“Man of the people” latest

This is like if that one Japanese soldier who kept fighting World War II for 29 extra years had been an American refusing to accept they'd won.

Seen Farage interviewed on BBC TV, Radio 4 and LBC today about his £5M and his appearances on all three were absolutely appalling. Whilst there is no good explanation - and there is no good explanation beyond the obvious which he clearly can’t/wont say - these questions will keep coming

On the 10th anniversary of Brexit - which by all the evidence and weight of public opinion, can be considered as a total failure - a reminder to everyone who listened to Farage and/or voted for it….he’s lying to you again 😃😃

If Ronaldo doesn’t score against Uzbekistan today, I mean, this is just VERY funny

Still, at least Farage got his £5M gift for his contribution to it all

This decency element - look at the result for Tories - is why I think Starmer will be admired much more in retrospect than he was at the time.

Starmer governed like a man who when faced with half a group that likes spicy curries and half a group that doesn't like Indian food at all, orders everyone a korma. He then tells the curry-haters he's listened to their concerns, and the spice-lovers that they're wrong for enjoying a jalfrezi.

there's something quite moving about seeing one of the most buttoned-up figures in British politics choking up while talking about his family as his political career implodes

Don’t use Facebook for much apart from local news/newspapers. It’s staggering the vitriol directed at Starmer in the comments. I get he’s done a bad job. And unfortunately when public perception is like this, it makes things untenable. But most of the criticism is really quite unhinged

Starmer strikes me as a good man who made bad decisions, and surrounded himself with particularly bad advisors. This is the right decision for the Labour Party. Most people don’t care about politics- when a large portion of them think you are incompetent or an arsehole, there’s no coming back

“Professional politician”. Farage is 62 and has been either an MEP or an MP for most of the last 27 years

Seven resignation speeches in just (two days) under ten years. Stability, that’s the thing about First Past the Post…

There is some logic in Starmer feeling betrayed, I do get that. But at some point in the future he will have to reconcile that whatever he did prior to 2024, where he’s ended up now is a direct result of all the decisions he’s taken since

That Camilla Long article - it’s just impossible to understand the mentality of someone who lives a perfectly comfortable life, writing - what must be deep down - knowingly incorrect, bad faith articles because it either i) annoys the right sort of people and/or ii) enrages another group of people

Labour won by 20 points and net immigration is down by over 80% in two years. But sure write your column again.

A sad but incredibly predictable inevitability of Brexit is that a lot of people who voted for it, who needed the change it promised most, will be the most let down when those promises don’t just fail to materialise, things will likely get worse

Net migration has almost halved in a year.

Let's play 'Hunt the Edinburgh attack story in the Telegraph'...

American soft power latest: Today’s front page or an Italian right-wing tabloid reads “Trump is a dickhead”

Lots to moan about with this World Cup, but those shots of the stadium from the air before this Scotland-Morocco game, just absolutely incredible. They’ve got some unbelievable sporting venues in the US

Some clobber on Pochettino

"Pathetic!" @mrjamesob.bsky.social reacts to JD Vance's IQ test claim.

Yesterday... Today.

Just an utter fraud

"plenty of Tory MPs who should have known better threw caution to the wind & their weight behind Boris Johnson’s bid for the leadership ... In the long-term, Johnson’s promotion to Prime Minister proved utterly disastrous". @timbale.bsky.social not holding back here! blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...

Heseltine: It’s time to reverse Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage’s ‘heinous crime’ of Brexit. Public had been “lied” to in a “heinous crime”, says former deputy UK PM. Brexit brought no economic gains, more bureaucracy. Nearly half of the UK public want a second referendum.

Either masterful trolling or an astonishing coincidence for the French to arrange for a humiliating instrument of surrender to be signed at Versailles.

Did an interview with a US journalist about Brexit yesterday. He asked if I'd been surprised by anything that's happened. Usually I'd try and think of something to avoid looking unimaginative. But I couldn't think of anything. It's been pretty much exactly as shit as I expected.

Tell me you don’t understand your voter base without telling me you don’t understand your voter base (1)

They look very pleased with themselves

How on earth does Rabiot still get games for France. Bang average

This is the perfect Kemi Badenoch line: obviously crazy, coarsens our politics and the kind of thing that collapses if she ever put herself somewhere she might face a gentle follow-up question. What does she think the Gestapo *did*?

‘An average of $3000 a ticket, referees giving white supremacy signs; a game of four quarters. Football eh. Marvellous isn’t it.’

This thought concerns me as well.

Just out of interest, as I am no longer there, did they announce the new social media rules on X? Because that would be… absurd.

In principle, I’m not against legislating against the internet and social media especially to aid child protection - but to do this whilst at the same time doing almost nothing to protect dangerously misled and credulous adults, seems to just miss the point slightly

On the day where we're banning socials for U16s, is there a proper analysis of this new type of boomer slop overrunning Facebook? It seems to be done for creator payments now which, when combined with cheap AI image generation, is like an insane fever dream compared to the cheap memes of the 2010s.

Law is not magic, and prohibitions are not spells.

ITV coverage has arguably been better than the BBC for the last few tournaments, but it’s usually pretty close, this is the first one I can recall where their coverage is way, way better

‘A huge spectrum of people coming together’: how parkrun made it to its millionth event

Had to rewind. This is so funny

Musk as a trillionaire- anyone as a trillionaire- is a grotesque economic, moral and political problem. We cannot have individuals with that level of power, whatever they might have achieved.

I’m not anti-money, success or business - but surely it’s quite obviously that someone being a trillionaire is unnecessary, and beyond that is pretty sick given some people can’t eat, feed or house themselves as well as being politically incredibly dangerous

Agreed: politics is the art of persuasion, and Labour has lost faith in its ability to make and win arguments. There's a lot of talk at present about "respecting voters". The best way to respect them is to tell the truth: to treat them as adults who can take bad news and who understand trade-offs.

I imagine the advice Trump actually gave to Farage was more around personal enrichment than “having fun”. Farage’s views on Trump - on top of his responsibility for Brexit - should instantly disqualify him to be considered for PM, yet, here we are

3 reds in a game which hasn’t been in the slightest bit bad tempered, aggressive or particularly contentious. The game is destroying itself

First game and the officiating already centre stage. Great

I still think VAR is a necessity at the top level, but at 2-0 in the 84th minute for a team already down a man and a dodgy call at best - I just don’t understand the logic of the 2nd red for South Africa there. Just mad

Starmer’s post-election speech gets worse with age. He said “incremental change won’t cut it” on defence, growth and Europe and has offered… exactly that.