It seems that Nadhim Zahawi has died

If Reform keep sucking in the dregs of the Conservative Party, there's a non-zero risk that the latter may become an electable party once more...

Nadim Zahawi arrived in the UK from Iraq as a child refugee. His family claimed asylum once they were here. Today he has joined Reform who will stop all in country asylum applications. Under his new party, his own family fleeing persecution would be immediately deported.

I do enjoy these CCHQ quotes: "Yes another of the people we promoted to extremely important roles is a grifting wanker."

A Tory spokesperson goes in two-footed: "Reform is fast becoming the party of has-been politicians looking for their next gravy train. Their latest recruit used to say he'd be 'frightened to live in a country' run by Nigel Farage, which shows the level of loyalty for sale."

At what point does this become damaging to Reform? They really are just the Tories in a MAGA wig...

"Nadhim Zahawi, a few years ago you tweeted: 'I'm not British born Mr Nigel Farage, I'm as British you are. Your comments are offensive and racist. I would be frightened to live in a country run by you'" Nadhim Zahawi has just joined Reform.

In 2025, 22% of the flats sold in London sold at less than they were bought for. For houses, the figure is 3.5%. www.ft.com/content/dbef...

Ah yes, OfCom. What a fantastic job they have done of protecting our media ecosystem so far... however, being a little more serious for a moment, isn't the production of CSAM usually more of a criminal matter than a regulatory concern?

Yes, the UK is currently dependent upon the US in certain areas of national security - but every time the UK government says that it will never do anything to jeopardise the UK/US relationship it forces our European nations to put yet more barriers between themselves and us.

49ers it is then. Going to be interesting to see what adjustments each coach makes after what was a pretty one-sided affair last time around. San Francisco will be out to reclaim some pride.

The DOJ is more than three weeks late in delivering the Epstein Files. In those three weeks: - Trump declared himself acting President of Venezuela - ICE murdered a woman in Minnesota - Trump is preparing an invasion of a NATO ally - Trump initiated a criminal investigation of Fed Chair Powell

Courage.

An inconvenient truth, therefore the Establishment must be lying. (UK MAGA playbook).

One for those who like to insist this government isn't against the anti-genocide protests...

Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albáres has joined France’s call to build a European Army and to integrate its defense industry free of US interference. This would allow Europe to act independently of third countries and strengthen its security.

wow it's really lucky no Sun or TPA staffers ever accept cabs when they appear on the BBC because otherwise this would look like a pretty embarrassing bit of hypocrisy

UK MPs on Bluesky (not all verified yet) as of now on this handy examiner

also, I know for a fact that Taxpayers Alliance spokespeople have had cabs to and from the BBC, as I used to do the paper reviews with one of them.

If a shop was selling the material Grok has been producing, it would be prosecuted. So the question is whether X is subject to the same laws as everyone else, or whether it can intimidate govts into exempting it. Equality before the law is not "fascism". It's one of our best defences against it.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans died to stop “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer" 80 years on, with Musk and Bannon saluting it, the enemy is truly within

Again, the people who seem to be most damaged by social media aren't the kids - who are quite good at navigating it - but the middle-aged, who get caught up in extremism, fooled by misinformation, trapped by scammers, and addicted to porn. Stop focussing on the kids. Start with the rest of us.

Properly funding the court system would clear the backlog even more quickly. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

The House of Representatives has declined to override Trump's veto on a bill to complete a pipeline that would deliver clean, safe drinking water to communities in Southeastern Colorado whose local supply is contaminated with salt, radium & selenium. 🧵 1/5 coloradosun.com/2026/01/08/h...

Baffling that folks are still trusting Israeli technology at this point.

This👇💯%

Ronald Reagan’s budget director.

We have cleaned up the crime scene and blocked a local investigation and hidden the perpetrator and invaded the state and that is how you know that we are acting in good faith and that everything was the victim’s fault. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...

The billionaire class offering support to the regime's secret police.

This pretty much gives the game away in the latest piece suggesting the US conquest of Cuba from a groyper-aligned "think tank" whose anonymous members in Trump's Washington machine view themselves as the future of Republican foreign policy defenseanalyses.org/work/cuba-as...

Ukraine’s anti-drone drones are proving quite useful, reportedly intercepting thousands of Russian drones in the air heading for Ukrainian cities. While air defense often costs more than air attack—sometimes a lot more—the STING interceptor drones are comparable or cheaper than what they take down.

Sweden's paper of record says in light of where Trump is taking the US it's necessary to discuss "joint Nordic nuclear weapons – perhaps together with Germany". www.dn.se/ledare/ingen...

The number of one-off structural changes that disadvantage young people vs their parents at the same age is pretty staggering

👇👇👇👇

WELKER: Where is that $50,000? Did you keep it? HOMAN: I didn't take $50k from anybody & that's a question for the FBI. Bottom line I did nothing illegal. WELKER: But was there $50k in the bag? HOMAN: I'm not addressing it WELKER: But did you keep the money? HOMAN: $50k is ridiculous

This should be the policy of every local law enforcement agency in America.

Timothy Ryan Gregg, 51, an ICE / HSI agent from Eagan, MN, was arrested in June 2025 for enticing a minor and production of child sexual abuse material. Gregg is a supporter of Donald Trump and his archived Parler profile is still online.

If anyone still believes that US social media platforms aren't a tool for political influence, micro-targeting and propaganda then they should ask themselves why the US threw a tantrum over TikTok.

No Kemi, Trump threatening to invade a NATO ally is not a "second order issue." It’s a direct challenge to Britain’s security and the future of NATO.

The message from the White House this morning is that, once again, it falls on ordinary American citizens to remain calm and professional when dealing with the heavily armed agents of the government because they are very emotional and might fly off into a murderous rage at the slightest insult.

Tapper: "By this standard, would any of these officers be justified in shooting and killing the people causing them physical harm?" Noem: "Every single situation is going to rely on the situation those officers are on." It only gets dumber from there.

Mandelsen "offering his best judgement" that Trump will not invade Greenland. With respect Peter, your best judgement told you partying with a child sex abuser was a good idea.

Worth considering the motives of those resisting controls/bans on X. They'll claim "freedom of speech" but there are plenty of alternative platforms (like this one) where they can express themselves as they like (within the law). It's an easily refutable argument. What is left?

And then I see this softly-softly nonsense. Sigh...

If Starmer does ban X then it may be the start of a much-delayed Labour pushback against the forces seeking to do us harm. Let's see if they've found some bottle.

Wild start to the Wildcard Weekend in the NFL. Rams looked surprisingly shaky... the rubber match with my Seahawks is seemingly an inevitability.

The Virgin Democratic Party Establishment Candidate: "ICE isn't coordinating with local police. This is no way to bring down prices!" The Chad Episcopalian Bishop: "I have instructed my priests to prepare for martyrdom."

“A diplomatic source said: 'The generals think Trump's Greenland plan is crazy and illegal. So they are trying to deflect him with other major military operations. They say it's like dealing with a five-year-old'.” what the fuck have we tried turning the country off and back on again

Every flimsy, asburd rationalisation that lefties and progressives have been using to keep using the abuse application becomes an argument against banning it, too. Congrats folks, hope you enjoy it