So it's confirmed. Teenager George Finch is now the permanent Reform leader of Warwickshire council. His predecessor stood down just weeks after winning power, supposedly over health issues. I wrote a bit about him recently for @bylinetimes.bsky.social bylinetimes.com/2025/06/27/r...

I think we may have sociopaths (or worse) as our politicians.

God the tabloids and Brexit dinosaurs were boring today… 🦖 Braying the same “betrayal” lines they’ve brayed since they got what they wanted… then found they had no benefits in it whatsoever. Still they came out today to play victim yet again. But the world has moved on.

The horror show of xenophobia that was #PressPreview tonight. 80 million Europeans are apparently coming, they are bringing their families, they will slip away and not return when their visas expire, because - as everyone in that studio seems to agree - Europeans just cannot be trusted. Poor. ~AA

Thank you Gary Lineker for using the platform you earned with your talent and charm to stand up for some of the most victimised people in the world. You're a shining example to us all.

If this EU reset results in 4 years of better growth and economic recovery before the next election, the hardline Brexiters are going to have their arses handed to them on a plate.

Chums! Baby Dog here. Would you like to see what happens when I come home from seeing Natalie the Groomer? I’m happy to look Handsome, but I never smell RIGHT. It’s vital I return to smelling like myself. My boys, Percy and Ron, try to help me, which is good of them!

Kemi Badenoch is upset that Labour have cut some of the Brexit red tape that hindered businesses that her party spent so long putting in place

Turns out Brexit Derangement Syndrome is a thing after all.

You look at the Tories, Reform and the rightwing press after the Brexit reset and you see just how mad they are. Genuinely frothingly insane. Desperate to insist that their Brexit moronathon is a win. Spitting with rage at their own failure. This sums them up… www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I'm (gulp) 50 today. To keep up my weird tradition of giving other folk presents on my birthday, I'm sending out a load of these for just the price of postage (£4 UK). If you'd like one pls email me your address to [email protected] If you can give me a bit for the book, great. If not, no problem.

Breaking news: The US has been stripped of its top-notch triple-a credit rating by Moody’s on concerns about rising levels of government debt www.ft.com/content/e456...

Friends! Cleo has at last decided she is interested in Ralphy. In fact, she may have become a little obsessed with him. We all know that Cleo is Brave and Feisty… but does she have the courage to confront Ralphy? And how does Ralphy feel about Cleo? #Caturday

The case for joining the SM and CU is blindingly obvious. Only far right extremists could think otherwise. www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/its-a-...

Pledging to "scrap a deal" before reading it or having any idea what it contains tells you everything you need to know about Nigel Farage. ~AA

Young people are locked out of opportunities their older siblings took for granted. A UK–EU youth visa deal could begin to change that. Read why this matters | Prof. Johanna Waters @eastangliabylines.co.uk @johannawaters.bsky.social @uk.theconversation.com

Duckworth: "He's accepting a bribe, which is unconstitutional and illegal. And he's gonna accept an aircraft that then is gonna cost taxpayers another billion dollars at a time when he wants to cut funding for Medicaid. It's simple unacceptable."

What’s supposed to happen? If my daughter is out and masked men grab her, claiming they’re ICE, drag her away w/out letting her prove she’s a citizen… w/out calling me, her dad… what is she supposed to do? Does she not have the right to fight back, as we have taught her, to free herself. Run? 1.

Immigrants “are ambitious, enthusiastic & hard-working. They want a better life, & a better life for their children, and they are willing to do backbreaking work in order to secure it. They show all the attributes which we praise in others but condemn if it's demonstrated by an immigrant.”

Starmer is barking up the wrong tree. Among Labour 2024 voters, 43% said they would consider voting Green and 40% LibDem. Just 9% would consider voting Reform. Labour should be setting the attack dogs on Farage, but it can't do that because it supports Brexit. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Reform is a Limited Company Farage owns 53% It was formed in 2019 to push for a “no-deal Brexit” It wants to reintroduce the Liz Truss budget It wants to privatise the NHS & invest in fossil fuels Close the BBC & break International law It’s a scam Please retweet widely

Refugee my ass.

Reform UK's deputy leader Richard Tice MP praises Dubai for "just imprisoning or deporting anyone who cannot look after themselves". Apparently, a complete authoritarian absence of due process is worth it, so his girlfriend can go to the loo without her handbag. 😬 ~AA

🎯

I've wracked my brains & can only come up with one explanation that makes sense for the Labour direction. They think their only hope is that it comes to an election & we see that it is them or Reform. And that for all our big talk about hating them, we'll still vote for them to keep out Reform.

Starmer will not revoke his red lines on Freedom of Movement and the Single Market because of facts and reasons. The only thing that will move him is Labour voters shifting in large numbers to the LibDems and Greens in local and by-elections. He must fear progressives more than Brexiters.

🚨 NEW POLLING: A majority of Brits (52%) would be open to aligning with ALL EU rules on goods and products if it led to a better trading relationship with the EU. Only a quarter would oppose such a move. The public is clearly in favour of a common sense approach. #Brexit

Brilliant news. I'm quite emotional. Govt has agreed to investigate Council Tax rapid debt collection escalation that is catastrophic for millions. Miss one MONTH'S payment and within six weeks you can have baliffs forcing you to pay for the YEAR plus £100s admin charges.

"The poll found that 43% of respondents believe the UK should strengthen its trade relationships with the EU, while only 14% support improving relations with the US with the aim of convincing Trump to remove the tariffs."

Kemi Badenoch calls the UK-US agreement a "tiny tariff deal" As the Prime Minister right states, she needs to visit all those steelworkers and car workers whose jobs have been saved and tell them why it is such a bad agreement. Against everything, but not in favour of anything. #PMQs

Navarro doesn't understand the deal they signed. The text reads: "The United Kingdom and the United States affirm that imported food and agricultural goods must comply with the importing country’s sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards and other mutually agreed standards."

Full text of US-UK "deal" confirms: 1. *Not* a "free trade" deal. 2. For UK, largely successful damage limitation: limiting US tariffs on cars/steel for not very much. But damage still done. 3. For Trump, pretty much complete climbdown. (1/3) assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/681d32...

‼️ This is a broken monument to veterans of the Great Patriotic War in Donbas. Russia destroyed it. In Moscow, a parade in honor of this….

Britain has ‘reset’ relations with the EU, but with Farage ascendant again, our politics must be cured of the Brexit virus

Nobody tell him

Free speech latest.

Please repost, if like me, you will never accept Brexit. It harms the British people. It was obtained through foreign interference and by far the worst abuses of democracy in modern British history, and it robs us of freedom and citizenship. #RejoinEU

The Governor of the Bank of England has said the UK now needs to "rebuild" its trade relationship with the EU. He told the BBC that as a public official he did not take a view on Brexit, but reversing post-Brexit hit to UK-EU trade would be "beneficial" www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Government audit bombshell for Houchen’s Tees Valley Devolution may be halted as TVCA faces audit crisis; government warns of restricted funding, lost trust, and oversight risks @northeastbylines.co.uk northeastbylines.co.uk/news/politic...

Speak Truth.....

A reminder that when the Sycamore Gap tree was cut down people immediately started blaming immigrants and teenagers... It was neither. It was two white Englishmen in their 30s.

Downing Street sources playing down what to expect from the supposed "full and comprehensive" trade deal with the UK announced by Trump. Deal not yet agreed. This is just the general terms of an agreement which will need significant further negotiation before it can be ratified.

Starmer may well have changed the narrative. A big deal with the EU will be announced in 11 days. The free trade deal with India is good for the UK. We wait now to see the content of the US one. If it’s good, the 3 deals combined could have big implications for growth and Labour’s spending plans.

"It will take a decade to rejoin the EU."* So start NOW! Every year you delay adds more than a year to the process, because we will have diverged further from the EU in the interim. [*NOTE: I don't agree with that premise. But it is what a LOT of people are claiming as an excuse not to even try.]

Every doorstep should have a cat on it. (Pic LightHackers)

😂 😂

“In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.” It costs a lot less to house people.

Happy 99th birthday to the man who gave voice to the wild. 🎉 Sir David Attenborough, thank you for a lifetime dedicated to the natural world, and for sharing its story with wisdom, wonder, and grace. You've inspired generations to fall in love with nature.