Courageous!

Big shoutout to Kelty this week. They’re donating 5% of every purchase to the Conservation Alliance in support of saving the US Forest Service. Kelty is one of the four companies that actually founded the Conservation Alliance back in 1989, alongside Patagonia, REI, and The North Face.

Chart showing fall in GDP per person caused by Brexit

The economic damage caused by Brexit may be almost double the 4% impact assumed by the OBR, the Resolution Foundation has revealed.

Wait a minute, is this the same Richard Tice who repeatedly called for Angela Rayner to resign over her dubious tax shenanigans? Surely not, because that would make him look like a hypocritical wanker. Oh.

It’s not just the remarkable 63% who say they’d vote to rejoin the EU. It’s also the fact that this figure continues to rise slowly but steadily.
Brexit has failed and is seen to have failed. And geopolitics brings Britain and its neighbours, with whom it shares interests & values, closer together.

Good on Starmer for finally making a stand.

But like so many European leaders, he needs to loosen up on the centrist-technocrat dogma and give it some vision and conviction if we're not going to be permanently backed into a corner.

NEW: Keir Starmer responds to Donald Trump’s threat to row back on trade deal the US signed with UK last year, amid sharp differences with White House on US approach to Iran conflict.

Amazon to spend $11bn on satellite firm in growing Starlink rivalry Amazon wants to get thousands more satellites into orbit to offer internet and mobile services.

Amazon to spend $11bn on satellite firm in growing Starlink rivalry. 🔭 🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Legal advisers help migrants pose as gay to get asylum, undercover BBC investigation finds The BBC exposes a shadow industry charging migrants thousands of pounds to help them cheat the asylum system.

Disgusting reporting by BBC using a tiny number of cases to suggest widespread abuse of a system which routinely denies LGBTQIA+ individuals asylum and forces them back into environments of persecution. This article massively distorts the reality of the situation. 1/
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Put yourself in shoes of someone in a oil & gas importing country

Its triage: which hospitals get fuel, which industries shut, which crops get fertilizers?

Those who don't have deep pockets in a bidding war pay in increased hunger, lost wages and shrinking economies.
tinyurl.com/PolycrisisWesleyan

The president’s new attorney general today swore that not one single more Epstein file would be released. This is probably because the last AG got fired because she released credible allegations against the president by a 13-year-old child.

Yes is winning on 58%

Mail is running a poll on whether the UK should rejoin the EU.

Takes seconds to vote and it's going hilariously well...

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

Hungary's new PM urges Starmer to rejoin EU amid push to unwind Brexit Péter Magyar, who defeated Viktor Orbán in a stunning result overnight, said he 'hoped' the UK would become a member state again.

Come on everyone let's tell the daily 'snail' we want to rejoin the EU!!

Just noticed there's a poll in this asking whether the UK should rejoin the EU. Currently 47%-36% in favour of no. Let's get that yes vote up. Please do it and pass it on.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

Telegraph story today entitled “Solar power threatens to overwhelm electricity grid”

“We need to generate more cheap electricity”
“No, not like that”

We’re likely to get some serious renewables abundance this summer, but there’s no pleasing some people…

The Sun's accounts are out and I haven't seen anyone report on them so... *Pre-tax loss of £31m *Revenue down from £296m to £273m (Sub now in the same ballpark as the Guardian) *Phone hacking costs (now into its third decade) of £36.6m *Big fall in audience but still claim to be UK's number one brand

It’s been a long time since the Sun made a profit, which raises questions like “what is the paper’s actual purpose, if it isn’t for making money”.

An armed Paddington Bear stages a shootout in post-apocalyptic ‘80s New York, but afterwards he offers the survivors marmalade.

Le Pen furious and worried that the model she and Jordan Bardella were going to offer to the French people next year - pretending to be European but wrecking the EU from the inside - has been rejected by the people of Hungary and will be rejected by the French as well

Trump's cack-handed geopolitics has magicked global jeopardy out of nothing.

Mahmood’s migration changes will deliver fraction of claimed savings, data suggests Exclusive: Analysis of government figures indicates public finances will gain £600m not £10bn if migrants’ access to benefits is reduced

Not only will Labour's hostile and inhumane immigration policies not provide the savings they claim, but they are also likely to create such massive external costs, including losses to key sectors and drops in income for the treasury as to crash the economy.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

After Ukraine, France is the European country most targeted by foreign disinformation ops
• Many campaigns come from Russia, which finds fertile ground in France for such ops
• Pro-Russian (/anti-US) sentiment is more widespread in France relative to other EU states
www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

I think that as economists we should be a lot more concerned that everyone feels like they've got poorer when the data show they haven't. We certainly shouldn't just be assuming that the customers are wrong, rather than that we're no longer measuring things that are most relevant to wellbeing

Trump is on the verge of uniting Christians and Muslims against him.

If you impeach him now, he'll miss out on the peace prize again.

Britain could adopt single market rules without MPs’ vote as part of UK-EU reset Exclusive: Ministers planning new legislation for alignment without full parliamentary scrutiny if in national interest

Three points to make:

1. Where dynamic alignment is agreed, it wouldn't be very dynamic is WM just got to debate and amend every regulation

2. You can't get rid of checks if you want a different rulebook

3. For voluntary alignment, biz needs certainty, not solo rules

Breaking:

During a press conference Péter Magyar reports that the yet Foreign Minister of Hungary, Péter Szijjártó, and his team have started to shred evidence relating to their involvement with Russia in the offices of MFA.

The final act of traitors. Close the Hungarian airspace.

Mapped: The Reform-Orbán Network “Viktor Orbán is the strongest leader in Europe and the EU’s biggest nightmare.” These were the words posted on Twitter by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage about the prime minister of Hungary in April 20...

“It’s deeply shocking that Reform has developed such close ties with Orbán’s regime, an authoritarian govt with an appalling record of rolling back democracy and civic rights”

Where ‘deeply shocking’ = entirely on brand.
Hungary shows us we must never give them power.
www.desmog.com/2026/04/08/m...

The BBC is now calling Viktor Orbán far-right as part of its Hungarian election results coverage.

Will that extend to his National Conservative allies like Nigel Farage and Donald Trump, or does it only apply to those who don't speak English?

I mean, it's worse only by degrees, but Epstein was not in the image that Trump posted - please amend or delete

Hungary has chosen Europe.

Europe has always chosen Hungary.

A country reclaims its European path.

The Union grows stronger.

one immediate dramatic consequence of the Hungarian result:

Magyar has promised to repair relations with the EU and unblock a €90bn EU loan for Ukraine