Trump nominated a legit white nationalist to a top post at the State Department. I asked him some basic questions about his belief in the “erasure of white culture”. Watch this embarrassing, fumbling answer. Like he has never before been asked to explain his views.

Day after Alex Pretti killing I complained to BBC about presentation of White House statements and evidence as equivalent. Duty of balance doesn’t extend to complicity with clear lies, I said. BBC could and should report WH making false statements as a *fact of the story*. Today I got response …

The impact on children is going to be horrific. Apparently we learned nothing as a nation from the damage caused by Section 28, and having grown up under it, I wish that were not the case.

If Jim Ratcliffe wore 10 real £40,000 Rolex's on each arm, and they all got stolen, and he went into London every single day. It would take him 5,000 days, 13.7 years, and 100,000 Rolex's to pay back the £4bn he has dodged in taxes.

Heads up: this looks as bad as suspected:

Listing in the Administrative Court for tomorrow not before 11am: read out of the judgment in our challenge to the EHRC Interim Guidance.

The great unaddressed question about student finance: what balance between state and individual contributions do we think is appropriate? I’d bet nobody would say that the state should make a *profit*, but that’s the territory we’re entering. #wato wonkhe.com/blogs/gradua...

Former Conservative Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi defends the claim that the UK has been colonised by immigrants. Zahawi often criticised this kind of language before he joined Reform Zahawi is arguing about net contributors - and ignoring the "colonised" comment about takeover + subjugation.

The 20th-century globe, as 'colonised by immigrants'.

oh so just dumb luck these idiots didn’t shoot down a passenger aircraft

In a functional country, this would be a scandal. A service suffering only from chronic underfunding was ripped apart because the media created a myth of 1000s of complaints of malpractice. The truth - as in my family’s experience - was very different. www.thepinknews.com/2026/02/11/n...

I and millions of Americans believe exactly the same thing Kasparov does. Too many troops, too many new prisons, too much money not under Congressional supervision. We're not just witnessing a mass deportation scheme anymore. This is something significantly bigger and scarier.

No, it is not surprising that Keir Starmer is so unpopular. jonn.substack.com/p/everybody-...

Would be good if the Prime Minister and/or Home Secretary would for once come out and describe this as the unadulterated racism and xenophobia it so clearly is.

#EnglishCreates: Futures We are thrilled to share today's blog by Caroline Lucas, Britain’s first Green MP: 'Literature is the way we exercise the muscle of the imagination... And unless we can imagine a greener, fairer world, we’ll struggle to achieve it.' universityenglish.ac.uk/englishcreat...

One of the maddest elements of Brexit - and there are *many* - is the rewards that continue to be lavished on the blithering idiots who sold it & continue to be proved wrong about everything every day…

This is the 38th time that the U.S. military has unlawfully killed civilians on the orders of Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump. At least 130 people — never charged with crimes, their identities unknown to their executioners — are now dead.

“I have serious questions about the…usefulness of the REF,” Ivison also said, pointing to the fact that Australia scrapped its equivalent programme after a 2020 review'. Such a role model for UK HE, Australian HE. So very flourishing. 1/2

It’s a death cult. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/c...

We continue with Dr Michael Malay's (University of Bristol) superb blog, asking what it might mean when 'even the simple act of kite-flying' is 'haunted' by the question of the Anthropocene': universityenglish.ac.uk/kite-flying-... #EnglishStudies #Ecocriticism #Antropocene

It appears everyone is losing their heads. Unless it is part of an organised coup, which the Cabinet will join in, what would the Scottish Labour leader hope to *achieve* by calling for a UK Labour Prime Minister, who won a landslide 18 months ago & is delivering our manifesto, to resign?

‘She also added she does not think Jeffrey Epstein is dead.’ Maybe not the most informed opinion available.

Tim Allen was on the Board of the Sex Matters hate group before becoming Number 10 Comms Director. Hopefully Labour is realizing that it has no future in pitch-rolling for Reform. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Macbeth: SHIT

The Home Office tweet here - referring to asylum seekers legally here and legally supported by the government as “illegal migrants” - is a deliberate attempt to stir up resentment and racial hatred. I can’t see how else you describe it.

Dominic Cummings currently dusting off his CV and writing a 25,000 word covering letter

I wrote about the Epstein files (gift link) www.theverge.com/tech/874721/...

10 months ago

#EnglishCreates: Futures continues with this post by Francesca Mackenney and Jamie Castell (Cardiff University): 'How do representations of sound in literature shape our awareness of the natural world?' Read the full post here: universityenglish.ac.uk/englishcreat... #EnglishStudies #Ecocriticism

"What you did was racist." "Well ... you're fat." Kind of proves the level of people we're dealing with.

The endless column inches, YouTube videos, podcasts and more given over to the largely non-existent rightwards shift of young men is exhausting. A small fraction are getting radicalised by the online right. But most young men vote left and liberal! Even more so than millennials did at their age!

This story should be retitled. The US is actually funding pro-Putin think tanks, ones that want to end European democracy. Lets be honest about this.

The entitlement is astonishing. Why should he be shielded?

Hot Take 2: if this is Mandelson's position, there is no reason for him not to issue a statement to this effect. If he has not issued a statement to this effect, the BBC's "understanding" of his actual position may be inaccurate. Stop letting people play this game.

To say there's been anger about the Plan 2 student loans recently is an understatement. But what about those who have both a Plan 2 loan and a master's loan? www.timeshighereducation.com/news/scandal...

There... aren't any trans characters on any current Netflix shows. The number is already zero.

Honestly, if you only want to read one article about trans stuff in 2026, it should probably be this one. 👇🏻

so a month ago I was reading @markpackuk.bsky.social’s speech on Twitter in the lords and there were obviously fake stats the government used to justify Twitter’s UK reach and its continued importance to British audiences Rob has now found the source of the data was… Twitter

Pour one out for every professional political pundit, writer, consultant whatever that has spent the last decade trying to pretend that the Trump phenomenon was about trade or opiates and not a big chunk of white america losing its mind over having a black president bsky.app/profile/kyle...

Okay but Zack Polanski has been coming out with bangers

I know that I shouldn't get my hackles up over this, but it's pretty disgusting to say "this is how men behave". It wouldn't justify individual instances, even if true, but they - we - don't have to behave like this and many of us do not.

Nothing says prayer breakfast like concentration camps

The Islands of Strangers man just said he'd never denigrate the contribution of migrants.

Absolutely embarrassing for the govt. that they have proscribed Palestine Action before the trial and the jury has found them not guilty. This Labour govt. is so out of touch with the public, it is shocking. I think Cooper should resign over this. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

That’s just utter bollocks. The more he seems to be ‘honest’ the more likely it is he’s lying. He doesn’t ’tell it like it is’. He tells it like it isn’t.

Peter Mandelson is telling the truth on one thing: the idea he was bought for a $4k “bursary” or a $75k gift is ridiculous The real incentive was a post-government payday - one so big he *rejected* a $3–5m-a-year offer And Epstein enabled that payday Here’s the evidence. 🧵

Given a chance to question Reform about this immoral, racist policy, #r4today go in hard with: ‘Do the numbers really add up?’

Epstein is being described by the Polish PM as a possible Russian spy. If so, it would explain a great deal. All the Epstein “evidence” would actually be kompromat taking in the rich and powerful to serve Kremlin interests. www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2...

The only things missing in this photo are the pointy white hats and a burning cross.

Essex University, Southend campus closure: 800 students and staff afected. "but it will also have a huge impact on a city that has come to depend on the university in many ways." #HigherEd #AcademicSky www.theguardian.com/environment/...