Spoke tonight with the Financial Times. 👇🏼

cato institute analysis of murders by political ideology since 1975, excluding 9/11

Reality check looms for Reform UK’s Doge experiment on.ft.com/4mQsIlf

There is some frenzied lust of final self-destruction dominating papers like the Mail or the Telegraph these days, that is astonishing even to their own standards. Where will this end?

Skye likes the sunshine.

Concern over low birth rates was what the theocracy in Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale used to come to power.

1/ This is so true @bearlypolitics.co.uk Time for UK govt to lead not follow, racism has no part in a democracy, it must be stopped 🤬🤬🤬🤬 Great (suggested) speech as well on next skeet open.substack.com/pub/iratusur...

A must read summary of how the current situation in the Middle East came to pass. Britain's grubby hands all over it..

This is quite the exhaustive history of the carving up of the middle east a century ago, that led us to where we are today: coppolacomment.substack.com/p/lies-decei...

My new Coppola Comment post traces the events that led to the creation of Mandatory Palestine, and unpicks some of the web of lies and deceit that obscures the truth. open.substack.com/pub/coppolac...

"With the entry of women into the workforce in #WWII, there was much discussion of their “double burden”: but nothing much was done about it until the 1970s, apart from earlier retirement age, set in part because many women were worn out long before they reached 60." www.forbes.com/sites/france...

My new Coppola Comment post traces the events that led to the creation of Mandatory Palestine, and unpicks some of the web of lies and deceit that obscures the truth. open.substack.com/pub/coppolac...

Who built a system where someone can export a list of Taliban murder targets into excel on a computer with internet access.

The phrase "no shit Sherlock" seems woefully inadequate. The world has watched the Israeli authorities conduct a genocide in Gaza. There is absolutely no question or doubt that it's offensively named "humanitarian city" is a concentration camp. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Me: *shows Skye new catflap* Skye: "WHAT IS THIS THING THAT YOU ARE TRYING TO MURDER ME WITH"

"Netanyahu Is the Problem": Sanders's Former Adviser Matt Duss on Why Gaza Ceasefire Remains Elusive

New article at @themintmag. Gaza's inflation rate topped 75% per month in April. But Gaza doesn't have its own currency, and its money supply has been fixed since October 2023. Money printing can't be causing Gaza's runaway inflation. So what is? www.themintmagazine.com/bread-line-n...

New article at @themintmag. Gaza's inflation rate topped 75% per month in April. But Gaza doesn't have its own currency, and its money supply has been fixed since October 2023. Money printing can't be causing Gaza's runaway inflation. So what is? www.themintmagazine.com/bread-line-n...

"The people most affected by the Government's welfare reforms are not the people you think they are" Very clear piece from @francescoppola.bsky.social on the government's welfare bill & who is most likely to be impacted.

New Coppola Comment post. Political discourse about the Government's welfare reforms focuses on young people, but the people most affected will be older claimants, especially women aged 60-65. I fail to see what purpose throwing them into poverty will serve. open.substack.com/pub/coppolac...

On my way home now after an enjoyable day at the Housing 2025 conference in Manchester. Thank you to Gaby Hinsliff and my fellow panellists Hannah Peaker of NEF and Mohammed Jamei of the CBI for a wide-ranging discussion on the UK's economic outlook.

2 kg of gooseberries from my garden have become eight jars of jam.

Woolly mullein flowers and Blush Noisette roses, and in the distance, the bright yellow spikes of dark mullein. The view from my deck as I sit drinking coffee.

Woolly mullein flowers. Spot the approaching bee.

If you missed this week's #FullScottish with Nadia Chand, @goldishcj4.bsky.social and @francescoppola.bsky.social, it is available to watch on catch-up now.

Frances Coppola @francescoppola.bsky.social The "deserving poor" are the latest target of Government cuts coppolacomment.substack.com/p/the-deserv...

I want to take a moment to share an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence's grievances against King George III. Sound familiar?

I find the Musk/Trump cat fight absolutely delicious, so now imagine Putin, he must be over the bloody moon!

Scribble died peacefully at 4.35 this afternoon. I held her and stroked her as she passed away. Sleep well, gentlest and most loving of cats. 🌈 ❤️

You have to admit, it is pretty damn funny that Thames Water granted KKR exclusivity to prepare an equity bid — freezing out the other bidders — and then they ghosted them at the eleventh hour. Detail on that, and more, in this analysis published yesterday on.ft.com/4ksRqa9

Perspicacious from @rafaelbehr.bsky.social who points to the similarities between Liz Truss and Badenoch and Farage. Liz Truss whose bizarre speech in Budapest, blaming globalists like the IMF and WHO for the downfall of the West, was faithfully summarised (& no doubt celebrated) in Russia’s Tass

Scribble enjoying the sunshine this morning.

Update on Scribble. It's very bad news, I'm afraid. The problem is not her teeth. They have discovered a cancerous tumour in front of her larynx. It's bleeding and aggressive.

Scribble has an operation today to remove a badly infected tooth which is causing her a lot of pain and preventing her eating. She's eighteen, so the operation is not without risk. Hope she makes it through ok... 😱

In 'aged like skunk roadkill' news

This is mad.

Britain has no idea - in terms of its self-image, not economists obviously - what economy it actually has One of my favourite facts to point out is: at over £8bn annually, the *videogames industry* is more than twice as valuable to the UK economy as fishing and steel combined.

New Coppola Comment post. The government's Green Paper on benefit reforms aims to eliminate the divide between "deserving" and "undeserving" poor that has dominated policy for 600 years. But all it really does is change the definitions. coppolacomment.substack.com/p/the-deserv...

1/Blockbuster ruling by Court of International Trade nullifying reciprocal tariffs and trafficking tariffs. It also severely handicaps attempts to reimpose. The Court in no uncertain terms rejects national security justification (something courts rarely do). www.cit.uscourts.gov/sites/cit/fi...

This is going to financially hobble many universities and possibly bankrupt some. The damage these animals are doing to America will take a generation to undo.

well this is fun

New Coppola Comment post. The government's Green Paper on benefit reforms aims to eliminate the divide between "deserving" and "undeserving" poor that has dominated policy for 600 years. But all it really does is change the definitions. coppolacomment.substack.com/p/the-deserv...

Today I took roses from my garden to the graves of my dear ones. Pink roses for Alan, orange for my parents. There are lovely wild flowers growing on my parents' grave. And where we scattered Alan's ashes, there are daisies.

The people of Gaza are facing into a famine, that is absolutely the creation of the Israeli government. There has been food sitting in trucks on the border that can save starving children. It is an enforced starvation of a people, which is a war crime. 7/ www.bbc.com/news/live/c8...

To insult two highly respected and free thinking politicians like this is disgraceful. It just shows how far standards in society have fallen. Anyone reposting this insulting photograph should feel utterly ashamed. 😡

Thread worth reading - a govt with removing barriers to opportunity *as one of 5 key missions* should be thinking more deeply/ smartly about how racism & i suspect other forms of prejudice (similar for misogyny?) express themselves now compared to a generation ago - what's better, what's worse

The Irish Great Famine; “Gorta Mór” (Great hunger); “Drochshaol” (the bad times) is a defining disaster in Irish history. It’s the before and after of our understanding of our country. Generally accepted estimate is 1 million died, and millions fled, and the Irish population fell for generations 1/

Happy #Caturday to all who celebrate.

God is working today in the committed relationships of same-sex couples