The strange death of east London’s most radical bookshop Clogged toilets, trade unions and Google researchers: this is the saga of the Scarlett Letters

why the far left can't ever achieve anything: a case study www.the-londoner.co.uk/scarlett-let...

Please r/t

A British tabloid is America’s top news brand on TikTok New analysis shows some of the biggest news sources on the viral video app

The Daily Mail is the most followed news source on Tik Tok among Americans. This is rather disturbing ! www.chaoticera.news/p/a-british-...

National Trust to cut at least 550 jobs after £10m rise in costs from Reeves’s budget Exclusive: Charity hit by increase in employer national insurance and minimum wage and aims to save £26m

In shocking news, it turns our that Rachel Reeves increasing the cost of employing people reduced demand for them. Completely unpredictable www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Canadian tank regiment guards King in historic London role Lord Strathcona’s Horse, a Canadian armoured regiment, has taken on ceremonial duties as The King’s Life Guard, becoming the first non-UK unit in over a decade to do so.

excellent to see Canadian soldiers carrying out ceremonial duties as the King's Life Guard. A good time to remind ourselves of our close ties to Canada. ukdefencejournal.org.uk/canadian-tan...

Fascinating study that using AI slowed down experienced programmers !

a reminder of how awful London's Tories are. In the council meeting on Wed there was a vote to spend £20m buying homes to house some of the hundreds of local families in temporary accomodation. Merton Tories have sent out this piece of vileness

Just another week for Reform

Reform Caseworker Suspended Following Assault Charge Exclusive: A Reform UK staffer has been suspended after she was charged with assault and criminal damage after an incident at a Pride event

It is really not proving to be a great week for Reform. www.politicshome.com/news/article...

Southwark Labour have abandoned the lettuce analogy for the Council leaders - they are on the ice lolly analogy

we seemed to have found the platonic ideal of pure Nimbysim

Reform have decided that their vetting is .... too tough ! people who failed before are encouraged to re-apply. You couldnt't make it up

Durham County Council proposes capping council tax support To save money, Durham County Council is proposing changes to the Council Tax Reduction Scheme.

It turns out that when Reform talk of 'cutting waste' , what they mean is cutting council tax support for the poorest people - see what's happening in County Durham www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Doncaster Reform councillor quits two months after election Samuel Booth, who was elected in Bentley, has resigned for "personal reasons" the party says.

Yet another Reform Councillor has resigned - 2 months after being elected www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

What a fantastic result

UK government fumes at ‘ludicrous’ £125M ‘bat tunnel’ The ‘bat mitigation tunnel’ is designed to protect wildlife from Britain’s High Speed Rail 2 project — but it’s enraging ministers as cost projections climb.

The cost of the infamous bat tunnel is now up to £125m. Utter madness www.politico.eu/article/uk-g...

Victim lives 'life of mental and physical trauma' after kneecapping Liam Barker has spoken out for the first time, prompted by the rap trio Kneecap's prominence

For those fools who think calling a band after a way of torturing people is some kind of joke a reminder of what it is like for those it was done to www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Great to see Ed and Helen have been talking to our friends in Estonia

Powerful imagery shows jets arrayed on British carrier Dramatic new images show a powerful array of British F-35B Lightning jets lined up across the deck of HMS Prince of Wales as the UK Carrier Strike Group arrived in Singapore.

Impressive to HMS Prince of Wales and its F35s but why are they on the other side of the world when the principal threat to the UK is from Putin ? ukdefencejournal.org.uk/powerful-ima...

Dozens of pro-Indy accounts go dark after Israeli strikes The sudden silence of dozens of pro-independence X accounts on 12 June 2025 coincided with Israeli air and cyber strikes targeting Iranian military and communications infrastructure.

This is fascinating - dozens of pro Scottish Independence twitter accounts have gone silent since Iran's internet access was cut ukdefencejournal.org.uk/dozens-of-pr...

what Labour said and what happened

Local Authority of the Year revealed The MJ's Local Authority of the Year has been announced at a gala ceremony this afternoon. Stockport MBC took home the most coveted award of the day, presented...

Congratulation to Lib Dem run Stockport Council , who are the Municipal Journal's " Council of the Year" www.themj.co.uk/local-author...

Interesting blog bearing on the issue of AI job losses. Says that the rise of Google Translate has not led to any drop in the need for translators ingrids.space/posts/what-g...

I wonder which Reform seat he is going for ?

why does Polanski find a picture of the PM and his wife holding hands bothersome ?

Joint statement between the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Prime Minister of Canada This Joint Statement follows the meeting of the Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom and Canada on 15 June 2025.

Seem lots of good things in the joint statement from Carney and Starmer www.gov.uk/government/n...

Letter from Calum Miller MP to The Right Honourable David Lammy MP, dated 23 June 2025 Dear David, I know that you, like me, will be gravely concerned at the new and major escalation of conflict in the Middle East, following Israel’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities overnight and reports that an Iranian retaliation is now underway. People across the UK and the world will no doubt be fearing the break-out of widespread regional conflict in the Middle East. The immediate priority must be to secure a de-escalation of the current crisis. The UK Government should be urging both Israel and Iran to hold back from retaliatory actions against one another, recognising that this will only lead to further destabilisation and bloodshed. Can you reassure me, therefore, that the Government is engaging with leaders in both Israel and Iran to ensure this crisis does not spiral into what could otherwise become a devastating full-scale war? Iran’s nuclear ambitions continue to pose a grave threat to both regional security and wider global stability. It’s clear that the regime’s nuclear programme - which also poses a unique and existential threat to the state of Israel - must be contained. It is vital, though, that containment is achieved through robust diplomacy and the application of economic pressure, rather than through military action - which risks generating the very regional instability that containment aims to prevent. Can you reassure me that UK assets and personnel are not being deployed in this conflict but that, instead, all our diplomatic efforts are focused on de-escalation?

It’s clear that only a return to multilateral diplomacy can help secure a permanent lock on Iran’s nuclear ambitions. This week’s G7 Summit offers an important opportunity to reaffirm that principle. Can you confirm, therefore, whether the Prime Minister will endeavour to work with other leaders at the Summit to create a united coalition of democratic nations - including the United States - committed to collective negotiations with Iran to secure guarantees on its nuclear non-proliferation? Iran remains the world’s biggest exporter of terrorism - funding and supporting the activities of terror groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. This support has been directed under the auspices of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). This situation remains utterly intolerable. The Liberal Democrats have consistently called for the IRGC to be proscribed, given its direct funding for groups like Hamas which are already proscribed in the UK. It’s a step which has also been recommended by Parliament’s cross-party Foreign Affairs Select Committee Yet despite these calls, both the previous Conservative Government and this Labour administration have failed to take this vital step. Will the Government finally accept the case for the IRGC’s proscription and implement it - thus recognising that organisation’s role as a major contributor to regional destabilisation and international terrorism? This would also send the clearest signal possible to the Iranian regime that their continued funding of terrorist activities will not be tolerated. I look forward to your response. Sincerely, Calum Miller MP Liberal Democrats Foreign Affairs Spokesperson

The UK Government should deploy all its efforts to bring Israel and Iran back from the brink. I have written to the Foreign Secretary to offer Liberal Democrat support for measures to de-escalate the conflict.

Tory MPs On Lib Dem Defection Watch Liberal Democrat figures believe Conservative MPs could be tempted to defect as the Tories prepare for a stark internal divide over the European Co...

Fascinating article about possible defections www.politicshome.com/news/article...

Good to see the Lib Dem Friends of Israel support the Govt decision to sanction the two dreadful Israeli Ministers

Brilliant