Merv King

It's illiberal I know but I really am starting to think that we need urgently to disenfranchise the “let’s just roll the dice” voters.

They may be lovely in person but the harm they have done is incalculable.

Let alone the harm that they are still to do.

Some PR advice for the Andrew-stricken royals – try something that look less like a $12m cover-up | Marina Hyde A big loan to keep the case out of court doesn’t quite add up to ‘thoughts and prayers to the victims of Jeffrey Epstein’. Working with the police might be a start, says Guardian columnist Marina Hyde

Definitive proof both Queen Elizabeth and King Charles not only knew but helped Andrew cover up his abuse. Abolish the monarchy.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Rubio skips Ukraine meeting with European leaders in Munich US secretary of state cancels attendance at last minute in move that EU official calls ‘insane’

He skipped the Ukraine meeting in order to be able to travel to Budapest to see Viktor Orban.

giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Shoutout to the Very Serious Foreign Affairs Experts who told us that Rubio would be a moderate force in the new Trump adm

Guardian reporting: Home secretary 'disappointed' by ruling, plans to appeal Home secretary Shabana Mahmood said she was ‘disappointed’ by the ruling and that she plans to appeal it.

Are Labour really going to have the actions of TWO Home Secretaries declared unlawful?

What a thoroughly shoddy party they turned out to be.

Dear UK media,
If you’re going to fall for Farage’s every cry for attention, FFS, be ready with the facts that show that, not only is he peddling anti-immigrant sentiment/racism for votes, but he’s lying about the stats too.
It’s dangerous and dishonest.
Please say so.
Thanks
A v tired-of-this, UK

So young white women must breed, old white women must shut up and cook (and clean behind the fridges), and black and brown women will be deported.

Is that the Reform message?

So this is the Telegraph's framing of the Ratcliffe story.

The top story is actually about the benefits system in general, not migration. When it does touch on migration – way down in the article – it's almost sensible. But most readers won't read that far.

In the 2021 census 0.3% of the population of England and Wales do not speak English at all (link below). I cannot find a figure for Scotland, so where is Farage getting his figures from or is he just making them up?

@andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...

The former Chancellor glossing over Ratcliffe's false population numbers, as if he were submitting his own tax return or expenses reimbursement request

Rarely mentioned but about much of Ratcliffe’s business ‘success’ is based on draining public money (very common among these ‘self made tycoons’)

Eg democracyforsale.substack.com/p/ineos-set-...

Screenshot of a home office tweet

If the PM reckons Jim Ratcliffe should apologise for spreading this exact same lie, should the Home Office apologise too, or? 🤨

NEW ANALYSIS: China's CO2 has now been 'flat or falling' for 21 months

* Down in 2025
* Still below Mar 2024
* Clean energy wave a key factor

If this is China's peak (TBC) it's the climate story of the century so far…

www.carbonbrief.org/...

A Downing Street spokesperson added that Ratcliffe's remarks "play into the hands of those who want to divide our country" and called on him to "immediately" apologise. The response was in contrast to the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, who told Sky News that Ratcliffe was "right to say that there are too many people who have been written off, not allowed to make the contribution that they could make to this country".

Lisa Nandy really is pretty hopeless

Chris Mason failing to point out that Ratcliffe's immigration numbers were untruthful

We don’t have a functioning democracy when the people who lied to our faces to ‘get Brexit done’ are never held to account for the damage they’ve caused… and, worse still, are rewarded for life, for cynically or moronically selling our country out.

They deserve nothing but our contempt. Forever.

Oh do fuck off. All these big business owners are pushing the right wing narrative, as they continue to avoid taxes and mistreat staff.

I'm sick of them all.

An obvious lie about Canada's GDP - and the original source of the antagonism is coming from the US toward Canada, not the other way around. "It's your fault for not acceding to my threats" is the language of domestic abusers.

The problem with this argument is Sanchez has been PM in Spain since 2018; Friedericksen in Denmark since 2019; Albanese in Australia since 2022 etc...

And they have social media in all those countries.

One of the maddest elements of Brexit - and there are *many* - is the rewards that continue to be lavished on the blithering idiots who sold it & continue to be proved wrong about everything every day…

If only the BBC political journalists had held the Tories to account. Indeed, imagine if they put as much effort into speculating about Farage and Reform.

The USA now has CONCENTRATION CAMPS

The USA is torturing, starving, and killing adults and CHILDREN in these CONCENTRATION CAMPS

Sick
Disgusting
Abhorrent

WHAT HAPPENED TO NEVER AGAIN

Reform MPs Accused of Pandering to Putin After Skipping Russian Interference Debate Nigel Farage's party refused to attend the debate, called after more than 100,000 people signed a petition demanding a public inquiry into Russian interference in British politics

Reform MPs Accused of Pandering to Putin After Skipping Russian Interference Debate

Nigel Farage’s party refused to attend the debate, after more than 100,000 people signed petition demanding a public inquiry into Russian interference in British politics

bylinetimes.com/2026/02/10/r...

It is so embarrassing that it has taken nearly a decade for a British minister to say this, a statement of the absolute bloody obvious

Starmer's ex-comms chief suspended from Labour over links to sex offender Matthew Doyle, who now sits in the House of Lords, has had the Labour whip withdrawn

Former Number 10 comms chief Matthew Doyle – who was recently given a peerage by Keir Starmer – has the whip suspended over his ties to a padeophile.

No, not *that* paedophile. A different one.
inews.co.uk/news/politic...

just a fucking weird statement on it's face but also highlights how filthy rich and completely out of touch trump's whole cabinet is. a private boat for a family vacation? stopping by a billionaire's island for lunch? nannies, plural?? the epstein class, indeed.

Wetherspoon boss urges pubs to back Reform By Henry Saker-Clark The founder of Wetherspoon has urged other pubs to back Reform UK. Sir Tim Martin, chairman of JD Wetherspoon, said Reform's plans to slash beer duty would help the sector move towards "tax parity with supermarkets". Nigel Farage's party announced a series of proposals to support pubs last week. They included pledges to cut VAT in the hospitality sector by 10 per cent, cut beer duty by the same fraction. Reform also said it would reverse the recent rise in employers' national insurance contributions (NICs) for the sector and gradually remove business rates for all pubs. The party has said it would fund this package with around 23on, which it plans to secure through reinstating the two-child benefit cap, except for families with two British-born parents. In a lengthy stock exchange filing yesterday, Martin (inset) told industry leaders "there's no question that this initiative would utterly transform the competitiveness of pubs" He said: "By eliminating the tax differential between supermarkets and the hospitality industry, and restoring margins to devastated businesses, these changes would enable pubs to regain some, or all, of their lost trade. "You would think that this offer from Reform would have been greeted by a crescendo of enthusiasm, ecstasy and support from the licensed trade and its supporters. "However, surpris-ingly, initial support has been underwhelming, at least from the great and the good in the hospitality industry" Last month, Labour announced additional business rates support for pubs. The announcement was a U-turn following complaints from pubs about rates changes in November's Budget.

Multimillionaire Brexiter, Tim Martin, urges pubs to back Reform. Just like he urged the country to vote for Brexit. Too bad if it makes you poorer. Too bad for the children he’ll push back into poverty. Tim wants more money. And he couldn’t give a shit about the cost for everybody else.
(iPaper)

I'm convinced AI is our generation's radium - a discovery with genuinely useful applications in specific, controlled circumstances that we stupidly put in everything from kid's toys to toothpaste until we realised the harm far too late where future generations will ask if we were out of our minds.

BREAKING: Nigel Farage calls for an end to working from home and the focus on work-life balance

"People aren't more productive working from home - it's a load of nonsense”

Whatever you do JUST DON’T VOTE REFORM!

Anas Sawar with his “old friend” Peter Mandelson.

By his dramatic intervention calling for Keir Starmer to resign, Anas Sarwar has drawn attention to himself in ways likely to be deeply unhelpful to his own chances of survival in office and to Labour’s electoral prospects in Scotland.

Amazing.