Michael Crick, journalist: “It depresses me how much fellow political journalists are down-playing this - a dranatic story not just about Russia corrupting a British politician - as they've done in Germany & France - but also about the character judgement+relationships of Reform leaders Farage+Tice”

As Reform's Nathan Gill admits taking bribes from Russian 'secret service pawn' Oleg Voloshyn, here’s a nice photo of Nigel Farage with Voloshyn’s wife.

ID cards are to the left what the smoking ban was to the right. Five years after they're introduced, only crusty comedians in real ale pubs will still be complaining about them.

Some strongly worded criticism of planning committees here from the Planning Inspectorate. "Planning decisions are not referendum" Councillors cannot vito development on the grounds that lots of people have objected to it. Only the substance of their objections can count.

Blimey, that's proper "15 minute city conspiracy" territory she's moving into

Mwahahahaha Unzoomed #616 1/6 🟢⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️ unzoomed.com

Can we all take a fucking breath please, swans are not the objects of a "blood libel". Fuck's sake.

If the first thing out of your mouth when trying to position yourself as a bulwark against populism is "bond markets", you've lost. Actually never mind about it being the fist thing, if at any point you make a braod appeal to the country with the words "bond markets", you've fucked it.

It’s so frustrating: if he had some courage in his political convictions Burnham could’ve just said “we need to tax more and spend more”. Instead, he just engages in a damaging fiction that harms both the government *and himself*.

OK, so let me get this stright: Starmer has no core beliefs & strategic vision, so we'll report that this initiative that's been in the works for nearly a year is a knee-jerk response to the media-created hype around a) Frarage & b) Burnham? Do you people actively WANT fascism?

Thanks, now I really want to watch Frances de la Tour being magnificent in The History Boys, and can't because I'm in the office.

But *why* repeat his lie & then say "sparks backlash" & not "makes false claim"? Why?! Have British editors learned nothing from the US? Did they read *none* of the analysis of how Trump manipulated the media? IT WAS IN ENGLISH, EVEN I honestly despair.

Not despite, because of - the definition of "best" Gove was working with had "written or thought by a white man" baked in from the start.

So progressive

Yeah, very easy to say why this keeps happening.

Mrs R: "There was a woman on the ward today who didn't want to take paracetamol. We've had to explain that we're not giving it to her because she's got a fever and we want her to feel better, but because she's got a fever and if we don't get her temperature down then her baby is going to die."

Women took Thalidomide from 1957 until 1961, when it was taken off the market. Paracetamol has been in safe use for over 70 years. It's a perfect example of how populists undermine trust in institutions: it's a bullshit false equivalence, but only an expert would be able to rebut it live on air.

I came across a comic book fair in rural France once, & there was this guy selling his graphic novels about the French revolution. I flicked through the books & saw no women in them, which was weird. When I asked him about it he grumpily barked at me that "there were no women back then!" 🤷‍♀️

I think reporters should interrogate press releases a little more - particularly when theyre from the CPRE as part of a active campaign.

Yet again CPRE are claiming there's sufficient brownfield land and we don't need to build on any countryside. There are many reasons why this isn't correct 🧵

Nothing in this acknowledges the economic reality of why many brownfield sites don’t get away as housing: they’re not financially viable unless someone (usually us, in some form) pays for them to be cleaned up and made ready

Contractor: so how'd you want the tits? Perky? Big ole cans? Iowa state legislature: the what Contractor: me and the boys was thinking perky Iowa state legislature: this is for the war dead? Contractor: okay writin' that down as perky

Trump is deeply deranged. It's terrifying to have basically *the whole world*, embodied in the UN, be captive to his ravings with no mechanism by which even to shut him up, let alone get rid of him.

Bibi is his own kind of monster, but he has no interest in the rules-based international order either way. As in Wilhoit's law, we were part of the out group whom it binds but does not protect.

1) Zero women 2) Zero opinions on Hamas & the PA

Yep. We didn't come here to make your high streets more "vibrant". We're not a bit of ethnic colour. We're quite hard-nosed, resilient, ambitious people, on the whole.

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!

The factoid re London & Jerusalem having the same annual precipitation is true, but in Jerusalem the rain falls heavily during a short season & dissipates as flash floods in the desert, whereas in England the rainfall is spread throughout the year & there are several huge rivers for it to flow into.

Evergreen post.

5,000 year old yarn. Incredible.

For 56 minutes Sky News and BBC News interrupted everything else and carried a Reform UK feed live, uninterrupted, unchallenged. The stream spluttered, froze, pixelated - dozens of times - still they stuck with it. FOR ONE HOUR. This is an editorial choice. No other party gets this coverage. ~AA

💔💔💔 On Rosh Hashanah eve: Hamas releases video of hostage Alon Ohel Terror group releases a new video of hostage Alon Ohel—showing his brief encounter with captive Guy Gilboa-Dalal—in psychological warfare bid to pressure Israel amid stalled negotiations www.ynetnews.com/article/hyzo...

This morning in New York, alongside the UN General Assembly, a truck with a message from Peace Now was spotted circulating near the Israeli Consulate and around UN offices and HQ. 🧵

The two kinds of contemporary urban graffiti.

The Berlin Olympics were in 1936, but OK

Sorry to anyone who's heard this story before, but I lived here on ILR for 14 years, perfectly content, & only applied for citizenship when the EU referendum was announced. Not when the results came in, but when it was announced. Because I knew anti-immigrant feeling can only ratchet up, never down.

They won't. The put up a statue to themselves celebrating the families they broke up in 1939 when they grudgingly accepted 10,000 Jewish children - without their parents or other relatives - because they thought it'd be easier to un-Jewify them if they're got here young. (They were right btw)

I wrote a thing a while ago about how one of the important tasks for a new Labour government was to make space for the sadness people felt as a result of the pandemic, austerity and more. Sadness, not despair or its proxy anger. There is a lot of sadness with nowhere to go, hiding in other things

Very odd watching BBC News talking about the Lib Dem conference and mentioning how the party has struggled to break through in the media like it's nothing to do with them.

It's full-on neo colonial. What the British Empire failed to impose on the Arabs in 1948 its descendants think they can generously gift their descendants in 2025.

British media pumps out daily propaganda pieces for Farage, fails to offer *any scrutiny* and basically legitimises rampant racism, then puts on its ‘innocent face’ and clutches its pearls at the rise of the far right… What a grim betrayal of our democracy. www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/how...

It's hard to convey how terrifying Smotritch is when you understand both his language (his English is notoriously poor) & his ideology. He's a monster. A Stephen Miller, but one who thinks God is on his side.

To stop the war, arm democratic Ukraine to the teeth, and savagely sanction fascist Russia: This has been Ukrainian government's message since Day One of the full-scale Russian invasion. Well over three years on, the West still hasn't done it, and the war is escalating.

I see we're pretending Gen X doesn't exist again.

Liddington Camp, a 3 hectare hillfort above Swindon. The first occupation dates back to the 7th century BC, making it a late Bronze Age / early Iron Age hillfort.

What ducks 🥲

Attention UK flag shaggers: *this* is how you show you're a true patriot.