Today 710am. Mr Tice exposed himself as a nasty piece of work and defamed one of the principal accusers as a liar on live radio. Mr Gibb won't be pleased.

Great culture can save lives. Literally.

Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

Budget 2025: This is how you lose the world iandunt.substack.com/p/budget-202...

New net migration figures at 930am.

Net migration fell half a million to 344,000 in 2024 from 848k in 2023

56% of people think it went up last year
17% think stayed the same
14% think it went down

2025 figure to be lower again
16% expect that
38% think it will be up
31% about the same

This is all academic without a stable political base and a broad consensus in support of EU membership. My concern is that younger voters will grow up with being outside the EU as the status quo and fall prey to the bitter nationalism that led to Brexit. This is already happening with young men.

Robbie Gibb was appointed to the BBC Board by Boris Johnson, was an editorial advisor for GB News, and worked as Theresa May's Director of Comms.

He is not impartial or neutral. The government should remove him from the Board immediately to protect the BBC's independence.

A close look at Trump's $1 billion claim against the BBC The litigation letter is weak, but his underlying practical position is not weak

NEW

A close look at Trump's $1 billion claim against the BBC

The litigation letter is weak, but his underlying practical position is not weak

By me:
emptycity.substack.com/p/a-close-lo... (Substack)

(Non-Substack link to follow.)

Richard Tice’s pitch to Tory Middle England At Guildford Rugby Club, Nigel Farage’s number two goes into salesman mode to entice Reform-curious Conservatives

Tice was introduced as “a local man” and a “self-made entrepreneur”, which is certainly one way to describe a man who spent 14 years as the CEO of his grandfather’s property company.

@willdunn.bsky.social's sketch: Richard Tice’s pitch to Tory Middle England

1. In the wake on Mamdani’s win, we’ll see a lot more far right anti-urban sentiment. Here’s a thread on its roots and evolution.

The idea that the city is evil and corrupt, and the countryside innocent and pure, goes back a long way: to Theocritus in Alexandria, and to the Old Testament. 🧵

Nige is no longer laughing at himself as he ‘performs’ yet another big speech | John Crace Reform leader is trying to make it as a mainstream politician – which involves contradicting himself and gaslighting voters

“His main theme was that the country was fucked. Largely because of Brexit. Weirdly, he has no memory of being the main architect behind the Brexit vote. He seems to think it happened in a world in which he played no part.”

Farage - the foghorn of failure.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

No shame, no opprobrium: racism is priced in now. Of all the right’s victories, this one has been critical | Jason Okundaye In this age of Tory nativism and Faragist populism, the question isn’t ‘is this person a bigot’? Now it is ‘does that matter at all?’ says Guardian writer Jason Okundaye

“Racism has become thoroughly detached from “serious” politics”
It has been reduced to language.
So, instead of fearing accusations of racism, politicians now exploit them as petty, name-calling distractions from what really matters.
It’s an ugly, cynical deceit.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Farage: epic grifter

British.

NEW - UPDATE POST

Did the CPS make a fundamental mistake with the charging decision in the Chinese spying case?

How the CPS may have asked the wrong legal question and so made a wrong charging decision

By me

emptycity.substack.com/p/did-the-cp...

'Stunned?' Farage's Admission He Knew Nathan Gill but Not His Kremlin Associates Does Not Stand Up to Scrutiny Insiders have told Byline Times, it is 'inconceivable' the Reform Leader did not know about his close aide's pro Russian statements

“Here Farage is, in Gill’s office, with Voloshyn’s wife Nadia, on the day Gill makes an intervention on behalf of Medvedchuk’s channels, with an employee of one of those channels, whose husband started bribing Gill to make these statements 6 days earlier”

bylinetimes.com/2025/10/11/s...

'Stunned?' Farage's Admission He Knew Nathan Gill but Not His Kremlin Associates Does Not Stand Up to Scrutiny Insiders have told Byline Times it is 'inconceivable' the Reform Leader did not know about his close aide's pro Russian statements

The thing I'm "stunned" about is why this isn't the biggest domestic news item on every flipping platform

bylinetimes.com/2025/10/11/s...

Owing to the wars of the previous 150 years, European countries bound together in a *union* so they would never fight again.

We do this, among other ways, by have common tariffs and standards at the border, but none within; by having a common visa waiver, but FOM within; and a single currency

1

This is a lie.

There are many criticisms you might sensibly and truthfully make of the Sentencing Council and the Sentencing Guidelines. I’ve been making them for years.

But this is an outright lie. Pure fabrication. A fraud on the public.

Do read all of this.

‘Thick as Thieves’: Nathan Gill and Nigel Farage’s Putin Problem Far from being distant from the Reform UK Leader, insiders told Byline Times that the former MEP convicted of bribery was one of Farage’s closest aides, while we reveal how Gill worked on the Kremlin’...

Byline Times can now reveal that, during the crucial period when Gill was most active, working directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most senior ally in Ukraine, he was also one of Nigel Farage’s closest confidantes.
bylinetimes.com/2025/10/04/t...

It hurt when I crashed my bike into a pothole – and it taught me the true price of austerity | George Monbiot Fixing that hole could have cost under £100; the cost of not doing so is limitless. My prang highlights the neoliberal folly of false economies, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

Keeping people in poverty is an expensive luxury.
My column on the false economies of austerity, which costs us all a fortune. Despite the government's claims, austerity continues under Labour. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

After clashing with Maurice Glasman recently, I've come to realise just how pernicious he and his Blue Labour movement are. We could discuss his chumminess with Steve Bannon and JD Vance, endless pandering to the far right and evident hatred of the Labour left. But there's something even worse. 🧵

Has Labour woken up? New post on my Brexit & Brexitism Blog analysing how Starmer’s Labour seems to be taking a firmer line with Reform and Brexitism, rattling Farage, but many ambiguities and contradictions remain:
chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2025/10/has-...

Nigel Farage swans around peddling hate on Nick Ferrari’s phone-in | John Crace From immigrants eating the king’s waterfowl to sharia law in London, it’s all there in our Nige’s relativist world

“Farage often says he lives rent-free in British politicians’ heads, but Trump lives rent-free in Nige’s. He’s The Donald’s emissary to the UK. An existence dedicated to sanitising Trump’s madness for a British audience”

Crace nails the menacing idiocy of Farage.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Would gently point out that Brexit has not been reversed and there is no prospect of it either.

The Victorian age coincided with a period where GB made no military interventions in Europe apart from the brief Crimean campaign. This allowed the focus to shift to the growing empire which expanded rapidly in the period. The Empire still looms large in the British psyche unfortunately.

This article from @westenglandbylines.co.uk has appeared on my feed and it's worth a look as it's from a UK Labour member, even if its old.

This certainly colours all UK thinking on joining: there might be a veto.

That is exceptionalist thinking. All countries run the risk of a veto.

1

🚨Watch as police confiscate van showing Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump in Windsor amid the US president's state visit

Private Eye

Projections of U.S. President Donald Trump, Britain's Prince Andrew and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were put on display against the walls of Windsor Castle while Trump was in Britain for a state visit.