Terrie McCann

I just went and reread this, and it is just as true about Sarah Pochin and Bangor as it was about Rod Liddle and Durham.

"Freedom of speech" does not and has never meant freedom to be listened to uncrtically by any audience you demand.

I look forward to Pochin approaching me to give my cats talk

No-one seems to have noticed, but many of the core developments in the Mandelson/Epstein story these last few days have been broken on this website. @pickardje.bsky.social and @petergeoghegan.bsky.social are both posting each breaking development on BlueSky, not X.

If Starmer wants a reset - and not yet another U-turn when the parliamentary party balks at a policy - here is his chance.

I’m now genuinely keen to know how the initial investigation into the OBR’s early publication of the budget book confused “tens of thousands” with “43”.

It doesn’t seem ideal if the OBR isn’t good with numbers, does it?

Today is a serious day! The prime minister is at risk of being toppled! The Scottish Labour leader has called for him to go! What Rayner and Lammy and Reed say now really does matter!

And they're saying it pretty much exclusively on a site that is arguably incomptable with UK law

I see we're back to "Johnson resigned because of a party" and not because he employed a known sex pest, lied about what he knew, and more than half his cabinet resigned as a result.

Much the same as with Karen Pierce and the US ambo appointment, Starmer actually had someone who could have been director of comms, Steph Driver, who gave years of hard work and professionalism in opposition but then got a succession of people promoted over her for no apparent reason

I've been at the sharp end of Green attack leaflets and there seems to be a culture of misleading claims. I suspect White Hat Bias plays a big role.

Misrepresenting anyone is wrong but putting into question the independence of someone like @robfordmancs.bsky.social really is beyond the pale.

Indeed! People keep talking about 'oh, the soft left this', 'oh, his rivals in Downing Street that'. No, it's not the soft left on the backbenches or the Blairites in the Cabinet or No 10. It's the 'alliance of MPs who can count and would like to remain MPs'.

Hate-filled fake videos about London are everywhere. We've obtained a recording of a TikToker confessing to secretly filming Londoners in their homes for clicks.

He says it's not political. He just wants to make money from far-right anger.

Read what he says: www.londoncentric.media/p/london-tik...

Also Net Zero has been Labour's policy the entire time McSweeney has been there and they're spending tens of billions to achieve it...

This type of X comms from the Home Office seems a political gift to Reform, and fuel for overt racists, while repelling progressives at the same time

This! Labour’s leadership is being talked about as if it’s some kind of poisoned chalice.

In reality it’s a chance to take over the first term of a government with a huge majority. It’s the political opportunity of a lifetime.

If there's ever been a time to NOT be incrementalist, this is it. The most political capital you're gonna have is right now. And we got Gestapo death squads in MSP and TB spreading through concentration camps in Texas. If you can't find a win there, get out of politics. The Epstein Class, baby

Exclusive: Detention Center Captives Are Throwing Lotion Bottles Wrapped With Notes to Organizers Outside Otay Mesa Facility ~ L.A. TACO “For 280 days we haven’t eaten a single piece of fruit, banana, apple, orange, or anything fresh," an Otay Mesa captive communicated through handwritten note. "We are all in one big room with no doors...

Concentration camps:

“For 280 days we haven’t eaten a single piece of fruit, banana, apple, orange, or anything fresh. We are all in one big room with no doors or windows. We can’t see any grass or trees. We are all constantly sick."

Saying you would take a "much tougher stance on immigration" than the Labour government is (or should be) discrediting for the same reason that saying your budget plans would be "very fiscal" would be. What does it mean?

“I’ve been cast at the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony”

“What are you?”

“A stovetop espresso maker.”

Lovely. Make politicians human again.

The blunt truth is that if Karen Pierce had been a man, then she would still be US ambassador now and Keir Starmer's government would not be on the brink of death.

Absolutely incredible. Having a small lunchtime cry.

I will say - and yes, to be blunt this one of the few things in life I really feel I can get on my high horse about! - that I've cut a *lot* of men out of my life over the years after hearing stories about their misbehaviour, and watched every single time as those men just kept most of their friends

What does that last line mean? Is this another attempt at Citizens of Nowhere/Island of Strangers stuff again? (Because that worked so well last time.) Just baffled at this.

It’s so cruel - and what next? People are housed in hotels (& barracks) often out of town, bus routes are scarce & the weekly allowance is pitiful. Charities can step in, but are people now just going to get sick? What is the plan here?

I was hearing buzz about him at various drinks things pre-Christmas and finally asked someone - what's so good about him? Got the breathless reply "You know, he's climbed Everest and killed a man!". Dunno lads, maybe thinking about policies over image might be the way to go this time.

This is all true but also it's yet another sign if a party that wishes politics would go away and they wouldn't have to make hard decisions.

It doesn't matter how good the honeymoon was, if you don't make the relationship work when you get home your marriage is dead either way.

I’m still grinning from watching it.

Please watch on Disney+ (and ABC tonight too if you’re in America) so hopefully they make more!

UPDATE - I have now received a reply from the Greens apologising for the oversight in using my image and quote without consulting me and giving assurance it won't happen again. That's good enough for me, so I won't be taking any further action beyond writing it all up for my Substack

It's a good bunch!

I'd add Kirsty McNeil and Kanishka Narayan too.

Full credit to Angela Rayner.