This understated Times column is the most sinister thing I have read about civil rights in this country for a very long time.READ IT PLEASE
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Tomorrow’s budget is not a budget because the law would thereby require that the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR), a Tory innovation, deliver a verdict. Instead we’re getting what Putin would call a Special Financial Operation
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In a typically elegant way Robert Harris's Sunday Times essay sums up the nation's plight
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Not sure if Angela Rayner had tax liability on her ex council house sale. But I am sure that Lord Ashcroft, who first floated this “scandal,” is a major tax dodger, legal or not. Not alone either eg fellow non dom. Lord Rothermere. Sheer typical hypocrisy dailymail.co.uk/news/article…
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Ireland grapples with large budget surpluses. Are you thinking what I’m thinking ?
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Just listened to Gordon Brown on @BBCr4today appealing for humanitarian aid to prevent mass starvation in Taliban Afghanistan. He’s also called for better global help to Covid vaccinate Africa - in everyone’s shared interest. Very impressively serious stuff
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In recent days I have heard ex-cabinet veterans, Hague, Ken Clarke, Alistair Darling, Willetts, Ed Balls, Blair, Andy Burnham, all talking better on Covid-related strategy than any member of the Johnson team. A depressing thought
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This is further evidence that Boris is an ignorant, adolescent. It’s a casual insult to the millions - yes, millions - who suffered and died at the hands of the Soviet police state. Deep down he’s shallow
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Beyond parody from the paper who launched the Joker on the world. Boris now says “ invade Holland” was a joke. But everything about him was a joke - including Brexit. He didn’t mean that either. We are all shamed by his tenure in once-high office
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Andrew should ask who closed the UK’s larger gas storage facility to “ save money.” Only one guess. But Andrew won’t, it’s more fun to scare people, there’s more clicks in it. Disappointing. He used to work for the Economist
Britain has less than a week of gas supplies in storage, as temperatures plunge. Gas is currently generating 55% of our electricity, wind 9%. And we’re having to import 14% of our electricity needs from six other European countries.
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Careless of busy Reeves not to check the paperwork . But if only the dodgy Mail devoted as much energy to Farage’s stamp duty, to Mone’s not-accidental heist of £119 mn Covid cash, not to mention Cameron’s own dodgy dealings etc, in much bigger houses share.google/kkSkzGZXb1anqhY…
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What a stitch up ! Farage actually owns 53% of Reform / UKIP but insists he’s not a politician and is a director but insists he has no legal responsibility. Wrong both times. Wake up, Ofcom (FT) 1/3
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A friend saw this ( cruel but fair) on Facebook :”Dear New Zealand, Please may we borrow your Prime Minister for a little while? Ours is broken, and we don’t have a spare. We promise we’ll look after her. Lots of love, the UK”
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Reading and listening to today’s obits / tributes to Paddy Ashdown is to be transported back to a kinder, gentler time before Brexit populism & Trump mendacity, years where we could respect political differences without resort to abuse. Anti social media is much to blame
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Painful listening to Anglophile Dutch PM Mark Rutte talking through the realities that face post-Brexit Britain - sad, not angry. “ I have never understood why UK thinks it will get better trade deals with other countries than the EU.” Always a good point
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Anti Brexit March poster: Here’s a coincidence I’d missed, mean but relevant. Decent people make bad choices for heart-felt reasons and often pay the price themselves
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Whatever young Reeves may have done wrong - certainly trivial, , especially by Tory standards under Boris. Either way it is shamefully irresponsible not to lead R4 News etc on anything but the existential threat to Ukraine, NATO and world peace. Trivia theguardian.com/politics/202…
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I have listened to PMQs during nine premierships. None has so transparently shown such a lack of grip and detail as Blustering Boris. Surely the only thing he has in common with Mrs T is that both have dyed their hair ?
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John Humphrys has just confirmed his own Brexit tendencies on R4 Today. Said demands for a second refo amounts to calling voters too “thick” to understand. Patronising. Ditto on Trump+NHS. Good to hear Lab’s Andy MacDonald thumping him back
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You appear to be short of the facts or misunderstand m, Neil. He’s already paid for his Arsenal season ticket, but is now not able to use it on security grounds. Lots of wild angry people these days, whipped up by social media
There is nothing to stop you, me or Keir Starmer PAYING for a seat at an Arsenal game away from the hoi polloi. This security argument is a complete red herring.
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The German who caught Cummings tweaking his blog to make himself look smarter. I’m surprised more attention wasn’t paid to this deception. But it will be in due course theguardian.com/commentisfre…
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Notwithstanding Rayner’s dud tax advice - let’s wait and see whose fault it was - I view as distasteful the sight of mass ranks of tax shy media oligarchs beating up on a working class woman for getting above her designated station bbc.com/news/articles/cy5044…
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Farage didn’t” get us out of the EU.” He stood aside and let other people do the hard work ( as usual) while they did it very badly - then complained about their botched work ( as usual) . Freeloader.
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Today’s Times has detailed briefing of who said what in cabinet - a bad sign, effective cabinets can only be frank in privacy. It says Mogg told BJ to trust “ the people” over scientists, citing a Fraser Nelson (editor) article in Spectator challenging Vallance data. Arghh !!
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Dear God, what a pompous outcry - second item on BBC. 6 pm TV news !! - over a very old woman engaged in a crass conversational discourtesy & the complainant point scoring at the old duck’s expense (who gets sacked). Everyone happy ? bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63810468
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Because whatever Rayner did wrong - if she did - was utterly trivial compared with the tax dodging millionaires & their media oligarchs + stooges have done. Sheer rank hypocrisy
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Wrong. It’s not a news channel. If it was Ofcom wd have to fine it every day. It’s an opinion channel. It has few reporters, only nodding dogs who never challenge the half baked nonsense mostly spouted by GBN’s suspiciously overpaid “ pundits” hired by billionaires. Wonder why?
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Didn’t Boris just duck/waffle Mirror’s excellent question asking why he relies on unreliable private contractors to handle T&T when using local NHS & council expertise would work better and pump long-term cash into NHS ? He did - and we all know why ! Cronies ! Donors! Ideology!
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Javid car crash: Important to remember that Johnson has never actually run anything, he’s just a cynical type of hack, he’s certainly not run the Spectator, the Leave campaign, the FCO (hollow laugh) etc. So he’s new to management and cocking it up even faster than expected
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I’ve just caught up with R4Today I/v with Grant Shapps (8.20): toe curling , cowardly, incoherent. He refused to say if HMG supports IDF to order 1 mn Gazans to move out of war zone TODAY. Cornered, this third rate hack then attacked BBC,but Mishal Husain stood up well to a bully
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The same could be said about you, Zac, only more so. The last time I saw you,as London Mayoral candidate, you demeaned yourself by playing the Islamist card against Khan, doubtless on the advice of Dog Whistle Crosby, not because you believed it, any more than Boris does Brexit
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Resignation Dishonours List (cont): why on Earth would Boris give a peerage to a leggy blonde in her 20s who didn’t do much at No 10 - or for long. Nope, it’s a real mystery - though the gossip isn’t quite what you might imagine
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Ooh look ! After days of “Starmer Stalin” nonsense it looks like as if the Pearson caper is crumbling (Sun Times)
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Worth passing on a Sun office joke about Kelvin McKenzie I just heard . Staff:”where’s the editor ?” Answer:”He’s on holiday doing what he does at work.” Staff:”what’s that?” Answer:” lying in the Sun.”
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This thread is worth reading, coming from the German side it offers a grimmer and more liable version of WWII than the sanitised, armchair nostalgia cynically peddled by the Sunday Express and Sun.
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I’m sure the Tory media kept telling us all how the super rich were fleeing Rachael Reeves. At least the Times has the grace to admit this might be wrong
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I try to avoid glib use of F word. But 'Crush the saboteurs' is the language of fascism. The Mail has form theguardian.com/media/2017/a…
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I’m sure we all wish the royal baby well, but it gets the first 23 pages of the Daily Mail, under royal groupie editor, Geordie Greig. UN report on humanity’s threat to 1 million species is on page 34
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Here’s a (Times) column I would like to have written. The casual, persistent ignorant damage which England has done to Ireland - and continues to do so
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I can’t believe that Princess Katie’s illness still soaks up page one at a time when a European war takes a dangerous, paranoid turn after Moscow IS bombing. Are we frivolously sleepwalking into a world war? Not that the galaxy will even notice, but surely we should concentrate
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It’s a bit pathetic for all these bodies to drop Starkey in a tizz now when everyone has known he’s been an obnoxious shit (& very second rate historian) for decades theguardian.com/culture/2020…
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Grooming inquiry: it’s really shocking to watch otherwise decent people being told by hate monger Musk ( he doesn’t care about you) to make ugly & false accusations against Jess Phillips who has a lot more guts than Elon. Brains too, I expect theguardian.com/politics/202…
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Only weeks after his burka “ letter box” jibe, Down Trousers Boris likens May to a Brexit suicide bomber, appalling, bad taste & hyperbolic nonsense that confirms he has no more control over his mouth than over his dick theguardian.com/politics/201…
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Deleting photos on my phone I cam across this useful reminder of glib Brexit promises. Best to save it, I think
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Interesting that Tory tabloids and Reform activists want a foreign leader to veto ( second time too) the ambassador picked by UK govt. an odd kind of patriotism for the “ sovereign. Independent nation” lobby. Politically naive as well as morally wrong theguardian.com/politics/202…
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Cheap, George. Behave yourself. It would be a joke when you were 15, but not in your position. Ps : we haven’t forgotten your misjudged austerity policy
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Just listened to self styled victim of Met treatment. Gideon Falter, in (too) long I/v on R4 World This Weekend. My sympathy is with the Met as all sides - not least Falter- cash in ahead of London mayoral poll. Real victims are in Gaza & Israel, not here bbc.com/news/articles/cd130l…
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Boris’s ex, clever & decent KC, Marina, is to become Starmer’s sex harassment adviser. Chance for a smile on a grim day bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-6…
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Rayner tax probe : whatever the cops eventually decide here, this is a smear by an anti-tax party & dodgers, legal and not, orchestrated by this man amp.theguardian.com/news/201… theguardian.com/politics/202…
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Am listening to Gavin Williamson, who should never have been allowed back into cabinet, failing hopelessly to defend Boris/Cummings. Painful irony is that this feeble cabinet was picked for compliance, not competence - and most are useless as a Praetorian Guard
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Johnson’s petulant war on BBC means that his vassal Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, isn’t allowed to discuss Corona precautions on @BBCr4today. Fortuntately his ousted predecessor, J Hunt, is free to give a calmer, well informed summary of NHS options - a good system to cope
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Boris Johnson in new role as second hand car salesman keen to offload vehicle with dodgy mileage etc : “ no need to test drive it, Guv’ner, would I lie to you? Cash only if you don’t mind.” theguardian.com/politics/201…
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Farage complains that May has "no plan for Brexit." But Farage has been campaigning for Brexit for 25 years without a clue what to do next
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I don’t approve all Times campaigns - eg against BBC - but do its tenacious highlighting the increasingly illiberal sexual politics of Stonewall
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Tragically predictable that chauvinistic Fleet St is still dining off EU’s vaccine gaffe, telling itself EU is in crisis, hopeless etc. No room - again - to mention UK’s pandemic failures and the highest per capita death rate. Even Gove recoils from it
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Let’s get this right. Tories knew Elphicke had intervened improperly but kept quiet about it until the MP defected to Labour. I’m sure voters can see she was more loyal to her ex than to the party, but desperate Tories think thus damages Labour. I had expected better of Buckland
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This claim is self evidently untrue, which means Moggster is either a fool, a liar or both. You decide mirror.co.uk/news/politics/j…
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I’ve noticed very little comment here on the disappearance of our friendly blue bird. Most recent changes are cosmetic & trivial, but I find the forbidding black x disconcerting and oddly negative . Yes/no ?
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All this Allison Pearson nonsense turns out to be official nonsense, so it has drawn in the usual rentacrowd idiots like Boris, Elon Musk ( how pathetic is that ?) etc quoted in the Teleg and Mail. Will they apologise to Essex coppers? Nah theguardian.com/media/2024/n…
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That’s odd. The Mail thinks a 52% win by Melrose for GKN is “incredibly close” - and a scandal - but a 52% win for Brexit takeover scamsters is the “will of the British people”
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Puzzling paradox? 24 hours after distinguished BBC veteran - and Tory - gets extravagantly generous retirement send off ( from BBC) he savages its “liberal bias.” Where does he do this ? In the Daily Mail dailymail.co.uk/news/article…
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Mogg picks fight with Handel: it’s the lethal combination of lazy arrogance & ignorance that is so alarming. An Eton education is v expensive, yet their brains & much vaunted leadership skills rarely succeed in politics. Mediocre & over entitled
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But that can’t be true, George. Boris purged Remainers and got a majority of 80. It was his own picked Brexit duffers who messed up the negotiation. Didn’t do their homework despite boasting. Lazy - just like Boris
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What fun. Telegraph has been printing lies by Boris for 25 years. Now it defends his £275k a year column as “ not serious in depth analysis “ theguardian.com/politics/201…
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Several readers have kindly asked if I’m ok. Not quite as ok as I’d like. After a 50 year run with no health drama I had two crashes in a week. Nasty but I’ve been lucky. Now resting sensibly in Twitter-free zone and on the mend. Festive greetings to you all
@michaelwhite second week with no article in the New European. Hope you are ok?
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The point about this chap is that, in addition to the burdens of having a high-achieving father, he’s instinctively nasty - but not bright enough to get away with it. Obviously a Boris kind of pal theguardian.com/media/2019/s…
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What an unpleasant and ignorant lout is Tory MP Lee Anderson theguardian.com/politics/202…
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What’s this about a “Boriswave” of extra migrants after Brexit ? It was surely a “Farageflood” - it was his fault almost as much as Boris theguardian.com/politics/202…
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Arron “Ronski” Banks, Farage’s bagman & friend of Trump/Putin buddies, was boasting here about damage he did to Carole Cadwalladr in his richman’s law suit: here’s what Ronski did to the rest of us opendemocracy.net/en/carole-…
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Corbyn’s “I was present but don't think I was involved” could also be a fair summary of his leadership of the Labour Party since 2015 theguardian.com/politics/201…
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I’ve just rechecked the point. Tice is wrong . And he’s supposed to be clever . Oh dear
Victoria Derbyshire humiliates Richard Tice over respecting referendums, and still he doubles down:
Richard Tice, "The Good Friday Agreement does not require the UK to stay in the ECHR"
Victoria Derbyshire, "I'm not sure that's correct"
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Alas, “Brexit Bulldog” Davis is serial resigner & waste of political space. Has no answers (DexEU sec for two years !), but urges ex-cabinet colleagues still in the trenches to go over the top while he struts his stuff in safety at ERG’s chateau. Lazy sod theguardian.com/politics/201…
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Well done,privileges committee for slapping down riffraff Tory MPs & peers: a grim crew of vassal courtiers. And remember, they also rubbished Harman despite No 10 being expressly approving her chairmanship. Cynical & craven. I hope it’s tanked Mogg future bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66051280
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Tell us, Mr Mayor, what was it about this 27-year-old blonde & fellow-American that first impressed you? Who forced you to take her on trade missions against you will and to give her our money ? Why, oh why!! We are all mystified theguardian.com/politics/201…
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Heartbreaking news day for the Mail. It has to share its daily load of cruelty between two targets. But forced to chose it opts to highlight the not guilty one. M. Typical of the Mail’s deranged spite. BTW it’s the Mail that shamelessly changes its story
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Peter Brookes, Times cartoonist, appears to share my concern that the PM may not be up to the job he craved. Be careful what you wish for, Boris....
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This is what decent folk of all political persuasions are up against: rich US alt-right groups funding storm troopers like aka “Tommy” in other people’s “sovereign” jurisdiction. Putin does the same
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Here’s a cracker and reinforces my contention that a latest and - third attempt - successful budget to oust Rayner is fuelled by misogyny and anger at an uneducated woman should rise so far. Yet yellow trousered public school boy Farage gets away with much bigger tax avoidance
EXCL: Nigel Farage is using a private company to reduce his tax bill on his GB News media appearances and other outside employment 👇🏼 theguardian.com/politics/202…
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What Nigel knows about "American history " could safely be written on the back of an MEP's expenses claim. Doesn't know much about ours too
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Expected bottling out,but startling, Brexit isn’t done (Farage knows it), so having messed up UK Nigel who owns Ukip/Reform is prioritising helping (foreign interference?) Trump mess up US. It sounds like “follow the money, Nige” as usual. “Sovereignty”? theguardian.com/politics/art…
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Guardian has run a damning series on Boris’s career all week. But the FCO’s verdict - link here - is lethal. Lazy, short attention span, “wings it” and - worst ? - he “ likes to be liked.” Those who know him say he can’t do the job of PM theguardian.com/politics/201…
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Andrea Leadsom's Charity Is Bankrolled By Her patriotic Offshore Banker Brother-In-Law google.co.uk/amp/s/www.buzzf…
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Still disturbed by weaponisation is AS issue by cynical Tory media against Labour. Also by Labour Jewish activists demanding investigation of anyone present at Ali/Jones meeting who failed to challenge them. So now it’s a crime to listen? This is madness theguardian.com/politics/202…
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