Buckhaven, Methil and Wemyss Villages by-election 1st prefs, SNP victory; Reform vote a Scottish high of 28.8%: SNP: 1594 (42.5%, -5) Reform: 1080 (28.8%, new) Labour: 778 (20.7%, -19.6) LDem: 99 (2.6%, +0.3) Alba: 83 (2.2%, +0.9) Conservative: 64 (1.7%, -4.8) Sovereignty: 54 (1.4%, new)

It shows the complete bankruptcy of UK politics & the left that neither Labour MP Anna Turley or TUC Paul Nowak mention privatisation as one of the factors contributing to the crisis of prisons. And it takes Tim Stanley of the right-wing Telegraph to mention the unmentionable. #bbcqt

On the other hand 52% of the UK voted for Brexit based on a pile of lies & without any coherent plan from any of the Brexiteers.

The usual tired, cliched bullshit bingo from The Sun's Harry Cole on the election of Zohran Mamdani. Of his seven points FIVE relate to the Israeli-Palestine conflict: so he is clearly struggling for material!

Betty Brown: a proud, determined & principled woman who fought for 26 years against being financially ruined in the Post Office scandal. She has finally been compensated for her losses. When will heads role & senior Post Office & Fujitsu people face charges? #Newsnight

The #BBC News website has clearly been living in the age of neoliberalism too long. Summarising the election of Zohran Mamdani it says he is "a democratic socialist which has no clear definition." Er, there is a world of literature & studies on what democratic socialism is.

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy says at #PMQs that the SNP are "a national security threat.' Repeating words said by Defence Sec John Healey & Scottish Sec Douglas Alexander. Desperate stuff from a govt which cannot categorically say China is a threat to the UK.

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy says at #PMQs that the SNP are "a national security threat.' Repeating words said by Defence Sec John Healey & Scottish Sec Douglas Alexander. Desperate stuff from a govt which cannot categorically say China is a threat to the UK.

David Lammy might be officially Deputy Prime Minister but his style & delivery is lame & laborious at #PMQs. Another sign of the decline of parliamentary standards.

Will the UK mantra & obsession abt Trump change after the US elections? The mantra that goes 'we must understand Trump's appeal' & 'we must learn from & copy Trump'. Trump is popular as an insurgent when he is opposing things. He is unpopular when in govt trying to do things. Not hard to grasp.

The Starmer Labour Govt's craven cowardice in the face of Trump's authoritarian & anti-democratic politics is on show every day. Here is Bridget Phillipson, Education Secretary, unable to welcome the election of Zohran Mamdani as New York Mayor.

This is insane. Is there *any* race that was expected to be at all close that the GOP won?

The same old same old as Mamdani sweeps New York.

The West's war machine rolls on. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, ex-Secretary General of NATO says European troops should be deployed to Ukraine to oppose Putin. When Clive Lewis notes the long history of failed Western wars: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, he responds citing "Hitler & appeasement." #Newsnight

As @labourlewis.bsky.social notes it is ridiculous for Labour ministers saying they will leave decisions about the Royal Family to the Palace. The royals are an intrinsic part of the British state & Labour ministers refuse to agree that Parliament should be able to have a say. #Newsnight

The inexorable Trumpian transformation of the British right. No longer standing up for democracy, free elections and the rule of law. And the death of British Conservatism as we have known it.

Stephen Yaxley-Lennon has been found not guilty of terrorist offences. But hundreds of pensioners standing peacefully with Palestine Action placards are. What terrible standards!

The scale of Labour's collapse under Starmer is so steep & fundamental. Never has Labour's vote deserted in such numbers in its 125 year history. Not in 1931 when Ramsay MacDonald joined the Tories; not in 1981 when four ex-Labour Cabinet ministers broke away & formed the SDP.

The collapse of Labour support in the year and a half from the calling of the 2024 election to now is unprecedented in the party's entire history: from 45% to 19% in 18 months. HT @leftiestats.bsky.social

Never mind that Trump actually tried to overturn an election & overthrow the government & do so by violence. Something the radicalised & populist right in the UK are completely silent on. Instead they attack the BBC - one of their favourite pastimes - on a technicality.

Creative thinking below in dealing with & naming bigots. 'The Alan Clark Memorial Shield' is a great idea. Trouble is lots of the possible winners are now long past any degree of self-reflection & humility & happy to revel in the gutter. Tricky question: how to deal with shameless bigots.

Groundhog Day on #BBC #PoliticsLive talking in the aftermath of the Huntingdon attack falls back into the cliche of ramping up Stop and Search. No insight or reference to where cutting knife crime has worked: the pioneering work of the Violence Reduction Unit in Scotland.

Let’s take a look at the whole “there are too many black people on TV” thing, shall we? After Pochin claimed Black people in TV adverts “made her mad”, all her supporters tried to use 👇🏼 as their excuse for why she was somehow justified in her overt racism. Spoiler - she isn’t! 🤨 🧵 1/22

Wonderful to see Brian Jackson who collaborated with Gil Scott-Heron for over a decade & who co-wrote some of their greatest songs playing on Jools Holland's #Later. Showcasing 'The Bottle' with Omar from Brian's forthcoming album: 'Now More Than Ever'. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYiL...

Letter from Dubai: sadly an ongoing series.

The rancid right-wing politics of Elon Musk inciting violence, hatred & civil war in the UK. All while the UK Government & public institutions sit & do nothing to stop him. Musk is an active threat to the UK & democracy.

Every day the incendiary language of the British right gets more weaponised & radicalised. Toby Young, a Tory peer says that the UK is heading to "civil war" & Tory chairman Kevin Hollinrake cannot condemn it on @lewisgoodall.com's show. Badenoch needs to show leadership & kick Young out the party.

The systematic poisoning & debasement of UK politics by Farage's Reform. Here is Reform councillor Darren Grimes launching into the usual cesspit of ultra-right tropes on the #Huntingdon #stabbings. Never bothering abt evidence; only looking to label, find targets, aid division & engage in hate.

Scotland & folk music are in a better place thanks to Archie Fisher who passed away yesterday at 86. A musical force for good who massively contributed to the Scottish folk revival & who through his life contributed & encouraged countless other artists.

Forensic take by Tim Shipman of Kemi Badenoch's Tory leadership. One Tory insider said: "She s a flightless bird who struts around but her polling is stuck to the floor & contact with real people has proved fatal. She is heading for extinction." www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...

America rising? 8% of Americans say they participated in a No Kings protest according to YouGov: that is a staggering 27 million Americans. In line with protests across the West it is not Generation Z who are being most radicalised but older voters. #NoKings Via @today.yougov.com

Dr Elspeth King who has died was a pioneer for culture, working class & hidden histories & Glasgow. She was curator of the People's Palace from 1974-90 & later worked in Dunfermline & Stirling. She stood against official stories & commodification of culture. A towering force with a huge legacy.

Another day another #Spiked pundit on #BBC. This time: Ella Whelan on #bbcaq. Spiked are right-wing shock jocks funded by the Trumpian Charles Koch. Profiled on the BBC all to provide clicks when Spiked offer no substance & nothing constructive to public debate.

A working class Catholic Trump supporters lays bare the empty rhetoric of the Democrats with a killer quote: "Working with Democrats is like going to a strip-club: You get a hard-on, but you don't get laid." Via @ranaforoohar.bsky.social in @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/e0a2...

BBC England broadcasting. Never mind that Scotland & Ireland are also playing today in the #RugbyWorldCup

Former Prince Andrew & his many skeletons in the cupboard. From Ben Jennings. #EpsteinFiles

The 'Andy Goldsworthy: Fifty Years' exhibition at National Galleries of Scotland is absolutely breathtaking. Full of playfulness, humour, magic & observations about being human & our relationship to nature. On to Sunday.

How Andrew has trashed the Royal Family brand with public opinion. When Fiona Bruce announced on #bbcqt that Andrew was being stripped of his royal titles & kicked out his mansion the audience burst into applause. www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/prin...

Roderick Spode, leader of the Black Shorts, has a new look on #bbcqt: Matt Goodwin.

Welcome to the common people: Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. Next: a) Andrew needs to face a police investigation; b) We need to know when the Palace knew abt Andrew & Epstein; c) The Palace have to apologise to Epstein's victims; d) There has to be full transparency re: royal monies.

A harbinger of things to come? Reform v #GreenSurge: Westminster Voting Intentions: RFM: 32% (=) GRN: 17% (+2) CON: 16% (-1) LAB: 16% (=) LDM: 12% (=) SNP: 2% (=) Via @findoutnow.bsky.social Sample 29 Oct. Changes w/ 22 Oct.

This is the right-wing future for Britain. A Policy Exchange report on shrinking the state & £115bn cuts to public spending. It includes the end to a free NHS (charging for GP visits); freezing pensions; abolishing most childcare benefits. Saying the unsayable out loud.

The contempt the British state has held people in: a series. In 1966 after the Aberfan coal tip disaster killed 144 people including 116 children the National Coal Board denied wrongdoing & offered £50 compensation per dead child; raising this to £500. www.economist.com/britain/2025...

The maintenance of the cruel two child benefit cap condemns a growing number of families & children to poverty. It does not have to be this way; government can act & go further in taking hundreds of thousands of families & children out of poverty. HT @resfoundation.bsky.social

Authoritarian Britain & the limiting of free speech & civil liberties. An academic wears a t-shirt declaring 'We are all Palestine Action" - an offence under the Terrorism Act. And where are those so-called defenders of free speech: Toby Young & his Free Speech Union? bit.ly/4qARBng

The UK political class of MPs have lots of multiple property landlords: on some estimates at least 15% of the Commons including a significant number of Labour MPs. Rachel Reeves is a leading figure in a political class without ethics, a moral compass & political antenna: a symptom of a broken system

Castro's Cuba began as an inspirational challenge to US imperialism in Central & South America. In the 1970s & 1980s Cuba contributed to anti-imperialist struggles & the fight against apartheid South Africa. Today it is sadly a recruiting agent for Russian imperialism & military aggression.

Too many people including senior politicians are using the grooming gangs scandal to make cheap political points & not caring abt victims of horrendous abuse. Step forward Nigel Farage who has been asked by female survivors of grooming gangs to apologise. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

"New Title for Prince Andrew." #PrivateEye

Elon Musk continues to promote civil war and violence in the UK. This is a consistent strand of his UK interventions: saying violence is inevitable and calling at the Tommy Robinson rally for pre-emptive violence to counter a supposed threat from others.