On my second day back at work on Thursday I got a pain in my ribs, but not on the side that I broke them three months ago. I managed the pain with ibuprofen and paracetamol, and managed to get through all four days ending yesterday. I imagined the pain was just a bad side strain
This morning the pain was ten times worse. My painkillers made no difference and breathing more than the shortest shallowest breath was agony. I called my Dad who drove me straight to Great Western Hospital in Swindon. The ECG, X-ray and CT scan seemed to indicate that the pain was just a bad strain, not heart or lung problems, and they were set to give me loads of morphine and send me home to take a week off
Then the blood test results came in. Apparently some inflammation measure and my white blood cell count were both worryingly high. So they’ve insisted I stay overnight so they can pump me full of antibiotics, because it might be sepsis
Unfortunately fourteen hours into my visit they still haven’t found a bed for me
Ugh. Good luck. You’ve been having a rough old year
Ever since the announcement its immediately disappeared from political discussion. Nothing in Starmer's speech, nothing since.
Almost as if he didn’t expect the backlash and now wants the idea to go back in its box.
SKS did respond to the petition, by asserting strongly that ID cards will be introduced. I saw a video clip - or was that faked?
Good morning, everyone.
Yes, he doubled down on his trip to India the other week, saying that the digital ID card over there is an example to follow, while at the offices of InfoSys, the company that runs the scheme and also happens to be the source of those annoying call centres. He further suggested that people who didn’t have to have one for work should embrace getting one voluntarily.
Ever since the announcement its immediately disappeared from political discussion. Nothing in Starmer's speech, nothing since.
Almost as if he didn’t expect the backlash and now wants the idea to go back in its box.
What's the kremlinology? There have been various exits from the Number 10 team. Maybe ID cards was the pet project of someone who has departed.
Do they even have the votes to get it through? I think it would be touch and go, especially if the plan was to use dodgy US corporates.
How much of it is going to need a Parliamentary vote? Plenty of things don't. Right to work checks maybe, but even that may be covered by existing legislation.
On James Orr, for anybody interested Amol Rajan did an excellent, long interview with him on his 'Radical' series (on BBC Sounds), back in July - Orr's support for Reform isn't new. In the same series, as a fascinating contrast, Rajan interviews Ash Sarkar. Rajan is superb at giving the impression that he agrees with them both.
Orr comes across as a terribly reasonable, articulate, intellectual. Personally, however, I found his views pretty scary and, as with much of Reform's thinking, he seems to want to turn the clock back to a nostalgic vision of Britain that never, in truth, existed.
(Hat Tip: Viewcode)
Rear view mirror politics.
"Look at figures like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel and many other billionaire elites, and you see people who are as lost as anyone else. But who are in a position to make decisions about the future.
And in the absence of a future mythos, they are resorting to the past. If there is no vision for a future, then the future will have to be some version of the past. Which is how we end up at fascism.
Elon is still shooting off his vanity rockets, but I think only the most naive people believe that Mars or the Star Trek future are still on the agenda. But with no other compelling options, the Hail Mary of Mars still has PR value.
But Thiel seems to be the major force behind the new facism. Total population control via his Palantir surveillance software. He recently began talking about “revenge” against Woke people…"
Without a better future it’s the reactionary vision of men like Thiel that will win out.
Thiel has done a lecture series about looking for the antichrist. He just needs to look in the mirror. The power behind the most ikely next president of the US.
Ever since the announcement its immediately disappeared from political discussion. Nothing in Starmer's speech, nothing since.
Almost as if he didn’t expect the backlash and now wants the idea to go back in its box.
What's the kremlinology? There have been various exits from the Number 10 team. Maybe ID cards was the pet project of someone who has departed.
Do they even have the votes to get it through? I think it would be touch and go, especially if the plan was to use dodgy US corporates.
How much of it is going to need a Parliamentary vote? Plenty of things don't. Right to work checks maybe, but even that may be covered by existing legislation.
In any case, Labour is sitting on a majority of 170-odd so can afford at least a medium-size rebellion. The questions are, does the Prime Minister feel strongly about it, and given his background in human rights, that is not guaranteed, and secondly, have enough details been nailed down to make introduction practicable in the short to medium term, because there is not much point burning credibility and goodwill merely to establish a slogan.
Rather different figure to 1 in 3, albeit there is a risk of under-reporting in surveys.
I can't find any data beyond that 41% of women undergoing an abortion have had a previous one which goes into how many previous ones they may have had. Logic suggests this won't be merely the second yet absolutely final one for all of them.
1 in 3 is a lifetime figure. Obviously if you are only partway through your reproductive life, the figure will be lower.
New British air defence weapons also arrived in Ukraine last week, made by Thales under a joint project, and aimed at shooting down Shahed drones and similar small flying weapons. https://thedefensepost.com/2025/10/13/uk-missiles-ukraine/
So basically, translating from Kremlin-speak into human language:
Putin wants to be given what he has failed to conquer in 11 years (including nearly 4 years of full-scale war) -- and in return, he’ll promise not to conquer what he’s already written into his constitution as part of Russia, but has also failed to capture after almost 4 years of all-out war.
And this, apparently, is only the condition for a “ceasefire.”
After that, to reach a “peace treaty” and an “ultimate resolution of the Ukrainian question,” Ukraine would need to satisfy his “root causes of the crisis” demands: disarmament and dismantling of its defense forces, no NATO membership, replacing the legitimate Ukrainian government in Kyiv with a pro-Russian puppet one, banning all military aid, and abandoning further reforms, national revival, and alignment with the West... https://x.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1979873368523370734
That would be a suicide note.
And yet. It is less than he was asking for at Alaska. He is responding to the pressure of the attacks on the oil refineries.
If we can at least get Trump to keep the existing sanctions in place, then there's potential for Putin to be forced into a genuine negotiation.
It’s taking time but Putin is slowly moving his long list of demands, as almost every day another Russian oil refinery or storage facility goes up in smoke. At some point he’ll need to negotiate in good faith, although there’s little sign of it so far.
Meanwhile, the Russian autumn offensive has gone nowhere at the cost of many men and materiel, and the reality of war is now obvious to ordinary Russians in the form of queuing and rationing of petrol, which has gone up by 50% in recent weeks. The protest earlier in the week in St. Petersberg was also good to see.
If we take what was happening under Biden and draw a curve (as it were).
Putin will be threatening, non stop, escalations. The on going and increasing cyber attacks, and the drone stuff are probably part of this.
Back when the big Ukrainian offensive had the Russians on the run, for a bit, the rumour was that Putin was threatening to stop it with tactical nuclear weapons. Some say that Xi told him to knock that off.
So we can assume the same threats are being made now.
Oh I’m sure that Putin is threatening WWIII against the US if Ukraine gets Tomahawks, as they’ve been threatening escalation for the past three years.
I suspect that he’s told Trump to put a stop to Ukraine bombing Russia, but that is been done with Ukranian weapons not Western supply.
The cyber attacks and drones around Europe are going to continue anyway, irrespective of the war in Ukraine.
Xi must be laughing at Putin behind the scenes, watching as the world’s biggest army has been almost totallly dismantled in only three years. Xi will be eyeing up what he can take from Russia once the war is over. They don’t even have any tanks left, as they can only make a couple of dozen per month and they last five minutes on the front lines before getting the turret blown off by a drone. The famous tank storage yards now have nothing left in them but scrap metal.
Chinese weapons are very largely based off Soviet technology and doctrine. They are beginning to diverge now and do their own thing, but the bulk of their forces use kit that is often clones of Russian equipment.
The ability of a small nation, allied with the West, to humiliate a larger opponent armed with such weapons, may not be entirely what they are looking for.
In the stuff that counts - electronics, radar; missiles; aircraft; drones; progress towards duplicating SpaceX launch capabilities .. and particularly in manufacturing capacity - China is way ahead of Russia.
Much of the Russian legacy stuff (tanks; armour etc) is of declining importance in the battlefield.
I don't think you can usefully draw direct lessons from one to the other.
(Note that many, if not most of the components for the millions of drones used so far by both sides in Ukraine are of Chinese origin.)
Most of Xi’s giant army is armed with the older copies/derived versions of Soviet equipment. It mirrors the old division class system in the Soviet Army - Class A divisions had the best troops and equipment. Class B was the bulk. Class C was reservists in ancient crap.
Remember when the Ukraine war started, China was still buying Russian kit at a furious rate. Then cancelled big orders for things like KA-52.
Does that particularly matter, though ?
The precise details of armour don't seem hugely to matter, at least compared with the modem kit around them. And for that reason, Ukraine got significantly better results from its old Soviet kit than did the Russians themselves.
Most kills are effected now by drones; the quality (and quantity) of aircraft, radar and missiles determines who controls the skies sufficiently inflict major damage on opponents' front lines.
It means that Xi has an army of tanks that will throw its turrets hundreds of feet into the air when they try for Taiwan. Etc.
It will take time to change from that.
How many tanks from either side do you see on the front line these days ?
Were China actually to invade Taiwan, using them would probably be as much hindrance in terms of logistics as it would help in any fighting.
The biggest reason for Xi to rethink the invasion of Taiwan is the massive advance in marine drones in the last 18-24 months. Ukrainian drone advances have taken their planner back to the drawing board.
He would completely wrong foot the world by offering Taiwan a fraternal friendship and trade deal.
Would expect most drones to include Taiwanese manufactured chips. I wonder if they have included a cut out if used against Taiwan.
Ever since the announcement its immediately disappeared from political discussion. Nothing in Starmer's speech, nothing since.
Almost as if he didn’t expect the backlash and now wants the idea to go back in its box.
What's the kremlinology? There have been various exits from the Number 10 team. Maybe ID cards was the pet project of someone who has departed.
Do they even have the votes to get it through? I think it would be touch and go, especially if the plan was to use dodgy US corporates.
How much of it is going to need a Parliamentary vote? Plenty of things don't. Right to work checks maybe, but even that may be covered by existing legislation.
In any case, Labour is sitting on a majority of 170-odd so can afford at least a medium-size rebellion. The questions are, does the Prime Minister feel strongly about it, and given his background in human rights, that is not guaranteed, and secondly, have enough details been nailed down to make introduction practicable in the short to medium term, because there is not much point burning credibility and goodwill merely to establish a slogan.
The government talk is of an app that shows that you have formally established that you are who you are. No database, and probably doable pretty cheaply. Indeed, quite possibly slapping an English language sticker on some other government's app.
The question in my mind is whether that's what we end up with. At least some of the opposition is about issues like that Have I Got News For You fiasco- things that everyone in the know knows, but just ain't so.
So basically, translating from Kremlin-speak into human language:
Putin wants to be given what he has failed to conquer in 11 years (including nearly 4 years of full-scale war) -- and in return, he’ll promise not to conquer what he’s already written into his constitution as part of Russia, but has also failed to capture after almost 4 years of all-out war.
And this, apparently, is only the condition for a “ceasefire.”
After that, to reach a “peace treaty” and an “ultimate resolution of the Ukrainian question,” Ukraine would need to satisfy his “root causes of the crisis” demands: disarmament and dismantling of its defense forces, no NATO membership, replacing the legitimate Ukrainian government in Kyiv with a pro-Russian puppet one, banning all military aid, and abandoning further reforms, national revival, and alignment with the West... https://x.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1979873368523370734
That would be a suicide note.
And yet. It is less than he was asking for at Alaska. He is responding to the pressure of the attacks on the oil refineries.
If we can at least get Trump to keep the existing sanctions in place, then there's potential for Putin to be forced into a genuine negotiation.
It’s taking time but Putin is slowly moving his long list of demands, as almost every day another Russian oil refinery or storage facility goes up in smoke. At some point he’ll need to negotiate in good faith, although there’s little sign of it so far.
Meanwhile, the Russian autumn offensive has gone nowhere at the cost of many men and materiel, and the reality of war is now obvious to ordinary Russians in the form of queuing and rationing of petrol, which has gone up by 50% in recent weeks. The protest earlier in the week in St. Petersberg was also good to see.
If we take what was happening under Biden and draw a curve (as it were).
Putin will be threatening, non stop, escalations. The on going and increasing cyber attacks, and the drone stuff are probably part of this.
Back when the big Ukrainian offensive had the Russians on the run, for a bit, the rumour was that Putin was threatening to stop it with tactical nuclear weapons. Some say that Xi told him to knock that off.
So we can assume the same threats are being made now.
Oh I’m sure that Putin is threatening WWIII against the US if Ukraine gets Tomahawks, as they’ve been threatening escalation for the past three years.
I suspect that he’s told Trump to put a stop to Ukraine bombing Russia, but that is been done with Ukranian weapons not Western supply.
The cyber attacks and drones around Europe are going to continue anyway, irrespective of the war in Ukraine.
Xi must be laughing at Putin behind the scenes, watching as the world’s biggest army has been almost totallly dismantled in only three years. Xi will be eyeing up what he can take from Russia once the war is over. They don’t even have any tanks left, as they can only make a couple of dozen per month and they last five minutes on the front lines before getting the turret blown off by a drone. The famous tank storage yards now have nothing left in them but scrap metal.
Chinese weapons are very largely based off Soviet technology and doctrine. They are beginning to diverge now and do their own thing, but the bulk of their forces use kit that is often clones of Russian equipment.
The ability of a small nation, allied with the West, to humiliate a larger opponent armed with such weapons, may not be entirely what they are looking for.
In the stuff that counts - electronics, radar; missiles; aircraft; drones; progress towards duplicating SpaceX launch capabilities .. and particularly in manufacturing capacity - China is way ahead of Russia.
Much of the Russian legacy stuff (tanks; armour etc) is of declining importance in the battlefield.
I don't think you can usefully draw direct lessons from one to the other.
(Note that many, if not most of the components for the millions of drones used so far by both sides in Ukraine are of Chinese origin.)
Most of Xi’s giant army is armed with the older copies/derived versions of Soviet equipment. It mirrors the old division class system in the Soviet Army - Class A divisions had the best troops and equipment. Class B was the bulk. Class C was reservists in ancient crap.
Remember when the Ukraine war started, China was still buying Russian kit at a furious rate. Then cancelled big orders for things like KA-52.
Does that particularly matter, though ?
The precise details of armour don't seem hugely to matter, at least compared with the modem kit around them. And for that reason, Ukraine got significantly better results from its old Soviet kit than did the Russians themselves.
Most kills are effected now by drones; the quality (and quantity) of aircraft, radar and missiles determines who controls the skies sufficiently inflict major damage on opponents' front lines.
It means that Xi has an army of tanks that will throw its turrets hundreds of feet into the air when they try for Taiwan. Etc.
It will take time to change from that.
How many tanks from either side do you see on the front line these days ?
Were China actually to invade Taiwan, using them would probably be as much hindrance in terms of logistics as it would help in any fighting.
The biggest reason for Xi to rethink the invasion of Taiwan is the massive advance in marine drones in the last 18-24 months. Ukrainian drone advances have taken their planner back to the drawing board.
He would completely wrong foot the world by offering Taiwan a fraternal friendship and trade deal.
Would expect most drones to include Taiwanese manufactured chips. I wonder if they have included a cut out if used against Taiwan.
I wouldn't expect that.
It's not as though they require cutting edge chips - which wouldn't be cost effective anyway.
They'll certainly containing western tech, but China is quite capable of making everything that goes into them. If anything, it's the other way round, with batteries and motors.
On my second day back at work on Thursday I got a pain in my ribs, but not on the side that I broke them three months ago. I managed the pain with ibuprofen and paracetamol, and managed to get through all four days ending yesterday. I imagined the pain was just a bad side strain
This morning the pain was ten times worse. My painkillers made no difference and breathing more than the shortest shallowest breath was agony. I called my Dad who drove me straight to Great Western Hospital in Swindon. The ECG, X-ray and CT scan seemed to indicate that the pain was just a bad strain, not heart or lung problems, and they were set to give me loads of morphine and send me home to take a week off
Then the blood test results came in. Apparently some inflammation measure and my white blood cell count were both worryingly high. So they’ve insisted I stay overnight so they can pump me full of antibiotics, because it might be sepsis
Unfortunately fourteen hours into my visit they still haven’t found a bed for me
Ugh. Good luck. You’ve been having a rough old year
Sam Freedman on his recent hospital admission. No beds to admit to.
So basically, translating from Kremlin-speak into human language:
Putin wants to be given what he has failed to conquer in 11 years (including nearly 4 years of full-scale war) -- and in return, he’ll promise not to conquer what he’s already written into his constitution as part of Russia, but has also failed to capture after almost 4 years of all-out war.
And this, apparently, is only the condition for a “ceasefire.”
After that, to reach a “peace treaty” and an “ultimate resolution of the Ukrainian question,” Ukraine would need to satisfy his “root causes of the crisis” demands: disarmament and dismantling of its defense forces, no NATO membership, replacing the legitimate Ukrainian government in Kyiv with a pro-Russian puppet one, banning all military aid, and abandoning further reforms, national revival, and alignment with the West... https://x.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1979873368523370734
That would be a suicide note.
And yet. It is less than he was asking for at Alaska. He is responding to the pressure of the attacks on the oil refineries.
If we can at least get Trump to keep the existing sanctions in place, then there's potential for Putin to be forced into a genuine negotiation.
It’s taking time but Putin is slowly moving his long list of demands, as almost every day another Russian oil refinery or storage facility goes up in smoke. At some point he’ll need to negotiate in good faith, although there’s little sign of it so far.
Meanwhile, the Russian autumn offensive has gone nowhere at the cost of many men and materiel, and the reality of war is now obvious to ordinary Russians in the form of queuing and rationing of petrol, which has gone up by 50% in recent weeks. The protest earlier in the week in St. Petersberg was also good to see.
If we take what was happening under Biden and draw a curve (as it were).
Putin will be threatening, non stop, escalations. The on going and increasing cyber attacks, and the drone stuff are probably part of this.
Back when the big Ukrainian offensive had the Russians on the run, for a bit, the rumour was that Putin was threatening to stop it with tactical nuclear weapons. Some say that Xi told him to knock that off.
So we can assume the same threats are being made now.
Oh I’m sure that Putin is threatening WWIII against the US if Ukraine gets Tomahawks, as they’ve been threatening escalation for the past three years.
I suspect that he’s told Trump to put a stop to Ukraine bombing Russia, but that is been done with Ukranian weapons not Western supply.
The cyber attacks and drones around Europe are going to continue anyway, irrespective of the war in Ukraine.
Xi must be laughing at Putin behind the scenes, watching as the world’s biggest army has been almost totallly dismantled in only three years. Xi will be eyeing up what he can take from Russia once the war is over. They don’t even have any tanks left, as they can only make a couple of dozen per month and they last five minutes on the front lines before getting the turret blown off by a drone. The famous tank storage yards now have nothing left in them but scrap metal.
Chinese weapons are very largely based off Soviet technology and doctrine. They are beginning to diverge now and do their own thing, but the bulk of their forces use kit that is often clones of Russian equipment.
The ability of a small nation, allied with the West, to humiliate a larger opponent armed with such weapons, may not be entirely what they are looking for.
In the stuff that counts - electronics, radar; missiles; aircraft; drones; progress towards duplicating SpaceX launch capabilities .. and particularly in manufacturing capacity - China is way ahead of Russia.
Much of the Russian legacy stuff (tanks; armour etc) is of declining importance in the battlefield.
I don't think you can usefully draw direct lessons from one to the other.
(Note that many, if not most of the components for the millions of drones used so far by both sides in Ukraine are of Chinese origin.)
Most of Xi’s giant army is armed with the older copies/derived versions of Soviet equipment. It mirrors the old division class system in the Soviet Army - Class A divisions had the best troops and equipment. Class B was the bulk. Class C was reservists in ancient crap.
Remember when the Ukraine war started, China was still buying Russian kit at a furious rate. Then cancelled big orders for things like KA-52.
Does that particularly matter, though ?
The precise details of armour don't seem hugely to matter, at least compared with the modem kit around them. And for that reason, Ukraine got significantly better results from its old Soviet kit than did the Russians themselves.
Most kills are effected now by drones; the quality (and quantity) of aircraft, radar and missiles determines who controls the skies sufficiently inflict major damage on opponents' front lines.
It means that Xi has an army of tanks that will throw its turrets hundreds of feet into the air when they try for Taiwan. Etc.
It will take time to change from that.
How many tanks from either side do you see on the front line these days ?
Were China actually to invade Taiwan, using them would probably be as much hindrance in terms of logistics as it would help in any fighting.
The biggest reason for Xi to rethink the invasion of Taiwan is the massive advance in marine drones in the last 18-24 months. Ukrainian drone advances have taken their planner back to the drawing board.
He would completely wrong foot the world by offering Taiwan a fraternal friendship and trade deal.
Would expect most drones to include Taiwanese manufactured chips. I wonder if they have included a cut out if used against Taiwan.
The Ukranian marine drones are really scary. If I were Taiwan I’d be looking to buy a few and reverse-engineer them with Taiwanese technology. Perhaps do a deal to send the Taiwanese version back to Ukraine for testing on Russian ships and bridges.
I continue to think the fact that the House Republicans have essentially closed up shop is one of the most consequential, interesting, infuriating, historically bananas things happening right now and I cannot understand why it’s not getting more coverage. Like, first of all, WHY? https://x.com/brianschatz/status/1980086949223288866
New British air defence weapons also arrived in Ukraine last week, made by Thales under a joint project, and aimed at shooting down Shahed drones and similar small flying weapons. https://thedefensepost.com/2025/10/13/uk-missiles-ukraine/
Those air defence missiles are manufactured by Thales in Belfast. One thing that hasn't been discussed in relation to the possibility of Irish unity in the future is what the effect of Ireland inheriting a defence industry would be.
The NLAWs are made up in NI too. I'm not sure what else there is, but there might be a few other things. Those would all move from being domestic production in the UK to being foreign produced from the standpoint of the UK, and produced by a declared neutral country.
On the face of it you'd assume the MoD would want all that defence production shifted to Britain as soon as possible, which would be a disaster for NI in terms of losing skilled manufacturing jobs.
The director-general said personal politics had no place in the Corporation’s news department amid repeated controversy over BBC impartiality.
“You leave it at the door and your religion is journalism at the BBC. And the problem I’ve got is that people react quite chemically to that,” Mr Davie told the Cheltenham Literature Festival.
“So you can’t come into the newsroom with a Black Lives Matter T-shirt.
“We stand absolutely firmly against racism in any form. I find some of the hatred in society at the moment utterly abhorrent, and personally really upsetting.
“But that is a campaign that has politicised objectives, therefore is not appropriate for a journalist who may be covering that issue to be campaigning in that way,” he told an audience at the festival.
“And for some people joining the BBC, that is a very difficult thing to accept.
“I feel very strongly that if you walk into the BBC newsroom you cannot be holding a Kamala Harris mug when you come to the [US] election. No way.”
Ever since the announcement its immediately disappeared from political discussion. Nothing in Starmer's speech, nothing since.
Almost as if he didn’t expect the backlash and now wants the idea to go back in its box.
What's the kremlinology? There have been various exits from the Number 10 team. Maybe ID cards was the pet project of someone who has departed.
Do they even have the votes to get it through? I think it would be touch and go, especially if the plan was to use dodgy US corporates.
How much of it is going to need a Parliamentary vote? Plenty of things don't. Right to work checks maybe, but even that may be covered by existing legislation.
In any case, Labour is sitting on a majority of 170-odd so can afford at least a medium-size rebellion. The questions are, does the Prime Minister feel strongly about it, and given his background in human rights, that is not guaranteed, and secondly, have enough details been nailed down to make introduction practicable in the short to medium term, because there is not much point burning credibility and goodwill merely to establish a slogan.
The government talk is of an app that shows that you have formally established that you who you are. No database, and probably doable pretty cheaply. Indeed, quite possibly slapping an English language sticker on some other government's app.
The question in my mind is whether that's what we end up with. At least some of the opposition is about issues like that Have I Got News For You fiasco- things that everyone in the know knows, but just ain't so.
The disaster/comedy/GDPR breach will be the database behind it.
There is no way to not have a database.
And it is the creeping featurisation effect that is the problem. A list of ids, digital photos and a couple other bits of data is so *boring*. Not like A Proper Government Project. And if you add…
Mind you, the expensive bit will be the data - verifying who you are. Doing it in the style of the passport office would be expensive. Much cheaper* to take the existing databases, complete with duplicates, fraudulent entries etc and use AI** to mash them together for an instant win***
*Actually ends up costing orders of magnitude more than doing it properly. **Because a technology that randomly does complete, confident bullshit is perfect this. ***Win in the sense of the number of Ferraris bought by lawyers at the subsequent Public Enquiry.
I continue to think the fact that the House Republicans have essentially closed up shop is one of the most consequential, interesting, infuriating, historically bananas things happening right now and I cannot understand why it’s not getting more coverage. Like, first of all, WHY? https://x.com/brianschatz/status/1980086949223288866
Suppose Trump declares a budget by Executive Order. I know it's not Constitutional, but when has that stopped him, and who else would stop him?
Most of his existing public support would support him on it, as bypassing the Democrats who they blame for the shutdown. Federal employees will be relieved to return to work and receiving their pay again, even if they believe it to be due to an unconstitutional act.
A lot of low-information voters will simply be relieved that the government is functioning, and probably don't distinguish between the different branches of government that much.
Once SCOTUS dismisses the case against the Executive budget, what else are Democrats going to do?
I guess it solves the problem of what to do about the midterm elections if the House simply never sits again. Though most dictators find it useful to have a legislative assembly to give the facade of democracy.
I would expect the House to return eventually, but it's not 100%.
The director-general said personal politics had no place in the Corporation’s news department amid repeated controversy over BBC impartiality.
“You leave it at the door and your religion is journalism at the BBC. And the problem I’ve got is that people react quite chemically to that,” Mr Davie told the Cheltenham Literature Festival.
“So you can’t come into the newsroom with a Black Lives Matter T-shirt.
“We stand absolutely firmly against racism in any form. I find some of the hatred in society at the moment utterly abhorrent, and personally really upsetting.
“But that is a campaign that has politicised objectives, therefore is not appropriate for a journalist who may be covering that issue to be campaigning in that way,” he told an audience at the festival.
“And for some people joining the BBC, that is a very difficult thing to accept.
“I feel very strongly that if you walk into the BBC newsroom you cannot be holding a Kamala Harris mug when you come to the [US] election. No way.”
Non partisanship and impartiality at the BBC is absolutely appropriate and very much in the spirit of Reithian values, unless of course one is Robbie Gibb, Tim Davie, Mason eulogising Farage after the Reform Conference or Kuennsberg idolising Johnson.
Impartiality is good, so long as it it the right kind of impartiality.
Comments
Good morning, everyone.
https://www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/news/starmer-digital-id-cards-britain-voluntary-b2842104.html
https://x.com/maks_nafo_fella/status/1979990970193019223
New British air defence weapons also arrived in Ukraine last week, made by Thales under a joint project, and aimed at shooting down Shahed drones and similar small flying weapons.
https://thedefensepost.com/2025/10/13/uk-missiles-ukraine/
The question in my mind is whether that's what we end up with. At least some of the opposition is about issues like that Have I Got News For You fiasco- things that everyone in the know knows, but just ain't so.
It's not as though they require cutting edge chips - which wouldn't be cost effective anyway.
They'll certainly containing western tech, but China is quite capable of making everything that goes into them.
If anything, it's the other way round, with batteries and motors.
https://samf.substack.com/p/on-the-edge-5b1?r=72szy&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true
I continue to think the fact that the House Republicans have essentially closed up shop is one of the most consequential, interesting, infuriating, historically bananas things happening right now and I cannot understand why it’s not getting more coverage. Like, first of all, WHY?
https://x.com/brianschatz/status/1980086949223288866
The NLAWs are made up in NI too. I'm not sure what else there is, but there might be a few other things. Those would all move from being domestic production in the UK to being foreign produced from the standpoint of the UK, and produced by a declared neutral country.
On the face of it you'd assume the MoD would want all that defence production shifted to Britain as soon as possible, which would be a disaster for NI in terms of losing skilled manufacturing jobs.
NEW THREAD
“You leave it at the door and your religion is journalism at the BBC. And the problem I’ve got is that people react quite chemically to that,” Mr Davie told the Cheltenham Literature Festival.
“So you can’t come into the newsroom with a Black Lives Matter T-shirt.
“We stand absolutely firmly against racism in any form. I find some of the hatred in society at the moment utterly abhorrent, and personally really upsetting.
“But that is a campaign that has politicised objectives, therefore is not appropriate for a journalist who may be covering that issue to be campaigning in that way,” he told an audience at the festival.
“And for some people joining the BBC, that is a very difficult thing to accept.
“I feel very strongly that if you walk into the BBC newsroom you cannot be holding a Kamala Harris mug when you come to the [US] election. No way.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10/19/black-lives-matter-not-welcome-bbc-newsroom-tim-davie/
There is no way to not have a database.
And it is the creeping featurisation effect that is the problem. A list of ids, digital photos and a couple other bits of data is so *boring*. Not like A Proper Government Project. And if you add…
Mind you, the expensive bit will be the data - verifying who you are. Doing it in the style of the passport office would be expensive. Much cheaper* to take the existing databases, complete with duplicates, fraudulent entries etc and use AI** to mash them together for an instant win***
*Actually ends up costing orders of magnitude more than doing it properly.
**Because a technology that randomly does complete, confident bullshit is perfect this.
***Win in the sense of the number of Ferraris bought by lawyers at the subsequent Public Enquiry.
Most of his existing public support would support him on it, as bypassing the Democrats who they blame for the shutdown. Federal employees will be relieved to return to work and receiving their pay again, even if they believe it to be due to an unconstitutional act.
A lot of low-information voters will simply be relieved that the government is functioning, and probably don't distinguish between the different branches of government that much.
Once SCOTUS dismisses the case against the Executive budget, what else are Democrats going to do?
I guess it solves the problem of what to do about the midterm elections if the House simply never sits again. Though most dictators find it useful to have a legislative assembly to give the facade of democracy.
I would expect the House to return eventually, but it's not 100%.
Impartiality is good, so long as it it the right kind of impartiality.