This Phil Noble/Reuters photo is going to follow Andrew around for the rest of his life, isn't it? It's almost enough to justify the scrum of paparazzi snapping thousands apon thousands of photos at every celeb arrest/trial/etc. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

I dunno, if I had sat on the committee that approved the millennium dome, maybe I would shut up about allegedly wasteful public infrastructure projects

I guess we’re back into “culturally, COVID disappeared without a trace” discourse. I recall that the classic Oscar-winning Billy Wilder film The Lost Weekend released in November 1945, was based on a book written in 1944, and doesn’t mention the war even once as far as I can tell.

Once again.

More info on the Maldives diving accident, with the CEO DAN Europe (dive insurance and rescue outfit), which supported rescue operations, saying that the divers were on standard single 12 liter/80 cubic foot recreational tanks. nypost.com/2026/05/21/w...

If journalists were doing their job properly, it would simply not be possible for the public to be labouring under this degree of ignorance when it comes to immigration. inews.co.uk/opinion/immi...

This is basically what we’ve done in the UK and the recognition of people on low incomes that they are effectively outside the income tax system is zero.

OTD in 1935 Nazi German defence minister Werner von Blomberg renamed his department to "The Ministry of War".

Removing the sanction on Russian oil really is the last straw for Starmer as far as I am concerned. He has to go for that alone.

This is a failure of journalism, on a really basic level, but it is also a failure of political leadership. It was going to fall simply in the basis of what the previous govt did. But Starmer somehow conspired to actively spread the impression it was rising.

A lot of our discourse seems to assume that 1) these wrong beliefs somehow arise naturally and 2) politicians have a duty to behave as if these wrong beliefs are true. It saves asking questions about old and new media, or doing anything brave, but it’s rotting our society and economy.

I remember when people insisted they had broad allergies to frozen food and were apparently unaware that an awful lot of delivery food is frozen at *some* point

I would like to see whether the Irish Taoiseach or Austrian Chancellor agree that a military threat to other EU states is a military threat to the Irish Republic/Austria.

in proof of a shared cultural history between the two, Ukrainians have gotten really good at Russia's main economic product; the industrial scale killing of Russians.

The last 48 hours have freshly demonstrated why “just grit it out with Keir and do a last minute change” is not a goer, but you can see why some Labour MPs were attracted to it for so long.

terrible. 20 years ago, the internet was full of hobbyist blogs and forums. over time, these have been replaced by paywalled substacks and private discord channels, each a walled garden. google's decision to prioritize AI just makes it less likely people will create free, public info

Hard to overstate how big a deal this is.

I’m lost for words. Never thought I’d see UK govt trying to set food prices. This is a hugely efficient and competitive sector. What about knock on effects on other prices, smaller shops etc And of course say they want to protect farmers. Please be serious

when Trump was first elected there was a discussion about which decision was worse: Brexit or Trump? Both were bad, but for a while in 2016-2020 it seemed the answer might be Brexit, but that was always with the caveat that Trump would only have one term. Now it is undeniable which was worse.

Jesus, look at this thing: www.justice.gov/opa/media/14... The IRS is apparently "FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED" from investigating Trump, his companies, and his family ever again because the Acting Attorney General (his old personal attorney) says so.

I think people in favour of joining the EU should advocate joining the EU even if joining won’t happen instantaneously.

📉 Russia has begun losing territory in Ukraine for the first time since 2023, - The Economist. Russia’s spring offensive has effectively stalled, while Ukrainian forces have gradually regained ground in recent months.

The Russsians entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to drone everyone else, and nobody was going to drone them. At Kyiv, Kherson, Kharkiv etc., they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind.

The pity of Brexit isn’t that it’s made us fall behind other major European economies, it’s that it held us back from doing better (or even better) than them.

“Trump weighs military options against Iran, insists they want a deal because they’re scared of him” is EXACTLY WHERE WE WERE BEFORE THE WAR, except NOW IRAN CONTROLS THE WORLD’S MOST IMPORTANT STRAIT AND IS CHOKING THE ECONOMY AND OUR REGIONAL PARTNERS TO DEATH WITH IT

I sincerely hope, since he seems to be so popular, that Burnham grows into the person the country needs. I remain, as ever, open and hopeful. But my initial impression is of a very talented local politician, out of his depth, employing the same political handbook that has ruined Labour. Sorry. 7/7

On the EU, we got a rerun of the nonsense we've had for years - "make Brexit work" with a regional accent. I know some will say: he's doing what he needs to win, by telling that Brexity constituency what it wants to hear. But isn't dislike for Lab nationally the result of this exact approach? 3/

It must be true given overall polling support for rejoin that most leave constitiencies now have a rejoin majority.

"This food can't be part of British/German/French/Polish food culture because it was made by immigrants and their descendants" is an indicator of how many in the US even on the Left unthinkingly absorb Far Right tropes about European identity

Exactly this. This is why the idea that a Rejoin campaign has to be all sackcloth-and-ashes is absolutely wrong and self-defeating. We know that EU membership is better for the UK, it is for Brexiteers to defend what they have wrought.

Sorry, but the “we will never Rejoin the EU until [Insert impossible requirement no other accession state had to meet here]” sentiment going around on UK Bluesky is just Brexitism by another name.

I've been thinking a lot about the death of friendship lately. "Somewhere between “Let’s catch up soon” and “Sorry, life has been hectic”, adult friendship became one of the most emotionally significant and least discussed losses of modern life." timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/civil-...

Hopefully people staying away will damp-down the risk of a policing/over-crowding disaster that a lot of people have warned about since the debacle at the Copa America final in Miami.

Right. What's the point of replacing Starmer with someone who is basically the same? I was willing to give Starmer the benefit of the doubt 2020-24. There was a time when keeping quiet seemed a good idea. But there's a difference between keeping quiet, and having nothing to say.

The English word "egregious" ("glaringly bad") and the Italian word "egregio" ("distinguished") have the same Latin root - "grex", meaning "flock" or "herd". The implication being that someone is outside the group.

If we were ever have an actually centre-right party in power again, rather than parties of various shades who want to buy off the public with their own money, this would be something you'd hope they'd address.

It’s actually incredibly dystopian to tax someone passing on a house in Westminster at 50% iht and then let someone in the same borough pass on a government subsidised tenancy to their children. What are we doing here honestly.

Fair enough: 🇬🇧 British Political Spectrum Quiz My result: One Nation Moderate Economic: free market Social: centrist Sovereignty: leaning cosmopolitan Military: hawkish Authority: authoritarian Constitutional: leaning traditionalist Take the quiz: quiz.jmoxley.co.uk

I’m at Chernobyl in 2016 building the new arch for some reason.

You know what, Judith? I think they might just have been extremists.

Yeah, that’s me.

Havant Area Conservative Party MP Alan Mak announced on Facebook that he was going to be handing out English flags in honour of the World Cup. These three responses speak for the whole:

Reform are very good at moving the goalposts. They said they’d win Gorton and Denton (lost by 12pts), win Wales (lost by 6pts), destroy the Tories in 2026 (PNS rose vs 2025) and win six London boroughs (won one). Each time journalists concluded those outcomes were clear from the outset

Also: just how many years are people who support rejoining the EU supposed to be the “reasonable” ones who have to pack that belief away when it comes time to vote? If a Burnham premiership just means more of the same, why shouldn’t people vote for someone else?

The government should have had a strategy, long ago, to address how every summer is now treated as “it’s OK to be a racist thug” season by the tabloids and the far right.

Ria Novosti, one of Russia's largest media, has a habit of claiming that Mykolaivka village (Nikolaevka in Russian), Donetsk region, has now been captured by Russia. Russia has captured it at least four times now. Consistency in lying is key.

Last month marked the 100th Anniversary of the first public performance of Puccini’s Turandot. Amazing to think there are still people alive today older than the song “Nessun Dorma”.

I see left wing people are calling left wing people bigots again.

The state is losing to organised flytipping

Every single Trump-era US foreign policy: what if we just sold out our allies? The exception is Israel, but they aren’t meaningfully a US ally anyway.