What did we do to deserve living in these times where there is no moral or political courage? Where we are repeatedly told to simply give in to a bunch of foreign agents and fascists?

If a government tells you that you can’t call it authoritarian, it’s authoritarian.

To say that science is never settled is dishonest and dangerous. It is a means of leaving oneself leeway to act against the evidence. He must be robustly challenged on this.

Thank goodness we were smart enough to put in all that effort flattering and appeasing this indispensable ally. Made all the difference. Right?

I think people are missing the point of the tylenol conspiracy. That pregnant women either suffer pain or face actual risks to no other purpose. It’s the same point as all the ‘heartbeat’ abortion stuff. Sadism against women *to keep them in their place* +Autism stigma / mother blame as a ‘bonus’.

This has to be a moment of reckoning. Broadcasters must focus on the practical consequences and make them clear. It would be utter, society altering chaos. That should dominate the approach, as it would coverage of any other party's policies.

The increased craziness of Reform's program is going to affect the economy now. With high poll ratings, and a significant chance of forming a government firms will avoid making long term commitments that would expose them to the chaos of Reform's policies.

Reform are now coming after people with permanent residency. It'll be citizens next. No one is safe from authoritarian governments.

NEW: Air Force jets are doing ICE flights to Africa with transponders turned off, making them nearly un-trackable. This includes the third-country removal to Ghana and another secret flight. We figured out where it landed. From me for @rollingstone.com: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

Earlier this year, ProPublica found that the sepsis rate in second-trimester pregnancy loss hospitalizations increased by more than 50% under Texas’ abortion ban. Here’s how we did our analysis. (Published Feb. 2025)

My first academic article was on the dictatorship of Uzbekistan inventing a group called "Akromiya" that did not really exist but which they used to arrest anyone with whom they disagreed under the pretext of "terrorism". Just bringing this up for no reason whatsoever!

Headlines on the Bloomberg Terminal from Air Force One: *TRUMP: TV LICENSES SHOULD BE TAKEN AWAY IF BAD PUBLICITY FOR ME *TRUMP: IF TV SHOWS 'HIT TRUMP' SHOULD BE DISCUSSED ON LICENSES *TRUMP ON TV SHOWS CRITICIZING HIM: THEY'RE NOT ALLOWED TO

America is illustrating for us very clearly where it will end for the UK if we don’t resist the rise of Reform and fascist authoritarianism. It has reached the stage of Orwellian media manipulation in order to manufacture a state-approved ‘truth’ about Kirk’s death.

Tie this to the analysis I did on how easily an incoming illiberal radical government could use the legal tools *already available*.

I had to link @dag s work earlier today to someone who thought having a king meant the UK, Australia and NZ were immune to this bsky.app/profile/jaks...

I gave a talk this week on the vulnerability of UK institutions to a populist govt and I was told by an audience member that the US and Hungary couldn't happen here. I said it absolutely could and Reform are learning fast. The complacency is scary

Why Maga’s next project is to fix ‘Broken Britain‘. V good analysis.

It's easy to scoff at Trump designating as a "terrorist organization" something that's not an *organization* at all. I have different view. When you declare an idea rather than an organization to be terrorism, you can declare *anyone* a terrorist. And that is what he will do. This is horrifying.

I'm not sure the average American is prepared for their cultural diet being dictated by the Trump politburo.

British politics really needs to wake up to what is happening in America given we have imported a huge amount of its culture war politics. Maybe there are some clues about what would be on the cards here under a Reform government?

Ok so this meets the threshold but Musk calling for violence on X prompts no action taken to penalize X?

This is no exaggeration. Trump supporters are going into private businesses and threatening business owners who haven't complied with the demand of the American Führer to lower flags to half-mast for 5 days—an order that of course only applies to federal buildings. It hardly feels like America now.

So the enforcers of laws will take away your money and power even if you haven’t broken any laws?

Ms Hayes says that there is a problem with the way we equip teachers to educate children with SEND and she also warns that the funding system is broken.

There is a serious failure in UK govt, politics & media to take sufficiently seriously what Musk said & meant with "fight back or die" = Violence (interethnic civil war) is inevitable so pre-emptive violence - vs migrants, minorities & political opponents - is necessary to avoid existential erasure

Christ. This shouldn’t need saying. Racism is not a legitimate concern. Foreign interference aimed at destabilising our government is not a legitimate concern. Either defend this country or let someone else do it.

For there to be no comment from the government on Musk's call for violence, let alone action against X, is unconscionable. An utter dereliction of its responsibility for national security and an affront to every member of an ethnic minority, who is being put at risk by this rhetoric.

I live near where that protest gathered and set off from. As it happens I was ill with a cold yesterday, but if I'd been up and about I'd still have had to avoid literally walking up the road or using the nearest main tube station.

This must be a watershed moment. The government's continued use of X is no longer simply negligent. It is an act of conscious assistance to violent extremism.

Musk is inciting violence on London's streets.Tommy Robinson is financed by US tech bros. These are all very direct attempts to destabilise the British state. Starmer needs to stand up to this. A government that doesn't defend its country's values against these blatant attacks is not doing its job.

God help you if you try to speak the truth in today’s America. Kirk was a man who brought his nasty violent end upon himself by driving young men insane with a politics of zealotry and aggression. The fetishisation of freedom of speech it is ‘freedom for me but not for thee’.

It's physically unsafe for people like me to go into the centre of our home city this Saturday on account of the colour of our skin. Most politicians are either failing to stand up to this or actively contributing to the situation. We don't owe any of those politicians our votes. Not one of them.

sat on a train near some drunk white bloke who, one assumes, was out on the march today and he spent ages physically threatening a black guy but also, for some reason, telling him he was going to rape him? but anyway everything feels great in Britain right now

It's absolutely craven that we allow foreign fascist agitators into this country in the first place. Obv we have our home-grown ranks that are bad enough but allowing Bannon, Mannarino etc to pollute this country with their psychopathic bullshit is a joke. Get them out and keep them out.

Well done to everyone who normalised the flaggers.

The government should have left X after the riots last year. It must do now.

Always pays to wait 48 hours before drawing any conclusions when it comes to American political violence: MAGA Game Of Thrones underpriced bc so much ‘news’ is just breathless repetition of their reactive posturing.

No, it’s not okay to use the suffering of abused girls to help you gain diplomatic advantage. Or to gather intelligence. Or to avoid shaming other perpetrators by implication. If you are weighing these things in the balance then your moral courage lacks morals. And courage.

One of the victims is -dead- having been driven to destruction by the dishonesty + gaslighting from Epstein’s circle. One that we know of. None will ever have fully recovered. It’s perfectly true that most perpetrators get away scot-free in Britain too, but it is -depraved- to be proud of this.

I wrote about what I think is a genuinely revealing document of elite depravity and impunity. It is shocking and sickening. But it's also a crucial moment. We're about to see what happens when conspiracy theorists actually get what they asked for but it turns out not to be what they want.

How much clearer must it be that the fantasy of no tax rises has to end. Denial of hard truths must end. Things will only get worse for us until it does.

The Reform UK conference gives a standing ovation to "special guest" Lucy Connolly, who pled guilty to stirring up racial hatred after she called for asylum hotels to be set on fire with people inside them.

A troubling bit of data journalism on the closure of the social care visa, from @matildamartin.bsky.social www.politicshome.com/news/article...

Agreed but they would pitch low to include integration of HMRC and NHS data with the proviso they may occasionally use anonymised data blah blah.

I mean, fine. But I’d like to hear from Streeting on committing to expand CAMHS and mental health support teams for young people to a capacity that is somewhere north of totally inadequate. This is deckchair stuff by comparison.

We’ve had 3,000+ years of this gaslighting project and still they want applause for their courage, originality and public service.

Trump is letting this predator who abused children and exploited them on an industrial scale off the hook. And he’s doing it in plain sight for the most obvious and damning of reasons. Everyone too distracted or disengaged or exhausted or afraid to call this by its name is enabling them.

NEW: In addition to her sex offender waiver, Ghislaine Maxwell has an “out” designation that would allow her to leave the facility for work assignments. Some work assignments for FPC Bryan inmates are at Texas A&M University which is just 6 miles away. My latest: open.substack.com/pub/muellers...

for me, the market for "social affairs" reporting has shrunk for whatever reason - there's still a market for difficult, Big Investigations, but the more mid-level "here is a thing that's happening" stories are much harder to place