@56degreesnorth.bsky.social
Looking at life from 56 degrees north
Could have been completely avoided by the way… Thanks Brexit.
https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/eu-entry-exit-system-uk-border-control-b2925755.html
"The welcome of a far-right influencer like Robinson by the State Department would be disturbing even if it were an isolated incident. But it is far more than that. It is an explicit strategic goal of the Trump administration to support and boost the far right across Europe."
26.02.2026 17:16 — 👍 100 🔁 49 💬 8 📌 2
“On a misty February morning midway between Britain & France, we watch tankers carrying Russian oil worth around $100m (£74.1m) cruise past in defiance of Western sanctions, embargoes, & price caps.”
Even tho’ sanctioned they pass thro’ the waters of sanctioning states
news.sky.com/story/flatpl...
How Matt Goodwin's definition of "the Elite" focuses on university workers and civil servants, while excluding the investment bankers, asset managers and global real estate executives who pay him
bylinetimes.com/2026/02/25/r...
Tommy Robinson visited the US State Department today at the invite of the Trump administration.
He's Britain's most prominent far-right street thug with criminal convictions for assault, violence, fraud, stalking & harassment.
He was jailed in 2012 for trying to enter the US with a false passport.
Good piece. This isn't sufficiently acknowledged.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Another splendid 'debunk' from @monkemma.bsky.social. It's hard to overestimate just how much work it takes to excavate, accurately and in detail, the layers of half-truth, falsity, misinterpretation etc. of these kinds of stories: monkdebunks.substack.com/p/the-500k-b...
26.02.2026 16:36 — 👍 118 🔁 64 💬 2 📌 3
Five-sixths of people don't know that immigration fell from peak levels. There is much more coverage of asylum.
The BBC coverage does include these figures - very briefly - but the framing/summary is dominated by the asylum numbers.
For comparison, an estimate of Ukrainian losses.
Source:
economist.com/graphic-deta...
Putin is making Russia small again:
”Our model suggests that Russian casualties are now between 1.1m and 1.4m, of whom 230,000-430,000 are dead. That would mean one in 25 Russian men between the ages of 18 and 49 may have been killed or severely wounded since the start of the full-scale war.”
More - unsurprising, but nevertheless disgusting - details about the brutality of the Russian way of war and systemic contempt for human lives (towards their own troops, too).
The most mind-boggling thing is that tens of thousands still sign up monthly to go die in Ukraine
A Russian drone approached the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, which is currently visiting Malmö, Sweden.
The drone was detected and electronically repelled by the Swedish Armed Forces.
This is just one move, we have 11 months of this until the next Congress gets sworn in, and these kinds of threats, moves, etc, will become more and more regular. It’s straight out of the authoritarian playbook.
26.02.2026 19:55 — 👍 127 🔁 16 💬 1 📌 0
People who don’t understand that we are about to witness a massive attempt to corrupt American democracy by Trump, are living in a dream land.
26.02.2026 19:55 — 👍 319 🔁 117 💬 9 📌 7
Hillary Clinton speaking at a lectern. PHOTO: Alex Wong/Getty Images
Hillary Clinton: “You have held zero public hearings, refused to allow the media to attend them, including today, despite espousing the need for transparency on dozens of occasions.
You have made little effort to call the people who show up most prominently in the Epstein files.“
The fact Farage couldn’t bring himself to condemn a death threat shared by a Reform councillor against another MP is beyond appalling.
#PMQs
British far-right activist Tommy Robinson was hosted at the US state department on Wednesday, as the Trump administration seeks to cultivate closer ties with conservative and far-right groups across Europe
www.ft.com/content/032d...
💥🗳️ Bombshell poll in Hungary: 55–35 lead for Péter Magyar’s TISZA over Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz-KDNP – enough for a supermajority in parliament.
The survey was conducted by Medián, widely seen as the country’s most reliable pollster, for @hvghu.bsky.social.
Fieldwork: Feb 18–23, 1,000 respondents.
Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social Evans apologized and said it was the kind of "genuine mistake that we can all make from time to time." Reform said it investigated, "considers it an honest mistake and will not be taking any action," having accepted his version of events. Oliver Ryan MP @OliverRyanUK …・・ This is Councillor Simon Evans, the Deputy Leader of Lancashire County Council, sharing a call for an Member of Parliament to be shot. It's inciting terrorism. Reform must act, or they're complicit in this.
Farage accuses Starmer of inciting violence against Reform 30 Sept 2025 - Nigel Farage has accused Sir Keir Starmer of inciting violence against Reform UK MPs and campaigners by accusing him of racism.
Farage and Reform’s attitude to what or what isn’t violent language is interesting isn’t it
25.02.2026 09:01 — 👍 1085 🔁 363 💬 53 📌 17
"I have given this a lot of thought, and: I really, really need Matt Goodwin to lose tomorrow’s Denton & Gorton by-election. For the good of us all, that man needs to be repudiated, and his ideas stomped into the dust."
On one of the worst people in British politics.
“Reform’s candidate, an oddball far-right former academic turned GB News presenter, is facing allegations of sexual harassment, while their “interim” campaign manager.. has been exposed as a holocaust-denying anti-semite”
Please god, G&D, don’t inflict this on us.
open.substack.com/pub/adambien...
Farage “wants to distract people into thinking their problems are because of women or equality and diversity policies, or immigrants. Like Trump, it shifts the discourse and that’s v dangerous”
Women must turn Farage’s problem with women into a problem for him.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Yusuf: “We will secure our borders, leave the ECHR, and deport those here illegally. My message to the British people is simple: I will secure our borders and make you feel safe.”
There is nothing safe about these vicious inadequates turning racism into policy.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
ICE style enforcement gangs. Mass deportation. Removal of our human rights framework. Scrapping of the Equality Act.
By racist, misogynistic, disability-sceptic, transphobic authoritarians and simpletons.
Nothing could be more threatening to us all. It’s shameful that they hope it’s a vote winner.
These people are poison. They will unleash racist thugs on the streets of this country and call it security. They will subjugate us to the US and call it patriotism. They must be stopped. There is no more important task in politics.
23.02.2026 07:32 — 👍 3391 🔁 1217 💬 145 📌 65
Unions enforce your employment rights.
Unions can help if you’re discriminated against or mistreated by your employer.
Reform doesn’t want you to have that help.
They don’t care how badly you’re treated at work.
They’re taking the piss out of you.
You should mind.
giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
This is the single best piece of news Keir Starmer has had since July 2024.
23.02.2026 22:36 — 👍 468 🔁 106 💬 18 📌 5
Photo of Yusuf at a lectern saying “shadow Home Secretary” (Wot?) Reform's plan for a 'British ICE' combines cruelty with stupidity
Project forward to 2036 under a majority Reform government and the picture darkens further. Britain would be smaller, older and whiter; more isolated from Europe; paradoxically, more vulnerable to foreign interterence and less able to fund its own defence. The welfare state would shrink to a skeleton. Charity would fill the gaps. Flags would proliferate; rights would not. The police and courts would be politicised. The BBC could disappear. The NHS would survive only as a minimal safety net. Protections against discrimination would erode - you might indeed be sacked for being disabled. Migrants and even their British-born children could find their rights curtailed unless they were deemed to "contribute" sufficiently. Meanwhile, the wealthiest would enjoy a generous, low-tax regime.
“Rarely has a British political party unveiled a programme that combines cruelty with impracticality on such an extravagant scale.”
Chilling on Reform’s increasingly confident fascism. High on viciousness and greed. Very low on wisdom. A ruinous combination.
www.independent.co.uk/voices/zia-y...
I asked Oldest, Gen Z, if he knew who Bill Clinton’s VP was.
He did not.
He DID know who Al Gore was. The guy who had the election stolen by the Supreme Court. Also the climate change guy.
I found that interesting.
Saying you want to "restore Britain's Christian heritage" at the same time as committing to deport all the people most likely to actually attend British churches is quite something
23.02.2026 14:39 — 👍 418 🔁 93 💬 97 📌 14
