Best Of

Well well Chagos gets even worse ...

"EU plot to seize Chagos fishing rights after Starmer’s surrender
One of world’s largest protected marine areas at risk of ‘catastrophic’ exploitation by French and Spanish vessels"

"The European Union has been accused of seeking to exploit Sir Keir Starmer’s Chagos Islands surrender by securing fishing rights in the waters of the British territory.

Brussels believes the Prime Minister’s plan to transfer sovereignty “could further increase the relevance” of its existing fishing agreement with Mauritius by opening swathes of ocean around the Chagos Islands to French and Spanish vessels.

A report from the European Commission, seen by The Telegraph, reveals it is watching Britain’s Chagos deal with great interest.

The document, published this month, says the deal could open the door to fishing licences in a major boost to European-owned trawlers."

etc, more here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/61124e980439f9c7

IT'S THE TELEGRAPH!

The report is real, however: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52026SC0068

A section of older people are a danger to the country . Having screwed their grandkids with the Brexit vote they now seem intent on finishing the country off by voting for the Traitor party .

Which is the Traitor party? ..... Just so I know who I should be voting for.

Very funny ! Reform !

If people voted for Brexit but won’t vote for Reform then they’ll avoid internment ! The double whammy of Brexit and Reform passes the threshold otherwise !

A soft open prison though. The Maximum Security facility is reserved for MAGA voters in swing states.

MAGA voters really are on another planet !

Thankfully the UK remains relatively sane for the timebeing . We have neither an obsession with guns or religion or telling women what to do with their bodies .

The telling women what to do with their bodies has already entered Reform’s offering: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/13/reform-matt-goodwin-fertility-comments-outcry-handmaids-tale

He has some point there in that women are more fertile in their twenties and early 30s than their late 30s and early 40s though he could have phrased it a bit more diplomatically

I think women know that and don’t need Matt Goodwin to tell them, but maybe he has more experience of discussing fertility with young women than I do.

Rather than telling women to have children earlier, it would be more useful to think about why they rationally choose not to.

Then we might be able to change society so that women can more easily choose to have children at a younger age if they want to.

One thing that does come up when you listen to women is that men of a similar age aren't ready to settle down and have kids. Often a woman will have a long-term relationship in which the man is delaying having children for years.

And, of course, single mothers are a notorious target for the ire of the right, should a woman decide to have a baby when they can't find a man who is ready to do so with them.

So why isn't Matt Goodwin giving a reality check to men about their duty to be a father and have children? Why is it always the fault of women in his eyes?

I'd say a bigger factor is the utter unaffordability of it all. There may be a bit of rose-tinted glass here, but for the twenty- somethings of the 1970s it was possible to buy a house and luve as a family of three or four on one income.
Breeding has become almost unaffordable.

That's sort of true... you lived well until there was a bout of inflation, and then mortgage rates were 15%, and you were paying half your salary out every month.

Of course, on the far side of that, the value of your mortgage in real terms had dropped thanks to said inflation, so it wasn't all bad.

My vision for the future -

“Oh god. The children have just won another house. Voucher in the cornflakes. That makes 8 we have. Can’t get rid of the things. Lenny the guy outside Sainsbury’s who shouts at pigeons already has 5 houses - says he wants a burger instead.”

Well well Chagos gets even worse ...

"EU plot to seize Chagos fishing rights after Starmer’s surrender
One of world’s largest protected marine areas at risk of ‘catastrophic’ exploitation by French and Spanish vessels"

"The European Union has been accused of seeking to exploit Sir Keir Starmer’s Chagos Islands surrender by securing fishing rights in the waters of the British territory.

Brussels believes the Prime Minister’s plan to transfer sovereignty “could further increase the relevance” of its existing fishing agreement with Mauritius by opening swathes of ocean around the Chagos Islands to French and Spanish vessels.

A report from the European Commission, seen by The Telegraph, reveals it is watching Britain’s Chagos deal with great interest.

The document, published this month, says the deal could open the door to fishing licences in a major boost to European-owned trawlers."

etc, more here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/61124e980439f9c7

Yawn

Sell it to China

Give Trump something to really bellyache about.

Giving it to Ukraine would make more sense if that's the objective.

Be original. Mess with everyone’s heads by making a free gift of it to Argentina.

a

A section of older people are a danger to the country . Having screwed their grandkids with the Brexit vote they now seem intent on finishing the country off by voting for the Traitor party .

Which is the Traitor party? ..... Just so I know who I should be voting for.

Very funny ! Reform !

If people voted for Brexit but won’t vote for Reform then they’ll avoid internment ! The double whammy of Brexit and Reform passes the threshold otherwise !

A soft open prison though. The Maximum Security facility is reserved for MAGA voters in swing states.

MAGA voters really are on another planet !

Thankfully the UK remains relatively sane for the timebeing . We have neither an obsession with guns or religion or telling women what to do with their bodies .

The telling women what to do with their bodies has already entered Reform’s offering: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/13/reform-matt-goodwin-fertility-comments-outcry-handmaids-tale

He has some point there in that women are more fertile in their twenties and early 30s than their late 30s and early 40s though he could have phrased it a bit more diplomatically

I think women know that and don’t need Matt Goodwin to tell them, but maybe he has more experience of discussing fertility with young women than I do.

Rather than telling women to have children earlier, it would be more useful to think about why they rationally choose not to.

Then we might be able to change society so that women can more easily choose to have children at a younger age if they want to.

One thing that does come up when you listen to women is that men of a similar age aren't ready to settle down and have kids. Often a woman will have a long-term relationship in which the man is delaying having children for years.

And, of course, single mothers are a notorious target for the ire of the right, should a woman decide to have a baby when they can't find a man who is ready to do so with them.

So why isn't Matt Goodwin giving a reality check to men about their duty to be a father and have children? Why is it always the fault of women in his eyes?

I'd say a bigger factor is the utter unaffordability of it all. There may be a bit of rose-tinted glass here, but for the twenty- somethings of the 1970s it was possible to buy a house and luve as a family of three or four on one income.
Breeding has become almost unaffordable.

Idea to make everyone (left and right) scream -

Have a child and get a 4 bed house. Free.

I was quite pleased when Trafford Council gave me an 80 litre wheelybin for general waste once we became a family of 5 rather than the standard 40 litre one.

General Waste - inventor of the dust bin!

I've only just remembered the 80s classic 'Dusty Bin'.

Well well Chagos gets even worse ...

"EU plot to seize Chagos fishing rights after Starmer’s surrender
One of world’s largest protected marine areas at risk of ‘catastrophic’ exploitation by French and Spanish vessels"

"The European Union has been accused of seeking to exploit Sir Keir Starmer’s Chagos Islands surrender by securing fishing rights in the waters of the British territory.

Brussels believes the Prime Minister’s plan to transfer sovereignty “could further increase the relevance” of its existing fishing agreement with Mauritius by opening swathes of ocean around the Chagos Islands to French and Spanish vessels.

A report from the European Commission, seen by The Telegraph, reveals it is watching Britain’s Chagos deal with great interest.

The document, published this month, says the deal could open the door to fishing licences in a major boost to European-owned trawlers."

etc, more here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/61124e980439f9c7

IT'S THE TELEGRAPH!

A section of older people are a danger to the country . Having screwed their grandkids with the Brexit vote they now seem intent on finishing the country off by voting for the Traitor party .

Which is the Traitor party? ..... Just so I know who I should be voting for.

Very funny ! Reform !

If people voted for Brexit but won’t vote for Reform then they’ll avoid internment ! The double whammy of Brexit and Reform passes the threshold otherwise !

A soft open prison though. The Maximum Security facility is reserved for MAGA voters in swing states.

MAGA voters really are on another planet !

Thankfully the UK remains relatively sane for the timebeing . We have neither an obsession with guns or religion or telling women what to do with their bodies .

The telling women what to do with their bodies has already entered Reform’s offering: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/13/reform-matt-goodwin-fertility-comments-outcry-handmaids-tale

He has some point there in that women are more fertile in their twenties and early 30s than their late 30s and early 40s though he could have phrased it a bit more diplomatically

I think women know that and don’t need Matt Goodwin to tell them, but maybe he has more experience of discussing fertility with young women than I do.

Rather than telling women to have children earlier, it would be more useful to think about why they rationally choose not to.

Then we might be able to change society so that women can more easily choose to have children at a younger age if they want to.

One thing that does come up when you listen to women is that men of a similar age aren't ready to settle down and have kids. Often a woman will have a long-term relationship in which the man is delaying having children for years.

And, of course, single mothers are a notorious target for the ire of the right, should a woman decide to have a baby when they can't find a man who is ready to do so with them.

So why isn't Matt Goodwin giving a reality check to men about their duty to be a father and have children? Why is it always the fault of women in his eyes?

I'd say a bigger factor is the utter unaffordability of it all. There may be a bit of rose-tinted glass here, but for the twenty- somethings of the 1970s it was possible to buy a house and luve as a family of three or four on one income.
Breeding has become almost unaffordable.

100 years ago most parents rented their entire life. Both couples earning has pushed up house prices too, if more women were stay at home mothers (or a few fathers stay at home dads) that would be less of an issue.

In the 1970s only 10% went to university, the remaining 90% had children soon after leaving school and their first job. Now 40% go to university but non graduates and working class parents start having children earlier on average

Though the issue isn't about buying a house being ruionously expensive (though it often is)... it's also that renting is only just affordable, because the market rent anywhere useful is "every last penny you have" because if you're a landlord, why wouldn't you?

There are some societal problems that are hard to fix, but building enough houses in the vicintiy of places where people work and want to live isn't one of them.

A section of older people are a danger to the country . Having screwed their grandkids with the Brexit vote they now seem intent on finishing the country off by voting for the Traitor party .

Which is the Traitor party? ..... Just so I know who I should be voting for.

Very funny ! Reform !

If people voted for Brexit but won’t vote for Reform then they’ll avoid internment ! The double whammy of Brexit and Reform passes the threshold otherwise !

A soft open prison though. The Maximum Security facility is reserved for MAGA voters in swing states.

MAGA voters really are on another planet !

Thankfully the UK remains relatively sane for the timebeing . We have neither an obsession with guns or religion or telling women what to do with their bodies .

The telling women what to do with their bodies has already entered Reform’s offering: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/13/reform-matt-goodwin-fertility-comments-outcry-handmaids-tale

He has some point there in that women are more fertile in their twenties and early 30s than their late 30s and early 40s though he could have phrased it a bit more diplomatically

I think women know that and don’t need Matt Goodwin to tell them, but maybe he has more experience of discussing fertility with young women than I do.

Rather than telling women to have children earlier, it would be more useful to think about why they rationally choose not to.

Then we might be able to change society so that women can more easily choose to have children at a younger age if they want to.

One thing that does come up when you listen to women is that men of a similar age aren't ready to settle down and have kids. Often a woman will have a long-term relationship in which the man is delaying having children for years.

And, of course, single mothers are a notorious target for the ire of the right, should a woman decide to have a baby when they can't find a man who is ready to do so with them.

So why isn't Matt Goodwin giving a reality check to men about their duty to be a father and have children? Why is it always the fault of women in his eyes?

I'd say a bigger factor is the utter unaffordability of it all. There may be a bit of rose-tinted glass here, but for the twenty- somethings of the 1970s it was possible to buy a house and luve as a family of three or four on one income.
Breeding has become almost unaffordable.

Matt Goodwin strikes me as being a piece of work and I don't support his politics. What is however intriguing is the extent to which a sentence he writes, itself the sort of subject millions think and think about and is significant to millions of lives, gives rise to a million expansions, interpretations and distortions, all aimed at saying he is a bad person.

This is what he wrote that has caused all the fuss:

"Many women in Britain are having children much too late in life. We need to also explain to young girls and women the biological reality of this crisis. Many women in Britain are having children much too late in life and they would prefer to have children much earlier on.”


These words put in softer tones, a querying and kindly expression and as an into to a discussion could have been said by Jenni Murray or Emma Barnett on Women's Hour on R4.

Nearly all the crits of Goodwin about this are completely ad hominem. There is a vast amount of more sinister material to attack him with.

It's also probably more accurate to say "many women are trying to start families too late in life". The problem isn't so much 38 year old first time mothers, as 38 year olds who can't get pregnant.

I managed to get a 38 yr old pregnant, and then did the trick again when she was 40! By the time she was 45 she’d had enough of me though