And here we go....how does anyone think he is a good choice for PM? I despair. BBC News - Burnham to announce plans for new North Sea oil and gas drilling www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell was born #OTD in 1943. She discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967. The #Nobel Prize in #Physics for their discovery went to to her thesis supervisor Antony Hewish & to astronomer Martin Ryle. #WomenInSTEM #astrophysics #MatildaEffect

👏🇬🇧👏🇬🇧👏🇬🇧 Bravo Monsieur Macron! Shame his own MPs didn't appreciate what he brought to la table

Why oh why do we shoot ourselves in the foot on repeat. The media are of course a big part of why. No one is ever going to be perfect.

@pippacrerar.bsky.social: ‘EXCL: Keir Starmer has become first UK PM to be presented with Légion d’honneur by French president, in recognition of his work on security of Europe.’1/

Right-wing terror threat neutralised.

Switzerland put solar panels in the unused space between train tracks. They are removeable, so you can still work on the tracks. And it's working!

And finally: Balogun himself. Why did he not make a statement and say that he would not play the match? Why did he play at all? The team lost every form of sympathy at the very latest when they failed to show any kind of protest on the pitch either.

And who found it completely okay to even let Balogun play from the start. Then the players, who quite obviously either did not protest internally in the first place, or did not mean their protest seriously, because: Balogun was allowed to play.

True integrity is shown through the actions someone takes. The team failed on several levels at once: First, the coach, who considered it completely okay — as he also expressed in an interview — that FIFA lifted the red card suspension at Trump’s request.

"I will build a giant Jenga-tower of dreams, hopes and good intentions". "I will do everything for everyone, everywhere." "I am an M.P., speaking to the nation. I can do anything and everything. There are no problems. No constraints. No worries." Well - fuck he. He's got it all sorted.

Yes; winning elections or becoming Prime Minister is such an obsession, that there’s no plan for what to do once you achieve it. We need to change the way we select and elect leaders, to try to reward those who do have plans and strategy

Another win for changing PM. Shooting ourselves in the foot seems to be a hobby.

Exactly 10 years since the Brexit vote, the verdict is in.

Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey has unveiled a billboard campaign across the UK to mark the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum today. The billboards call out Reform leader Nigel Farage’s £5 million "reward for campaigning for Brexit, whilst people across the country feel the pinch."

Just waiting for the columnists who helped push Keir Starmer out of office to write the inevitable comment pieces: "Whisper it: Starmer was much better than people gave him credit for", and "Actually, Burnham is obviously much worse than Starmer..."

My husband this morning “The combined power of a shadowy and entitled landowning class, a rabid right wing media and the influence of oligarchs and techbro’s (who are rich beyond our comprehension)! And then all you need to add is a naive public…”

This comment from Linda Speight, Lecturer in Physical Geography at the University of Oxford.

It’s now on the Labour Party to stop publicly loathing each other and let the good communicator they wanted try to save us from a Reform government. You got rid of the guy with the mandate, now live with it.

It can take many leaders years to grow into the statesman you became in just two years. European and Ukrainian security is stronger because of you. Thank you, dear Keir.

A dignified resignation speech from Starmer and a sad end to his term in office. My opinion is he wasn't the right material for Prime Minister, but he's not a bad man - and I maintain it's the wrong time to change leader. His learning process had just begun. www.theguardian.com/politics/vid...

this is half the bloody problem: it takes time to undo the mess the Tories left; it takes time to mitigate the disaster of Brexit and Covid. It would be nice if we could perhaps have fewer bloody political shenanigans and leave a PM to get on with it and not be demanding change every five minutes

Sadiq Khan on the PM's resignation “Keir Starmer has been a friend and colleague for over three decades, ever since our time as young lawyers. He is a man of great integrity who has devoted much of his career to public service. He "has made a huge contribution to the Labour party and our country."

In a few weeks time, Giorgia Meloni will meet her fifth British Prime Minister

I fear Andy Burnham's honeymoon period will be about as long as the PM's resignation speech. He has been given a relatively easy ride because our media loves the spectacle of a challenger, and delights in instability. A rude awakening coming I feel.

This, along with Brexit is going to be one of those things we look back on and massively regret. Yes he made mistakes, in time we will see the good far outweighed the bad and we, as a country were gaslit by right wing media and billionaire foreign influences.

It was surreal hearing him list all those achievements (and many of them are real, not just policy/illusionary). And yet, here we are.

I’m going to focus most of my social media posts on Bluesky and Instagram. I feel increasingly that X is no longer valuable as a journalist. You can follow me on insta @paulbrandtv - join me there too! www.instagram.com/paulbrandtv?...

I'm sure Farage will be full of pure cold rage at this www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The joy today is that hatred lost. Doesn't matter what you think of Burnham. Farage tried to invite a race riot. He dealt in explicitly racial rhetoric. If he'd won, many journalists would have considered it a vindication of his approach and branded our outrage evidence of how out of touch we are.

France's Emmanuel Macron and Spain's Pedro Sánchez have issued a blistering rebuke against deportation camps outside Europe, setting their countries on a collision course with a growing political majority. "What world do we live in?" Macron said. https://l.euronews.com/MQNF

This morning scrolling Bluesky, there is nothing at all in my feed about Putin’s barbaric attack on the Ukraine’s holiest site, the UNESCO protected Lavra so I’m posting this here.

⚡️Russia's oil output falls to one-year low amid Ukrainian strikes. Ukrainian forces carried out at least 31 strikes against Russian refineries, oil export terminals, and pipeline infrastructure in May, the highest monthly total since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion.

He goes to another school

ICE? Epsteins friends? Who are "they" that the lunatic refers to?

The family of the Belfast stabbing victim have released a statement saying - like the family of Henry Nowak last week - that the attack should not be used to "divide people or fuel hostility" They condemned disorder and praised the "valuable contribution" by migrants inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Shocking and offensive, also for the fact that FIFA doesn't protest www.politico.com/news/2026/06...

Call me an idealist, but I think that a prerequisite for hosting an international sport event should be that you're willing to host an international sport event.

He was having such a good run! How disappointing. Access to abortion is a basic human right.

Letting Trump's ugly regime host the world cup was a huge mistake.

There is no excuse for anyone - particularly journalists and politicians - remaining on X. None.

BAN THE PERVERT GLASSES

It's another scorcher.. 🥵☀️ Be sure to put out plenty of water for birds & wildlife in your garden so they can keep cool and have enough to drink. Got your patch covered? Share this reminder!

Report ‘phone hack’ to police or I will do it for you, Labour chair tells Farage www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Peter Murrell gets tents outside his house, due to fraudulent activity against a political party. Is rightly banged up, yet Farage and Boris appear to be made of teflon. Why? Michelle Mone and Dido Harding? Again, not being held to the same level of accountability. Is it because they're the regime

Of course, exceptionalism being deeply-engrained, those few talking UK rejoin are mostly immediately mentioning opt-outs, entirely skipping the rather large bit that would have to come first of actually demonstrating a desire to be part of the European project.

This is just an invasion by any other name. In a just world, Israel would face the same treatment as Russia.

Nothing quite says “I have no plan” like threatening to blow up Oman, a crucial partner in the region.

After Trump’s deluded statement last night that a deal with Iran was “largely negotiated” - which Iran denied - at a press conference in New Delhi Secretary of State Marco Rubio has again been forced to roll back: “I think we've made some progress."

Cheap as chips, and a cracking good summer read. £1.99 today, scheduled to change back to full price tomorrow. If you're not interested, let a reading friend know, or retweet, or whatever. Ta