Best Of

Ed Davey is the thinking man’s populist.

https://x.com/edwardjdavey/status/2031784821987361130

Winston Churchill helped defeat fascism in Europe. He deserves better than being replaced by a badger 🦡

Davey says badger and Farage says beaver. One of these men is lying.

https://x.com/Nigel_Farage/status/2031785771212902539

The Bank of England is replacing Winston Churchill with a picture of a beaver on our bank notes.

This is the definition of woke.

The precise animals haven’t been chosen yet.

Are they interviewing or just going off C.V ?

I hope they will be thoroughly vetted.

Ed Davey is the thinking man’s populist.

https://x.com/edwardjdavey/status/2031784821987361130

Winston Churchill helped defeat fascism in Europe. He deserves better than being replaced by a badger 🦡

Davey says badger and Farage says beaver. One of these men is lying.

https://x.com/Nigel_Farage/status/2031785771212902539

The Bank of England is replacing Winston Churchill with a picture of a beaver on our bank notes.

This is the definition of woke.

The precise animals haven’t been chosen yet.

Are they interviewing or just going off C.V ?

I hope they will be thoroughly vetted.

Too expensive nowadays!

Hopefully we'll get new £25 and £500 notes with pony and monkey on respectively.

People of PB, please attend carefully...

Draft 15 of the trans article has been up backstage since 4am 10Mar2026. Of the people currently cleared to see it (rcs1000, DavidL, fitalass, Cyclefree, TSE, Nigelb, kyf_100, turbotubbs) none have suggested further changes and I am in my weekday digs so are limited in what I can do anyway. So Draft 15 is going to be the prepublish version released to the prereaders.

If anybody wants to preread the article before it is released to the mods please let me know in the comments before 9pm 12Mar2026 and I'll add you to the backstage.

I'm not looking for an argument and kyf_100 and Cyclefree have added extensive well-argued arguments in both directions as discussants, so change/comment requests in either direction will probably be ignored. Given the very tight word count, additions will additionally be ignored. But if you spot errors, misnumbered sources, typos, bad punctuation, etc, please tell me and I'll change it/collapse screaming/politely note your point in the article.

I'd just like to add that @Viewcode has done a cracking job producing both the article and the extended investigation (through separate appendices and discussant contributions). The overall standard is very high, honestly close to what you'd expect from something publishable in an academic journal. It's a genuinely interesting piece of work, and I hope it gets circulated more widely.

For my part, I've contributed almost 5,000 words to a discussant response, as has Cyclefree. We've deliberately avoided tearing chunks out of each other and instead focused on setting out our respective stalls. Decide for yourself who you think is right.

There's always more that could be said on a topic like this, particularly since, if the rumours circulating this week are true, trans healthcare on the NHS may soon be ended or at least severely curtailed. But I don't want to get dragged into this argument endlessly. I'll respond to trans threads if Cyclefree keeps posting them, but I won't be starting them myself.

Ditto @Turbotubbs, who I note has apologised after making me somewhat apoplectic at the weekend after wishing “all the joy in the world” to my partner, not realising that she is quite, quite dead. Apology accepted, especially now I've had a little time to calm down. Sadly there is little joy in my world in her absence.

My final comment on this: trans rights may be a political issue, but trans people themselves aren’t. They’re just ordinary people trying to live their lives, often under difficult circumstances and under a lot of scrutiny and hostility.

Most people here are lucky that their existence isn’t treated as a political question. Trans people don’t have that luxury. When the article is published, I hope people remember the subject under discussion is a group of marginalised people just trying to live their lives - for some of us they are our friends, family and loved ones. They are not political footballs.

Off topic, but too funny not to share:

Corruption Isn’t a New Problem in American Politics:

I am reading Carl Sandburg’s biography of Lincoln, a chapter a day, and learning much from it. For example this story, from chapter 23, has something to teach us, even now:

Earlier he [Thaddeus Stevens] had gone to warn Lincoln that [Simon] Cameron had taking ways and might not be the man for War Department head. “You don’t mean to say you think Cameron would steal?” Lincoln asked. “No,” was the reply. “I don’t think he would steal a red-hot stove.” Lincoln repeated this to Cameron as good wit, and perhaps a warning to be careful. Cameron insisted that Stevens must retract. So Stevens at the White House said, “Mr. Lincoln why did you tell Cameron what I said to you?” “I thought it was a good joke and didn’t think it would make him mad.” “Well he is very mad and made me promise to retract. I will now do so. I believe I told you he would not steal a red-hot stove. I now take that back.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaddeus_Stevens
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Cameron

You can see why Starmer might have foolishly believed that appointing a friend of the sex trafficker to be US ambassador might be a 'clever' move.

But publicly adopting the standards of the Trump administration really ought to be a resignation matter for a UK PM.

You want to know why I wasn't surprised to see Jared Kushner in this picture with Ghislaine? Because sexual blackmail is normal for these people, and they get rewarded for it! Look at his father. It's the Epstein playbook.

Charles Kushner, Jerad Kushner' father, pleaded guilty in 2005 for fraud, tax evasion, and witness tampering. Court documents detail how he paid a prostitute $10,000 to lure his brother-in-law (a cooperating witness in the tax probe) to a New Jersey motel, where the encounter was covertly recorded. Kushner then mailed the video to his sister (the witness's wife) to silence her testimony.
What kind of person does this to their sister?
He served about 14-16 months before release. Kushner was then pardoned by President Trump on December 23, 2020, which cleared his record and allowed him to resume professional activities (he had been disbarred in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania). Trump then nominated him as the U.S. Ambassador to France on November 30, 2024; he was confirmed by the Senate in early 2025 and assumed the role in July 2025.
https://x.com/KnoxieLuv/status/2031691051920998402

Even by the standards of this administration, in comparison with which the Nixon administration was a paragon of virtue, that is just astonishing. Attempt to pervert the course of justice?

I redid Watergate the other week and that was my exact thought. With the absolute cesspit of Trump on my mind I found myself going, what was all the fuss about there. No biggie.

Which illustrates the immeasurable damage Trump is doing. He's not just dragging standards down he's trashing the whole concept of having any. This, for me, is his poison. Far more than his policies, domestic or foreign.