There’s no easy answers for Starmer’s government confronting Reform. But it should understand the opposition. Not ‘ordinary Britons with legitimate grievances’, but a trans-national, far right propaganda machine built patiently over decades with Russian & US funders among others.

Endless, unprecedented corruption large and small

More from #Jersey

#Jersey - lovely

RIP Danny Thompson. Here's a playlist featuring just some of the hundreds of songs that were graced by his bass playing. Includes Nick Drake, Pentangle, Donovan, John Martyn, Sandy Denny, Marc Bolan, David Sylvian, Kate Bush, Talk Talk, Lilac Time, Julian Cope etc ▶️ open.spotify.com/playlist/4XS...

#RIP Danny Thompson youtu.be/s-ZY4j-9NwI?...

I once floated the notion that Solid Air is actually about Danny Thompson's bass playing not Nick Drake. I shall continue to float that notion. That's what notions are for. RIP Danny. www.youtube.com/watch?v=UikP...

RIP Danny Thompson He played on so many fantastic albums and will be sorely missed.

The most embarrassing moment in US history since the burning of the White House in 1812.

To ‘ultra-crepidate’ (19th century) is to lecture others on subjects you know very little about.

Headline on BBC website refers to Trump's UN speech as 'wide-ranging'. Wtf is the matter with them when everyone else is referring to it as rambling, batshit vile bile #BBCNews

statistic of the day

Any journalist or commentator who writes a wrap-up of this speech that suggests that any of it was normal, worthy of respect, not absolutely deranged, not an insult to the audience, not an embarrassment for the US, should be relieved of their jobs.

Everyday

Trump has humiliated the United States on the global stage again

Trump's UN speech was an embarrassing shitshow that brought disgrace upon the United States. Congrats, America.

And there's the payback for the state visit. As if he was ever going to behave.

Whereas in the UK, the majority want to nationalise his golf courses and tell him to fuck right off (and we like windmills and solar panels).

Peter Kellner: The gap between public debate & reality is so wide that many voters no longer see the country they actually live in … Our society, for all its faults, is probably safer, richer and better than any before it. Progress is the truth that is hidden. open.substack.com/pub/kellnerp...?

www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/t... Homeland Security chief accepted bribes from undercover cops and it’s just another day in the Trump kleptocracy. How can we do business with such a crooked country?

Breaking News 🚨 Trump tells the truth. "We have a lot of stupid people in this country running things."

The Spectator has gradually been drifting further and further to the right but it’s beyond the pale now. Those left of centre writers who still, occasionally, contribute to it should cut their ties. Lines have to be drawn these days.

It is possible to cherish the BBC as an institution while also saying that BBC News is failing very badly, day after day, in its duty to inform and that it always fails in a right-wing direction. It desperately needs to recover its integrity

Happy end-of-the-world day to all those who celebrate. If it doesn't happen, then we've always got this...

Imagine being so naïve as to think a party planning to deport people who have lived in the UK legally and entirely blamelessly for decades, and which would happily send Afghan women back into slavery, would never come after you or yours.

Curious as to whether European spy agencies are actively fucking with Russia, given that Russia is clearly actively fucking with them, and if not, why not?

Today's British media in 1944: 'Concentration Camps - Are they all bad?' 'We will be joined later by German minister Dr Joseph Goebbels, and a young girl called Anne Frank who is bunking off school at the moment.'

If Badenoch does not discipline Liz Truss over her support for Tommy Robinson, it just confirms this month's @bylinetimes.bsky.social front page 🔴 From Maggie to MAGA 🔴 WWW.bylinetimes.com

Reform is a (bad) mood and not a political party in the traditional sense. Its followers don't care about facts. They care about their beliefs. No amount of fact checking will work and their critics need to adjust to that. You cannot defeat delusion with reason. www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

The BBC didn't carry press conferences from Martin Webster of the National Front in the 1970s. What is going on?

Seriously. A one-hour Party Political Broadcast. Followed at the top of the next hour with top story billing and a highlights package. Exactly how will this be "balanced" across their coverage? Where is Ofcom? Where is Nandy?

It’s worth asking the question why British politics is trying so hard to copy American politics when the same policies aren’t even popular there, let alone here.

But they don't care if the numbers don't add up and the policy is incoherent or unworkable. It's about normalising anti-immigration and creating further division and chaos.

I'll have more to say on Reform's proposals to scrap ILR at some point but for now I'll just note this - anyone telling you this is a popular idea doesn't know the polling. Overwhelming majority of public back giving people who work and pay taxes most or all rights after 5 years or less

In the late 19th century, millions of migrants left Germany as a result of religious persecution, economic hardship, and political uncertainty. Among them was Nikolaus Schrod, a cabinet maker from Frankfurt who - along with his wife Bina - moved to London to start a new life in the 1850s. 1/3

Everyone in this country is descended from immigrants. Every single last one of us. And many, like Mr Farage, will have very recent migrant ancestors indeed and not even know about it.

Sadiq Khan condemns Nigel Farage's threat to deport hundreds of thousands of Londoners with settled status. “They have legal rights and are our friends, neighbours and colleagues, contributing hugely to our city. “Threatening to deport people living and working here legally is unacceptable.”

This is similar to what I just said but better put.

But they don't care if the numbers don't add up and the policy is incoherent or unworkable. It's about normalising anti-immigration and creating further division and chaos.

Reading the news these days is to invite hopelessness into one's life. I try to counter the despair by playing music that brings me happiness, joy, passion, or transcendence. This one always makes me grin like a fool in love.

In which, remarkably, while talking about the fiscal bind, and even after Jeremy Hunt goes on about acting in the interests of the country, no one brings up the TWO NI cuts carried out largely if not solely for narrow party political ends. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/h...

Can't work out from this piece whether it's the coke, the fraud or the kicking of a police officer in the head that Liz thinks he's been unfairly demonised for. So I'll presume it's all of it.

On most issues, most of us disagree with Farage: Brexit, leaving ECHR, paying Taliban for refugees, Trussonomics, tax breaks for the wealthy, huge welfare cuts, binning NetZero, scrapping workers’ rights, arselicking Trump… Our politics should reflect us, not him. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Higher investment, sustainable spending, raise taxes/reform pensions so better-off older people pay their share. Advice for the Chancellor from Gus O'Donnell, @mazzucatom.bsky.social, Jim O'Neill, @uofgvc.bsky.social @elerianm.bsky.social, @sjwrenlewis.bsky.social & me. archive.ph/I9PVc#select...

Very odd watching BBC News talking about the Lib Dem conference and mentioning how the party has struggled to break through in the media like it's nothing to do with them.

It’s MY Party next on the list…

The right shouldn't be looking to unite with the far right.

I'm sorry, I'm sure Noah Hoffman is a very nice person but she really hasn't got a clue #Newsnight

Lines I remember clearly from an Edinburgh University performance of Weill/Brecht's 'Der Jasager', 'The Yea-Sayer', in which I played Student 2. There's also a Neinsager. They have acquiesced. They have answered yes. They have agreed with the custom. Brecht is always timely.

Read Ian Penman on Brian Eno here: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...