Some thoughts on Labour conference open.substack.com/pub/markdavi...

We're the cows! Peter Hyman joins Ed, Charlotte, Anna and Lanae in our first podcast episode to lay out how the left itself is a sacred cow that needs to be slayed with its arrogance, complacency, and superiority all being sent to the slaughter house. nocows.substack.com/p/wearethecows

Unhinged rant.

London looking just fine and dandy to me.

So proud of my son Alec, who is walking 89km to every football ground in London today. Started at 3am at Bromley. Expects to finish about 9pm. Has so far raised £1k for @myelomauk.bsky.social www.justgiving.com/page/thefoot...

Probably the right decision but sad that it didn’t work out in the end. There were moments when things looked very promising - just not enough of them. #utb #boro

The race for 10th place is ours #boro

We’ve squandered so many points this season. If we’d hung on to leads in both games v Sheff Wed alone we’d be solidly in the play offs. So frustrating. #boro

My timeline is all either #boro misery or the descent of the US into a rogue nation. Happy days.

On the way! #UTB

Out today! Travelogue from Stornoway to South Wales via Scarborough, Sunderland and some places that don't begin with 's'. Social history from murals to Marx via the banning of leaping on Sundays. Guaranteed to leave the Last of the Summer Wine theme tune as your earworm.

🚨 The Chinese owners of British Steel say they are now considering shutting their blast furnaces and end steelmaking at Scunthorpe in early June - only a few months away. It would mean an end of virgin steelmaking in the country that invented it during the industrial revolution

But, but, but … the White House says it’s all a hoax?

@meidastouch.com was there an EO pushed out yesterday re election law?

AOC & Bernie Sanders spoke to 86,000 people over three days in Arizona, Nevada & Colorado. Millions tuned in online. Bernie: “If you think Trump and his friends are not watching this, you’re mistaken.” #FightOligarchy

Big turnout for other "empty chair" town hall, this time for the two AWOL Ohio senators in Columbus www.facebook.com/christinapao...

HUGE protest against Elon Musk & Tesla in Cherry Hill, New Jersey on Saturday. For those who say protest doesn’t work, Tesla stock is plummeting, Tesla sales are crashing and many Tesla owners can’t offload their cars quick enough. #TeslaTakedown (🎥 Danned If You Do, via TikTok)

From #TeslaTakedown protests to events like this, anti-Trump protests seem to be gathering pace in the US (and beyond)

I preferred it when Trump was obsessing about how many people turned up for his inauguration

He’s awake, then

Starmer achieved a diplomatic triumph in D.C. but the challenges will keep on coming @labourlist.bsky.social labourlist.org/2025/02/keir...

Ukraine is Starmer’s opportunity to define his government’s purpose. My comment for @labourlist.bluesky.social labourlist.org/2025/02/us-u...

Great win for the #boro tonight - Azaz was brilliant - even though Stoke were v poor. Get in!

The UK's '2.5% of GDP by 2027' announcement is welcome. But let's be clear. That trajectory essentially allows the MoD to maintain programmes & plug growing holes in existing force structure, rather than any dramatic change, such as backfilling for American assets in Europe.

Merz just said on German TV that the primary priority of his government will be to ensure that Europe can achieve full strategic independence from the United States in the defence against Russia. Merz was once a die hard Atlanicist. Now, after Trump he is a Gaullist. Extraordinary.

Main thing I'm taking from the German election result is that Musk and Vance support for the AfD made no positive difference whatsoever. In the current scheme of things that really matters.

Another excellent piece by @lewisgoodall.com on the dizzying last few days and Trump’s latest “Putiniste vomit”

In journalism it's important to reflect both sides,listen, understand nuance,be aware of your bias It’s also important to call out facts that aren’t true Trump suggested Ukraine started the war with Russia That is not true.Facts matter.If you want to end a war,you need to face up to how it started

To the UK, Europe & the rest of the West: Cement your alliances. Make a joint plan. Do it NOW. The US has fallen.

I don't see Trump demanding elections in Russia. ...ironically one year, almost to the day, after Alexei Navalny's murder.

It’s amazing to me that the Democrats haven’t started doing something like this already. America is falling - at speed - but the opposition seems to lack coordination and volume.

so much for Trump’s 4% claim

Trump is losing his rag because Zelensky isn't backing down. He needs Zelensky to back down. So support Zelensky.

A key aim of Putin has to been to delegitimise the democratically elected Zelensky and the Ukrainian government. He now has the active assistance and connivance of the President of the United States in that effort.

The equivalent would have been Roosevelt calling Churchill a dictator when the Luftwaffe were bombing London. It's beyond belief, really.

🚨Holy shit. Trump has just launched a scathing attack on Zelenskyy. He’s actually called him a dictator. There can be no doubt: the President of the United States is now a Kremlin asset.

I was electrocuted, beaten, stabbed in the leg and starved after being captured while defending my home and family in Mariupol. We held back Putin’s invasion for several weeks while Russia slaughtered over 25,000 predominantly Russian speaking Ukrainians including women and children.

An unconscionable post from Donald Trump about Zelenskyy, in which he calls him a "dictator" and threatens Ukraine's existence.

It starts with book burning....

I've noted some of the procedural things Democrats could be doing in Congress, but this point from @edgeofsports.bsky.social's great piece in the Nation deserves emphasis. This is basic politics, and it's baffling that every Democrat isn't doing it every day. www.thenation.com/article/poli...

How about an election in Russia?

We were in the room where it happened at @munsecconf.bsky.social so @laurakyrkesmith.bsky.social & I have written on consequences. We must: 1) step up cooperation with Europe; 2) increase our own defence capabilities; 3) build national resilience, incl. against disinformation Read it here 👇

On Friday night, HHS ordered CDC to take down all flu vaccine campaign materials from its website. Materials are starting to come down. For example, a campaign explaining that flu shot can reduce flu severity from "wild to mild" is now offline. Left image is from Friday, right is now Meanwhile...

Trump's America: "Fort Campbell Schools are also canceling plans for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. There’s no word yet on Women’s History Month, set for March."

“Ironically, some of those history books on civil rights might reference the deployment of the 101st Airborne to Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957 to protect Black students during the desegregation of a high school, a pivotal moment in civil rights history.”

This is where we are now: An elementary school at Fort Campbell has removed all books from its library that so much as *allude* to slavery or the civil rights movement. The wholesale erasure of history in real time.

Mike Pence just reposted an old article he wrote about the limitations on the powers of a president. For some reason. Here is a part of it.

This is a sobering but essential read

Neo-Nazi terrorist and convicted mass murderer Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway in 2011, cited this same Napoleon quote in his manifesto.