Alex

At least it’s not just me then, been decorating at work though which, at the very least, is better than actually working

The OBR is run independently from Government. It literally was somebody else's fault.

You'd think Kemi Badenoch would know that given her own party created it in Government, but apparently not

“But I will not let her”

What exactly does she intend to do?

Can hardly say I’m surprised

Police and crime commissioners to be abolished, government to announce System introduced in 2012 across England and Wales has faced criticism from police chiefs * UK politics live – latest updates The controversial system of police and crime commissioners is to be abolished by the government, the Guardian has learned. Under the system, introduced under the Conservatives, all 43 police forces covering local areas across England and Wales had to answer to an elected official. Continue reading...

Police and crime commissioners to be abolished, government to announce

From what I’ve seen, the edited version is quite significantly different.

What he actually said also incited a riot, so I don’t understand why the BBC edited it. If they just stuck to the facts, nobody could argue with it, but their edit just gives people ammunition for no good reason.

Thanks! I’ll give it a go

There seems to be a lot of Americans on here, anyone good to follow for discussion on UK politics?

Love seeing all the new features Bluesky keeps adding!

Fact-checking Farage: Are foreigners more likely than Britons to commit sexual offences? Nigel Farage says "an Afghan male has a 22 times more likely chance of being convicted of rape than somebody born in this country". Sky News's data and forensics unit has looked at the data.

This is odd because the data supports Farage’s point, but he still made up his data.

He claimed that “an Afghan male has a 22 times more likely chance of being convicted of rape than somebody born in this country”.

Sky News thinks it’s more like 4x, with that probably still being an overestimate.

Very happy to hear that the government will be lowering the voting age to 16.

Also good that bank cards are to be accepted as voter ID - this should mean less people can’t vote due to forgetting ID, as they may still have their wallet on them.

Also makes it easier for people who don’t drive.

Labour MPs call on Starmer to focus on radical ideas to lower cost of living Exclusive: Warnings from group of 104 MPs come amid fears party could lose next election if voters do not feel better off

Labour MPs call on Starmer to focus on radical ideas to lower cost of living

Warnings from group of 104 MPs come amid fears party could lose next election if voters do not feel better off

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

Reform has already lost some council seats after its councillors resigned.

The election was in May. It’s now only July.

Clearly the Reform candidates didn’t expect to win, so they’ve already gone - and been replaced by other parties.

MPs just voted in favour of Labour’s welfare reforms.

The vote was 335-260 (75 majority)

Pretty close, and the bill now goes to the next stage.

This is after the government made some last minute changes meaning that the bill will not take effect until a welfare review can be considered.

It’s not looking too good for Starmer’s welfare reforms.

Despite the PM’s ‘concessions’, many backbenchers don’t seem convinced.

Even Mayors Khan & Burnham have encouraged backbenchers to vote against it.

This will certainly be interesting.

A headline in The Telegraph saying “Labour considers copying Macron's net zero housing laws”, and the subheading “Ed Miliband and Angela Rayner exploring whether to adopt French green policy blamed for driving up construction costs”.

Despite The Telegraph clearly disliking it, this is a good (and necessary) policy.

Climate change is happening, and we need to do something to prevent, or at least slow, it.

Farage has the benefit of not being in government - he doesn’t actually have to do anything he says.

That means it doesn’t need to be realistic, it just needs to sound good.

My only hope is that people see how Reform councils are run, and don’t vote for them at the next general election.

Farage’s Plan to Let People Pay to Avoid Tax The Britannia Card: A £250,000 card that gets you out of paying tax

Farage has come up with another... interesting policy.

The 'Britannica Card'.

It costs £250,000 and cuts your tax bill, but Farage claims it'll help the poor.

I would like to stress the word 'claims', as that is very much disputed.

Keir Starmer faces a major rebellion from his own MPs over his Government's reforms to the benefits system. Some of the party's most senior backbench politicians want to stop the Welfare Reform Bill becoming law because it would force a quarter of a million people into poverty

Rupert Lowe got his gamekeeper to shoot his Labrador.

His dog was unwell, so he thought taking it to the vet would be “cruel”.

So he had it shot.

He had his own dog shot.

Appalling.

A headline in Sky News saying “Latest polling says if an election was held tomorrow Reform UK would win a majority” The paragraph below says that “A new survey puts Nigel Farage's party on 34%, nine points ahead of Labour, with the Tories a distant third. Were these figures to be replicated across the country at a general election the Conservatives would be nearly wiped out with just 12 seats.”

This headline is a tad ridiculous.

The article then says that “Were these figures to be replicated across the country at a general election, with every constituency behaving the same way”

But when does every constituency behave the same?

It’s a big assumption to make, just for a better headline.

Parliament Just Made Two Historic Decisions This week, MPs voted in favour of both assisted dying and decriminalising abortion.

This week saw two historical votes in the Commons.

On Monday, MPs voted to decriminalise abortions.

On Friday, MPs voted in favour of assisted dying.

I imagine it’s much better for CDs than streaming services.

That being said, Spotify is probably the worst - Apple Music is better and I think Tidal is the best. Still not great, but the best.

This was not the news I expected to see when I woke up today…

America has bombed Iran.

This really is not a good thing to happen. It is not going to be good for any country involved.

Oh, and just a reminder, Trump ran on a promise to end existing wars - he’s just started another.

Definitely had lots of flaws - but it rally is great.

I honestly couldn’t imagine what it would be like to live in a country where that didn’t exist, I just wish governments would give it the funding it needs to be as good as it could be.

I don’t really know what they think that would achieve.

And it wouldn’t just be a trade war with France - we’d be saying goodbye to any chance of improving relations with the EU.

That all sounds pretty good to me.

I’m sure Farage & co won’t be happy, but there’s already similar things setup for other countries, so why not the EU?

The only surprise is that only 61% of people think that.

Expanding the Warm Home Discount is an interesting (but good) move from the government.

It feels much more like Labour than previous decisions, helping people pay fuel bills.

But Starmer still insists on benefits cuts.

There’s no coherent policy here - what is his goal?

I’m not sure what Trump will end up doing, but I am confident that it won’t be good.

I don’t see why we should join Trump where there is no positive outcome.