Nigel Farage doesn’t control when, or even if, a by election is held in Clacton. The House of Commons does. If a Commons majority decides that the parliamentary enquiry into Mr Farage must first be completed, so be it. Press conferences aren’t parliament.

This might just turn into the most British situation ever.

eventually the bill for this is coming due, no matter how much the white house and the average market columnist tries to pretend otherwise

"Farage did not become wealthy by his industry or his ingenuity. He became wealthy by reading out whatever he was told to say by punters on the Cameo app, shilling for gold, hosting for his mates on GB News and accepting gifts from shady Thai based crypto billionaires."

The time has come for proportional representation. Together with cross-party leadership, I have written to Andy Burnham calling on him to commit to rebuilding public trust in politics and bringing in proportional representation before the next general election.

🧵 Amid all the speculation about Nigel Farage's 2pm statement, it's worth noting paragraph 40 of the Procedural Protocol to the MPs' Code of Conduct. If he announces he's resigning and seeking a by-election, that would not automatically end the investigation into whether he breached the Code in...

Quite enjoying not watching or listening to Farage, just picking up the comments on here.

Apparently @greatdismal.bsky.social is going to be an exec producer on this one, so I’m very hopeful this will turn out good… reactormag.com/apple-tv-fir...

Pausa de Humiliacion

Attention is now rightly being focussed on the process of Farage's gifts from crypto-magnates, but the even bigger questions are about what they mean. Even if the gifts have been declared 100% correctly, how come he and Reform are *so* beholden to crypto? 1/3 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Do you know who makes decisions where you live? @geoffmulgan.bsky.social sets an interesting test for us all here. Seems like an important factor if we (the voters) are feeling frustrated and powerless. open.substack.com/pub/geoffmul...

4-1 Belgium. (Subject to presidential review) www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...

Do you know who makes decisions where you live? @geoffmulgan.bsky.social sets an interesting test for us all here. Seems like an important factor if we (the voters) are feeling frustrated and powerless. open.substack.com/pub/geoffmul...

These aren't just any old business donors, or some amongst several. NF/Reform are pulling in major money from a sector closely connected with organized crime & terrorism (www.rusi.org/explore-our-...) and with the Putin regime (www.rand.org/pubs/comment...). 2/3

Being told you’re corrupt by UEFA and Sepp Blatter is like being told you have a few mad ideas by Liz Truss.

Many other parts of the media are regulated during elections, as are campaigners, candidates and agents. Social media shouldn’t get a free pass to influence and undermine the democratic process. Reasonable guardrails are long overdue. (1/2)

What did people expect would happen when all the world’s eyes are on a country run by history’s most malicious narcissist, but he is not getting any of the actual attention - other than that he would find the most ludicrous way to insert himself into the situation?

Allez les Belges!

This looks like a promising idea from Will Hutton - 'golden shares' in utilities and defence companies. Utilities would be required to reincorporate as public benefit corporations. Defence companies would be protected as sovereign capabilities. observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Dodgy (potentially) dealings uncovered here by Carole Cadwalladr and her companions at The Nerve... www.thenerve.news/p/boris-john...

Devolution needs clear processes for scrutiny. And having a way to look at the total funding flowing into a place can improve services AND cut waste. So perhaps the time has come for this concept of Local Public Accounts Committees (LPACs). @ipprnorth.bsky.social @zoebillingham.bsky.social

This is good - a set of 6 principles for AI in the form of a King's Speech for Andy Burnham to deliver. 1. Reclaiming democratic sovereignty 2. Rebuilding state capacity 3. Local consent for national infrastructure 4. A 'grand bargain' for economic security 1/2 observer.co.uk/news/columni...

futurism.com/future-socie... lol

This is good - a set of 6 principles for AI in the form of a King's Speech for Andy Burnham to deliver. 1. Reclaiming democratic sovereignty 2. Rebuilding state capacity 3. Local consent for national infrastructure 4. A 'grand bargain' for economic security 1/2 observer.co.uk/news/columni...

If you need something to fill time before the football, you could make a start on appointing your fantasy Cabinet: bestforbritain.org/fantasy-cabi...

This is completely inappropriate. FIFA should stick to awarding peace prizes and stop trying to muck around with football.

Dodgy (potentially) dealings uncovered here by Carole Cadwalladr and her companions at The Nerve... www.thenerve.news/p/boris-john...

Devolution needs clear processes for scrutiny. And having a way to look at the total funding flowing into a place can improve services AND cut waste. So perhaps the time has come for this concept of Local Public Accounts Committees (LPACs). @ipprnorth.bsky.social @zoebillingham.bsky.social

I was interested in @jydenham.bsky.social 's contribution to @steverichards.bsky.social podcast, on the topic of better scrutiny for devolved government. Are these ideas written down anywhere? Scrutiny seems to be the missing link, but presents big opportunities if done well. (cf #TotalPlace)

As you were saying @jydenham.bsky.social

This looks like a promising idea from Will Hutton - 'golden shares' in utilities and defence companies. Utilities would be required to reincorporate as public benefit corporations. Defence companies would be protected as sovereign capabilities. observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

🧵I’d rather spend my weekends doing something else than post about Nigel Farage’s murky finances, but his behaviour poses such a threat to our democratic norms that I wanted to flag a number of points in the public interest.

Anyone?

In case you missed the fireworks...

At the Tour de France there is a team dedicated to finding explicit road graffiti ahead of the race. Since they don't have time to clean them up, they try to modify them.

“The only realistic way of getting to 300,000 net additional dwellings a year, or 1.5 million over a parliament — the government’s target — is to build a lot more council houses”.

Expected to see lots of photos of the July 4th celebration fireworks, especially as they had an enormous quantity lined up, but so far haven't seen a single one. Although I hear they were late (July 5th in fact)

💯

Exc: Crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne will be blocked from making further donations to Reform for a year after relocating to the UK, the Observer understands This is just one of several measures in the beefed IP Representation of the People Bill observer.co.uk/news/politic...

Am constantly told we're making cartoon villains out of big tech but this is the name of the guy planning a 1 gigawatt fossil fuel plant in Australia for a proposed data centre theenergy.co/article/ex-d...

TIL if you have a Gmail address with e.g. First [email protected] you also have the address [email protected]. The dots are ignored. (I only know this because of a potential identity theft issue I'm trying to resolve.)

"...the head of UK Space Command has said British satellites are stalked and jammed weekly, and something up there follows something of ours around, and until recently the honest answer to what we do about it was watch and hope." ukdefencejournal.org.uk/the-lesson-f...

Channel 4 News had on Bruce Daisley, the pre-Elon Twitter UK VP, and MP Rupa Huq to discuss Lisa Nandy's decision to quit X. Huq was embarrassingly weak. Daisley recommends legislating for an in-country representative who can be personally held to account. www.channel4.com/news/is-lisa...

Hey fellow boomers, I've found* a radio station just for us, 'Boom Radio', playing hits from the 60s and 70s. Can't wait, just need to get my grandkids to tune it in for me. www.boomradiouk.com * as advertised on Times Radio (Radio 4 still doing religion and a bit too early for #RadMac on 6)

This is the best fireworks display on planet Earth. Astronaut Sophie Adenot filmed a stunning timelapse video of an aurora from the International Space Station earlier this week.

Last week, the Welsh Government laid new regulations to introduce Automatic Voter Registration (AVR) across all 22 Welsh local authorities ahead of the 2027 local elections. This marks a significant moment for Welsh democracy, making Wales the first part of the UK to formally introduce AVR.

Should be a good match on Monday. Portugal Vs Spain.

If I were Burnham: *Give HMRC a high street enforcement special unit and sell it to the public as "like that Steve Coogan thing Jim fell asleep watching on Netflix last night but for dodgy shops" *Shove the Companies House fee up to £250 and use all the extra money to get them to DO SOME CHECKS

Dear all my beloved American friends. Happy birthday, sorry you are unwell right now, but it will get better. All things must pass. The country that gave us Springsteen + Orson Welles + Maya Angelou + Dolly Parton + Rosa Parks + Patti Smith + Sally Ride + the fucking Space Shuttle +…

Lovely bit of Disambiguation here