Amazing what poisons were lurking all the time below the surface of the pond.

Mamdani's representation of the demographic future of America is EXACTLY the basis of the panic that gives us Trump, (and Farage over here) and indicates that Trump and his avatars know very well that anti-democratic means will be required of them here and now to stop the future from happening.

Spoiler: They used the money just as wisely as anyone else would, and it's so frustrating that this still isn't a common sense assumption to make.

They deserve each other...

Or scientists....doctors...anyone who has read a book, really...

This is what Brendan Nyhan has called the “Green Lantern” theory of government- the idea that leaders, like the DC comic book heroes, can in fact do anything if they try hard enough so any failure is a failure of will rather than due to complexity/institutional constraints/competing interest etc

the Windsor Framework has helped reduce the damage of brexit in NI but it is not a long term fix for brexit. An indy Scotland can join the EU quite quickly and I think that is more likely after NI leaves the UK to reunify with Ireland. NI leaving brings an end to the UK Union.

"Just hoping that Reform UK and [Nigel] Farage implode, or that the rightwing vote will somehow fracture, is potentially suicidal for our freedom and democracy.” www.theguardian.com/politics/202... The less conviction is demonstrated by the centre left, the more room is given to the far right.

"An aide to Farage when he was an MEP, tells Crick that his boss hated policy meetings. “He was totally out of his bloody depth. Intelligent people – he was scared of them. He has an inferiority complex about education and highly qualified people.” www.theguardian.com/books/2022/f....

Same deal with Trump - these people are all full of resentment that they have never been accepted in the circles to which they feel they ought to belong. This is why they are determined to destroy everything valued by the people they see as having rejected them. Pathetic, really.

Maybe the fuel for Margaret Thatcher's crusade of resentment was being patronised by some snobby left-wing toff while she was at Oxford.

Can any long running drama series end well? Do people need to write the end before they write themselves into corners, or is that fate part of the television writing process?

Scientific polling evidence points to around 20% of any given population being more or less emboldened shits at any given time. This is of merely statistical importance most of the time. At other times, it is plenty for deciding an election, or sendng a country stark mad with the joy of murder.

If you support any one of these organisations, the IDF has just banned you...

“The biggest disappointment of 2025 may well have been not what Trump did but how so many let it happen.” @sbg1.bsky.social reviews the year in politics. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/7co9Uv

good piece with an incidental insanely brutal takedown of klein

"words are not expressions with referents, but rather, performative speech acts with specific functions — in his case, owning the libs." Worth a longish (by current standards) read. www.theverge.com/policy/84960...

The power of prayer?

Scotland didn't vote for Thatcher or any Tory government. We voted to Remain and have been hard hit by Brexit. Now it looks as though England could present us with a Reform government. We're tired of being shackled to a self destructive, undemocratic, failing state with delusions of grandeur.

If you guys think yu're gping to have free and fair elections next year, the president would like a word.

There are now also rather clear orders and advisory opinions by the ICJ laying out that this is in breach of international law

The only thing true in Trump's social media post is that "Lowlifes like this" – like Trump – "can only be a liability to our country's greatness."

We have so much good evidence for cash transfers but so many just refuse to accept that those in poverty can make good decisions.

Breaking Up Britain has ALWAYS been a job for the English.

QED

What interests me is why Trump even wants the approbation of an East Coast Elite who despise him. Is it the same reason he always aspired to be Mr New York when New Yorkers have been snickering at how awful he is since the 1970s? Is he that insecure?

If you keep telling social liberals to fuck off to impress the Times, don't act all surprised when they actually fuck off.

Labour are, of course, the last Unionists.

Labour faced an exhausted Government, surprised by the vigour of the attack from Reform, with the stench of corruption hanging over it, one which ran an unlucky campaign, and won 33.7% of the popular vote. Selling that to the media as a glorious success is McSweeney's sole political achievement.

If they could look across the channel, we'd be a lot less screwed.

The rule of thumb for Stalin was that whatever he accused you of was what he was planning on doing to you. Putin is now convinced that he has to kill Zelenskyy. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

"It is difficult to imagine, however, politicians such as Nigel Farage or Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, calling for Abd el-Fattah to lose his British passport were he not a dual national from a minority ethnic background." You think? www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

The useful stuff starts half way through...the stuff that tells you who this man is. But its conclusion is irrefutable. He LEARNED in prison, he got stronger and better and adds to the good of the world. His haters don't learn and contribute nothing but fear. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

That you can remain in good standing while causing a million deaths abroad in a war based on lies is why it was possible to levy great violence on “illegal” immigrants, and why the efforts to remove citizenship en masse is running on greased skids.

Fact check: true

Stronger essentialist ethno-nationalism claims - where skin colour is essential, and the wrong skin colour can not be mitigated by nativism or civic credentials - is closer to 3% than 15% or 35%

3/10 would feel prouder of a Britain with fewer migrants living here (lower immigration/maybe some net emigration) 1/6 prouder if fewer ethnic minorities in Britain (implies 'remigration' more strongly,perhaps conflating migrants + UK-born minorities).That 1/6 do look like latent ethnonationalists

There isn't even a slippery slope from depriving a dual citizen of citizenship because they (arguably) committed a crime, and doing so to someone born in the UK who is only a UK citizen for the same thing. It's a short walk.

The original plan was to keep him upright till the midterms...and then annoint Vance in time for a full time campaign for 2028. God knows what the plan is now...

There’s more to the Epstein Bannon Farage connection than this. Epstein was actively guiding Bannon how to secretly finance ‘The Movement’ — a right wing pan Europe organisation in concert with Farage — set up by his partner Laure Ferrari 👉 bylinetimes.com/2025/11/19/d...

\the only REASOBABLE interpretation of the book is that Heathcliffe is Cathy's half brother (his mother being a slave) and that in the second half of the book, he makes a fortune from the slave trade and destroys his hypocrite owners/siblings. Try selling THAT! www.theguardian.com/film/2025/de...

It also means that when they carry Trump off in a bucket, they'll keep the bling and the territorial doctrine...

The only thing ChatGPT ever does.

"A research team from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and the Centre for Demographic Studies investigated the impact of the conflict in Gaza on mortality. They estimate that 78,318 (70,614-87,504) people were killed in Gaza" Don't forget. Just don't.

Where do you get your ideas?

Not sure I want Trump's definition of who's naughty and who's nice.

Apple installed suicide nets to prevent the current workers “screwing in little screws to make iPhones” from continuing to kill themselves.

BTW, Goebbels wrote that the fact that the Allies chose total war was a twisted vindication of the Nazi view of the universe as somewhere to be dominated rather than lived in. (See Ishmael and Ahab)

If you believe in law, God or progress...ie something that transcends desire...then you can transcend the choice of which side you're on. If not, you wage war till your enemies surrender.

Now there was a scary film...in which the fact that the violence was POINTLESS was part of what made it so scary. (Detective stories in which things are ultimately SOLVED are ultimately comforting.)