What on earth is wrong with Shabana Mahmood? I don’t think even Patel or Braverman called outright for their political opponents to be assaulted and/or deported. Is this just ok now, for an MP, let alone a Cabinet minister, let alone for the Home Secretary?
we all know I have no life, so:
I guess this will be a test of whether discourse has got so debased that it will not result in any meaningful sanction or acknowledgement of the absolute inappropriateness of someone in that position *joking* about it. I'm not hopeful and hope I'm wrong but fear it will be shrugged off.
The US through Trump & his acolytes is raging itself into irrelevance. The shear economic & military weight will counterbalance that for a while (& he still may send us all to an early grave) but as with Brexit the radicalised and unserious discourse erodes trust influence.
I watched the whole, nearly three minutes, of this piece to camera. Multiple topics covered in a coherent, considered and informative briefing (all in a second language).
The contrast with the vortex of rage and depraved threats from across the Atlantic is frightening.
We expect some positive decisions tomorrow on the €90 billion loan to Ukraine.
This would show that our support for Ukraine remains strong and that Russia cannot outlast Ukraine.
My doorstep ahead of today’s Foreign Affairs Council ↓
Speaking on Sky this AM about Mandelson, energy sec Ed Miliband says:
"Prime ministers make errors. Prime ministers are fallible. Prime ministers are human. As you know, I steered well clear of Peter Mandelson when I became Labour leader in 2010. But people make mistakes."
Always the problem with these big, set piece select committee events .The members don't work together, and all want their own zinger moments for news/social media clips.
This morning I’ve seen Olly Robbins’s appearance before the select committee described as ‘box office’, while a commentator flagged up another key political moment with the words ‘bring the popcorn’.
That’s one of our main problems right there.
In other Ed Miliband news… the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (heat pump subsidy) is going up from £7,500 to £9,000 for homes in rural areas that rely on oil or LPG.
Given the spike in heating oil prices, and how good an option heat pumps are in rural areas, this is a good idea
I think this absolutely brilliant piece might contain one of my favourite ever burns: "In any event, I presume what Altman actually did was hire a nanny."
Sometimes I miss random niceness, when I visit my nephew in Shropshire there is an obvious difference, people just seem friendlier. Local bus driver snapped because I don't have tap to pay, Shrewsbury bus driver pulled up to see if I needed directions because "I looked a bit lost." 1/2
Narrator: in fact, he had quite a lot of cards.
Yes thank you! A few bruises but more bruised pride and feeling rather lucky to not have hit anything harder on the way down.
Yes thank you! A few bruises but more bruised pride and feeling rather lucky to not have hit anything harder on the way down.
BREAKING: New data shows ZERO oil tankers passed through the Strait of Hormuz today, signaling what appears to be a complete shutdown of the Strait for the first time in history.
The Strait normally carries about 20% of the world’s oil supply.
No Cards, huh?
Bloodied scalp after falling off a shed roof.
Me sitting on the ridge of a shed roof I am repairing.
If you're going to fall off a roof make sure you land on something soft like your head.
Better still identify a piece of soft vegetation such as a patch of nettles to cushion the impact.
#ClumsyOaf
21. Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive. All cultures are now equal. Criticism and value judgments are forbidden. Yet this new dogma glosses over the fact that certain cultures and indeed subcultures . . . have produced wonders. Others have proven middling, and worse, regressive and harmful.
Point 21 is the giveaway, some cultures produce "wonders," others are "regressive and harmful." Once you accept that hierarchy, you've quietly been given permission to apply different standards of verification to different actors. The form of verification stays, but the democratic function doesn't.
Rising into the blue
19th April 2026 06.45
People of colour are tired of everyone pussyfooting around the reason why so many right-wing demagogues have gotten traction in the past decade.
Racism.
Racism in schools & at home.
Racism in public & in private.
Racism in the news & on the streets.
And we're tired of bullshit excuses for it.
Still going.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the Straits of Hormuz illusion. Open, closed...closed, open"
Burying the cables has a significantly bigger ecological impact than pylons. Hundreds of kilometres getting dug up, and the corridor having to be kept clear and effectively barren. But the greens don’t care about ecological impact if it means they don’t see pylons
Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez: “Here in Spain, we are approving and advancing a process to regularise half a million immigrants.
“And I want to say to the Right and the Far Right who oppose this: Spain is the daughter of migration and will not become the mother of xenophobia.”
Satellite view of the Strait of Hormuz
MEMO TO ALL STRAIT OF HORMUZ CUSTOMERS
PLEASE NOTE OUR OPENING HOURS:
MONDAY - FRIDAY: 9.30AM - 4PM.
Happy birthday to Bez. Here are Happy Mondays performing Wrote For Luck in NYC in 1990. Watch their Call The Cops tour film in full at youtu.be/NA0qK-bdmlk
