Released 39 years ago today! 😱

You get the feeling that McSweeney really does believe that ICE-style raids is what your median Yorkshire and Midlands voter hankers after

This is very much the majority/median position in the Labour Party, among Labour voters and the general public.

You should watch this report by Scott Pelley of @60minutes.bsky.social — while more of a synopsis of the earlier reporting on this utterly corrupt pardon of Binance’s founder as the Trumps feather their fetid nest, bringing it all together makes for a powerful indictment.

If you need me, tap me on the shoulder. I’ll be happily working all day listening to this on a loop.

From the latest Comment is Freed substack (you really do need to consider subscribing) on how successive governments have undermined local government.

With the ending of permanent asylum, taxes on foreign students, two U-turns on income tax, a refusal to listen to business concerns about hiring costs, again I ask ‘who are Labour for?’ What is the vision underlying all these choices other than responding to last week’s polls?

"The UK is rash to imagine it can, in isolation, pick and choose its alliances around the globe. It is geographically part of Europe." "More Europe, not less Europe, is in the best interests of all the peoples of the continent, including of course the UK and Scotland." https://bit.ly/485lgN4

It's a revealing moment... J.D. Vance welcomes a two-legged robot helping on the job site. But if that helper is a person named Jose, he calls it a threat. Same tasks, same productivity boost. The inconsistency reveals this isn’t about economics.

Not the first to make this point. But there is a tyrant in charge of another country who is accused of being heavily linked to a paedophile sex ring - and supposed ‘patriots’ in this country are passionately willing him to take down our national broadcaster. Madness.

Illegal immigration isn’t tearing the UK apart. The far right is tearing the country apart, using immigration as a pretext.

"It's disgraceful that Nigel Farage is egging Donald Trump on as he attacks our institutions, our media, and the pockets of millions.” @EdDavey.LibDems.org.uk

A timely reminder that fixing social care would also reduce the burden on the NHS. Given that social care is both a financial and structural problem, it really ought to form part of any government’s view on the role of the state.

Well done everyone!

Illegal migration isn't tearing this country apart, but our obsession with it is. It's an obsession fuelled by our media and politicians. Both profit from blowing the problem out of all proportion. It's been happening for decades, but never more so than now

“FBI Director Kash Patel granted waivers to Deputy Director Dan Bongino and two other newly hired senior FBI staff members, exempting them from passing polygraph exams normally required to gain access to America’s most sensitive classified information…” www.propublica.org/article/fbi-...

"Robert Kavanagh, who was defeated by in the recent Wyesham by-election, was seen moving wreaths that had already been laid during the service to ensure the Reform wreath was positioned more prominently" nation.cymru/news/reform-...

To negotiate a trade deal with the President of the United States, the Swiss government arrived with a "special Rolex desktop clock" and "a 1-kilogram personalized gold bar" www.axios.com/2025/11/14/t...

If you didn't know who this guy was, you wouldn't be able to guess if he was a Labour, Reform, or Tory candidate. And that's a super quick guide to British politics in 2025.

I think the gilt market reaction to this week's shenanigans is easy to understand. The specific OBR leniency isn't new news. What *is* new is the revealed preference of the government to extra leeway - which is to use it to avoid doing something difficult, rather than bank it in a lower deficit. 1/

This is as true of the UK as it is of Canada maxp94.substack.com/p/the-tune-h...

So many social media patriots! Delighting in the hope that the president of a foreign nation might destroy a British institution that is envied around the world! 🇬🇧

The only way to raise serious revenue is to raise a tax which everybody pays. Raising a tax which someone else pays rarely raises the revenue needed and creates endless pressure from special interest groups. Compare and contrast Mr Osborne's 2 1/2% VAT increase with his pasty tax. #omnishambles

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine Liz Truss grovelling for the attention of a far-right billionaire - forever"

Government’s last chance to keep control of digital Digital sovereignty isn’t optional anymore. We sold our water to foreign billionaires. Now we’re handing them our health data By Philip O'Brien @yorkshirebylines.co.uk

Farage, Boris Johnson & Rees-Mogg apparently plotting assaults on UK democracy with Bannon, who was reporting back to Epstein. Nothing to see here, newspaper folk… www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Buckle up - because this now amounts to a direct and deliberate attack on our country and its cultural sovereignty. Which side our politicians take - Trump's or the BBC's - over the coming days and weeks will speak volumes about their patriotism.

The book cited here is well worth a read. It’s called ‘How They Broke Britain’. Extraordinary to think that any new epilogue would now have to include Jeffrey Epstein.

We need more Sailor Malans in the world

Every country that doesn’t want to end up like the US needs to flush these people out as soon as possible. Jail every single person too stupid or slow to flee to Russia or America and set up hard firewalls to prevent them from ever coming back

Meanwhile, Europe: 🥱💤😴

Increasingly likely that "all pain, no gain" will be the title of the post-mortem of this government.

Another awful night for us.

Govt has done so much damage briefing all these ideas only to back away because they don’t work Also not a great reflection on Resolution that their big idea re partnership employer NICs hasnt survived contact with reality www.ft.com/content/3b99...

40 years ago, ZZAP! had this fabulous ZOIDS cover. Top reviews: Scarabaeus 96%, Batalyx 94%, Who Dares Wins 90%, ACE 90%, Z 88%, Crazy Comets 84%, and the synth program Electrosound 97%. Excellent month for games - Xmas 1985 was an incredible time for software development.

Here's an extraordinarily cynical take: did the government talk up the likelihood of a manifesto-breaking income tax rise in the knowledge that it would push down gilt yields in the window the OBR will use for its forecasts? Rowing back now pushes up yields but too late to enter the forecast on 26th

Well done all!

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Starmer and Reeves ditch plan to do anything useful with one of the largest majorities in electoral history

It might work for us GIF

“No, no, it’s great strategy to spend weeks laying the ground for tax hikes, finally getting people to accept they may be necessary, then at the last moment deciding not to do them after all.”

I endorse this message

After months of pitch rolling, leaking, drip feeding etc Morgan’s focus groups twitch and Reeves bottles it Pathetic

The more you look into the Prescott memo, the worse it gets

Left: Donald Trump’s Jan 6th quote, as presented in the dossier that brought down two BBC bosses Right: What Donald Trump actually said. Full story in @thenewworldmag.bsky.social: www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-e...

Brexit law EU Member States adopt negotiation position for talks with UK on treaties on food standards, emissions trading - www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/pre...

Good piece by David Aaronovitch on the Prescott dossier: observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Jim Ratcliffe, the massive Brexiteer, demands the EU intervene to help save his business The hypocrisy of these people never ends packagingeurope.com/news/ineos-f...

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The fundamental problem: you can't have an anti globalisation/migration, pro tech/innovation/growth policy. You can have investment in UK citizens/industrial policy alongside those approaches but UK can't do anti-globalisation growth. We've proven this. And "contribution" isn't some magic wand.