So, renovation of Westminster Palace would cost the same as Bezos' bung to Melania and Ratner (without the bribe/marketing spend on Truth Social). The much-criticised but functional Holyrood Parliament accommodates 260 and cost £430M. Imagine what *even* £15Bn could build in the Midlands or North?

Absolutely agree. Holyrood has electronic voting from the outset, which now takes 30 seconds, down from the previous 45 seconds. In Westminster, members have eight minutes to walk through lobbies to register votes after the division bell rings. Then doors are locked and whips tally numbers. Archaic!

Best-known for her work on GPS, she was one of many women of her generation whose talents helped to propel the mid-twentieth-century cold-war technology boom in the United States. Programming some of the most powerful computers of the time, West pushed the horizons of computation and communication.

Once, Keir Starmer honourably, promised to resign if found guilty of breaking Covid restrictions. Mandelson, has betrayed Keir, Labour & his country. Starmer’s judgement & good name are now tainted. I think this is fatal. Sadly,

NB: In 2008 Peter Mandelson - then EU Trade Commissioner - holidayed on the yacht of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of Putin. Deripaska benefited from a cut in EU aluminium tariffs introduced by Mandelson.

Origin Story Ian Dunt & Dorian Lynskey explore Blue Labour,”We need to talk about Maurice” This is a brilliant podcast. Glassman is the kind of “socialist” intellectual who is vain & verbose. His paradoxical statements render words meaningless. This is a portrait of a fluent, cynical equivocator.

I always said I'd never vote for Reform because they were a bunch of nasty, mediocre spivs but now Suella Braverman's joined, well, that pretty much changes everything.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... As usual, Marina Hyde cut through all the crap with her withering scalpel.

👇👇

There's more. On 31 March 2010, Lord Mandelson's principal private secretary sent him a note of a meeting between the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Larry Summers, US Treasury Secretary. Lord Mandelson forwarded it to Jeffrey Epstein five minutes later.

May I warmly recommend Ian Dunt’s delicious piece on Matt Goodwin. It will be a joy to read for anyone (except the subject of the piece. ) I don’t approve of vivisection but in Goodwin’s case it’s all for the greater good. 😊 open.substack.com/pub/iandunt/...

The arrest of Don Lemon is textbook fascism—a brazen attempt to silence reporting on a criminal regime. Stand up for Don, because our rights stand and fall with those of courageous journalists throughout this country.

The excellent Podyssey is back for season 2- how lovely!

Everywhere's near a village www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... You'd only write this if you were against solar, which is a bias. Why is our BBC allowed to display bias?

This new graphic from @thenerve.news could be so much bigger but we wanted to show 3 essential nodes in Peter Thiel’s sphere of influence: Silicon Valley, Washington & the UK. In Britain, our govt is so naive about Thiel & what his company Palantir really is. 3/

Homan's message: When we kill you, you have to be especially nice to us. Or else we will keep killing you.

Lest we forget Farage accidentally set up an off shore fund to avoid UK.. he prefers us to pay it We’ve all done it, despite it being time consuming, very difficult, and expensive without realising It’s just like he’s accidentally broke MP’s rules 17 times to date without facing any consequences❗️😡

Reminder: Epstein's emails show that he was in communication with senior Russian officials close to Putin. By pimping/trafficking Russian women to people like Prince Andrew, he was also supplying Putin's regime with copious amounts of kompromat.

If VAT on private school fees is 'class war', what's the right term for 8% compound interest on student loans?

The big difference between fraudulent covid loans and student loans is that fraudulent covid loans are happily written off

What Lee Anderson hasn't pointed out yet is that in 1930s the Daily Mail supported the British Union of Fascists and in the 2020s the Daily Mail supports Reform UK

@quietriotpod.bsky.social is always interesting, but I found this episode especially so. @pimlicat.bsky.social, @sturdyalex.bsky.social, @mrkennycampbell.bsky.social and regular guest on geopolitics @snellarthur.bsky.social seem to ask more nuanced questions than I find elsewhere. Enlightening.

Worth reiterating - regularly!

A friend who worked in banking in Moscow in the wild days after the fall of the wall and the influx of Western companies said that large square gentlemen in suits or black leather coats would often turn up to new premises asking to see the manager privately. They made the same offer.

UK govt accused of ignoring £2bn car finance tax loophole. Banks can't treat compensation as tax deductible expense. But motor finance divisions are registered as “non-bank entities". So they sidestep the rules, dodge tax. Govt can change the law. Will it upset its corporate backers?

Press reporting that the EU Commission will open proceedings against Grok today - www.rte.ie/news/busines... The Commission register of documents today indeed lists the opening of a proceeding under the Digital Services Act (no further details)

Not quite fair?! Not QUITE fair?!!!?

The man who was killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis today was a 37yo nurse, a graduate of the University of Minnesota. He had a licence to carry a firearm. He was being beaten up by half a dozen agents when at least one opened fire on him on the ground. They fired more than seven shots at him.

Nigel Farage has said that Donald Trump should "serve as an inspiration" , that he has "never waivered" in his support of Trump and is "proud to call him a friend".... Which qualities in particular were you referring to Nigel Farage ?

Stewart Lee gives up trying to satirise Trump's Davos speech... www.thenerve.news/p/stewart-le...

Very well said, Mr. Huffman 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Stewart Lee just cited Cathar theology & Wittgenstein’s duck/rabbit paradox. to illustrate the difficulty of framing true political statements. (BBC R.4 : Strong Message Here) I like a comedian who doesn’t dumb down!

@quietriotpod.bsky.social @sturdyalex.bsky.social @pimlicat.bsky.social

Let's not blow this out of proportion. It was just an admin error. Two admin errors. A few admin errors. Seventeen admin errors worth £380,000.

Reminder of the spectacularly poor judgement of these people

So that’s FOUR things that damaged the UK that Nigel Farage promoted … Brexit, Johnson (election), Liz Truss (budget), and Trump! 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ At what point do we admit that Nigel Farage is a security threat to the UK?! 🤷‍♀️

wow, just wow!

A land where extra judicial executions and forced disappearances are occurring with increasing frequency.

If you’re a Pedophile, and want a tribute from Nigel Farage who wants to be the next PM, for just £98 he’ll send you a film clip on his Cameo account.. The same Farage who “raised the bar” on recruitment to Reform, then gleefully welcomed 6 Tories who’d been sacked, suspended or accused of groping

Ian Dunt, another bullseye! -“Jenrick: a degenerate little bore, as inept as he is amoral, who will say anything, no matter how vile and disreputable, in order to secure attention.” Striking 13 on Substack

In praise of homemade marmalade With such a short Seville orange season, there’s really no time to waste, so get making your own deliciously simple marmalade By Meryl White @grandmaabson.bsky.social

Ian Dunt on Badenoch: ( on Substack) Just to be clear, sacking someone who has been on leadership maneuvers the entire time you’ve been in charge at the exact moment they are going to leave is not a sign of strength. It is a sign of weakness. Ian is correct as usual.

Monday morning re-up of an episode that I hope will provoke some thought and discussion: about devising a suite of measures that really can assure Ukraine's security, and be applied and sustained, unlike some of the 'reassurance force' fantasies...

HERE'S TO WHISTLEBLOWERS AND WHISTLES

I don't like doxing because it can lead to violent attacks. Remember, we are for real law and order, not vigilantee justice. On the other hand, is it possible to see if the pardoned Jan. 6 insurrectionists who tried to overthrow the government are on the list? www.thedailybeast.com/personal-det...

"I know Nigel Farage abused people for their nationality - because I was one of them" - Rickard Berg www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

🚨BONUS EPISODE🚨 Trump’s actions in Venezuela revealed how far he’s prepared to push his power – and how happy he is to act like Vladimir Putin. @nndroid.bsky.social speaks with @markgaleotti.bsky.social to discuss the parallels and the dangers they pose ➡️ linktr.ee/ohgodwhatnow...