The top play for Greenland and Denmark would be union with Canada. Can you imagine the reaction?? 😂

lol lmao this government will stop at nothing to fold for people who are never going to vote for them

When I started work as an editorial assistant at Metal Bulletin we had a telex machine, we scalpled out galleys and waxed them onto layout sheets, and you literally could not see across the newsroom for fag smoke!

When was the last time you used a typewriter except for sentimental reasons? For me, it was around 1991. Actually, I guess most of you have never used one. You can tell I did by the way I attack my keyboard.

This government has an uncanny ability to absorb all the flak from a decision only to u-turn when everyone involved already hates them and it's way too late to get any credit

Thank God for the security services www.jewishnews.co.uk/manchester-t...

I am not so sure. There are big groups of people the right would positively enjoy removing support from. Labour's natural targets are far smaller in size comparatively - and also have far greater access to the media. Eg, compare destroying Sure Start with VAT on school fees.

Turns out the best defence against charges of animal cruelty is to say "we'll kill 20,000 dogs".

Perhaps if Labour was prepared to put a tenth of the effort their opponents put into arguing that immigrants and benefit claimants are to blame for all our problems into explaining that actually, many people are far worse off than those targeted by tax rises it would get a little bit more possible.

This isn't wrong about the political incentives for Labour, but it also demonstrates fiscal nimbyism is going to make it almost impossible to grapple with the challenges Britain faces.

As with the WFA climbdown, the government will get zero political credit for this ... but it will fuel bond market concerns about its ability to stick to any unpopular decisions. Basically lose, lose really - unless you're a farmer. www.bbc.com/news/article...

I remember being struck on the doorstep in the 2024 GE how few hero voters (flagged on Doorstep app) would say they were voting for us

This comes back to something else the current and previous Labour leaderships have both failed to understand: in most constituencies that backed Leave in 2016, most Labour supporters backed Remain. Until Labour accepts its natural voter base has moved on from 1974, it is always going to struggle.

The Labour leadership doesn't know why the party won the last election, so has no idea how to win the next one. Understanding 2024's victory means accepting the strategy adopted failed to deliver the voters it targeted. Labour's chances of success in 2029 almost certainly hinge on that recognition.

At some point next year, the gormless fuckwits currently in charge of Labour will *surely* look at the ample evidence and say 'Hmmm. We appear to be losing votes to the Greens not Reform. What could this possibly say about our approach??' It really isn't rocket science.

It says: we are absolutely terrified of the right wing media and will let that blind fear, not what delivers the best outcomes, dictate what we do. See, also, immigration policy.

An English local council innovates, evaluates what it did, finds it works (replicating an earlier study in Scotland) … and all councils are told by the Labour government not to try it. What message does this convey? Another victory for ideology & cowardice www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

How about a compromise? Keep FPTP but have a second round in every constituency, similar to the system in France. Yes, I know ...

That isn't likely to change any time when both main parties are both desperate, spineless and living in constant cowardice to condemn any form of this racism in rhetoric and policy.

If YouGov is right, tactical voting and a smarter, less Reform-apologist approach by the government (obviously the two go hand in hand) may well save us from a Farage-led government and preserve our democracy. A lot of very big "ifs", though.

In Spain, the G20s most successful economy, supporters of right wing parties say 2025 has been a bad year for the country's economy (it hasn't) but has been good or OK for their own households. Go figure. Labour strategists hoping better times might turn government fortunes around, take note.

¿Importa la ideología en cómo percibimos la economía? Sí,mucho. El 12-13% de los votantes de izquierdas piensa que ha sido mal año para el país, cifra que asciende hasta el 64% en votantes de derechas. El malestar se reduce mucho si se pregunta por "su hogar" y no por "el país"

👏👏👏👏👏

The Iberian Peninsular was Europe's last hold-out against the far-right. But no longer. In Spain, PP is now dancing to Vox's tune. It is probably only a matter of time before Chega starts dictating the PSD's strategy in Portugal. Grim, grim times.

Genuinely surprised Labour won 36 council by-elections in 2025. I'd have gone with much lower. It would be interesting to know the split by quarter.

Definitive proof that in Sadiq Khan's London, Christmas has been cancelled altogether www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This 1974 photo shows, with startling immediacy, a group of freshly-excavated 2,000 year-old Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an, China, with their original vibrant colours. Once exposed to air & sunlight during excavation, the colours started to disappear almost immediately www.snopes.com/fact-check/t...

If Trump really wanted to rip Europe asunder an annexation of Greenland might be the way he'd choose. Could the EU survive the differing member state reactions and the different choices that would inevitably be made?

With apologies to my Irish friends and followers, I have a Morgan McSweeney theory. He comes from a Fine Gael family in Cork. I don't know much about Irish politics but I'm pretty sure FG is very anti-Provo, more so than Fianna Fail. McSweeney cut his Labour teeth in London ...

I wonder what would happen in reality if the US annexed Greenland, which it could do very easily. How would Europe react? I suspect in a way that would deeply disappoint and anger the Danes. The strongest, most meaningful response would probably come from China.

I really think this borders on disinformation. Someone actively thought: "NAH. Too positive. Let's feed the discord angle."

This is really interesting: CIS - the frequently maligned state-owned pollster that regularly has PSOE ahead in its national polls - was the most accurate pollster for the Extremadura regional election.

Hey, do you want a doctor or someone to look after your elderly mum? Tough, Farage has destroyed even that bit of your life like he destroys everything he touches.

Over 3k Retweets and 10k Likes for this sh!t-stirring Tommy Robinson fan's venture into a Salvation Army charity event. This is what we are up against. A sort of Moron Apocalypse.

The centre left should have been fighting this battle from the start, rather than accepting the right’s false premise

EU prohíbe libros de García Márquez, Isabel Allende y Laura Esquivel De casi 4 mil títulos censurados en 45 estados, más de la tercera parte son de autores latinoamericanos. PEN América censura a la diversidad racial e identidad de género. www.milenio.com/internaciona...

“If we hide in our separate silos, opposing only certain kinds of bigotry, or supporting liberty only for certain kinds of people, we will all lose.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...

Agree with all of this, other than "the right will go 'pro-natalist" - I think what will happen is that much of the right will shift from 'blaming our ills on immigration' to 'blaming our ills on ethnic diversity', which is already happening to an extent.

Sí. La persecución de su familia no va a terminar cd deja el poder. El nivell de odio a su persona mucho más allá dela política es algo psicótico

Banning the use of cages is a great thing, but it does clearly disadvantage farmers if we do not then apply it to imported meat and eggs.

The very rarely-seen #journalese quadfecta. This is a back bench at the top of its game.

This is such a tragic story. These young people seem committed to a path that will achieve nothing but their early deaths. It's an absolutely futile waste of life.

Just to be clear, BBC, the right to protest IS part of the right to free speech. If you block protest, you’re blocking free speech. “University threatened with legal action after protest at academic's talk” www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

More proof that AI investment is absolutely not, no way at all, a dangerously fragile bubble ia.acs.org.au/article/2025...

More optimistically - perhaps a few more people on the centre-left might start engaging with the huge positive that is freedom of movement inside the EU/EEA. (Yes, yes, I know, that would involve a bit of thought and political bravery, so file under pipe dream)

The UK will celebrate net emigration and depopulation come 2027. And by 2028 it will start to realise, with an ageing society and low growth, what a really silly thing it has done. The right will go "pro-natalist", the centre-left will be completely stuck.

It’s *always* ok to mock cities. But don’t you ever dare criticize rural areas, even if they’re boarded up, reliant on government welfare, a drain on state treasuries, and havens for right-wing sheriffs and militia types.

Famously, Olympic athletes prepare for the biggest sporting event of their lives by going on a week-long bender a few days beforehand. It really puts them in the physical and mental state required to reach the very pinnacle of their abilities.

PP cannot govern without Vox in Extremadura. It's a similar story nationally. That may be Sánchez's last hope.