Today feels a lot like the famous Mahmoud Darwish poem about the end of war, except in this case the leaders aren't shaking hands, everyone knows who sold the land, and the old woman, the girl and the children have all been killed.

BBC coverage of Gaza really has been appalling. This is a case in point. All that is said about Barghouti is that he was 'convicted of deadly attacks'. Nothing on the fairness of his trial, the prison beatings, his two state advocacy, or his diplomacy and campaigning./ www.bbc.com/news/article...

Finally looked up how to get rid of Google‘s automatic AI answers (and the attached waste of resources) and it‘s so easy! What relief. 😅 www.reddit.com/r/techsuppor...

Having illustrated the problem of X ignoring its legal duties, I want to build an effective coalition for intervention. If you are or know people on X receiving racist abuse, rape threats, I would welcome receipts of one rejected attempt to report to the platform an indefensible case

I have been working on a book about the separation of church and state for God knows how many years and I somehow never saw this quote from George H.W. Bush on being shot down over the South Pacific during World War II.

Excluding Marwan Barghouti from the list of prisoners for release means none of the parties are serious about the second stage of the agreement (replacing Hamas with an alternative administration) let along any "peace" prospects

Hate crimes are up for the first time in three years? Complete mystery about how we got here.

All my comics have happy endings!

A reminder of how Mrs Thatcher's Conservative party in 1983, an era featuring much more widespread racial prejudice in the public, approached the issue of race and national identity:

Jenrick being the loudest member of the Conservative party has already been a huge contributor to the poisoning of our politics. We really don't need any four-dimensional chess about him becoming leader. When it happens, it will be a terrible day for our country.

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

This is a scary situation. Academic folks in the UK should be paying more attention to it than they are. chicagomaroon.com/48606/news/u...

The far-right is never conservative. It always attacks established social institutions, the ones important for democracy and social peace. Because it knows they will be a source of opposition.

It is so important to acknowledge that some of those most directly involved in 7 October are some of the most reluctant to endorse its consequences. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Robin Williams' daughter has some quality thoughts on AI slop

I’m old enough to remember when a comment like this would have been a resigning matter…

Free stickers suitable for flag-bearing lampposts. Send a large A4 envelope with a 1st class large stamp to me at Bragg Office, PO Box 6830 Bridport DT6 9BH and I’ll send you a sheet. #ReclaimtheFlag 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇬🇧

David is slightly unfair. There is a clear difference here. Conservatives and Reform plan to forcibly expel large numbers of people who are legal, permanent residents of migrant origin. The BNP proposal is voluntary.

I had zero idea, until today, who the current shadow chancellor is. Given how nerdy I am about politics, this tells you a lot about how vacant the Tories have become.

I’m not generally a fan of if-the-boot-was-on-the-other-foot counterfactuals, but can you imagine what the UK media would be doing if one of Corbyn’s closest politician allies was found to be a Russian agent? Why is Farage not being held over the coals for this? www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Eman works in the same research area as me and we've chatted briefly at academic conferences, pre-Trump. Watching the same person in the back of an ICE van is deeply surreal and frightening.

Written ten years ago by @keithkahnharris.bsky.social, and is now sadly useful. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I will be looking to get as many people and civic organisations as possible involved in a positive English identity campaign next year, nationally, regionally, locally. If that sounds like something you'd like to know more about or get involved with, do get in touch with me.

This May 2014 editorial in The Sun about Nigel Farage said is not racist" to worry about the scale of immigration but it is "racist" to smear Romanians to say you wouldn't want to live next door to a Romanian & "you know the difference" [between a German and a Romanian neigbour]

‘Gaza Trump Riviera’, ‘MBS Ring’, ‘Musk Smart Manufacturing Zone’? It’s an oligarch’s blood-soaked fantasy, a Disney Land of genocide.

When the AI hallucination is deemed more true than empirical reality www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...

ok this breakdown of AI writing indicators is incredible. Huge shout-out to the Wikipedia community for this

Alex Phillips might be stupid, but she doesn't really believe this stuff. She's part of the noise trying to dismantle civil society, create suspicion toward the limited democracy we have, and delegitimise labour movement and liberal organisations. Time to wise up.

If the Labour party had any sense at all, they would repeat this relentlessly until the media has to notice. Think how Trump uses nicknames ('sleepy Joe', etc.) to seed an idea.

Blood-boiling. The sort of thing that makes you wonder sometimes whether it might have been better had mobiles/digital/the interweb/social media/the whole bang-shoot never been invented!

Well don't I feel stupid

For me, the alarm bells really started ringing about the current govt when, like Boris Johnson, it began chucking MPs out. This is good news and hopefully the sign of some sanity returning.

This guy Starmer seems sensible. The prime minister should listen to him.

100% agree but... he's deputy prime minister? Pick a fight! Has he, or anyone in Labour, mentioned that Reform's Wales minister was bribed to support Russia, for example? Why not? Why not repeat it relentlessly?

Olga Tokarczuk on ID cards (well, sort of). From the book Flights, which you should read because it is brilliant.

This country made significant progress against racism in my lifetime - but we did not do so by chance. There is a visible visceral regression in experiencing of overt racism because the toxic fringe with the most extreme views have a sense of permission & impunity www.easterneye.biz/racism-in-uk...

Really enjoying Michael Cook's 'A History of the Muslim World': wonderfully written, very generous in its footnotes and in pointing readers to alternative explanations and other books (my reading list while reading it has only grown)

The even more unbelievable crime fact (which I learned relatively recently) is that burglary has fallen by more than 90% since the 1990s. Did anyone notice? Nope. Does anyone believe it? Nope. But is is true? It is!

Rob is quite right. Whether the other parties do condemn Reform in these terms will reveal the extent to which Farage is living in their heads.

It’s quite do-able from a legal perspective. I don’t think dismissing Reform in this way is wise. Voters need to understand that this stuff can happen if they vote for it - and that it would be morally, socially, culturally, economically disastrous. So they shouldn’t vote for it.

Surely this should be at the Reform conference.

Jacob Power, a 22-year-old chef, wrote extensive plans about becoming a serial killer, purchased weapons and dug graves He broke into a family's home but found it empty Power was jailed for 2.5 years today for burglary, after an attempted murder charge was dropped www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/w...

NEW Has the government overreached in using terrorism law against Palestine Action? A disclosed MI5 document indicates that the basis for proscription may be weak By me, at @prospectmagazine.co.uk www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

The worst full of passionate intensity and the best are... doing this apparently.

On the panel is @stphnhwrdjns.bsky.social rightly noting a breakdown in dialogue, esteem, and contact between Muslim civil society groups and the national state and government. At a time when we have 100K+ rallying for the far right, such access is not something we can afford to do without.

Benjamin Netanyahu, 2025 v Hannah Arendt, 1944

My latest cartoon for @newscientist.com p.s. this week I am on a USA/Canada tour with my new book. Details and preorder links at tomgauld.com