Shame on our government

Don’t mourn the death of a despotic cleric but fear for the future of his country and beyond. My @theipaper.com column on history, regime change and Trump’s hypocrisy inews.co.uk/opinion/no-d...

Very sad to learn about the death of Paul Conroy @reflextv.bsky.social - a brave man, brilliant photographer, generous operator in the field and true friend in places such as Libya, Syria and Ukraine. Hard to believe he’s gone

Give thanks that this vile and disingenuous bigot was thwarted from becoming an MP

1 in 25 Russian men between the ages of 18 and 49 may have been killed or severely wounded since start of the Kremlin’s disastrous full-scale war four years ago, claims new @economist.com study

This is the inevitable result when Labour tries to outgun the repulsive hard-right on immigration, failing to learn a central lesson of the Tory implosion

Green Party got 47% in the Gorton & Denton by-election their previous highest by-election result anywhere, ever, was just 10%

This is the inevitable result when Labour tries to outgun the repulsive hard-right on immigration, failing to learn a central lesson of the Tory implosion

These tech giants should be held responsible for all content on their sites. Instead they keep shrugging off or denying responsibility while spreading toxicity

‘Every administration for 50 years has exposed its citizens to more violence, more incarceration and more death rather than confront the basic economics of drug markets. The evidence isn’t wrong. Our policy is.’ Roland Fryer, Harvard economics professor, in today’s Wall Street Journal

I am no fan of the Greens or @zackpolanski.bsky.social. But the backlash against their sensible approach to drug reform has been utterly pathetic given the lethal failure of prohibition

Behind the spin, these inadequately-funded SEND reforms empower schools, teachers and bureaucrats over pupils and their families, who are having their vital protections weakened. Inclusion is an admirable ideal but it is not always the best solution for individuals. And far too much missing detail

Behind the spin, these inadequately-funded SEND reforms empower schools, teachers and bureaucrats over pupils and their families, who are having their vital protections weakened. Inclusion is an admirable ideal but it is not always the best solution for individuals. And far too much missing detail

The Paralympics is being used to detoxify Russia even as the Kremlin kills and maims Ukrainians. My ⁦‪@theipaper.com column‬⁩ on sinister - but highly symbolic - efforts to bring Putin’s murderous regime in from the cold inews.co.uk/opinion/para...

Zia Yusuf says Reform will outbid Trump by proposing largest ever expulsion people with permanent status [over 250k] since 1970s dictator Idi Amin threw 80k Asians out of Uganda + deport over a million other more recent legal migrants too. Despite rhetoric of control, its a recipe for chaos+cruelty

Reform is just a Trump tribute act

The Paralympics is being used to detoxify Russia even as the Kremlin kills and maims Ukrainians. My ⁦‪@theipaper.com column‬⁩ on sinister - but highly symbolic - efforts to bring Putin’s murderous regime in from the cold inews.co.uk/opinion/para...

Reform trying to mimic everything done by Trump

It’s time to talk about who could replace the monarchy - my ⁦‪@theipaper.com column on a royal family in crisis and possible presidents. inews.co.uk/opinion/mona...

It’s time to talk about who could replace the monarchy - my ⁦‪@theipaper.com column on a royal family in crisis and possible presidents. inews.co.uk/opinion/mona...

Former BBC royal correspondent @peterhunt.bsky.social has been superb on this crisis on Newsnight and Radio 4’s Today - not least with his condemnation of media complicity in its ‘reporting’ on the royal family

At least one former Tory MP is fighting nobly to protect freedom and democracy (while his former colleagues defect to join Farage, a man who admires Putin and spreads Russian propaganda)

Presume Reform has not bothered to appoint any defence or foreign affairs spokespeople since they just follow the Kremlin lead?

The NHS in Dorset paid a private firm 1/3rd of savings if it could find ways to slash or end care funding for vulnerable patients. The latest story showing how the state is attacking people with disabilities and complex conditions to cut costs, not dealing with its own systemic failures

Presume Reform has not bothered to appoint any defence or foreign affairs spokespeople since they just follow the Kremlin lead?

Rishi Sunak - an adviser to Microsoft and artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic - claiming today that AI will be a great democratising force for society. Remember when they said the same about the internet during the dawn of the digital age?

My recent column on these proposed reforms ianbirrell.com/starmers-sen...

Predictable but depressing: the Labour government - elected to salvage public services - is determined to slash support for children with special needs while making a failing system even more of a bureaucratic nightmare for families

Keep them out. By any means necessary.

Reform UK today says it wants to end the equality act of 2010 which is the primary legal framework protecting disabled people from discrimination in the UK #dontvotebigots

Reform UK today says it wants to end the equality act of 2010 which is the primary legal framework protecting disabled people from discrimination in the UK #dontvotebigots

'Everything depends not on when but on how the war in Ukraine ends' - well worth reading this piece by Nataliya Gumenyuk www.nytimes.com/2026/02/15/o...

Hungary under Orban created the toxic template for the likes of Trump and Farage. Now it shows in starkest terms the dark, destructive and divisive reality of hard-right populism. My @theipaper.com column asks if they can turn back the tide? inews.co.uk/opinion/euro...

BBC's Arabic radio service in Lebanon closed after 85 years as part of a £28.5m savings drive. 'Just months later, in October 2023, the Russian state-owned Sputnik news agency took over the frequency. Its news bulletin opened with “This is Moscow”, replacing the previous “This is London” intro.' 🙄

Latest from me: on the govt's imminent Special Needs revolution, and a familiar (old) Labour story: of lofty aims undermined by meagre budgets, constant anonymous briefings – and a drive to remove families’ basic rights www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Hungary under Orban created the toxic template for the likes of Trump and Farage. Now it shows in starkest terms the dark, destructive and divisive reality of hard-right populism. My @theipaper.com column asks if they can turn back the tide? inews.co.uk/opinion/euro...

A piece by me about SEND, behind a paywall I’m afraid. Basically: stop blaming the kids. unherd.com/2026/02/who-...

A nasty, KGB-style twist in the most important European election this year: Péter Magyar - substantially ahead in Hungarian polls ahead of April’s crucial vote - says his former girlfriend set a honey trap to secretly record them having sex and claims Victor Orbán’s camp plans to release it soon

I hope the ‘immigrants’ who support Manchester United, rip up their season tickets. And what the heck must the players on the team think about these comments? Vile man.

A bigoted hypocrite who voted for Brexit, then moved to Europe and now spews out hate-filled misinformation.

It is exactly two months since Doyle's peerage was announced by the palace - and he has been a Labour peer for precisely one month and two days

When will Tony Blair pontificate on the Mandelson/Epstein scandal? Usually he likes to chip in on major issues but he has stayed strangely quiet so far…

If only our weak politicians displayed such faith in freedom and democracy as the heroic Jimmy Lai. My @dailymail.co.uk column on China’s martyrdom of a hero and Britain’s appeasement of dictatorship mol.im/a/15544283

The dark, unfolding Epstein drama - a scandal about power and hypocrisy - threatens to lead our democracy into the abyss. My @theipaper.com column inews.co.uk/opinion/dark...

The dark, unfolding Epstein drama - a scandal about power and hypocrisy - threatens to lead our democracy into the abyss. My @theipaper.com column inews.co.uk/opinion/dark...

Extraordinary - on so many levels #mandelson #times

Sergei Belyakov, a graduate of the FSB Academy, helped Epstein obtain an invitation letter from Vympel veterans. For more about Belyakov, read this investigation from the Dossier Centre (a non-profit investigative body founded by Mikhail Khodorkovsky) dossier.center/jeffreyepste...

He listed the Moscow-based group "Vympel" as his inviting organisation. This is the name of a special FSB unit that conducts counterterrorism operations, whose leader is FSB veteran and KGB Colonel Sergei Shestov

According to this report in Novaya Gazeta, Epstein received a Russian visa at the invitation of FSB veterans through his contact Sergei Belyakov novayagazeta.eu/articles/202...

Are western governments actively facilitating money laundering? My @spectator review of @oliverbullough.bsky.social’s excellent new book spectator.com/article/are-...