- “Russia planning attack on Poland to test Nato resolve, US warns” – Russia is planning an armed “provocation” on Polish soil to test Nato’s resolve, with critical infrastructure potentially targeted by missiles and drones or soldiers crossing from Kaliningrad or Belarus, reports the Telegraph.
- “Germany indicts Ukrainian over Nord Stream sabotage, alleges Kyiv” – German federal prosecutors have charged a Ukrainian national over the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline, accusing him of acting as an accomplice in a war crime, according to Politico.
- “Lisa Nandy’s department quits X over Elon Musk ‘misinformation’” – Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, has announced her department is leaving X because the Elon Musk-owned platform “favours abuse and misinformation”, says the Telegraph.
- “How the BMA held a gun to the nation’s head – and won” – From the first taboo-busting strike in 2023 to Labour’s final capitulation this week, the Telegraph charts how the union won a 35% pay rise for doctors.
- “Making Ed Miliband chancellor would be a mistake, Trump team warns” – Senior officials in President Trump’s administration have privately warned that appointing Ed Miliband as Chancellor would be a “mistake”, reveals the Times.
- “Which taxes will Burnham raise this autumn?” – On his Substack, Neil O’Brien says a summer of damaging tax speculation over Andy Burnham’s autumn plans is already well underway.
- “Burnham and Miliband want a 50% tax rate – here’s why it would fail” – With Andy Burnham on the verge of entering Number 10, the threat of an income tax rise is growing, warns the Telegraph.
- “Burnham tax uncertainty will stifle investment, City warns” – The Prime Minister-in-waiting is being urged to name his Chancellor or risk hurting growth, notes the Telegraph.
- “The problem with Burnham’s ‘cost of living populism’” – In the Spectator, Ross Clark says “cost of living populism” is just an attempt to rebrand Labour’s traditional weakness of fiscal irresponsibility followed by steep rises in inflation and interest rates.
- “Andy Burnham pledges to keep pension triple lock in Reddit AMA” – The Prime Minister-in-waiting took questions on electoral reform and asylum seekers in his “ask me anything” session before being heckled by Kemi Badenoch, writes the Times.
- “Burnham wants to destroy Thatcher’s legacy. He should be careful” – Andy Burnham has criticised the “draining away of economic, social and political power” which he claimed took place under Thatcher, writes Charles Moore in the Telegraph.
- “Burnham’s ‘No10 North’ won’t be ready for at least six years” – Andy Burnham has made having a base in Manchester a key plank of his “new approach” as he takes over from Sir Keir Starmer, says the Mail. But it will be six years before his Downing St outpost in Manchester is ready.
- “Only Farage can deliver change, says Reform’s third billionaire backer” – Sasan Ghandehari has pledged to donate millions to Reform as Nigel Farage builds a war chest for an early general election, according to the Telegraph.
- “Is Nigel Farage becoming a liability for Reform?” – The leader is increasingly tetchy when asked about the source of his money and unhappy with the party’s move further Right, writes Fraser Nelson in the Times.
- “Two-tier justice row as police arrest white man ‘assaulted by black men’” – Robert Jenrick has demanded West Midlands Police release full footage of an incident in which the victim of black-on-white crime was charged with hitting an officer, reveals the Telegraph.
- “Rochdale rapist freed despite warnings” – The Pakistani ringleader of the Rochdale grooming gang was judged “unsafe” to release into the community just 20 months before he was freed from prison, says the Telegraph.
- “Henry Nowak’s killer ‘applies to have murder conviction quashed’” – Vickrum Digwa, 23, jailed for life last month for murdering Henry Nowak, has applied to have his conviction quashed and sentence reduced, reports the Mail.
- “Rape victim’s mother slams new four-year jail sentences for attackers” – Fifteen year-olds convicted of raping a teenage girl have now been sent to young offender institutions, according to the Mail.
- “Taxi driver who dropped Southport killer is stripped of his licence” – Gary Poland, 57, who drove Axel Rudakubana to the scene of his crime, has had his licence revoked by Sefton Council, notes the Mail.
- “Men who went ‘fishing for Jews’ in Stamford Hill are sentenced” – Two men who went “fishing for Jews” in Stamford Hill, inner London, as they filmed antisemitic TikTok videos, have been given suspended prison sentences, reports the Mail.
- “George Osborne: Stalker tried to ruin my wedding day” – The former Tory chancellor almost called off his nuptials over allegations sent to guests and “creepy” gifts from his stalker, says the Telegraph.
- “The Civil Service has slipped out a dangerous plan to make Britain ungovernable” – A dull-sounding document published on Wednesday amounts to a dangerous plan to make Britain ungovernable, says David Frost in the Telegraph.
- “Has Britain’s only free-thinking university been captured by the lanyard class?” – The suspension of James Tooley was a triumph of the lanyard class over Britain’s only free-thinking university, argues Annabel Denham in the Telegraph.
- “Let people work from home after England match, say unions” – The TUC is urging employers to be flexible after England’s 1am World Cup kick-off against Mexico and allow fans to work from home on Monday, reports the Telegraph.
- “Mass immigration has turned the European dream into a nightmare” – In the Telegraph, Daniel Johnson asks how Schengen can survive both the rise of nationalist politics and open borders policies in countries like Spain.
- “Riad Bouchaker’s stab attack was a crime against Ireland” – In the Spectator, Brendan O’Neill argues Bouchaker’s conviction suggests his Dublin crèche attack was not only a crime of violence but also an act of anti-Irish hatred.
- “Meanwhile, among the Democrats” – On his Substack, Andrew Sullivan writes that the hard Left is cementing its grip on the Democratic Party.
- “Bob Vylan announces they are suing BBC for defamation after Glasto row” – The punk duo are suing the BBC over its coverage of their Glastonbury performance, reports the Mail.
- “Jonathan Haidt: We’re dumbing down while machines are becoming smarter” – When The Anxious Generation was published, several prominent psychologists accused Haidt of failing to prove a causal link between smartphones and harm, notes the Times.
- “Dale Vince: Ed Miliband has turned Net Zero toxic” – The Labour donor Dale Vince has branded Ed Miliband unsuitable to be Chancellor and called on Andy Burnham to sack the Energy Secretary rather than promote him, according to the Telegraph.
- “Revealed: severe setbacks to establishment Net Zero narrative” – If Miliband succeeds in his plan to triple solar and quadruple wind he will only create periods of huge unusable surpluses of electricity with increased risk of blackouts, writers Douglas Brodie in ThinkScotland.
- “El Niño is rapidly strengthening, triggering extreme weather chaos” – A super El Niño has officially begun in the tropical Pacific and is now rapidly strengthening, warns the Mail.
- “Britain put under eight-day heat health alert from tomorrow” – The UK Health Security Agency has extended a yellow heat health alert running from tomorrow until next Saturday, while Southern Water has announced a hosepipe ban, says the Mail.
- “Controversial plan to dim the sun could choke sky with sulphuric acid” – A controversial plan to fight climate change by dimming the sun could choke the sky with clouds of sulphuric acid, scientists have warned, according to the Mail.
- “Mark Carney pivots Canada back to oil and gas in Net Zero retreat” – Mark Carney has backed a major new oil pipeline project as the former Net Zero champion pivots back towards oil and gas, reports the Telegraph.
- “UK electric vehicle sales hit record levels” – New electric vehicle sales reached a record high last month, accounting for 30% of all new car registrations, says the Times.
- “Special forces ban Chinese electric cars over spying fears” – The Special Boat Service has banned Chinese-made electric cars from its headquarters over fears they could be used for spying, notes the Telegraph.
- “The Hammersmith Bridge fiasco is a national embarrassment” – Seven years after Hammersmith Bridge closed abruptly to motor traffic, it has now been confirmed it will never reopen to cars and buses, reports the Telegraph.
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‘Welcome to the Land of the Free’ is THE song of 2026. And even with six months to go, this one won’t be surpassed. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/tV9NY1440F
— Jerry Thornton (@jerrythornton) July 3, 2026
Thanks for linking this fantastic, uplifting, cheerful music video, Lord Toby & the DS !!!
Here’s the Youtube version for those like me who can’t access it again on “X” without joining “X”:
Welcome To The Land Of The Free
So the man who drove the Southport killer to the dance class venue ( and presumably did not have the gift of foresight ) has his taxi licence revoked but a taxi driver who raped his passenger in Scotland gets to keep his;
”David Brown, 50, of Croy, near Inverness, was sentenced to six years and nine months in May following his attack on the 18-year-old in December 2023.
Rape and Sexual Abuse Service Highland said allowing a convicted rapist to hold a licence in that same industry was a “harmful message” to women.
Highland Council’s licensing committee voted in private last week to allow a taxi operator’s licence to continue in his name, despite objections from Police Scotland.
Nicola Love, external affairs manager for Rape Crisis Scotland, said people were “very rightly concerned”.
She said: “We don’t think that it is in anyway appropriate for someone who was not only convicted of a sexual offence, but somebody who was convicted of a sexual offence using the guise of his taxi, to be allowed to operate a taxi.”
Highlands and Islands SNP MSP Maree Todd described the committee’s decision as “incomprehensible”.
She added: “I’m struggling to understand what they were… Read more »
Funny old world, this woke utopia!
“TCW: An announcement
By
Kathy Gyngell
–
July 4, 2026”
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/tcw-an-announcement/#:~:text=TCW%3A%20An%20announcement-,TCW%3A%20An%20announcement,July%204%2C%202026,-IT%20IS%20with
Kathy Gyngell is closing down The Conservative Woman. Some sort of Substack will replace.
I’m gutted.
Sad news. I was a subscriber but stopped recently because of insoluble (at my end, I think) technical issues. However I hope Paul Homewood will find a new home here.
Blimey that’s a shock – whenever I looked at the comments section it was always so lively, I would have assumed that they had tons of subscribers. But running a news site that is blacklisted by advertisers as it apparently was is clearly very challenging. It’s worth reading the post linked to as she sets out all the ways in which they were attacked by the establishment.
Fry up brunch time, 😋
“UK electric vehicle sales hit record levels”
Take away all subsidies and then watch what happens!
30% of new car registrations. Registrations are not sales.
Motor dealers register cars for a number of reasons, particularly at end of financial periods to meet quotas and targets set by the manufacturers in order to get discounts and bonuses.
Registered vehicles can then be sold at discounts as demo models or second hand, without debasing prices of “new” models.
“Britain put under eight-day heat health alert from tomorrow”
Run for your lives..!
Eight days eh ? That’s pretty accurate forecasting. At the moment in Saddleworth we are expecting rain – that’s not been forecast. We’ll see.
“Henry Nowak’s killer ‘applies to have murder conviction quashed”
….and how much will this appeal cost the tax payer…?
“Is Nigel Farage becoming a liability for Reform?”
NO! ..nice try
…but Rupert Lowe is looking increasingly like a serious asset…
Badenoch can’t deliver her party. She’d probably be good in Reform, but no Reform merger with CUP please, the CUP is a toxic brand which needs to disappear
Rupert Lowe isn’t a viable possibility he’s just a vote splitter!
Rupert Lowe is becoming an asset for Reform ?
Lost me there.
I didn’t say that… Lowe is a right wing asset who IMO is getting better all the time, and is getting good quality traction in all sorts of places. I’d prefer Reform and Restore to be one and the same. But not in cahoots with the CUP, only with its better MPs
“Which taxes will Burnham raise this autumn?”
All of them, he’s got his none working voters to think about! Party of the none working class dont you know!
“Lisa Nandy’s department quits X over Elon Musk ‘misinformation”
Now thats how you make a social media platform even more popular!
Goodbye! Don’t come back.
I’ve always wondered, why is there a need for government departments to be on social media at all? They all have perfectly good websites where they can share information – hearing less from government would I think be a good thing. Same for local police, fire brigades etc…
Dale Vince is criticising another priest from the religion of net zero in the way communist central committee members were condemned. It is not the messenger but the message that needs changing. Indeed, like communism, the entire creed should uk of be abandoned.
Just as south sea islanders persisted for too long with a belief in magical aircraft so the net zero fanatics should give attention to facts. They have been pushing a false promise and the rest of us are fed up with the costs and other consequences.
Is Farage becoming a liability? .. ol’ deep state sleeper himself, Fraser Nelson, preaches to the long ago boiled and converted Times readers.
Which taxes will Burnham raise this autumn? Deja vu all over again
1965 (Chancellor: James Callaghan): Introduced Capital Gains Tax at 30% and a new Corporation Tax, initially set at 40%.
1966 (Chancellor: James Callaghan): Introduced the Selective Employment Tax (SET), a broad payroll tax designed to tax service industries to subsidize manufacturing.
1967 (Chancellor: James Callaghan): Enacted a temporary one-off “Special Charge” on investment income over £8,000, creating an effective total tax burden on some top earners that famously exceeded 100% (roughly 136%).
1968 (Chancellor: Roy Jenkins):…forced devaluation of the pound in 1967, 1968 Budget heavily raised indirect taxes, including fuel/petrol duties and the SET rate, and introduced another Special Charge on higher personal incomes.
1969 (Chancellor: Roy Jenkins): raised taxes on alcohol, betting, and raised SET.
1974–1976 (Chancellor: Denis Healey): Upon Wilson’s return to power in 1974, the top rate of income tax on “earned” income reached 83%, and the top rate on “unearned” (investment) income reached 98%. The basic rate of income tax was also raised to 35% in 1975
“Is Nigel Farage becoming a liability for Reform?” – The leader is increasingly tetchy when asked about the source of his money and unhappy with the party’s move further Right, writes Fraser Nelson in the Times.
Lol, probably the politician with the most recognition and the most loyal following. The Tory press are desperate.
Fraser Nelson has misread politics at least since he first spoke at The Bruges Group when he became editor of the Speccie. He is fully signed up to the globalist left in the Tory Party. His opinion on Nigel Farage is irrelevant , like most of his writing.
Fraserburgh Nelson is away with the fairies.
The majority of people do not avidly follow the machinations of the Westminster Bubble, nor read what the Commentariat and Chatterati are obsessing about on social media.
Observation: now that the Media’s and Commentariat’s favourite chew-toy Starmer is on the way out, and the new Head Boy has not yet arrived, in the interim Farage is substitute chew-toy du jour.
Indeed. I was in the steam room at our club just before the local elections. It emerged that somebody people knew was standing as a Reform candidate for a local ward. A young lady expressed disapproval. Her verdict on Reform: “They want us gone”. She is second generation Greek Cypriot, born in the UK and undoubtedly a UK citizen. She thinks Reform are going to round up millions of people and ship them abroad. She shows no other outward sign of being retarded.
I’m going to play devil’s advocate here for a minute.
There is a lot of fuzziness around this issue. Opinions range from dealing decisively with illegal immigration and radically reducing legal immigration to aggressively deporting illegal immigrants already here all the way to revoking legally acquired permits to stay in order to ensure the white native population massively predominates.
Without making any judgments on the validity of any of those, one can see how people might wonder where it begins and where it could end.
I know I react strongly to many collectivist ideas even when superficially they might seem sort of reasonable because I just know where it could very easily lead and often does.
I think it would help Reform win more of the “centrist” voters if it can be extra, extra clear on their policy – which I understand to be very reasonable. I know they are trying and it’s a hard thing to do with traditional media mischaracterising them all the time. But if they want to win a bigger share of the vote, they are going to have to find a way to disabuse people like your second generation Cypriot of their misconceptions.
I guess my point was that much of the electorate are not paying much attention. But I totally agree that it is what it is and it’s for the various parties to get their message across. Reform are slightly swimming upstream as they are battling not only the hard left media assisted by the government but also the delusional Tory press. Ultimately though they have to find a way to overcome that if they want power.
TBH, the biggest headwind Reform have, in my opinion, is that Farage is inextricably linked to Brexit and roughly half the country didn’t want it and of those a good chunk of them are really pissed off about it. People that on other matters are very aligned – regulation, climate, woke madness and to a certain extent immigration (the “wrong” kind from non-European countries). And they just can’t bring themselves to vote for Reform even though in almost every respect they are aligned.
The way they justify themselves is by latching on to the “far right” label. Farage is far right and that is all they need to know and to absolve themselves of explaining why they won’t vote for a party that represents their interests.
An interesting view and not one that has occurred to me or that I’ve seen expressed elsewhere.
I had always assumed that the sets of Brexit supporters and people who would support other Reform policies largely overlapped, but I have nothing other than anecdotal evidence of this.
Nelson betrays the envy that the highly educated but not particularly wealthy have towards those who have achieved financial success. They will do any number of the following:
-Question their intellect,
-Question their sophistication,
-Question their moral standards,
-Question the legitimacy of their wealth
They see themselves as the smartest and best within society and are deep down livid that it hasn’t brought them the wealth they think they deserve. They pretend to dismiss the importance of money, but in reality they despise the idea that others have it and they don’t.
That’s why the most aggressive and dangerous commies are often highly educated (meaning, highly credentialed).
Yes envious of the financial success but perhaps also of the power and influence.
“Burnham and Miliband want a 50% tax rate – here’s why it would fail”
No, it won’t “fail” because the intention isn’t necessarily to increase state revenues but to be seen to be punishing “the rich” and to punish success, and to further the socialist project of putting the state above everything else.
It’s just shorthand for following out British society even further.
Should that have been “hollowing out”?
Absolutely.
Mind you, he’s just reinforcing an idea that has been pushed and cemented for decades.
It’ unfair that some people have more than others. Those who earn more don’t really deserve it. Those who have more didn’t earn it really, they are the beneficiaries of fortunate circumstances. Even if they did earn some of it it’s wrong that others should have less and actually if they’re not willing to give some of it over, they are evil.
These ideas are so deeply embedded in the mind of modern western societies that the only valid question has become how much is it fair to confiscate.
False flag incoming alert.
This is how you do it:
‘February 27, 2014, heavily armed men…green uniforms with no identifying insignia stormed…Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, and raised the Russian flag…
…the same day, Russia’s ambassador to the European Union told Euronews that the troops at the airport were not Russian. “There are no troops whatsoever, no Russian troops at least…’
‘The Bloomberg reporter who asked the question noted that the armed men wore “uniforms strongly resembling Russian Army uniforms.”
March 2014 Putin responded: “Take a look at the post-Soviet states. There are many uniforms there that are similar. You can go to a store and buy any kind of uniform.”
Putin’s defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, said: “It’s complete nonsense…absolutely not…are you kidding’
March 2015 “That’s why I gave orders to the Defense Ministry — why hide it? — to deploy special forces of the GRU (military intelligence) as well as marines and commandos there under the guise of reinforcing security for our military facilities in Crimea,” Putin…’
That was the way to do it. Bloodlessly and supported by most of the population.
Most of the Tatars that the BBC spoke to said they had boycotted the vote, and felt that life under the Kremlin would be worse. Refat Chubarov, leader of the Tatars’ unofficial parliament, said the referendum was illegal, and held in a hasty manner under the control of Russian troops.
“The fate of our motherland cannot be decided in such a referendum under the shadows of the guns of soldiers,” he told the BBC.
The Tatars were deported to Central Asia by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. They were only able to return with the fall of the Soviet Union and many want to remain in Ukraine.
But the referendum did not have an option for those who wanted the constitutional arrangements to remain unchanged.
‘…fighting took place in eastern Ukraine between the Ukrainian Armed Forces and separatist forces supported by the Russian government. Between April 14 and December 31, 2014, 2,084 civilians were killed, including 298 victims of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) which was shot down in July 2014.’
And the relevance of this is….?
‘…there is a report of the Human Rights Council, entitled “Problems of Crimean Residents,” still up on the president-sovet.ru website, which discusses the Council’s estimates of the results of the March 16 referendum. Quoting from that report: “In Crimea, according to various indicators, 50-60% voted for unification with Russia with a voter turnout (yavka) of 30-50%.” This leads to a range of between 15 percent (50% x 30%) and 30 percent (60% x 50%) voting for annexation.’
The Crimean population has a large ethnic Russian majority – you do know what majority means, of course.
‘Atesh appeared as a network after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 and is by no means the only resistance organisation in occupied areas.
It claims to be a grassroots movement that’s grown from a small group which now numbers “thousands”.
An “oath” posted on the Telegram messaging app in September 2022 said, “I swear by my blood and my soul” to be faithful to the Atesh movement and “fight for the Ukrainian state”.
There are reported to be strong links to the peninsula’s Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar population’
Absolutely correct
Hes announced on Russian TV that he’s struggling in Ukraine, why open another front?
NATO is planning an
armed “provocation” /false flag operation on Polish soil to test Russia’s resolve,Oh you old cynic you!