Not really of course, but it's the first story of it's kind I've stumbled across.
Notably Reform made barely any inroads into Buckinghamshire in 2025, compared to places like Cornwall (where Reform are 3x the Tories, even after losing a handful since the election already).
He was key to Brexit, and so to the weakening of Europe.
Many of these underlying, geostrategic issues have been obvious for years.
Now here we are.
Drop your irrelevant dogma and hobbyhorse.
Brexit ≠ weakening of Europe.
Failure to invest in defence = weakening of Europe.
The UK has stood up for defence as much post-Brexit as pre-Brexit. We have worked with allies as much post-Brexit as pre-Brexit.
Europe chose welfare over national defence and strong borders. In a world of force doctrine and might is right it was a poor choice. Not only has it left us with a huge and unaffordable welfare bill and unbearably high taxes, it's also left us with no realistic way to tell Trump to get fucked.
You can do better than parrot Vance. From a previous thread when someone else tried this on:
"This is a weird meme because, as a percentage of GDP and including social security contributions, the United States is the biggest spender on welfare in the world - 7ppts higher than the UK. Even if you restrict it to pure, direct government expenditure (which isn't a fair comparison because of the complexities of public/private systems across countries), the US isn't far behind the UK (20% v 23%).
The Americans are welfare junkies like the rest of us - and they don't get anywhere near the value that the Nordics do (the happiest countries in the world).
The Poles spend a larger proportion on defence than we do - and are applauded for it - but their welfare spending is even higher. The same goes for Finland, the largest standing reserve and artillery in Europe. The Danes spend more than we do on defence as well. We shouldn't be bullied into copying an American system of governance which is demonstrably shite at all levels and in all aspects, particularly when these excellent alternatives exist."
You still don't seem to realise that it must sum up to 100%.
So its possible for a country to spend more proportionally on both defence and welfare than the UK but less on other things.
Now if you want to increase the proportion of GDP which the UK spends on defence then some other sector will have to fall proportionally.
And if you want to significantly or quickly increase how much the UK spends on defence then the amount spent on other sectors will have to fall in absolute terms not just proportional terms.
Now some of us would suggest that reducing welfare to allow more funding for defence is justifiable.
While others might suggest lower funding for other sectors.
But something will have to lose out in order to increase funding in a different area.
Of course I do. I'm just pointing out that it's possible to have high proportions of GDP on both, as demonstrated by countries like the US, funnily enough.
Nobody has ever said its impossible to have high spending in two different sectors of the economy or that you could simultaneously increase the proportion of GDP spent in more than one sector.
But that high or increased spending will consequently result in lower spending in other sectors of the economy that might otherwise have been the case and that might otherwise be necessary.
Which means that if you want to increase spending in one sector then other sectors will inevitably lose out.
I think it’s wrong to fear Trump’s removal cuz ‘Vance is just as bad.’ JD is smarter, sure. But he’s hugely unpopular. It’d be gold for Dems to have enough Rs finally concede Trump is insane & unfit, then have to ride it out for years w/ a smarmy couchfucker Trump cuck few but Peter Theil support
They really do hate someone who has risen from deprivation.
They don't hate him for his origins. They hate him for being a vile human being.
Hillbilly Elegy is a cry of rage about a class of scots-irish americans blue collar left behind and cast aside. Partly he blames their own descent on a lack of moral fibre but mainly outside forces.
I have no idea what any of that possibly legitimate grievance has to do with just about anything Vance does or supports in Trump 2.0 land.
Middletown lost its steel plant twenty years ago to Chinese competition?
Not really of course, but it's the first story of it's kind I've stumbled across.
Notably Reform made barely any inroads into Buckinghamshire in 2025, compared to places like Cornwall (where Reform are 3x the Tories, even after losing a handful since the election already).
They're right about the low-budget set. I recognised my hairdryer doing duty as a piece of hi-tech instrumentation.
Now the game isn't about attracting subscribers but getting them to remain - attached to the fact that the video version of a podcast both retains audiences (and gives you 2+ hours of watching a week) more than anything else - it's not surprising that the money for drama is slowly disappearing.
Finding series that can be produced on a few sets at a lower cost is the currently the main game in the TV industry.
That type of entertainment isn't my thing any longer, but I wonder whether they're also interested in repeat viewings, as when people buy boxed sets of series (or used to). I didn't realise it at the time, but apparently it had a kind of cult-following, which might make a reboot an attractive commercial prospect.
When we were talking about movies yesterday I pointed out that Sci-fi is created for the cinema as what sold before is likely to see again.
Blakes 7 is actually perfect for an experiment for exactly that reason, you can produce it fairly cheaply and name recognition will get enough people to watch the first episode that you can see if it works and whether word of mouth allows a bigger audience to be built.
Whether people watch it multiple times is unknown but I suspect Science Fiction is the sort of thing people may watch multiple times.
I remember watching the first ever episode of Dr Who. That first episode made such an impact the BBC repeated it the next week. That was probably historic in itself.
You are showing your age in more ways than you think. Even in 1963 the BBC had ways of identifying audience numbers and felt that the lack of audience on November 23rd (i.e. the day after Kennedy's assassination) meant it was worth the BBC showing the first episode again.
If they hadn't I suspect Dr Who wouldn't have had a second series let alone be talked about 60 years later after 2 regenerations.
That's really interesting, thank you. I had no idea - no actual memory of the assassination, indeed. Obviously I know I was alive at the time (and old enough to be watching television!).
I think it’s wrong to fear Trump’s removal cuz ‘Vance is just as bad.’ JD is smarter, sure. But he’s hugely unpopular. It’d be gold for Dems to have enough Rs finally concede Trump is insane & unfit, then have to ride it out for years w/ a smarmy couchfucker Trump cuck few but Peter Theil support
Councillor Kathy Gibbon has joined the Conservatives from Reform handing the Tories control of Bucks County Council. Not earth-shattering but a reminder that political traffic can be two way!
Who will be the first Reform MP to join the Conservatives? (Probably not Jenrick...)
Re-join you mean
They might have been elected directly as a Reform MP.
Even on here people can't perceive the difference between social media and pornography. Grok isn't, and has never claimed to be, social media.
It is however published on Social Media and controlled by X.
One way to get around defining social media is to simply make the publisher as liable as the poster.
Yes, but. Social media is not AI. Nor is AI social media. AI generated content is sometimes published on social media. Porn of both AI and not can appear on both. The under 16's I teach, even many with profound educational needs, are perfectly capable of understanding this distinction. Right now it's like Mary Whitehouse campaigning to ban television altogether.
I've just seen the full Starmer speech and it is much, much better than was reported. However the BBC edit suggests the man is an evil Trump-adjacent traitor, so he has to go!
I think it’s wrong to fear Trump’s removal cuz ‘Vance is just as bad.’ JD is smarter, sure. But he’s hugely unpopular. It’d be gold for Dems to have enough Rs finally concede Trump is insane & unfit, then have to ride it out for years w/ a smarmy couchfucker Trump cuck few but Peter Theil support
Even on here people can't perceive the difference between social media and pornography. Grok isn't, and has never claimed to be, social media.
It is however published on Social Media and controlled by X.
One way to get around defining social media is to simply make the publisher as liable as the poster.
Yes, but. Social media is not AI. Nor is AI social media. AI generated content is sometimes published on social media. The under 16's I teach, even many with profound educational needs, are perfectly capable of understanding this distinction. Right now it's like Mary Whitehouse campaigning to ban television altogether.
While a lot of damage is done with AI on SM, a lot is done outside AI.
Rather than banning access I am proposing to make companies jointly liable for what is published on their platforms. This brings it into line with other forms of print and broadcast media.
Let the courts deal with them and they would soon clean up their act.
Doublethink is a process of indoctrination in which subjects are expected to simultaneously accept two conflicting beliefs as truth, often at odds with their own memory or sense of reality.
Not the first time either.
Tariffs were simultaneously supposed to fully fund public spending and replace imports with domestic production.
To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word—doublethink—involved the use of doublethink.
I've always been annoyed that the genius of Orwell was misused by such low grade entertainment as Big Brother and Room 101.
Nor indeed by those who co-opt him as some kind of right of centre hero.
Its a consequence of Orwell's most popular works being 1984, Animal Farm and, to a lesser extent, Homage to Catalonia.
The works of a leftist who hated what other leftists had done when they were in power.
I think it’s wrong to fear Trump’s removal cuz ‘Vance is just as bad.’ JD is smarter, sure. But he’s hugely unpopular. It’d be gold for Dems to have enough Rs finally concede Trump is insane & unfit, then have to ride it out for years w/ a smarmy couchfucker Trump cuck few but Peter Theil support
Doublethink is a process of indoctrination in which subjects are expected to simultaneously accept two conflicting beliefs as truth, often at odds with their own memory or sense of reality.
Not the first time either.
Tariffs were simultaneously supposed to fully fund public spending and replace imports with domestic production.
To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word—doublethink—involved the use of doublethink.
I've always been annoyed that the genius of Orwell was misused by such low grade entertainment as Big Brother and Room 101.
Nor indeed by those who co-opt him as some kind of right of centre hero.
Its a consequence of Orwell's most popular works being 1984, Animal Farm and, to a lesser extent, Homage to Catalonia.
The works of a leftist who hated what other leftists had done when they were in power.
I think it’s wrong to fear Trump’s removal cuz ‘Vance is just as bad.’ JD is smarter, sure. But he’s hugely unpopular. It’d be gold for Dems to have enough Rs finally concede Trump is insane & unfit, then have to ride it out for years w/ a smarmy couchfucker Trump cuck few but Peter Theil support
Michael Crick @MichaelLCrick · 1h As students we were taught the US Constitution has so many checks & balances that a mad dictatorship could never occur - separation of powers between executive, legislature & judiciary; rule of law; two-yearly elections; free media; term limits & so on. What rubbish that was.
Doublethink is a process of indoctrination in which subjects are expected to simultaneously accept two conflicting beliefs as truth, often at odds with their own memory or sense of reality.
Not the first time either.
Tariffs were simultaneously supposed to fully fund public spending and replace imports with domestic production.
To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word—doublethink—involved the use of doublethink.
I've always been annoyed that the genius of Orwell was misused by such low grade entertainment as Big Brother and Room 101.
Nor indeed by those who co-opt him as some kind of right of centre hero.
Its a consequence of Orwell's most popular works being 1984, Animal Farm and, to a lesser extent, Homage to Catalonia.
The works of a leftist who hated what other leftists had done when they were in power.
His main criticism of Attlee was timidity.
I think that's unfair on Atlee.
He got a lot done despite resources being extremely restricted.
And Atlee's policies have proven long lasting and pretty durable.
I think it’s wrong to fear Trump’s removal cuz ‘Vance is just as bad.’ JD is smarter, sure. But he’s hugely unpopular. It’d be gold for Dems to have enough Rs finally concede Trump is insane & unfit, then have to ride it out for years w/ a smarmy couchfucker Trump cuck few but Peter Theil support
They really do hate someone who has risen from deprivation.
They don't hate him for his origins. They hate him for being a vile human being.
Do they ?
So why the 'couchfucker' ?
Because its just an updated slur of hillbillies shagging their sisters and marrying their cousins.
Vance should be criticised for his opinions, not his upbringing.
Vance is mainly criticised for his inconsistency. From a "never Trumper" to a venal sycophant. All in the quest for self aggrandisement and personal power.
Michael Crick @MichaelLCrick · 1h As students we were taught the US Constitution has so many checks & balances that a mad dictatorship could never occur - separation of powers between executive, legislature & judiciary; rule of law; two-yearly elections; free media; term limits & so on. What rubbish that was.
I think it’s wrong to fear Trump’s removal cuz ‘Vance is just as bad.’ JD is smarter, sure. But he’s hugely unpopular. It’d be gold for Dems to have enough Rs finally concede Trump is insane & unfit, then have to ride it out for years w/ a smarmy couchfucker Trump cuck few but Peter Theil support
They really do hate someone who has risen from deprivation.
They don't hate him for his origins. They hate him for being a vile human being.
Hillbilly Elegy is a cry of rage about a class of scots-irish americans blue collar left behind and cast aside. Partly he blames their own descent on a lack of moral fibre but mainly outside forces.
I have no idea what any of that possibly legitimate grievance has to do with just about anything Vance does or supports in Trump 2.0 land.
Middletown lost its steel plant twenty years ago to Chinese competition?
Fuck let's invade Greenland.
If the motivation is wanting to drive a wedge between the USA and Europe, then randomly threatening war is a good way to do it, as not much else can cause more than some grumbling.
As a thought experiment, what would it look like if we applied the Trump approach?
I guess we’d invade Ireland, lock up all Scot Nats, and retake Cyprus?
All militarily feasible. All inconceivable.
Inconceivable presently, but considered existential necessities in the past.
If you think about Britain now, the facts that Ireland is part of another local power (the EU) and is sponsored by a dominant global power (the US), and the fact that Wales and Scotland are riven by separatism, are evidence of our decline.
I think the fact we are out of the EU and Wales and Scotland are riven by separatism is more a symptom of the rising nationalism across most of the world rather than something unique to the UK
Yes, there's something in that, but two things can be true at once. Nationalism was rising in the 19th century too, but we didn't see it rising in Wales and Scotland (though it always existed) because Britain was doing well. These are diseases on the body politic. Diseases don't tend affect a healthy body, but they run riot with a weak one.
We are wealthier per capita than we were then, even if we no longer have an Empire
I don't think that is true - what metric are you using? And I'm not talking about the Empire, that was always fairly revenue neutral, but being the world's pre-eminent industrial power.
The average resident of Britain is unquestionably richer than 100 years ago, even if we no longer have an Empire or are the pre eminent world power
Doublethink is a process of indoctrination in which subjects are expected to simultaneously accept two conflicting beliefs as truth, often at odds with their own memory or sense of reality.
Not the first time either.
Tariffs were simultaneously supposed to fully fund public spending and replace imports with domestic production.
To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word—doublethink—involved the use of doublethink.
I've always been annoyed that the genius of Orwell was misused by such low grade entertainment as Big Brother and Room 101.
Nor indeed by those who co-opt him as some kind of right of centre hero.
Its a consequence of Orwell's most popular works being 1984, Animal Farm and, to a lesser extent, Homage to Catalonia.
The works of a leftist who hated what other leftists had done when they were in power.
His main criticism of Attlee was timidity.
I think that's unfair on Atlee.
He got a lot done despite resources being extremely restricted.
And Atlee's policies have proven long lasting and pretty durable.
Me too. I'm just channeling Orwell the darling of the Right
Government to consult on under 16 social media ban
Plus
Crackdown on mobile phones in schools
Who do you vote for that doesn't support such an outrageous policy? 🧐🥴
Have you young children ?
What is outrageous is damaging young lives by using and accessing inappropriate sites
It is a matter for parents, not the state.
It is for both
At what age are you saying it’s not a danger and sites are not inappropriate?
When a child becomes an adult at 18
Firstly, If you want to credit the introduction of this policy to LOTO Badenoch, that sounds right to me, as it fits in as glib and stupid as all her other thinking - it’s virtually same as Badenoch’s other policy fail, no attempt to reform or improve or update ECHR, just abandon it.
In my mind, children, right from young ages, should have access to the web for learning and communication, and many parents will agree with me. There is no way you can police this parenting, or stop these sensible parents. All the Australian style u-16 internet ban amounts to is a ban on companies allowing under 16’s accounts - that is the only way it’s enforceable.
At this point the ban is wrong, embarrassing, knee jerk policy making of the worse kind. At this point the focus should be on making addictive "click-bait" algorithms illegal and forcing platforms to change them. children should be better protected from algorithms designed to hook them, so smart parents and politicians will be calling for “limited" devices that allow access to helpful, non-addictive content, while blocking social media platforms with the harmful, addictive or predatory algorithms.
So it’s up to good parenting and bad parenting at the end of the day. Good parents will ask what good things will be lost to my children? And have we tried everything else first, before reaching for draconian blanket bans thus losing what will be lost. So it will create two tiers - those kids who get ahead of the others with their access to the internet for learning and communication, and those who get left behind because the dum parents go along with the ban.
If we agree children should be better protected from algorithms designed to hook them, here’s the kicker - at what point in someone’s life are those bad algorithms healthy for people of any age? You said 18 when people become adults - what have they got at 18 and 118 that helps make it not a problem anymore? The only way Badenoch and Starmer should consider getting involved, is asking have we tried everything else on what is bad first, before reaching for draconian blanket bans and losing an awful lot that is good, from policy and action that’s too restrictive.
I think it’s wrong to fear Trump’s removal cuz ‘Vance is just as bad.’ JD is smarter, sure. But he’s hugely unpopular. It’d be gold for Dems to have enough Rs finally concede Trump is insane & unfit, then have to ride it out for years w/ a smarmy couchfucker Trump cuck few but Peter Theil support
They really do hate someone who has risen from deprivation.
They don't hate him for his origins. They hate him for being a vile human being.
Do they ?
So why the 'couchfucker' ?
Because its just an updated slur of hillbillies shagging their sisters and marrying their cousins.
Vance should be criticised for his opinions, not his upbringing.
Vance is mainly criticised for his inconsistency. From a "never Trumper" to a venal sycophant. All in the quest for self aggrandisement and personal power.
Its also because Vance's self-serving political journey has been successful.
And now he's VP and plotting when he should try to remove Trump.
Compare with the likes of Turd Cruz, who have been humiliated by Trump without gaining anything but are ever more sycophantic.
Michael Crick @MichaelLCrick · 1h As students we were taught the US Constitution has so many checks & balances that a mad dictatorship could never occur - separation of powers between executive, legislature & judiciary; rule of law; two-yearly elections; free media; term limits & so on. What rubbish that was.
Michael Crick @MichaelLCrick · 1h As students we were taught the US Constitution has so many checks & balances that a mad dictatorship could never occur - separation of powers between executive, legislature & judiciary; rule of law; two-yearly elections; free media; term limits & so on. What rubbish that was.
I think it’s wrong to fear Trump’s removal cuz ‘Vance is just as bad.’ JD is smarter, sure. But he’s hugely unpopular. It’d be gold for Dems to have enough Rs finally concede Trump is insane & unfit, then have to ride it out for years w/ a smarmy couchfucker Trump cuck few but Peter Theil support
Absolutely laughable Newsnight where they attempted to suggest Trump has genuine security concerns over Greenland and there’s some landing zone which can be reached .
The same Trump that’s so concerned about Russia he’s invited them to join his sham Gaza board of peace .
Michael Crick @MichaelLCrick · 1h As students we were taught the US Constitution has so many checks & balances that a mad dictatorship could never occur - separation of powers between executive, legislature & judiciary; rule of law; two-yearly elections; free media; term limits & so on. What rubbish that was.
Edit: It is only rubbish because try as they might the Founders could not see the utter black depths of the lack of honour, shame and decency that lawmakers in one party can scrape.
I think it’s wrong to fear Trump’s removal cuz ‘Vance is just as bad.’ JD is smarter, sure. But he’s hugely unpopular. It’d be gold for Dems to have enough Rs finally concede Trump is insane & unfit, then have to ride it out for years w/ a smarmy couchfucker Trump cuck few but Peter Theil support
They really do hate someone who has risen from deprivation.
They don't hate him for his origins. They hate him for being a vile human being.
Do they ?
So why the 'couchfucker' ?
Because its just an updated slur of hillbillies shagging their sisters and marrying their cousins.
Vance should be criticised for his opinions, not his upbringing.
Vance is mainly criticised for his inconsistency. From a "never Trumper" to a venal sycophant. All in the quest for self aggrandisement and personal power.
More interesting is that it worked. Many a person has given in and, sincerely or not, gone over fully to Trump, but he has a long memory for grudges when he wants, and has plenty of sycophants with no history of having attacked him to choose from rather than pick people who slighted him once. He obviously saw something in Vance (and to a less extent Rubio).
I think it’s wrong to fear Trump’s removal cuz ‘Vance is just as bad.’ JD is smarter, sure. But he’s hugely unpopular. It’d be gold for Dems to have enough Rs finally concede Trump is insane & unfit, then have to ride it out for years w/ a smarmy couchfucker Trump cuck few but Peter Theil support
He was key to Brexit, and so to the weakening of Europe.
Many of these underlying, geostrategic issues have been obvious for years.
Now here we are.
Drop your irrelevant dogma and hobbyhorse.
Brexit ≠ weakening of Europe.
Failure to invest in defence = weakening of Europe.
The UK has stood up for defence as much post-Brexit as pre-Brexit. We have worked with allies as much post-Brexit as pre-Brexit.
Europe chose welfare over national defence and strong borders. In a world of force doctrine and might is right it was a poor choice. Not only has it left us with a huge and unaffordable welfare bill and unbearably high taxes, it's also left us with no realistic way to tell Trump to get fucked.
You can do better than parrot Vance. From a previous thread when someone else tried this on:
"This is a weird meme because, as a percentage of GDP and including social security contributions, the United States is the biggest spender on welfare in the world - 7ppts higher than the UK. Even if you restrict it to pure, direct government expenditure (which isn't a fair comparison because of the complexities of public/private systems across countries), the US isn't far behind the UK (20% v 23%).
The Americans are welfare junkies like the rest of us - and they don't get anywhere near the value that the Nordics do (the happiest countries in the world).
The Poles spend a larger proportion on defence than we do - and are applauded for it - but their welfare spending is even higher. The same goes for Finland, the largest standing reserve and artillery in Europe. The Danes spend more than we do on defence as well. We shouldn't be bullied into copying an American system of governance which is demonstrably shite at all levels and in all aspects, particularly when these excellent alternatives exist."
You still don't seem to realise that it must sum up to 100%.
So its possible for a country to spend more proportionally on both defence and welfare than the UK but less on other things.
Now if you want to increase the proportion of GDP which the UK spends on defence then some other sector will have to fall proportionally.
And if you want to significantly or quickly increase how much the UK spends on defence then the amount spent on other sectors will have to fall in absolute terms not just proportional terms.
Now some of us would suggest that reducing welfare to allow more funding for defence is justifiable.
While others might suggest lower funding for other sectors.
But something will have to lose out in order to increase funding in a different area.
It's always complicated comparing the US with the UK (and other European countries), because so much of US spending is done at the State level. Total Federal spending on education is de minimis, while at the State level it's massive.
That's the problem with comparing like for like when it comes to countries - various bits of money (literally anything other than defence and foreign relations) is spent at different levels. And working out the average rate of total tax a citizen pays is utterly impossible.
Can we add to that the type of devolved power, elections and understanding of democracy can be very different too?
Michael Crick @MichaelLCrick · 1h As students we were taught the US Constitution has so many checks & balances that a mad dictatorship could never occur - separation of powers between executive, legislature & judiciary; rule of law; two-yearly elections; free media; term limits & so on. What rubbish that was.
Edit: It is only rubbish because try as they might the Founders could not see the utter black depths of the lack of honour, shame and decency that lawmakers in one party can scrape.
Nah. It's because of an Enlightenment belief in the rationality of humans. And the knowability of Objective Truth. We've been blindsided by this for Centuries. We prefer the feelz. Always have done.
Absolutely laughable Newsnight where they attempted to suggest Trump has genuine security concerns over Greenland and there’s some landing zone which can be reached .
The same Trump that’s so concerned about Russia he’s invited them to join his sham Gaza board of peace .
The BBC is terrified of saying bad things about Trump because of a fear of legal action.
Government to consult on under 16 social media ban
Plus
Crackdown on mobile phones in schools
Who do you vote for that doesn't support such an outrageous policy? 🧐🥴
Have you young children ?
What is outrageous is damaging young lives by using and accessing inappropriate sites
It is a matter for parents, not the state.
It is for both
At what age are you saying it’s not a danger and sites are not inappropriate?
When a child becomes an adult at 18
Firstly, If you want to credit the introduction of this policy to LOTO Badenoch, that sounds right to me, as it fits in as glib and stupid as all her other thinking - it’s virtually same as Badenoch’s other policy fail, no attempt to reform or improve or update ECHR, just abandon it.
In my mind, children, right from young ages, should have access to the web for learning and communication, and many parents will agree with me. There is no way you can police this parenting, or stop these sensible parents. All the Australian style u-16 internet ban amounts to is a ban on companies allowing under 16’s accounts - that is the only way it’s enforceable.
At this point the ban is wrong, embarrassing, knee jerk policy making of the worse kind. At this point the focus should be on making addictive "click-bait" algorithms illegal and forcing platforms to change them. children should be better protected from algorithms designed to hook them, so smart parents and politicians will be calling for “limited" devices that allow access to helpful, non-addictive content, while blocking social media platforms with the harmful, addictive or predatory algorithms.
So it’s up to good parenting and bad parenting at the end of the day. Good parents will ask what good things will be lost to my children? And have we tried everything else first, before reaching for draconian blanket bans thus losing what will be lost. So it will create two tiers - those kids who get ahead of the others with their access to the internet for learning and communication, and those who get left behind because the dum parents go along with the ban.
If we agree children should be better protected from algorithms designed to hook them, here’s the kicker - at what point in someone’s life are those bad algorithms healthy for people of any age? You said 18 when people become adults - what have they got at 18 and 118 that helps make it not a problem anymore? The only way Badenoch and Starmer should consider getting involved, is asking have we tried everything else on what is bad first, before reaching for draconian blanket bans and losing an awful lot that is good, from policy and action that’s too restrictive.
Teach kids the right way and you can introduce them pretty much anything in a way which is helpful not harmful, rather than treating every bad thing as some never to be crossed, if arbitrarily designated, line.
Kids don't like being patronised just like anyone else.
Not suggesting there's no downsides or that that is always easy, there's no approaches that work 100% of the time, but with the right assistance I think we can trust children and young people more than we do, they are tougher than they, or many, think.
I will continue to assert that the biggest danger of social media is to the over 60's (many of whom credulously believe it all) not the under 16's (who have grown up with it).
You can instantly see the clear divide on PB can’t you on this policy. Before they even post you can guess who the unanalytical thinkers are, who would instantly think going straight for draconian bans is good idea.
Absolutely laughable Newsnight where they attempted to suggest Trump has genuine security concerns over Greenland and there’s some landing zone which can be reached .
The same Trump that’s so concerned about Russia he’s invited them to join his sham Gaza board of peace .
The BBC is terrified of saying bad things about Trump because of a fear of legal action.
Lawfare works, even when it doesn't, if you follow me.
Michael Crick @MichaelLCrick · 1h As students we were taught the US Constitution has so many checks & balances that a mad dictatorship could never occur - separation of powers between executive, legislature & judiciary; rule of law; two-yearly elections; free media; term limits & so on. What rubbish that was.
Edit: It is only rubbish because try as they might the Founders could not see the utter black depths of the lack of honour, shame and decency that lawmakers in one party can scrape.
Nah. It's because of an Enlightenment belief in the rationality of humans. And the knowability of Objective Truth. We've been blindsided by this for Centuries. We prefer the feelz. Always have done.
Not a bad run in fairness.
I'm fairly positive about human nature, but we also have great capacity to be negative, and our resilience can actually make us get too used to that, which is why a rational, positive outlook takes more work than people who are over positive about the 'natural' human inclinations think.
Absolutely laughable Newsnight where they attempted to suggest Trump has genuine security concerns over Greenland and there’s some landing zone which can be reached .
The same Trump that’s so concerned about Russia he’s invited them to join his sham Gaza board of peace .
The BBC is terrified of saying bad things about Trump because of a fear of legal action.
Not entirely. They've been sanewashing Trump most of the time, as much as everyone else has, for ages.
Still, on that score some new evidence...
A hitherto unreleased letter reveals that Donald Trump's multi-billion dollar lawsuit against the BBC is all down to him not getting a Blue Peter badge in 1978. https://x.com/Nevfountain/status/2013257986257400296
As a thought experiment, what would it look like if we applied the Trump approach?
I guess we’d invade Ireland, lock up all Scot Nats, and retake Cyprus?
All militarily feasible. All inconceivable.
Inconceivable presently, but considered existential necessities in the past.
If you think about Britain now, the facts that Ireland is part of another local power (the EU) and is sponsored by a dominant global power (the US), and the fact that Wales and Scotland are riven by separatism, are evidence of our decline.
I think the fact we are out of the EU and Wales and Scotland are riven by separatism is more a symptom of the rising nationalism across most of the world rather than something unique to the UK
Yes, there's something in that, but two things can be true at once. Nationalism was rising in the 19th century too, but we didn't see it rising in Wales and Scotland (though it always existed) because Britain was doing well. These are diseases on the body politic. Diseases don't tend affect a healthy body, but they run riot with a weak one.
We are wealthier per capita than we were then, even if we no longer have an Empire
I don't think that is true - what metric are you using? And I'm not talking about the Empire, that was always fairly revenue neutral, but being the world's pre-eminent industrial power.
The average resident of Britain is unquestionably richer than 100 years ago, even if we no longer have an Empire or are the pre eminent world power
But at no point did the media admit we were getting richer.
Government to consult on under 16 social media ban
Plus
Crackdown on mobile phones in schools
Who do you vote for that doesn't support such an outrageous policy? 🧐🥴
Have you young children ?
What is outrageous is damaging young lives by using and accessing inappropriate sites
It is a matter for parents, not the state.
It is for both
At what age are you saying it’s not a danger and sites are not inappropriate?
When a child becomes an adult at 18
Firstly, If you want to credit the introduction of this policy to LOTO Badenoch, that sounds right to me, as it fits in as glib and stupid as all her other thinking - it’s virtually same as Badenoch’s other policy fail, no attempt to reform or improve or update ECHR, just abandon it.
In my mind, children, right from young ages, should have access to the web for learning and communication, and many parents will agree with me. There is no way you can police this parenting, or stop these sensible parents. All the Australian style u-16 internet ban amounts to is a ban on companies allowing under 16’s accounts - that is the only way it’s enforceable.
At this point the ban is wrong, embarrassing, knee jerk policy making of the worse kind. At this point the focus should be on making addictive "click-bait" algorithms illegal and forcing platforms to change them. children should be better protected from algorithms designed to hook them, so smart parents and politicians will be calling for “limited" devices that allow access to helpful, non-addictive content, while blocking social media platforms with the harmful, addictive or predatory algorithms.
So it’s up to good parenting and bad parenting at the end of the day. Good parents will ask what good things will be lost to my children? And have we tried everything else first, before reaching for draconian blanket bans thus losing what will be lost. So it will create two tiers - those kids who get ahead of the others with their access to the internet for learning and communication, and those who get left behind because the dum parents go along with the ban.
If we agree children should be better protected from algorithms designed to hook them, here’s the kicker - at what point in someone’s life are those bad algorithms healthy for people of any age? You said 18 when people become adults - what have they got at 18 and 118 that helps make it not a problem anymore? The only way Badenoch and Starmer should consider getting involved, is asking have we tried everything else on what is bad first, before reaching for draconian blanket bans and losing an awful lot that is good, from policy and action that’s too restrictive.
Both my children have had real problems with their children becoming immersed in it at the exclusion of anything else and they very much support both a school ban and restrictions on social media
This will be a popular policy amongst parents and mental health experts
As a matter of interest have you had any experience with young children and their phone use,?
From the source that had the Rosindell story first
EXCLUSIVE: Five Conservative MPs have formally opened discussions with Nigel Farage about defecting to Reform UK, including former Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
As revealed tonight on Dan Wootton Outspoken, five Conservative MPs contacted Nigel Farage over the weekend to negotiate a potential defection to Reform UK. The most prominent figure among them is former Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
While Zia Yusuf and Nigel Farage have publicly stated that the party will not accept any further Tory defections after 7 May, it can also be revealed that Reform UK remains willing to welcome as many Conservative defectors as possible — even if that means extending beyond the previously announced deadline.
Suella Braverman has been considering a move to Reform UK for several months. However, the recent defections of Andrew Rosindell and Robert Jenrick have significantly increased her inclination to make the switch.
I don't really understand this 'open discussion' business. What private conversations would tip the balance for someone teetering on the edge of defection, that is not known information already?
It’s an hour later and I’m actually surprised it’s only 5 MPs - Kemi is doing well if she only loses 8% of her party to Nigel - and I suspect all of th are on the rightmost wing of the party (I.e. those HYUFD loves, and I would prefer to not be an MP).
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4grwjvppr8o.amp Parts of south-west England have been treated to a dazzling display of the Northern Lights. The lights, or Aurora Borealis, are the result of solar eruptions sending particles towards Earth and the subsequent interaction of those particles with the Earth's atmosphere. A coronal mass ejection (CME), a large eruption of charged matter from the Sun, left the Sun on Sunday, the Met Office said. It said the CME was likely "to bring aurora across Scotland, Northern Ireland, northern England, and potentially further south"..
As a thought experiment, what would it look like if we applied the Trump approach?
I guess we’d invade Ireland, lock up all Scot Nats, and retake Cyprus?
All militarily feasible. All inconceivable.
Inconceivable presently, but considered existential necessities in the past.
If you think about Britain now, the facts that Ireland is part of another local power (the EU) and is sponsored by a dominant global power (the US), and the fact that Wales and Scotland are riven by separatism, are evidence of our decline.
I think the fact we are out of the EU and Wales and Scotland are riven by separatism is more a symptom of the rising nationalism across most of the world rather than something unique to the UK
Yes, there's something in that, but two things can be true at once. Nationalism was rising in the 19th century too, but we didn't see it rising in Wales and Scotland (though it always existed) because Britain was doing well. These are diseases on the body politic. Diseases don't tend affect a healthy body, but they run riot with a weak one.
We are wealthier per capita than we were then, even if we no longer have an Empire
I don't think that is true - what metric are you using? And I'm not talking about the Empire, that was always fairly revenue neutral, but being the world's pre-eminent industrial power.
The average resident of Britain is unquestionably richer than 100 years ago, even if we no longer have an Empire or are the pre eminent world power
But at no point did the media admit we were getting richer.
The fact we are richer is obvious if you look back at your childhood but not if you look back 5 years.
For instance I know I’m poorer than 10 years ago - the contract I signed last week is £100 a day less than I got in 2016 and the agent who got me the current contract is the same one who got me the 2016 one.
However last week I paid for a meal for 8 people and didn’t worry paying but my parents at my age couldn’t do that and their jobs are/ were very similar to mine and my wife’s.
From the source that had the Rosindell story first
EXCLUSIVE: Five Conservative MPs have formally opened discussions with Nigel Farage about defecting to Reform UK, including former Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
As revealed tonight on Dan Wootton Outspoken, five Conservative MPs contacted Nigel Farage over the weekend to negotiate a potential defection to Reform UK. The most prominent figure among them is former Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
While Zia Yusuf and Nigel Farage have publicly stated that the party will not accept any further Tory defections after 7 May, it can also be revealed that Reform UK remains willing to welcome as many Conservative defectors as possible — even if that means extending beyond the previously announced deadline.
Suella Braverman has been considering a move to Reform UK for several months. However, the recent defections of Andrew Rosindell and Robert Jenrick have significantly increased her inclination to make the switch.
I don't really understand this 'open discussion' business. What private conversations would tip the balance for someone teetering on the edge of defection, that is not known information already?
It’s an hour later and I’m actually surprised it’s only 5 MPs - Kemi is doing well if she only loses 8% of her party to Nigel - and I suspect all of th are on the rightmost wing of the party (I.e. those HYUFD loves, and I would prefer to not be an MP).
Survivable, perhaps, if they replace that wing of support with a larger influx of voters pleased to see them go.
But I'm not sure the right/centre-right voting bloc has enough in it to sustain two large parties (rather than one small and one large), and one faction is more exciting than the other.
As a thought experiment, what would it look like if we applied the Trump approach?
I guess we’d invade Ireland, lock up all Scot Nats, and retake Cyprus?
All militarily feasible. All inconceivable.
Inconceivable presently, but considered existential necessities in the past.
If you think about Britain now, the facts that Ireland is part of another local power (the EU) and is sponsored by a dominant global power (the US), and the fact that Wales and Scotland are riven by separatism, are evidence of our decline.
I think the fact we are out of the EU and Wales and Scotland are riven by separatism is more a symptom of the rising nationalism across most of the world rather than something unique to the UK
Yes, there's something in that, but two things can be true at once. Nationalism was rising in the 19th century too, but we didn't see it rising in Wales and Scotland (though it always existed) because Britain was doing well. These are diseases on the body politic. Diseases don't tend affect a healthy body, but they run riot with a weak one.
We are wealthier per capita than we were then, even if we no longer have an Empire
I don't think that is true - what metric are you using? And I'm not talking about the Empire, that was always fairly revenue neutral, but being the world's pre-eminent industrial power.
The average resident of Britain is unquestionably richer than 100 years ago, even if we no longer have an Empire or are the pre eminent world power
But at no point did the media admit we were getting richer.
The fact we are richer is obvious if you look back at your childhood but not if you look back 5 years.
For instance I know I’m poorer than 10 years ago - the contract I signed last week is £100 a day less than I got in 2016 and the agent who got me the current contract is the same one who got me the 2016 one.
However last week I paid for a meal for 8 people and didn’t worry paying but my parents at my age couldn’t do that and their jobs are/ were very similar to mine and my wife’s.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4grwjvppr8o.amp Parts of south-west England have been treated to a dazzling display of the Northern Lights. The lights, or Aurora Borealis, are the result of solar eruptions sending particles towards Earth and the subsequent interaction of those particles with the Earth's atmosphere. A coronal mass ejection (CME), a large eruption of charged matter from the Sun, left the Sun on Sunday, the Met Office said. It said the CME was likely "to bring aurora across Scotland, Northern Ireland, northern England, and potentially further south"..
Overhead here (N Scotland). Just cleared after freezing rain earlier
A key Trump-Putin talking point is that Russia is fucking massive and full of people and wins wars and will win again and europe is finished.
Despite failing to make much progress in Ukraine.
The kill ratio in recent weeks has been of the order of Ukraine 1:27 Russia. This, together with the come end of Kadyrovtsi rule in Chenchnya is going to put even more pressure on the Putin regime. Indeed it is Trump that is giving the Siloviki enough hope to ensure they wont agree any deal. That together with the utter incompetence of thecUS response to the crackdown has given America defeat when they could have seen off their enemies in both Rissia and Iran. Instead Trump is destroying NATO and leading his economy towards a meltdown that will make the GFC look mild. The massive damage he has already caused to Europe should not be forgotten. So if Bessent thinks the EU should avoid responding to the outrageous threats he is going to be disappointed. The debt sword of Damocles is getting more dangerous by the minute.
I will continue to assert that the biggest danger of social media is to the over 60's (many of whom credulously believe it all) not the under 16's (who have grown up with it).
I've seen quite a few younger parents posting online their support towards a ban on social media for under 16s. Without any mention of who it was who gave the kids phones in the first place
One thing, Labour can forget trying to dump Starmer now in the middle of the biggest foreign policy crisis since at least the Falklands.
You do know that in the Second World War, a previous foreign policy crisis, we changed Prime Ministers from the Conservative Neville Chamberlain at the beginning of the war, to Labour's Clement Attlee at the end of hostilities, with some sort of coalition in between?
"...the almost five hundred West Indians who arrived on the HMT Empire Windrush in June 1948 were technically uninvited, and the legislation that would formally grant them and all other colonial subjects British citizenship, the British Nationality Act, was then still over a month away from receiving royal assent..."
This is bass-ackwards. Colonial subjects were already British, because at that time it referred to an Imperial concept, not a country one. Successive nationality acts between then and the 70/80s rewrote the concept to refer to just the British realm (the UK plus the Crown Dependencies) not the British Empire. If you have time, look at pictures of passports from the 40's and the words at the top are "British Passport"
"...the almost five hundred West Indians who arrived on the HMT Empire Windrush in June 1948 were technically uninvited, and the legislation that would formally grant them and all other colonial subjects British citizenship, the British Nationality Act, was then still over a month away from receiving royal assent..."
This is bass-ackwards. Colonial subjects were already British, because at that time it referred to an Imperial concept, not a country one. Successive nationality acts between then and the 70/80s rewrote the concept to refer to just the British realm (the UK plus the Crown Dependencies) not the British Empire. If you have time, look at pictures of passports from the 40's and the words at the top are "British Passport"
Some observations about Robert Jenrick's damage limitation media round this morning, it did not go well... His behaviour towards some difficult questioning from Kate McCann was another political car crash that only enforced the impression he had already created with his interactions with Camilla Tominey at the press conference a few days before. he is certainly not winning over the vital female political journalist vote with his behaviour which arrogantly dismissed their concerns!
And then he thought it was a really good idea to attend and speak at a victory Reform rally in his own constituency after making it clear he did not intend to stand down and call a by-election there where he could stand as a Reform candidate despite only being elected as Conservative MP there eighteen months ago?! The optics of this looked not only terrible, but very arrogant! Who the hell is advising him because its not anyone who is any way political astute enough to have his back in his future leadership ambitions in his new party or his own constituency at the next GE. They are not certainly not showing any concern for making sure he is going to be electable again there anytime soon in that seat.
I am cynical enough to believe that this personally ambitious political idiot having stupidly burnt his bridges in the Conservative party as a key senior player in a robustly collective democratic party is now being advised by Reform spads who don't have his personal ambitions as the heir to Farage as their main concern but rather see him as the latest useful idiot to create a good headline for Farage and his latest political press conference..
I am going to make a prediction, I genuinely believe that Robert Jenrick didn't just leave the Conservative party this weekend, he also blew up his long term political career. If he had got behind Kemi Badenoch he could have been a key player in her team that saw the Conservatives being elected again and with a say in their manifesto rather than being the latest Farage mini me... (by the way Robert, if you have been in any doubt over the years you will have worked out by now that Kemi's surname is simple pronounced Bade-noch despite others who don't know her and continue to be lazy and not bother to get it!!) And I should know having grown up in the Badenoch and Strathspey local ward!!
A key Trump-Putin talking point is that Russia is fucking massive and full of people and wins wars and will win again and europe is finished.
Despite failing to make much progress in Ukraine.
The kill ratio in recent weeks has been of the order of Ukraine 1:27 Russia. This, together with the come end of Kadyrovtsi rule in Chenchnya is going to put even more pressure on the Putin regime. Indeed it is Trump that is giving the Siloviki enough hope to ensure they wont agree any deal. That together with the utter incompetence of thecUS response to the crackdown has given America defeat when they could have seen off their enemies in both Rissia and Iran. Instead Trump is destroying NATO and leading his economy towards a meltdown that will make the GFC look mild. The massive damage he has already caused to Europe should not be forgotten. So if Bessent thinks the EU should avoid responding to the outrageous threats he is going to be disappointed. The debt sword of Damocles is getting more dangerous by the minute.
A default on US debt would be a disaster for the UK, too.
Magali Lafourcade, judge in the case of Marine Le Pen, disclosed that she received a visit from 2 envoys of Trump in May 2025 who tried to pressure or lobby her in the case. The request to meet them came from the US Embassy in Paris.
Just returned from my first trip to China, mostly looking at the energy and robotics industries. Fascinating. Random observations, both business and general, below... 1/x.. https://x.com/johnarnold/status/2013344293377740830
Somewhat of a random fact: the last time Denmark sold an island to the US was in 1917. That island was Little Saint James, more commonly known today as “Epstein Island.” https://x.com/Daractenus/status/2013341915945521468
I wonder what the polling in Iceland looks like on this today ?
Referendum on EU accession talks likely in spring 2027 https://www.ruv.is/english/2026-01-09-referendum-on-eu-accession-talks-likely-in-spring-2027-463292 A parliamentary resolution on a referendum on continuing accession talks with the European Union will be brought forward during the spring session, says Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir, Minister for Foreign Affairs. She says developments in world affairs call for such a vote...
..Kristrún said the government was united and that all parties would approve the parliamentary resolution on a referendum. Two opinion poll surveys in 2025 suggested slim majorities for those who favour EU membership. In one by Prósent, 45% of respondents said they supported Iceland’s accession to the European Union, while 35% said they did not. A Gallup survey from the same year suggested similar results, with 44% of respondents saying they favoured Iceland joining the European Union, and 36% saying they were opposed.
I wonder what the polling in Iceland looks like on this today ?
Referendum on EU accession talks likely in spring 2027 https://www.ruv.is/english/2026-01-09-referendum-on-eu-accession-talks-likely-in-spring-2027-463292 A parliamentary resolution on a referendum on continuing accession talks with the European Union will be brought forward during the spring session, says Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir, Minister for Foreign Affairs. She says developments in world affairs call for such a vote...
..Kristrún said the government was united and that all parties would approve the parliamentary resolution on a referendum. Two opinion poll surveys in 2025 suggested slim majorities for those who favour EU membership. In one by Prósent, 45% of respondents said they supported Iceland’s accession to the European Union, while 35% said they did not. A Gallup survey from the same year suggested similar results, with 44% of respondents saying they favoured Iceland joining the European Union, and 36% saying they were opposed.
I would suppose that the boom in tourism makes fishing relatively less important. The Faroese are the only foreigners with a quota for the 200-mile iceland EEZ.
Unless they're hoping for an exemption from the CFP. If they don't get an exemption, it could result in our getting a little quota there too, on account of our agreements with the EU. Closing the loop on the Cod Wars somewhat...
I think it’s wrong to fear Trump’s removal cuz ‘Vance is just as bad.’ JD is smarter, sure. But he’s hugely unpopular. It’d be gold for Dems to have enough Rs finally concede Trump is insane & unfit, then have to ride it out for years w/ a smarmy couchfucker Trump cuck few but Peter Theil support
They really do hate someone who has risen from deprivation.
They don't hate him for his origins. They hate him for being a vile human being.
Do they ?
So why the 'couchfucker' ?
Because its just an updated slur of hillbillies shagging their sisters and marrying their cousins.
Vance should be criticised for his opinions, not his upbringing.
Vance is mainly criticised for his inconsistency. From a "never Trumper" to a venal sycophant. All in the quest for self aggrandisement and personal power.
Just returned from my first trip to China, mostly looking at the energy and robotics industries. Fascinating. Random observations, both business and general, below... 1/x.. https://x.com/johnarnold/status/2013344293377740830
Jan 20th. Only three years until there’s a new US President.
It’s going to be a long three years.
It might not be three years to the next US President. There is obviously something very seriously wrong with Trump.
But unfortunately Vance would probably be an even bigger disaster than he is and with rather less excuse.
If Vance wants the full ten years, he needs to wait until Trump's been in two. Otherwise he maxes out at seven, I think.
As long as he obeys the constitution, yes.
Vance doesn’t have Trump’s personal popularity (what’s left of it) or his hold over the judiciary so he might have to, but it’s difficult to be sure after so much boundary pushing by the Republicans as a whole in the last ten years.
Jan 20th. Only three years until there’s a new US President.
I was thinking about that in the context of Congress last night. It is still a full year until the Democrats take over the House and the Speakership (if they do). Trump has a full year to wreak havoc until he becomes a lame duck fighting impeachment.
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Trump's right about how stupid it is to surrender sovereignty like that. Pragmatically, it's stupid, and if one wants to be moral the argument can only be the islanders themselves, not Mauritius, deserve it.
If nothing else, Trump's posts this morning demonstrate the utter futility of trying to flatter him. Starmer, Rutte and Macron have been humiliated for their efforts.
If you're not going to stand up to the bully you might as well start discussing the terms of your surrender now. And earn the contempt of all.
Somewhat of a random fact: the last time Denmark sold an island to the US was in 1917. That island was Little Saint James, more commonly known today as “Epstein Island.” https://x.com/Daractenus/status/2013341915945521468
If Trump can take Greenland, he can take Chagos. In fact, once it's Mauritian, there would hardly be any consequences.
I can't help but think Trump's criticism of Chagos is the doing of Nigel Farage whispering in his ear.
Farage knows he's in an awkward position on Greenland and this is how he tries to spin it back to his advantage.
Yes, funny how he's suddenly changed his mind on it.
He's probably forgotten all about it.
He's an increasingly senile guy who has never had much grasp of detai.
And it's probably a mistake to attribute everything to Trump, rather than the influence if those surrounding him.
It was Rubio (with slightly more inclination to follow international law) who welcomed the deal at the time. Someone like "the only thing that counts is power" Miller will take a very different view.
"...the almost five hundred West Indians who arrived on the HMT Empire Windrush in June 1948 were technically uninvited, and the legislation that would formally grant them and all other colonial subjects British citizenship, the British Nationality Act, was then still over a month away from receiving royal assent..."
This is bass-ackwards. Colonial subjects were already British, because at that time it referred to an Imperial concept, not a country one. Successive nationality acts between then and the 70/80s rewrote the concept to refer to just the British realm (the UK plus the Crown Dependencies) not the British Empire. If you have time, look at pictures of passports from the 40's and the words at the top are "British Passport"
For example
Moreover West Indians at the time were all taught that they were British and owed allegiance to the Mother Country. They were taken aback to be treated as foreigners on arrival.
Comments
Welcome to our newest Councillor, Cllr Kathy Gibbon, on Buckinghamshire Council.
Following a defection from Reform, the Conservatives have now secured overall control of the council.
Welcome to the winning team
https://nitter.poast.org/CCACllrs/status/2013347633012650448#m
Not really of course, but it's the first story of it's kind I've stumbled across.
Notably Reform made barely any inroads into Buckinghamshire in 2025, compared to places like Cornwall (where Reform are 3x the Tories, even after losing a handful since the election already).
But that high or increased spending will consequently result in lower spending in other sectors of the economy that might otherwise have been the case and that might otherwise be necessary.
Which means that if you want to increase spending in one sector then other sectors will inevitably lose out.
One way to get around defining social media is to simply make the publisher as liable as the poster.
I have no idea what any of that possibly legitimate grievance has to do with just about anything Vance does or supports in Trump 2.0 land.
Middletown lost its steel plant twenty years ago to Chinese competition?
Fuck let's invade Greenland.
https://x.com/i/status/2013258276566188176
So why the 'couchfucker' ?
Because its just an updated slur of hillbillies shagging their sisters and marrying their cousins.
Vance should be criticised for his opinions, not his upbringing.
Social media is not AI.
Nor is AI social media.
AI generated content is sometimes published on social media.
Porn of both AI and not can appear on both.
The under 16's I teach, even many with profound educational needs, are perfectly capable of understanding this distinction.
Right now it's like Mary Whitehouse campaigning to ban television altogether.
“Is the President capable of running the US?”
Rather than banning access I am proposing to make companies jointly liable for what is published on their platforms. This brings it into line with other forms of print and broadcast media.
Let the courts deal with them and they would soon clean up their act.
The works of a leftist who hated what other leftists had done when they were in power.
Michael Crick
@MichaelLCrick
·
1h
As students we were taught the US Constitution has so many checks & balances that a mad dictatorship could never occur - separation of powers between executive, legislature & judiciary; rule of law; two-yearly elections; free media; term limits & so on. What rubbish that was.
https://x.com/MichaelLCrick/status/2013376211930460496
He got a lot done despite resources being extremely restricted.
And Atlee's policies have proven long lasting and pretty durable.
At least we are spared Hollywood movies banging on about that.
It is, and always has been, not fit for purpose.
See also the Bible.
In my mind, children, right from young ages, should have access to the web for learning and communication, and many parents will agree with me. There is no way you can police this parenting, or stop these sensible parents. All the Australian style u-16 internet ban amounts to is a ban on companies allowing under 16’s accounts - that is the only way it’s enforceable.
At this point the ban is wrong, embarrassing, knee jerk policy making of the worse kind. At this point the focus should be on making addictive "click-bait" algorithms illegal and forcing platforms to change them. children should be better protected from algorithms designed to hook them, so smart parents and politicians will be calling for “limited" devices that allow access to helpful, non-addictive content, while blocking social media platforms with the harmful, addictive or predatory algorithms.
So it’s up to good parenting and bad parenting at the end of the day. Good parents will ask what good things will be lost to my children? And have we tried everything else first, before reaching for draconian blanket bans thus losing what will be lost. So it will create two tiers - those kids who get ahead of the others with their access to the internet for learning and communication, and those who get left behind because the dum parents go along with the ban.
If we agree children should be better protected from algorithms designed to hook them, here’s the kicker - at what point in someone’s life are those bad algorithms healthy for people of any age? You said 18 when people become adults - what have they got at 18 and 118 that helps make it not a problem anymore? The only way Badenoch and Starmer should consider getting involved, is asking have we tried everything else on what is bad first, before reaching for draconian blanket bans and losing an awful lot that is good, from policy and action that’s too restrictive.
And now he's VP and plotting when he should try to remove Trump.
Compare with the likes of Turd Cruz, who have been humiliated by Trump without gaining anything but are ever more sycophantic.
Did independent thought ever occur to you Mr. Crick?
You know. Red pill stuff?
The same Trump that’s so concerned about Russia he’s invited them to join his sham Gaza board of peace .
That he's a self made man is one of the very few good things about him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Souvenir
It's because of an Enlightenment belief in the rationality of humans.
And the knowability of Objective Truth.
We've been blindsided by this for Centuries.
We prefer the feelz. Always have done.
Kids don't like being patronised just like anyone else.
Not suggesting there's no downsides or that that is always easy, there's no approaches that work 100% of the time, but with the right assistance I think we can trust children and young people more than we do, they are tougher than they, or many, think.
I'm fairly positive about human nature, but we also have great capacity to be negative, and our resilience can actually make us get too used to that, which is why a rational, positive outlook takes more work than people who are over positive about the 'natural' human inclinations think.
They've been sanewashing Trump most of the time, as much as everyone else has, for ages.
Still, on that score some new evidence...
A hitherto unreleased letter reveals that Donald Trump's multi-billion dollar lawsuit against the BBC is all down to him not getting a Blue Peter badge in 1978.
https://x.com/Nevfountain/status/2013257986257400296
This will be a popular policy amongst parents and mental health experts
As a matter of interest have you had any experience with young children and their phone use,?
"In praise of the middlebrow
Sometimes, a television show really does deserve the hype
Alexandra Wilson"
https://thecritic.co.uk/in-praise-of-the-middlebrow/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4grwjvppr8o.amp
Parts of south-west England have been treated to a dazzling display of the Northern Lights.
The lights, or Aurora Borealis, are the result of solar eruptions sending particles towards Earth and the subsequent interaction of those particles with the Earth's atmosphere.
A coronal mass ejection (CME), a large eruption of charged matter from the Sun, left the Sun on Sunday, the Met Office said.
It said the CME was likely "to bring aurora across Scotland, Northern Ireland, northern England, and potentially further south"..
For instance I know I’m poorer than 10 years ago - the contract I signed last week is £100 a day less than I got in 2016 and the agent who got me the current contract is the same one who got me the 2016 one.
However last week I paid for a meal for 8 people and didn’t worry paying but my parents at my age couldn’t do that and their jobs are/ were very similar to mine and my wife’s.
But I'm not sure the right/centre-right voting bloc has enough in it to sustain two large parties (rather than one small and one large), and one faction is more exciting than the other.
On last century’s chimera of a universal civilisation
Paul Heron
19 January, 2026"
https://thecritic.co.uk/the-rise-and-fall-of-assimilation/
Instead Trump is destroying NATO and leading his economy towards a meltdown that will make the GFC look mild. The massive damage he has already caused to Europe should not be forgotten. So if Bessent thinks the EU should avoid responding to the outrageous threats he is going to be disappointed. The debt sword of Damocles is getting more dangerous by the minute.
It's better than a slap around the face with a wet fish, I suppose.
This is bass-ackwards. Colonial subjects were already British, because at that time it referred to an Imperial concept, not a country one. Successive nationality acts between then and the 70/80s rewrote the concept to refer to just the British realm (the UK plus the Crown Dependencies) not the British Empire. If you have time, look at pictures of passports from the 40's and the words at the top are "British Passport"
And then he thought it was a really good idea to attend and speak at a victory Reform rally in his own constituency after making it clear he did not intend to stand down and call a by-election there where he could stand as a Reform candidate despite only being elected as Conservative MP there eighteen months ago?! The optics of this looked not only terrible, but very arrogant! Who the hell is advising him because its not anyone who is any way political astute enough to have his back in his future leadership ambitions in his new party or his own constituency at the next GE. They are not certainly not showing any concern for making sure he is going to be electable again there anytime soon in that seat.
I am cynical enough to believe that this personally ambitious political idiot having stupidly burnt his bridges in the Conservative party as a key senior player in a robustly collective democratic party is now being advised by Reform spads who don't have his personal ambitions as the heir to Farage as their main concern but rather see him as the latest useful idiot to create a good headline for Farage and his latest political press conference..
I am going to make a prediction, I genuinely believe that Robert Jenrick didn't just leave the Conservative party this weekend, he also blew up his long term political career. If he had got behind Kemi Badenoch he could have been a key player in her team that saw the Conservatives being elected again and with a say in their manifesto rather than being the latest Farage mini me... (by the way Robert, if you have been in any doubt over the years you will have worked out by now that Kemi's surname is simple pronounced Bade-noch despite others who don't know her and continue to be lazy and not bother to get it!!) And I should know having grown up in the Badenoch and Strathspey local ward!!
She immediately announced the French authorities - France5
https://x.com/AlexandruC4/status/2013354611835359671
Just returned from my first trip to China, mostly looking at the energy and robotics industries. Fascinating. Random observations, both business and general, below...
1/x..
https://x.com/johnarnold/status/2013344293377740830
https://x.com/Daractenus/status/2013341915945521468
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8XeDvKqI4E
https://conservativehome.com/2026/01/19/jenricks-opponents-have-no-answers-and-his-departure-has-encouraged-a-belief-that-they-dont-need-them/?utm_campaign=twitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter
Referendum on EU accession talks likely in spring 2027
https://www.ruv.is/english/2026-01-09-referendum-on-eu-accession-talks-likely-in-spring-2027-463292
A parliamentary resolution on a referendum on continuing accession talks with the European Union will be brought forward during the spring session, says Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir, Minister for Foreign Affairs. She says developments in world affairs call for such a vote...
..Kristrún said the government was united and that all parties would approve the parliamentary resolution on a referendum.
Two opinion poll surveys in 2025 suggested slim majorities for those who favour EU membership. In one by Prósent, 45% of respondents said they supported Iceland’s accession to the European Union, while 35% said they did not. A Gallup survey from the same year suggested similar results, with 44% of respondents saying they favoured Iceland joining the European Union, and 36% saying they were opposed.
Unless they're hoping for an exemption from the CFP. If they don't get an exemption, it could result in our getting a little quota there too, on account of our agreements with the EU. Closing the loop on the Cod Wars somewhat...
But unfortunately Vance would probably be an even bigger disaster than he is and with rather less excuse.
(Quota).
Vance doesn’t have Trump’s personal popularity (what’s left of it) or his hold over the judiciary so he might have to, but it’s difficult to be sure after so much boundary pushing by the Republicans as a whole in the last ten years.
I certainly don't want Nigel Farage 'giving it' to me. Sounds bloody horrendous.
LOL will the last SKS fan turn out the lights.
Farage knows he's in an awkward position on Greenland and this is how he tries to spin it back to his advantage.
https://bsky.app/profile/noelreports.com/post/3mcsndx5qcs2e
Starmer, Rutte and Macron have been humiliated for their efforts.
If you're not going to stand up to the bully you might as well start discussing the terms of your surrender now. And earn the contempt of all.
Credit to him for taking on the role in person and leading from the front.
He's an increasingly senile guy who has never had much grasp of detai.
And it's probably a mistake to attribute everything to Trump, rather than the influence if those surrounding him.
It was Rubio (with slightly more inclination to follow international law) who welcomed the deal at the time. Someone like "the only thing that counts is power" Miller will take a very different view.