If I'd hit the same level of absenteeism in any of my past jobs as Farage has being an MP I'd have been sacked long since ... "Just like his days as a MEP when he was paid to represent us in the South East and didn't bother: just took the money." via Stuart Kinnon

I'm not a Councillor any more, but am able to celebrate two lasting little wins this #Pride Month. If you wish, you can now email #Newcastle City Council and ask for your Council Tax bill to be addressed to #Mx. And if you go on the online reporting bit of the website, #Mx is now an option.

Motions concerning crime, children’s wellbeing, pensions, Northern Ireland, the King’s Speech, and even immigration have all been skipped by the Clacton MP.

I wonder if Reform Kent Councillors yearn for their UKIP & Brexit Party days when they could just shout 'Take back control' and pretend what they were doing wasn't losing it ... meme via Sheffield for Europe

Gentle reminder that Nigel Farage backed Mandelson for US Ambassador. That’s not a thing you do lightly when you’re supposedly friends with the President.

I deeply resent the implication that I would fiddle my finances. Just because I had to repay €173,000 after being caught funnelling EU funds into my general election campaign, then had my salary docked to recoup €40,000 in misspent EU funds, doesn't mean I'm dishonest.

Parking in a disabled space because the car park is full and it's the last available space is the absolute worst time to park in a disabled space. Its not a valid excuse and you're still scum.

"Hands up if you're in hiding because you dug yourself into a massive hole by lying about a £5 million gift then pretending Russia hacked your phone"

Oddly tucked away, but this is a great article on the BBC.. @chrisboardman.bsky.social saying that people could save lots of money by swapping some trips from cars to cycles. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Trigger warning for road violence.

Fun fact: Reform UK’s Councillor Graham Shaw was dismissed as a supply teacher from Sir Thomas Boughey Academy due to him expressing anti-immigration rhetoric to students. There’s then this curious comment under his victory post after the Local Elections…

Life altering injuries. No remorse shown. Fled the scene rather than stay and help the injured cyclist. She won’t even see the inside of a prison cell. Simply banned from driving for 1 year. This should be a lifetime ban with no appeal.

The best thing about my Russian hack story is that how the Guardian found out about the £5 million is completely irrelevant. But now people are talking about that instead of why I was given it, why I tried to hide it and whether I bought houses with it. 😉

Horrific and a devastating human tragedy. Why has there not been wider mainstream coverage and debate about this case? Some crimes rightly dominate headlines for weeks. Yet road crimes even of this magnitude do not. Increased awareness can help create safer travel. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The last 10 years in a nutshell: Nazi: I’m a Nazi! Media: Outspoken Man Touts Unconventional Ideas Nazi: No, I’m just a Nazi. Media: Meet the Dapper White Nationalist Who— Nazi: No, seriously! I’m quoting Mein Kampf! I love Hitler! Media: Why Both Sides Have an Extremist Problem.

Reform UK Councillors Gone: Updated James Sidlow has resigned as a councillor. That’s 30 in 3 weeks.

I'm currently in Lille, and the transformation of the City Centre is incredible. A network of cycle lanes, LOTS of planting including SUDs. And the effect is amazing, it's quite quiet, and easy to walk around. And still seems really vibrant, very few empty units. Cont.

"This Farage parody account on X is more factual and truthful than Farage himself, which is hilarious in itself." via Susan Kovbasyuk

I'm indebted to Allan Sharpe for this excellent meme that needs to be used under every Reform post on Social Media. Please steal it and use it!!

More questions surround Farage’s £5m gift after alleged Russian hack

Pretty standard. Everyone wants instant access to their car, but gets annoyed when that's not possible because of other people's need for instant access to their cars. And don't get me started on those disabled bays. Difficult to get, harder to remove, and often only advisory.

1/3 of the vote 2/3 of the seats 3/3 of the power That is what our voting system delivered for Labour in the last general election. Who will benefit next time? #politics #makevotesmatter #proportionalrepresentation #fairvotes #fixpolitics

What if I told you one study in Manchester found that shade from street trees reduced surface temperatures by an average of 12°C, and concrete surfaces shaded permanently by a bank of trees were cooled by up to 20°C during a heatwave? You might not believe me. But it's true…👇

I find it really odd that things like this take so long to investigate, and that no interim measures are taken in the meantime. Investigation continues six months after two teens hit by car outside Newcastle school | Chronicle Live share.google/HKnSiXRE8mOV... Cont.

Heatwave in France: 'This is an unprecedented event, with about one-in-1,000 chance of occurring in a given year' Research director explains climatic conditions that led to France's record-breaking temperatures during this season & emphasizes urgent need for political action against global warming.

Farage plans to ditch workers’ rights, cut the NMW, scrap the Equality Act, legalise discrimination, take us out of the ECHR and have a deregulation bonanza to remove our protections and make it easier to exploit and endanger us… for profit. He couldn’t give a shit about working people.

Laura Kuenssberg wanted to ask questions about me being in the pocket of a billionaire and our candidate being a misogynist. So naturally I sent Robert Jenrick, the man who intervened to save a billionaire pornographer £45m in exchange for a £12,000 donation.

Truly incredible how the world has *progressed* since the internet 😊 the rigmarole we had to go through 🤔 having to stroll to a counter hand over money and …get a ticket 🤨

Bicycles are hugely space efficient, which is why they make a lot of sense in congested cities. This video demonstrates why there aren’t traffic jams in bike lanes. Just imagine the traffic queues if every bicycle here was a car.

The queues in Dover are a direct result of Brexit. #RejoinEU 🇪🇺🇬🇧

Really looking forward to my Brexit Benefit this weekend. Queues at Dover build in first half-term getaway with new EU checks - BBC News share.google/7f4jeEoJr63u... Hours queuing to register, for what was once seamless, because we're now a third country.

Tell me you don't know who Jackie Weaver is, without telling me you don't know who Jackie Weaver is.

Quote with a fictional band that isn't Spinal Tap. I've never actually heard Disaster Area play.

He absolutely deserves to lose the by-election. And this confirms Labour are a lost cause for a generation. My only hope is they implement PR before they disappear.

"Dear Diary, Starting to get withdrawal symptoms due to not having had a press conference for weeks. But I can't face scrutiny so I need to stay in hiding. I'm even considering going to Clacton because nobody would think to look for me there..."

So I went on a deep dive last night into the archives of the suspended X account of Reform UK’s Makersfield election candidate, Robert Kenyon. This is what I found… bylinetimes.com/2026/05/20/r...

I'm old enough to remember when they were going to build a train depot in Heaton. Not that we could catch the trains. Get the new train Sir? Clean the new train Sir? HS2 officials on why Newcastle and the North East should be 'excited' for rail scheme - Chronicle Live share.google/bG10KUfhb5Al...

"Parking is another major blind spot in anti-bike-lane ­arguments. Vast portions of urban land are devoted not to homes, parks, businesses or public gathering spaces, but to simply storing inactive private vehicles." Should drivers be entitled to use public land to store personal property? #yyj

I’m amazed anyone needs reminding of this, but local government spending power per person fell by 18% from 2010 to 2024 (would have been 26% but for increases in council tax). At the same time, social care pressures on local govt have grown a lot. The decay of the public realm is NOT a mystery

The world’s largest sand battery got through Finland’s harshest winter in years. 2,000 tonnes of sand, heated to 500-600°C by cheap power, feeding district heating in Pornainen. And it worked. Result from one install: oil down 100%, emissions down 70%. Industrial process heat is the real prize.

Leaving to Red States like Texas, from New York and California, Sure Has Its Consequences. 😱 ⚰️⭐🤠 A Texas Drainage District Walked Its Ditch on a Routine Inspection. They Found a Pipe They Didn't Recognize Discharging Black Liquid From Tesla's $1 Billion Lithium Refinery. LIKE❤️ | #rtREPOST | Comment

People: it's outrageous that my local council can't fix all the potholes. Also people: I'm driving around in a very heavy SUV, parking on pavements and I want to pay less tax, not more.

...Students, young professionals and - to a lesser extent - other renters tend to have a weaker connection to the local area and are more likely to vote on national issues. Lib Dem successes in areas with high numbers of these voters were few and far between.

In any local election some vote on national issues and others on local issues. The split changes depending on where you are and the national mood. The Lib Dems simply aren't being loud, clear or distinct enough on the national issues many voters care about. www.libdemvoice.org/what-did-the...

School Street done well.

How to change this debate. " Being outside the EU costs every UK household an average of £8,300 every year. But being inside again would only cost each UK household £38 every year. Do you still think we should stay out? "

One amusing byproduct of the Labour leadership candidates advocating the UK returning to Europe is that Farage will be forced back onto what is now, for obvious reasons, his least favourite subject: Brexit. Let’s see him forced to defend it in every interview.