Roland Smith

I'm feeling better disposed towards Starmer today.

I mean, who'd want to be PM during this Trump chaos, apart from simplist d1ckheads who would just do anything Trump wants?

Two polls still showing 44% and 46% approving of Trump.

Two US polls just as the attack on Iran was kicking off.

FFS America, sort your sh!t out.

fiftyplusone.news/polls/approv...

The public are not wrong about the Tories here, as their anti-Trumpism is generally caveated, masked or tempered by their distaste of 'the other side' (which includes Starmer).

67% of Britons describe themselves as anti-Trump, with Reform UK voters the only group more likely to be pro-Trump than anti

By 2024 vote
Lib Dem: 89% anti-Trump / 2% pro-Trump
Labour: 85% / 3%
Green: 82% / 4%
Conservative: 61% / 19%
Reform UK: 24% / 46%

yougov.com/en-gb/articl...

This godforsaken idiot piece of shit.

Picture of the cry-laugh emoji, but with one hand giving the "OK" hand gesture and another hand pointing a gun into its open mouth

The USA in one emoji:

'There is no plan, only rampant idiocy.'

A summary of populism generally. Especially Brexitism.

There is no plan, only rampant idiocy.

#Iran

Future (and probably current) conversation inside the Conservative Party: 'Oh I didn't mean YOU.'

Second Life Social media has spawned fantasy worlds that we are now living through

Also an actual quote from the article: "Ms Badenoch has ranked MPs based on how well they are performing on X".

She/they are truly lost in a fantasy 'second life' world.

rolandmcs.substack.com/p/second-life

Katie Lam in Oct 2025: ”A large number of people in this country came here legally, but in effect shouldn’t have been able to do so. They will also need to go home. What that will leave is a mostly, but not entirely, culturally coherent group of people."

Apparently in line for promotion.

Has Trump-loving Liz Truss blamed it on the deep state yet?

Still, I'm sure Izzy and Ticey had a great weekend cooing sweet nothings and racism into each other's ears as the bombs dropped nearby.

Farage misses out on Trump meeting as their relationship cools British populist politician aimed to reinforce his view about the UK’s Chagos Islands deal in conversation with US president

One small glimmer of light in the darkness: Farage's relationship with Trump has cooled, causing him a wasted journey to Mar-a-lago.

www.ft.com/content/9391...

Things look grim in the markets right now, but at least the U.S. economy wasn’t already being propped up by a massive speculative AI bubble that is highly sensitive to rising energy costs.

Morning.

Meanwhile, his other half is slagging off Britain from afar. And yet she has been getting annoyed at British people slagging off Dubai from afar.

Ticey cosplaying a UK government minister.

This is really good.
bsky.app/profile/rola...

For the UK, Norway "provides a crucial insight: alignment without representation may be a politically stable arrangement.

But one with mounting costs that are difficult to sustain in an era of geopolitical turbulence."

🇳🇴 Nick Sitter & Ulf Sverdrup on Norway & the EU

🔗 https://ow.ly/bMwx50YqboB

Inspired by Zoe Strimpel.

Yeah so he's won it.

Moral of the 'The Floor': Keep your head down, let everyone else do the hard work, steal it at the very end.

The guy up there now has only been up at the front once before, which kind of proves my theory. He's now a finalist.

All the important topics discussed on this channel.

ITV's 'The Floor' has just proved that contestants' best strategy is to let everyone else do the hard work and then come in near the end as a relative unknown.

Vicinity of Amersham

I've thought for a while that there's a danger of boomer/GenX/landlord downsizing colliding with first time buyers entering the market/upsizing such that we all end up squabbling over £200k-£500k properties while higher value house prices drop.

It might have started.

I've now spotted four houses for sale locally (Bucks) where I've thought 'that's a much lower price than I would have expected.'

House prices are definitely falling here.

Excellent, persuasive* piece.

*i.e. it has persuaded me

It is absolutely insane that the US appears to have targeted desalination plants first – putting them onto the board. Iran seems to have already retaliated against one in Bahrain. This is one of the most obvious ways this could spiral.