Just watched the documentary on the Artemis II mission on BBC. Apparently moon landing probably in 2028. Remind me - when will the HS2 project be built and trains running?

Conservative MP Edward Leigh thinks disabled people and pensioners cost too much.

He claims £2350 to pay his Council Tax, and £2500 to pay his energy bills every year

But he isn't disabled or a pensioner, he is on £94,000

He should pay his self and cut the bloody benefit costs

I’ll see your ‘rate limit exceeded’ and raise you a ‘Not Found. Forbidden’

Private firms providing services to NHS made £1.6bn profit in two years, research finds Exclusive: MPs say profit-making levels in England are ‘scandalous’ and call for cap on amount private companies can make from NHS

No wonder Wes Streeting has so many private healthcare donors...

Viktor Orbán stifled the press at home and cultivated media friends abroad He showed how the international illiberal right could survive inside a liberal democratic alliance

Viktor Orbán stifled the press at home and cultivated media friends abroad

👇👇👇👇

Are junior doctor's pay demands unreasonable?

They rejected a pay offer of 4.9% (that's 35% over 4 years) - that looks greedy.

BUT, pay would still be 20% lower in real terms than in 2008. That's a MASSIVE cut.

In comparison, MPs basic salary gained 48% over the same period...

A lot of nonsense circulating today about how the EU will force us to relabel marmalade as "Citrus Marmalade".

The truth: The new law's requirements will be met if the citrus fruit is named, so e.g. "Orange Marmalade" would be fine. You merely can't use "Marmalade" on its own.

NYTImes calls NATO the “North American treaty organization”

It’s a real problem that our elite institutions are just much stupider now than they used to be

Wishing you a speedy recovery

UK looks to relax planning rules for factory farms after industry lobbying Exclusive: documents chronicle years-long campaign to make it easier to build intensive livestock units

Just what we don't need. Already, our rivers are overloaded with both human and livestock waste, leading in many cases to #rivercide. Now the government, responding as always to lobbyists, wants to make it worse. Then it wonders why it loses public support. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Hope it’s going well

The Rycroft Review: Report of the independent review into countering foreign financial influence and interference in UK politics

Here is the full Rycroft report on foreign interference in the UK

www.gov.uk/government/p...

Ouch. Not a pleasant experience

Newspaper story claiming that a ‘Brexit reset’ could lead to higher prices for some foods.

And so the drip drip anti-EU campaign begins

👏👏👏

Congratulations. Happy Birthday. And I’m looking forward to having a good read.

‼️🚨Sophie Ridge: “You’ve secured trading terms with the US that are worse than they were before Brexit.”

Wes Streeting: “I don’t dispute that.”

🔥 And there it is 🔥

Brexit made Britain weak and that’s why it will continue to make us poorer until with rejoin the EU.

Top Dutch Brussels correspondent on how the Americans have put incredible pressure on EU government leaders to ensure that they do not touch Russian assets at Euroclear.
(English translation of key paragraph attached.)

The EU never gets praise even when it acts. There is so much constant EU negging that commentators struggle to praise when it delivers. The EU did what it needed to do. Take the win.

Last night was a big step for Ukraine and the European project.

First, the EU got the money for Ukraine 1/

Donald Trump v the British Broadcasting Corporation: the battle begins The president filed a claim this week more about exerting leverage than legal niceties

NEW

Donald Trump v the British Broadcasting Corporation: the battle begins

The president filed a claim this week more about exerting leverage than legal niceties

By me, at @prospectmagazine.co.uk

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

SUPERB and angrily unvarnished response, by former BBC chairman, Lord Patten.

"I don't think that we should allow ourselves to be bullied into thinking that the BBC is only any good, if it reflects the prejudice of the last person who shouted at it." ~AA

Rob whistle | Robert Hutton | The Critic Magazine The day had begun with Robert Jenrick accused of racism. This is of course quite unfair. Racists believe in something. Some of us remember Jenrick as a chubby-cheeked fan of David Cameron fighting the…

It's quite wrong to suggest Robert Jenrick is a racist. Racists believe in something. My SKETCH.

Rob whistle | Robert Hutton | The Critic Magazine The day had begun with Robert Jenrick accused of racism. This is of course quite unfair. Racists believe in something. Some of us remember Jenrick as a chubby-cheeked fan of David Cameron fighting…

"The day had begun with Robert Jenrick accused of racism. This is of course quite unfair. Racists believe in something." Absolutely fantastic sketch by @roberthutton.co.uk. Every line is a banger:

The ITV exposé on COVID now turns its sights on testing. I was stunned in 2020 when Sir Paul Nurse - Director of the Francis Crick Institute - told me he’d written to the government to offer the services of the Crick (the biggest biomeolecular lab in the country) - and never got a reply…

Kemi Badenoch's 'Free Speech' Conservatives Ban Byline Times From Party Conference The ban on covering the party's annual gathering came despite Badenoch's repeated commitment to "fight" for free speech and a free press

'The Conservative party, whose leader Kemi Badenoch has repeatedly pledged to fight for “free speech”, has banned Byline Times from attending her party’s annual conference'
bylinetimes.com/2025/09/04/k...

Well, there's a thing.

New research from Oxford University says that misleading media coverage is shaping UK public debate on immigration, human rights and the European Convention on Human Rights #ECHR👇

🔗 www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-09... via @bonavero.bsky.social

The EU Entry/Exit system and EU travel authorisation system commonslibrary.parliament.uk/the-eu-entry-exit-system...

How Britain privatised itself into failure Britain outsourced its state – now private firms profit while public services crumble. In Failed State, Sam Freedman explains what went wrong

🚨How Britain privatised itself into failure.🚨

Britain outsourced its state – now private firms profit while public services crumble.

In 'Failed State', Sam Freedman explains what went wrong.

Want to import toxic chemicals into Britain with scant scrutiny? Labour says: go right ahead | George Monbiot Jacob Rees-Mogg’s Tory fantasy of a post-Brexit bonfire of regulations is coming true. Our bodies and ecosystems will pay the price, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

Sorry to burden you with another jaw-dropping scandal. But what the government intends to do to chemicals regulation in the UK is chilling. Its consultation was slipped out so quietly that most of us missed it. When I read it, I saw why.
This week's column:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...