Quiet Riot

75% of Reform UK’s donations have come from just three rich men Calls grow for donation caps as Democracy for Sale research reveals that three-quarters of Reform’s funding comes from a trio of wealthy donors

🔴 Nigel Farage’s Reform is more reliant on super-rich backers than any major party in modern British political history

75% of *all* Reform donations *ever* have come from just three rich men

Is this what democracy looks like?

New on Democracy for Sale
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/75-of-refo...

Hi @sturdyalex.bsky.social I just listened to the latest (excellent) Quiet Riot podcast and heard you pleading with the government to put down the Ming Vase. I wondered if you had seen this (also excellent) blog post?

@warringfictions.bsky.social
@quietriotpod.bsky.social

bsky.app/profile/warr...

I agree with every single word Alex utters in this week's burst of optimism, particularly true re the 'wall of news' at the local supermarket. People don't have to read newspapers to be influenced by them.

EXACTLY as predicted by @pimlicat.bsky.social and @samfr.bsky.social yesterday.

ARE WE GOOD OR ARE WE GOOD? A x

Love you! A x

And you all have got us through. A x

I was saying "my soul is filled with helium". A x

Perhaps my bitchiest moment on any podcast ever.

Naomi: "The OBR are looking for a new director after Richard Hughes fell on his sword."

Me: "Deliberately or did he just stumble?"

Love @quietriotpod.bsky.social
Come for the erudite stay for the hope …or vice versa!

Because, you see, buying influence is only a worry if a Labour peer donates a couple of "freebie" outfits to close friends. When a man, whose business is literally DARK MONEY, single-handedly rescues a near-bankrupt far-right party, leading in the polls, he's doing it because he believes in Nige.

Last year Sky News was rending its garments over Starmer's free eyeglasses: WHAT INFLUENCE DID LORD ALLI BUY?

Now, RefUK get £9m from a crypto bro, they have not one word about the donor's interests; just BRAVO NIGEL, barely concealed glee, and "what a huge boost... money goes where momentum is". 🤡

“I thought Gullis had already moved over to Reform. It's a bit like when somebody tells you a celebrity has died, that you assumed had died 10 years ago. You're like: God, they were still alive, were they?” @pimlicat.bsky.social

“We've spent months pointing out the absence of Brexit from Starmer's rhetoric. If that was important, then the re-emergence of it in his rhetoric must also be important.”

Always fab having Sam on the show.

We catch you up on everything eu uk related, plus the lessons from GE24 for left and right, and Alex reveals just how much of a board games nerd he was as a young thing.

🎧👇

Excellent episode, bringing together my favourite podcasters and substacker. Funny and insightful as always. Now, if only we could wean the Telegraph and Daily Mail readers off their regular daily dose of misinformed rage and prescribe them some of this instead.

Quiet Riot always helps me walk up the Thursday hill and is
far more banjo than banjaxed.

Really good to hear substack aristocracy @samfr.bsky.social drop by the show!

Take it from me. Sam may miss those Nativitys when it gets to Drama A Level showcase time and your 11 soliloquies in!

The One Where Alex Loses It Over Dungeons & Dragons

What's past is prologue Podcast Episode · Quiet Riot · 04/12/2025 · 1h 10m

🆕 What's past is prologue 🆕

🇪🇺 Brexit's back alright
🗳️ lessons from 2024 GE
📰 media's Reeves derangement
🧌 Dungeons & Dragons

@pimlicat.bsky.social, @sturdyalex.bsky.social & guest @samfr.bsky.social put the world to rights.

🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/11Nv...

🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/q...

Quiet Riot podcast from Spotify wrapped.

I am a top listener apparently @quietriotpod.bsky.social

According to #SpotifyWrapped, my top podcast of the year is …. *drum roll* @quietriotpod.bsky.social ☺️

Big love to @sturdyalex.bsky.social, Naomi Smith and Kenny Campbell for keeping me informed, entertained, & regularly sighing or laughing - often while I’m cooking Sunday lunch or in the bath 🛀

Spotify Wrapped has spoken @quietriotpod.bsky.social

This is how Chris Mason, like a child filled with wonder, described "the choreography and theatre that surrounds a Budget" in Feb 2024, when a male Tory Chancellor was in post.

"Plans, or even just options, can be floated... Reaction to them can be tested. Opponents can be teased or wrongfooted." 👀

Islamophobia is rampant domestically, but the West's withdrawal from the international stage - in terms of military, but also aid and soft power - means more and more countries succumbing to militant Islamist regimes.

How do we square that circle? Absolutely fascinating discussion.

Mason's misinformation was the top news item for two days. Not a bulletin went by on national TV or Radio in which he didn't put in a shift. Today he is NOWHERE to be found, of course.

The correction was given 25 seconds, at the end of News at 6, "in other news", just before an item about Santas.

The real question is not "Why is Bluesky so left-coded," the real question is "Why can't the right exist in a social media environment without algorithmic assistance, where people can ignore them"

Pete Hegseth Needs to Go—Now A man with such contempt for the military should not run the Pentagon.

Hot off the keyboard and gifted:

Hegseth has to go.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Mali - lesser discussed but vitally important. Tune in to learn all you ever needed to know about the situation there and the wider geo-political implications 🎧👇

Crisis in the Sahel: the end of Western intervention and the collapse of Mali Podcast Episode · Behind The Lines with Arthur Snell · 02/12/2025 · 38m

In Mali's capital, the city is surrounded by militants from an Al-Qaeda affiliate. But would the fall of a Russian-backed military govt be worse? And is this inevitable result of cutting aid to the world's poorest nations?
I spoke to Tessa Deveraux of #LSE.

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/b...

Reeves speech did not mislead on challenges facing UK ahead of Budget, says OBR official Prof David Miles tells MPs the messaging given by the chancellor was

Oh.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

👏 Keir Starmer PM: "How Brexit was sold and delivered was wrong. Wild promises were made to the British people and not fulfilled."

"The idea that leaving the EU was the answer to all our cares and concerns has clearly been proved wrong."