Nothing I disagree with here, but why does a piece which begins with the electoral strength of SNP and Plaid Cymru move on to talk about how the UK has now entered a 5-party era of Reform, Labour, Tories, Greens and Lib Dems? Answer: nobody ever wants to say "England".

Honestly also the brass neck of this paper, which cheered this asymmetric trade deal at the time and advocated that Liz Truss, the Cabinet minister who signed it should become *prime minister*.

Boxing Day fogbow

Glenurquhart in the mist..

It's a measure of where the world is that with each passing Christmas standard royal messages about tolerance, compassion, community and mutual respect sound ever more subversive and politically charged. Good for the King anyway. And may 2026 be the year when the fightback really takes off.

We've always had these dead-eyed socipaths around. It's just a few years ago they were ignored and now they're "senior fellow" at places funded by evil millionaires + going on podcasts with a brain-rotted ex-PM.

It's a measure of where the world is that with each passing Christmas standard royal messages about tolerance, compassion, community and mutual respect sound ever more subversive and politically charged. Good for the King anyway. And may 2026 be the year when the fightback really takes off.

Taps sign, again

The story of Farage and Putin, told by British-Ukrainian soldier Shaun Pinner on a destroyed apartment block in Kyiv.

I really think so many Labour MPs and activists are in deep denial about the path Starmer and Mahmood have put the party - and the country - on. There is a clear common thread running through their rhetoric and that of Farage, Jenrick, Yaxley-Lennon, Braverman and the rest.

When you’re so immersed in party tribalism that all you can do is insult everyone’s intelligence.

Just think of all that irritating international law that was written after WWII. Hmm yes I can see what Steve Reed means. Apropos of nothing, here’s a story about Labour forcing refugees to return to Syria in face of explicit UNHCR advice. www.context.news/socioeconomi...

Thoughts and prayers with Justin for having to write this. Must have been painful for him.

Farage will just say this was a careless slip by Parry. It’s just a careless slip he’s made again and again and again. Questioning the loyalties of non-white politicians is what this man does. He might as well just imprint ‘racist’ in his own personalised stick of Southsea rock.

To use one of those favourite phrases of Brexit ideologues: ‘All the right people are upset’.

These two tweets were posted at almost exactly the same time. They say almost exactly the same thing. One by former Welsh Tory leader Andrew RT Davies. The other by Reform's Wales director David Thomas. A defection coming or are they simply getting their instructions from the same source?

Farage will just say this was a careless slip by Parry. It’s just a careless slip he’s made again and again and again. Questioning the loyalties of non-white politicians is what this man does. He might as well just imprint ‘racist’ in his own personalised stick of Southsea rock.

Little known Diplomatic fact; the receiving State must agree the appointment of an Ambassador. It’s called “Agrément”. South Africa would have every right to refuse.

Today has been another shameful one for our politics. It beggars belief that the Leader of the Opposition should use her office to say such things.

When I heard that thugs in Drogheda had not only burned down asylum-seekers’ accommodation but had blocked the fire exits, it wasn’t just people like Yarwood and Connolly I thought of. It was people like Goodwin.

OK, so (1) he pleaded guilty (glossed over in a lot of the coverage). (2) open to correction, but he is probably lucky he wasn't charged with encouraging terrorism (up to 14 years' jail). One suspects that if (say) a Muslim had posted similar incitement, that is what would have happened?

This is really grim. The new normal. Never ever accept it.

Even by my low expectations for Kemi Badenoch ‘violence against women and girls is something done by immigrants and nobody else’ has shocked me.

Dog-whistle and factually incorrect. Ladies, raise your hand if you were sexually assaulted by a boy at school? I’d wager this or a family member is most women’s first experience of sexual violence

"2025 felt like an assault on what it means to be human: everything from this administration’s disregard for the sanctity of life to the imposition of AI to the erasure of history." sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/my-top-ten...

Good news. #Erasmus

The 'betrayal of Brexit' response to rejoining Erasmus is obviously predictable, and stupid (Brexit = leaving EU). But what's more striking is how *dated* it seems, like someone still waving a 'Thatcher out' placard.

When I heard that thugs in Drogheda had not only burned down asylum-seekers’ accommodation but had blocked the fire exits, it wasn’t just people like Yarwood and Connolly I thought of. It was people like Goodwin.

I cracked up at the bit where the Tory spokesperson accused someone of ideology at the expense of pragmatism.

Chair of European Movement in Scotland writing in The New York Times.

Richard Tice here. The funny thing is, we'd like our kids educated in, you know, schools

The EU and Georgian flags often fly on some of the highest peaks of the Caucasus. 🇪🇺🇬🇪 “We cannot surrender this beautiful country to anyone,” says Georgian mountaineering legend Bidzina Gujabidze in this video [subtitled]. Day 383 of nonstop protests in Georgia.

WTF are we doing here, BBC?

I’m guessing saying that the President shouldn’t mock people who’ve just been brutally murdered is enough these days to get you denied entry to the Land of the Free.

You can't help the UK govt any more, they just can't see the sheer hate aimed at them and everything they believe in. In a worse case scenario they'll end up like Trump's bigshot opponents, dragged through the courts for 'fraud' and stuff. Just totally unaware of what they're facing.

The anti-woke mind virus

The obsession with Christmas being cancelled is one of the maddest tropes of the far right. It's obviously not true and will never be true but they need it to be an imminent possibility. Where would they be without their imagined peril?

Incredibly brave. Imagine the faceless bores the BBC will have making their programmes if they continue down this path.

I was at Dulwich in the 80s. I didn't know Farage - I was 14 when he was 17. But I know the idea in this @thespectator1828.bsky.social article that Farage's alleged remarks "would be entirely typical of his class and generation" are drivel. www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-... THREAD

I understand why Starmer has to be measured in what he says about the US. But every time he says something which suggests nothing has changed in geo-politics, he adds to that feeling he always gives me - he makes me feel unsafe.

"The ECHR was created in the wake of World War 2. Those creating it knew the dangers of extreme ideology better than anyone...To claim it is “outdated” is to ignore the reasons why it was created in the first place, the protections it provides." Starmer is ignoring why the ECHR was created.

I was at Dulwich in the 80s. I didn't know Farage - I was 14 when he was 17. But I know the idea in this @thespectator1828.bsky.social article that Farage's alleged remarks "would be entirely typical of his class and generation" are drivel. www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-... THREAD

“Without certainty from yourself we are unable to accept your fear of return to your country as you are unable to be sure the fear on return from [persecutor] is a valid reason for fearing return to [country].” Actual sentence from asylum refusal letter.

Dear Prime Minister. The country is safer, and more prosperous with the EU than it could be with Trump’s US under any deal you can do. Yours, many of us.

I understand why Starmer has to be measured in what he says about the US. But every time he says something which suggests nothing has changed in geo-politics, he adds to that feeling he always gives me - he makes me feel unsafe.

Honestly I do really wonder what the Starmtroopers’ own understanding of “what the problem with a Reform government would actually be” IS.

Good Q. The short answer is yes, provided that's how someone concerned about anti-migrant rhetoric would themselves see the immigration code in the question. We can't tease that apart in this data, but we might make inferences based on how voters concerned about immigration intend to vote 1/3

One of the genuinely weird aspects of these long threads about what to do, is the automatic assumptionthat as soon as the UK has decided what it wants (SPS, SM, CU, etc), the discussion is over. I can't tell you how often I've wanted to post: 'Do you think the EU has any agency here?'

Self-declared Free Speech Capital of the World Deeply Concerned about European Censorship proposes pre-screening tweets for wrongthink as part of the ESTA application process. Cool. Cool cool cool.

As Trump attacks Europe, Starmer sends ministers to undermine the ECHR. The 'West' is not coming back. In 2026 the EU has to face this, move faster, with other democracies around the world in this new global disorder. The UK may find it hard to keep up. My latest blog substack.com/home/post/p-...