The BBC’s Road to Appeasement. As the BBC comes under growing criticism for its coverage of Reform, we republish Adam Bienkov and Patrick Howse's 2024 investigation into how the corporation's leadership became cowed by the right www.bylinesupplement.com/p/the-bbcs-r...

Congratulations on 200 columns of refreshing and entertaining insights of the political scene!

* As Mamdani redraws the map of politics, Reform stalls at 30% * Labour yawns through its own opportunity * Lib Dems celebrate by-election gains * And Pecksniff toasts 200 editions – gin optional, gossip essential ⤵️ @eastangliabylines.co.uk @pecksniffsdiary.bsky.social

And there, I think, we have it. On the one hand, someone who gets the message right and employs an army of volunteers to communicate it and win. On the other, a group of people who clearly have no idea what they are doing and are split like the proverbial log, no doubt suffering much the same fate.

And I wonder if Andy Burnham might be our Mamdani. It seems unlikely although he does have a good track record in Manchester, it must be said. I rather imagine that the man who would expect to wear the crown would be the sainted Jeremy. That’s if he can ever get the moolah from Sultana, of course.

My dear, 200 columns is quite a thing. I think it must be the case that if George will not oblige with drinks on the house then up must step She Who Must Be Obeyed. I shall, of course, expect to be there. I imagine no such invitation will find its way to Clacton. Farage wouldn’t be there to accept.

- Mamdani’s radical win gives Labour and Greens a wake-up call... but will the winds shift here? - Lib Dems celebrate by-election wins - & the v rich Farage worries a £10 per hour min wage for young people is too high.. The 200th edition 🥂🍻 of Pecksniff's Diary is packed with this & more...

200 diaries on & @pecksniffsdiary.bsky.social is still questioning all things & characters political. As for describing #Farage as "aggrieved platypus" it's a stroke of genius. Some hope this week with the #Mamdani success.

Interrsting www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

Congratulations.... and long may those pints flow & acerbic observations continue....

Interesting that (a) he didn't feel able to give a categorical 'no' in response to the question & (b) he answered a completely different question to the one he was asked — from which we may draw the conclusion that he did not want to be pressed about _current_ RefUK MPs &/or members & Russian bribes

Time to celebrate, dear readers, as we at the Muckrakers Arms raise a glass on our 200th diary edition 🥂🍻 To celebrate, we turn our steely eye to observe the LibDems, Farage, Badenoch, & Cllr Wortley's antics at Broxbourne... & ponder if Mamdani’s win across the pond will have ripples here...

Time to celebrate, dear readers, as we at the Muckrakers Arms raise a glass on our 200th diary edition 🥂🍻 To celebrate, we turn our steely eye to observe the LibDems, Farage, Badenoch, & Cllr Wortley's antics at Broxbourne... & ponder if Mamdani’s win across the pond will have ripples here...

"Home Office data suggests that recent immigrants are more likely to be working than British nationals and make higher wages than them." ✍️ Lauren Gilbert argues that migrants to the UK are net fiscal contributors, adding much more to the economy than they take out, ukandeu.ac.uk/lower-migrat...

I found this really moving.

Children dream without limits – but society too often imposes them. In this letter to the editor, a former teacher urges us to protect every child’s potential ⤵️ eastangliabylines.co.uk/news/educati...

Lancashire’s Reform-run council plans to close care homes and day centres to sell off land

Nigel Farage's favoured Mayoral candidate for Doncaster said black people cannot be English. Reform councillor Alexander Jones claimed being English requires Anglo-Saxon ‘lineage’. The messages were deleted after questions were raised by Byline Times bylinetimes.com/2025/11/05/n...

Zohran's campaign was his determination to make New York a city everyone can afford to live in. Huge congratulations! His success will resonate throughout the world. A story where no one is left behind. It's time to write that story across England & Wales too.

Why tax the rich? The case for accountability and justice The anniversary of a key piece of socialist literature inspires an argument for a fairer financial future that has never been more pressing By Bryn Glover

✍️ The Department of Lost Time A recent play in Leeds asks: how do we get back the time we waste? For once, bureaucracy might have the answer, but not the one we want By Dr Sally M Brown @yorkshirebylines.co.uk

Hugely concerning that govt is considering slashing funding for desperately needed home insulation to cut bills in the short term. It’s vital to protect the Warm Homes Plan for long term investment to fix poor housing. Why not use a wealth tax to cut energy bills instead, Rachel?

N Ireland is its own problem now, albeit with its own solution, thanks to brexit and the GFA. It will probably join with RoI sooner than later. Scot nationalism is next most likely. English establishment fears loss of control of Scots coastline and - silent bombshell - break up of crown estates.

A sea of Green Party supporters gathered in Bristol yesterday evening, for a rally led by Zack Polanski and Carla Denyer

👏 Today marks 75 years since the creation of the ECHR. We should celebrate the vision that Winston Churchill showed in recognising everyone’s human rights. But there are now calls for the UK to leave ECHR. As with Brexit, leaving would strip all of us of fundamental rights. The Bear explains

Calling for a better society, Starmer not doing that

Bizarre... "Simon Clarke, former MP, at a time the second-tallest MP..." What conceivable relevance can this have to political policy?

Greens - Lower bills through nationalising our public services, wealth tax on assets and huge increase in investment in our public services. Labour - ID Cards, random statements about flags and Austerity 2.0. But apparently the Green Party are the "vibes era?" Make it make sense!

Lewis is absolutely right here

Can we please not have Farage wriggle out of this one. His denial is not where this should end. He’s up to his grubby neck in dodgy shite. Beyond time our media stopped handing him free passes and started to properly scrutinise him.

Great investigation of the Nazis, racists and criminals mobilising the flag-on-lamp-posts movement. This is the kind of journalism that the national media could and should have conducted: manchestermill.co.uk/the-men-who-...

Wealth taxes are back on the agenda. Data from two centuries proves: without taxation of wealth capitalism will always concentrate wealth at the top.

Britain doesn't have an electorate problem, it has a stupid, venal and corrupt elites problem.

This is the worst kind of 'It's always someone else's fault, always', because the people he is blaming aren't 'the Politicians' (ie. 'Himself'), but the 'Victims', the Electorate who BELIEVED his Lifetime's work of Lies and Bullshit, and have now suffered, and continue to suffer, because of it.

Without the freedom to pack up and live elsewhere else, most of us are stuck here in the UK however bad it gets. Stuck to be treated like the captive workforce we are. A capitalists dream! Thanks to Starmer, who opposes freedom of movement, that’s where we’ll stay. Workers party my arse! #RejoinEU

The current ‘reset’ with the EU is pathetic! “By the government’s own estimate the reset of EU-UK trade will deliver just 0.3 per cent uplift to UK GDP by 2030 — less than one-tenth of the 4 per cent long-run hit to GDP that Brexit will cause, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility” FT

If the government won’t admit Brexit’s damage, an independent Royal Commission must. A calm, forensic case from former MEP Andrew Duff.

Violent mobs are intimidating communities across the region – waving flags, harassing women, and beating a man almost unconscious. Police, councils and government all look the other way. When did fear become policy? @peterthurlow.bsky.social

These poor kids didn’t stand a bloody chance… 345 vulnerable kids, seeking asylum and then lost by our authorities 50 still missing Likely to traffickers How could this have happened? Unforgivable from now-Reform controlled Kent County Council. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

* The asylum hotel scandal Pecksniff can’t print * Immigration panic shown to be a media myth * Tory HQ admits it’s lost 131 constituency parties * Reform’s “real people” turn out to be AI inventions This and more in Pecksniff's Diary ⤵️ @eastangliabylines.co.uk @pecksniffsdiary.bsky.social

Corrupt Britannia. UK Govts bury bank scandals. Frauds, moneylaundering not investigated. FCA, SFO rarely prosecute. HBOS frauds report promised by 2018, nothing published, ministers don't answer questions. City of London Police funded by Lloyds Bank, UK Finance, financial institutions.

Interesting…

“it’s increasingly clear that the best way the UK could handle migration is by being back in the EU and regaining access to mechanisms like the Dublin agreement..”. Brexit is a Crime #Brexit londonlovesbusiness.com/labour-needs...

Who made this? Brilliant.

Yeah when my kids turned 14 I thought it was fine to fire rubber bullets and zip tie them... Is that the message?? What the hell are these people doing?

Hallowe’en once meant more than costumes and pumpkins, writes Peter Thurlow. It marked the turning of the year – when the veil grew thin. eastangliabylines.co.uk/lifestyle/hi...

Why far from being a disadvantage, hostility to people from different races and cultures has now become an active requirement for career advancement on the right of British politics www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/the-racism...

Johnson’s cull of MPs prepared to tell the truth about Brexit consigned the Tories to the absurdity & irrelevance they currently enjoy. The media’s pitiful complicity in & failure to explain this lets Farage move in to the vacated space despite embodying the stupidity & bigotry that did for them.

* Corruption Pecksniff can’t publish: Tory donor gets rich off asylum contract * Polls show fears over immigration are media-driven, not real-life * Tory HQ loses contact with 1 in 5 local parties Read this and more in the latest diary ⤵️ @eastangliabylines.co.uk @pecksniffsdiary.bsky.social