How disappointing to see one of the biggest history podcasts asking for editors to have experience using AI picture and voice generators. History media is impacted enough by slop and nonsense, and many talented artists, writers, filmmakers and designers put out of work. Awful.

Conservative Candidate Tells British MPs to 'Go Back to Pakistan' EXCLUSIVE: Kemi Badenoch suspends the Conservative party's candidate for North Harrow, after a Byline Times investigation uncovered a series of vile messages he posted over recent months

Telling that one of the accounts this racist Tory candidate was responding to was Nick Timothy.

When does the big national debate about the anti-Asian racism crisis in the Conservative party begin?
bylinetimes.com/2026/04/13/c...

It's almost the greatest argument against the right.
Their worldview is based on a massive list of things they hate but there seems to be nothing they actually like, let alone love.

They’re destroying more than fifty research facilities across thirty-one states, labs that house decades of irreplaceable long-term science, the kind you literally cannot restart once it’s gone. #USForestService

Nigel Farage’s farming adviser calls for wheat prices to double Exclusive: critics warn Reform UK use of trade policy would increase food costs amid cost-of-living crisis

Yet another position that's almost identical to the policy promoted by English fascists in the 1930s. There seems to be a kind of ideological homing instinct at work. Before long, the entire package will be back in place.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Madeleine Sumption (MAC) highlighted something that is largely missing from the UK media + political debate.

The most likely reason why claims are going down in Europe & going up in the UK is that asylum seekers can't now make a second claim in another EU country - but the UK is outside that

The UK Covid Inquiry has laid bare the avoidable horror of the second Covid wave It is becoming ever clearer both how devastating the second wave of winter 2020/21 was, and how much of that devastation could have been avoided.

'the overall conclusion is that the scale of deaths in the first wave could have been much lower and the devastating second wave could have been largely avoided'
@chrischirp.bsky.social

substack.com/home/post/p-...

i can't believe a representative of the Vatican openly pondering whether someone should be burnt at the stake in 2026 and my answer is, "Yes absolutely, do it slow."

legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2026/03/1...

Jenrick: they banned Chrismas, what an insult to our Lord Chris

Reform accused of using third party to turn crypto into c... Digital currency donations have been turned into sterling to make them much less easy to track, sources say

So it turns out Reform are laundering their donations through crypto, before converting them into cash, hiding the original source of the money.

So who is really funding Nigel Farage and Reform UK?

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Labour plans curbs on pheasant shooting in ‘declaration of war’ Countryside campaigners say proposals to tighten regulations on bird releases will threaten rural economies. Environmentalists say they are long overdue

“Any idea that this is part of some time-honoured English tradition is absolute rubbish. This is an almost wholly unregulated industry. I am glad to see it being licensed.”

I spoke to the Times on why we shouldn’t let landowners release 50million pheasants per year:
www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...

“Section 14 of the Press Law ordered editors ‘to keep out of the newspapers anything which…tends to weaken the strength of the German Reich, outwardly or inwardly.’”

- William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, p. 405

We have awarded these people contracts in the Ministry of Defence. What the fuck are we doing.

Shame can be a destructive emotion, but this is what a culture without shame looks like.

And it's consistently rewarded and indulged.

“Elon Musk’s Tesla given go-ahead to supply electricity in Great Britain.” A subheading underneath says: “Ofgem licence means firm can replicate Texas setup of powering homes, businesses and EVs.”

Ed Miliband must step in and bar Tesla from holding an energy licence.

Elon Musk is a threat to our national security and clearly not a fit person to operate in our energy industry.

We can’t have the lights go out because he’s having a strop on X.

Pete Hegseth Blew Billions on Fruit Basket Stands, Chairs, and Crab The Defense Department went on a $93 billion spending spree in 2025.

Some of the frivolous September purchases made under Secretary Pete Hegseth’s stewardship include a $98,329 Steinway & Sons grand piano for the Air Force chief of staff’s home, $5.3 million for Apple devices such as the new iPad, and an astronomical amount of …

newrepublic.com/post/207555/...

Crude oil prices, showing a very sharp increase in the last day, from around 65 to 101 dollars per barrel..

Oil prices wouldn't be all over the news today if more of our economy was powered by local, secure renewable energy.

This isn't an "energy crisis". It's a fossil fuel crisis.

44% of UK electricity came from renewables in 2025. More of that plus an electrified economy => no more oil shocks.

The March 15, 2025, killing of Ruben Ray Martinez drew almost no public attention.

But Martinez is now the first known American citizen shot to death by federal immigration agents during President Trump’s second term. https://wapo.st/4lbpGYC

I can’t believe how stupid everything is

This week, Trump said Zelensky “is an obstacle to peace” as the US asked for Ukraine’s help against Iranian drones.

While the President claimed Putin is “ready for a deal” as Russia helps Iran with intelligence on US targets.

The latter “doesn’t matter” says the White House.

Trump's talent pool

Sobering to think that we would have joined a reckless war in the middle east over the weekend had Badenoch or Farage been PM.

And we would be refusing to embrace an energy transition away from reliance on a deeply unstable region.

Starmer's sobriety definitely an asset in the last few days.

NASA shakes up its Artemis program to speed up lunar return Launching SLS every three and a half years or so is not a recipe for success."

NASA just made huge changes to the Artemis Program.

arstechnica.com/staff/2026/0...

I will never not be angry at the way tech bros have told us that the danger is apocalyptic superintelligence when it was always obvious that the reason to worry is that we would put dumb AI in really stupid places.

Former UK PM Gordon Brown is providing - voluntarily and not for the first time - information to the police about abuses of power relating to the Epstein files. As PM Brown was briefed against by people such as Alistair Campbell and Peter Mandelson as being ‘psychologically flawed’ ….1/

I post on UK issues because I spent much time & effort trying to warn people about the rightward shift of US "conservatives" and what it would lead to.

I moved here and see the same forces now working to capture the UK govt and impose what has been imposed on the US. I give a shit so I post & warn.

An obliging spotted redshank on the River Otter Estuary this morning

If you want to know more about James Orr’s many strange and sinister views, we did a mini profile at the top of our last live show

open.spotify.com/episode/6Ove...

That Goodwin would attract like-minded racists, bigots and neo-Nazi adjacent lowlifes was predictable.

That the BBC, Times, etc would entirely ignore this...was also predictable.

The world's richest man is broadcasting eliminationist rhetoric about a tiny, vulnerable minority, and virtually no one is going to treat it as a scandal. It's just normal now.