Regrettably, we most certainly are. Divided, fractious and still governed by people who think Brexit can be made to work.

Nadine Dorries crapping on about the lack of growth in the economy on #bbcqt after backing Brexit and Boris Johnson to the hilt is quite the flex.

Nadine Dorries crapping on about the lack of growth in the economy on #bbcqt after backing Brexit and Boris Johnson to the hilt is quite the flex.

Can Mandelson be prosecuted? We’ve discussed the law and the evidence with leading lawyers. The bottom line: "misconduct in public office" is the only viable route. The law is messy and proving intent is hard - but we believe there is a realistic prospect of conviction. 🧵:

Jim Ratcliffe, himself a migrant to Monaco to avoid paying his fair share of UK tax, and who supported Brexit which has so damaged the British economy, is yet another millionaire oligarch backing the far right to further line his pockets

Unfortunately, when as PM you choose to use expressions such as “Island of Strangers”, you too are dignifying the narrative that Ratcliffe tapped into. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

"They’ve attacked all these people, in a desperate attempt to make clear to racists and social conservatives that they hear them. If the racists and social conservatives were actually going to vote for them this would merely seem abhorrent. When they clearly aren’t, it’s stupid too."

Sure, at times the EU can be slow or myopic (as its detractors delight in reporting) but this is beside the deeper point that in quitting its frameworks, we exposed ourselves to some of the consequences. And this is one. Thank the Brexiters now whining about the EES (and later ETIAS).

Sure, at times the EU can be slow or myopic (as its detractors delight in reporting) but this is beside the deeper point that in quitting its frameworks, we exposed ourselves to some of the consequences. And this is one. Thank the Brexiters now whining about the EES (and later ETIAS).

Embarrassing, yes, but also perplexing that a statement of the obvious is at odds with her governing party’s ongoing rejection of any attempt to rejoin the single market or a customs union.

Helping the BBC out with one of its headlines.

Wasn’t the end of the Tory reign meant to signal the end of the UK’s political nervous breakdown? To think we used to mock those funny Mediterranean countries racked by chronic instability and leadership changes. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

The daft thing is that with Proportional Representation there'd be no need for this self-destructive war within Labour. It could split into its component parts - left and right - and people could vote for what they wanted. It's only First-Past-the-Post that forces these irreconcilables together.

NEW: Reform UK’s flagship council, Kent, has been accused of telling a “blatant lie” after its claim of nearly £40m in savings on net zero were found to be based on hypothetical projects for which there was no documentation. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Starmer’s grave error over Mandelson has helped take the heat off Farage and his sycophancy towards Trump. It has buoyed Badenoch and undermined Labour’s claims to be the antidote to 14 years of Tory sleaze. It’s a PR disaster and risks fatal reputational harm three months out from local elections.

Starmer’s grave error over Mandelson has helped take the heat off Farage and his sycophancy towards Trump. It has buoyed Badenoch and undermined Labour’s claims to be the antidote to 14 years of Tory sleaze. It’s a PR disaster and risks fatal reputational harm three months out from local elections.

Cakeism isn’t a flaw that infects just the Right in this country. When it comes to EU, the whole political Establishment seems to be shot through with entitlement and exceptionalism. www.politico.eu/article/uk-t...

Times: The Metropolitan Police is expected to announced on Tuesday evening that Mandelson is being investigated on suspicion of misconduct in public office, an offence that carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Why would anyone in Mandelson’s position, knowing there was more as yet unreleased dirt on him, even bother, as he did, to go on Kuenssberg’s BBC show in an attempt at reputation rescue?

The Mandelson–Epstein emails demand action, not excuses. It’s time for the Government to act, bring forward legislation to strip Peter Mandelson of his peerage and reform our political system.

"Of course, how was Mandelson to know that Epstein, who seemed so plausible, was a wrong ‘un? Well, one clue was that, at the very moment Mandelson was forwarding this stuff, Epstein WAS IN PRISON. He had pleaded guilty to procuring a minor for prostitution."

In The Telegraph? Still, I’ll take it.

In The Telegraph? Still, I’ll take it.

Fine but Starmer too is wrong about Brexit and will remain so while he peddles the myth that it can be made to work within the parameters he needlessly set, keeping us out of the single market or a customs union. He is not the innocent inheritor of the Brexit mess. www.itv.com/news/2026-02...

Fine but Starmer too is wrong about Brexit and will remain so while he peddles the myth that it can be made to work within the parameters he needlessly set, keeping us out of the single market or a customs union. He is not the innocent inheritor of the Brexit mess. www.itv.com/news/2026-02...

Epstein sent $75k to accounts linked to Mandelson www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Donald Trump is mentioned hundreds of times in the latest batch of Epstein files. Among the new documents is a list compiled by the FBI last year of allegations made against Trump by callers to its national Threat Operation Center tip line.

Indeed. Same obsessive attachment to fiction, same systemic inability to deliver, same misreading of the UK’s place in the world, same parochialism and xenophobia. Same tired, reheated bullsh*t.

What would that look like then? The ruinous no-deal peddled by Farage that would be even worse than Johnson’s threadbare arrangement? These continuity Brexiters have spent ten years looking at a turd and convincing themselves it’s gold.

What would that look like then? The ruinous no-deal peddled by Farage that would be even worse than Johnson’s threadbare arrangement? These continuity Brexiters have spent ten years looking at a turd and convincing themselves it’s gold.

Heddiw ydy'r daucanmlwyddiant agor Pont y Borth, neu'r Bont Grog y Fenai, rhwng Ynys Môn ac Arfon. Cynllwynwyd ac adeiladwyd gan y peiriannydd Albanaidd Thomas Telford.

I'm not prone to exaggeration but this is probably the biggest scoop I've ever been involved in Mandelson's partner took £10,000 from Epstein to pay for his osteopath course while Mandelson was de facto UK deputy prime minister, according to new files more to follow www.ft.com/content/c950...

Translation: “A decade on, we’re still having to rely on a tautology to avoid defining what we did in terms which are amenable to metrics & measures of success or failure, because we know that by every measurable criterion the thing we did was a massive, unmitigated flop.”

Indeed. Same obsessive attachment to fiction, same systemic inability to deliver, same misreading of the UK’s place in the world, same parochialism and xenophobia. Same tired, reheated bullsh*t.

It's extraordinary that *relatively* moderate, Remain-supporting Tories, or centrists if you prefer, have gone from from leading governments in 2010, 2015 & technically 2017 to being entirley unrepresented in mainstream UK politics.

Who radicalised him? (If this article has been deleted when you see this post it’s because a sub editor woke up!) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

good article on the hateful Matthew Goodwin hopenothate.org.uk/state-of-hat...

Precisely. I wonder if there will come a point, after nearly all of the Johnson/Brexit-era fanatics have defected to Reform & Badenoch has been booted out as scapegoat for the May local election result, when the remainder of the Tory Party realises that they need to offer something different.

The Conservatives have been tacking to the Right since the Brexit referendum. It’s lost them vote share, MPs and credibility. The solution? Continue to alienate your moderates, erase any USP and make yourselves indistinguishable from Reform. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

“On stage at her defection, Braverman shared Reform's diagnosis that Britain is broken.” Don’t know which is more distasteful: wreckers and charlatans fleeing the Tory Party to escape blame for the mess they now decry or the likelihood that a good many voters will still indulge them.

We are opening an investigation into Grok because we believe that X may have breached the DSA. We have seen antisemitic content, non-consensual deepfakes of women, and child sexual abuse material. In Europe, no company will make money by violating our fundamental rights. link.europa.eu/Fh8h84

The flight of the dreadful to Reform would be funny if they weren’t in with a chance of winning the next election. As it is, Farage may end up parading an even bigger horror show of a cabinet.

Labour could be making hay from Farage’s obsequiousness towards Trump ahead of the May council elections but obviously senior figures in the party think it better to engage in internecine warfare instead. www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

Labour could be making hay from Farage’s obsequiousness towards Trump ahead of the May council elections but obviously senior figures in the party think it better to engage in internecine warfare instead. www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

At St Pancras Eurostar station today, I happened on the new EES biometric recognition stands, brought to you courtesy of the people who promised us less bureaucracy and more freedom but delivered the opposite. There they stand, little monuments to the stupidity and dishonesty of our political élite.

At St Pancras Eurostar station today, I happened on the new EES biometric recognition stands, brought to you courtesy of the people who promised us less bureaucracy and more freedom but delivered the opposite. There they stand, little monuments to the stupidity and dishonesty of our political élite.

The promise The reality