We've lost the great Allan Massie. An absolute giant of Scottish literature and journalism, and an inspirational, kind and generous man, too. I think his son @alexmassie.bsky.social is only sporadically on Bluesky, but he has written a beautiful obituary. alexmassie.substack.com/p/allan-mass...

As I pointed out on Saturday it had zero stars in print but one online. Good to see the mistake was fixed.

The most rancid combo you could imagine

A Russian Zircon hypersonic missile was intercepted overnight using a Patriot air defense system, according to the Air Force. The interception took place during the latest Russian attack. #Ukraine

Stopped clocks and all that.

A Bill of Attainder/Bill of Pains and Penalties is a bad (indeed dangerous) idea. Terrible that nobody will say so.

Read the comment below, printed in the Sun 31st January 2026, where JEREMY CLARKSON critiques REFORM UK and Farage's appeal to voters.

Putin's regime sits atop a hill of shit ft.pressreader.com/article/2815...

Hard to imagine a more classically ultra-left pose than this one.

Antisemitism continues to be the Dunning Kruger test for too many "progressives". Massie a massive promoter of conspiracy theories about Jewish control of the US, but he hates Trump so gets a free pass. Rancid.

Seeing more and more explicit - not coded - Jew hate on here as the far left abandon X. A big test for Bluesky.

...they told her no, didn't they

GOP won this by more than 10% in *2008*, typically winning by 20% in other years. This points to a blue tsunami if it is US wide.

Obviously these are still poor numbers for Labour but the pattern seems pretty clear across multiple polls - arse has fallen out of Reform and Labour are back into 20s

St Bridget’s Day is really the half way point between the solstice and the equinox but being told it was the start of Spring also made sense as a child - the days are brighter, buds are visible.

Pro tip: if you look like satan in photos of you performing normal political activity, perhaps consider a different career.

Watching Another Country (the movie) - not watched it before, though did see the play in West End 44 years ago. The subplot of the liberal versus the Marxist/Tommy/Cornford which left me conflicted on seeing the play seems missing from the movie.

I enjoyed reading this column, which somehow blames Keir Starmer for the result of an employment tribunal following laws passed under the Tory government regarding an incident and suspension that took place before the last election.

Big countries should be allowed to conquer small countries to their west, actually, say Sinn Féin

Got my copy of ‘No Second Chances’, @morganj0nes.bsky.social’s account of ‘the campaign for a second EU referendum’ just over two hours ago and I’ve read about half of it now (in a semi random order).

In the paper this review is marked as no stars while online it is one star. Which is correct? www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ja... @theguardian.com

A lot of campaigning about Brexit is the one thing guaranteed to derail the right’s insurgency. Whether or not Farage or Badenoch get it, the people are well aware that ‘fooled you twice’ isn’t a compliment.

‘never interrupt an enemy when he is making a mistake’

Pretty sickened by that post from the woman who is now the Green Party candidate in the by-election as much because I know they (GPEW) will almost certainly choose the Corbynite playbook and double down on the whole thing.

I’m not saying Corbynites are wired to the Moon but the Canary currently has a post that literally questions if Epstein is dead

Once again, extraordinary things happening on the social media of the German foreign ministry www.instagram.com/reel/DUGW47K...

f I was going to pick a day to publish my article complaining the Good Friday Agreement "immolates democrats" I might pick a day other than the 54th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. Just saying.

If I was going to pick a day to publish my article complaining the Good Friday Agreement "immolates democrats" I might pick a day other than the 54th anniversary of Blood Sunday. Just saying.

It is quite striking that Konstantin Kisin simply denied (falsely) on BBC1 that he had said what he said, word for word, on his podcast.

Honestly what is the point of having a programme that is *not* live if you are not going to use that function to aggressively factcheck the people on it?

Conor Murray says Dupont a greater player than Lomu. It’s like judging between George Best and Pele but nope.

Question Time has been a vector for mainstreaming extreme right politics in the UK for around 30 years now.

Konstantin Kisin straight up lying on #bbcqt Douglas Alexander: “When Fraser Nelson put it to you that Rishi Sunak is absolutely english… you said “he’s a brown Hindu, how is he english?” Kisin: “No, that’s not what I said...”

A reminder that, in the old days, the leader of the opposition and the PM happily faced deputies in each other’s absence - Roy Hattersley’s ambushing of Thatcher over the poll tax probably the most celebrated of such moments.

Tory vote falling by more than the rise in Reform’s vote. Terrible news for both parties.

Jim Wallace was a much admired politician, particularly as DFM in Scotland. Very sorry to read of his death.

Small point I know, but I think it’s quite illustrative of America’s deep problems that when Goodreads recommends forthcoming history books every one of them is about American history.

Shocking from Garmin to release such utterly broken software

As a reminder, one of Corbyn’s leading supporters called for a female person of colour political opponent to be deported. The horseshoe is real.

Amol Rsjan frames the Assisted Dying Bill as a government reform. That’s just lying to score points against the government #r4today

This seems to have gone well.

Leader of the Welsh Greens lives in the Vale of Glamorgan. Well, That’s A Shock, said no-one, ever.

Emma Barnett asks Welsh Green about how they would use the Senedd to do something it has no powers to do and then asks it again even after Welsh Green says it’s not devolved. Joke interview #r4tisay

Challenger disaster 40th anniversary reminds me this month is also the 40th anniversary of the Westland Affair: even now Thatcher partisans deny the obvious, she lied and commissioned civil servants in lying too.

Whole item on Frontrow on Radio 4 predicated on the idea D:Ream objected to Labour’s use of Things Can Only Get Better in 1997. They encouraged it! Shoddy, shoddy, shoddy.

That the Greens are relying on any and every hard right source to boost Reform tells you all you need to know about their judgment and reliability. Polanski is the chocolate teapot of anti-racist resistance.

Look at this @zackpolanski.bsky.social - seems you aren't telling the truth.

Lib Dem MP here denying that raising bond finance is borrowing money.

In her final 10 days as leader Margaret Thatcher underlined how much she'd lost her grip by calling Michael Heseltine a socialist. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...