Apparently, dry January (or dry any month) means you must only drink really dry - extra brut - wine or champagne!

NEW When should social media posts have legal consequences? Comparing and contrasting the cases of Lucy Connolly and Alaa Abd El-Fattah By me, at @newstatesman1913.bsky.social www.newstatesman.com/politics/soc...

Happy new year from all the Jamon plates:

This is entirely on Keir Starmer and UKG. This deal could have been done in early 2025. It didn't happen because Labour: -Kept demanding special treatment -Failed to communicate positively about 🇪🇺 to public -Hated letting 🇪🇺 youth come to the UK 1 www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

Reflections on a year of far-right mass deportation policies and the scapegoating of migrants going mainstream (Full disclosure: I am an immigrant!) www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/pol...

Call it “mutual” and suddenly people get it.

I just wish it would happen more often.

Merry Christmas to one and all! 🎄🎅🧑‍🎄🤶🤶🤶🤶

Christmas Eve.

Fixed it for you…

Farage's failed Brexit promised the world and has delivered nothing but misery. So why trust Farage's Reform with the UK economy? They can't even run councils they've won. #SpottedNews

The UK leaving Erasmus was always a misunderstanding. British students soon rejoining EU universities is more than a policy shift - it’s a generation reconnecting. Welcome home. 🇪🇺🎓

Petition - Apply to Rejoin the EU as soon as possible to increase growth in the UK. Everyday that passes, Brexit inflicts more harm on ordinary people, pushing up taxes and damaging government services. Please sign and share as widely as possible. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74...

Today, we make further steps in our renewed EU-UK strategic partnership. We have concluded the negotiations for the UK’s association to Erasmus+ in 2027. Bringing back Erasmus+ for our young people, opening the door to new shared experiences and lasting friendships.

For your collective delectation this holiday season: Quite possibly the silliest thing I've ever written (and definitely the most ridiculous graph I've ever made!) loreandordure.com/2025/12/16/j...

"On social media, the upcoming generation is expressing more European solidarity than the continent has seen in decades." This makes the Queen of Schengen very happy. Go on kids you are our future 🇪🇺♥️ www.politico.eu/article/unit...

Trump suing the BBC for $10Bn is basically shaking down every person in the UK for hundreds of pounds, during a cost of living crisis. Should make him and his domestic acolytes very unpopular.

Rob Reiner: I'm going to make a coming of age drama, a fantasy adventure story, a romantic comedy, a psychological horror and then a courtroom drama. Us: Across your entire career? Reiner: In a 6 year period. Us: That sounds- Reiner: -Each one will be arguably the best movie in that genre.

As you may know, I have stopped using Twitter, and have decided to reproduce some of my more memorable threads here for posterity. Here’s one I hold wrote after a particularly engaging swordfighting lesson. Buckle up, swordfighting fans, because I *have* studied my Agrippa! [BIG ASS THREAD]

It has become received wisdom in Brussels and Washington that there is a new “euro-sclerosis”: that the EU economy is lagging the US This view is wrong A little primer on the measurement of productivity – and why reports of the economic death of Europe are greatly exaggerated🧵

Oh look the Brexit monkey

Freedom of Movement is the best thing the EU ever invented! For the first time in European history, the working class of Europe have a RIGHT to live, study, work, set-up business and retire across dozens of European borders! The Single Market makes the whole of Europe our home! #RejoinEU 🇬🇧🇪🇺

I admire Stella Creasy. She has stood up for the pro-European principles she believes in. But let's be honest. This is a pretty tame piece. What is needed is a political leader from the mainstream who stands up and says: The UK's place is in the EU. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A must watch. A powerful video from Norway displays gender based inequality. The look of dismay & confusion on the girls' faces upon receiving less for the same task was a little painful. They agreed it was unfair. "Girls are not less than boys." Credit: Finansforbundet, Boss Women Magic #Pinks

Another Brexit economic verdict arrived last month in the form of an 83-page NBER working paper - and it is devastating. What shocks me more is how politely politics continues to look away from the person who drove the bus.

A lot of this comes down to UK politicians wanting to negate the consequences of Brexit without negating Brexit itself. But no, you can't have your cake and eat it too - and I don't think a very overt dependency on EU policy with no say is sustainable for the UK.

@samuelmarclowe.bsky.social has a good discussion on customs unions in his newsletter. Just a couple points: the below is true, but I don't think it matters all that much - since if the UK wanted to impose significantly higher tariffs than the EU, it would presumably to reroute trade through the EU.

Pointless saying it if you intend to do fuck all to change it and stick to moronic fucking red lines snd cosplay fascist plc. There is no point to blueshitlabour and vlowns like Lammy at all

What were the recent events? 🤔

Daisy Cooper, "In 2017 there was not a single asylum seeker that arrived on a boat" "Today we have 46,000 a year" "And do you know why?" "Brexit" "Pushed through by Boris Johnson and championed by Nigel Farage" *audience erupts in applause" #BBCQT

This is a seriously funny read.👇🏼 Enjoy!

Here is a godawful joke in chart form to ruin your Christmas season 🤪🎄

🚨Some personal news. I'm thrilled to announce that I've just filed my first copy for The New Yorker. A profile of Jonathan Gullis. "You get the sense that offstage, Jonathan Gullis struggles with being Jonathan Gullis." open.substack.com/pub/mrhenrym...

From an Aussie point of view, I would suggest the UK: 1. Rejoin the EU asap. 2. Ditch the Pound and adopt the Euro 3. Ditch all remaining imperial measurements and go fully metric

Keir Starmer has again announced that the UK will be moving closer to Europe because Brexit has been a failure. 92% of people in the UK think Brexit has been a failure and made the UK worse. 70% of people would rejoin instantly. Why don't we get rid of Brexit now?

To see how Labour stitched the UK up in today's pharmaceutical trade deal with the USA, you have to turn to the US readout of what they're getting in return. It spells out what was as clear as mud in the UK government's own press release: we will pay more for medicines. ustr.gov/about/policy...

Ouch youtu.be/Oii2zmEqWVU?...

A reminder of my new blog post on Brexit reminders

EU doesnt need to do anything, it holds all the cards. Its the UK that needs to pull the finger out and act, this is a problem entirely of its making.

Brexit reminders. New post on my Brexit & Brexitism Blog. Brexit may not be in the headlines, but many current news stories carry reminders of it, including the Hallett Inquiry report, the Gill scandal, the Budget & the latest net migration figures: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2025/11/brex...

Almost as if those people you keep trying to satisfy on immigration will never be satisfied, while the parties you are competing with won't react to the outcomes you deliver in good faith, and the unsatisfied voters listen to and trust them more than they trust you. Who could have predicted this?

NEW When is an order an ‘unlawful command’? And why has Trump reacted so furiously to six members of Congress correctly stating the law? By me, at @prospectmagazine.co.uk (In which I go and look at the actual law and guidance in US and also UK.) www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

Remember when Brexiters were reduced to pretending that pint bottles of champagne represented a major win?

Dear Cloudflare… when you say that I “may be a robot”… you are wrong 100% of the time. Admittedly actual robots will not care, but all actual humans are liable to take offence.

When you hear what Rachel Reeves has in store in the Budget, remember that there were ALWAYS other choices. Labour have deliberately and consciously chosen to ignore the fact that Brexit is draining up to £90 billion a year from the UK economy. That's a gap no amount of taxation can fill.

🔥 Rachel Reeves says there’s a “hole” in the public finances. A new decade-long Brexit study quantifies it: A 6–8% hit to GDP That's £180bn-£240bn a year It means less tax revenue and so less money for everything. Brexit made Britain MUCH poorer.

Will the UK ever recover from leaving the EU?

Elon Musk's poison hall of mirrors from @cwarzel.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

Still reeling from the Stanford report on Brexit. Reduced GDP by up to 8% and investment by as much as 18%. The UK Treasury would have £40 billion more each year if Britain had remained in the EU. Devastating self-immolation.