Jewish MP Gerald Kaufmann in Parliament in 2009.

"My Grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her town, a German soldier shot her dead."

"My Grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israel to murder Palestinian Grandmothers in Gaza."

Bet he’s getting low on toot now then…

"But Montenegro is so special, our economy is so different from any other country in the rest of Europe, we can't possibly adopt € as our currency. And it would mean giving up on our monetary sovereignty and independence." 🤦‍♂️

I'm ofc an ignoramus,have no insider knowledge&don't have your connections/sources.It will take the time it will take,but I do hope all these countries that have suffered so much under decades of dictatorship make it.
And whatever time it takes,I (want to) believe they'll all make it before the UK🙂

Parliamentlive.tv - Commons

Not sure what time it will be, but fyi, you can always watch anything from Parliament, incl. debates in HoC and all testimonies in front of Select Committees live and any time thereafter on parliamentlive.tv .
I definitely will watch this one and hope he gets verbally eviscerated 😈

I've known @SadiqKhan for over 30 yrs. He's a feminist, a socialist & an LGBTQ+ ally. I'm so proud he's our London mayor.
For the record, he's as interested in introducing Sharia Law to London as I am - and that's 0%.
Those who suggest otherwise are deluded, or have a v sinister agenda.

Morgan McSweeney to face foreign affairs select committee, chaired by Emily Thornberry. 🍿
www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/apr/22/mor...

Agreed.
I hope Ms @emilythornberry.bsky.social makes mince meat of McSweeney,who's single-handedly destroyed his (+her) party🤬
As a reminder,although she wasn't the office-holder in 2024,Dame Thornberry was Shadow Foreign Sec 2016-20. Always thought it was a shame she didn't join the Ft Bench in 24.

I remember several yrs ago (+more recently) when I predicted to Brexiters+ex-Remainers ex-Yugoslavia states wld join🇪🇺before🇬🇧
"No way",they said,"we are already aligned".
Well done Montenegro,can't wait for you actually to join our Union,welcome!👏
🇬🇧is so far from being ready.
bsky.app/profile/euco...

The Two Matts Q&A: the fall of Orban, Corbyn [picture of Corbyn]

Matt Kelly effectively calling for the UK to join witiout FoM.

Some facts, M Kelly. There are no barriers being put up to FoM across the union. You really need to get your facts straight.

If anything, FoM has never been stronger.

1

Congratulations to Montenegro - today we took a big step towards your accession to the European Union.

The decision to establish the Working Party to draft the new Accession Treaty is a key milestone.

The EEA is an extension of the Single Market - including the Four Freedoms, most regulations associated with the Single Market and a Court of Justice to adjudicate any disputes.
There are trade borders because the three EEA Members are not in the EU Customs Union.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europea...

Guaridan: On Tuesday, peers were told that the UK could have pursued an alternative path such as the “mutual recognition” of food standards that supports trade between New Zealand and the UK. That would have removed the need for dynamic alignment with the EU, said Shanker Singham, chair of the Growth Commission and a past adviser to some MPs on alternative arrangements for Brexit in Northern Ireland.

This enrages me. That this "expert" is invited to speak at parliamentary committees and lies about Europe.

The UK did ask, Shankar Singham. It was told, clearly, that mutual recognition was not appropriate for the trading relationship between UK and Europe.

1

And that's the beauty of the metric (ISO) system, you see.
A man about 175cm tall should weigh about 75 kg max.
Easy!
Imperialists don't have that 😆

And the UK should start by choosing between drinking and driving 😂

Agreed.
It's the ISO system now, it's international (minus a few odd countries that want to stay out of it for some reasons) system, not European measurements.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interna...

B4B may argue for whatever they like,a push for EU membership might galvanise whatever,🇬🇧 doesn't even qualify for membership under the Copenhagen Criteria,which are a bare minimum.
🇬🇧 needs to reform first,which includes changing its collective mindset and stopping thinking of itself as exceptional.

Heart breaking. And this happens every day. What an insane thing war is.

Let's all just take a moment to acknowledge the day that Sweden switched from driving on the left to driving on the right. It can be done!

As a bl**dy foreigner, I am the living proof that, since I will never understand imperial measures, I am completely unable (and unwilling) to integrate 😁

What do you mean, far clearer? This is perfectly clear ⤵️😂
As a continental European, I know that 1 yard = (roughly) 1 m.
I normally stop there in accommodating imperial measures, sorry 😆

I initially, based on crossing paths w/ him on several occasions, had a good impression of Starmer.Though not anticipating miracles,had some (low) expectations when he became P/M. He's been a major disappointment, in part. turned the LP into a racist, xenophobic & transphobic party.I don´t like KS.

My ward returned 3 Tory Cllrs for over 10y.In 2018,3 Lab managed to kick them out.In 22,all 3 were deselected/encouraged not to stand again b/c they were too much on the Left(I'm a centre-left person&would happily have voted for them).Same happened across Camden.Then same happened across the PLP🤦‍♂️2/2

Starmer is+has always been an illiberal authoritarian.
I live in his backyard (Camden) though not in his constituency (H&SP).Caveat:I'm not a LP member+have no knowledge of its inner workings.Even though he's not the local LP leader,I'd wager he's been wielding significant influence for a while.1/2

Cracking article in the FT and really good summary of positions.

Some quick points
I. It is probably too late for Starmer, but is it too late for Labour
II. Rhetoric has changed in the UK, but UK politics has yet to catch up
III. Equally though, is the rhetoric representative of anything real?

1

Is the Home Secretary's hypothesis that Yvette Cooper wouldn't be criticised if tabled the same asylum/settlement reforms?!

The personal characteristics of Nigel Farage/Zia Yusuf, Chris Philp/Kemi Badenoch, Shabana Mahmood/Starmer seem v marginal to who supports/opposes their immigration plans!

"We want you white liberals to fuck off. Vote for us!"

- Labour, 2026

Don't even mention white, liberal, bl**dy foreign, Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati, we can f-off even further and f-off again once we get there - as long as we vote Labour.
Well, no.

PS: I don´t eat tofu, that must be why 😆

Gusts of up to 80 mph on way for Easter weekend

It's surreal:football helps man shed seven stone

Paul Waring made 161 feet and 10 inches on putts

The 24ft (7m) fishing boat capsized east of Old Harry Rocks four nautical miles (7km) off Swanage on Tuesday at about 12:15 BST. The crew onboard the yacht raised a mayday with HM Coastguard, who requested Swanage lifeboat to launch.

All the talk of cultural acceptance of the euro and of Europeanness the last few days has been positive, almost exhilarating from our side .

You know what would be a good step towards European norms: if the BBC started using metric by default.