James Cooper

Imagine if you were recruiting for the role of PM, or even an MP

Putting together a basic job description would instantly rule out 90% of all politicians across the board, starting with good communication skills

Parties would be a lot better off if they picked people who had the basic competencies

So tell me again how Nigel Farage, who just took the largest ever political donation, from a Tory mega-donor, and another donation from the Viscountess wife of the non-dom owner of the Daily Mail, is planning to "take on the establishment"

With Germany’s president visiting the UK, we asked Germans what they think about Brexit.

👀 "It's just so stupid to cut the branch you're sitting on," one person said.

Here's what else they had to say ⬇️

David Miles (of the OBR) at the Treasury Select Committee: Reeves’ speech was not inconsistent with the OBR’s assessment.

Lol, BBC apologising to him for damaging his reputation whilst simultaneously publishing breaking news articles about his links to a paedophile sex trafficker

It just doesn’t make any sense anymore

Everyone knows he incited that riot - time to start pointing out that the emperor is in fact naked

Maybe Keir should demand the heads of major US news networks any time they imply Britain is on the brink of civil war or that we live under sharia law. Or does it not work both ways?

graphic featuring a tweet by leader Ed Davey (@EdwardJDavey) and a reply containing a quoted tweet from Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump). Ed Davey's Tweet: "It's easy to see why Trump wants to destroy the world’s number one news source. We can’t let him. The BBC belongs to all of us here in the UK. The Prime Minister and leaders from across the political spectrum should be united in telling Trump to keep his hands off it." Quoted Donald J. Trump Tweet: "The TOP people in the BBC, including TIM DAVIE, the BOSS, are all quitting/FIRED, because they were caught 'doctoring' my very good (PERFECT!) speech of January 6th. Thank you to The Telegraph for exposing these Corrupt 'Journalists.' These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election. On top of everything else, they are from a Foreign Country, one that many consider our Number One Ally.

The BBC belongs to Britain, not Trump.

Political leaders across the spectrum must defend it.

Lol, if Starmer is “Trump’s poodle” what does that make Johnson and Farage?

Sounds like he was going shortly anyway, and if he goes as a result of right wing criticism then it puts pressure on them to avoid appointing someone more neutral and to continue the slide to the right

The 'Great Noticing' Era Ever since Labour came to power, the British media has started to notice a whole series of problems they spent the previous 14 years completely ignoring

How ever since Labour came to power, the British media has started to notice a whole series of problems they spent the previous 14 years completely ignoring
www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/the-great-...

It’s honestly one of the most ingrained myths in our civilisation - the lie that hard work equates with success and money

If anything it’s the opposite. The hardest jobs are often the lowest paid

Musk didn’t get a dad who owned an emerald mine through working hard, he was just born into it

No boat crossings at all in the last 7 days.

The BBC hasn’t sent this to our phones as breaking news.

It’s worse than flags because in part the poppy symbolises remembrance of the horrors endured to oppose fascism, and to never let it happen again

Now it is used as a symbol by British fascists

The message of ‘war is bad’ has also been corrupted into ‘support our troops’ which is entirely different

It also highlights the current extreme polarisation of opinion

The right view Starmer as a dangerous out of control woke socialist, whereas the left view him as a repressive anti-minority right wing red Tory

The language and tone is dialled up so far it’s hard to see the reality underneath

I don’t understand how we can be both

a) living in a cost of living crisis with ordinary people struggling to buy the basics, and;

b) it be reasonable to raise taxes on ordinary people

Either a) is overblown and everyone is richer than they think, or there is plenty of wealth but only at the top

Labelling Farage as charismatic is the same as labelling Boris Johnson as charismatic - I just don’t get it.

Both are very boring and are incredibly transparent in their naked self-interest.

Both present carefully curated personas which the media lap up - that is not the same as being charismatic

It’s pretty clear now what he did and what he was part of. Not very different from the grooming gangs

One causes a national enquiry, endless attention from foreign billionaires etc

The other is no longer a prince but still gets to live in a royal house on public money with a 6 figure allowance

The ‘NATO is obsolete’ viewpoint was far more understandable before Russia (whom it was set up to guard against) started invading and annexing a democratic European neighbour

It’s a nice notion that we could do without it, but recent years prove it is essential to preserving European democracy

I’ve always thought compulsory voting is a bit problematic and right wing in and of itself

In a liberal democracy if I have the freedom to vote then I should also have the freedom to choose to not vote?

Polarisation is also driven by moderate policies not being as attractive to social media feeds

To be honest I don’t think academic success and hard work have anything at all to do with success in politics

Renting out her home whilst she lives in no. 11 is probably one of the few examples of acceptable landlordism - but generating a private profit whilst she lives rent free is questionable

To me it’s more the growing influence of social media and the decline of traditional news

Right policies are easy to understand and offer simple (if flawed) solutions, perfect for our reduced attention span or a 30 second vid

Left policies however require a bit of thought and explanation

Come off it - it’s a completely different scale.

Rayner and Reeves’ errors we’re stupid and unforced, but they’re not exactly handing out public contracts to their pub landlords or ferry companies without ferries

Reeves’ license was less than £1,000 - add a few 0s when looking at Tory corruption

I hope this is true but the difficulty will be the anti-reform vote voting tactically

With the Tories continuing to slide into oblivion and Labour doing their best to lose support both to the left and to the right - Reform can be elected on a tiny % of the vote under FPTP

Just goes to show that the BBC relentlessly platforming Farage over decades probably created much of the attention around Reform rather than reflecting it

No - she’ll have to tax the super-wealthy properly. Given that anyone who is super-wealthy doesn’t do anything approaching actual work, she won’t be raising taxes on working people, so won’t be breaking any pledges

Still amazes how they managed to pull off such a perfect adaptation. Almost everything about it is right, down to the smallest details. And it works so well as a film whilst also being so close to the book.

And I don’t think it has really aged at all. There aren’t any moments that look like bad CGI

ECtHR 'more necessary and relevant' now, says outgoing UK judge Leading silk says he 'hardly recognises' the good work of the ECHR from recent criticism of Strasbourg court.

“Over the last 70 years, the #ECHR has repeatedly stepped in when domestic courts were unable to provide the protection we now take for granted and cherish,” says the UK’s outgoing judge at the European Court of Human Rights👇

🔗 www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/ecthr-m... via @lawsocietygazette.bsky.social

The obvious danger being the left/liberal & centre vote is split so Reform are elected under FPTP on a tiny percentage after hoovering up chunks of Tory/Labour votes

I admire what the Greens seem to be achieving (early days yet) but the absolute priority for the next election is keeping Reform out

That is the problem with making ‘growth’ the primary objective.

It doesn’t really mean anything for ordinary people. It just means the rich will get a bit richer. Some of them might even deign to pay their workers a bit more, most will probably keep the extra for themselves.

Ever since I finished Question Time, Reform have massively been on the attack.

Including a rant from Richard Tice entirely designed to distract from Reform and Russia.

Everyone should know about Nathan Gill, the bribes from Russia and the link to Reform.