Decorum prevents me from commenting on what little Marco looks like he's doing there but Bibi's face tells its own story.

Vassals, indeed

Disgusting, pathetic, and contemptible. People like Gove, O'Brien, and Bowman are nothing but the aspiring satraps of a foreign oligarchy. They should have no place in British public life.

This. It’s always been free speech for them. Not the free speech to provide sex & health education/information, the free speech to say “ I want an abortion”

Me in the Guardian today on DEI as the new N-word for the right: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

'Safety first' when sacking Rome.

I can't remember where I found this but it's turned out to be quite helpful:

WTAF NHS staff barred from workplace for considering Palestine demonstration www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Not All Klansmen Wear Hoods

These are the only refugees we’re now taking. So guess it’s just full-on white nationalism.

Lime bikes switched out their German tyres for a cheaper Chinese alternative and are now being sued by multiple users who have broken limbs because, they say, the new tires aren't as suitable for London weather. A little globalisation fable for our times

also interesting to ask, where does the ending begin, how soon in the text, how late; & is it innate & already under way long before it reaches the last full stop

If you want to win an election against far right opposition you need to bring together two groups. The activated liberals outraged by the other side and the more moderate groups who want govt to make their lives less difficult. Not by trying to win the enthusiastic supporters of the other side.

a secret fifth thing

A friend-of-a-friend works for USAID in Bangladesh. This is how things look on the ground now.

I hate it when my ailing king is usurped by his scheming foreign vizier

"Badenoch also said indefinite leave to remain should not be granted to those who have criminal records or who had claimed benefits or social housing." you can't claim public funds by default prior to gaining ILR, or get social housing, so in other words "the rules as they already stand"

This post was from back in 2020. Soon after he was appointed by Trump to serve on a board that preserved the history of the Holocaust in Europe. Can't make this up.

we are reaching levels of national security threats I did not even realize were possible this is the kind of thing you put in a terrible b-movie where some nefarious cybercriminal has hacked The Entire Treasury and everyone rolls their eyes at the implausibility except somehow it's actually real

Random historical fact that feels oddly discombobulating: The Wooly Mammoth went extinct around five-hundred to a thousand years AFTER the Pyramids at Giza were built

You can also see Naomi, and @regretteruane, AND @larapawson.bsky.social in coversation with the fella that wrote Ghost Signs, whoever he is, early next month. This is the best multi-writer line-up i've ever had and it's gonna be banging. PAYF tix. www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/lee...

New White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt did her first press briefing today and told a number of demonstrable lies (about condoms for Gaza, the criminal records of undocumented migrants, and more). This is how the New York Times covered it.

Only read the first chapter and crying

As a friend wrote: “He’s adopted AfD as part of what is starting to look increasingly like his own personal transnational neofascist project.”

alright it's broken my brain quite a bit but I've finished tomorrow's essay, will be free to read over on youngvulgarian.substack.com tomorrow morning, if of interest

genuinely think understanding 4chan (or, at least, knowing what it is) is as crucial to grasping c.21st politics as "understanding genuine religious conviction" would be to the c.16th. As in: otherwise you just find yourself going "but that's totally irrational. Also surreal, insane and disturbing".

Just days after Trump returned to the White House, Instagram is censoring abortion content. This is what Aid Access' account looks like right now - posts about how to get abortion medication has been blurred out.

Maybe he should have

Here we have a former chair of the Tory party, a man still with a government verified tick, pretending that cases aren't set by the courts. Misinformation in desperate search of a TV booking

You won't be any better at fighting what's coming if you burn yourself out and spend all your time feeling bleak and hopeless, and the people telling you that it's all despair now probably don't have anyone's best interest at heart.

Elon Musk having a normal one

You can get used to anything. You think: I'll never do that; and you find yourself doing it.

Wear a keffiyeh and you’ll be called antisemitic. Call a genocide a genocide and you’ll be called antisemitic. Have a watermelon in your profile and you’ll be called antisemitic. Do a Nazi salute on stage in front of a TV audience of millions and the ADL will rush to explain why it’s actually fine.

Dems. Never. Learn

As well as being (a) scientifically illiterate and (b) an attack on trans rights, this is also putting personhood as linked to conception which paves the way for a full abortion ban.

floored by "consumerist anti-bedtime left", flawless description

they should invent unprecedented times that are good

Why do wrong-doing benefit claimants need special rather than general punishments? Why not same for tax dodgers? And when someone has been caught doing cash-in-hand shifts do you really want to make it impossible for them to find a proper job & get off benefits? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I don’t ever want to watch a video please don’t make me watch a video

people say they want hope when what they want is laudanum

["california dreamin" tune] all the sites are bad (all the sites are bad) and the web is shit (and the web is shit)

Mari lwyd Service at Gellionen Chapel

UK low- to middle-income families are far poorer than their OECD counterparts due to housing costs 44% higher than average, according to Resolution Foundation analysis www.theguardian.com/business/202...

I love this guy www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...

🔴NEW🔴 I did a deep dive into Musk's disinformation campaign about grooming gangs for @opendemocracy.net www.opendemocracy.net/en/far-right... Please read it, I have had to look at a LOT of far right content so make it worth it 🤪

The shock troops of seasonal capitalism. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...