Bit more complicated than that

I'm increasingly convinced this is a huge driver of dissatisfaction with govt

Council tax is one of the most visible taxes that people pay, it goes directly out of their bank account and they get a letter about it going up every year

Yet bin collection frequency falls and libraries close

I asked Chris Philip this.
- the last govt passed laws saying those who came without permission could not claim asylum
- the government cleared a backlog well, but then ceased to process claims in the last year.
- they had 60,000 people in hotels. Surely over 50k of them were never going to Rwanda?

MLK: I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character

Robert Jenrick: Not so fast there

MI6 insiders slam Palestine Action ban as 'distraction' from real counter-terrorism It seems everyone with any expertise on terrorism, including MI6, was against the Palestine Action ban - yet Labour proceeded anyway

www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2025...
Government were advised Palestine Action are non-violent, criminal damage generally minor & do not meet threshold of proscription. But they did it anyway (after lobbying from Elbit Systems).

“oh no, the MPs had sandwiches, Kemi had something hot brought in”

www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

#bbcpm

84 year old victim with blood on her head from ICE attack

Blood covering the middle of her shirt.

ICE thugs did this to an 84 year old peaceful protester and her husband. Honor First right boys! This is why I do what I do.

www.oregonlive.com/politics/202...

Tories misspell the country they wish to run.....

For obvious news reasons - Burnham, terrorism - I’ve not written about the reform councils elsewhere for a few weeks. But the general vibe is “we can’t rule out CT rises”.

The narrative, ie blame govt, is therefore already being established.

It’s true (central govt £ DOES dictate this), but 1/

Give 1,000 poorer people £1,000 and they'll spend it on goods and services. Growing the economy, increasing GDP.

Give 1 uber-rich man £1,000,000 and he'll buy your house or your business. Buying assets, increasing rents and prices so others have less to spend on goods & services, decreasing GDP.

Security stepped up at the UK's oldest gurdwara based in London Gurdwaras are diverting funds from vital community services to bolster security say Sikh leaders.

Sonia Sodha said only synagogues need security.

'Britain's oldest Sikh temple, the Khalsa Jatha Gurdwara, is expecting to spend £40,000 a year on security and is calling for the same government grant mosques and synagogues already receive.'

#politicslive
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Lest we forget...

During the EU referendum campaign, Penny Mordaunt said Turkey could join the EU regardless of our membership veto. She knew it wasn't true but said it anyway to try and tap into the xenophobia / racism of Leave voters.

#politicslive

.
The tories are toast...

We know it. They know it! 😂

#r4today #bbcbreakfast #GMB #politicslive #C4News #toriesgone458
.

"People are tired & exhausted.. bills are sky rocketing.. the NHS is not properly funded, people can't get an NHS appt.. meanwhile since the pandemic billionaire wealth has doubled.. we need to have a tax on multi millionaires and billionaires"

@zackpolanski.bsky.social on #politicslive

#politicslive #wato

Badenoch's intro video is scenes from the Robinson march interspersed with footage of migrant boats.

Jews and Muslims in North Manchester: A personal story ‘We thought we were the luckiest people in the world to be born in Manchester’

Some of the most thoughtful social commentary atm is coming via @manchestermill.bsky.social

manchestermill.co.uk/jews-and-mus...

Cartoon - a bench between trees - a woman at one end, reading a book, looks at a man in superhero gear at the other end, who says "My superpower is turning anything I don't understand into a conspiracy theory."

Tawny owl

Six weeks ago, I picked up a year-old tawny owl with a broken leg off the main road near our home and dropped him off at our nearest vet.

After a few days, I received one of the most bizarre phone calls I’ve ever had, asking “So when are you coming to pick up your owl?” 🧵

Text of an email dated 5 October 2025, entitled Mass deportation and facial recognition Kemi Badenoch told us today (Sunday) that her mass deportation scheme would use "facial recognition systems without warning signs" to help detect 150,000 people a year to send to some unidentified location. Apart from the fact that facial recognition is notoriously unreliable with non-white faces, the question arises: what database will be used to detect those "who have no right to be here"? Is it a database of exactly those people, including the supposedly many thousands of people working in the shadow economy, which, by definition, the authorities cannot have access to? Is it a supposedly fully compliant database of everybody who does have a right to be here (ignoring the fact that Badenoch pours scorn on mandatory digital ID), coupled with perfect recognition of observed faces, with anybody not on the perfect list immediately hauled away to the nearest charter plane? Ms Badenoch tells us that she will not propose policies until she has thought them all through - an admirable ambition - so perhaps she or her representatives can inform us of the details of this particular idea. Credits for parts of this question: James Ball, Stephen Bush, Ben Ansell on Bluesky Ed Wilson

Email just sent to today @ bbc . co . uk

(though their mailbox is filling up and not accepting messages)

#r4today

Some have already had a go at debunking the claims in the book. e.g.

gully-foyle-debunked.co.uk/1-10

After praising Zack Polanski's communication skills, deputy leader of the Green Party Rachel Millward says,

"I remember how I felt on the morning of Brexit"

"We just literally let Farage's lies write history"

The main difference between Ireland & the UK was that the Irish public wanted a lockdown & understood better than the govt how serious things were. Even so the media & politicians were bad. Also the Irish govt followed WHO advice, the UK ignored it.

If you remember, the UK govt actually started openly ‘reframing’ statistics, but even with their massaged data - it was horrific. My double figure included those the UK reclassified. Here’s their ‘official’ figure per million:

UK 3,404 deaths per million
Ireland 1,929
Norway 1,050
NL 1.283

Left Kemi Badenoch talks about the first community of Jews in the Manchester back in the 1780s

Right: The first English translation of the Quran was in 1649 by Alexander Ross, and a 1641 document refers to "a sect of Mahomatens" being "discovered here in London"

The Alcoran of Mahomet : translated out of Arabique into French : Du Ryer, Andr, ca. 1580-ca. 1660 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive The Gareth and Janet Dunleavy Chaucer Collection contains over eighty Chaucer titles, books by and about Sir Thomas Malory, and the works of several of...

Badenoch is trying to paint a close relationship with the UK and Judiasm, but choses not to refer to the close relationship between the UK and Muslims

Just as Badenoch chose to refer to the attack on the Synagogue in her speech, but chose to ignore a mosque being set alight in her speech

Kemi Badenoch wants to take the United Kingdom out of the European Convention on Human Rights and to strip British citizens of our basic rights.

If this angers or frightens you, get involved in politics.

Join campaign groups. Join the political party you feel closest to.

The lunacy gets ever loonier...

Kemi Badenoch confirms Tories who don't back ECHR plans to be banned from standing as MPs.

CHAINSAW MASSACRE “The man with the chainsaw and the funny hairstyle – I’ll tell you what, that’s leadership. He is amazing; this is like Thatcherism on steroids… I’m beginning to think about buying Argentinian bonds as an investment” – Reform’s Nigel Farage discusses his economic hero, Argentinian president Javier Milei, in an interview with Nomad Capital, 16 April 2024 “Milei is the template.” – Tory leader Kemi Badenoch sets out her economic approach in a Financial Times interview, 23 July 2025 “Thank you President Trump and Secretary Bessent for your firm support and confidence in the Argentine people.” – Javier Milei, after the US was forced to promise a “large and forceful” bailout following a plunge in the Argentinian peso (down 75 percent against the dollar since Milei’s December 2023 election win), 22 September 2025

Is Argentinian president Javier Milei still Nigel Farage's and Kemi Badenoch's inspiration?...

Another one via Private Eye:

Oh I don’t know. I feel more sorry for Sunderland. #TheArchers

Avanti really is an utterly dreadful company with an absolutely awful internal culture, in that not two seconds after “it is not declassified!”, guess what the train tannoy announced? Spoiler alert, it is declassified!