Someone explain to me slowly, like I’m a 10-year old, why the UK should allow the King to make that state visit to the US. I mean, there’s a very good chance could publicly insult the UK government in Charles’ presence.

Trump’s illegal Iran war could cost the UK economy a staggering £15bn. All cheered on by Reform and the Conservatives. Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch should apologise to every family now paying the price. www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...

Putin is going to test America’s commitment to its NATO Article 5 obligations before Trump leaves the White House. It’s too tempting an opportunity.

Imagine threatening to invade and annex NATO allies, then getting pissy when they won't help you in a mad war you started against someone else, which has nothing to do with NATO anyway

Contrast the Hegseth smirk and the Rubio frown

Watching Shia LaBeouf describe himself as a “traditional Catholic” (converted three years ago via the TLM), and this remains undefeated:

Reform UK said I was 'bullying' when I pointed out their colleague was jailed for beating up his former partner. Now, they're trying to sneak him back into their party. So I'll say it again: James McMurdock was jailed for beating up his former partner. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The case for keeping Starmer, made eloquently and persuasively by @robertshrimsley.bsky.social. However, there will come a point when Labour does have to ask whether he can fight a GE and persuade voters to keep the right out. I don't see how the answer to that will be anything other than No.

Badenoch & 4 family members spent 6 days at a residence owned by Neil Record, who chairs Net Zero Watch, is life vice-president of the Institute of Economic Affairs, and sits on the advisory board of the Prosperity Institute, a think tank founded by the Legatum Group, the firm that co-owns GB News.

When Richard Vernon delivered the line "Don't take that tone with me, young man. I fought the war for your sort" in A Hard Day's Night, he was 39. Also pictured: Paul McCartney, when he was 39.

Reform is aiming solely at the over-50s. It really does put a ceiling on their support.

Weird to think that Liza Minnelli and Dusty Springfield were respectively only 43 and 50 when they made their comeback records with the Pet Shop Boys. At the time they felt like ancient ghosts of showbiz past. The equivalents now (in age if not in stature) would be Cheryl Tweedy and Emma Bunton.

My guess is that not paying to get in is a very pleasant surprise to a lot of tourists who had assumed they would have to because that's how it is at home. (See also tourist tax)

These people have a funny way of saying "Environmentalists have been proved right yet again."

Buenas noticias: 🔸En el último trimestre 2025 se aceleró el crecimiento económico un 0,8% 🔸Seguimos liderando entre las grandes economías avanzadas 🔸Mejora la productividad, crece el consumo, los servicios no turísticos y la inversión 🔸Con un punto de partida en 2026 del 1,1% ➡️Seguimos

Note that, taking stated Green values of pro-Net Zero and anti-poverty, three *clearly* better things to do than this proposed universal bailout could be: - Targeted relief at the poorest. - Give people cash instead. - Spend the money on solar/heat pumps etc. This is bad *on its own terms.*

Potentially another example of 'the British public are ahead of politics.' I posted last week it seems like the public weren't aware of potential consequences. This suggests the reverse

Colonialism for the left is very like free speech for the right - Mine is absolutely fine, yours is not.

This is not advocating for Net Zero ...

The Guardian continuously claims the government is not defending Net Zero when it very loudly is. There are clearly people on the left who don't want that to be the case, for narrow (and entirely self-defeating) political purposes, but wanting something to be true doesn't make it so.

Green MP doing green things shock. Good to see, though.

In Barcelona your library card gets you a ton of cultural discounts and all you need to get one is to be empadronado, so library cards for everyone in the UK. Oh wait, empadronarse means telling the council where you live, also fascism I guess

Jess, who lives in Vancouver, believes colonizers should be blown up in car bombs.

It's already been said by others but this really is a big step forward.

This is a good example of the convoy theory of censorship - in which the standard of everyone on speech is determined by the most easily offended person. It’s not right or viable.

Luckily, the Met has nothing better to do.

So, so close to getting it.

The Spanish economy grew by 2.8% in 2025. Double the Eurozone rate. The centre-left Spanish government is on course to lose the next general election to a right-wing coalition that includes actual fascists. Voters do not feel the growth.

It will be interesting to see how many seats Reform win where the Lab+Green+LD vote is 50%+. My guess is that it will be a pretty hefty number. A preview of GE 2029.

What's great is that Morgan doesn't actually say the thing they claim he said in the first bullet point, the handler does, because they've gotten Belgrave Street and Belgrave Road mixed up. The sort of thing that might happen if you have just been mugged...

Happens in plenty of other European countries - but they have ID cards.

There is something profoundly unserious about demanding the country spends vast sums on reducing its carbon emissions and then calling for a massive fossil fuel subsidy to consumers the moment gas prices rise.

In the middle of an oil and gas crisis, it's been a remarkable day for clean power in Great Britain. –Fossil fuel reached a new record low share in our generation mix, just 2.2% –Wind power set a new record high, 23.88 GW

🤔

I do think "Did Morgan McSweeney arranged for his phone to be stolen in October 2025 to avoid a request from March 2026 to hand over his messages that were primarily released in February 2026?" does have an obvious answer, but that's why I'm not Leader of the Opposition.

After repeatedly telling us that London is a crime-infested hellhole in which literally everyone gets their phone swiped, the Conservatives are refusing to believe that a man using his phone on a central London street at 10.30pm might have had it swiped.

This result would be disastrous for Labour on multiple levels: losing the seats, of course; but, maybe even more damaging, the Reform gains would embolden the Blue Labour faction to keep pushing its toxic nonsense.

Yikes. Rycroft quotes the National Protective Security Authority: “The UK is a target of long-term strategic foreign interference and espionage from elements of the Russian, Chinese and Iranian states which, in different ways, seek to further their economic & strategic interests and cause harm”

Reed echoed concerns "about the democratic fairness of allowing people who have chosen to live abroad, and to have their wealth taxed abroad, to nonetheless have the opportunity to make potentially game-changing donations into British politics."

Orban does Putin’s work, steals from the EU and the Hungarian people, and provides the template for other European despots from the UK to Poland. He is a clear and present danger to our continent’s liberal democracies and cannot be allowed to continue unchecked.

At some point the EU will have to bite the bullet on Orban. Yes, it is a rules-based organisation - as it should be - but rules must not be allowed to entrench tyranny.

Love this from Starmer. More of this please!

Cada acusación es una confesión

It is nuts how there's a) a very real energy crisis b) yet my electricity price is 31% cheaper than normal because it's very windy in the uk c) really big batteries (possibly a lot of those big ones that you used to put in portable CD players) could sort a lot of this out

I think we're going to see Trump lashing out more at his own team over the next few days at his panic increases. Particularly Hegseth.

Convinced Labour should be making a big thing of this and going further. -National success story they can own (though not entirely being down to them - Tories have abandoned it). -Point of difference from the right that's popular and practical -Neutralises the Greens' pitch somewhat

This won't be the last energy crisis of this decade; we will have more. If we sort out the market now, we can insulate ourselves…and make our bills more affordable and stable. news.sky.com/story/ed-mil...

🔴Sánchez: "Esta guerra es un desastre absoluto y PP y Vox han contribuido con su apoyo o con su silencio... Callar ante una guerra ilegal no es prudencia ni lealtad, es cobardía y complicidad" www.eldiario.es/politica/san...

Yesterday...

I totally get this. However, we are also living in age of unprecedented geopolitical and demographic change - all of it amplified by social media and 24 hour rolling news. What's more, a lot of why we are where we are is because of decisions taken by politicians 20, 30 even 40 years ago.