What went wrong? MMS has a pathological hatred of the left, which resulted in barely disguised contempt for the soft left, which in turn has left MMS and Starmer without people willing to defend them.

The Iron Economist gets it.

Starmer needs to acknowledge he didn’t win a huge mandate — the Tories collapsed, so Labour strolled in. Corbyn actually lost with more votes. What did McSweeney do next? Advise Labour into the lowest poll ratings in its history. So spare us the tears over McSweeney’s resignation. 👇🙄

They looked for “Don T” in the Epstein files and redacted all instances, which means they also redacted a lot of “don’t”

Why yes I am the editor of the guardian

The best thing about the Mandelson scandal is that we will never need to listen to centre left journalists go on about Starmer’s “forensic” abilities ever again.

🚨NEW Epstein Co-Owned Venture Fund with Palantir Founder as it Entered UK Government The convicted sex trafficker co-owned a fund with Peter Thiel, now embedded in Britain’s most critical infrastructure, with the help of Peter Mandelson bylinetimes.com/2026/02/04/j...

Buy a rotisserie chicken. Put carcass in water with onion, celery, and carrot. Simmer gently for several hours. Decant and freeze.

Iran is an Islamic theocracy because of the US. Iran had a democratic government which the US and UK overthrew to install a brutal pro western dictatorship for oil. The 79 revolution was a direct consequence of this. People pretend the government is anti-US for no reason

The only way that Iran is prevented from becoming Syria or Libya is by having a replacement regime standing ready to takeover. That is more than simply having a prince, because a state is far larger than the figurehead. Most likely, Israel will want to break Iran up, which will lead to chaos.

Tom's mistake is that he conflates full blown authoritarianism with fascism. As if fascism only occurs when there has been full consolidation of power. There are 2 major scholarly definitions of fascism both of which tom is ignorant of: 1) Palingenetic ultranationalism (Roger Griffin) /1

Calling rugby stats nerds! 🤓 We're not just imagining it: the #AllBlacks are frustrating to watch... and there are numbers to prove it 📊 I break down the numbers that explain Razor's unusual game-plan in my latest article for @AllThingsRugbyX Link ♥️ allthingsrugby.com/news/why-new...

I prosecute and defend the most serious sexual offences in our courts. The overwhelming majority of offenders are British-born. Overwhelmingly the victim is someone known to them, either a partner or relative. Anybody purporting to care about protecting women might start there.

Israel has no more right to exist than the world’s only Afrikaner state had a right to exist. A two state solution was never an option for South Africa. What makes Israel special? #Israel #Palestine

Social liberalism was popular, as was building hospitals without borrowing, so we got social rights and PFI. Labour was happy to fan Islamophobia though, because opposing it was not popular, but I guess that didn’t affect you.

The only difference is that the Blair govt rode a rising economy created on the back of financialisation. The politics are barely indistinguishable.

Actual content of the NYT piece going round refutes its headline

Nineteen months after South Africa brought a case of genocide to the ICJ and the establishment is only waking up to the reality now. Ignorance like that must surely be bought. As for Netanyahu, he is merely a symptom. The only difference between now and any point in the past 70yrs is intensity.

Yes, we should absolutely treat words about death far more harshly than we treat the people actually engaged in delivering death to hundreds of thousands of people. This is what liberalism means.

@lewisgoodall.com Listening to the most recent News Agents. In all the talk of negotiations, no one has mentioned the fact that the US and Israel seemingly colluded to use the negotiations as cover for a sneak attack. Where is the modicum of trust needed for any negotiation going to come from?

Lovely, lovely stuff

Starmer told UK must repeal hate speech laws to protect LGBT+ people or lose Trump trade deal. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

For me, these analyses always seem to forget that FPTP incentivises voting-against, rather than voting-for. No one votes for what they want, because our parties are too broad, so we all vote to keep other parties out, and there are very few Lab/Dem marginals.

If anyone is wondering what would have happened if Farage had been allowed to "implement Brexit". You're looking at it.

Largely because centrists don’t make good martyrs. Serious point though, solving political problems using legal mechanisms is risky, as we’ve seen play out in the US.

I walked by a Tesla today and this is what was written on the window

@davidallengreen.bsky.social damn funny comment about the Brummie accent! I’ll be fixated on trying to imagine an optimistic Brummie accent all day now.

This is the best thing that I’ve read on Starmer’s speech. Might be of interest? @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social @acjsissons.bsky.social @anthonyzach.be substack.com/@theideaslab...

Latin American side of my feed right now watching as Canadians and Europeans find out the US might not be a beacon for freedom and democracy abroad

Andrew Neil now.... and exactly four months ago. A great example of the British Right finally catching up. Their primary objective of 'owning the libs' has hit brutal reality.

Robert Shrimsley nailed the current state of British politics in his column earlier this week.

Was listening to Bloomberg radio earlier. I didn’t realise “a Liz Truss scenario” was a term about the bond market that Americans used when talking to other Americans for a mostly American audience. Is this soft power?

that republicans were interested in finding a way to “destroy” Columbia—whether they complied w/ their demands or not—was no secret. they literally wrote about it.

New: The administration—through DOJ, HHS, ED, and GSA—says it has canceled ~$400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University.

My baby girl is here because of this man’s generosity. What a legend.

How and why does infantile economics get platformed on the FT's home page? The columnist writes as if the EU economy has not operated within a developed monetary system since the Dutch invented banking and monetary systems in the 1600s - and instead relies on primitive barter schemes.

You’re both wrong, because neither of you *really* believed we’d end up here.

This is the most somber podcast I’ve done - Starmer is right to keep trying to keep US on board, but chances of success are v v slim. Some very dark forces are at play in America.

The way Canada has still ended up with tariffs, despite ostensibly reaching a compromise deal only a few weeks ago, is quite instructive when it comes to the argument that Zelensky not wearing a suit is the reason why the US have pulled military aid...

This article presents good suggestions. However, to actually do something like this, it will require political will, courage, and a new level of risk acceptance, including the willingness to fight Russia if push comes to shove.

Man, you just have to be the biggest rube in the universe to think that Trump is halting Ukraine aid because Zelensky didn't wear a tie or kiss the ring.

Stop underestimating Trump. There's more to his thuggish behaviour and the turn to Moscow than a fondness for dictators and any dirt the FSB might have on him. As with all great power politics, it's about *interests*.

Blimey, the Mail. Morning.

Should be obvious. But apparently must be said.

For a start, ECB and other European institutions need to start wargaming for a collapse in global trust when it comes to US Treasuries. It's not the most likely scenario, but many of those have "less likely" have suddenly become strategic reality recently

UK did a great job of sucking-up to the school bully, and in activating the latent but potent deference-snobbery-flattery of the Crown. Good, short-term expedients. But in longer-term UK still needs to extricate itself from US, and minimise/eliminate exposure to its abuses of power.

I think people are missing the reality of the growing US-Russian alliance under Putin and Trump. Its not going to force a ceasefire on Ukraine, it will be to help Russia try to win the war. The US is now an active enemy of freedom.