Vanessa

My Budget Day opinion:

Budget Day should be abolished. Performative nonsense that (by accident) leans into 'politics as entertainment'.

Measures should instead be announced when they are individually ready to be announced – at any time in the parliamentary calendar.

Timeline cleanse

You don't need to launch a full bore defence of liberal internationalism to be able to question the ethics of sending refugees to their certain deaths.

Scientists have observed that every time Reform goes above four MPs, one of them has to leave the party, a phenomenon known as the Farage Equilibrium.

England is not a modern country. The graphic below by
@guyshrubsole.bsky.social in today's Observer underlines this fact.

Their should be a law that any column published by someone who praised the Truss budget should have to have a disclaimer at the bottom reminding readers of that.

This is the ninth Reform councillor - all elected last month - to either have resigned or been suspended.

Jenrick is obviously better at politics that Badenoch (who isn't?) but oddly that would probably make him better for Labour. In that he'd do a better job of spitting the vote on the right.

Strange how all the people over here who were enthusiastic about Musk and DOGE now all seem to have other things they want to talk about.

Richard Littlejohn mostly lives in a gated mansion in Florida.

Andrew Neil mostly lives in Grasse in the South of France.

Next time I get a cold, I'm going to betray it by having a Lemsip and some ibuprofen.

Can't believe Starmer is about to betray Brexit when it has all been going so well.

Also we have a lot of historic data showing that broad based tax rises do not lead to this kind of backlash. It's the taking away of something from a specific group of people that everyone likes that is the issue with WFA.

This sums the whole situation up quite nicely.

Hannan's quote is a classic - he doesn't know if she's committed a massive crime but nevertheless has decided the punishment is invalid.

Putin comes against Le Pen ruling. Authoritarians hates any possibility of legal restraint on their leadership. Trump will doubtless do the same. Journalists do not have to follow this framing. There is zero reason for them to start a report by questioning whether the ruling is democratic.

The 2026 World Cup, heralded as a uniter, is facing divisive road blocks And on-again, off-again trade war and threats from the US toward both of its co-hosts leave fans and teams in a tough position

I'd completely forgotten that the 2026 World Cup is being held jointly between the US, Mexico and Canada. Christ what a mess. www.theguardian.com/football/202...

US pushes for new and expansive deal to control Ukraine’s minerals and energy Latest draft sent to Kyiv steps up demands and offers no security guarantees

NEW: We obtained new US proposal. The Trump admin is pushing to gain sweeping control over all of Ukraine’s major minerals and energy assets, while offering Kyiv no security guarantees, in an aggressive expansion of previous demands. w/ @paolatamma.bsky.social
www.ft.com/content/896d...

I’m working on the assumption that at the moment they are
(a) showing they have exhausted every other option (spending cuts) qand
(b) hoping against hope that something might show up

Diplomatic row erupts after French researcher expelled from US for expressing 'a personal opinion' on Trump A diplomatic row has erupted between France and the US after a French researcher was expelled from the country for expressing "a personal opinion" on Trump.

🚨🚨 This is a very clear signal to all us researcher to stay off the US for the next three years: A French academic, who was on assignment from the CNRS, was detained by officers & later deported after landing at George Bush International Airport ahead of conference.🧵
www.lbc.co.uk/world-news/d...

Well I guess it would be a bit awkward.

No exodus to state sector after VAT added to private school fees, say English councils Most say they have seen no impact on applications for year 7 places, despite warnings from those against policy

No exodus to state sector after VAT added to private school fees, say English councils

Most say they have seen no impact on applications for year 7 places, despite warnings from those against policy

www.theguardian.com/education/20...

The top ten richest people in the world have lost a collective $42 billion today so far.

Exciting to watch Elon Musk pivot so elegantly from making his cars toxic to the demographic most likely to consider one, to making his Starlink a national security risk for all the governments who might have wanted it.

Just imagine a scenario in which PM Liz Truss was in charge now and then tell me that "all politicians are the same"

This is an interesting one. How far will the courts go to enforce compliance with their orders?

Polls tell us what's happening now so they are useful (Thatcher was very unpopular, the main parties are currently struggling).

They don't tell you who will win an election in four years time.

I heard some Herbert from the Spectator praising Trump for restoring ‘freedom of speech’ the other day. In fact, I’ve heard several British right-wing blowhards say the same. Are they utterly, utterly stupid or morally bankrupt or both?

On the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz I wanted to share this quote from Prime Levi:

"Auschwitz is outside of us, but it is all around us, in the air. The plague has died away, but the infection still lingers and it would be foolish to deny it....

(1/3)

It’s not the whole of the reason obviously, but are you saying that the amount (and the type) of exposure doesn’t have any effect?!