Worth remembering when looking at the horrific scenes in the US right now that both Reform and the Tories have pledged to bring in ICE-style organisations to the UK if they win power

This really is an outstanding piece of political journalism.

"The aggressor is always peace-loving... he would prefer to take over our country unopposed." -Clausewitz

And so, with one faltering step, it begins - the unstoppable riot of spring

Self-proclaimed “tough-minded pragmatists” often invoke the Melian Dialogue in Thucydides to justify their policy preferences. They usually misunderstand the text. It can be a costly mistake. @seva.bsky.social explains. hegemon.substack.com/p/the-strong...

Some good points here…

Almost everyone's Trump handling tactic is public flattery and private delay / obfuscation. Why? Because it works better than any alternative that has been tried. There is though a big weakness which is that this strategy can't actually be publicly communicated.

🟢 One in six species in the UK is now at risk of extinction. In our latest issue, @stuartspray.bsky.social shows how Reform UK's plans to scrap biodiversity initiatives would risk accelerating the decline of already fragile ecosystems. subscribe.bylinetimes.com/edition/82/a...

An in-depth article on the expansion of ultra-violent criminal youth gangs in Istanbul, which are spreading even to the most politicized areas of the city. Ultimately, this phenomenon could place Turkey in a situation similar to that of Brazil and Mexico. www.lemonde.fr/en/internati...

Many Norfolk farm #ponds have steep sides especially at the old clay/marl pit digging face. Sometimes, if cleared of scrub, a stunning vertical meadow is formed along the sharp moisture gradient from waters edge to bank top. Here Sayer's Black Pit, the first pond we restored in 2011, shows the way

*CALIFORNIA AG LAUNCHES PROBE INTO XAI, GROK *CALIFORNIA AG: PROBE OVER UNDRESSED, SEXUAL AI IMAGES

I wrote about Renee Good, Venezuela, Greenland, and what it means to be a human being. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

If the figures we're getting out of Iran are in the right league, this weekend was, I think, one of the bloodiest state crackdowns of all time. People are talking 12,000-20,000 dead; for comparison Hungary in 1956 was about 2,500, Tiananmen - across country, in multiple cities - probably 1000+

The least surprising poll finding you'll ever see:

I find a great way to make any comment sound stupid is to write it with alternate capital and lower case letters, like this: “DoN’t FoRgEt To FiLe YoUr TaX rEtUrN”. It really works. #toptips

Now: Bure 30s: Bosphorus [not a river, I know!] 20s: Liffey Growing up: Avon

Ultimately it’s not a hard question, or shouldn’t be: if there were a website called creepywank dot org, where you could upload any picture or screengrab of anyone and get AI to produce a photorealistic picture of that person, regardless of age, in a state of undress…should it be legal in the UK?

Ill say it again, make all the comparisons with Turkey you want, Erdoğan waited a decade to be this brazen... or this dumb.

Latest from me, on an eternally overlooked, sniffed-at issue that is politically huge www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I think it's very important that Rupert Lowe's "Million Nonce March" gets widespread media coverage. Critical to amplify diverse voices.

I am extremely confused as to why the UK government and police are saying Grok’s mass-scale CSAM generation is an issue for Ofcom. This isn’t about X failing to moderate CSAM, which is an Online Safety Act issue. It is about the company and its technology being actively involved in its generation.

GROK IS GENERATING ABOUT ‘ONE NONCONSENSUAL SEXUALIZED IMAGE PER MINUTE www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...

I wrote to my local MP about the creation of deepfake porn on X. I suggest others do too.

Threatening to disconnect Elon Musk's X in Europe would be unprecedented, but it might be time to play that card

Starmer's tweet couldn't be clearer but a bit awkward when one of the main government comms platforms literally does this as a feature now

At some point someone will realise that making AI more twattish will increase engagement. Then we’ll be really screwed.

Chatgpt just hallucinated a fake book recommendation to me and honestly, I kind of like it for making shit up. Its shit-eating apologies are more annoying, given that it will clearly do the same thing again next time.

For years I've been baffled at how so many YIMBYs are in denial about some of the basic environmental ABCs of UK politics. But at this rate if Starmer and Reed fail to follow @luketryl.bsky.social's shrewd advice the Labour Party will get shredded by the Greens. www.ft.com/content/f456...

Even by my low expectations for Kemi Badenoch ‘violence against women and girls is something done by immigrants and nobody else’ has shocked me.

The fact of this nterview suggests that believing Kemi Badenoch should not be eligible to be in parliament is seen as a legitimate debatable view by journalists for major outlets The inference of are you the UK's answer to Fuentes is to suggest pro-Hitler views should not be a bar either!

Super excited for this - should be epic!!!

I’m not surprised Trump is taking this seriously. There is a very real chance the end or continuation of his regime will ultimately come down to what orders the military is willing to follow | Democrats Say F.B.I. Is Investigating Them Over Illegal Orders Video www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/u...

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

Have a Poem published in the latest edition of @dustpoetry.bsky.social about microplastics www.dustpoetry.co.uk/post/the-mic...

The basic problem with the temporary refugee status policy - especially one lasting up to 20 years - is it leads to very few removals (based on Denmark's experience) but does significantly worsen integration.

If you think that “the slow vanishing of employee benefits” is a better trade politically than “the other lot saying you broke your promise on income tax”, you are out of your tree: www.ft.com/content/1160...

Imagine if we applied the same approach to ALL children, not just those who grow up in care. On your 16th birthday, your mum and dad pack your bags and point you to a distant bedsit.

Gotta love Private Eye. Always cuts through the crap.

Finally.

NEW: Labour condemn Tory plan to strip people of indefinite leave to remain: “It’s utterly grotesque that Tories want to deport people with the lawful right to be here to achieve ‘cultural coherence’. “This policy would mean tearing families apart and ripping out our neighbours from communities."

Apropos of nothing, I really do think UK journalists and politicians need some reminding that mass deportation of LEGAL immigrants, particularly those with permanent status, is far more extreme than even Trump's America and would basically place Britain completely on its own among democracies.

How is this repeatedly made into a policy issue - by *all* parties - when the blunt fact of the matter is that grown adults who are obliged to pay for their own education, and relentlessly pursued to repay their loans, should be able to study whatever the fuck they want.

Why Keir Starmer's refusal to explicitly condemn Nigel Farage's immoral plan to tear thousands of families and communities apart will only help clear the Reform leader's path to Downing Street bylinetimes.com/2025/09/22/w...

Working on a piece & cannot believe I just wrote the following: "On Wednesday, ABC cancelled Jimmy Kimmel Live! just hours after the Trump-controlled Federal Communications Commission (FCC) threatened to cancel ABC’s broadcasting license." The de-democratization of America in action.

Oh a forced sale to regime allies? Shocker.

A debate Labour badly needs to have:

There's no better poster child for the mess the UK is now in than the fact that the Financial Times - home to the "how to spend it" supplement on luxury geegaws - is now one of the most left-wing media channels in the country simply because it's still interested in reality.

@jo-the-botanist.bsky.social Hi Jo, I found this grass I think is Lolium giganteum, do you think that’s right?

@tetzoo.bsky.social Any idea what this is?