Evening.

I've been driving about 40 years and still don't *really* know what this means (beyond 2 words).

Large poppies (and WW1 'Tommy' figures) have been appearing on lamp posts – often local council sponsored – but given the recentness of flag-raising on lamp posts, it doesn't feel quite right.

Laurence Fox is never again going to be able to threaten to sue anybody for calling him, an increasingly overt racist, racist

You'll be pleased to hear that TalkTV and GB News are all over this like an infestation of lice.

I give it 6 months before a MAGA Right wing President backed by small state tech libertarians imposes price controls

This did remind me of Harry Enfield's sketch about camp Nazis. youtu.be/QATSbEK5muQ?...

WTF.

Ok, this now has to be worth watching.

'Woman who claimed to be Madeleine McCann found guilty of harassing family'. Could be deported. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ce...

Reform supporters should be polled on a reintroduction of the ducking stool.

Hundreds of thousands of people, dead because of a decision made by the world's richest man

The UK is not the destination of choice for asylum seekers in Europe, according to the UK Home Office summary of the comparative asylum data. bsky.app/profile/sund...

'Another thousand voices suddenly cried out in terror and simultaneously declared "Sod this, I'm voting Reform next time".' www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Human trafficking. Rupert Lowe makes more money from using Elon Musk’s website than any other MP. There is money to be made from mass deportations and talking about mass deportations.

The Celebrity Traitors final review – what an absolute blinder!

Good morning from Brussels, where an EU struggling internally and with its global position is trying to respond as it knows best, by punching down on smaller partners. For opening paragraphs suggest it is trying to renege on the common understanding with the UK. www.ft.com/content/8963...

Huge respect for the 2% of Celeb Traitors viewers who think that David Olusoga played the best game.

James is a Faithful. Cummings is a Traitor.

Is there a prominent Brexiter left who hasn’t torn off their mask to reveal the rancid racism beneath? Boris Johnson’s chief fluffer accusing anyone else of being over-promoted is peak process. The bitterness of insanely privileged men with empty souls knows no bounds.

Good summary. #traitors

Nick totally fucked that up. #traitors

He's going to 'make the case for markets' despite screwing up Britain's place in a very large one, and putting up trade barriers.

Bucks, almost uniquely, favours mayonnaise with chips.* And rightly so. * No, it really won't be salad cream.

I suspect this news tilts Frost away from becoming a prospective parliamentary candidate.

Taking the think out of tank

"He’s popular when opposing. He’s deeply unpopular when required to run anything." A pretty good definition of populism.

Vital piece of investigative reporting from Sky. They've uncovered the X algorithm which feeds users extremist right wing material from the moment they join the site. It is a far-right radicalisation engine, by design. news.sky.com/story/the-x-...

🚨 CNBC: "Announced corporate job cuts surging past 1 million so far this year, with 153,000 new layoffs just in October according to Challenger. That is the worst October since 2003."

This is encouraging yet also very weird, considering MTG's former self.

Honestly read this piece and it is an entertaining mix of entitlement and naivety. Is suprised to find so much Catholicism in Italy Spends a paragraph complaining how expensive UK property is while mentions being a landlord who worries about the renters rights bill

She basically gave up because she's 'bad at foreign languages'. Morning.

Labour voters prefer the Tories to Reform by 3:1 (July 2024, YouGov). It is surprising that a third of Labour voters say they would *vote Tory* to stop Reform (I doubt this would transpire in a General Election, but it could conceivably some by-elections)

I think this is a fair view. But I also think McSweeney is very complacent, bordering on useless.

Two retired men I know can't spend their pensions fast enough as their pots keep going up in value. But they'll still moan about Rachel Reeves and potential tax rises/new taxes on them while pondering voting Reform next time. A Mail reader and a Telegraph reader.

Huge wins for the Democrats in state elections across the US last night. Chaotic authoritarianism is not popular.

Morning.

After rewatching several old episodes, I've decided with great regret that Lovejoy isn't very good after all.

This is a very good analysis of Brexit in its wider context. Very well worth listening to

One of my racist stalkers, Mr Laws, would still deport him though

Great reflections on Brexit from @anandmenon.bsky.social 'It is hard to imagine a worse moment in the history of international trade to have decided to leave a continental-sized economy to go your own way, because of the direction of international trade thereafter.' www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztqL...

Notable in today's YouGov that the centre/left bloc - Lab/Green/LD/SNP are on 54%. With Reform/Tories on 43%. That's the biggest differential in a long time. I think useful to track blocs given instability between parties at the moment.

Matt Goodwin responds to the news that a man called Samir Zitouni saved lives during the mass stabbing on a train allegedly carried out by British bloke Anthony Williams.

"We are ready to discuss human rights law changes, top ECHR boss tells BBC" www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Lots of commentary saying that it's not clear what the point of the speech is. Seems pretty clear to me. It's pitchrolling broad based tax rises in the Budget and making sure - as Reeves did with the fiscal rule change in 2024 - that it doesn't surprise the markets on the day.

This is the only pertinent point to be made, really.

Rachel Reeves: “My job is to deal with the world as I find it, not the world as I might wish it to be.” A great sentence.... for July-Sept 2024.

Extraordinary to hear Reeves cite tariffs and increased defence spending in her speech, as she sets up the blame for tax rises. This message could have been really effective if she'd issued it when Trump introduced tariffs. Now, much less so.

Lucy White advocates deporting 4th generation British citizens to 'ancestral homelands' if guilty of serious crimes "Whether he’s a 2nd gen, 3rd gen or 4th generation migrant, he’s proven that he cannot integrate into a civilised society" White is a GB News contributor + Restore Britain supporter