnerable Forum nations: the sum total of our “compensation” for the disruption, disaster and death we have caused." https://bit.ly/4o8Eozo

🤨 On the very rare occasion they aren't on the panel, Reform are still defended...

✊ Zoe Lyons: "We're not allowing them to integrate in any way, shape or form. We are missing a trick on all of that talent that is also coming here." "In all of that rhetoric the human side of it gets lost. And there are so many human beings just trying to better themselves."

👏 Josh Babarinde OBE MP: "It is appalling, it is immoral, and it is un-British to be using divisive rhetoric to describe some of the people who are among the most vulnerable people in the world." "People who are fleeing famine, war, human rights abuses. And that cannot go on."

Brexit. Less choice. Less opportunities. More cost. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2050pdzvvzo

⬇️ Brexit has cost the country between 6% and 8% of GDP per person over the last decade, a hit of £180 billion ($235 billion) to £240 billion. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-21/brexit-hit-to-uk-economy-double-official-estimate-study-finds

In the Weekend Wire 🗞️ Changes to our asylum and immigration system New research reveals Reform UK voters want to see a wealth tax The official conclusion that the last government’s response to the Covid pandemic was “too little, too late” Read here: https://bestforbritain.substack.com

⚡ An ETS deal with Europe will make energy cheaper and more reliable for British businesses and consumers... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2lplg7d9ewo

Former classmates of Nigel Farage have accused him of using racist language — allegations he denies. But these claims are not entirely new. Michael Crick recalls other instances in which the Reform UK leader faced similar accusations. @newsagents.bsky.social

Ludicrous. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx24200d7y9o

Cal Roscow, campaigns director at Best for Britain, said: ⚠️“Foreign influence at all levels of our politics must be rooted out - it’s right to ask what Reform UK knew of his actions, and how anyone so morally bankrupt was permitted to represent them” https://bit.ly/4oTHLLT

🌏🇬🇧"We only won the First World War and the Second World War because we were joined in those wars by millions of black and Asian people from around the world." A powerful reminder from 2009 of Britain's historical debt to protecting a multicultural society. United we stand.

🚨BREAKING NEWS Nathan Gill, former leader of Reform UK in Wales, has been sentenced to 10.5 years in prison for taking bribes as part of a pro-Russian influence campaign. He admitted to eight counts of bribery committed between 2018 and 2019. (📷 Alamy/PA Images/Yui Mok)

Tom Brufatto, policy director of Best for Britain: “Farage’s plans jeopardise the progress being made on the UK’s relationship with the EU, the result of which would further impede businesses trading with Europe, and push up prices for voters." https://ukandeu.ac.uk/reform-and-the-brexit-deal/

🍺 JD Wetherspoon – whose founder campaigned for the UK to leave the EU – is using Ireland as a springboard for its expansion into mainland Europe to avoid Brexit-­induced red tape. https://m.independent.ie/business/wetherspoon-uses-ireland-to-skirt-brexit-red-tape-for-eu-expansion/a1911675912.html

⚠️Gill played a prominent role in the Brexit campaign in Wales and was one of only two MEPs who followed Farage from UKIP into the Brexit Party. He had told the BBC he had responsibility for The Brexit Party's group of MEPs as its "head of delegation". https://bbc.in/4rd4Qe7

BTW, this is what Reform UK calls its ‘shop window’. https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/kent-council-report-46-5m-overspend-following-reform-takeover-400497/

Our research shows that Brexit made millions of ordinary Brits poorer. Ahead of next week’s budget, write to your local paper and make the case that closer ties with the EU will boost our economy. Use our template: https://www.bestforbritain.org/letter_editor_brexit_budget

"Brexit and the changing social climate also played a role. Even those who had emigrated decades ago felt vindicated, noting a sharp decline in public attitudes, rising racism, and a volatile political landscape." https://bit.ly/3X7z0Sm

Today, we honour the lives of every trans and non-binary person whose lives have been cut short by prejudice and violence. We look to a better future, where every trans and non-binary person is safe and cherished.

Sadly, we don’t expect anything else from Trump - he has tarnished the office of the presidency. "The combined force of two outbursts at female journalists in a single news cycle went beyond the standard-fare Trumpian attacks on the media." https://bit.ly/48upnT5

Humbling experience for Liz Truss 😂 Most of the students don’t seem to know who Truss is. “They kind of told us she was the leader in the U.K but I never heard of her.” https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/11/20/magas-british-invasion-00660033