Please repost if you agree that the BBC has been undermining democracy and enabling foreign interference in our politics by promoting and protecting Farage.

First-rate analysis here.

'inside the red-faced hawk is a dove, with an almost physical horror of violence' 'Trump is as close as a pacifist as we've seen in the White House' Pure pundit brain from Ian Leslie in March 2025

SHOULD THE U.S BLOT OUT THE SUN AND USHER IN AN AGE OF ETERNAL DARKNESS? - Gallup 2/20/26-3/5/26 NO - 41% YES - 38% UNSURE - 21%

I would argue that the primary reason for the attack on Iran was that Trump got such a buzz out of the Venezuela affair that he has been itching for more of the same. As insane and appalling as it is, this is a more plausible explanation than anything which assumes rational consideration.

Having faced no consequences for anything, Trump has noticed that he has the world’s largest military at his command, and believes he has found a brilliant solution for solving problems that no one before him was smart enough to discover: just kill everyone in your way, until they obey you.

It is hard to understand how Starmer has not realised this by now. On the night of the election, he should have thanked McSweeney and sent him on his way (until, maybe, his help was needed in 2029). Instead, making him central to the way the country was governed has been an unmitigated disaster.

I think I may need a keyboard shortcut for "America-brain strikes British politics again".

Absolutely this. And someone who believes X and Y but not Z is more of an enemy to the group than someone who rejects all 3.

Yes, 'real' Britain. The BBC is paralysed by the notion that somehow those on the Right represent the authentic voice of the people of Britain, despite poll numbers not reflecting this at all.

There is a big, big news story here which BBC News are studiously avoiding picking up. There are no 'contradictory narratives'. The US Govt is telling bare-faced lies, easily provable as lies, to the American people, who can see the truth with their own eyes. Surely this is something to explore?

Excellent thread which touches on an issue the right wing mindset can never grasp - co-operation is not altruism. If you want to do the best for yourself, you co-operate with others.

An essential development over the past decade-plus is that the ignorant went from feeling chastened when their ignorance was revealed to banding together and deciding that, actually, they were right. They might disagree at times, but they agreed that ignorance itself was an indicator of trust.

Very useful corrective to a narrative which has been gaining traction (pushed, as ever, by our overwhelmingly right-ring media).

There are many factors at play in how the discourse of UK political governments became detached from (geo)political reality, but a key aspect is in how both Labour and Conservatives came to assert supposed Brexit benefits that much of the rest of the country knows are pure fantasy

Have written for the New Statesman about why, if he will not accept an apology, the BBC should welcome a Trump lawsuit. They should show guts and fight it because impartially matters and if they don't, they will have tacitly accepted a rewritten history. www.newstatesman.com/politics/med...

“Science is never settled” sounds reasonable—but it’s often a rhetorical trick to undermine consensus on issues like vaccines or climate change. Science evolves, but some things are overwhelmingly supported by evidence. My latest for Live Science www.livescience.com/... 1/10

If Labour were to give up focussing on specific groups of people they want to attract and instead focus on the values they want to represent - you know, governing like a Labour government - who knows, maybe they'd stop haemorrhaging support?

Nail hit on head.

The Internet, more specifically social media, is a fantastic petri dish for the growth of stupidity.

Donald Trump Declares Victory Over Statistics

“Climate change will manifest as a series of disasters viewed through phones with footage that gets closer and closer to where you live until you're the one filming it.”

"It is true that the left’s abandonment of class politics in favour of the politics of identity has allowed racists to rebrand racism as white identity. The contempt displayed by sections of the left for the working class has pushed many into the arms of the radical right. "

Who Goes MAGA? With apologies to Dorothy Thompson, whose 1941 essay in Harper’s, “Who Goes Nazi?” remains a worthwhile read on the cultural archetypes of who is drawn to fascism, and who would never go down such a path. It felt like it could use a modern updating, however. Update: Just after I…

This is a crucial distinction which gets to the core of what populism is about. People are swayed by fantasies, not rigorous logic.

Could not agree more with this. The only way back is after an end to exceptionalism, which seems improbable. Question, though...Are the British exceptional in their exceptionalism?

The radicalisation of Britain's Right under the influence of US think tank money and X-Twitter is one of the big stories in UK politics in my view. 👇

When did you ever hear the BBC stating that it must alter “story selection” and “other types of output, such as drama”, to win the trust of Green voters, or of unrepresented people on the left? All the shifts are in just one direction. bylinetimes.com/2025/06/09/b...

The entire modern conservative movement’s existence and future depends upon the base being kept inside a hermetically-sealed cable and social media bubble, so that they can tell them demonstrable lies about the real world. Tell them up is down, hot is cold, black is white, and be *believed*.

Important thread.

A simply joyous bit of writing.

Germany would surely welcome any fleeing American rocket scientists associated with the former regime

must be incredibly frustrating and disheartening to have federal funding that was promised to you for important work suddenly and arbitrarily ripped away

This is absolutely spot-on. None of this would be possible without the normalisation provided by the mainstream media. If, day in, day out, you denounce extremism, you can yourself be portrayed as extremist (e.g. 'Trump Derangement Syndrome'), so they avoid it, with the consequences we're seeing.

I remain fascinated by the phenomenon of people who are loudly and proudly low social trust *except* when faced with an extremely obvious con

You have won the election, UK Labour, you have the top job. Now do something with it. Stop staring at Reform and letting them dictate your agenda. Govern, for God's sake, and do what you believe it, what voters wanted when they put you in power.

If M.R. James wrote safety signage

When anyone to the left adopts reactionary policies, they win over no one but convince a lot of people that the reactionaries are making sense!

Superb!

the thing is, ‘concern’ about immigration is directly proportional to how much media coverage is focused on immigration, so even assuming Labour reduce the absolute numbers by 2030, the only way that it will make voters happy is if the press decide it should

Starmer’s immigration focus is the dumbest, stupidest piece of political manoeuvring I’ve seen in a long time. His rhetoric is going to split his coalition and whatever he promises will only drive the racists to demand more. You can’t placate them. It’s a losing strategy.

Labour has a whopping great majority and four years left to turn this country around. They should be setting the agenda, not chasing about trying to placate voters of a party with five MPs who will never vote for them anyway. It's not only disappointing... it's embarrassing

Superb thread on a subject which everybody should be more aware of, the dangers of authoritarian democracy.

But this arcs back to what is a genuine comms problem in that you have a Labour government team so focused on messaging to specific Reform-curious voter demographics that it has lost the knack of heading off frustration and selling policy wins to its left and liberal voter base.

It's a little-known fact that the colour of smoke that is emitted from the Vatican chimney as a signal during the election of the Pope is determined by the nature of the heresy of the burnee - black for Gnosticism, white for Nestorianism, etc.

Essentially *all* research and expert assessments show that this does not work. It will not counter Farage, but literally push votes towards Reform. It genuinely is impossible to overstate how profoundly stupid and strategically illiterate this decision is. You cannot out-Reform Reform.

Succinct expression of a universal truth.

Gary Lineker: "This is the mistake the BBC makes. The BBC tries to appease the people that hate the BBC rather than worrying about the people that love the BBC." And it's the mistake that the Labour Party is making. Trying to appease those who hate the Labour party and will never vote for it.

Very thought-provoking thread about how political views in Europe are being shaped by malign American big tech.