Burnham govt removes VAT from household electricity bills. Average domestic bills should fall by £45 from 1st October. Ends Starmer's digital ID project which was going to cost £1.8bn over the next three years. Encouraging start.

🟣 SUBSTACK: What the World Cup Showed Us About Politics As the tournament comes to its final game, Jon Bloomfield and David Edgar reflect on what it has demonstrated about nationhood, identity and the global rules-based order Read below.

866,000 suspicious activity reports (SARs) on illicit financial flows reported to the National crime Agency. Can't launder money without accountants. UK has 408,000, highest per capita in the world, Only 0.71% came from accountants. Yet their trade associations regulate audit, insolvency.

i don’t think there’s a much beef between argentina and england as the media are making out; none of these players were even alive when the drug-addict maradona cheated in a quarter final, let alone when argentina’s fascist junta failed with their illegal invasion of british sovereign territory

NEW: The Home Office says Robert Jenrick’s claims that Nigel Farage was offered a downgraded security package by the government are “categorically untrue”. “Neither the Home Secretary, nor Ministers are involved in the provision of security for MPs.”

This is outright discrimination from Reform. It shows a stubborn ignorance of the advantages of bilingualism and multilingualism, and exposes Reform's politics as a tyranny of the majority when it comes to use of language.

Here we go... In shock news, Gianni Infantino extracts his head from Trump's arse just long enough to go and crawl to Qatar's ultra wealthy rulers instead... He is an exceedingly dodgy character, and FIFA is unfit for purpose. Football needs to rid itself of both! 🤮 share.google/qVqqXBkLBbIw...

The thing about Kemi Badenoch's purge of any Conservative member to the left of Enoch Powell is that she's so close to a Tory revival if she only realised it. All she needs to do is to lead a party that is not obviously mad and wait for Reform to crumble, but she can't even manage that

Burnham needs to very publicly and emphatically fire Mahmood, then make it clear that the cordon sanitaire is back in place and he's focussing on growth strategies. Because if he doesn't, we going to be going around the same roundabout yet again, and frankly the entire country is exhausted already.

Jason Mohammad and Owain Wyn Evans have been named among the BBC's highest earners, in an England-heavy rundown of the corporation's best paid presenters

Someone posted the up to date version of this infographic...

Football without faith is nothing so Infantino is playing with fire at World Cup | Jonathan Wilson

Sobering to see in one chart how June temperature records have been broken this year in so many European countries www.ft.com/content/5f06...

Nigel Farage has sent an email to Reform UK supporters tonight saying “we don’t know whether there were any political motives” behind Ann Widdecombe’s murder. But police have already ruled that out, saying there was “no information” to suggest the murder was “politically motivated”.

A sad and not a little shameful day for a once serious party. www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...

Another possible dodgy donation scandal involving Reform. And now it involves Richard Tice as we learn of £1m 'given' to a company apparently belonging to Tice, by the mother of Posh George, half of which was then donated to Reform - while the NCA have been unable to trace the source.

Have you considered simply not breaking the speed limit? www.thetimes.com/life-style/d...

How will we change this country for our grandchildren?

Bank of England governor says he is ‘able to spot’ lobbying after Farage crypto meeting

What we need now is one of the TV stations to host a debate, Farage to refuse to attend and @countbinface.bsky.social to empty chair him.

This is absolutely shameful - from both Tice and the Telegraph

Jesus wept

"This is a genuine first in UK politics. Never before has a politician announced their intention to run for re-election on an explicitly pro-sleaze, anti-transparency ticket." bylinetimes.com/2026/07/08/n....

"Trump burned any soft power gains the US had accumulated as host. He has made Fifa look like clowns in the process, and has surely left Infantino’s future as President in doubt. He made the US team pariahs, with the world rooting for their failure. And he gained absolutely nothing from it."

Pochettino could have reset the situation by refusing to play Balogun. He might have lost his job, but he'd earn hero status in the longer run. The team could have forced his hand by agreeing that he would not play. As a last resort he himself could have refused to play.

Here I am slagging off Keir Starmer for accepting some free glasses. Because that is so much worse than accepting £5 million from a crypto billionaire or using the house of a convicted fraudster while he pays for my staff, security and social media.

Belgium players mocking the US and Trump's meddling in the World Cup by doing the Trump dance after scoring the 4th goal against the USMNT

Tetchy little fella ain't he

JUST IN: Belgian federation says it is challenging FIFA’s decision to let U.S. forward Folarin Balogun play in World Cup match

#BBCLauraK #BBCNews LOL! Reform UK Ltd's Robert Jenrick said the Rupert Murdoch-owned The Sunday Times is a: "Labour-supporting paper!" 😂 He really must think we're all idiots.

Too much focus here on whether or not these were acceptable political donations or not. Not enough focus on a millionaire enrichment-obsessed conman who uses racism, homophobia raft and a of 1970s-style bigotries to advance his grift. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

So Farage far too chicken to come on #bbclaurak and defend a £5m bung from a crypto tycoon based abroad so he sends a bloke who, whilst a Tory minister, handed £45m to a billionaire porn merchant as a favour. And gullible fucks still reckon they're on their side because of, yer know, immigrants.

He literally took undeclared donations from a criminal - never mind “breaking rules” Farage has tried to ignore them entirely for personal gain. And he’s done it over and over again www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Wondering if a bit like Boris and partygate, we are reaching the point of "None of this matters until suddenly all of it does".

The Welsh Government have announced that pubs in Wales will not be allowed to open in the early hours for England's World Cup match. However restaurants serving Mexican food can open and will have their business rates waved for the day. 🇲🇽🌵⚽️

And on it goes. South West Water dumps sewage in the little River Dart. Children cooling off in the heat suffer accordingly. But far more important, for year ending 31st March, SWW recorded a pre tax profit of £114m. So that's alright then... 🤮 #RenationaliseWaterNow share.google/8nJPdKUZIp4h...

I asked the other day. What the hell was Farage doing having a *private* meeting with the Governor of the B of E? Who does he think he is? More to the point, who does the bank think he is? As for the 'watchdog'. Is it any more use than other government watchdogs? Or just another toothless ornament?

So I'm told a crowd of about 100 people turned up in Wimborne to protest against Katie Hopkins appearing there. Really impressive demo for such a small town showing the strength of feeling. Well done Wimborne.

The Halifax brand is being scrapped after 173 years on British high streets and all customer accounts will be rebranded to Lloyds over time

Interesting analysis by Ian Hunt & Simon Davies about the Fuchs departure. Agree with their argument that further club communications about what happened and why would be welcomed by fans. 🎧 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds... #ncafc 🧡🖤

Sweden trying to stop France

it's increasingly easy to see a world where Farage just gives up running Reform UK before 2029, having already become one of the richest people in UK politics

3 minutes on how Trump adminstration has tried to skew the midterm elections over the last 2 weeks youtube.com/shorts/msPZB...

Last week, it was reported that Newport County is going to be bought by Nick Beddis, an entrepreneur. But it was further reported that Beddis received a six-year prison term in 2013. Which raises the question: can he pass the EFT Owners and Directors Test? 1/ www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/footba...

Well, we all know that Nigel Farage is forever calling for debates. So I'm sure he'll be anxious to speak in this one, that Richard Burgon MP has secured time for. Won't you Nigel? 🤔

I'm genuinely embarrassed for the Conservative party at this point.

Dripping with class hatred until they have to pretend to be on the side of (white, male, conservative, anti-immigrant) working-class people again tomorrow