It is positive that the Government is becoming more open in expressing support for closer ties with Europe, but we must go further. European Movement UK is calling for the UK to rejoin key programmes such as Creative Europe and the European Single Market, rather than just simply aligning with them.

The Nissan plant in Sunderland is Britain’s biggest car factory, and the 2nd largest UK manufacturer behind Jaguar Land Rover. This decision could make 6,000 employees redundant, and this is only one case out of potential millions.

The groundswell of anger against Katie Hopkins touring Britain like she's just some normal celebrity grows. Well done to local people in Dorset who aren't taking it lying down. www.change.org/p/katie-hopk...

Beautiful from Private Eye on the massive toddler-tantrum that Matt Goodwin and Reform are having, because they got whooped in Gorton and Denton.

Have we woken up in America? The deeply unpatriotic Daily Mail and Sun seem to now be supporting a menace of a foreign leader over our own govt and national security. They are really only loyal to their own vested interests. Which are a direct threat to our own. The routine betrayal is sickening.

Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez on the Iran War. "Spain's position at this juncture is clear and forceful. It is the same position we have maintained in Ukraine and also in Gaza. No to the breaking of international law that protects us all, especially the most defenceless - the civilian population."

Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey: "Tax exiles like Isabel Oakeshott and washed up old footballers who mock ordinary people who stay in the UK and pay our taxes... As we protect them, it's only right for tax exiles to start paying taxes to fund our armed forces, just like the rest of us".

Reform win a seat: The true Volk have spoken and we all must listen. Greens win a seat: Early reports that Muslims may have ‘voted’ (an ancient Islamic practice designed to steal elections). How severely should the franchise be limited in response?

Polling holds too much sway over our democracy and governance. But the G&D by-election does show that Reform’s dominance is inflated by foreign/rightwing interests, irresponsible media support and Farage’s ego. If progressives can win despite all that, then hatred really is overpriced. Hope can win.

People say Farage has charisma. This isn’t charismatic. This is dismissive and rude. It’s a serious question about BNP-style racism within his party. And Farage can’t cope with that kind of scrutiny. So he lashes out. Under the spotlight, his ‘charisma’ turns very sour indeed.

Jansen Ganesh is on fire in this column on the UK’s role in the Iran conflict www.ft.com/content/eaee...

FT comments section this morning - saying what everyone else is thinking, right?

Who the hell is this guy? And what does he want as a return on his £millions invested in Reform? Because it sure as shit isn’t a fairer, more progressive, equal and prosperous UK with good public services and well-regulated consumer protections. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

How Reform's extended tantrum over losing the Gorton and Denton by-election reveals exactly why they are on course for an even bigger defeat at the next general election www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/how-nigel-...

The number of commentators/journalists salivating at blaming Starmer for ruining the “special relationship” is genuinely pathetic If anyone ruined it- if it even really exists- here’s a reminder of who did it.

Hi! Immigration lawyer here! Mahmood's view of the Refugee Convention as providing temporary protection just isn’t correct & AFAIK isn’t one anyone has ever adopted. On the contrary, the Convention is clearly predicated on a long-term need for protection. 1/🧵

So, in launching a huge bombing campaign on Iran they apparently didn't plan for: - Who takes over; - Interceptor shortages from sustained drone retaliation; - How to defend US bases in the region; - Threats to ships in the Strait of Hormuz; and - How to evacuate Americans with airspace closed.

And you wonder why so many Home Office policies are successfully challenged in the courts... www.politico.eu/article/brit...

I’ve spent years, decades, obsessing over the Bush Administration’s Iraq WMD lies, writing about them, debunking them. I can think of no lie about Iraq WMDs told by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al that comes even close to the enormity and absurdity of this lie from Donald Trump.

Kind of incredible. I was just sitting down to write about how Starmer should be given credit for keeping us out of this mess when he does this. Unutterably foolish and obsequious. Why in God's name should we have anything to do with this shortsighted madness.

That’s a £30 billion black hole in our economy, according to the IFS. And a ‘car crash’ for our care industry & the NHS. Just for starters. On the plus side, Bromsgrove currently has hundreds of union flags flying from lampposts.

"Trying to compete with Reform not only feels inauthentic... but a betrayal of what Labour is supposed to represent. We must address the concerns and fears of voters, not play on them." Damning stuff from Sadiq Khan www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

As Nigel Farage is now so concerned about the influence of "foreign-born voters" can he finally explain why a Kazakhstan-born billionaire appears to be bankrolling his own political party?

Let me guess, wealthy people who moved to Dubai to avoid paying taxes now want the countries they moved from to protect them?

A useful record of Farage’s failure and his inability to cope with it. A cheat and a very bad loser who would happily trash democracy to get the result he wants. And then remove our rights to stop us holding him to account. Such a corrupt, egomaniacal liar should have no hope of getting power.

As journalists working today many of us are taught to recognise disinformation when we see it and fight back against it. Unfortunately there are some who willingly seek it out and put it on their front pages. A disgrace to the profession.

Maybe it’s you that’s wrong, Wes. Maybe you’re just not appealing to anyone much. You’re not convincing Reform voters but, in pandering to them, you’re pissing everyone else off. Progressives have had a decade of being scorned and ignored. Don’t criticise us for minding and doing something about it.

The real threat to democracy doesn't come from 'family voting'. It comes from the losing side refusing go accept they've lost

“Gorton and Denton…. was a stress test for grievance politics, and grievance cracked first. Reform’s instinct when challenged is not to persuade but to tantrum; not to build trust but to erode it. That’s the playbook. Win, or cry foul” @zoegrunewald.bsky.social www.thenewworld.co.uk/zoe-grunewal...

And all based on an idiotically shallow and wrong diagnosis: that Labour is losing votes to the right AND the left. It's simply not true. Look at the fkn numbers. Labour LOST a few votes to the right - that were on loan and never coming back. It is currently actively LOSING votes only to the left.

Stunning and historic result in the Gordon and Denton parliamentary by-election in the UK. The anti-genocide Green Party led by Zack Polanski has won the seat from Keir Starmer's governing Labour Party. Nigel Farage's Reform UK and its odious candidate Matt Goodwin beaten.

Today's by-election is another illustration of the problems with FPTP. The result may tell us less about what voters want to happen than whether they can game the system effectively to stop a result most *don't* want. The electoral system should not be an obstacle that voters have to work around.

This is not a reasoned political response. Labour has spent two years making all the voting groups who backed the Greens feel unwelcome and unheard, and now attacks them for daring to back someone else. They believe Labour isn’t listening and Starmer seems determined to prove them right

Joyful to see Goodwin and Farage having a huge wettie and rightwing media scrabbling around for credibility in the rubble of their cocky predictions and polling. You don’t have this in the bag.We voted for change in 2024. That never meant hate-fuelled populism. It meant hope. You don’t give us that.

Thank god. A great win for Hannah Spencer and the Greens, for #GortonAndDenton and for progressive voters. Made even greater by the huge Reform sulk. And the fact that the hateful Goodwin got whooped. Now Labour, look to your left because you will not win from the right. We’re sick of that failure.

the usual rules, applied to certain other parties, means this number of shocking stories about Reform in a short space of time means it’s a party in crisis & the leader has serious questions to answer

A vote for Reform UK and Matt Goodwin is a vote for Tommy Robinson. #GortonAndDenton

LOL

Extraordinary that in these fractious & divided times, so many of us can unite around the single, simple fact that Matthew Goodwin is an irredeemable twat.

my god I need to wake up Friday morning to the news that Matt Goodwin is not an MP, I can't bring myself to feel strongly about who wins but I really, really need him to lose

“Reform’s candidate, an oddball far-right former academic turned GB News presenter, is facing allegations of sexual harassment, while their “interim” campaign manager.. has been exposed as a holocaust-denying anti-semite” Please god, G&D, don’t inflict this on us. open.substack.com/pub/adambien...

With reduced productivity, investment, and trade, the impacts of leaving the European Union is still being felt a decade later. As today marks 10 years since the date of the referendum was confirmed, it reminds us of the importance of repairing our relationship with Europe.

Brexit is a clear example of self-sabotage, with the negative impacts still being felt a decade later. Research has found that at the start of 2025, the UK economy was approximately 8% smaller than it would have been had we remained in the European Union.

Farage “wants to distract people into thinking their problems are because of women or equality and diversity policies, or immigrants. Like Trump, it shifts the discourse and that’s v dangerous” Women must turn Farage’s problem with women into a problem for him. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

“Farage…decided the complaint was not serious enough to warrant a rethink about Goodwin’s selection… [He]characterised the complaint as “just Matt being Matt” Hmm. Not sure a pair of misogynists are the best people to judge what’s “serious enough”. Let’s ask her. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

That Goodwin would attract like-minded racists, bigots and neo-Nazi adjacent lowlifes was predictable. That the BBC, Times, etc would entirely ignore this...was also predictable.

Farage - grifting multimillionaire and highest earning MP Tice - family money multimillionaire Yusuf - multimillionaire Jenrick - millionaire Zahawi - multimillionaire But they want to cut the National Minimum Wage down from £12.21 per hour. (It goes up 50p in April.) God, they’re hideous.

So it turns out Matt Goodwin's Reform campaign manager was a holocaust-denying Nazi who said he would "never touch a Jewish woman.” When do we start seeing all the coverage of the antisemitism crisis in Reform UK? www.jewishnews.co.uk/reform-uk-su...

Why would you pig-headedly ignore the voice of the next generation? Why would you saddle them with debt, shrink the job market and limit their opportunities? It runs counter to everything politics and society should want for them. For all of us. They’re the future. www.itv.com/news/2026-02...