Potto Baggie

Top weekend for the Throstles and Owls in the Black Country

Screen shot of Elon Musk posting that USAID is a criminal organization and that it’s “time for it to die.”

This might give some pause to anyone who thinks of Musk’s DOGE as just a dispassionate accounting firm trying to make everything run more smoothly.

Remember when conservatives used to make a strong case for free trade - instead of abasing themselves before protectionist, authoritarian bullies?

How hard would it have been for BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg to bring up this front page when Nigel Farage complained during his interview with her today that economically “we are getting poorer”

This tweet by Boris Johnson: https://x.com/borisjohnson/status/1868566081482473547?s=46&t=eC_zcFOslE2jS1ASQzcKfg

Boris Johnson does not care about “freedoms” nor the economy. If he did, he’d want us to rejoin the EU.

What he *does* care about, ladies & gents, is you fighting to save his legacy for his own ego’s sake.

I say let’s nuke it.

This should concern everyone. The Prime Minister urgently needs to close any loophole’s that might allow foreign billionaires like Elon Musk to bankroll British political parties

In other news Nigel Farage continues to spout his boll**** unchallenged UK must leave the ECHR

If we want to avoid a dangerous chain of events which could one day see Britain joining Russia & Belarus as only European countries outside the ECHR we need to constantly call him out

Good grief, the state of our rivers is even worse than I thought.

I’m old enough to remember Boris Johnson telling businesses Brexit paperwork could go in a bin. Now they need a warehouse to store it in

Come on you Albion young guns ✊️

Sterling close to its highest value against the Euro since the Brexit referendum. Markets appear to be rewarding the prospect of long term British political stability. Not something you’ve been able to say for a while.

Paul Heaton at Newcastle last night - off the scale brilliant. What a beautiful voice Rianne Downey has too. #Heatongrad

Angela Rayner, "When we left the European Union people were promised more money into the NHS.. That living standards would be better.. And the opposite has happened"

Why won't Starmer or Reeves also acknowledge that Brexit has been an absolute disaster?

Congrats!

Bluesky is proving well up to the task of providing helpful & informative Syria coverage. Some amazing footage around. Verification etc can only make things better moving forward.

Oh Frankie..

With Trump's announcement on NBC that he will no longer be providing as much support to Ukraine and his demand for an immediate cease-fire this morning on Truth Social, we can only read it as Trump rewarding Putin, setting up for Russia to do it all again in 2 years after a full re-arming.

Bring back Erasmus+ and youth mobility in Europe Taking Britain out of the Erasmus+ programme was a huge mistake. Labour must rejoin and accept the EU’s offer of a youth mobility scheme

“Taking Britain out of the Erasmus+ programme was a huge mistake. Labour must rejoin and accept the EU’s offer of a youth mobility scheme”👏

Our youth have been robbed of the freedom of movement we enjoyed - this is the absolute least the Gov’t can do for them
sussexbylines.co.uk/news/educati...

I'll tell you what there's too much made of - the opinions of bigots.

I live in a little village, I'm less frightened of offering asylum to those fleeing persecution than I am of having to live in a country with this woman.

Kemi Badenoch, who has been in the job for five minutes, refused to announce any policies, and fluffed every single PMQs she's taken part in, is named the Spectator's "Leader of the Year".

Spent a little time on Twitter this afternoon.

It's become even less usable, if you can imagine.

British food exports to EU ‘have fallen £3bn a year since Brexit’ Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy report finds trade flows have shown no signs of returning to previous levels

The Brexit Curse

British food exports to EU ‘have fallen £3bn a year since Brexit’.

Border checks, lower standards on pesticides, veterinary drugs, animal welfare make UK exports harder.

Brexit costing UK economy about £100bn a year.

Rejoin EU.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Today is the Observer’s 233rd birthday. And the first of 4 strike days. I grew up in South Wales in the shadow of the miners’ strike. Extraordinary to be joining a picket line outside what I believed was my liberal progressive news org all these years later.

We’re so grateful for your support & ✊

Surreal scenes from Tbilisi as a young brave woman breaks through riot police barrier screaming: “Is it me you are afraid of?!”

The Georgian women define bravery. Video via Radio Tavisupleba

Covid corruption commissioner gets to work Tom Hayhoe's first task will be reviewing the £8.7bn of pandemic PPE that had to be written off.

Covid corruption commissioner starts fraud probe

Well I hope he gets a lot of our money back after the Tories and their PPE corruption..

And I also hope some of the profiteering wrong 'uns go to jail

Let's see.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

This is depressing. PM appears to rule out youth mobility scheme with EU on ground “freedom of movement is a red line.” That makes no sense. It falls far short of “free movement” because it only allows individuals to come for a limited period & does not allow them to settle in UK or EU member state

This is just a small handful of the hundreds of pardons Trump gave to drug traffickers, violent felons, fraudsters, donors, friends, cronies, wealthy businessmen, campaign aides, and Republican politicians.

It's at this time of year, when the Christmas songs come on the radio, that I like to remember one of the Pogues finest works.

He thought he could throttle our accounts, suppress our posts, force his insane views on us & just get away with it. Boll**** to that. Welcome to BlueSky everyone