as a side note I think we should do this again, I'd love it if my job was to reach out to famous artists about their views on the news of the day, I would like to print that in the newspaper

Reform UK for sale. It had to return over £200,000 in donations from 18 ineligible overseas donors. It received £9m from a person in Thailand. Its former Wales leader received 10.5 yrs prison sentence for accepting bribes to promote pro-Russian narratives. Elon Musk promised $100m.

And our tax £s..

Almost have to admire Nigel Farage's level of commitment to never spending a weekend in his own actual constituency, at this point.

Wow!

Cartoon by Mike Luckovich.

The Robert Jenrick show on BBC1 right now is pretty dismal

This

Gisèle Pelicot is the strongest woman I have ever met “Strength is in my DNA”, she said, writes Victoria Derbyshire https://bit.ly/4ttR2wS

Connor Tomlinson offers Restore Britain this warm endorsement, noting Rupert Lowe encouraged him to stand for parliament Core aims of Tomlinson's ethnic nationalist project are - to reduce ethnic minority population to 5% - ban UK-born minorities who remain from parliament + the civil service

Lovely people

Nice... really not!

To be clear they approached the debating society. Who does thar? I'll tell you - people who are deliberately engineering controversy in the hope that it will get talked about on talk radio stations and GB News

Today I run the risk of annoying everyone. Starmer got the Mandelson appointment spectacularly wrong and deserves to be held accountable. I’m just not convinced that his resignation is the answer.

"Switzerland’s military has terminated its contract with Palantir… following a security audit… concluded that U.S. intelligence agencies could potentially access sensitive Swiss defense data… significant reputational warning for the data analytics firm" www.newscase.com/palantirs-sw... #R4Today

An 11 ppt swing from mortgagers to renters over the 3 decades since 1995 means that 8.6 million people in lower-income families rent from a private landlord. These people spend on average 43 per cent of their total household budget on rent. Read Unsung Britain now ⤵️ buff.ly/7WcqrbQ

Nothing to add, really...

I like the fact that even Oborne acknowledges that Wilson was a free thinker, very willing to embrace both left and right facing socialists.

“Instead, McSweeney has secured a world in which Cabinet ministers such as Streeting run along to cultivate Marshall at meretricious events such as the Spectator dinner. It’s all so sad. We so badly need the Starmer Government to succeed. This moral and political delinquency makes me want to cry.”

This series of articles by Peter Oborne is so spot on - withering about McSweeney - and his obsessive focus on party politics, scheming and tactics, at expense of policy conducive to the national interest - and in process ultimately ruining Starmer’s govt.

Like Dominic Cummings, Morgan McSweeney helped deliver electoral victory but, in doing so, debased and subverted everything his party claimed to stand for.

SO depressing!

I'm getting just a hint that Jack White doesn't like Donald Trump

This is simultaneously (1) garbage: Labour has done nothing remotely as bad as the Tories' industrial scale VIP corruption and (2) proof: of Labour's failure to understand, let alone address, the industrial scale lie-telling machine that is our media.

The entitlement is astonishing. Why should he be shielded?

Flawed economic models mean climate crisis could crash global economy, experts warn

The British mainstream media is busy trying to oust Starmer, again, and yet they seem not at all interested in a much bigger and more serious Epstein story involving Farage, Putin, and Brexit. Fortunately, @bylinetimes.bsky.social is.

It's been so many years in the making, but finally we can say: sic transit gloria Mandy!

Farage, Johnson, Trump. Narcissistic, vindictive, thin skinned, childish bullies.

I'm a geek, and a bit of a nerd, and I generally love shiny tech. I use gadgets, I'm generally an early adopter - but not this time. AI is a trend that does far more harm than good. A 'solution' looking for a problem to fund it, whilst allowing the worst of the worst to do their worst.

Wales is set to criminalize political lies during elections—should the world follow its lead? The Welsh Labour government is pushing forward with a groundbreaking bill hailed as "globally pioneering," aimed at rebuilding public confidence and improving the quality of democratic debate. If enacted...

The new leasehold legislation as an exemplar of our bent media/political ecosystem: important & entirely in tune with Labour values + already under attack from the right-wing papers = something really good largely under appreciated by the rest of us. Oh and pubs. Lovely pubs. tinyurl.com/4rrn2mkx

"Reform's press release notes he was 'first in his family' to go to university – a ‘fact’ that raised eyebrows given his father, who was awarded a CBE by the Queen for his services to the NHS, acquired a Master’s in Business Administration in the 1980s, and a PhD during Tony Blair’s first term."

Lovely hatchet job on the monstrosity that is Suella Braverman. Crace covers it all; her dishonesty, disloyalty, nastiness, incompetence, her wild vanity… and her deep stupidity. How dare these utter arses think we’d be persuaded by their swaggering nonsense. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

🇬🇧🙀🇬🇧🙀🇬🇧🙀🇬🇧 This. So unfair. #suellabraverman

'The Minnesota man who was killed by federal agents on Saturday has been identified as Alex Pretti, 37, a registered nurse working in the intensive care unit at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, which serves veterans.'

"Chloroformed and prepared for rape..." My god.

What's the definition of ' grifter'?

Donald Trump again disparages Nato allies, claiming troops “stayed a little back, a little off the frontlines” while fighting in Afghanistan in support of US against Taliban. Only time Nato has ever invoked article 5 – that attack on one member represents attack on all – came after September 11.

To: European leaders From: Robert Reich It is impossible to appease a tyrant. Some thoughts... https://robertreich.substack.com/p/memo-to-europe-remember-neville-chamberlain

One reason I am gloomy about Britain’s ability to rise to this geopolitical moment is the sheer parochialism and unseriousness of much of its media. The Times, which used to be a serious paper, does not have a single comment piece today on the gravest international crisis in 80 years

New - Nigel Farage has been found by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards to have made 17 standards breaches, adding up to over £380,000 in late declarations. He’s apologised, so no further investigation (which seems unusual for a breach this large)

Davos, Switzerland, the World Economic Forum.

Nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires call for higher taxes on super-rich

Mark Carney's speech really is terrific: full text is here and very much worth your time.

The Prime Minister of Belgium speaks:

This is a truly horrifying account of increasingly likely collapse of essential natural systems which would bring mass food shortages, price rises & global disorder. Commissioned from UK intelligence chiefs but scandalously suppressed by Govt, & sneaked out now while attention is elsewhere 👇

This should be the leading headline in all papers. It’s been slow coming out (suppressed?) and it’s shocking and vital. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The 15 richest people in America saw their collective wealth jump nearly $1 trillion during Trump's year back in office. Many of them were standing alongside Trump at his inauguration one year ago today. How are you doing?