"The problem isn’t that we have a deliberately biased BBC, it’s that we have a BBC that has been consciously reduced in its scope and bullied into dumbing down and retreating." @stephenkb.bsky.social

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This is what is happening. It is cynical. It is strategic. It is organised. It is well funded. And we need to pay attention. The far right - and their cheerleaders, mimics, tribute acts, and handmaidens have identified two presentational frameworks that give them cut-through and traction. 1/7

Vital piece of investigative reporting from Sky. They've uncovered the X algorithm which feeds users extremist right wing material from the moment they join the site. It is a far-right radicalisation engine, by design. news.sky.com/story/the-x-...

A great day for the golden rule of political analysis: when the right wins it is a resounding ideological victory that humiliates the left and when the left wins it is a precarious fluke that will surely end up humiliating the left. Conservatives are power’s landlords and the left merely tenants

Today, Mike Johnson will keep the House adjourned for the 91st day out of the last 103. 12 days of work in 103 days. With full pay and benefits. The senate has been working, so this is not about the shutdown. It is about avoiding a vote to release the Epstein files.

“All he knows how to do is tax tax tax” says Kemi Badenoch of Kier Starmer. Last Tory government of which she was part of “This is the highest tax burden since 1948. The parliament that started in 2019 saw the biggest rise in the tax take of any parliament in modern history.”

Lewis Goodall pressing Chris Philp on the difference between what Sarah Pochin said and what Robert Jenrick said about 'white faces'.

This is a very good and somewhat revealing listen … someone doesn’t like being pressed for actual answers.

😳 Reform-led Nottinghamshire County Council is to spend £75,000 installing new flags. “…164 union jack flags will be displayed at a cost of about £457 per flag…” Reform UK sure have a strange notion of DOGE …

Opinion | "The Conservatives, seemingly without even really realising it, have put forward one of the most extreme anti-immigration policies issued by any political party in British history", writes Ian Dunt trib.al/Eph9xPO

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OK guys, post your best signs from today for entry into my Top 15 No Kings Sign Contest.

Decades after the Heysel and Hillsborough disasters, can politicians please not second-guess expert safety assessments for football stadiums. Thank you. An Aston Villa fan.

“Kids”

Man child.

Private school VAT raid ‘did not drive pupils to state sector’ Local councils reject claims by the Scottish Council of Independent Schools that Labour’s policy has added to burden on taxpayers

President Donald Trump plans to greet released Israeli hostages before heading to Egypt for a summit of world leaders.

This is how it's done.

Great piece by Tom here.

Is Kemi really hoping that people believe all she has pointed out to be wrong with the country is the fault of a 15 month old government and not the result of the 14 years she and most of her front bench were in power?

This is truly brilliant.

This is a lie. There are many criticisms you might sensibly and truthfully make of the Sentencing Council and the Sentencing Guidelines. I’ve been making them for years. But this is an outright lie. Pure fabrication. A fraud on the public.

"In the hour and a half I was there, I didn't see another white face" Newsnight cover Robert Jenrick's leaked audio which some suggest are racist

Not a serious person. Zero mention of what this would mean for the over a million British citizens whose own access to welfare in the EU is protected by the withdrawal agreement.

Tell me you haven’t read Performance Tracker* without telling me you haven’t read Performance Tracker *or literally any serious writing on local government finances

This is a breathtaking abuse of the law and power by the President of the United States. America is on the brink of martial law. Do not be silent.

This detailed demolition of @gullyfoyleuk.bsky.social's "75 Brexit Benefits" by @alanbeattie.bsky.social deserves wider circulation. Intellectual garbage disposal is a valuable public service!

Is this cancel culture?

Barely a fortnight has passed since Kemi Badenoch’s reflexive and incredibly OTT hostility to the government’s proposals for digital ID.

Just noticed the Conservatives’ British ICE proposal also involves using mass deployment of facial ID – still an unproven and unreliable technology that particularly struggles with non-white faces – to enable deportations. Which would inevitably mean false positives leading to detention of citizens

Eleven very worrying minutes from the brilliant Simon Marks. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/s...

Gosh …

‘Polling commissioned by POLITICO shows the government’s agri-food deal agreed in principle with Brussels is popular with Remainers and Leavers alike — even when they're told it means following EU rules. ‘Nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of voters back the deal…

"I hope Starmer wakes up tomorrow morning and feels ashamed about what he has done," says man who unveiled this poster the day Jo Cox was assassinated by a far-right terrorist.

hardly anyone will watch Starmer's appearance at Labour conference today but it was probably the best speech he's ever given he clearly signposted what he stands for - a diverse, tolerant, decent Britain - and how be believes progressives are in an existential fight with the populist right

Strong moment as Keir Starmer calls out the racism we’ve seen in recent weeks and months: "Labour is proud of Britain's flags but if they are painted alongside graffiti telling a Chinese takeaway owner to 'go home', that's not pride - it's racism."

Keir Starmer: "When was the last time you heard Nigel Farage saying anything positive about Britain’s future? He doesn’t like Britain.”

How weird that this should have disappeared from the Telegraph archive...

NEW: Home Sec Shabana Mahmood hits out at far right. “In their view of this country I have no place. They are heirs to the skin heads and p*ki bashers of old”. “Patriotism - a force for good - is turning into something smaller which struggles to believe I can be truly English”.

Cat pigeons…

Justice secretary David Lammy today: "In fourteen years, the Tories built just 500 extra prison places. "In fourteen months, we have delivered 2,500 — and we’re on track for 14,000 extra prison places by 2031." It's "the fastest prison building programme since the Victorian age" he says.

The AfD qualified for three mayoral run-offs in cities in North Rhine-Westphalia today, and lost all by big margins. The lesson is not that we have overdone the AfD's rise, but that we do perhaps sometimes underestimate the counter-mobilisation effects - including in east Germany, incidentally.

A majority of people who voted Labour last year believe the UK is heading in the wrong direction. A new YouGov poll, commissioned by B4B, finds that the electoral coalition that brought Labour to power blames Brexit for where it's gone wrong. Read more: https://bit.ly/4mv524J

🚨NEW EVENT🚨 What next for gambling reform? We're discussing at Labour Party conference with Baroness Twycross, @mayorofgm.bsky.social, @mayorhelengodwin.bsky.social, @alexballingermp.bsky.social, @henryippr.bsky.social & @theobertram.bsky.social See our full events programme: buff.ly/Suei89S

Slowly getting closer and closer to the EU.

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Gabriel Gatehouse,"What Reform UK is doing quite dangerously from a social point of view is exactly the same as what MAGA and Trump have been doing" "If you think there isn't a market for that kind of anti establishment feeling here in the UK" "Then we haven't learnt anything from 2016 and Brexit"