The proscription of Palestine Action has been found unlawful. So what now for content takedowns? Ofcom must urgently make it clear what platforms are expected to do under their duty to remove 'terrorist' posts and stop censorship. Read about our open letter ⬇️ www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

I have seen a lot of cursed stuff in my time in academia but this is among the *most* cursed. Grammarly is generating miniature LLMs based on academic work so that users can have their writing ‘reviewed’ by experts like David Abulafia, who died less than two months ago.

If anyone is friends with any Georgian air traffic controllers, buy them a nice bottle of wine. As guardians of pretty much the only narrow gap still available between Europe and Asia that avoids both Iran, the Gulf, Ukraine and Russia, they are under some substantial pressure.

In shock news, motorists have switched to public transport to avoid paying the Oxford Congestion Charge. A spokesperson* said: "This is exactly what was meant to happen, and it did."

Looking at this and thinking there's potential for more of those SNP seats going Green too. If there's a genuine chance of PM Polanski offering self determination, wouldn't an SGP vote become a more obvious route to independence than the SNP? That removes the main reason why many people vote SNP.

"to walk the road of peace, sometimes we need to be ready to climb the mountain of conflict"...

In case you were wondering, Polymarket had yet another spate of likely inside traders betting that the US would strike Iran by February 28. Per the due diligence investigation service Bubblemaps, the wallets used were created 24 hours earlier. The Pentagon Pizza Index has been replaced.

Blood tech: UK’s use of Israeli spyware that helps underpin a genocide Despite its public objections to Israel’s actions, the UK is buying spyware developed and tested on Palestinians. www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/...

This graceblakeley.substack.com/p/the-ground... from @graceblakeley.substack.com is by far the best thing I've read about Gorton and Denton. Especially the recognition of the central fact in 20th Century UK politics.... (1/3)

Lmao

Starmer thinks that a Workers Party endorsement is worth 5000 votes? What planet is he on?

We're getting into some real "it is hypocritical for voters not to conform to the version of them I made up in my head" territory here.

Don't underestimate this. The theory suggests that the last stage of the campaign is activation of supporters. This is a lot easier to do with a positive message than fear. Something changed between the polls that showed it neck and neck and the eventual 4000 majority. It may have been this simple.

👀BREAKING: Democracy Volunteers have warned that they saw Matt Goodwin eating Green Party ballots at the count tonight. 💥A Reform spokesperson responded: "He wasn't trying to rig the vote. He's just acquired the taste."

Why do Reform think they lost in Caerphilly? Maybe it was the No Religion

This might sound like expectation management, but it's pretty spectacular that a party that's barely broken the 10% mark in a byelection before, standing in a constituency that's not even in their top 100, is even vaguely in with a chance.

Interesting and unconventional strategy, simultaneously pretending Greens don't exist, and driving round the constituency on polling day reminding people they do. You won't get that in any campaigning manual. Or are they employing different strategies in different parts of the constituency?

Steve, please...

I don't believe in making lying in politics illegal. But this sort of thing really, really tests that belief.

Lib dems there, basically leading the charge for digital ID by the back door. There's a reason why social media giants aren't fighting this- every adult's personal data is worth more to them than having 13-15 year olds on their sites. Disappointing and naive, even by LD standards.

Think this is a really important point on the Opinium poll. The polling came before a LOT of campaigning.

"Conspiracy theorist relieved that proposed local amenities have been voted against and will now be a 30 min drive away." @urbantruth.bsky.social

Reform have a Scottish tax calculator on their website that shows that, for example, somebody earning £15k per year would save 10.5% but somebody earning £150k per year would save 17.5%. But they're not at all a rich people's party... reformuk.scot/tax-calculat...

A whole decade battling this. Now time for that nice, appropriate community-led plan the people of Balloch and visitors should have had for the last 10 years instead of one company trying to squeeze profit out of it.

Matt Goodwin now posting an edited clip of what appears to be a covert, non-consensual recording of a visibly nervous Green canvasser on a doorstep. Creepy.

Imagining that comms strategy meeting. -How do we describe him? - Politician! -Hell no. - Entrepreneur? -Nope, he ran Southampton FC into the ground. -Banker? - But our supporterbase think bankers are a shifty cabal. - Err... he does own a shitload of farmland... - That's it! Farmer! Plan D it is.

So much will depend on turnout by age (Greens winning with under 55s, Reform with everyone older) and ward (Hannah way ahead in Levenshume, Goodwin in Denton). That's why parties do a get out the vote operation.

Okay, this is quite outstanding from Bedford Council.

Wonder why Donald Trump wouldn't be pleased to see a big step towards justice for survivors....

No way is that what Zack's front room looks like....

The lack of a plan for communities like Horden from the political mainstream, especially Labour, has been going on for 40 years. I think the single biggest factor is the Blairite strategy of basically abandoning heartland community politics and instead court centrists in the marginals.

This is why the bar is so high for Reform actually getting (and keeping) a Parliamentary Majority- they need the early projections to be showing them at 400ish, because they'll lose 50-100 seats through late switches to tactical voting. And post-election they'll lose a lot of MPs through defection.

I see Matt Goodwin is over at the other place laughing at how Hannah Spencer knocked on a door for the TV cameras and the guy said he was voting Reform. Remember how the Reform front bench do this... www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LmS...

Another triumph for Goodwin's campaign. No doubt he'll continue to pretend he cares about anti-semitism. www.thejc.com/news/uk/matt...

It's time to evict Trump's troops from Scotland. No foreign military which has shown a total disregard for Scottish & international law should be using our publicly-owned infrastructure. Scotland must not be complicit in his crimes. 👇Take action - greens.scot/TrumpsTroops...

The workload facing MPs and their staff is growing, in ways that aren't visible to the public: casework and the inbox. For @thehousemag.bsky.social, I delved into what the workload looks like, why it's growing, and what this means for how MPs can balance the different aspects of their role

We interrupt tributes to Jesse Jackson to bring you your daily dose of racism. Thanks, Beeb. Respectfully handled.

Since the government is about to introduce a social media ban for under-16s based largely on vibes – and Jonathan Haidt's shitty book – in the hopes it boosts its popularity (it won't), I'll re-up this. If we're banning under-16s, why not over-60s?

And also "I wouldn't have existed without YouTube". That's quite a claim for somebody who had already been an MEP for 6 years when YouTube started.

Farage saying "one million people in Britain don't speak English". Seems like he's referring to people who told the last census they “could not speak English well". If he bothered talking to normal people, he'd know the words "I can't speak English well" is always followed by excellent English.

Err.... "Last week, it emerged that Mr Goodwin previously suggested imposing a “negative child benefit tax” on “those who don’t have offspring”

Meta are never afraid to say the quiet bit out loud, but also, um WTAF?

Palantir, a US spy-tech firm, has been given access to millions of NHS patient records. Its founder has said the NHS should be 'ripped up'. Join me in calling on the government to end the dangerous Palantir contract. you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/st...

Goodwin is a dangerous grifter.

Only 26 MPs voted against the proscription of Palestine Action, one of the most ridiculous decisions of the current UK Government, and now we know it wasn't even legal. Thanks to all of them. votes.parliament.uk/votes/common...

Absolutely we should fear terrorism and seek to prevent it. But we should also fear those who use either real terrorism or bogus claims about terrorism to boost their own powers, restrict our freedoms and corrode our democracy. Both present major threats to public life.

Palantir is throwing the MoD a party to celebrate its untendered £240m contract. It would already be inappropriate for any member of Govt to attend, given what we know about how Palantir has facilitated genocide in Gaza and been complicit in ICE deportations. Now, it would be unacceptable.

Not only did they bring a small private army, but among the waste of taxpayer money was BRINGING A FULL PLANE OF FOOD. To *Italy*.

In September the Scottish Parliament passed our motion calling for a boycott of Israel. But this week it was revealed that no briefing notes were prepared for ministers following the vote. Gillian Mackay asked the First Minister when we would see action. 👇

best thing about the CIA World Factbook was it included water in calculations of the area of the United States purely to make it bigger than China. perfect. no notes