You know you’ve hit rock bottom when Rachel Reeves is mocking you – politicalbetting.com
You know you’ve hit rock bottom when Rachel Reeves is mocking you – politicalbetting.com
I will accept Nigel Farage’s request to be appointed Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead.It is a farce and a desperate distraction, and the people of Clacton deserve better. But if he wants to spend the summer arguing with a bin, I won't stop him.
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When the Commons are laughing at you and Reeves delivers her best line whilst in office, you know the whole thing is becoming a national joke and not to Farage's advantage as may have hoped
The old RAG Week organiser in me, would have a whole bunch of students wearing Binface and Clownface in Clacton over the summer.
More Reform UK transactions worth millions reported to National Crime Agency
Exclusive: Bankers have raised potential money-laundering concerns over loans and donations involving senior party figures
The Guardian understands finance industry figures have raised at least four SARs relating to concerns about transactions involving senior figures in Reform:
One relates to a £1m donation made to Britain Means Business, a fundraising organisation for Reform UK, before the last general election. Half of the £1m was then transferred by Tice, as director of the company, to Reform UK. Renamed from Leave Means Leave, Britain Means Business is a company that is used to help fund Reform. The £1m seemingly came from the aristocrat and Reform UK donor Fiona Cottrell. In this instance, the Guardian understands bank staff were not satisfied that the funds had ultimately come from her. The NCA has sought help from a foreign partner agency to trace the original source of the funds.
Two other SARs relate to a loan from George Cottrell to Tice. The loan was made shortly before Tice finalised a property purchase and made a party donation, and was not repaid until after those two transactions were completed, according to sources. George Cottrell is the son of Fiona Cottrell, and is a convicted fraudster, former deputy treasurer of Ukip and close associate of Farage.
A fourth relates to the £5m gift from the Thailand-based businessman Christopher Harborne to Farage, which was first revealed by the Guardian in April.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jul/08/more-reform-uk-transactions-worth-millions-reported-to-national-agency
It is very scorchio today.
I haven’t been that scared since I landed in Baghdad’s Green Zone in 2004.
But at the same time she gets to the nub of the matter. Farage wants this to be People versus Establishment. It's turning out to be Farage versus a man pretending to be a bin.
40ºC, 50% humidity, dew point 27ºC so as you walk outside your sunglasses steam up, and within about three minutes you’re wanting to change your shirt.
It won’t be appreciably better until early October.
Had lunch at the Kitty Hawk with JohnO.
Excellent views and the food was fine.
High Fell = not posh, Reformy
SR, from The Heed.
Two more years of all this.
I couldn’t even book an Uber Luxury and had to settle for an Uber Exec.
PolliticsUK
@PolliticsUK
·
2h
🚨 Westminster Voting Intention:
➡️ REF: 29% (+1)
🌳 CON: 21% (+2)
🌹 LAB: 20% (+1)
🟢 GRN: 12% (=)
🔶 LDEM: 12% (-2)
From
@tweetfreshwater
From 3rd - 5th July
Changes with 31st May
https://x.com/osinttechnical/status/2074840795186626988
The Ukrainian Air Force has reportedly downed a Russian Su-35 in an air-to-air ambush.
Russian channels report that a trio of Ukrainian fighters conducted a fake bombing mission to bait the Su-35 into Patriot range.
Heatwave halts Reform bid to scrap climate emergency
A council debate on scrapping West Norfolk's climate emergency was postponed after extreme heat made the chamber unusable
https://eastangliabylines.co.uk/politics/local-government/heatwave-halts-reform-bid-to-scrap-climate-emergency/
Reform grandees will be demanding suspended prison sentences for white collar criminals before you know it.
Have our Aussie chums at Freshwater been BPC authenticated now?
I don't get it. Bankers questioned the big sums when they were donated, presumably someone checked it, nothing came of it, um...
In any event, I think a more egregious case was Josh Simons making way for Andy Burnham in Makerfield.
Speaking of Josh Simons, who ran Labour Together, it's lucky big Nige has no knowledge of recent political history:-
As Labour Together, the group failed to declare £730,000 of donations from millionaire venture capitalists and businessmen between 2017 and 2020. The organisation was fined and found guilty of over 20 separate breaches of the law. In 2025 it was reported that they had paid private investigators to run a smear campaign against prominent journalists investigating "Operation Red Shield", Labour Together's campaign to marginalize the Labour left.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThinkLabour
It begs the question... would we be willing to give up 'En-ger-lund' and everything it means to us, in exchange for International football becoming aligned strictly and consistently with actual countries (e.g. the 'Pointless' definition, sovereign UN member state).
It's notable that apart from the UK constituents, the only other non-country Nations to ever make a World Cup are Curacao and the former 'Dutch East Indies' colony back in 1938, so we really are an outlier. If I wasn't English, I'd find it a major irritation. Autist-triggering in a big way.
(I guess technically some participating football nations aren't absolutely identical to the actual countries *because* of the lopped off bits - e.g. the Netherlands team excludes Curacao).
https://taxpolicy.org.uk/2026/07/07/mansion-tax-1-5m-burnham/
https://taxpolicy.org.uk/2026/07/07/mansion-tax-1-5m-burnham/
So I don't think the logic you set out applies to a resignation Generalising your point - the circumstances under which you were originally elected have changed and for that reason you are no longer able to represent the constituency. Constituents should be able to choose again under the new circumstances, and reasonably the MP should be allowed to stand again under the new circumstances.
This I think is arguable. It's open to a lot of manipulation. Who gets to decide what constitutes unacceptable changes of circumstances that are made acceptable by another election? For that reason I would go for a straightforward, if you are unable to represent your constituents as-is, you go. You don't have a get-out-of-jail with a discretionary election.
(Seriously, my Mum literally made the same point to me while we were watching Countdown!)
The bottom of the chart is full of non-sovereign states, with 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 7th from bottom being various Caribbean colonies, with Guam 9th from bottom and Gibraltar 10th from bottom.
If the cops get involved that's a different story.
Separately I wonder how many people in Clacton will know that if they vote for Farage they will be voting again later this year after that recall petition gets the signatures following Farage’s actual punishment
Sometimes they’re simply saying, “The circumstances have changed. I’ll let my constituents decide.”
Ultimately the MP isn’t appointing themselves back into office. They’re asking the electorate to do it. If voters think it’s a cynical stunt they can vote them out.
I’m talking about the general constitutional principle here, not this particular case. Whether Farage’s resignation is a principled appeal to the electorate or a political stunt is a separate question**. As a general rule, though, I don’t think someone who resigns should automatically be barred from seeking a fresh mandate from the very people they were elected to represent.
**it's clearly a stunt
Andy Burnham, okay to resign mayoralty.
Nigel Farage, not okay to resign seat.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crel4rj801do
They speak of little else on the streets of Clacton.
Etc, etc...
Resignations are rare, and resigning specifically to seek an immediate fresh mandate is rarer still. I don’t really see the case for introducing a constitutional prohibition to deal with an edge case.
If voters think someone’s taking the mick, they have a very effective remedy available at the ballot box.
I could resign from my job and then apply for the vacancy created. It would be bloody silly, but we don’t have a law against it. Likewise, I don’t think the answer is to have a law against an MP resigning and then seeking re-election. Not every problem in life is solved by introducing more regulation.
Andy Burnham, resigning because he wants new job
Nigel Farage, resigning just to get old job back
If you can't see which of the above three is not normal behaviour then you really are living in a bubble.
And he’s did that in the hope that he could avoid a second by-election after those gory details are published
And because everyone saw through him he now gets to spend 4 weeks campaigning against a joke candidate who will know how to wing him up and make Farage into a bigger joke than he already is
We understand why some residents have raised concerns about fly-tipping, but there is no evidence that introducing charges for excess DIY waste leads to an increase.
Yes there is you fucking imbecile. The ginormous increase in the amount of fly tipping.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy040xxz43o
As I said to @bondegezou I do think the suggestion is arguable. But I would go for "You resign - you go. You were elected for a parliament. Don't mess people around. Elections aren't there for your personal whim."
If you notice Andy Burnhams approach in the by-election, he spent virtually no time talking about Farage or Reform, rather just stuck to his own tightly controlled narrative about the system not working for people, I am here to change that, and left Reform to shout into the void about fake stories of churchs becoming mosques.
For cricket, this is already kind of de facto the situation.
In principle I would for rugby - though losing three of the top ten teams internationally would weaken rugby union as an international sport.
The last time I looked - back in the pre-Sky era - we competed as Great Britain in rugby league, and I would obviously very much like to go back to that.