An absolutely shocking story with brilliant reporting from Jim here:

Another nail in the coffin of Sadiq’s woke hellscape. Beavers have created no-go areas (“dams”) in Ealing where they are “happily going about their business” (eating sticks that could be used for defending the kiddies).

Humane and sensible step move by Spain in facilitating irregular migrants and asylum seekers to move to work with decent pay, social security and tax payments. Predictably the right is grumbling - unlike the UK, the govt isn’t allowing this to set their policies www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

"There is a global wave of governments being captured by big money, whether that’s big crypto money or big tech money." Great to talk to @oliverbullough.bsky.social about how money laundering has gone global - and it's capturing our politics democracyforsale.substack.com/p/dirty-mone...

On here I keep seeing posts by certain accounts stating that labour is doing a fantastic job. Then I see this: bsky.app/profile/kity... This is a major attack on UK research capability and will do untold harm.

Left: Labour's Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, "Illegal migration is ‘tearing our country apart’" Right: PM of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, "Yes, my country has offered a path to regulate half a million undocumented migrants" "This is the path we choose. Dignity, community and justice"

Nurse!

I'm not prone to exaggeration but this is probably the biggest scoop I've ever been involved in Mandelson's partner took £10,000 from Epstein to pay for his osteopath course while Mandelson was de facto UK deputy prime minister, according to new files more to follow www.ft.com/content/c950...

Someone from the Tories’ Lords team really needs to change Sharron Davies’ X log in. As an aside, how *would* 15 minute cities be “thrust on us overnight”?

Absolutely disgusting.

Trump taps the son-in-law of Ron Lauder, the author of his let's conquer Greenland craze, to be the next chair of the Fed. www.ft.com/content/a08f...

(Now deleted) comment on my site from a landlord accusing my firm of being 'abusive ambiance chasers'. This I love. "Get out of my F'ing way, there's a sunset, terrace bar and Chianti scenario over there."

Was the decision to block Andy Burnham's return as a Labour MP right? Read @jamesrball.com's full feature: buff.ly/9pHGXzz

EXCLUSIVE 🚨In a remarkable report for The New World, the award-winning podcaster and broadcaster @maitlis.bsky.social joins a deportation plane-spotter to watch Trump’s shock troops kick ordinary people out of the US 🔓 Free to read Full report ➡️ buff.ly/waAJ7Ki

Makes sense, like when everyone finally fell in love with U2 once Apple forced their album onto everyone’s phone.

Trump might be mulling a strike on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, using F-35s for stealth followed by F-18s for precision. The US could also use cyber attacks to disable Iran’s electricity grid. But the 19 US permanent bases and other sites in the Middle East are vulnerable to retaliation.

I checked in on the comments on a Daily Mail article about the WASPI pension decision. Surprised to learn it's apparently all the fault of illegal immigrants.

Can we take a moment to just appreciate

So - I think Kemi Badenoch is *right* that the conditions for a centre-right party are worse now than they were in, say, 2019. The territory that Reform and she are scrapping over is electorally fertile. I just don't think it is territory the Conservative party, specifically, can win on:

I think also this is a reflection of the fact this Labour leadership did very little intellectual renewal, in that the intellectual argument for 'a graduate contribution' IMO remains a strong argument for Plan A tuition fees. It's *also* a really poor one for the post-2012 tuition fees system.

My take on the government's plan for police reform: a welcome attempt at ambitious, long-term change – but one that risks making police leadership and accountability too remote from local areas 🧵 www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/poli...

ENDLESS HELL IN AUSTRALIA: NEARLY 50c AGAIN Historic all time highs today 49.8 Marree 49.6 Roxby Downs 48.9 Smithville (NSW) 48.5 Woomera 48.2 Leigh Creek 🌡️Daily maxes in AUSTRALIA 20 January: 50.0* AFD station 24:48.2 25:48.5 26:49.5 27:49.7 28:49.2 29:49.8 And more to come!

“The Labour Party is a moral crusade or it is nothing”. The present Government seems to have settled for the latter.

This is a shot across the bow at the midterm elections. He tried to steal power when he lost it in 2020. Americans must be prepared as Trump tries to take away Americans’ right to choose their elected officials in 2026.

Brilliant, thoughtful thread:

London’s murder rate is at its lowest since comparable records began. That makes the city safer than Paris, Berlin and New York. Discount the inflammatory content on social media

On British state slowly becoming Martin Lewis with nukes The cost of the cost-of-living obsession economist.com/britain/2026... from The Economist

It’s inherently right wing because you can’t buy public services & infrastructure with an individual UBI.

The astronomical debt from student loans puts kids from lower income group families off going to university and discourages others from studying courses that won't offer "a return." That was obvious from the start and it's also turned some university courses into little more than finishing schools

- I work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, my life is devoted to fulfilling the global mission of this company and to ensuring we never miss an opportunity to dominate in our sector - What is it you do? - We make it slightly easier to order a takeaway from your phone

Do read this thread. It covers the classic problems of govt IT ventures: capture by the providers, poor information management and huge security holes, improbably complex signup process, and low quality outcomes. Surely it might have been better to partner with a university than this corporate slop?

One of the stories of British politics over last 15 years has been Conservatives and Labour valuing narrower and narrower ideological coherence over their historic, broad coalitions and then being astonished that their vote shares keep falling. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Similar klaxon for BBC R4 World Tonight’s description of the Parliament Act as “arcane”.

I know all eyes are on Minneapolis, but there's a fast-approaching nightmare in Springfield, Ohio. Trump is revoking protected status for tens of thousands of Haitians living there on Feb. 3. Reportedly, on Feb. 4, 1000 ICE agents are arriving to remove this population. Ethnic cleansing.

So my connect the dots here is that there will be some allegation that there was foreign interference in the voting — Hugo Chavez, Italian satellites, etc. — (hence why DNI is involved), making it a nat sec issue that they will use to justify doing something crazy/illegal in Nov

God, it’s all so ridiculous.

Whatever else there is to say about this - the Parliament Acts are *not* archaic www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Palestinians 'desperate' for Rafah crossing to open as prolonged closures compound widespread suffering, warns the UN https://aje.news/zyqb38

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free

Tell me again how this BBC editorialising is just my cognitive bias... This isn't a quote from anywhere. It's just the BBC's description of this disgraced, divisive politician.

“New technologies will come along to save the environment.” What they said versus where we are: From the new Private Eye, in shops now.

Data centres will destroy the world.

Data Centres are apparently “essential services” giving them first priority for electricity over and above hospitals! This from a Government that appears obsessed by a technology it doesn’t understand. @privateeyenews.bsky.social

Please spread this far and wide, as stories don't get much bigger than this. When the government blocks even the intelligence services from telling us we're heading for environmental catastrophe, you know we have a problem. A very big problem. Thank you. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The extent to which many Americans think Britain is a devastated and zombie-filled hellscape cannot be overestimated.

Matt Goodwin's lies about his background have hopelessly confused Google AI 😉

Hope Montie goes canvassing for him