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Well this is interesting – politicalbetting.com
Well this is interesting – politicalbetting.com
The sudden silence of dozens of pro-independence X accounts on 12 June 2025 coincided with Israeli air and cyber strikes targeting Iranian military and communications infrastructure.https://t.co/perBXbkBaU
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I'm surprised it was the Iranians and not the Russians.
After all, the Supreme Leader was on Russia Today, was he not?
Though TBF Gorgeous ('I have stopped drinking') George was on Press TV for about a decade.
Did anyone ever doubt this? They have been doing it for a decade.
The real question is, why aren't we doing it back to them twice as hard? That's the only way to deter dictatorships from attacking you.
If you shitpost worse about them, they will think twice. If they can drop a bomb on you, you need to be able to drop five bombs on them.
It's a terrible way to live, but it's how we need to think when dealing with the Russias, Chinas, Irans and North Koreas of this world.
Suspected Russian hackers used new tactic against UK researcher
https://www.reuters.com/technology/suspected-russian-hackers-used-new-tactic-against-uk-researcher-2025-06-18/
Wait for the "activists" to start championing those poor oppressed Iranian social media bots and marching on parliament in support.
Donald Trump is coming for a full state visit in September - but that wasn’t what the King wanted
The palace argued for an informal visit first, with a senior aide saying Charles didn’t want to fete the president while Trump was “impugning his sovereignty” over Canada
But the PM wanted to curry favour with Trump, who is fascinated by the royals
And the president didn’t like the image of an informal handshake before the “bells and whistles” event
Trump got his way
https://x.com/Smyth_Chris/status/1937761824767902205
To me it reads like a Telegraph Editorial:
‘Excessively wasteful and giving off Swarovski vibes’: our critic on the ‘tiara bridge’ for the late queen
Norman Foster’s cast glass design to honour Queen Elizabeth II will see a perfectly decent bridge destroyed and vast sums squandered at great ecological cost. And how will it stay sparkly?
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2025/jun/24/tiara-bridge-queen-elizabeth-ii-memorial-norman-foster
What’s in an ASP? Creative Phishing Attack on Prominent Academics and Critics of Russia
https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/creative-phishing-academics-critics-of-russia
Starmer goes against the King by bringing forward Trump’s full state visit
The palace is expected to announce a state visit is scheduled for September, despite the monarch’s concerns over threats to Canada
Sir Keir Starmer has gone against the wishes of the King in bringing President Trump’s state visit forward, despite the monarch’s concerns over threats to Canada.
Britain and the US are expected to confirm that a full state visit by the president will take place in September as Starmer prioritises his attempt to curry favour with Trump.
Going against the original proposal for an earlier informal visit outlined by the King, the prime minister has expedited a full “bells and whistles” visit in an attempt to capitalise on the president’s fascination with the royal family.
The Palace had hoped for a more leisurely and considered approach, building towards a full state visit. However, the president made clear that his preference was for a full visit first, which would not be overshadowed by an informal handshake picture.
It is understood that the “manu regia”, the formal document required to initiate a state visit, was signed by the King and hand-delivered to the White House last week.
https://www.thetimes.com/article/1e48e2af-33d9-43fb-a6fa-a3e9aa815591?shareToken=286fc33a4ec9ee67eee5c1f5fc6208f8
The bombs are the NATO weapons held by the US in Britain, and their availability is controlled by them.
The more cogent reason for the purchase seems to be that the F35B is going to remain semi-crippled in terms of what weapons it can carry, well into the 2030s. The A is significantly less constrained.
A bit of polling to start the day and this weeks More in Common which sees a bit of shuffling
Reform 27 (-2)
Lab 23 (+2)
Con 20 (-2)
LD 14 (+1)
Green 9 (=)
SNP 3 (=)
To counter this, we should not trample on freedom and openness. Oddly enough, that is exactly what the hard right want to do. It's almost as though they're working hand-in-glove with out enemies...
https://x.com/DPJHodges/status/1937753231414714857
(((Dan Hodges)))
@DPJHodges
Interesting that 24 hours ago the line was "Iran does not have an active nuclear weapons programme". And this morning the line has become "the US strikes failed. Iran retains a major, active nuclear weapons programme".
I don't expect a parade through the centre of London. The pomp and pageantry will be kept as contained as possible; so long as Trump feels the flatttery, I don't think he'll care about the absence of crowds.
Good morning, everyone.
So either the Pentagon is wrong or Trump is wrong.
We're about to see the mass purge of the Pentagon, aren't we?
134 (Lab rebels plus NI) plus LD plus Green plus Plaid plus SNP plus Magic Grandpas roving band equals 228 - reform will probably switch to defeat the govt and there are payroll MPs waiting to join the rebellion and Khan and Burnham are out and proud opposers now
He wont agree to Kemis terms and his bill is going down and its the beginning of the end of Starmer
It will be interesting to see if PB's Saturday visitors, who we are know are not Russian speakers, turn up again.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JevQvh6Xk7I
It leads to the insidious decline of online conversations. You start off by saying something like: "I'm a bit worried about how immigration is hurting the existing population," and you get a few likes and positive comments.
The statement is fair, and would be said by many on here.
But a few of the replies go a lot further, and those comments also get a lot of likes. They seem popular, and you like engagement, so next you say: "Immigrants are a cause of all our problems." You get many more comments, both pro and against, and loads of likes and engagement. You don't have the time to look at all the accounts to see that they're suspicious; you just bask in the glow of the engagement.
Eventually you end up saying: "Throw out all the Muslims!!!!" and get a slot on GB News or Fox News.
(The same thing can happen on the left as well, hence Owen Jones' existence...)
I'm not his greatest fan, as you know, but she really dislikes him.
(Mrs J loves the British Council. After the had returned from a couple of years in London (then Iran...), she knew a passable amount of English. As a teenager she started going to the British Council library in Ankara, and thinks she read every book in it, including rather non age-appropriate ones. She then did her degree at METU in Ankara, which teaches in English. But much of her knowledge of English culture comes from the British Council during those years. It is an amazing force for promoting out country, the same as the world service.)
In truth, it's all rubbish around propaganda and semantics.
criticsuperfan? (2-minute video):-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfD95SvBxoU
A proper BBC World Service, in lots of languages is very cheap compared with a few new planes for the RAF and could quite reasonably come out of the (cut) development budget.
Apropos of this, another cheap thing is Trump's attack on Iran. Ground invasions cost trillions and don't work. This attack from the air doesn't. and doesn't work any worse than from the ground.
It doesn't leave the US/Israel much choice but to go all in. They've lightly tapped a wasp's nest, and there's no way the Iranians are negotiating now.
I think it's another example of horseshoe politics; when you get to the extremes, left and right become very similar in the way they operate, even if they claim to have different aims.
(And of course the same MPs don't want tax rises, cuts anywhere else, or interest rates rising because of massive state borrowing. What they do want is completely mysterious.)
As always, those wanting (quite legitimately) to protest Trump's visit get it all wrong. Shouting, screaming and chanting mean nothing to him as they don't and shouldn't to political people. Indeed, all the evidence shows moderate opposition is put off by the antics of those exteemely opposed.
Dignified opposition to Trump would be much more effective - I remember when the Japanese Emperor visited, veterans who had been POWs in Japanese-run camps came to the procession and turned their backs on him symbolically, in silence. Imagine if Trump's procession was greeted not by boos and jeers but by absolute silence. That silence would be shown on Fox, Newsmax, OAN and all the other pro-Trump networks and they'd all be frantically trying to explain it.
That kind of dignified protest would be far more effective than all the raucous indignation. It would also show we are a law-abiding, dignified nation not that image constantly put forward by those whose sole aim is to constantly talk down the country.
Winning power and becoming the government has forced some of their leaders to recognise that we are beyond broke, that we are living massively and unsustainably beyond our means and the Tories deserve the lash for their profligacy and irresponsibility, not their meanness. Reality is a bitch.
More in Common sees polling with a Corbyn led socialist party thus.....
Reform 27
Con 20
Labour 20
LD 14
Magic Grandpas magic army 10
Green 5
SNP 2
https://x.com/LukeTryl/status/1937775607263141898?s=19
If you are Tory inclined you should really be supporting it even if not perfectly framed, and the absolute potential mess the country would end up in if Starmer stepped down and Rayner got in as PM in his place is not a great prospect.
So this is one of those times where I have to put my dislike of Starmer to the side and hope that Kemi keeps the politics out of politics.
Frankly, if it goes through only due to Tory support then it still damages Starmer in the long term without the short term dangers.
Saul Staniforth
@SaulStaniforth
"Yesterday you had almost every cabinet minister drafted in by Downing Street to get on the phone or hold meetings with Labour rebels & potential rebels & urge them to back down, to take their names off that wrecking amendment. And the effect is that things have only got worse"
https://x.com/SaulStaniforth/status/1937778130984288754
Stewart’s answer was that the hotels treated them like the scum of the earth so they trashed the hotels.
Clearly oblivious the fact that the hotels judged correctly.
Its just saving money by figuratively tipping people out wheelchairs
As you say, Labour would "lose" three points to a new socialist type party, the Greens would lose four points and the new party would find another three points from those presumably already in the "Other" camp plus a bit of rounding so nothing too significant in truth.
It will be interesting to see if, particularly in London, the various "Independent" groups such as those in Newham and Redbridge coalesce around a single platform for the local elections next year and how many candidates they choose to run and where. As an example, they would need to find 66 candidates (plus presumably a Mayoral candidate) to run a full slate in Newham.
That tells me that, contrary to all of their belligerent rhetoric, they don't actually want a major direct conflict. I think they want a deal.
They're perfectly happy to have proxies get into conflicts on their behalf, of course, but the rhetoric is for internal consumption.
The way the story is being pushed it’s like we’ve popped down to Fighter jets R us and bought them (and of course had to buy a big bag for life to take them home in) and they will be ready to defend us by the weekend.
https://liberalengland.blogspot.com/2025/06/guest-post-councillor-defections.html
Management Summary - 1.26% of elected Conservative Councillors have defected from the party since the local elections in May.
I've met various small groups in recent years where they were baffled that I'm a net contributor to government funds - they didn't seem to have ever encountered such a person before.
What happens with the indies is an interesting question. In terms of Corbyn, I think its getting to the point he's left it too late unless he acts very soon, he'll have no time to build anything and just get bulldozed in May if he delays.
Workers are trying to find and field 1000 candidates in May to corner a small % of the national left wing vote and try and go on to win seats on '29 - Yardley, Hodge Hill, Rochdale, Blackburn look their best bets fwiw
I appreciate the welfare bill burgeoned under the last Government and is unsustainable but paying some hateful private contractor millions each year to throw genuinely helpless people into penury is not good politics.
To be fair, the "reasoned amendment" sounds like another bad day for the can which will get another kicking down the road and it may well be the right thing to do but no Prime Minister is going to walk if an amendment to a bill gets through the Commons.
I'm not even sure how this is the "beginning of the end" for Starmer either. It won't look good but I imagine there will be a couple of trips to the nearest fudge shop and something will back which will be reluctantly accepted.
But it's cheaper than the B, and is less likely to be cancelled / more likely to be upgraded.
And will be more useful if we ever decide to scrap the carriers.
I'd say it will be helicopter here, helicopter there, bit of fluffing, short stopover at Turnberry, then run away back to the land of the formerly free.
Twelve aircraft imply one squadron and no OCU so the crew can be trained in the US fairly easily if expensively.
It's a bit of a kick in the nads for GCAP/Tempest because every quid spent on F-35A is a quid less for that.
Yes if he kicks the can and delays he's not going to fall but is weakened and Kendall probably at least gets moved or sacked if they cant find a way to proceed.
Beginning of the end is if the bill is lost by the amendment passing (reasoned amendments as I say kill the bill dead), his authority will be fatally damaged.
He needs to delay and compromise with the rebels but appears unable to do so.
Edit - 'beginning of the end' btw was a comment by a Labour MP signatory to the amendment that I pinched
European fighters ?
This Government have an immediate problem and the way they have gone about tackling it has been cack-handed and cruel. However, your party set the unsustainable problem in place.