A compulsory UK nationwide identity card system is yet again the flavour of the moment. Who gains from this financially? Keir Starmer & Labour have zero mandate to impose this in the current Parliament.

Crosses on Wheels: the new Spinal Tap film looks a classic.

With the UK, Australia & Canada 151 out of 193 UN states recognise Palestinian statehood. Another six UN members plan to recognise Palestine in the next week leaving 36 countries which have not done so including the USA & Israel. #PalestinianStatehood

The UK now has the lowest life expectancy of any country in Western Europe.

Britain's increasingly rancid right-wing press parroting the main takeaway points of Israeli state propaganda.

George Orwell was a democratic socialist & anti-fascist who fought fascists in the Spanish Civil War. He would be amused & revolted at Elon Musk & the supposedly libertarian American right co-opting him as one of their own.

"Fascism is growling at the door" and also having a good laugh at this ongoing comedy.

Kemi Badenoch as leader of the UK opposition is peddling the same old tired Israeli state propaganda re: Palestinian statehood. Badenoch has not uttered a single substantive criticism of the indiscriminate terror & killing of Palestinians by Israel since she became Tory leader.

When I was a young lad as well as punk, new wave, post-punk & more I had a love of Supertramp along with ELO at their peak & Wings. Then I went off Supertramp but in recent years I have come back. 'Crime of the Century' is epic & my fav is still 'Even in the Quietest Moments.' RIP Rick Davies.

Trump's USA is in no place to lecture the UK or anyone on freedom or free speech. It is ranked 57th in the world in media freedom having fallen from 45th two years ago. Maybe instead of listening to Trumpian blowhards we should all listen to Norway: no. 1 for media freedom. #WorldPressFreedomIndex

Tory Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride refuses several times to condemn Elon Musk's inflammatory call for violence in the UK. Joining his leader Kemi Badenoch in being cowardly & craven appeasing the violent politics of the far right. #bbclaurak #trevorphillips

Multi-party Britain: five GB-wide parties at 10% or over; then there is the SNP & Plaid. And yet the distortions of FPTP would give Reform 57% of seats on 31% of the vote. REF: 31% (+1) LAB: 22% (-1) CON: 17% (-1) LD: 12% (=) GRN: 10% (=) Via Opinium Research 17-19 Sept +/- vs 3-5 Sept.

Donald Trump is tanking on the economy. No wonder he is throwing up diversion after diversion, going after comedians & threatening anyone who dares criticise him.

The Charlie Kirk-George Floyd Day of National Remembrance. Could by accident be a way to bring America together rather than heighten divisions!

Why is this so difficult for the US Democratic Party & their highly paid adviser class to comprehend? And parties of the centre-left across the world? Stand for something. Stand for working people rather than elites, their privileges & worldview & continual appeasement of the populist right.

Labour promises being delivered in Scotland by the SNP reported by #PrivateEye.

What chance despite all the Farage hype that the Liberal Democrats end up with a lot more seats at the next UK general election than Reform? www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

"The competition on who is going to be the new North Korea really hots up."

Putin is testing NATO & the West aided by the pro-Putin apologist Donald Trump. Where next after Poland, Romania & Estonia? 9–10/9: 20 drones crossed into Poland; 14-15/9: 25 drones intruded Romania; 19/9: 3 Russian jets violated Estonia’s airspace.

Donald Trump showing his sure grasp of geography & reality: claiming he solved the Albanian-Aberbaijan conflict.

The UK. Still working for some. Who have never had it so good.

In UK politics the mainstream parties: Labour, Tories, Lib Dem, Reform, support the same discredited & broken economic model. As sadly do the SNP. In England, Wales & Scotland the only electoral challenger to this dire state is the Greens. More power to them across the UK can only be good thing!

The Labour hierarchy are now turning against Peter Mandelson with Harriet Harman saying he should be barred from returning to the Lords. But Mandelson's senior role in Labour & public life is a savage indictment on the party & the paucity of Lord's vetting processes in 2008.

This headline is absolutely nuts. The way America's democratic institutions have just completely unravelled in the last 9 months has just been astoundingly pathetic.

Finished my chapter on Roosevelt's 1932 Presidential campaign. A leader of stature & principle: "The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism ..."

The decline of US press freedom over the last decade plus.

"What makes the Republican and conservative hypocrisy so depressing is that, at a time when free speech in the west needs thoughtful defenders, its self-proclaimed champions have revealed themselves as posturing partisans." @robertshrimsley.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/2dcc...

Keir Starmer has survived Donald Trump. He may be a disastrous domestic PM. But internationally with all sorts of caveats (Gaza being the most obvious) he he has shown himself to be a grown-up.

The bonkers ultra-right Bev Turner of @gbnewsonline.bsky.social actually asks Starmer if "the UK is still a Christian country?" This is the kind of batshit right-wing lunacy which is poisoning US politics.

The fledgling new left party is hitting the rocks before it has been launched. Setting up & establishing a new party which has any impact is hard. People now forget that Farage is now on his third iteration of a party. This new left party may implode before launching.

Very chuffed to contribute to 'British By-Elections': the first comprehensive guide to by-elections which made an impact on UK politics. Have two chapters on Govan 1973 & Margo's victory & Govan 1988 & Jim Sillars. Edited by @iaindale.bsky.social & pub by @bitebackpublishing.bsky.social tomorrow.

Very chuffed to contribute to 'British By-Elections': the first comprehensive guide to by-elections which made an impact on UK politics. Have two chapters on Govan 1973 & Margo's victory & Govan 1988 & Jim Sillars. Edited by @iaindale.bsky.social & pub by @bitebackpublishing.bsky.social tomorrow.

"Orange Lies Matter." Telling the truth about the shameless serial liar & trasher of truth Donald Trump; Parliament Square, London, today.

The political descent of Peter Mandelson. A damning indictment of the UK political classes & media who colluded in his positions at the top. They are happy to operate in an ethical free zone while pretending they care about decency & the values of public life. HT #PrivateEye

Starmer, Mandelson and the #Trump Visit. Well done #PrivateEye.

Great to see Windsor Castle having images of Trump and Jeffrey Epstein projected on to it conveying the sleaze and immorality of Trump, Epstein & by association Peter Mandelson. And projecting the image of one of Epstein's victims: Virginia Giuffre. #USStateVisit

A lot of projection going on in British media abt the Trump visit. About the importance of the UK, Trump's "love" of Britain & that "the UK is the most important ally of Trump's America." Embarrassing & delusional as UK politicians & media prostitute themselves. #USStateVisit

The not so strange death of Welsh Labour: Labour collapse to 14% & would win a mere 13 seats; Plaid ahead in votes & would be largest party in Senedd. PLAID 30% (=) REF 29% (+4) LAB 14% (-4) CON 11% (-2) LD 6% (-1) GRN 6% (+1) Via @yougov.co.uk Sample: 4-10 Sept. Changes: 23-30 April.

Reform claim they are the new force in UK politics. Funny they are filled with former Tory MPs: Maria Caulfield Danny Kruger Andrea Jenkyns Aidan Burley Alan Amos Nadine Dorries David Jones Jake Berry Graham Simpson Adam Holloway Anne Marie Morris Marco Longhi Ross Thomson Lee Anderson

Keir Starmer has lost the support of Labour members in a @labourlist.bsky.social poll. A mere 26% of Labour members have a favourable view of Starmer; 59% unfavourable: a -33% rating. Asked if Labour was going in the right direction 25% said yes, 67% no. labourlist.org/2025/09/excl...

85 years ago: 15 September 1940; the Battle of Britain reached its climax leading to the RAF's defeat of the Luftwaffe. So many things to be proud of including the fourteen nationalities who made up the RAF & huge role of Poles & Czechs. The defeat of fascism does not belong to the far-right.

The bigger the profile Tommy Robinson gets spouting his hate, division & support for violence in a debased English nationalism the more chance a little England will be left on its own shrunken & isolated. Minus Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland. England can do better than this reactionary future.

Trevor Philips talking on @news.sky.com abt Saturday's far-right march claiming it was dominated by "normal people" & "the quiet majority". Says nothing here or in @thetimes.com abt the language of violence of Elon Musk & Tommy Robinson. The media normalising what is the extreme right & politics.

Keir Starmer is toast. Starmer, Downing Street & Labour MPs cannot answer why Mandelson was appointed in the first place given the evidence abt his links to Jeffrey Epstein. Mandelson & Starmer's inept leadership show the rot at the heart of UK politics. How long can Starmer cling on?

Is the departure of Paul Ovenden from Downing Street over abusive & disgusting remarks he made seven years ago the first signs of the revenge that Peter Mandelson will reap on Keir Starmer?

Sky News live broadcasting JD Vance from the White House hosting the Charlie Kirk Show as if the latter were some saint or modern MLK. Rather than the Trumpian insurrectionist, demagogue & hate-monger he inarguably was & was proud to be. FAO @news.sky.com

The last days of the crumbling Starmer regime? Paul Ovenden is sacked over abusive comments re: Diane Abbott: "Paul was the best brain in government, and without his instincts and intellect, this government risks turning inwards." Which maybe is not saying a lot. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

This is the outline of a new left party programme. The below summary of points is hopeless. There is little connection to the febrile state of the UK: worries about the state of living & food & energy prices. And talk of a leftist echo chamber: three of the nine points are on Israel/Palestine.

Danny Kruger's defection to Farage's Reform takes them to a sum total of FIVE MPs. This means that the Lib Dems have gone from having EIGHTEEN TIMES more MPs than Reform to just over FOURTEEN TIMES. Would be great if media gave Lib Dems proportionately the coverage they deserve.

Right-wing pundit Fraser Nelson says Kemi Badenoch has "got the time to turn the Tories round." What kind of fantasy right-wing world is he living in? Badenoch has been Tory leader for TEN MONTHS, has no cut-through, & is increasingly irrelevant as are the Tories. #PoliticsLive