I'm amazed by all these people who have never come across the word 'Edgelord'. Surely it's been used here dozens of times, for years? I've just done a quick search on Vanilla, and I can find 51 posts before today - going back as far as Vanilla goes, which I think is to 2021 - which include the word. Now that's not as many as the word "Wick", for example, or "Radiohead", but hardly obscure.
These results do not pass the sniff test. How have they got Starmer so far ahead?
It's relative and Farage is poison to a large majority of voters. A group to which everyone I know belongs.
You need to get out more then
I utterly reject Farage but I am aware of people who are very much on board with him
There's a chap with whom I occasionally drink who seems to think he's the bees knees but otherwise others whom I discuss politics prod him metaphorically with a sharp stick. And we're not that far from Clacton!
Frinton are voting in a by election today, we can see what some of the good burghers of Clacton constituency think of him!
Once upon a time at least the 'good burghers' of Frinton would have regarded Farage with horror as a jumped up oik who certainly wasn't a 'gentleman'. Even though he went to a public school.
Frinton I think will be more Conservative than Clacton proper but I think the Reform tidal wave takes it. Tories took it in 2023 with 42% from an indy on 31%. Their only hope is if the indy voters (not standing this time) were all Tories who prefer to come home than go reform. Of course if they did hold on they'll be shoving it down Farages throat all summer
I must admit that, while I haven't been to Frinton for some years, it wasn't then, and by report isn't now, what it was. They've actually got a pub there now and I believe there was a report of a fight in it!
Shocking! Frinton was always a funny little corner of England
Trump: Putin actually said to me, ‘If you don’t mind, friend, I hate to see you as my enemy.’ He said it very strongly. I had a very good relationship with Putin. I had a very good relationship with President Xi. A very good relationship with Kim Jong Un https://x.com/highbrow_nobrow/status/1930377901683122513
He's sounding increasingly down about life. Makes you want to reach out and give him a little cuddle.
We know why - they wanted to avoid race riots and the perp was white.
Where the debate was - next time the perp is NOT white, what happens. And we already had a case in Leicester (not identical, but 'car' attacking people) where the perp's ethnicity was NOT reported.
Clearly the police are doing their best, but to suggest that there is a new spirit of openness is false, in my eyes.
These results do not pass the sniff test. How have they got Starmer so far ahead?
It's relative and Farage is poison to a large majority of voters. A group to which everyone I know belongs.
You need to get out more then
I utterly reject Farage but I am aware of people who are very much on board with him
There's a chap with whom I occasionally drink who seems to think he's the bees knees but otherwise others whom I discuss politics prod him metaphorically with a sharp stick. And we're not that far from Clacton!
Frinton are voting in a by election today, we can see what some of the good burghers of Clacton constituency think of him!
Once upon a time at least the 'good burghers' of Frinton would have regarded Farage with horror as a jumped up oik who certainly wasn't a 'gentleman'. Even though he went to a public school.
Frinton I think will be more Conservative than Clacton proper but I think the Reform tidal wave takes it. Tories took it in 2023 with 42% from an indy on 31%. Their only hope is if the indy voters (not standing this time) were all Tories who prefer to come home than go reform. Of course if they did hold on they'll be shoving it down Farages throat all summer
I must admit that, while I haven't been to Frinton for some years, it wasn't then, and by report isn't now, what it was. They've actually got a pub there now and I believe there was a report of a fight in it!
Shocking! Frinton was always a funny little corner of England
Apparently, as I discovered when refreshing my memory, it was the last place in England to be attacked by the Luftwaffe.
I'm amazed by all these people who have never come across the word 'Edgelord'. Surely it's been used here dozens of times, for years? I've just done a quick search on Vanilla, and I can find 51 posts before today - going back as far as Vanilla goes, which I think is to 2021 - which include the word. Now that's not as many as the word "Wick", for example, or "Radiohead", but hardly obscure.
These results do not pass the sniff test. How have they got Starmer so far ahead?
It's relative and Farage is poison to a large majority of voters. A group to which everyone I know belongs.
You need to get out more then
I utterly reject Farage but I am aware of people who are very much on board with him
There's a chap with whom I occasionally drink who seems to think he's the bees knees but otherwise others whom I discuss politics prod him metaphorically with a sharp stick. And we're not that far from Clacton!
Frinton are voting in a by election today, we can see what some of the good burghers of Clacton constituency think of him!
Once upon a time at least the 'good burghers' of Frinton would have regarded Farage with horror as a jumped up oik who certainly wasn't a 'gentleman'. Even though he went to a public school.
Frinton I think will be more Conservative than Clacton proper but I think the Reform tidal wave takes it. Tories took it in 2023 with 42% from an indy on 31%. Their only hope is if the indy voters (not standing this time) were all Tories who prefer to come home than go reform. Of course if they did hold on they'll be shoving it down Farages throat all summer
I must admit that, while I haven't been to Frinton for some years, it wasn't then, and by report isn't now, what it was. They've actually got a pub there now and I believe there was a report of a fight in it!
Shocking! Frinton was always a funny little corner of England
Apparently, as I discovered when refreshing my memory, it was the last place in England to be attacked by the Luftwaffe.
You can understand why they might be a bit less forgiving and a bit more Breixty than most then!
Because he was white. If he hadn't been, they wouldn't have released the information.
Undoubtedly. Why that is the case should cause introspection in some of the louder parts of political commentary, but obviously won't.
"Actually he wasn't brown, a refugee or a Muslim, so you can lay off the racist incitement this time" is the reason why the police released the information.
Trump: Putin actually said to me, ‘If you don’t mind, friend, I hate to see you as my enemy.’ He said it very strongly. I had a very good relationship with Putin. I had a very good relationship with President Xi. A very good relationship with Kim Jong Un https://x.com/highbrow_nobrow/status/1930377901683122513
He'd like Zelenskyy more if he were a corrupt dictator. That's the type of person the President of America admires.
He is basically fully in l'etat ca moi mode now. Everything to do with statecraft is about his personal feelings and relationship with the foreign leader in question. I doubt he even glances at the diplomatic reports that pass his desk. And of course relationship being good in his worldview is indicated by being given gifts or offered some deal or other.
@tomnuttall.bsky.social writes on Germany's military revival. 'Soldiers marvel at the esteem they now encounter in daily life. “Sometimes when I’m on the street people stop me to say, ‘Thank you for your service’—like in America!” exclaims one cadet officer.'
These results do not pass the sniff test. How have they got Starmer so far ahead?
It's relative and Farage is poison to a large majority of voters. A group to which everyone I know belongs.
You need to get out more then
I utterly reject Farage but I am aware of people who are very much on board with him
There's a chap with whom I occasionally drink who seems to think he's the bees knees but otherwise others whom I discuss politics prod him metaphorically with a sharp stick. And we're not that far from Clacton!
Frinton are voting in a by election today, we can see what some of the good burghers of Clacton constituency think of him!
Once upon a time at least the 'good burghers' of Frinton would have regarded Farage with horror as a jumped up oik who certainly wasn't a 'gentleman'. Even though he went to a public school.
Frinton I think will be more Conservative than Clacton proper but I think the Reform tidal wave takes it. Tories took it in 2023 with 42% from an indy on 31%. Their only hope is if the indy voters (not standing this time) were all Tories who prefer to come home than go reform. Of course if they did hold on they'll be shoving it down Farages throat all summer
I must admit that, while I haven't been to Frinton for some years, it wasn't then, and by report isn't now, what it was. They've actually got a pub there now and I believe there was a report of a fight in it!
Shocking! Frinton was always a funny little corner of England
Apparently, as I discovered when refreshing my memory, it was the last place in England to be attacked by the Luftwaffe.
You can understand why they might be a bit less forgiving and a bit more Breixty than most then!
No-one who is alive in Frinton now would have been there in 1944.
Amongst voters as a whole Johnson is seen as the best bet for the Tories, though amongst current Tory voters Cameron is most respected.
'When asked who they thought would do a good job as leader of the Conservatives in the future, Mr Johnson polled best but with a score of just 28%. This was better than Reform’s Mr Farage (25%), former foreign secretary James Cleverly (20%), Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick (18%), Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel (14%) and former home secretary Suella Braverman (12%).
Among current Conservative supporters, there is high regard for former PM Mr Cameron. More than three in four (76%) think he did a good job – a higher rating than that enjoyed by Rishi Sunak (71%), Mr Johnson (69%), Mrs May (56%) and Ms Truss (8%).' https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/2064463/boris-johnson-reform-uk-poll
Cameron - a good job? He fucked up the Referendum timing, then with his disastrous "renegotiation" followed by his toddler tantrum when people doubted its value. Then pissed off the moment his Referendum went against him - despite saying he would not.
The bar for doing a good job must have sunk towards the ground through May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak and Starmer if people think that was a "good job".
I think Cameron did a goodish job 2010-2015 and was 'unlucky' that the Tory campaign decimated the Lib Dems. Had there had to be a second coalition there would have be no referendum in 2016 and we might all be a bit happier. (Or not - the EU would still be a festering sore on British politics - add in the vaccine scandal that would have arisen in 2020).
As for leaving after the Brexit vote - he had to. He had tied himself to the mast of remain and lost. His authority was gone. If he had been neutral and said that he would do as 'instructed, whether leave or remain' then he could have carried on. But he didn't.
There was plenty of evidence the Conservatives were working LD seats very hard from 2012 onwards (Clegg knew about it) but he couldn't or wouldn't abandon the Coalition. He thought the consequences of walking away would be electorally more damaging than the consequences of staying in - don't see how they could have been much worse.
The other thing which sunk the LDs in 2015 was the prospect of a minority Labour Government dependent on the SNP for support and the price of that support being either a second refrendum on or actual Scottish Independence. Faced with the prospect of the UK possibly breaking up, the Unionist English rallied to the main Unionist party and the LDs were annihilated.
@tomnuttall.bsky.social writes on Germany's military revival. 'Soldiers marvel at the esteem they now encounter in daily life. “Sometimes when I’m on the street people stop me to say, ‘Thank you for your service’—like in America!” exclaims one cadet officer.'
These results do not pass the sniff test. How have they got Starmer so far ahead?
It's relative and Farage is poison to a large majority of voters. A group to which everyone I know belongs.
You need to get out more then
I utterly reject Farage but I am aware of people who are very much on board with him
There's a chap with whom I occasionally drink who seems to think he's the bees knees but otherwise others whom I discuss politics prod him metaphorically with a sharp stick. And we're not that far from Clacton!
Frinton are voting in a by election today, we can see what some of the good burghers of Clacton constituency think of him!
Once upon a time at least the 'good burghers' of Frinton would have regarded Farage with horror as a jumped up oik who certainly wasn't a 'gentleman'. Even though he went to a public school.
Frinton I think will be more Conservative than Clacton proper but I think the Reform tidal wave takes it. Tories took it in 2023 with 42% from an indy on 31%. Their only hope is if the indy voters (not standing this time) were all Tories who prefer to come home than go reform. Of course if they did hold on they'll be shoving it down Farages throat all summer
I must admit that, while I haven't been to Frinton for some years, it wasn't then, and by report isn't now, what it was. They've actually got a pub there now and I believe there was a report of a fight in it!
Shocking! Frinton was always a funny little corner of England
Apparently, as I discovered when refreshing my memory, it was the last place in England to be attacked by the Luftwaffe.
You can understand why they might be a bit less forgiving and a bit more Breixty than most then!
Surely the opposite. Being attacked by the Lufftewaffe would presumably make them very wary of Nazis.
We know why - they wanted to avoid race riots and the perp was white.
Where the debate was - next time the perp is NOT white, what happens. And we already had a case in Leicester (not identical, but 'car' attacking people) where the perp's ethnicity was NOT reported.
Clearly the police are doing their best, but to suggest that there is a new spirit of openness is false, in my eyes.
You're agreeing with the article. It says that was the reason.
Trump: Putin actually said to me, ‘If you don’t mind, friend, I hate to see you as my enemy.’ He said it very strongly. I had a very good relationship with Putin. I had a very good relationship with President Xi. A very good relationship with Kim Jong Un https://x.com/highbrow_nobrow/status/1930377901683122513
He'd like Zelenskyy more if he were a corrupt dictator. That's the type of person the President of America admires.
He is basically fully in l'etat ca moi mode now. Everything to do with statecraft is about his personal feelings and relationship with the foreign leader in question. I doubt he even glances at the diplomatic reports that pass his desk. And of course relationship being good in his worldview is indicated by being given gifts or offered some deal or other.
These results do not pass the sniff test. How have they got Starmer so far ahead?
It's relative and Farage is poison to a large majority of voters. A group to which everyone I know belongs.
You need to get out more then
I utterly reject Farage but I am aware of people who are very much on board with him
There's a chap with whom I occasionally drink who seems to think he's the bees knees but otherwise others whom I discuss politics prod him metaphorically with a sharp stick. And we're not that far from Clacton!
Frinton are voting in a by election today, we can see what some of the good burghers of Clacton constituency think of him!
Once upon a time at least the 'good burghers' of Frinton would have regarded Farage with horror as a jumped up oik who certainly wasn't a 'gentleman'. Even though he went to a public school.
Frinton I think will be more Conservative than Clacton proper but I think the Reform tidal wave takes it. Tories took it in 2023 with 42% from an indy on 31%. Their only hope is if the indy voters (not standing this time) were all Tories who prefer to come home than go reform. Of course if they did hold on they'll be shoving it down Farages throat all summer
I must admit that, while I haven't been to Frinton for some years, it wasn't then, and by report isn't now, what it was. They've actually got a pub there now and I believe there was a report of a fight in it!
Shocking! Frinton was always a funny little corner of England
Apparently, as I discovered when refreshing my memory, it was the last place in England to be attacked by the Luftwaffe.
You can understand why they might be a bit less forgiving and a bit more Breixty than most then!
Surely the opposite. Being attacked by the Lufftewaffe would presumably make them very wary of Nazis.
"Ryanair have won ‘the most unpopular airline’ trophy 6 years in a row. If they retain it again next year, they'll break the record set by the Luftwaffe."
The fact the PB Centrist dads all admire the writing of..... Adrian Chiles.... is just DELICIOUSLY perfect
Perhaps they are comparing his writing to yours? I've read both and though not a fan of either his are more original.
I disagree. Sean Thomas in the Spectator is another writer with a regular column who has interesting things to say, in my view.
Sean Thomas? I read a paragraph and a sign comes up asking for money. I can't think of anything I'm less likely to subscribe to than 'The Spectator'.
I was judging by one book and half a million posts on here. Too lacking in wit and insight for my taste. I try to encourage copywriter friends to come on here who invariably have both but few are interested in politics
If “DOGE UK” finds significant amounts of legitimate waste I will be impressed. However I think it’s much more likely that it’s all performative and any “cuts” made will either cost councils more in the long run or cause services to further degrade.
We know why - they wanted to avoid race riots and the perp was white.
Where the debate was - next time the perp is NOT white, what happens. And we already had a case in Leicester (not identical, but 'car' attacking people) where the perp's ethnicity was NOT reported.
Clearly the police are doing their best, but to suggest that there is a new spirit of openness is false, in my eyes.
You're agreeing with the article. It says that was the reason.
I think there is a difficulty with this. The bigger problem the police are trying prevent is racially motivated violence incited by Farage and his followers. There isn't an equivalent problem on the other side. So they can hopefully nip that violence in the bud by establishing the perpetrator as white before Farage starts "asking his legitimate questions"
Issue is, sooner or later one of these perpetrators will turn out to be brown, Muslim or a refugee. Then the police doesn't have a good choice between releasing or not releasing the ethnicity of the perpetrator.
If “DOGE UK” finds significant amounts of legitimate waste I will be impressed. However I think it’s much more likely that it’s all performative and any “cuts” made will either cost councils more in the long run or cause services to further degrade.
These results do not pass the sniff test. How have they got Starmer so far ahead?
It's relative and Farage is poison to a large majority of voters. A group to which everyone I know belongs.
You need to get out more then
I utterly reject Farage but I am aware of people who are very much on board with him
There's a chap with whom I occasionally drink who seems to think he's the bees knees but otherwise others whom I discuss politics prod him metaphorically with a sharp stick. And we're not that far from Clacton!
Frinton are voting in a by election today, we can see what some of the good burghers of Clacton constituency think of him!
Once upon a time at least the 'good burghers' of Frinton would have regarded Farage with horror as a jumped up oik who certainly wasn't a 'gentleman'. Even though he went to a public school.
Frinton I think will be more Conservative than Clacton proper but I think the Reform tidal wave takes it. Tories took it in 2023 with 42% from an indy on 31%. Their only hope is if the indy voters (not standing this time) were all Tories who prefer to come home than go reform. Of course if they did hold on they'll be shoving it down Farages throat all summer
I must admit that, while I haven't been to Frinton for some years, it wasn't then, and by report isn't now, what it was. They've actually got a pub there now and I believe there was a report of a fight in it!
Shocking! Frinton was always a funny little corner of England
I think I have mentioned this before but, when I was a child, we used to holiday all the way up the A12 to Clacton, and when we went to sleepy old posh Frinton for the day… there was an armed robbery!
These results do not pass the sniff test. How have they got Starmer so far ahead?
It's relative and Farage is poison to a large majority of voters. A group to which everyone I know belongs.
You need to get out more then
I utterly reject Farage but I am aware of people who are very much on board with him
There's a chap with whom I occasionally drink who seems to think he's the bees knees but otherwise others whom I discuss politics prod him metaphorically with a sharp stick. And we're not that far from Clacton!
Frinton are voting in a by election today, we can see what some of the good burghers of Clacton constituency think of him!
Once upon a time at least the 'good burghers' of Frinton would have regarded Farage with horror as a jumped up oik who certainly wasn't a 'gentleman'. Even though he went to a public school.
Frinton I think will be more Conservative than Clacton proper but I think the Reform tidal wave takes it. Tories took it in 2023 with 42% from an indy on 31%. Their only hope is if the indy voters (not standing this time) were all Tories who prefer to come home than go reform. Of course if they did hold on they'll be shoving it down Farages throat all summer
I must admit that, while I haven't been to Frinton for some years, it wasn't then, and by report isn't now, what it was. They've actually got a pub there now and I believe there was a report of a fight in it!
Shocking! Frinton was always a funny little corner of England
I think I have mentioned this before but, when I was a child, we used to holiday all the way up the A12 to Clacton, and when we went to sleepy old posh Frinton for the day… there was an armed robbery!
These results do not pass the sniff test. How have they got Starmer so far ahead?
It's relative and Farage is poison to a large majority of voters. A group to which everyone I know belongs.
You need to get out more then
I utterly reject Farage but I am aware of people who are very much on board with him
There's a chap with whom I occasionally drink who seems to think he's the bees knees but otherwise others whom I discuss politics prod him metaphorically with a sharp stick. And we're not that far from Clacton!
Frinton are voting in a by election today, we can see what some of the good burghers of Clacton constituency think of him!
Once upon a time at least the 'good burghers' of Frinton would have regarded Farage with horror as a jumped up oik who certainly wasn't a 'gentleman'. Even though he went to a public school.
Frinton I think will be more Conservative than Clacton proper but I think the Reform tidal wave takes it. Tories took it in 2023 with 42% from an indy on 31%. Their only hope is if the indy voters (not standing this time) were all Tories who prefer to come home than go reform. Of course if they did hold on they'll be shoving it down Farages throat all summer
I must admit that, while I haven't been to Frinton for some years, it wasn't then, and by report isn't now, what it was. They've actually got a pub there now and I believe there was a report of a fight in it!
Shocking! Frinton was always a funny little corner of England
I think I have mentioned this before but, when I was a child, we used to holiday all the way up the A12 to Clacton, and when we went to sleepy old posh Frinton for the day… there was an armed robbery!
We know why - they wanted to avoid race riots and the perp was white.
Where the debate was - next time the perp is NOT white, what happens. And we already had a case in Leicester (not identical, but 'car' attacking people) where the perp's ethnicity was NOT reported.
Clearly the police are doing their best, but to suggest that there is a new spirit of openness is false, in my eyes.
You're agreeing with the article. It says that was the reason.
I think there is a difficulty with this. The bigger problem the police are trying prevent is racially motivated violence incited by Farage and his followers. There isn't an equivalent problem on the other side. So they can hopefully nip that violence in the bud by establishing the perpetrator as white before Farage starts "asking his legitimate questions"
Issue is, sooner or later one of these perpetrators will turn out to be brown, Muslim or a refugee. Then the police doesn't have a good choice between releasing or not releasing the ethnicity of the perpetrator.
Farage asked whether the perpetrator was known to the authorities. It turns out the perpetrator had slipped through the net despite being referred to Prevent. Why are people so keen to smear Farage? All it does is give us the chance to show he was right
These results do not pass the sniff test. How have they got Starmer so far ahead?
It's relative and Farage is poison to a large majority of voters. A group to which everyone I know belongs.
You need to get out more then
I utterly reject Farage but I am aware of people who are very much on board with him
There's a chap with whom I occasionally drink who seems to think he's the bees knees but otherwise others whom I discuss politics prod him metaphorically with a sharp stick. And we're not that far from Clacton!
Frinton are voting in a by election today, we can see what some of the good burghers of Clacton constituency think of him!
Once upon a time at least the 'good burghers' of Frinton would have regarded Farage with horror as a jumped up oik who certainly wasn't a 'gentleman'. Even though he went to a public school.
Frinton I think will be more Conservative than Clacton proper but I think the Reform tidal wave takes it. Tories took it in 2023 with 42% from an indy on 31%. Their only hope is if the indy voters (not standing this time) were all Tories who prefer to come home than go reform. Of course if they did hold on they'll be shoving it down Farages throat all summer
I must admit that, while I haven't been to Frinton for some years, it wasn't then, and by report isn't now, what it was. They've actually got a pub there now and I believe there was a report of a fight in it!
Shocking! Frinton was always a funny little corner of England
I think I have mentioned this before but, when I was a child, we used to holiday all the way up the A12 to Clacton, and when we went to sleepy old posh Frinton for the day… there was an armed robbery!
It was in the pub, wasn't it? Seem to remember something about it. Used to have to meetings in Clacton back in the 70's-80's.
Rants against the modern world. My MIL died in January. SSE are now threatening to cut her off. They have sent a letter saying "please get in touch if you need help" No phone number. Go on their website and they say that the customer number on their letter is too short. Chat has an option of speak to an advisor. When you click on it you can go back or close. No other options. Advising re bereavement is an option but nothing happens.
We are changing our account.
When my Mum died recently I had a bot at National Savings empathising with me for my loss. I was not impressed. A bot ffs....
These results do not pass the sniff test. How have they got Starmer so far ahead?
It's relative and Farage is poison to a large majority of voters. A group to which everyone I know belongs.
You need to get out more then
I utterly reject Farage but I am aware of people who are very much on board with him
There's a chap with whom I occasionally drink who seems to think he's the bees knees but otherwise others whom I discuss politics prod him metaphorically with a sharp stick. And we're not that far from Clacton!
Frinton are voting in a by election today, we can see what some of the good burghers of Clacton constituency think of him!
Once upon a time at least the 'good burghers' of Frinton would have regarded Farage with horror as a jumped up oik who certainly wasn't a 'gentleman'. Even though he went to a public school.
Frinton I think will be more Conservative than Clacton proper but I think the Reform tidal wave takes it. Tories took it in 2023 with 42% from an indy on 31%. Their only hope is if the indy voters (not standing this time) were all Tories who prefer to come home than go reform. Of course if they did hold on they'll be shoving it down Farages throat all summer
I must admit that, while I haven't been to Frinton for some years, it wasn't then, and by report isn't now, what it was. They've actually got a pub there now and I believe there was a report of a fight in it!
Shocking! Frinton was always a funny little corner of England
I think I have mentioned this before but, when I was a child, we used to holiday all the way up the A12 to Clacton, and when we went to sleepy old posh Frinton for the day… there was an armed robbery!
It was in the pub, wasn't it? Seem to remember something about it. Used to have to meetings in Clacton back in the 70's-80's.
It was worse than I remembered. A policeman was shot dead
The Frinton seat is a twofold contest apparently. One seat on District Council, the other on Town. Same boundaries. However there are five candidates for the District Council seat, Tory, Reform, Lab, LD and Green, but on four for the Town Council one. The LD's aren't fighting it. I wonder why.
We know why - they wanted to avoid race riots and the perp was white.
Where the debate was - next time the perp is NOT white, what happens. And we already had a case in Leicester (not identical, but 'car' attacking people) where the perp's ethnicity was NOT reported.
Clearly the police are doing their best, but to suggest that there is a new spirit of openness is false, in my eyes.
You're agreeing with the article. It says that was the reason.
I think there is a difficulty with this. The bigger problem the police are trying prevent is racially motivated violence incited by Farage and his followers. There isn't an equivalent problem on the other side. So they can hopefully nip that violence in the bud by establishing the perpetrator as white before Farage starts "asking his legitimate questions"
Issue is, sooner or later one of these perpetrators will turn out to be brown, Muslim or a refugee. Then the police doesn't have a good choice between releasing or not releasing the ethnicity of the perpetrator.
Farage asked whether the perpetrator was known to the authorities. It turns out the perpetrator had slipped through the net despite being referred to Prevent. Why are people so keen to smear Farage? All it does is give us the chance to show he was right
As I said:
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage on Wednesday admitted to spreading misinformation following the tragic knife attack in Southport that resulted in the deaths of three young girls.
The incident has since sparked widespread violence and riots across England and Northern Ireland.
Farage, known for his outspoken political views, posted a video online shortly after the attack, in which he speculated on the background of the killer.
He had said "some reports suggest he was known to the security services," a claim that has now been proven false.
The misinformation, originating from various online sources, quickly spread, leading to violent scenes at a vigil held for the three children.
These events further escalated into several days of unrest and riots across the country.
During an appearance on LBC, Farage defended his actions by asserting his intent to uncover "the truth."
He explained: "There were stories online from some very prominent folks with big followings - Andrew Tate etc - suggesting the man had crossed the English Channel in a boat in October 2023. Other suggestions that he was an active Muslim, and much of this led to the riots that we saw. I asked a very simple question - was this person known or not."
However, LBC presenter Tom Swarbrick challenged Farage’s defense, pointing out the sources of his information.
"Nigel Farage, you didn’t just do that, did you? You said some reports suggest he was known to the security services. Those reports were from a fake news website amplified by Russian state TV and, as you mentioned, Andrew Tate. Which ones were you looking at?" Swarbrick queried.
Farage responded: "Which adds to what I was asking for - give us some clarity. I could have said ’some reports suggest he crossed the Channel last October. Some reports suggest he was an active Muslim. I did none of those things. What I asked for was clarity. We didn’t get clarity, and I would argue that what happened in Southport would not have been of the same magnitude had the truth been told very, very quickly."
We know why - they wanted to avoid race riots and the perp was white.
Where the debate was - next time the perp is NOT white, what happens. And we already had a case in Leicester (not identical, but 'car' attacking people) where the perp's ethnicity was NOT reported.
Clearly the police are doing their best, but to suggest that there is a new spirit of openness is false, in my eyes.
You're agreeing with the article. It says that was the reason.
I think there is a difficulty with this. The bigger problem the police are trying prevent is racially motivated violence incited by Farage and his followers. There isn't an equivalent problem on the other side. So they can hopefully nip that violence in the bud by establishing the perpetrator as white before Farage starts "asking his legitimate questions"
Issue is, sooner or later one of these perpetrators will turn out to be brown, Muslim or a refugee. Then the police doesn't have a good choice between releasing or not releasing the ethnicity of the perpetrator.
That's the problem, yes. Release the info - you risk an outbreak of indiscriminate racist violence. Don't release it - you get an outbreak of "two tier" whinging and the racist cause is emboldened.
Glad I'm only commenting on this rather than having to decide what's best.
We know why - they wanted to avoid race riots and the perp was white.
Where the debate was - next time the perp is NOT white, what happens. And we already had a case in Leicester (not identical, but 'car' attacking people) where the perp's ethnicity was NOT reported.
Clearly the police are doing their best, but to suggest that there is a new spirit of openness is false, in my eyes.
You're agreeing with the article. It says that was the reason.
I think there is a difficulty with this. The bigger problem the police are trying prevent is racially motivated violence incited by Farage and his followers. There isn't an equivalent problem on the other side. So they can hopefully nip that violence in the bud by establishing the perpetrator as white before Farage starts "asking his legitimate questions"
Issue is, sooner or later one of these perpetrators will turn out to be brown, Muslim or a refugee. Then the police doesn't have a good choice between releasing or not releasing the ethnicity of the perpetrator.
I actually think it's grimly amusing that they released the ethnicity of the Liverpool driver rather than just saying "this is not a terrorist attack" as was obvious from the videos. It sort of gave the impression that a white person doing this means it isn't terrorism.
Now, it could be argued that the knuckle draggers wouldn't care if it was terrorism or not, but I suspect motive and victims does matter. When the news is reporting that three young girls have been stabbed to death at a dance class, that is going to get the juices flowing a lot more than a car running Liverpool fans over.
Perhaps those riots would have happened anyway, but I think the big mistake was the police saying it wasn't terrorism. If they wanted to say that early on, they had to tell us why it wasn't terrorism. And if they can't do that (personally, I think it was won't rather than a can't), treat it as a terrorist attack. It doesn't mean you have to charge anyone with terrorism. Saying the premeditated murder of girls at a dance class isn't terrorism straight off the bat looks awfully like a cover up.
The Frinton seat is a twofold contest apparently. One seat on District Council, the other on Town. Same boundaries. However there are five candidates for the District Council seat, Tory, Reform, Lab, LD and Green, but on four for the Town Council one. The LD's aren't fighting it. I wonder why.
They didn't fight the District seat in 2023. Limited local presence i guess
The Frinton seat is a twofold contest apparently. One seat on District Council, the other on Town. Same boundaries. However there are five candidates for the District Council seat, Tory, Reform, Lab, LD and Green, but on four for the Town Council one. The LD's aren't fighting it. I wonder why.
Must be that their District Candidate does not qualify to serve on the town council, so from outside the town council area. You always put your candidate into both seats if you can as there is a section of the electorate which will come out to vote for a parish election and vote for the district (the only one you are interested in really) and vote for him there as well.
Lucy Connolly is an unpleasant individual but she isn't two-faced, unlike the main inciter to violence Nigel Farage, who chooses his words carefully and "only asks the legitimate questions". As a result Connolly is serving a long prison sentence while Farage gets maximum exposure on TV. That really is unfair.
We know why - they wanted to avoid race riots and the perp was white.
Where the debate was - next time the perp is NOT white, what happens. And we already had a case in Leicester (not identical, but 'car' attacking people) where the perp's ethnicity was NOT reported.
Clearly the police are doing their best, but to suggest that there is a new spirit of openness is false, in my eyes.
You're agreeing with the article. It says that was the reason.
I think there is a difficulty with this. The bigger problem the police are trying prevent is racially motivated violence incited by Farage and his followers. There isn't an equivalent problem on the other side. So they can hopefully nip that violence in the bud by establishing the perpetrator as white before Farage starts "asking his legitimate questions"
Issue is, sooner or later one of these perpetrators will turn out to be brown, Muslim or a refugee. Then the police doesn't have a good choice between releasing or not releasing the ethnicity of the perpetrator.
Farage asked whether the perpetrator was known to the authorities. It turns out the perpetrator had slipped through the net despite being referred to Prevent. Why are people so keen to smear Farage? All it does is give us the chance to show he was right
As I said:
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage on Wednesday admitted to spreading misinformation following the tragic knife attack in Southport that resulted in the deaths of three young girls.
The incident has since sparked widespread violence and riots across England and Northern Ireland.
Farage, known for his outspoken political views, posted a video online shortly after the attack, in which he speculated on the background of the killer.
He had said "some reports suggest he was known to the security services," a claim that has now been proven false.
The misinformation, originating from various online sources, quickly spread, leading to violent scenes at a vigil held for the three children.
These events further escalated into several days of unrest and riots across the country.
During an appearance on LBC, Farage defended his actions by asserting his intent to uncover "the truth."
He explained: "There were stories online from some very prominent folks with big followings - Andrew Tate etc - suggesting the man had crossed the English Channel in a boat in October 2023. Other suggestions that he was an active Muslim, and much of this led to the riots that we saw. I asked a very simple question - was this person known or not."
However, LBC presenter Tom Swarbrick challenged Farage’s defense, pointing out the sources of his information.
"Nigel Farage, you didn’t just do that, did you? You said some reports suggest he was known to the security services. Those reports were from a fake news website amplified by Russian state TV and, as you mentioned, Andrew Tate. Which ones were you looking at?" Swarbrick queried.
Farage responded: "Which adds to what I was asking for - give us some clarity. I could have said ’some reports suggest he crossed the Channel last October. Some reports suggest he was an active Muslim. I did none of those things. What I asked for was clarity. We didn’t get clarity, and I would argue that what happened in Southport would not have been of the same magnitude had the truth been told very, very quickly."
Lol, what kind of serious politician aspiring to hold the most important job in the country would tout Andrew Tate as a reliable source of information? Farage is a slippery snake, stirring up hatred while blaming these vile anti-immigrant pogroms on the authorities rather than the low-lifes who carried them out.
Sitting here in Lanarkshire chatting to my team about the byelection. I think the 5/1 on Reform is not a bad bet. There is a mood change which has led to SNP voters going underground and Reform being very visible. The Labour candidate is not up to the job and will lose many votes. SNP closing the neo natal unit at Wishaw is a local event that will upset some. This is possibly the most winnable seat for Reform in the whole of Scotland. Larkhall is core bear territory and they hate Humza who is still around destroying the SNP vote every time he talks. No student or immigrant vote to speak of. The Reform candidate a decent guy and Orange Order. Lots of publicity on the by election will help Reform as non voters more likely to support them.
The other bet is SNP getting less than 30% which again is quite possible even if they win the seat. Feel it will be close.
The Frinton seat is a twofold contest apparently. One seat on District Council, the other on Town. Same boundaries. However there are five candidates for the District Council seat, Tory, Reform, Lab, LD and Green, but on four for the Town Council one. The LD's aren't fighting it. I wonder why.
Must be that their District Candidate does not qualify to serve on the town council, so from outside the town council area. You always put your candidate into both seats if you can as there is a section of the electorate which will come out to vote for a parish election and vote for the district (the only one you are interested in really) and vote for him there as well.
If the boundaries are identical then it will be a useful experiment to see which way the Lib Dem vote breaks. Counting tomorrow morning, I understand.
Rants against the modern world. My MIL died in January. SSE are now threatening to cut her off. They have sent a letter saying "please get in touch if you need help" No phone number. Go on their website and they say that the customer number on their letter is too short. Chat has an option of speak to an advisor. When you click on it you can go back or close. No other options. Advising re bereavement is an option but nothing happens.
We are changing our account.
When my Mum died recently I had a bot at National Savings empathising with me for my loss. I was not impressed. A bot ffs....
Any scripted empathy from people or bots who are only talking with you in the first place because they're paid to do so is more than faintly nauseating.
If “DOGE UK” finds significant amounts of legitimate waste I will be impressed. However I think it’s much more likely that it’s all performative and any “cuts” made will either cost councils more in the long run or cause services to further degrade.
The US DOGE found almost nothing, and the US government has had a lot more money to waste than ours has in the last 15 years. Local government in particular has been stripped to the bone.
We know why - they wanted to avoid race riots and the perp was white.
Where the debate was - next time the perp is NOT white, what happens. And we already had a case in Leicester (not identical, but 'car' attacking people) where the perp's ethnicity was NOT reported.
Clearly the police are doing their best, but to suggest that there is a new spirit of openness is false, in my eyes.
You're agreeing with the article. It says that was the reason.
I think there is a difficulty with this. The bigger problem the police are trying prevent is racially motivated violence incited by Farage and his followers. There isn't an equivalent problem on the other side. So they can hopefully nip that violence in the bud by establishing the perpetrator as white before Farage starts "asking his legitimate questions"
Issue is, sooner or later one of these perpetrators will turn out to be brown, Muslim or a refugee. Then the police doesn't have a good choice between releasing or not releasing the ethnicity of the perpetrator.
Farage asked whether the perpetrator was known to the authorities. It turns out the perpetrator had slipped through the net despite being referred to Prevent. Why are people so keen to smear Farage? All it does is give us the chance to show he was right
As I said:
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage on Wednesday admitted to spreading misinformation following the tragic knife attack in Southport that resulted in the deaths of three young girls.
The incident has since sparked widespread violence and riots across England and Northern Ireland.
Farage, known for his outspoken political views, posted a video online shortly after the attack, in which he speculated on the background of the killer.
He had said "some reports suggest he was known to the security services," a claim that has now been proven false.
The misinformation, originating from various online sources, quickly spread, leading to violent scenes at a vigil held for the three children.
These events further escalated into several days of unrest and riots across the country.
During an appearance on LBC, Farage defended his actions by asserting his intent to uncover "the truth."
He explained: "There were stories online from some very prominent folks with big followings - Andrew Tate etc - suggesting the man had crossed the English Channel in a boat in October 2023. Other suggestions that he was an active Muslim, and much of this led to the riots that we saw. I asked a very simple question - was this person known or not."
However, LBC presenter Tom Swarbrick challenged Farage’s defense, pointing out the sources of his information.
"Nigel Farage, you didn’t just do that, did you? You said some reports suggest he was known to the security services. Those reports were from a fake news website amplified by Russian state TV and, as you mentioned, Andrew Tate. Which ones were you looking at?" Swarbrick queried.
Farage responded: "Which adds to what I was asking for - give us some clarity. I could have said ’some reports suggest he crossed the Channel last October. Some reports suggest he was an active Muslim. I did none of those things. What I asked for was clarity. We didn’t get clarity, and I would argue that what happened in Southport would not have been of the same magnitude had the truth been told very, very quickly."
Lucy Connolly is an unpleasant individual but she isn't two-faced, unlike the main inciter to violence Nigel Farage, who chooses his words carefully and "only asks the legitimate questions". As a result Connolly is serving a long prison sentence while Farage gets maximum exposure on TV. That really is unfair.
I think she's due out (ie eligible for release on license) around August to October, based on 40% of 31 months, which is 12.4 months. I'm not sure how time already served at the point of sentence exactly counts in this case.
If “DOGE UK” finds significant amounts of legitimate waste I will be impressed. However I think it’s much more likely that it’s all performative and any “cuts” made will either cost councils more in the long run or cause services to further degrade.
The US DOGE found almost nothing, and the US government has had a lot more money to waste than ours has in the last 15 years. Local government in particular has been stripped to the bone.
That’s the thing after 13 years of no money - councils really do watch every penny.
The idea that there are major cost savings that can be legally made hasn’t been the case for nearly a decade
We know why - they wanted to avoid race riots and the perp was white.
Where the debate was - next time the perp is NOT white, what happens. And we already had a case in Leicester (not identical, but 'car' attacking people) where the perp's ethnicity was NOT reported.
Clearly the police are doing their best, but to suggest that there is a new spirit of openness is false, in my eyes.
You're agreeing with the article. It says that was the reason.
I think there is a difficulty with this. The bigger problem the police are trying prevent is racially motivated violence incited by Farage and his followers. There isn't an equivalent problem on the other side. So they can hopefully nip that violence in the bud by establishing the perpetrator as white before Farage starts "asking his legitimate questions"
Issue is, sooner or later one of these perpetrators will turn out to be brown, Muslim or a refugee. Then the police doesn't have a good choice between releasing or not releasing the ethnicity of the perpetrator.
I actually think it's grimly amusing that they released the ethnicity of the Liverpool driver rather than just saying "this is not a terrorist attack" as was obvious from the videos. It sort of gave the impression that a white person doing this means it isn't terrorism.
Now, it could be argued that the knuckle draggers wouldn't care if it was terrorism or not, but I suspect motive and victims does matter. When the news is reporting that three young girls have been stabbed to death at a dance class, that is going to get the juices flowing a lot more than a car running Liverpool fans over.
Perhaps those riots would have happened anyway, but I think the big mistake was the police saying it wasn't terrorism. If they wanted to say that early on, they had to tell us why it wasn't terrorism. And if they can't do that (personally, I think it was won't rather than a can't), treat it as a terrorist attack. It doesn't mean you have to charge anyone with terrorism. Saying the premeditated murder of girls at a dance class isn't terrorism straight off the bat looks awfully like a cover up.
It's not grimly amusing. These guys on the far right don't need this to be a terrorist attack or the perpetrator actually to be non-white to kick off their misinformation.
Trump: Putin actually said to me, ‘If you don’t mind, friend, I hate to see you as my enemy.’ He said it very strongly. I had a very good relationship with Putin. I had a very good relationship with President Xi. A very good relationship with Kim Jong Un https://x.com/highbrow_nobrow/status/1930377901683122513
These results do not pass the sniff test. How have they got Starmer so far ahead?
It's relative and Farage is poison to a large majority of voters. A group to which everyone I know belongs.
You need to get out more then
I utterly reject Farage but I am aware of people who are very much on board with him
I'm not at all surprised. I would see you as his perfect target market
You really are stupid aren't you
Maybe if you read my posts you would see my utter rejection of Farage and all he stands for
I expect most of our fellow posters would have a similar experience of Farage supporters to me, but then as I said you need to get out more and you will also find Farage supporters
The Frinton seat is a twofold contest apparently. One seat on District Council, the other on Town. Same boundaries. However there are five candidates for the District Council seat, Tory, Reform, Lab, LD and Green, but on four for the Town Council one. The LD's aren't fighting it. I wonder why.
Must be that their District Candidate does not qualify to serve on the town council, so from outside the town council area. You always put your candidate into both seats if you can as there is a section of the electorate which will come out to vote for a parish election and vote for the district (the only one you are interested in really) and vote for him there as well.
If the boundaries are identical then it will be a useful experiment to see which way the Lib Dem vote breaks. Counting tomorrow morning, I understand.
LDs have only stood in Frinton once in 20 years, they got 6% in 2019. I think there will be limited interest in them unless the Tendring First indies are inclined to LDs as they've disappeared and got 31% last time and have been the main opposition to Tories here including during UKIPs pomp
We know why - they wanted to avoid race riots and the perp was white.
Where the debate was - next time the perp is NOT white, what happens. And we already had a case in Leicester (not identical, but 'car' attacking people) where the perp's ethnicity was NOT reported.
Clearly the police are doing their best, but to suggest that there is a new spirit of openness is false, in my eyes.
You're agreeing with the article. It says that was the reason.
I think there is a difficulty with this. The bigger problem the police are trying prevent is racially motivated violence incited by Farage and his followers. There isn't an equivalent problem on the other side. So they can hopefully nip that violence in the bud by establishing the perpetrator as white before Farage starts "asking his legitimate questions"
Issue is, sooner or later one of these perpetrators will turn out to be brown, Muslim or a refugee. Then the police doesn't have a good choice between releasing or not releasing the ethnicity of the perpetrator.
That's the problem, yes. Release the info - you risk an outbreak of indiscriminate racist violence. Don't release it - you get an outbreak of "two tier" whinging and the racist cause is emboldened.
Glad I'm only commenting on this rather than having to decide what's best.
Me too.
I don't think people trying to do the right thing in difficult circumstances get the support they need from those that should be giving it.
People were slagging Adrian Chiles's columns a while back. I've always enjoyed his writing TBH and this week's column is especially good. I even learned something useful from it.
Very good article, and a very useful word.
Have people on here really not heard 'edgelord' before? I'm pretty sure it was in circulation when I was at university a couple of decades ago. I'm sure I've seen people use the term on here, too (we have plenty of our own!).
Edgelord was a thing when USENET ruled and HTML was just a dream.
Indeed it was.
All those posters that pretended to like Emacs were definitely Edgelords.
This was a long time ago, some time/several letters before the iMacs, right?
I had one friend at University who wrote his own text editor for a BBC Micro, then used his text editor to write his final year project report.
If “DOGE UK” finds significant amounts of legitimate waste I will be impressed. However I think it’s much more likely that it’s all performative and any “cuts” made will either cost councils more in the long run or cause services to further degrade.
So far they have uncovered the scandal of councils tendering collectively to save money, and Kent County Council outsourcing recruitment to a business owned by Kent County Council...
Sitting here in Lanarkshire chatting to my team about the byelection. I think the 5/1 on Reform is not a bad bet. There is a mood change which has led to SNP voters going underground and Reform being very visible. The Labour candidate is not up to the job and will lose many votes. SNP closing the neo natal unit at Wishaw is a local event that will upset some. This is possibly the most winnable seat for Reform in the whole of Scotland. Larkhall is core bear territory and they hate Humza who is still around destroying the SNP vote every time he talks. No student or immigrant vote to speak of. The Reform candidate a decent guy and Orange Order. Lots of publicity on the by election will help Reform as non voters more likely to support them.
The other bet is SNP getting less than 30% which again is quite possible even if they win the seat. Feel it will be close.
Thanks for the insight - but I can't see how a Labour collapse + Orange Order candidate can outweigh SNP unpopularity.
A very close result or even a Reform win will really sharpen minds in Scotland. It's a disaster for Labour either way, and I think PBers should consider how many of those 37 Westminster seats Labour will retain - I'd guess less than 10 at the moment.
If “DOGE UK” finds significant amounts of legitimate waste I will be impressed. However I think it’s much more likely that it’s all performative and any “cuts” made will either cost councils more in the long run or cause services to further degrade.
The US DOGE found almost nothing, and the US government has had a lot more money to waste than ours has in the last 15 years. Local government in particular has been stripped to the bone.
DOGE wasn't looking in the right places. Instead it was pursuing a political agenda where any money saved was at best a secondary consideration.
Stuff like firing the COVID commissioners pursuing fraudulent loans from the pandemic, and the gutting of the IRS probably cost the government tens of billions.
Reducing waste without gutting services is unflashy politically, and is the work of years not weeks.
From my own anecdotal knowledge, I'm pretty sure there's still waste in local government, but after the multiple reorganisations, there is far less fat to cut.
Far more fruitful, IMO, would be to concentrate on doing what they can to enable economic growth.
We know why - they wanted to avoid race riots and the perp was white.
Where the debate was - next time the perp is NOT white, what happens. And we already had a case in Leicester (not identical, but 'car' attacking people) where the perp's ethnicity was NOT reported.
Clearly the police are doing their best, but to suggest that there is a new spirit of openness is false, in my eyes.
You're agreeing with the article. It says that was the reason.
I think there is a difficulty with this. The bigger problem the police are trying prevent is racially motivated violence incited by Farage and his followers. There isn't an equivalent problem on the other side. So they can hopefully nip that violence in the bud by establishing the perpetrator as white before Farage starts "asking his legitimate questions"
Issue is, sooner or later one of these perpetrators will turn out to be brown, Muslim or a refugee. Then the police doesn't have a good choice between releasing or not releasing the ethnicity of the perpetrator.
I actually think it's grimly amusing that they released the ethnicity of the Liverpool driver rather than just saying "this is not a terrorist attack" as was obvious from the videos. It sort of gave the impression that a white person doing this means it isn't terrorism.
Now, it could be argued that the knuckle draggers wouldn't care if it was terrorism or not, but I suspect motive and victims does matter. When the news is reporting that three young girls have been stabbed to death at a dance class, that is going to get the juices flowing a lot more than a car running Liverpool fans over.
Perhaps those riots would have happened anyway, but I think the big mistake was the police saying it wasn't terrorism. If they wanted to say that early on, they had to tell us why it wasn't terrorism. And if they can't do that (personally, I think it was won't rather than a can't), treat it as a terrorist attack. It doesn't mean you have to charge anyone with terrorism. Saying the premeditated murder of girls at a dance class isn't terrorism straight off the bat looks awfully like a cover up.
It's not grimly amusing. These guys on the far right don't need this to be a terrorist attack or the perpetrator actually to be non-white to kick off their misinformation.
So why say anything about race at all? If rioters are going to riot if the perpetrator isn’t even non-white?
I’d have thought the best thing to say about Liverpool is that it wasn’t a terrorist attack (as they did for Southport - wrongly, in my view).
Efficient mRNA delivery to resting T cells to reverse HIV latency
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-60001-2 A major hurdle to curing HIV is the persistence of integrated proviruses in resting CD4+ T cells that remain in a transcriptionally silent, latent state. One strategy to eradicate latent HIV is to activate viral transcription, followed by elimination of infected cells through virus-mediated cytotoxicity or immune-mediated clearance. We hypothesised that mRNA-lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology would provide an opportunity to deliver mRNA encoding proteins able to reverse HIV latency in resting CD4+ T cells. Here we develop an LNP formulation (LNP X) with unprecedented potency to deliver mRNA to hard-to-transfect resting CD4+ T cells in the absence of cellular toxicity or activation. Encapsulating an mRNA encoding the HIV Tat protein, an activator of HIV transcription, LNP X enhances HIV transcription in ex vivo CD4+ T cells from people living with HIV. LNP X further enables the delivery of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) activation machinery to modulate both viral and host gene transcription. These findings offer potential for the development of a range of nucleic acid-based T cell therapeutics...
This is exciting stuff. Apart from potential pathway to curing AIDS, it promises a entire new therapeutic platform.
Efficient mRNA delivery to resting T cells to reverse HIV latency
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-60001-2 A major hurdle to curing HIV is the persistence of integrated proviruses in resting CD4+ T cells that remain in a transcriptionally silent, latent state. One strategy to eradicate latent HIV is to activate viral transcription, followed by elimination of infected cells through virus-mediated cytotoxicity or immune-mediated clearance. We hypothesised that mRNA-lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology would provide an opportunity to deliver mRNA encoding proteins able to reverse HIV latency in resting CD4+ T cells. Here we develop an LNP formulation (LNP X) with unprecedented potency to deliver mRNA to hard-to-transfect resting CD4+ T cells in the absence of cellular toxicity or activation. Encapsulating an mRNA encoding the HIV Tat protein, an activator of HIV transcription, LNP X enhances HIV transcription in ex vivo CD4+ T cells from people living with HIV. LNP X further enables the delivery of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) activation machinery to modulate both viral and host gene transcription. These findings offer potential for the development of a range of nucleic acid-based T cell therapeutics...
This is exciting stuff. Apart from potential pathway to curing AIDS, it promises a entire new therapeutic platform.
If “DOGE UK” finds significant amounts of legitimate waste I will be impressed. However I think it’s much more likely that it’s all performative and any “cuts” made will either cost councils more in the long run or cause services to further degrade.
The US DOGE found almost nothing, and the US government has had a lot more money to waste than ours has in the last 15 years. Local government in particular has been stripped to the bone.
DOGE wasn't looking in the right places. Instead it was pursuing a political agenda where any money saved was at best a secondary consideration.
Stuff like firing the COVID commissioners pursuing fraudulent loans from the pandemic, and the gutting of the IRS probably cost the government tens of billions.
Reducing waste without gutting services is unflashy politically, and is the work of years not weeks.
From my own anecdotal knowledge, I'm pretty sure there's still waste in local government, but after the multiple reorganisations, there is far less fat to cut.
Far more fruitful, IMO, would be to concentrate on doing what they can to enable economic growth.
The thing is no organisation is ever perfectly lean because humans are imperfect and resources are not quick to gather so you have to have some fat in order to flex
Efficient mRNA delivery to resting T cells to reverse HIV latency
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-60001-2 A major hurdle to curing HIV is the persistence of integrated proviruses in resting CD4+ T cells that remain in a transcriptionally silent, latent state. One strategy to eradicate latent HIV is to activate viral transcription, followed by elimination of infected cells through virus-mediated cytotoxicity or immune-mediated clearance. We hypothesised that mRNA-lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology would provide an opportunity to deliver mRNA encoding proteins able to reverse HIV latency in resting CD4+ T cells. Here we develop an LNP formulation (LNP X) with unprecedented potency to deliver mRNA to hard-to-transfect resting CD4+ T cells in the absence of cellular toxicity or activation. Encapsulating an mRNA encoding the HIV Tat protein, an activator of HIV transcription, LNP X enhances HIV transcription in ex vivo CD4+ T cells from people living with HIV. LNP X further enables the delivery of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) activation machinery to modulate both viral and host gene transcription. These findings offer potential for the development of a range of nucleic acid-based T cell therapeutics...
This is exciting stuff. Apart from potential pathway to curing AIDS, it promises a entire new therapeutic platform.
If “DOGE UK” finds significant amounts of legitimate waste I will be impressed. However I think it’s much more likely that it’s all performative and any “cuts” made will either cost councils more in the long run or cause services to further degrade.
So far they have uncovered the scandal of councils tendering collectively to save money, and Kent County Council outsourcing recruitment to a business owned by Kent County Council...
Top guys. Top, top guys. Working for free you know
If “DOGE UK” finds significant amounts of legitimate waste I will be impressed. However I think it’s much more likely that it’s all performative and any “cuts” made will either cost councils more in the long run or cause services to further degrade.
The US DOGE found almost nothing, and the US government has had a lot more money to waste than ours has in the last 15 years. Local government in particular has been stripped to the bone.
DOGE wasn't looking in the right places. Instead it was pursuing a political agenda where any money saved was at best a secondary consideration.
Stuff like firing the COVID commissioners pursuing fraudulent loans from the pandemic, and the gutting of the IRS probably cost the government tens of billions.
Reducing waste without gutting services is unflashy politically, and is the work of years not weeks.
From my own anecdotal knowledge, I'm pretty sure there's still waste in local government, but after the multiple reorganisations, there is far less fat to cut.
Far more fruitful, IMO, would be to concentrate on doing what they can to enable economic growth.
No, far more useful would be to ensure they have adequate resources to deliver the services which they are statutorily required to provide.
If “DOGE UK” finds significant amounts of legitimate waste I will be impressed. However I think it’s much more likely that it’s all performative and any “cuts” made will either cost councils more in the long run or cause services to further degrade.
The US DOGE found almost nothing, and the US government has had a lot more money to waste than ours has in the last 15 years. Local government in particular has been stripped to the bone.
DOGE wasn't looking in the right places. Instead it was pursuing a political agenda where any money saved was at best a secondary consideration.
Stuff like firing the COVID commissioners pursuing fraudulent loans from the pandemic, and the gutting of the IRS probably cost the government tens of billions.
Reducing waste without gutting services is unflashy politically, and is the work of years not weeks.
From my own anecdotal knowledge, I'm pretty sure there's still waste in local government, but after the multiple reorganisations, there is far less fat to cut.
Far more fruitful, IMO, would be to concentrate on doing what they can to enable economic growth.
The thing is no organisation is ever perfectly lean because humans are imperfect and resources are not quick to gather so you have to have some fat in order to flex
Of course. But there's something of a straw man argument there. Organisations should always seek incremental improvements.
If “DOGE UK” finds significant amounts of legitimate waste I will be impressed. However I think it’s much more likely that it’s all performative and any “cuts” made will either cost councils more in the long run or cause services to further degrade.
So far they have uncovered the scandal of councils tendering collectively to save money, and Kent County Council outsourcing recruitment to a business owned by Kent County Council...
Top guys. Top, top guys. Working for free you know
And not stopping to check what they are talking about.
Now were I in Kent I would be asking my Reform councillor when I will see my share of that £375million saving - which given Kent has ~700,000 homes says I should be seeing £500 a year off my council tax bill.
If “DOGE UK” finds significant amounts of legitimate waste I will be impressed. However I think it’s much more likely that it’s all performative and any “cuts” made will either cost councils more in the long run or cause services to further degrade.
The US DOGE found almost nothing, and the US government has had a lot more money to waste than ours has in the last 15 years. Local government in particular has been stripped to the bone.
DOGE wasn't looking in the right places. Instead it was pursuing a political agenda where any money saved was at best a secondary consideration.
Stuff like firing the COVID commissioners pursuing fraudulent loans from the pandemic, and the gutting of the IRS probably cost the government tens of billions.
Reducing waste without gutting services is unflashy politically, and is the work of years not weeks.
From my own anecdotal knowledge, I'm pretty sure there's still waste in local government, but after the multiple reorganisations, there is far less fat to cut.
Far more fruitful, IMO, would be to concentrate on doing what they can to enable economic growth.
No, far more useful would be to ensure they have adequate resources to deliver the services which they are statutorily required to provide.
Er, no. That's not 'The Tories' repudiating anything 'finally', it's Mel Stride rehashing his oft-repeated blue-on-blue Truss attack, rather than attacking the Labour Government.
We know why - they wanted to avoid race riots and the perp was white.
Where the debate was - next time the perp is NOT white, what happens. And we already had a case in Leicester (not identical, but 'car' attacking people) where the perp's ethnicity was NOT reported.
Clearly the police are doing their best, but to suggest that there is a new spirit of openness is false, in my eyes.
The other factor is that Southport and Liverpool are the same place with the same police force. Leicester is somewhere else entirely.
If “DOGE UK” finds significant amounts of legitimate waste I will be impressed. However I think it’s much more likely that it’s all performative and any “cuts” made will either cost councils more in the long run or cause services to further degrade.
The US DOGE found almost nothing, and the US government has had a lot more money to waste than ours has in the last 15 years. Local government in particular has been stripped to the bone.
DOGE wasn't looking in the right places. Instead it was pursuing a political agenda where any money saved was at best a secondary consideration.
Stuff like firing the COVID commissioners pursuing fraudulent loans from the pandemic, and the gutting of the IRS probably cost the government tens of billions.
Reducing waste without gutting services is unflashy politically, and is the work of years not weeks.
From my own anecdotal knowledge, I'm pretty sure there's still waste in local government, but after the multiple reorganisations, there is far less fat to cut.
Far more fruitful, IMO, would be to concentrate on doing what they can to enable economic growth.
The thing is no organisation is ever perfectly lean because humans are imperfect and resources are not quick to gather so you have to have some fat in order to flex
I would go further - no organisation should ever be "lean"! There ought to be some slack or latency in every system so that it can cope when there is a surge in demand. I am delighted to see firemen and ploicemen (and internal auditors and compliance officers) wandering around with apparently not a lot to do - it means that they are ready and availabe when they are needed. And the concept of running a hospital at 100% economic efficiency is repugnant, short sighted and wrong.
If “DOGE UK” finds significant amounts of legitimate waste I will be impressed. However I think it’s much more likely that it’s all performative and any “cuts” made will either cost councils more in the long run or cause services to further degrade.
So far they have uncovered the scandal of councils tendering collectively to save money, and Kent County Council outsourcing recruitment to a business owned by Kent County Council...
Top guys. Top, top guys. Working for free you know
And not stopping to check what they are talking about.
Now were I in Kent I would be asking my Reform councillor when I will see my share of that £375million saving - which given Kent has ~700,000 homes says I should be seeing £500 a year off my council tax bill.
I think there's an error in the original post, "and" not "or", "will cost more in the long run and cause services to degrade" as per austerity.
Er, no. That's not 'The Tories' repudiating anything 'finally', it's Mel Stride rehashing his oft-repeated blue-on-blue Truss attack, rather than attacking the Labour Government.
The man is an utterly useless waste of space.
As I scrolled up PB on the Vanilla forum version, I thought to myself (before the name was visible) "that must be one of Lucky's posts".
If “DOGE UK” finds significant amounts of legitimate waste I will be impressed. However I think it’s much more likely that it’s all performative and any “cuts” made will either cost councils more in the long run or cause services to further degrade.
So far they have uncovered the scandal of councils tendering collectively to save money, and Kent County Council outsourcing recruitment to a business owned by Kent County Council...
Top guys. Top, top guys. Working for free you know
And not stopping to check what they are talking about.
Now were I in Kent I would be asking my Reform councillor when I will see my share of that £375million saving - which given Kent has ~700,000 homes says I should be seeing £500 a year off my council tax bill.
Indeed. Or what local services will you be upgrading or providing with the savings? The Tories ended up deeply hated Labour are becoming despised Reform aren't ready for the absolute visceral reaction their inevitable failure will bring.
These results do not pass the sniff test. How have they got Starmer so far ahead?
It's relative and Farage is poison to a large majority of voters. A group to which everyone I know belongs.
You need to get out more then
I utterly reject Farage but I am aware of people who are very much on board with him
There's a chap with whom I occasionally drink who seems to think he's the bees knees but otherwise others whom I discuss politics prod him metaphorically with a sharp stick. And we're not that far from Clacton!
Frinton are voting in a by election today, we can see what some of the good burghers of Clacton constituency think of him!
Once upon a time at least the 'good burghers' of Frinton would have regarded Farage with horror as a jumped up oik who certainly wasn't a 'gentleman'. Even though he went to a public school.
Frinton I think will be more Conservative than Clacton proper but I think the Reform tidal wave takes it. Tories took it in 2023 with 42% from an indy on 31%. Their only hope is if the indy voters (not standing this time) were all Tories who prefer to come home than go reform. Of course if they did hold on they'll be shoving it down Farages throat all summer
I must admit that, while I haven't been to Frinton for some years, it wasn't then, and by report isn't now, what it was. They've actually got a pub there now and I believe there was a report of a fight in it!
Shocking! Frinton was always a funny little corner of England
I think I have mentioned this before but, when I was a child, we used to holiday all the way up the A12 to Clacton, and when we went to sleepy old posh Frinton for the day… there was an armed robbery!
It was in the pub, wasn't it? Seem to remember something about it. Used to have to meetings in Clacton back in the 70's-80's.
It was worse than I remembered. A policeman was shot dead
Amongst voters as a whole Johnson is seen as the best bet for the Tories, though amongst current Tory voters Cameron is most respected.
'When asked who they thought would do a good job as leader of the Conservatives in the future, Mr Johnson polled best but with a score of just 28%. This was better than Reform’s Mr Farage (25%), former foreign secretary James Cleverly (20%), Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick (18%), Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel (14%) and former home secretary Suella Braverman (12%).
Among current Conservative supporters, there is high regard for former PM Mr Cameron. More than three in four (76%) think he did a good job – a higher rating than that enjoyed by Rishi Sunak (71%), Mr Johnson (69%), Mrs May (56%) and Ms Truss (8%).' https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/2064463/boris-johnson-reform-uk-poll
Cameron - a good job? He fucked up the Referendum timing, then with his disastrous "renegotiation" followed by his toddler tantrum when people doubted its value. Then pissed off the moment his Referendum went against him - despite saying he would not.
The bar for doing a good job must have sunk towards the ground through May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak and Starmer if people think that was a "good job".
You do Mr Cameron something of a disservice. His Coalition Government was probably one of the most successful post war Governments we have seen, austerity aside. Granted when he flew solo it all went a bit Pete Tong.
These results do not pass the sniff test. How have they got Starmer so far ahead?
It's relative and Farage is poison to a large majority of voters. A group to which everyone I know belongs.
You need to get out more then
I utterly reject Farage but I am aware of people who are very much on board with him
There's a chap with whom I occasionally drink who seems to think he's the bees knees but otherwise others whom I discuss politics prod him metaphorically with a sharp stick. And we're not that far from Clacton!
Frinton are voting in a by election today, we can see what some of the good burghers of Clacton constituency think of him!
Once upon a time at least the 'good burghers' of Frinton would have regarded Farage with horror as a jumped up oik who certainly wasn't a 'gentleman'. Even though he went to a public school.
Frinton I think will be more Conservative than Clacton proper but I think the Reform tidal wave takes it. Tories took it in 2023 with 42% from an indy on 31%. Their only hope is if the indy voters (not standing this time) were all Tories who prefer to come home than go reform. Of course if they did hold on they'll be shoving it down Farages throat all summer
I must admit that, while I haven't been to Frinton for some years, it wasn't then, and by report isn't now, what it was. They've actually got a pub there now and I believe there was a report of a fight in it!
Shocking! Frinton was always a funny little corner of England
I think I have mentioned this before but, when I was a child, we used to holiday all the way up the A12 to Clacton, and when we went to sleepy old posh Frinton for the day… there was an armed robbery!
It was in the pub, wasn't it? Seem to remember something about it. Used to have to meetings in Clacton back in the 70's-80's.
It was worse than I remembered. A policeman was shot dead
Efficient mRNA delivery to resting T cells to reverse HIV latency
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-60001-2 A major hurdle to curing HIV is the persistence of integrated proviruses in resting CD4+ T cells that remain in a transcriptionally silent, latent state. One strategy to eradicate latent HIV is to activate viral transcription, followed by elimination of infected cells through virus-mediated cytotoxicity or immune-mediated clearance. We hypothesised that mRNA-lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology would provide an opportunity to deliver mRNA encoding proteins able to reverse HIV latency in resting CD4+ T cells. Here we develop an LNP formulation (LNP X) with unprecedented potency to deliver mRNA to hard-to-transfect resting CD4+ T cells in the absence of cellular toxicity or activation. Encapsulating an mRNA encoding the HIV Tat protein, an activator of HIV transcription, LNP X enhances HIV transcription in ex vivo CD4+ T cells from people living with HIV. LNP X further enables the delivery of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) activation machinery to modulate both viral and host gene transcription. These findings offer potential for the development of a range of nucleic acid-based T cell therapeutics...
This is exciting stuff. Apart from potential pathway to curing AIDS, it promises a entire new therapeutic platform.
But with the downside that you'll die from the delivery vector...
(Clearly I'm joking, but you can bet JD Vance won't be!)
If “DOGE UK” finds significant amounts of legitimate waste I will be impressed. However I think it’s much more likely that it’s all performative and any “cuts” made will either cost councils more in the long run or cause services to further degrade.
So far they have uncovered the scandal of councils tendering collectively to save money, and Kent County Council outsourcing recruitment to a business owned by Kent County Council...
Top guys. Top, top guys. Working for free you know
And not stopping to check what they are talking about.
Now were I in Kent I would be asking my Reform councillor when I will see my share of that £375million saving - which given Kent has ~700,000 homes says I should be seeing £500 a year off my council tax bill.
Indeed. Or what local services will you be upgrading or providing with the savings? The Tories ended up deeply hated Labour are becoming despised Reform aren't ready for the absolute visceral reaction their inevitable failure will bring.
I'm happy to bet a shiny sixpence that, whatever goes wrong in Kent, Nigel will come out of it smelling of roses.
The councillors will get chucked in the pool full of genetically engineered piranhas, and Zia Yusuf might follow them, but who cares about them?
These results do not pass the sniff test. How have they got Starmer so far ahead?
It's relative and Farage is poison to a large majority of voters. A group to which everyone I know belongs.
You need to get out more then
I utterly reject Farage but I am aware of people who are very much on board with him
I'm not at all surprised. I would see you as his perfect target market
You really are stupid aren't you
Maybe if you read my posts you would see my utter rejection of Farage and all he stands for
I expect most of our fellow posters would have a similar experience of Farage supporters to me, but then as I said you need to get out more and you will also find Farage supporters
People I mix with tend to be pretty cosmopolitan and non racist so short of on websites like this I think I'd be struggling. There are a few on here but they are of a type and happily in a smallish minority. Most Tory leaning Reform
If “DOGE UK” finds significant amounts of legitimate waste I will be impressed. However I think it’s much more likely that it’s all performative and any “cuts” made will either cost councils more in the long run or cause services to further degrade.
So far they have uncovered the scandal of councils tendering collectively to save money, and Kent County Council outsourcing recruitment to a business owned by Kent County Council...
Top guys. Top, top guys. Working for free you know
And not stopping to check what they are talking about.
Now were I in Kent I would be asking my Reform councillor when I will see my share of that £375million saving - which given Kent has ~700,000 homes says I should be seeing £500 a year off my council tax bill.
Indeed. Or what local services will you be upgrading or providing with the savings? The Tories ended up deeply hated Labour are becoming despised Reform aren't ready for the absolute visceral reaction their inevitable failure will bring.
I'm happy to bet a shiny sixpence that, whatever goes wrong in Kent, Nigel will come out of it smelling of roses.
The councillors will get chucked in the pool full of genetically engineered piranhas, and Zia Yusuf might follow them, but who cares about them?
He won't stay ahead of the rage for long. Patience has ended and no actual solutions are on offer from anyone. Burn it all down, everywhere.
People were slagging Adrian Chiles's columns a while back. I've always enjoyed his writing TBH and this week's column is especially good. I even learned something useful from it.
What's their objection to Adrian Chiles? I agree, a regular commentator who writes well and, unusually, almost always has something interesting to say.
His added value as an ITV football commentator was near-zero.
I have his head in hands book "We Don't Know What We Are Doing" about the trials and tribulations, the downs and even deeper downs of a life following the Baggies.
These results do not pass the sniff test. How have they got Starmer so far ahead?
It's relative and Farage is poison to a large majority of voters. A group to which everyone I know belongs.
You need to get out more then
I utterly reject Farage but I am aware of people who are very much on board with him
There's a chap with whom I occasionally drink who seems to think he's the bees knees but otherwise others whom I discuss politics prod him metaphorically with a sharp stick. And we're not that far from Clacton!
Frinton are voting in a by election today, we can see what some of the good burghers of Clacton constituency think of him!
Once upon a time at least the 'good burghers' of Frinton would have regarded Farage with horror as a jumped up oik who certainly wasn't a 'gentleman'. Even though he went to a public school.
Frinton I think will be more Conservative than Clacton proper but I think the Reform tidal wave takes it. Tories took it in 2023 with 42% from an indy on 31%. Their only hope is if the indy voters (not standing this time) were all Tories who prefer to come home than go reform. Of course if they did hold on they'll be shoving it down Farages throat all summer
I must admit that, while I haven't been to Frinton for some years, it wasn't then, and by report isn't now, what it was. They've actually got a pub there now and I believe there was a report of a fight in it!
Shocking! Frinton was always a funny little corner of England
I think I have mentioned this before but, when I was a child, we used to holiday all the way up the A12 to Clacton, and when we went to sleepy old posh Frinton for the day… there was an armed robbery!
It was in the pub, wasn't it? Seem to remember something about it. Used to have to meetings in Clacton back in the 70's-80's.
It was worse than I remembered. A policeman was shot dead
The fact the PB Centrist dads all admire the writing of..... Adrian Chiles.... is just DELICIOUSLY perfect
You complain at Chiles and his writing through the prism of bigging up that Sean guy. But that Sean guy writes from the perspective of a show off, a popinjay if you like, Chiles on the other hand is reliably self deprecating. I like that in a writer.
Trump: Putin actually said to me, ‘If you don’t mind, friend, I hate to see you as my enemy.’ He said it very strongly. I had a very good relationship with Putin. I had a very good relationship with President Xi. A very good relationship with Kim Jong Un https://x.com/highbrow_nobrow/status/1930377901683122513
Lol, seen on X - because of the by election the Tories have most MSPs in attendance at Holyrood. June 5 2025 the first and last time the SCons take Holyrood!
If “DOGE UK” finds significant amounts of legitimate waste I will be impressed. However I think it’s much more likely that it’s all performative and any “cuts” made will either cost councils more in the long run or cause services to further degrade.
So far they have uncovered the scandal of councils tendering collectively to save money, and Kent County Council outsourcing recruitment to a business owned by Kent County Council...
Top guys. Top, top guys. Working for free you know
And not stopping to check what they are talking about.
Now were I in Kent I would be asking my Reform councillor when I will see my share of that £375million saving - which given Kent has ~700,000 homes says I should be seeing £500 a year off my council tax bill.
Indeed. Or what local services will you be upgrading or providing with the savings? The Tories ended up deeply hated Labour are becoming despised Reform aren't ready for the absolute visceral reaction their inevitable failure will bring.
I'm happy to bet a shiny sixpence that, whatever goes wrong in Kent, Nigel will come out of it smelling of roses.
The councillors will get chucked in the pool full of genetically engineered piranhas, and Zia Yusuf might follow them, but who cares about them?
I don't think so. He's one zeitgeist shift from being seen as the racist wrecker many of us already see him as. The pendulum is going to move
Comments
Where the debate was - next time the perp is NOT white, what happens. And we already had a case in Leicester (not identical, but 'car' attacking people) where the perp's ethnicity was NOT reported.
Clearly the police are doing their best, but to suggest that there is a new spirit of openness is false, in my eyes.
"Actually he wasn't brown, a refugee or a Muslim, so you can lay off the racist incitement this time" is the reason why the police released the information.
Shashank Joshi
@shashj.bsky.social
@tomnuttall.bsky.social writes on Germany's military revival. 'Soldiers marvel at the esteem they now encounter in daily life. “Sometimes when I’m on the street people stop me to say, ‘Thank you for your service’—like in America!” exclaims one cadet officer.'
https://bsky.app/profile/shashj.bsky.social/post/3lqu6crxsrc2b
The other thing which sunk the LDs in 2015 was the prospect of a minority Labour Government dependent on the SNP for support and the price of that support being either a second refrendum on or actual Scottish Independence. Faced with the prospect of the UK possibly breaking up, the Unionist English rallied to the main Unionist party and the LDs were annihilated.
Nine years on, the world looks very different.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-urges-senate-postpone-vote-233634666.html
That's a much better predictor of the next General Election, in my view.
https://grahamcunningham.substack.com
I was judging by one book and half a million posts on here. Too lacking in wit and insight for my taste. I try to encourage copywriter friends to come on here who invariably have both but few are interested in politics
Issue is, sooner or later one of these perpetrators will turn out to be brown, Muslim or a refugee. Then the police doesn't have a good choice between releasing or not releasing the ethnicity of the perpetrator.
' Heavens to Betsy!
https://x.com/GilesWatling/status/1930012043173605488
(Will now read.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Brian_Bishop
However there are five candidates for the District Council seat, Tory, Reform, Lab, LD and Green, but on four for the Town Council one. The LD's aren't fighting it.
I wonder why.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage on Wednesday admitted to spreading misinformation following the tragic knife attack in Southport that resulted in the deaths of three young girls.
The incident has since sparked widespread violence and riots across England and Northern Ireland.
Farage, known for his outspoken political views, posted a video online shortly after the attack, in which he speculated on the background of the killer.
He had said "some reports suggest he was known to the security services," a claim that has now been proven false.
The misinformation, originating from various online sources, quickly spread, leading to violent scenes at a vigil held for the three children.
These events further escalated into several days of unrest and riots across the country.
During an appearance on LBC, Farage defended his actions by asserting his intent to uncover "the truth."
He explained: "There were stories online from some very prominent folks with big followings - Andrew Tate etc - suggesting the man had crossed the English Channel in a boat in October 2023. Other suggestions that he was an active Muslim, and much of this led to the riots that we saw. I asked a very simple question - was this person known or not."
However, LBC presenter Tom Swarbrick challenged Farage’s defense, pointing out the sources of his information.
"Nigel Farage, you didn’t just do that, did you? You said some reports suggest he was known to the security services. Those reports were from a fake news website amplified by Russian state TV and, as you mentioned, Andrew Tate. Which ones were you looking at?" Swarbrick queried.
Farage responded: "Which adds to what I was asking for - give us some clarity. I could have said ’some reports suggest he crossed the Channel last October. Some reports suggest he was an active Muslim. I did none of those things. What I asked for was clarity. We didn’t get clarity, and I would argue that what happened in Southport would not have been of the same magnitude had the truth been told very, very quickly."
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/nigel-farage-admits-to-spreading-misinformation-after-southport-knife-attack/3297939
Glad I'm only commenting on this rather than having to decide what's best.
Now, it could be argued that the knuckle draggers wouldn't care if it was terrorism or not, but I suspect motive and victims does matter. When the news is reporting that three young girls have been stabbed to death at a dance class, that is going to get the juices flowing a lot more than a car running Liverpool fans over.
Perhaps those riots would have happened anyway, but I think the big mistake was the police saying it wasn't terrorism. If they wanted to say that early on, they had to tell us why it wasn't terrorism. And if they can't do that (personally, I think it was won't rather than a can't), treat it as a terrorist attack. It doesn't mean you have to charge anyone with terrorism. Saying the premeditated murder of girls at a dance class isn't terrorism straight off the bat looks awfully like a cover up.
The other bet is SNP getting less than 30% which again is quite possible even if they win the seat. Feel it will be close.
Rudakabana was known to the security services
The idea that there are major cost savings that can be legally made hasn’t been the case for nearly a decade
Maybe if you read my posts you would see my utter rejection of Farage and all he stands for
I expect most of our fellow posters would have a similar experience of Farage supporters to me, but then as I said you need to get out more and you will also find Farage supporters
Edit- Tendring First were Tory splitters
I don't think people trying to do the right thing in difficult circumstances get the support they need from those that should be giving it.
A very close result or even a Reform win will really sharpen minds in Scotland. It's a disaster for Labour either way, and I think PBers should consider how many of those 37 Westminster seats Labour will retain - I'd guess less than 10 at the moment.
Stuff like firing the COVID commissioners pursuing fraudulent loans from the pandemic, and the gutting of the IRS probably cost the government tens of billions.
Reducing waste without gutting services is unflashy politically, and is the work of years not weeks.
From my own anecdotal knowledge, I'm pretty sure there's still waste in local government, but after the multiple reorganisations, there is far less fat to cut.
Far more fruitful, IMO, would be to concentrate on doing what they can to enable economic growth.
I’d have thought the best thing to say about Liverpool is that it wasn’t a terrorist attack (as they did for Southport - wrongly, in my view).
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-60001-2
A major hurdle to curing HIV is the persistence of integrated proviruses in resting CD4+ T cells that remain in a transcriptionally silent, latent state. One strategy to eradicate latent HIV is to activate viral transcription, followed by elimination of infected cells through virus-mediated cytotoxicity or immune-mediated clearance. We hypothesised that mRNA-lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology would provide an opportunity to deliver mRNA encoding proteins able to reverse HIV latency in resting CD4+ T cells. Here we develop an LNP formulation (LNP X) with unprecedented potency to deliver mRNA to hard-to-transfect resting CD4+ T cells in the absence of cellular toxicity or activation. Encapsulating an mRNA encoding the HIV Tat protein, an activator of HIV transcription, LNP X enhances HIV transcription in ex vivo CD4+ T cells from people living with HIV. LNP X further enables the delivery of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) activation machinery to modulate both viral and host gene transcription. These findings offer potential for the development of a range of nucleic acid-based T cell therapeutics...
This is exciting stuff.
Apart from potential pathway to curing AIDS, it promises a entire new therapeutic platform.
Just bizarre.
Fortunately this research is in Australia.
Organisations should always seek incremental improvements.
That's not the Reform agenda though.
Now were I in Kent I would be asking my Reform councillor when I will see my share of that £375million saving - which given Kent has ~700,000 homes says I should be seeing £500 a year off my council tax bill.
The man is an utterly useless waste of space.
The Tories ended up deeply hated
Labour are becoming despised
Reform aren't ready for the absolute visceral reaction their inevitable failure will bring.
(Clearly I'm joking, but you can bet JD Vance won't be!)
The councillors will get chucked in the pool full of genetically engineered piranhas, and Zia Yusuf might follow them, but who cares about them?
Burn it all down, everywhere.
June 5 2025 the first and last time the SCons take Holyrood!