- “Labour unrest mounts over immigration and benefits cuts” – Sir Keir Starmer said his critics are talking rubbish about Labour‘s new immigration policy at a stormy PMQs, reports the Mail.
- “Keir Starmer humiliated as new poll reveals just how many people ‘regret’ voting Labour” – Almost a third of Labour voters (29%) say they now believe they made the wrong choice at the General Election, says the Express.
- “Migration minister pledged to not report undocumented migrants and called for amnesty” – Sir Keir’s Minister for Migration said in 2021 it should be easier for undocumented migrants to get visas, according to the Express.
- “Starmer’s migration turn shows how even the elite now can’t defend multiculturalism” – The PM’s words are a welcome start, but they must be matched by real action if we are to restore a shared sense of nationhood, writes Suella Braverman in the Telegraph.
- “What Starmer’s immigration critics don’t get” – There may be a simple reason why some of Starmer’s critics will never see eye to eye with him on migration, says Patrick West in the Spectator.
- “The Left’s meltdown over Starmer’s ‘Enoch Powell’ speech shows why Reform will win the next election” – For once, the PM has said something in tune with the average Briton – and those who are supposedly on his side are punishing him for it, writes Michael Deacon in the Telegraph.
- “Starmer learning a very great deal from Reform on immigration, claims Farage” – Nigel Farage has hailed the PM’s speech cracking down on migration, claiming Sir Keir is “learning a great deal” from Reform UK, according to the Standard.
- “The thick blue line” – In the Critic, Ben Sixsmith blasts the overzealous and humourless policing of free speech in the UK.
- “How Britain’s police went from being the most revered to most despised” – Plodding officers are allowing themselves to be exploited by individuals and organisations with obvious political agendas, says Isabel Oakeshott in the Telegraph.
- “The good and the bad of the sentencing reforms” – Public opinion is being softened up, not very subtly, for a dramatic change in penal policy, writes Ian Acheson in the Spectator
- “Britain is heading the way of France” – A growing number of French believe civil war is inevitable, says Gavin Mortimer in the Spectator. Britain has not yet reached that point, but it is heading in that direction.
- “Police drop case against ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe” – Former Reform MP Rupert Lowe has branded Nigel Farage “a coward and a viper” after learning he will face no criminal charges over claims he made “verbal threats” towards party Chairman Zia Yusuf, reports the Mail.
- “An alternative to rotten Reform is coming soon” – There will, very soon, be an alternative to the rotten leadership of Reform, says Rupert Lowe in the Telegraph.
- “London second home owners should pay ‘much more’ than double tax, says Khan” – Sadiq Khan has warned that second home owners in London could soon be forced to pay more than double council tax, reports the Standard.
- “Is it any surprise junior doctors want more money?” – Can the Government continue to award bigger pay rises to junior doctors than to nurses? wonders Ross Clark in the Spectator. They may come to regret it.
- “Taxi driver faces theft charges after Lammy ‘refused to pay £590 fare’” – A French taxi driver faces charges that he stole luggage and cash from the Foreign Secretary during a trip from Italy to the French Alps, reports the Telegraph. The driver claims Lammy short-changed him to the tune of £590.
- “The nimby row engulfing the ‘two-faced’ Milibands” – In the Telegraph, Eleanor Steafel highlights the irony of Dame Justine Thornton, wife of Labour’s housing crusader Ed Miliband, opposing a new block of flats on her own doorstep.
- “Deafening silence proves they were never serious about climate change” – On the Public podcast, narcissism expert Sam Vaknin argues that the Left’s eerie silence on Trump’s abandonment of Biden’s climate change agenda reveals their crusade was less about the planet and more about performative narcissism.
- “Professor Henrik Svensmark: Sun and cosmic rays, not CO2, drive climate” – On the Freedom Research Substack, astrophysicist Henrik Svensmark explains that solar activity and cosmic rays influence our climate by regulating cloud cover.
- “The assisted dying Bill appeared to have unstoppable momentum. Now it’s on shaky ground” – With Parliament set to debate the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill next Tuesday, some MPs are said to be considering changing course, reports Abigail Buchanan in the Telegraph.
- “Royal College of Psychiatrists voices opposition to assisted dying” – In the Spectator, Steerpike reacts to the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ opposition to Kim Leadbeater’s euthanasia Bill.
- “The convictions of Lucy Letby: should they be overturned?” – In the Guardian, David Conn reveals how Lucy Letby’s convictions may hinge on flawed medical evidence – now discredited by the very scientist whose paper helped jail her.
- “Debbie Lerman – The Deep State Goes Viral” – On Substack, the Naked Emperor reviews Debbie Lerman’s The Deep State Goes Viral, showing how Covid was treated as a security threat rather than a health crisis – and why that should worry us all.
- “Von der Leyen’s texts with Pfizer boss can be shared, says EU’s highest court” – The European Court of Justice has overturned a decision to withhold Ursula von der Leyen’s text messages with a pharmaceutical executive during the pandemic, reports the Guardian.
- “The unravelling of the King of Davos” – A stunning fall from grace for WEF founder Klaus Schwab has come amid threats against board members and allegations of financial impropriety, writes Jenny Strasburg in the WSJ.
- “EU offers Britain truce in ‘sausage war’ – but it comes at a cost” – The EU has offered a truce in its ‘sausage war’ with Britain so it can clinch a “fish for food” Brexit reset deal set to be announced on Monday, reports the Telegraph.
- “China warns Starmer over terms of US trade deal” – China has warned the UK that it “will need to respond” after Sir Keir’s trade deal with the US could lead to Chinese products being removed from British supply chains, says the Express.
- “Gary Lineker apologises unreservedly for antisemitic post” – Gary Lineker has apologised after sharing an Instagram story depicting Jews as rats, reports GB News.
- “Ex-Premier League boss: Gary Lineker is ‘not a nice man’” – Gary Lineker is accused of being disrespectful and “not a nice man” in a new memoir published by a former Premier League boss, says the Mail.
- “Who is representing Israel at Eurovision 2025?” – Yuval Raphael is to represent Israel with her song ‘New Day Will Rise’ at this year’s Eurovision contest, after surviving the horrific October 7th attacks just seven months ago, says the Mail.
- “The repugnant campaign against Israel’s Eurovision star” – There is nothing ‘progressive’ about the attempts to silence a survivor of the October 7th pogrom, writes Andrea Seaman in Spiked.
- “Palestine and the truth about the Nakba” – For groups like Hamas, the establishment of Israel is akin to the Crusader states of the Middle Ages, says Jonathan Sacerdoti in the Spectator.
- “Trump has a ‘really nasty’ shock in store for Ireland” – In the Telegraph, Hans van Leeuwen warns that Donald Trump’s protectionist push to repatriate US pharma and tech jobs could deliver a devastating blow to Ireland’s economic model.
- “Carney criticises Starmer over Trump state visit” – Mark Carney has criticised Sir Keir for offering Donald Trump an unprecedented second state visit to Britain, reports the Express.
- “NHS trust locked in trans row is paying out millions in compensation to patients” – In the Telegraph, Dia Chakravarty highlights how NHS Fife’s costly legal battles over gender policies and compensation claims have drained over £10 million from taxpayers.
- “Prince Harry’s popularity sinks after BBC interview attacking King” – The Duke of Sussex’s popularity in the UK has plunged after a BBC interview in which he claimed the King refused to speak to him, reports GB News.
- “The UK Tonight with Sarah-Jane Mee” – On X, Intel Lady presents her latest sketch ahead of Angela Rayner’s Employment Rights Bill being debated in the House of Lords, with a focus on the ludicrous ‘Banter Ban’.
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Mark Steyn characterizes Nigel Farage as someone who is good at wrecking things. I’m reminded of a Project Manager who was described as “sailing serenely onwards, leaving chaos in his wake”.
I have a lot of time for Mark, but he never built a political party to be 30% plus in the polls. Applies also to Rupert. Reform is the only hope that we can kick out the Uni-party. Why people with the same objective seem to think that the best thing to do is to nobble their own side by fragmenting the support because they think they can do it better, the Lord only knows.
The list of political associates with whom Mr Farage has fallen out is a long one. He is a divisive figure. His comments regarding Putin arguably torpedoed a lot of Reform support at the last election.
The exemplar of Mr Johnson is informative. He was a key figure in the success of Brexit and a key figure in the convincing Conservative election victory of 2019. Mr Johnson was a charismatic figure of arguably greater stature than Mr Farage but the most disastrous Prime Minister in living memory.
Mr Farage could very well be a great deal worse.
‘A secretive new company set up by an aristocratic convicted fraudster with close ties to Nigel Farage’s Reform party “raises real red flags”, a leading anti-corruption expert has warned.’
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/george-cottrell-nigel-farage-reform-geostrategy-international-unlimited-company-donations/
Johnson was not a terrible PM because he had dodgy mates or was corrupt or divisive. He was terrible because he was a weak, lazy, lefty liberal leading a left wing party. I’m no Farage fanboy but he doesn’t seem like any of those things and just as importantly, neither does his party.
Mr Farage has no track record in office on which to base any such assessment.
Mr Johnson at least had two passable terms as London Mayor on which to make an assessment.
He must have had a decent team working for him then and, of course, a different wife.
Farage indeed has no track record but I don’t care. The last few have been so terrible and all the other plausible alternatives are so bad that I am more than happy to take a chance.
I can’t recall much about Johnson’s time as Mayor other than he was not Sadiq Khan.
To be fair to Johnson, I can think of two positive things to say about him, one political and one personal.
Politically, he did push through Brexit, even if his motives may have been opportunistic.
Personally, as an ex Islington cyclist myself I applaud the fact that he intervened when a fellow cyclist was being harassed by thugs. He lived in a pretty sketchy area and some of the local youth were very unpleasant so he was taking a considerable risk by stepping in. If only he had shown the same courage in the face of “Covid”.
How much difference did that make.?
The people who did the hard work have gone.
Well, some of us might feel reluctant to support anyone as a “least worst” option given the betrayal by the Fake Conservatives. But I am inclined to think Reform deserve a chance.
“The Left’s meltdown over Starmer’s ‘Enoch Powell’ speech shows why Reform will win the next election”
The real deal. Do yourself a favour and watch his interview with Dick Cavett in 1966. A brilliant man…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7Zfvcb3mWI
“Is it any surprise junior doctors want more money?
With changes in working practices leading to productivity gains..?
“The convictions of Lucy Letby: should they be overturned?”
The real question is ‘How can they not be overturned.?’
“Gary Lineker apologises unreservedly for antisemitic post”
Is he being sent on a Diversity course for anti-semities..? Thought not…
I wasn’t aware of the rat reference, I’m really not <I>that</I> passionate about the topic, however I would have questioned the presence of an image of a vermin before sharing to 8M+ followers. It just goes to show how one sided these useful idiots that post daily rants against Jews are. And I’m guessing Queers for Palestine are not aware they’d be stoned to death the moment they set foot in Gaza either…
I also couldn’t help notice how BBC didn’t have any issue mentioning the rat reference several times in their articles, starting with the title. Usually they go with generics like “offensive slur”, “n-word”, etc.
Wednesday Morning Forest Road & A330 Hatchett Lane Ascot
What the heck is it with unions? The Fire Brigades Union are rightly getting roasted in the comments for this. One of the biggest sources of misogyny women face in society is from the Transtifa activists and all supporters of gender identity politics, so their claim is totally contradictory. You can click on the pic for their full statement;
”We know that the law is not always on the right side of history. The Supreme Court ruling last month does not make public spaces safer for anyone.
The interim guidance is unworkable, unhelpful and will only lead to an increase in discrimination for workers, including in fire stations and in control rooms.
Trans people are not a threat. Gender-based violence and misogyny are.”
https://x.com/fbunational/status/1922595681010585654
Top comments;
”How can any law or guidance be unacceptable when that is what we have done for over 100 years before the recent surge in genderist activism?”
”Women having legal recognition and rights is not the “wrong side of history”, you ridiculous misogynist twonks.”
“The Fire Brigades Union are rightly getting roasted in the comments”
was that intentional? 🤭
😁
”The Perils of Unchecked Indulgence.
In a world striving to be compassionate and inclusive, a dangerous pattern has emerged, one where society’s understanding becomes a tool for exploitation. Criminals have long understood this dynamic: the more lenient a society becomes, the more space they have to operate. Yet this principle no longer applies solely to those who break the law in the conventional sense. Today, a broader class of radicals: religious extremists, political agitators, racial supremacists, and militant gender ideologues, are thriving not in spite of society’s tolerance, but because of it.
Modern liberal democracies have elevated tolerance to a virtue so supreme that it often overrides reason, accountability, and common sense. Any criticism of radical behaviour is swiftly condemned as bigotry, hatred, or phobia. This creates a perverse incentive: the more extreme the behaviour, the more protected it becomes under the guise of victim-hood. Religion is twisted into justification for violence; political causes become excuses for authoritarian control; race is wielded as a shield against scrutiny; gender ideology is used to silence dissent.
The danger lies not in understanding, but in indulgence without discernment. Compassion without boundaries becomes complicity. Societies that are unwilling to draw lines, out of fear of appearing intolerant, end up erasing the very values they claim to uphold. In the name of inclusion, they exclude reason. In the name of justice, they excuse injustice.
A mature society must distinguish between genuine cries for equality and cynical manipulations of moral language. It must be brave enough to call out extremism in all its forms, regardless of the identity or ideology it hides behind. Only then can understanding serve its true purpose: healing, not enabling; uniting, not unravelling.” Patrick Ford
Morning to early risers Brett & Neil , it’s an attack of Sciatica that’s woken me btw , lots to unpack in this mornings briefing , Mark Carney gets my goat to start with ! Parachuted in by the usual Tri Lateral, WEF type Charlatans he’s telling the uk to blank Trumps visit !
Very specific, Freddy. Thanks for that. “It’s a big club….”, eh? 👀 Nowt I didn’t already know, though…😉
“Starmer learning a very great deal from Reform on immigration, claims Farage”
If you want to hear about it, vote Labour
If you want it doing, vote Reform!
Remember ‘smashing the gangs’?
“Deafening silence proves they were never serious about climate change”
If the Democrats and other assorted lefty loonies were a stick of rock it would have the word Hypocrite written right through the middle!
Maybe, I’ll tell you what’s not very nice either. The Premier League. It is a repulsive, aggressively sanctimonious, virtue signalling organisation.
They shove gay, rainbow symbols down everyone’s throat all day long.
They treat everyone as if we are all racists, drumming the “don’t be racist” messages relentlessly.
And when everyone in the world has given up on that stupid, vacuous gesture which is “taking the knee”, who carries on with the narcissistic, performative ritual? The Premier League.
Meanwhile, they react aggressively against anyone who independently tries to express some other belief that they consider may contradict their radical woke messaging. Like, you know, someone who, god forbid, might be a Christian. Or doesn’t want to be part of promoting gay, lesbian, trans ideology.
The Premier League are disgusting. Much more so than Lineker in my view who is just an individual expressing his opinion, not a powerful organisation browbeating everyone into supporting its chosen ideology.
Too late, morons.
“Trump has a ‘really nasty’ shock in store for Ireland”
Ireland is not in the crossfire. It is part of the EU. If there’s a trade war between the EU and USA then it’s already committed to the EU side. It’s far too late to declare neutrality.
Most of that I agree with but ireland is only as rich as it is because of Irish based American big business, Apple, Amazon big Pharma, Microsoft etc, if Trump drops corporation tax and adds more tariffs they will all leave like rats from a sinking ship, will the EU pick up the keltic tigers tab?
Nope. The only way Ireland could beat it would be to strike a trade deal with the good ol’ USA – but they can’t because EU.
That said, Trump will be gone in less than 4 years. Maybe Ireland should just buckle up and hope that his successor is a softer touch – or as Irish as Biden.
Oh yeah?