In shocking: "most people want to eat competitively priced, good quality fresh food and don't care where it comes from or what Nigel Farage thinks" news.

Regulatory sovereignty was always an exaggerated benefit of Brexit because of the trade implications, and relatively unpopular given the belief that Conservatives and Farage wanted it to mean widespread weakening of protections.

It’s not just that this is puerile and lawless. It’s that it is completely out of touch with the issues relevant to contemporary warfare. Russia fights like this. It makes Russians criminals. But it doesn’t make them winners.

65% firmly dislike Farage...so lots of votes in disliking him as well as it being right....

Whoever you vote for and whatever you thought of the speech...thank Christ we've got Starmer and not Trump...or Farage.

Sensible European countries embrace free movement to expand their labour market and give their own people opportunities elsewhere AND have systems to encourage controlled, legal non-EU migration on attractive terms. Give growth a chance!

Is there a reason I ask that the Times are using a picture of asylum seekers in a boat to describe rules for migrants who came on legal routes such as skilled worker visas for doctors?

When I was young, the National Front were proud of being far right and racist. Reform now seem semi-ashamed of being far right and racist and claim not to be. But they still are far right and racist - what else is deporting people to be tortured or stripping rights from legal immigrants?

Win for EU-UK cooperation....

"We are not an island of strangers, we are an island of neighbours and we want our coubtry back" @roswynnejones.bsky.social began Mirror #LabConf25 event with a much better and more resounding message than most politicians have managed recently....

You are not a patriot if your associates sell out your country to Russia. You are not a patriot if your associates brag about annexing Commonwealth territory. You are not a patriot if you advocate for policies that impoverish & weaken your country.

The main reason a youth mobility scheme with EU is a good idea is because it is good for young people, Brits and those from EU. It will have positive economic effect but minimal compared to damage from leaving single market... www.bbc.com/news/article...

Farage has gone strangely quiet today. Probably makes sense to keep his head down after Reform’s boss in the last set of Welsh elections admitted taking bribes to peddle Russian propaganda. Especially awkward because Nige once said he admires Putin above all other world leaders.

Are ID cards a silver bullet to stop illegal work. No. How much easier do they make it to access services? A bit. Are they an assault on civil liberties? No, lots of countries with strong liberal credentials have them. How hysterical and polarised is UK debate? Absurdly....

This is a very important story in the context of Nigel Farage’s publicly expressed - if apparently unconnected - admiration for Putin and other links with a regime that only wants to harm our country.

People on phone-ins saying ID cards would make the UK 'like the Stasi in East Germany' might not know that most European countries have, without major controversy, had mandatory ID cards for decades but have far fewer CCTV cameras capturing people's every move.... www.clearway.co.uk/news/cctv-us...

Well said, Ms Sell

Apparently we don't want so-called 'low skilled' immigrants? So we don't want care homes, farms, cafes or any clean places?

Any other leader of a democratic country speaking like this to the UN - the UN ! - would have to resign the next day

An anti-migrant, anti-trade with EU, anti-green growth Farage government, with a fantasy economic policy, might take the UK the same way as his friend Orban has taken Hungary.....

Indeed..several separate elements of Reform's programme would each crash the economy- not just migration policy but also tax + spend plans and foreign/human rights policy that would mean being shunned in Europe. Taken together and on top of Brexit, they would demolish the livelihoods of millions.

Any journalist quoting this absurd, invented £234 billion number cited by Farage/Reform should make absolutely clear that it has been withdrawn by *its own authors* (the Centre for Policy Studies) after they admitted it contained several major errors (1/3)

This is mad as well as disgraceful. All economies need low-skill labour, Brits don't want to do it and without it things collapse. We also need integrated high-skill workers with a stable stake in the country, the chance to progress, become more productive, create growth that means jobs for others.

🇺🇳 In New York for the UN General Assembly. This week, our mission is clear: to show the power of diplomacy over division. The EU will always stand firmly on the side of multilateralism. Today and tomorrow. #UNGA

I've spent several months putting together this Defending Democracy starter pack. We are fighting a massively funded international kleptofascist network, backed by Russia. Democracy is under greater threat than in 1940. We must network to resist. Please share. go.bsky.app/BNwdFrL

Detain and deport....

This is China the Guardian is talking about...UK and EU need to step up, not scale back, climate policies or miss out on green jobs and growth

I have organised a protest against something or other and 48 million people came. Now anyone replying on here or on the telly saying that's crap, it was only 48, will be further publicising my protest and spreading my message. Simples!

Food price inflation in euro zone? 3.2% - too high. In UK? 5.1%...*way* too high. Brexit is making it harder for many to afford the weekly shop.

Every country has elite schools in some form, fee-paying or not, but UK cannot possibly realise its potential while this situation persists.

It's easier to attract job-creating inward investment if you are in the EU single market.

A Farage Trump fan boy government would mean meltdown. Trumpian abuses of power plus the death knell for the UK economy and environment.

At the @ukandeu.bsky.social conference in Brussels today, Nick Thomas-Symonds made a good case for the UK-EU reset process. But many of the academics/diplomats/MPs/civilservants/trade associations/journalists present felt it was insufficient to change the dial economically. Much more needed!

Very positive and welcome from the Minister. But fully removing ideological barriers and being fully pragmatic for jobs, growth and lower prices would mean joining the single market. The politics prevents it for now but things can change quickly.

"An interesting question is whether anyone dares to weaponise Brexit against Reform. These are the people who gave you Brexit and promised it would deliver controlled migration." @jillongovt.bsky.social on the surge in popularity in Reform among UK voters

Best remark at the @ukandeu.bsky.social event in Brussels today... @stellacreasy.bsky.social replied: 'I haven't grasped the possibilities of arson to deal with my untidy house, either', when asked for a response to Brexiteers saying UK had not fully grasped the possibilities of Brexit.

Bluesky isn’t perfect but at least its owner isn’t demanding violent insurrection in the UK from thousands of miles away

For every hate-filled snarling fascist, there are many decent people open to reason who intend to vote Reform. Key task for progressives is to convince them- using good policy and rational argument - not to do so. Not just to express (justified) horror about the flag-defiling thugs.

Obviously, UK cannot rejoin the EU tomorrow. Equally obviously, every day outside EU is a day without economic and (geo)political advantages that - for all their problems - our neighbours have. So longer we do not rejoin, greater the risk of inexorable decline. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Inevitable divided views on the content of @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu 's #SOTEU speech. But undeniable it provided some public political drama, much needed at EU level. Let's hope the attacks by the centre-right (both VDL and Weber) on the far right are a sign of more to come

Disillusion with politics is not surprising...

'Boris Johnson was paid approximately £5.1m for 34 speeches*.' * no doubt crap and burbling speeches at that www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Great to hear gov't reply to @umakumaran.bsky.social on Youth Mobility and Erasmus Plus, acknowledging not only their economic benefits, but also their soft power potential and explicitly commit to opening them to all economic backgrounds, with the Taith scheme in Wales as part of the learning.👏🏽 ~AA

'Taxing the super-rich' more is a good idea. But pretending that will solve most of the UK's problems is a bad idea.

Who could possibly have foreseen?

"Reform has touted its plan as a “legal reset”. But it is better understood as a total rejection of the UK’s postwar international commitments to protect the human rights of everyone within its jurisdiction."

Indeed it won't be easy for Rachel Reeves to convince the markets. But a Reform government would be instant meltdown.

EU can (sometimes) stand up to tech bros and Trump....

The ECHR is the backbone of the Good Friday Agreement. With Reform UK calling for the UK to withdraw, we need to speak out. Add your name to our letter to the Government, and make sure that Nigel Farage's divisive policies don't gain more traction. www.europeanmovement.co.uk/keep_uk_in_e...

"We are the patriotic party" says Nigel Farage, who just spent the past few days slagging off his own country to a foreign superpower, while encouraging them to impose sanctions on our economy if we don't do what they say