Hell of a thing to put next to a statue of Joan of Arc. (h/t David Pilling)

Imagine if British newspapers put only half the energy they spent obsessing over Starmer’s curry in Durham into covering the fact that a former top figure in UKIP, the Brexit Party and Reform UK has just pleaded guilty to eight counts of pro-Russian bribery.

Freedom is just another name for “a gap in the law”.

I love a political podcast, but Quiet Riot is bloody top notch. The world would be a better and more peaceful place if the licence fee went to Alex, Naomi and Kenny.

On Yom Kippur many Jewish people in Britain have their phones off to mark the holy day. As it ends at 723pm, some will hear the tragic Manchester news for the first time. At that time, please join many of us to send a message of solidarity to British Jews.Thanks Together coalition for proposing.

evergreen post

Letter in the Times:

Tory party’s long journey away from science, reason, responsibility, common sense and truth is complete

Javier Milei had to beg a bail-out and already needs another. Argentina's economy is in a tailspin. Gov't bonds and peso in freefall. People starving, throwing rocks at him. Farage last year: "He's amazing. It's Thatcherism on steroids. Cutting and slashing expenditure. That's leadership." SHARE!

Footnote: political parties need to start earning their keep. They have a role in helping people understand the world and they’re falling woefully short because they have chosen triangulation over persuasion. Do your job or get a new one.

And therefore facilitates Farage's task as the man presenting himself as the antidote to the established political parties

We've gone from 'The Labour party is a moral crusade or nothing' to 'The Labour party is a moral crusade on Tuesday, joins the Farage bandwagon on Thursday, and we need to check our diaries to see what we're doing on Friday'

No doubt this will be generating a lot of clicks and discussion, especially in degrowth circles. But main reason for posting: 1) Planning decisions at not simple and 2) the article is data/method lite 4/n

Labour has a chance now to turn a corner and win support from people who want it to succeed. Or it can continue with this type of vicious populist filth and alienate everyone. It's your call guys. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

A joy of a sight for #ThrowbackThursday - A ghost gable 👻 - caught like a fly in amber at Wirksworth in Derbyshire

Labour continues to show complete disregard for either basic humanity or reality. While family reunion routes are already fairly limited, you couldn't create a bigger gift to smuggling gangs than cancelling them. These policies will increase number of people forced to use irregular routes. #r4today

Standing tall.

The end of hippy punching: Keir Starmer invents a party Keir Starmer would vote for Labour has decided to stop punching its own voters economist.com/britain/2025...

Unlike Farage, we're proud of Britain. Britain has problems that need fixing, but we must never forget our strengths, our people and our values. They are what make this country special.🇬🇧

For the first time ever, London has met legal limits for nitrogen dioxide. When I became Mayor, we were told it would take 193 years. We did it 184 years earlier than expected. Cleaner air means a healthier city and big savings for the NHS.

Think this is absolutely true - so much is written about boys and Andrew Tate - Tate is more popular with grown men than boys!

Has anyone informed the government that they do, in fact, have the means to get Elon Musk out of UK politics?

Can't disagree with Gavin Barwell. It's high time the right in this country cleaned house. They won't though, because this is what the right have become. The likes of Barwell are very much a minority.

If you don’t like being called a racist, maybe don’t make a career of saying things that appeal to racists, don’t create a political party that keeps attracting racist candidates, don’t fawn over racist world leaders, and don’t make a convicted racist the guest of honour at your party conference.

If Farage doesn't hate modern Britain, then perhaps someone could provide one single good thing he's ever said about it.

Whenever Starmer mentions anything whatsoever to do with football (“half time oranges”) all I can think about is this

The most successful politician in England is Sadiq Khan and there is functionally only one reason we don't acknowledge that

Nigel Farage doesn’t think the Prime Minister should have free speech in this country. But he’ll tell foreigners that yours is somehow under threat from the Prime Minister. He’s a whiny little liar. Always has been. Always will be.

That thing that always happens has happened again

Richard Tice with his Reform chum Nathan Gill, who has just admitted taking bribes for spreading Kremlin misinformation. What could be more patriotic than that?

More and more people are backing our call to balance the BBC. Our national broadcaster should be fair and balanced, not a mouthpiece for Nigel Farage and his 4 MPs.

Doing Putin’s bidding? That is Trump’s America, don’t let it become Farage’s Britain. We need a new inquiry by the Intelligence and Security Committee into Reform and Farage's links to Russia.

Tony Blair needs to come before Parliament and give evidence about his role in Trump’s Gaza peace plan. We all want to see an end to the suffering in Gaza, the hostages brought home and a lasting peace.

A fading old polaroid of me on a day trip with my Grandparents to Beamish Museum back in 1978? I'm leaning on the fence with my Gran holding my sister's pushchair. #locomotion #200yrs #Stockton #Darlington #Stephenson

@krishgm.bsky.social, in his interview with Reeves, asked if an Indian (say) doctor worked around 60 hours a week in the NHS, how could they be expected to volunteer on top of that. She ignored the question. Is this what Mahmood wants to implement for immigrants to be granted SS or did I mishear?

Amazing bit of 2019 footage this. Frei doing a great job of trying to hold Farage to account as he and Nathan Gill go walkabout. And I suspect Farage will come to regret his quip at the end about Russians if it does the rounds again.

"Nigel meets tens of thousands of people on an annual basis." Just amazing then how many of them are called Nathan Gill.

Zia Yusuf knows less about his own party than I do. Gill is not some rando who once met Nigel. Gill was Reform Leader in Wales and a close ally of Nigel Farage for over a decade before that across two other political parties. This is not something that can just be brushed away.

Happiness, humour, truth and, most crucially, courage are the qualities needed to repel the racist tide. Because its architects offer whining, victimhood, lies and, most crucially, cowardice.

Anyone who really knows migrants knows this. We know how hard it is to move to another country, and how much commitment and heartache it takes.

Trump and Netanyahu agree not to take any questions from reporters. Two self-styled strongmen, terrified by the prospect of answering a few questions.

London under sharia law

"There are other questions the CPRE does not ask. Chief among them: if there is so much brownfield land available in the middle of a housing crisis, then why on Earth aren’t we already building on it?" Everything continues to be awful so I've returned to my comfort zone.

Getting mighty tired of the meme on here of “oh, it is just so difficult for the government to set the agenda”. The government (which literally employs thousands of press officers) is setting the agenda - it’s just that it is setting it on toxic ground it can’t win.

Happy 200th birthday to passenger rail travel! Although, as my piece shows, actual history is messier than that: www.forbes.com/sites/carlto...

Nathan Gill is no fringe politician. He was the leader of the Reform Party and before that UKIP in Wales. A Brexit Party MEP. A friend and ally of Nigel Farage, who in 2016 called him: "terrific," and "as honest as the day is long." This is a MASSIVE story www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Did it make it onto the main BBC news site? Seems to be under 'Wales' rn.

And here’s the thing: when you start down that path, where does it end? The contempt which Reform, MAGA etc hold for institutions - which is the very foundation of their appeal - means they feel entitled to abuse the rules and destroy from the inside. It’s a vicious circle of grift and corruption.

One aspect of this story is that UKIP/Reform were sent to a Parliament which they held in contempt - indeed that was the point - and so they’ll never acknowledge that the rules still applied to them. For them, milking it for personal gain was 100% legit, even to the point of taking enemy bribes. >