Lois Emm

What I don’t get is, there was absolutely no need to edit Trump to sound more deranged and insurrectional…

The 'Great Noticing' Era Ever since Labour came to power, the British media has started to notice a whole series of problems they spent the previous 14 years completely ignoring

How ever since Labour came to power, the British media has started to notice a whole series of problems they spent the previous 14 years completely ignoring
www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/the-great-...

Prison governors criticise Tories for exploiting release errors, saying long-term underfunding to blame – UK politics live Prison governors in England accuse Conservatives of being ‘disingenuous’ and point to effects of austerity The Prison Governors Association has just issued a lengthy statement about prisoners being released in error. Without discussing particular cases, it argues that these mistakes are happening because the system is in crisis and underfunded. Here are the main points. The PGA says releases in error (RiEs, in prison jargon) have happened under every government and “most practitioners, informed commentators, and impartial experts recognise this”. It says RiEs happen because the case management system is “complex and under-resourced”. It says “unprecedented” pressures have made the problem worse. The system is “running hot, and under constant strain”, it says. The prison system, like the wider criminal justice system, is under unprecedented and sustained pressure. This is not pressure felt in isolation — prisons are interconnected. While some establishments may be coping better than others, the strain is systemic. Decisions made to stabilise one prison — such as reducing capacity or increasing staffing — often have unintended, negative consequences elsewhere. Today, it feels as though every move to ease pressure in one part of the system simply shifts the burden to another … Despite a recent reduction in the overall prison population, overcrowding remains acute. Around 10,000 people are still held in overcrowded conditions. Crucially, the available space is not in reception prisons like Chelmsford or Wandsworth, which are among the most overcrowded and experience the highest levels of prisoner movement. According to the Howard League for Penal Reform, HMP Wandsworth is operating at 167% of its safe capacity, Chelmsford is at 133% of its safe capacity. It says the rise in the number of RiEs is “deeply concerning”. The scale of releases in error (RiEs) is deeply concerning. In the last full reporting year, 262 prisoners were released in error, averaging around 65 incidents per quarter. These errors include individuals released either too early or too late from their sentence, both scenarios carry serious consequences and undermine public confidence. But only around 0.5% of prisoners are released on the wrong date, the PGA says. It says, while this figure sounds small, it amounts to “a significant operational failure”. But “the conditions required to reduce this figure to zero simply do not exist”, it says. It says stopping all errors would require “substantial investment in staff training, modern IT infrastructure, and recruitment, all within a system already stretched by competing priorities”. It suggests the Conservatives are being “disingenuous” in trying to exploit this issue politically. Successive governments have accepted this level of risk for decades. In that context, it feels disingenuous to see politicians attempt to extract political gain from a prison system in crisis … While political parties showboat and grandstand, the real risk to the public is not being effectively managed — despite the relentless efforts of those working within HMPPS. The PGA says austerity left many prisons “without the flexibility they need to respond to local challenges”. Tax rises are … widely expected at the budget, with early indicators pointing to a collection of smaller measures to plug the gap. Yet bond markets are signalling that something more decisive may be needed to restore confidence and avoid another round of fiscal firefighting next year. If the chancellor opts for a larger revenue-raising step – particularly a manifesto-breaching increase in income tax or value-added tax (VAT) – she should make clear that it is temporary and conditional: a short-term measure to stabilise the public finances, not a permanent shift in direction. Continue reading...

Prison governors criticise Tories for exploiting release errors, saying long-term underfunding to blame – UK politics live

There were 115 prisoners mistakenly released in the final year of the last Conservative Government alone.

Interesting that it only becomes a major scandal under a Labour government.

Idea for BBC R4: quality BBC journos, serious investigative reports, interviewers on top of subjects, balanced coverage of parties. No breathless reporting of Reform, journos as ‘experts’, book pluggers, pop song lyrics, football banter. Could be broadcast 06:00-09:00.

Good God. Justin Webb's fawning interview with Richard Tice on Today just now was astonishing.
A series of softball questions and no challenge to anything he said.
For Tice to talk about the performance of the City of London and not be asked about the effect of Brexit is ludicrous.

Farage speech on all news channels! Zia Yusuf AGAIN on Politics Live! Turning over to France 24 and the News Agents for factual balanced reporting!

Another 55mins of Farage carried live by BBC and Sky, in which he rambled for twice as long as briefed, and yet managed to say little of substance.

Why can broadcasters not simply give us 3mins of the low-lights after the event, as they would do with most other politicians? ~AA

Reform Is Losing Councillors Elected In May At An 'Unusual' Rate Reform UK has lost more than 5 per cent of the councillors it had elected six months ago, an analysis by PoliticsHome has found.

One in twenty Reform councillors elected in May 2025 has left by the Autumn
- half expelled/suspended
- a quarter resigned from council
- some defected

An "unusual rate" of attrition in 6 months, says Tony Travers

www.politicshome.com/news/article...

Why oh why is Zia Yusuf on Laura Kuenssberg this morning?

The ‘white faces’ disease among the British right continues to spread.

Reform suspends four Kent councillors after Guardian publishes leaked video of fierce infighting Members of Reform’s flagship county council will be investigated after ‘evidence that they brought the party into disrepute’

Bringing the party into disrepute? Wait till they hear the racist bilge the leader spouts…🤡🤡🤡🤡 www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1965: 20-1

CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1990: 75-1

CEO-to-worker pay ratio today: 280-to-1

Trickle-down economics was always a sham.

Nothing has ever trickled down.

Stopped watching this programme a long time ago!

Cornwall Council Reform UK group leader stands down from role Rob Parsonage has stepped down from his role in charge of the Reform UK group on the authority.

Robert Parsonage steps down as Cornwall Council leader of Reform UK. days after deputy leader quit the party to sit as an independent.

<puts on big foam hand with raised index finger>

And another one gone, and another one gone, another one bites the dust, yeah. ~AA

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Lyse Doucet raising the standard of BBC news reporting this morning. Respect.

Many pundits today are pushing the line that everyone who protests the genocide in Gaza is basically either antisemitic or tolerant of antisemitism. But isn't that precisely the conflation of the actions of the Israeli gov't with all Jewish people, which is at the heart of this wave of antisemitism?

'Beyond Cruel': Woman Who Has Been In UK For 25 Years Slams Farage Deportation Plan LBC presenter Ben Kentish told her: "You've contributed massively to this country."

'Beyond Cruel': Woman Who Has Been In UK For 25 Years Slams Farage Deportation Plan

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/beyond...

Energy price cap warning as latest rise takes effect The energy price cap remains vulnerable to gas price shocks and rising costs including green energy investment but households are being told they can still shield themselves from fluctuations ahead.

Average annual household energy bill hits £1,755.

£4.43bn energy debt, people can't afford it.

Since 2020 big energy companies made £514bn operating profit.

128000 a year die in fuel poverty

Profiteering fuels inflation, poverty.

Can't rebuild economy without ending profiteering.

Im surprised (or not!) this didn't get more coverage on the media.

We now have two v prominent advocates of Reform - both Matthew Goodwin and Isabel Oakeshott - arguing that Shabana Mahmood (so Rishi Sunak and Paul Ince) can't be English.

That was a settled question long before this match in 1998. This kind of radicalisation by online racists would harm Reform

hardly anyone will watch Starmer's appearance at Labour conference today but it was probably the best speech he's ever given

he clearly signposted what he stands for - a diverse, tolerant, decent Britain - and how be believes progressives are in an existential fight with the populist right

My first thoughts on the Prime Minister’s speech to the Labour Party conference

Keir Starmer made the case for patriotism far better than in the past: essentially by shifting the emphasis from a empty-sounding love of nation to the relationships, shared hopes and shared obligations that make the nation

ARE

YOU

PAYING

ATTENTION

YET?

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Reform UK’s ex-leader in Wales Nathan Gill pleads guilty to bribery charges Gill admits to eight charges while an elected member of the European parliament

🚨 BREAKING: The former leader of Reform UK in Wales, Nathan Gill, has pleaded guilty to #bribery, admitting he received corrupt payments as a Brexit Party MEP in exchange for making statements in the European Parliament to promote Russia’s interests in #Ukraine.

Trump - classy, truthful and statesmanlike as ever 🙄

YouTube video by Marsh Family "Put Up Some Fences" - Marsh Family parody of "Walking in Memphis" about Donald Trump UK State Visit

🔥 A song about Trump’s visit to the UK.

Very few songs are genius. This one is. Those lyrics are killer.

Awesome work @marshfamilysongs.bsky.social

Sure, Conservatives are right to ask why Starmer tolerated a paedophile’s friend as US ambassador but why are they not concerned about the PM hosting another pal of Epstein, one who has repeatedly lied about their relationship? And why are BBC interviewers not asking them about this?

I think Musk's comments to a rally of 100k people are the highest profile advocacy of political violence in the UK since the end of the Northern Ireland conflict. Does anybody have a counter-example?

"Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die."