Jim Budd

Can we extract the Reform nonsense from Labour? These immigration proposals are obscene, but the government can be forced to think again.

The government's immigration proposals are an obscenity: They needlessly punish refugees, make integration basically impossible, and introduce a sliding system of administrative abuse depending on how wealthy you are iandunt.substack.com/p/can-we-ext...

It's truly extraordinary, all the column inches and earnest pundit chatter about his strategy and personality, when in fact it's all right there, in broad daylight. He's a baby having a tantrum. It's really no more complicated than that.

Had thought views of Farage were pretty fixed.

YouGov have him net -37 (a 10 point deterioration since Spring)

Approve: 27%
Disapprove: 64%

It is striking how much the by-election inquest is for the core vote, and may be exacerbating the reputational risks

Who knew I could learn to miss the lies of the Iraq war era. But at least they were consistent. At least they could articulate what they were pretending to do.

How can you win a war if no-one can explain what it's for? Riddle me that Batman.

I've got a tip for the PM that's going to blow his mind. If he thinks about the documents he puts his name to, he'll have to spend less time distancing himself from them.

Trump caught lying about top general's Iran claim: report President Donald Trump told the American public his top military adviser blessed the Iran strike campaign as a sure thing. But the truth, according to a New York Times report on Monday, was the opposite.Before the bombs fell, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine stood before Trump and his national s...

President Donald Trump told the American public his top military adviser blessed the Iran strike campaign as a sure thing.

Agree. Ultimately the 'respectable' line that Starmer has been good on foreign policy died with Khamenei. Can we stop the US starting wars we believe are ruinous and endanger our allies? No. Can we stop him waging information war on us? No.

Kash Patel’s latest firings ousted agents with expertise in Iran The FBI director gutted a specialized, global espionage unit of counterintelligence agents, just days before Operation Epic Fury.

TERRIBLE TIMING: When FBI Director Kash Patel fired a dozen FBI agents and staff last week for their role in the classified documents investigation of Donald Trump, he targeted an elite counter espionage unit that investigates threats from foreign adversaries and specializes in Iran.

UK considers sending Royal Navy destroyer to Cyprus Defence sources say deployment of HMS Duncan to better protect base on Mediterranean island is under discussion

So it's not just air base sharing?

Because this looks a lot like dragging us into a war without parliamentary consultation and that would consign Labour to electoral oblivion @yvettecooper-mp.bsky.social @darrenpjones.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Annie knows 👇🔄

Trump shrugs at the soldiers killed in Iran: “That’s how it is.” The fallen heroes’ families receive in return lies about the Iran war, wrapped in presidential indifference. What hypocrisy in honoring the ultimate sacrifice of our soldiers !

#ProudBlue #DV1

The name of Trump's latest military foray reminds us they are a bunch of small boys drunk on power.

‘Operation Epic Fury’ is the kind of name my lads would have given their garden war games with Lego helicopters & Playmobile warships.

Except they were 7yrs & didn't wipe out a classroom of kids.

Green MPs Hannah Spencer, Ellie Chowns, and Carla Denyer standing in the House of Commons chamber

Hannah Spencer being sworn in as an MP

Earlier today, the new Member of Parliament for Gorton and Denton, Hannah Spencer was sworn in.

Home | Draft Barron Trump

#BeBest to Draft Barron Trump
www.draftbarrontrump.com

This 👇

I just signed the campaign calling on Prime Minister Keir Starmer: Do not allow the USA to use British military bases for strikes on Iran, and give MPs a vote in Parliament.

One gets the impression that Starmer would have sent troops for “defensive” roles in Vietnam.

Thankfully we had Wilson instead.

If I were a head of state, I would think setting a precedent that assassination is a legitimate tool of state competition would be unwise

A screenshot of a large group of people facing a heavily damaged building. A few of them are scaling the rubble. A headline reads: "Iran Says Dozens Are Killed in Strike on School" Photo by IRIB TV, via Agence France-Presse

During the U.S.-Israeli attack in Iran on Saturday, dozens of people, most of them likely children, were killed when a strike hit a girls’ elementary school in Minab and a high school in Tehran, according to Iranian health officials, state media and a human rights group. trib.al/y3MsQLC

Seems like the emerging policy is: you people out there are responsible for setting up your own governments, but if the US doesn’t like who ends up in charge we’ll just assassinate or kidnap them and then the ball is back in your court.

I genuinely cannot get over him launching a war from his house in Palm Beach.

Drop in overseas workers is ‘car crash’ for UK hospitals and care homes, say experts Care roles hit particularly hard by UK’s lurch to the right on migration, according to analysis of Home Office data

"Ministers need to wake up."

Indeed. Some shift away from the exceptional levels of overseas recruitment 21-24 was natural/desirable.

But current "strategy" - no new visas and making life as unpleasant as possible for migrants already here - is madness.

www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Dear Matt Goodwin, why are you such a bad loser? The Reform candidate in Gorton and Denton tried to blame "woke" ideology and "Islamism" for his by-election defeat. Might it be that actually, he and his politics are just not very appealing? ZOE GRÜNEWALD

Perhaps the deeper problem is that Goodwin and his allies simply do not understand this country. That may not be surprising. They claim to speak for ordinary people while observing them from a distance, through the distorting lens of X, a social media ecosystem that rewards outrage and strips away civility and accountability. They tour Hungary and the US in search of ideological inspiration, nod approvingly at Viktor Orbán's pronatalist experiments and Trump's ICE deployment, and circulate among the uber-wealthy and uber-aggrieved. Their "outsider" insurgency looks, on inspection, rather establishment: privately educated, well-connected, and perpetually resentful. The irony is hard to miss. A party styling itself as the revolt of the "silent majority" was beaten by a candidate speaking plainly about work, public services and the cost of living. For all his accumulated titles and platforms, Goodwin scraped second - and responded not with reflection, but with sour grapes. Blaming "Islamists" is easier on a man's ego, I suppose, than taking a long, searching look in the mirror.

“Gorton and Denton…. was a stress test for grievance politics, and grievance cracked first. Reform’s instinct when challenged is not to persuade but to tantrum; not to build trust but to erode it. That’s the playbook. Win, or cry foul”
@zoegrunewald.bsky.social
www.thenewworld.co.uk/zoe-grunewal...

In fact, the extract from the Home Secretary's comments suggests that her rationale is wholly dishonest - the settlement changes concern people who are here legally, not illegally

Immigrant reports from a hostile environment. All she wanted was to make a better life for herself.

Labour must stop channelling Reform and unite with progressives. That’s the lesson from Gorton and Denton | Sadiq Khan The threat to the party in some parts of our country is now existential. But we can progress, as we have in London, by being bold and strong in our core beliefs, says London mayor Sadiq Khan

"Trying to compete with Reform not only feels inauthentic... but a betrayal of what Labour is supposed to represent. We must address the concerns and fears of voters, not play on them."

Damning stuff from Sadiq Khan

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

“We cannot say that the United States’ actions are against international law, but we condemn Iran’s retaliatory actions as against international law,” is neither a coherent nor a compelling position.

Keir Starmer criticised over stance on US-Israel strikes on Iran UK prime minister has adopted a much more ambivalent approach than other western allies

Lord Peter Ricketts, former head of the Foreign Office:

“If you’re going to attack a country you have to show it is in self-defence and that there is some kind of imminent threat. You can’t make that case here…An indifference to international law is dangerous.”

www.ft.com/content/b988...

(between images of a map showing the nearly 2,000 No Kings Day events planned for March 28) NO THRONES. NO CROWNS.

There are nearly 2,000 events on the No Kings Day map in all 50 states (and 10 countries). March 28 will be the largest protest in American history. Find your local event or plan a protest in your area: www.nokings.org?SQF_SOURCE=i...