Ralph Topping

Things Europeans won't understand: in a news article about... car-parking habits... the section about "but wait, you may be caught in a mass shooting! plan for a mass shooting!"

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/21/s...

Even in warped imaginings he should not be on the ice given his bone spurs issues and bruised tiny hands . Somewhat unfit for ice hockey and the Oval Office many would say .

Martin Lewis ambushes Badenoch on Good Morning Britain over student loans plan

In Another Break With Trump, Pope Leo Skips U.S. 250th Celebration for Migrant Island As Trump builds his presidency around America’s 250th anniversary, the pope heads to Europe’s most symbolic migrant crossing — days after rejecting the president’s “Board of Peace.”

NEW: JD Vance flew to Rome to formally invite Pope Leo XIV to join America’s 250th anniversary celebration.

The first American pope has declined — days after rejecting President Trump’s “Board of Peace” invitation.

On July 4, he’ll be in Lampedusa, standing with migrants.

No idea whether Andrew will end up in jail. But it's a cause for celebration that the law remains sovereign in Britain.

This is possibly my favourite quote about politics. paw.princeton.edu/article/stil...

It's funny. I never thought watching a gibbering lunatic burn the world down would be so boring.

The time for sane-washing is surely over.

Trump’s Arctic ambitions torch the most important US asset The market reaction to the threat of tariffs on supposed allies over Greenland has been extremely telling

"The US has squandered its most valuable financial asset: trust. It risks paying a heavy price for this for decades to come." Important piece by my colleague @katie0martin.ft.com on the hit to the dollar and US borrowing costs of Trump's derangement. www.ft.com/content/9f73...

Watching Mark Carney's Davos speech and his total clarity and gravity about the world having turned fills me with embarrassment about Keir Starmer's self-abasement to Trump. It doesn't work!

Such a disappointment there is no fresh podcast this week given what is happening in the world ! This is so out of kilter with other podcasts . Time to reflect on what your audience is perhaps looking for these days and what changes you need to effect to cater for their wishes ?I’m a £ subscriber

The first rule of the Trump Game, played by politicians around the world, is you do not talk about the rules of the Trump Game. The object of the game is to pretend that the President of the United States is a normal, rational statesman, perhaps an eccentric one, but fundamentally someone who is acting according to some strategy that the rest of us might one day hope to fathom. On no account are you ever to admit that he’s nasty, vain, venal, capricious and obviously unaware that his own doctors are testing him for signs of dementia. The 2026 round of the game got off with a literal series of bangs, as the US military attacked Venezuela and kidnapped its president. On Sunday morning we were greeted by the sight of Nicolás Maduro being led down a hall at the Drug Enforcement Administration in New York. The floor had been painted with the slogan “Rule of Law”, to allow Americans to walk all over it.

It's the only game that matters. My SKETCH of British politicians playing the Trump Game.

One picture, describes it all.

Following a white man to war because you disliked the sound of a black woman laughing will go down in American history as one of the dumbest acts of self-sabotage ever.

We must back BBC to the hilt against Trump Assault on the broadcaster is part of wider game to discredit any news source that is not sympathetic to the president Extracts: . Since Trumps inauguration, national leaders on this side of the Atlantic, including Sir Keir Starmer, have displayed extreme caution in response to American insults and hostile acts. They strive to avert a high noon with the most powerful man on earth. This is probably necessary. Trump is spoiling for a fight with Europe, not least in his impatience to complete the betrayal of Ukraine. Yet none of us, and especially our government, should display indifference to his assaults on both US and foreign media organisations. He identifies the interests of himself and of America with its tech giants, and fights every attempt to restrain their excesses. He is frustrating regulation of Al, even to the point of promoting legislation to prevent states from introducing their own restraining measures. Magas standard-bearers denounce efforts to prevent social media from publishing falsehoods, libels and hate messages as "attacks on free speech". This week five British citizens campaigning for regulation of social media content were denied US visas, after the Trump administration alleged that they were seeking to censor tech companies. Tech investors are pouring hundreds of millions into supporting anti-regulation candidates for next year's midterm elections. None of us can guess how the Trump assault on the BBC will play out, because he wields unprecedented power, unchecked by personal dignity or decency. We should merely recognise that if he is successful in taming or suppressing liberal media at home and abroad, the world as well as the US will become a darker place.

“None of us can guess how the Trump assault on the BBC will play out, because he wields unprecedented power, unchecked by personal dignity or decency.”

No. We can’t. But we can condemn forever the repulsive British politicians and media gobshites who would side with him instead of us.

Speculation in Glasgow today that Infantino is the first winner of the the Tartan Army Gie’s Peace Prize . Worthy winner .

spot on

The top of the Labour Party has the political skills of a breezeblock.

Spot on Lewis . If the BBC board prostrates itself to Trump it should face the collective opprobrium of the British people and resign . Tarring and feathering these cowards is an alternative course of action . It’s bad enough having Uriah Heep as our PM without the Beeb following suit .

I agree and they should always when dealing with Trump and the techbros do the opposite of Starmer’s approach . Never fawning .

The four-word message the BBC should send Trump about his $1bn lawsuit The corporation must show it will not be cowed, unlike American broadcast media, and call the president’s bluff

The BBC can retrieve something from this mess (and show US broadcasters what a spine is) by sending Donald Trump a four letter response: “See you in court!” www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/media/...

Entirely in character - sadly .

For those wondering here is the post from Joyce Carol Oates that got under Musk's skin big time

AI on Google search - ahead of the curve on the fate of Rachel Reeves ? “Famous people with the surname Reeves include actor Keanu Reeves, actor Christopher Reeve, and former British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves. ”

I continue to wonder when Americans will decide enough is enough. As Frederick Douglass reminds us:

“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

Such grumpiness on a Sunday morning ! You’ll no doubt feel better after an expensive but delicious cappuccino and almond croissant in a London coffee house . Fred Done meanwhile will press on with his legitimate lobbying of a feeble Chancellor .

Why Scotland’s higher school violence is a myth now being pushed by Channel 4 Professor John Robertson OBA From Channel 4 yesterday, the above and: Scotland has Britain’s highest rate of violent injuries to school staff reported to the safety watchdog, FactCheck can reveal. …

Yet another example of using Scotland's comprehensive statistics in comparison with England's less detailed ones, and using this to push the #Scotland.Is.Bad agenda.

A tactic applied across the board, and amplified by the MSM.

Lies by misinformation. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2025/10/17/w...

Bertrand Russell to Oswald Mosley. Perfection.

The PM sees the football world from his padded seat in a directors’ box or if he’s slumming it in a private suite . Out of touch as usual with what the paying fans and Birmingham public will experience.

The Finnish have a word for people who take pleasure in someone else's typo: Pilkunnussija.