John Shields

Before ppl jump on and say, "Oh what a sob story; you're siding with the rich!" OF COURSE wealthy business owners are lucky. But most pay back into the system and the country (and its tax take!) is built on successful domestic businesses. So it does actually matter, whatever your political colours.

This is why we live in a world where someone earning £400k - a huge amount, but still at an aspirational level - pays c.45% tax (to say nothing of their business's tax burden), but someone earning £400m with a multinational gets away with paying nothing. UK governments routinely get this wrong.

Rather, it translates into action taken against the far more numerous, visible, and easy-to-target tax-paying business owners who aren't squirrelling their wealth offshore and who actually contribute to UK jobs, productivity, and prosperity.

One thing that's damaging about all of this - beyond the immediate criminal and abusive behaviour at the centre of it of course - is that the reaction never translates into actually targeting the island-owning, tax avoiding billionaire class.

There's nothing particularly British about valuing people not being tw*ts. The whole 'British values' schtick really needs retiring; it's meaningless, condescending, exceptionalist cant.

This is so true

Quick buy some catapults and chariots whilst you're at it - for too long that market has been moribund!

That's actually quite funny

What song is he dancing to? Looks like he's having an epic time

Just found myself - after he saw the news - explaining the Epstein scandal to my 12-year-old. I gave a quick run down of what Epstein did, his arrest & death, and his links with Andrew M-W, Mandelson, etc.

"And it goes further; he was friends with Trump."

"*Of course* he was," he sighs dryly.

Yup

Wait. What? Dogs have brains?!

"I know I'm not supposed to make up stories about constituents and letterboxes, but I feel that 58 years on people might have forgotten..."

(Boring answer alert) With stuff like skeleton it's random links to the Cresta or similar

‘Absolute hell’: Irishman with valid US work permit held by Ice since September Seamus Culleton has been in a detention facility in Texas for nearly five months despite having no criminal record

This is absolutely insane. The sort of Kafka-esque nightmare you would find in a Philip K Dick book set far in the dystopian future. A window on America tumbling into autocracy.

www.irishtimes.com/world/us/202...

It's bizarre (to me) that anyone with that much cash wouldn't invest in good tailoring.

Plea to support Africa’s game rangers as conflict spreads to more parks The Game Rangers Association of Africa is calling on governments, funders and conservation groups to lend more support to wildlife rangers across the continent following an increasing number of attack...

The Game Rangers Association of Africa says more than 30 protected wildlife areas across the continent are now “severely affected” as armed extremists, separatists and organised crime groups expand in scale and sophistication. www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026...

a man has arrived to share his many views ALT: a man has arrived to share his many views

Yes indeed. Thunberg can be too priggish and preachy for many; I don't doubt. But this guy - even in attacking her from that standpoint - is oblivious to the irony of him standing up himself self-righteously to preach at everyone.

Peter Thiel warns the Antichrist and apocalypse are linked to the ‘end of modernity’ currently happening—and cites Greta Thunberg as a driving example | Fortune The Gen Z Swedish climate activist is a legionnaire of the Antichrist, Thiel claims, a “Luddite” who wants to halt technological progress in its tracks.

Christ PayPal has churned out some d*ckheads

fortune.com/2026/02/04/p...

A classic of the self-serving-idiot-embraces-extreme-narrative-that-serves-him genre.

What a twat.

*Trump!

Yup. I have a 2025 EX90 and the issues with the software have been just constant. Lovely vehicle to drive, and the most peaceful car I have ever been in. I even now love the no-button minimalism all the reviewers hate. But Christ it's had a lot of software glitches.

Altar Mitty is at it again!

Obviously we all know that he and his cabal are racists, and that they lean in to such stuff in part to draw a reaction. But this is genuinely shocking even by current White House standards.

Is this the same stump who wants slavery memorials removed from everywhere, who called for innocent black people to be executed in the 80s, and who had a whites-only policy in his apartment buildings? Oh and whose father was part of the KKK? Just want to check it's the same guy.

I do struggle when watching Noem to believe she isn't some kind of AI bot

YouTube video by Kermode and Mayo's Take Mark Kermode reviews Melania

Kermode on phenomenal form here.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTyU...

Did Partygate expose a cosy kind of chummy govt where people felt above the rules? Sure. Did Blair twist the truth to drag the country into war? Yes. But the flavour of these isn't so obviously about personal gain at the expense of the country.

It's the seedy self-serving nature of this that I think makes it a Proper Scandal. Rarely are people caught being so obviously corrupt - morally and financially - at such a high level. Yes, some like Trump are openly corrupt, but Mandelson has clearly made a career out of corruption in the shadows.

God they're all so f*cking awful. I know it goes without saying, but just seeing the list like that...

Our dog used to do that. But only at people with walking sticks or in wheelchairs. Was awkward.