Stand strong Georgia!💗🇬🇪

They’re here!

I’m so happy to be in UK for Christmas….even if I’m finding the small winding country roads with speed limits of 60 mph (faster than many American highways) absolutely terrifying to drive along, especially at night. Can’t believe I used to zip along them in my old banged up car in my 20s. 😱😱😱

I’m at Gatwick Airport arrivals hall, waiting for my family - and it’s just like the scene from Love Actually, as people walk through the doors to be greeted by welcome signs, balloons, cries and hugs. Sadly, no Hugh Grant or Colin Firth yet…but, heartwarming all the same ❤️❤️❤️

"The gov't is looking after puppies and kittens and everyone is delighted. Quick! Find me a negative angle." My heart breaks for The Times. ~AA

There is something deeply cynical about Vance’s willingness to weaponize the Ukrainian struggle for breaf political gain He is invoking hatred that will outlive his career.It is a short-term political play that will leave a long-term stain on how a generation of Americans views the Ukrainian people

Apparently engaging with the EU is all about economics, while also avoiding freedom of movement. Sigh. Anyone hoping to rejoin has a very very long wait. Frankly, if you're a rejoiner over 50, I'd suggest taking up stamp collecting or bird watching instead. It'll be more fulfilling.

Superb analysis here. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Can anyone tell I’m homesick? I’m in the area where I grew up; my mind flooding with memories; my heart bursting with love and nostalgia. I know the UK has problems, but, wow, it’s also magical and beautiful and wonderful.

Tea with family yesterday; Paddington bear presents for my great-nieces; early hike today across the South Downs; lunch now at a country pub; carol service at my ancient local church this evening. Muddy dogs; Wellington boots: SCD finale later this evening; Christmas market tomorrow. Oh, England ❤️❤️❤️

I’ve been in US for so long now that I really was struck when I arrived yesterday by the general niceness, politeness and normality of people here! On my BA flight it was so disarming to hear the pilot and crew repeatedly apologizing for every tiny inconvenience, and speaking in unassuming tone.

Mind you, I do wish the trains would run on time!

I’m in UK right now; full of nice people from different backgrounds, exchanging pleasantries, doing Christmas shopping, eating out, attending carol services, chatting about the weather, and generally going about their business in friendly manner. Far from the hellhole MAGA would have you believe!

The real antisemitism is on the right.

From the right-wing Manhattan Institute's focus group of Gen Z conservatives -- just jaw-dropping stuff. We have a very sick society. www.city-journal.org/article/manh...

Belgium. Let’s hope it never gets invaded by a hostile country and has to appeal to other countries for support and liberation; wait, oh…….https://www.politico.eu/article/european-council-summit-belgium-bart-de-wever-beat-eu-machine-ukraine-funding/

Welcome to the UK where a right wing academic seeks to defend a man who wrote: 'Head for the hotels housing them and burn them to the ground.' By describing that incitement as "anti immigration"

Yeah, hard to explain that... #TDS #ItsAcult #MAGAtNation

Call me a woke libtard, but I want strong gun laws, regulation of tech giants, action on climate change, tough consumer, health and safety standards. I support vaccines, woman’s right to choose, privacy laws, science based solutions, public healthcare. Everything MAGA hates about Europe, I admire. 🤷‍♀️

Being separated through a Reduction in Force RIF, denied proper notification, pushed out through the illegal dismantling of USAID, and being lied about by DOGE under an egotistic billionaire who sucks taxpayer funds is not leaving voluntarily. 😡😡

In Australia, the response to a deadly and awful shooting is to promise to tighten gun laws. In America the response is to send thoughts and prayers (if you're lucky). But you won't get those from the president these days. More likely to get a tirade of hatred and blame.

Good news! 🎉 While we’ve yet to see detail on finance & numbers, this is a major win for common sense & for the thousands who’ll now be able to access vocational training, work placements & higher education - congrats to all who campaigned for it #Erasmus @europeanmovement.co.uk @bestforbritain.org

Evil, complicit, dangerous woman insists she was lying all along. 🤷‍♀️

Susie Wiles told NYT she didn't call Elon Musk "an avowed ketamine" in one of her ELEVEN interviews with Vanity Fair. "That’s ridiculous. I wouldn’t have said it and I wouldn’t know." Vanity Fair: Cool here's a recording of you saying that. www.huffpost.com/entry/brown-...

Don't let Susie Wiles try to slough off her direct responsibility for this administration's wanton cruelty. Not directed at anyone in particular.

Leaked reporting on similar dysfunction in the first Trump administration led to my former Ambassador, Kim Darroch, being forced to resign. Telling the truth can get you in trouble!

Keir Starmer has authorised an "urgent" review into the extent of foreign interference in British politics as he prepares to change the law to tighten donation rules. That’s good news but a full public inquiry into Russian interference in UK politics and democracy is still needed

'American attacks on the European Union are more likely to band it closer together, than succeed in breaking it apart.' @alexhh.bsky.social, via @bylinetimes.bsky.social

Fast forward to 2029.. NATO: Please, please join us! We need your 2 million soldiers, expertise, battlefield experience, missile and drone technologies and production lines to help secure Europe. Ukraine: We'll think about it.

I challenge you to think of one thing you would less like to do

2016 Daily Mail: We want foreigners out! We don’t care if it makes us poorer. Brexit means Brexit! 2025 Daily Mail: Foreigners are leaving Starmer’s Britain because this country is poor and shit! This country would be so much better off without this hypocritical, incendiary, irresponsible rag.

🔴‘The Trump Administration Must Abandon Its Delusions About Destroying the EU’ The European Union is far stronger and more united than those inside the Trumpian echo chamber have fooled themselves into believing, argues @alexhh.bsky.social bylinetimes.com/2025/12/12/t...

Brown people getting unequal treatment based on what they look like and last names.

What could go wrong?

Episode 1 of this podcast, and I am already hooked. Fascinating (and obviously increasingly disturbing)

Trump has made America a place people fear, a place people don’t like, don’t trust, don’t want to do business with, and don’t want to visit. He’s made America a place people laugh at, a place that’s cruel & bigoted. America, under Trump, is no longer a destination. It’s a place to be avoided.

Not nearly enough Dem electeds are sticking their necks out for immigrants being harassed & detained by ICE. It's shameful & they will be remembered for their cowardice as the Americans who did not stand up for Japanese Americans in WWII are now.

Yeah, right, because we can really trust the Trump administration to uphold its side of the bargain 😡😡😡

When stubbornness becomes wilful stupidity.

When the Telegraph admits Brexit is a disaster, the ground is moving. The question is: why isn’t Starmer? @eastangliabylines.co.uk @peterthurlow.bsky.social

Rant alert: Trump’s national security strategy trashing the EU and core values at heart of transatlantic alliance makes it all the more urgent for Starmer to pursue bolder reset with EU. His timidity loses valuable time and risks leaving us even more subject to events rather than shaping them. 🧵

“Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he.”

In Trump’s America, the two survivors would have been hit with a second strike.

I can’t believe I just concluded a note to my son’s school with the words “Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Aaaaaargggghhh. It made perfect sense, in the context, but still, 😱😱😱😱😱😱

🤣🏆🤣🏆

Rant alert: Trump’s national security strategy trashing the EU and core values at heart of transatlantic alliance makes it all the more urgent for Starmer to pursue bolder reset with EU. His timidity loses valuable time and risks leaving us even more subject to events rather than shaping them. 🧵

I suspect Starmer's instinct has always been for incremental reintegration with the EU but the country (& the Gov) can't wait. He either needs to move now or lose the next GE. Why does he always have to follow rather than lead public opinion?

Starmer needs to find the courage to follow his arguments about the failures and costs of Brexit to their logical conclusion. His recent foreign policy speech fell short by continuing to gloss over hard truths, and pretend Britain can keep muddling through.

It’s always only ever about the money.

🔴 Nigel Farage’s Reform is more reliant on super-rich backers than any major party in modern British political history 75% of *all* Reform donations *ever* have come from just three rich men Is this what democracy looks like? New on Democracy for Sale democracyforsale.substack.com/p/75-of-refo...