Still laughing at this. Cannot imagine a more self-discrediting argument for socialism than “under socialism, you should be able to gesture to your crotch, tell a customer to suck it and keep your job”.

If you randomly have this kids 2016 Barcelona kit in the back of your cupboard and can save Christmas in my house please get in touch 🤞

GHOST OF FRASER: You can see me can't you? DIEFENBACKER: <whines> GoF: I miss you too. And i know you're tired. But she needs you now DIEF: <barks> *Wolf puppies appear* GoF: You never told me! DIEF: <barks> GoF: If you think they wouldn't mind? DIEF: <yips> GoF: Then rest. And join me, old friend

Due South reboot. Drawn by Dave McKean. Ray travels to Canada to help a young Mountie (and an elderly deaf wolf) solve the murder of her father, his best friend. In doing so, Ray finds himself trying to convince her of the one thing his old partner cared about more than anything: Kindness matters

⚓️🇬🇧🇳🇴 NAVY of UK and Norway will cooperate to counter the Russian underwater threat and protect underwater infrastructure in the North Atlantic, - Militarnyi The agreement provides for joint patrols by fleets in the North Atlantic - consisting of at least 13 ships and autonomous systems.

Germany rebukes US national security strategy document over claims about Europe https://www.europesays.com/uk/613859/ BERLIN  Germany on Friday sharply criticized the US administration’s national security strategy document for alleging that Europe censors…#uk #news #uknews

Ah, that explains so much about the last two seasons and delay in announcing a new season.

No that's not *your* on *our behalf*. Your job is to report the story, presenting all sides fairly and then *we* call it. What Mason is saying here is fundamentally not what the bbc is for! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Agreed, but UK media is about 90% owned by swivel-eyed non-dom billionaires: we need press regulation per Leveson and then some (also social media algorithm regulation).

Paul Downey gets everywhere!

Truly progressive government policies would help to make Britain a much better, fairer, and more decent society | Peter Sagar

He’s obviously a bit crepe

The most famous quote on government fuckups comes from former DfT permanent secretary Sir Richard Mottram: “We're all fucked. I'm fucked. You're fucked. The whole department's fucked. It's been the biggest cock-up ever and we're all completely fucked.” That was *much* smaller than this fuckup.

HuffPost UK: Brexit Is Costing The UK Up To £90 Billion A Year In Lost Tax www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/br...

Brexit costing UK up to £90bn in lost tax revenue , new analysis shows

“If you are going to speak of the damage, you must be honest about where the responsibility lies. But it is not acceptable to acknowledge the harm without offering solutions to undo as much of it as we can” Our CEO, Sir Nick Harvey, on the upcoming Budget and Brexit: politicsuk.com/calling-out-...

Please repost and share this petition calling for a public inquiry into Russian influence on UK politics & democracy. We must do everything in our power to keep the spotlight on Farage's links to Russia and work for Putin. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74...

“A vote for Labour is the only way to stop Reform” Or “Labour can actually do what Reform only claims it can do” The government needs to pick one strategy, not both. The government seems unaware that voters can actually hear it trying both messages at once.

Oh boy.

I’m really starting to suspect that most of the tech bros haven’t actually read Tolkien, as they certainly don’t understand it. The gentle hobbits save the “hard men” of Gondor, largely through compassion and selflessness. Not the other way around. The Christian parable is barely hidden!

Yay. Priceless. The right column at the right time. And a gleefully English two fingers to the haters.

People who have come to the United Kingdom legally, played by the rules and made it their home do not need to “go home”. This is their home. I've written to Kemi Badenoch to give her the chance to reject these divisive calls from her frontbencher Katie Lam.

There's an old truism that politics can't work if you think the other side is actually evil. But I don't really know what else to call this

This is a timely, excellent and important report on how "arms length" bodies in UK are vulnerable to political manipulation. Kudos @chrischirp.bsky.social and @martinmckee.bsky.social for putting this together.

Spent five minutes staring at this trying to work out what it had reminded me of. Realised it was this horrifying passage from George Orwell’s 1984.

This book is why I am a historian (possibly). Printed in 1989, it is full of absolute bollocks. I love it

So @onekdog.bsky.social is showing our children Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds. Truly it was a golden age of television.

He's one of Britain's richest men. So why does Asif Aziz's property company keep leasing London gift shops to overseas students based in abandoned offices or flytipped car parks — before vanishing without paying millions of pounds in taxes? www.londoncentric.media/p/asf-aziz-l...

Absolute must read

I agree rejoining asap is desirable Frank, but for various reasons Westminster and even certain commentators in the European side think it’s not possible or even desirable yet. But we change how Westminster thinks by showing them what’s needed.

And if we can’t explain why trade and mobility between the UK and EU is uniquely desirable or “special” in some way then there’s no more argument for it with the EU than with America or Australia or even CPTPP etc.

Men are extremely keen to explain to me that Britain *needs* a domestic steel production plant and doesn't necessarily *need* universities. Okay. Steel contributed about £1.7bn to the UK economy in 2024. Universities contributed more than £200bn.

That is spectacularly good news - congratulations, you are the ideal person for an essential role And it just needs a tweak to the job title to make it the DG for civil service reform, efficiency and boldness.

Afternoon all :) After 5 years in my role in Defra, I'm going to be leaving this June to take up a new role as Director General of Civil Service Reform and Efficiency in the @cabinetofficeuk.bsky.social

Perhaps the UK Media could just step out of 2017 and consider the possibility that we all (yes WE) might soon have much bigger problems that fish quotas. Why do you think the UK wants access to EU defence projects? For the fun of upsetting Jacob Rees-Mogg? Switch on the BBC world service

“Who needs art when you can’t switch your heating on? Who needs a degree when food is expensive?” This is such a poisonous argument. The problem that needs to be addressed is poverty. It is an especially pernicious form of paternalism to claim that poor people don’t have souls or minds to nurture.

Finally, I am sick and tired of people pretending that education is a status symbol for the well-to-do, rather than a path towards a richer and more fulfilled life. I am all for addressing failures in skill training& problems with social mobility. But learning is good & should be encouraged. Always.

The “surrender” thing and the endless war metaphors were always in poor taste. But when they were first made, war had not returned to Europe and NATO was not hanging by a thread. So forgive me if I no longer have any patience whatsoever with people who pretend that UK and EU are enemies. Pathetic.

The hysterical reaction of certain commentators to today’s UK-EU agreement is something to behold. The “surrender” of using e-gates when you go on holiday. The contempt for the “will of the people” of making education abroad more accessible. Rigorous debate is good. This nonsense is a waste of time.

A quick reminder of what today is really about: Russia threatens Europe. America is gone. It will not save us. Britain and Europe must work closely and with trust, on defense and everything else, in order to counter the Kremlin threat.

Ahead of Monday’s #UKEUreset talks, here are things that could be considered to help all kinds of industries and age groups. #ChooseEurope #VoicesofLostFOM #SaveFOM

In short, Starmer has taken a massive hit among Labour voters, for no gain elsewhere, while boosting Farage's popularity, including doubling his ceiling among Labour voters. I.e., the political scientists were right, Morgan McSweeney was horrendously wrong.

The strategy of saying: "Of course Mr Farage I'll help you move this Overton window to the right so you can climb in, but please wait while I throw many of my voters out first." ... is having the exact effect that you would expect.

Given how easy it is to host your own secure email, it seems like a bit of a shot-in-foot for the ICC and a warning to other agencies relying on American services providers - including cloud hosts that you may not know you’re using - that they could be forced to do things you may not agree with

This is spot on on the distinction between Powell and Starmer's speeches and the much more meaningful criticism of the latter. To be clear, Robert *is* a supermodel. But apart from that it's all entirely correct

What we need from Starmer is not Reform style policies. We need the kind of leadership that says: - illegal immigration is statistically insignificant & not a problem worth worrying about - Legal immigration benefits UK - and we should rejoin EU/EEA to restore mutual mobility as it helps us too