"Nigel Farage’s Reform UK is more reliant on super-rich backers than any major party in modern British political history." 👀 https://democracyforsale.substack.com/p/75-of-reform-uks-donations-have-come

"New research from Democracy for Sale shows that three-quarters of all donations to Reform have come from just three men: Christopher Harborne, Jeremy Hosking and Richard Tice." democracyforsale.substack.com/p/75-of-refo... via @petergeoghegan.bsky.social

It shouldn’t be missed how many examples of Farage’s racist bullying are from when he was 17-18 & the kids were 9-10. He’s always been a coward

“We want growth. We know this is the single best way of getting it… We could then challenge Farage… to either continue with our economic recovery, or to halt it in its tracks and take us backwards.” Finally. Weaken Farage by doing something that actually works. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

RSF massacres left Sudanese city ‘a slaughterhouse’, satellite images show

It's very obvious that if any other prominent politician had been so racist in school that it's haunted 20+ former classmates ever since, it would be treated like a bigger deal. We should examine how and why "still being very racist four decades later" is acting as Farage's protective shield.

Nigel Farage used an LBC appearance to accuse the Bank of England of being “dinosaurs” for putting restrictions on the use of Stablecoins by crypto firms like Tether. He did not declare that Reform had just received £9 million from one of its biggest investors bylinetimes.com/2025/12/04/c...

This was bloody good. Do read it.

It sure looks like Russian intelligence attempted to use military drones to assassinate the President of Ukraine inside an EU country. Looking forward to more thoughts from Belgium on why freezing Russian assets is an escalatory move that might compromise the peace process.

I am told that internal Ukrainian army information shows that more than 26,000 Russian soldiers were killed or critically wounded in the month of November. Confirmed by videos. No wonder Putin wants to get Trump to give him territory for free

This graph shows what the public thought Labour (red) and Cons (blue) would do on tax and spend on every day of the campaign, and what voters themselves preferred (black). The public expected tax rises from Lab, tax cuts from Cons, and what they themselves wanted was...tax rises (tho less than Lab)

🔴 NEW - Farage rescued (for now) by mega donor Reform is in a worse financial position than it appears...

So tell me again how Nigel Farage, who just took the largest ever political donation, from a Tory mega-donor, and another donation from the Viscountess wife of the non-dom owner of the Daily Mail, is planning to "take on the establishment"

Refugee homelessness in UK has more than doubled in two years, charity says

Is there a UK equivalent of the New York Times pitchbot?

“Like all recent occupants of No 11, Rachel Reeves is struggling to inject growth into a moribund economy. In a break with predecessors, she has belatedly pointed the finger at Brexit and was right to do so.”

Imagine a world where the economic effects of a major set of policy announcements are viewed as of secondary importance to the resignation of an anonymous civil servant or an arcane debate about whether people said things a month ago as part of normal political messaging. Oh, we live in that world.

This is fascinating in the sense that the social media companies have managed to create a norm in which we think they can’t and shouldn’t be regulated. I wonder if people thought about cigarettes and alcohol this way once upon a time.

"immigration has to go up for our growth goals, but our policy is to bring it down" uk politics in a nutshell

Think this is exactly right - political journalism that is completely abstracted from policy, which was not the norm before 2017, has become the default. Impossible to have a serious attempt to either shrink what the state does or widen the tax base (have to do at least one) on that basis.

👏🏽"We must all now confront the reality that the Brexit deal significantly hurt our economy. We have to keep reducing frictions. We have to keep moving towards a closer relationship with the EU. And we have to be grown up about it. To accept that it will require trade-offs."👏🏽 Music to my ears. ~AA

Watched BBC 6 o clock news. Just a completely unserious broadcast. Chris Mason, acting like a children's entertainer, giving a prolonged impenetrable editorial. Not a whiff of informative content about the Budget or what it means for the country. Just playschool blah blah bollocks.

The state of corruption in America’s first family set out in detail by this comprehensive article in @guardian by @tomburgis bit.ly/3KvAmn6 this is the corruption the Rutger Bergman referred to in the sentence in his first Reith Lecture, now deleted “for legal reasons”

Rightly lots of debates about growth this weekend - rightly because it was low productivity growth that saw wages entirely flatline during the 2010s.

The increasingly ludicrous Ben Habib Is arguing that Lucy White's attack on Nus Ghani being an MP is not racist Ben Habib is now ludicrously supporting a call to ban Ben Habib from parliament!

As someone who criticised the government back in January for not having a clear growth strategy it is good to see Torsten set out in plain language what the govt’s strategy is and how it hangs together. This is much better and clearer communication.

That is a lot of tweets. If you got this far you deserve a prize. Reasonable people will debate this growth strategy. But claiming there isn’t one is lazy nonsense. Higher growth matters because rising living standards are the goal, and higher investment is a key tool.

Mairi Gougeon MSP has submitted a motion condemning the UK Government’s decision to award a paltry 7.78% of the "Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund" to Scotland. Scotland accounts for more than 60% of the UK’s fishing capacity.

This is an excellent, level-headed, informative piece. I'd kill for a government which could discuss the issue with the same sense of objectivity and calm.

"Just like in Kent, Reform are finding out that making big pledges about cutting wasteful spending is the easy part. When you actually get to the governing, it all becomes a lot more difficult." https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/reform-durham-county-council-darren-grimes-400775/

The tide is turning. Even the Telegraph is now admitting the damage the Brexit deal has done to the economy.

Now Nigel Farage has finally answered questions about his close aide Nathan Gill, sentenced to 10.5 years for working for Putin's interests, what about his other close associates? Or indeed himself? bylinetimes.com/2024/06/19/t... 🧵 1/10

“A European intelligence agency distributed a hard-copy report in a manila envelope to some of the continent’s most senior national security officials...inside were details of the commercial and economic plans the US had been pursuing with Russia, including jointly mining rare earths in the Arctic.”

On the numbers, this was a “fiscally conservative budget” @ruthcurtice.bsky.social of @resolutionfoundation.org briskly punctures this week’s myths www.ft.com/content/f658...

Populist Right: 'We're not racist, we just want immigrants to integrate & contribute.' Immigrant gains BA, MA, works for charities, marries a 'Brit', becomes Brexit-supporting, lockdown-sceptic Tory MP, then Deputy Speaker of HoC. Populist Right: 'People born abroad shouldn't be allowed to do this.'

“It sounded as if he was suggesting that songs about gassing Jews, Asians and Black people amount to no more than “banter”. That’s not schoolboy Farage talking, but the Farage of 2025.” Yes. Same racism. Now weaponised by the wealth and power of the far right. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Tucker Carlson is a rightwing conspiracy theorist and Putin apologist who was sacked by FOX.... yes FOX BUT The Spectator is happy to pay him to talk down our capital city... despite it thriving and crime falling. Whose side are you on Mr Gove?

Still reeling from the Stanford report on Brexit. Reduced GDP by up to 8% and investment by as much as 18%. The UK Treasury would have £40 billion more each year if Britain had remained in the EU. Devastating self-immolation.

"... instead of rising to the historic moment, Europe risks relapsing into the habits of complacency that made Putin believe he could get away with invasion in the first place" Europe's political leaders urgently need to hear this. Well said @pimlicat.bsky.social.

🔴Alf Dubs Accuses Shabana Mahmood of ‘Letting the Country Down’ With Plans to Outdo Reform on Asylum The veteran Labour peer and campaigner for child refugees tells Byline Times the Home Secretary’s plans are “bitterly disappointing coming from a Labour Government” bylinetimes.com/2025/11/28/a...

Also not all welfare spending is the same. Eliminating child poverty is to an extent not just redistribution but an investment in their education, employment, future earnings, tax payments, and propensity to be involved in crime.

Thank GOD for Andrew Fisher!! FINALLY we get to hear about Spain on #r4today The fastest growing economy in Europe & outstripping the US as well & how? Wealth tax, rent controls & a positive integration-focused approach to immigration & asylum!! 🙌👏👏👏

⬇️ Since Brexit, mussel production has collapsed from about 10,000 tonnes annually to just five tonnes in 2022, just 0.05% of the previous total. 💷 An SPS Agreement will make it easier for British farmers and fishermen to sell their produce to Europe. https://bit.ly/48geuE4

This is the only serious growth strategy on offer.

Agree with every word of this We've gone from 9% of social care staff coming from outside the UK and EEA in 2021/22 to almost 25% in 2024/25 The govt has no near-term replacement It means either: 1) staffing shortages or 2) councils spending far more to attract staff, with no extra funding

In other shocking news, adjascent apples in same barrel also appear brownish. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... PS I know it shouldn't surprise me, but OF COURSE he lives in France.

Welcome Shabana Mahmood to your next four years of headlines!!!

Fewer workers. Fewer international students. More people leaving. A "step in the right direction" according to the PM. Impossible to take PM/govt seriously on growth if they are deliberately reducing it (and making the fiscal position worse) *as a matter of policy*. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The UK, where the day after a decision to take half a million children out of poverty, the media & political world has been full of sneering at those same children & their families, labelling them as ‘Benefits Street’, while the same people are moaning about a tax on £2m mansions. Shameful stuff.

The "don't have an extra kid if you can't afford it" brigade get awfully upset when you suggest they don't stay in their £2m house if they can't afford it, don't they?