Patrick Hill

Mamdani is asked about Trump’s comment last night that he’s better looking than him: “My focus is on the cost of living crisis.”

The government has shut down refugee family reunion — turning in effect a “temporary pause” into a permanent ban.

Cruel. Heartless. Inhumane. 🧵

reunitefamiliesuk.co.uk/over-60-orgs...

Also notable that the Tories are on 7% with people under-50. In fifth place. And only 4 points above the SNP in sixth (who obviously only stand in Scotland).

New York Post headline: Nearly a million New Yorkers ready to flee NYC if Mamdani becomes mayor - possibly igniting largest exododus in history: poll

You laugh, but this is how the exododus went extinct

Title panel with the words Outsiders by Davenant in a distressed font over a background of a mouldy wall

The Outsiders exhibition on homelessness and substandard housing is now in storage until it goes to Street Level Photoworks in Glasgow in March next year. It will be the longest period without a display of this exhibition somewhere since 2023.

The men who raised the flags Nigel Farage says this summer’s movement was led by ‘ordinary people’ expressing their patriotism. That’s not what we found

"When we looked into prominent flaggers we found people smugglers, sex doll salesmen, people with criminal pasts, people with a good word for Hitler. Farage told us they were just ordinary folk. A few months of local journalism later, that claim looks shaky."

manchestermill.co.uk/the-men-who-...

Frank Zappa on the Religious Right (1986)

The driver "managed to contact the control centre at Network Rail and get the train diverted onto the slow line", Calder says. "That was absolutely crucial because this train was scheduled to be travelling through Huntingdon station on the tracks with no platform at 125mph." "It didn't stop in the middle of nowhere, which would have been very difficult." Calder thinks this was handled in the "safest possible way" thanks to the "incredible professionalism from the driver and the police". Train drivers are trained on how to take appropriate action, he adds,

Next time someone tells you that train drivers "just push buttons" show them this from the BBC

Comorant on a sea water break, wings spread out. Choppy sea in the background.

#SuperSeabirdSunday
Comorant of Crail

Dutch voters have been seduced by positivity – liberals elsewhere, take note | Simon van Teutem By selling hope alongside progressive patriotism, the centrist D66 party widened its appeal and beat the far right, says Dutch journalist Simon van Teutem

Jetten grasped that hope sells. While the other formerly liberal party, the VVD, grew increasingly gloomy & adopted PVV themes, Jetten threw open the curtains. In a country weary of cynicism and uninspired by the left’s gloom, Jetten showed optimism is not naive

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Scotland can learn from other countries on land tax, report finds Lessons from around the world could help Scotland modernise the way it values land and property, ­according to a new report

www.thenational.scot/news/2558926...

I hope this is the start of something big for Democrats‼️

NEW: Barack Obama personally called Zohran Mamdani, the front-runner for NYC mayor, to praise his campaign and offer to be a “sounding board.”

Democrats, take notes…
1/2

Government, councils and police: all scared to act as far right run riot Violent mobs try to intimidate with their flags, while we wonder what those in charge are doing about it

Violent mobs are intimidating communities across the region – waving flags, harassing women, and beating a man almost unconscious. Police, councils and government all look the other way. When did fear become policy?

@peterthurlow.bsky.social

Reform councillor defects to Tories after party’s policies left him ‘uncomfortable’ Dartford representative James Buchan says ‘devastating’ immigration plans had created a lot of fear and anxiety

“I stood for election with the sole aim of working for my community and getting things done for local families. Having had the opportunity to see Reform from the inside, I’ve concluded that the party doesn’t really have the experience or ambition to do that.”

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

And it's the weekend.

Just punched a ghost escaping from a man’s face but it turns out he was vaping

#Crail #Comorant #SeaBirds

[Scene is the entrance cabin to a NATIONAL TRUST PROPERTY AND GARDENS] 1 NATIONAL TRUST EMPLOYEE [inside cabin]: Hello there 2 [A young family - two parents two kids - have arrived at the front desk]. DAD: Hi - do you have an activity trail, for the kids? 3 NT EMPLOYEE: Of course – you’re just in time for the Autumn Gammon Trail! 4 MUM: That sounds fun, doesn’t it kids? 5 NT EMPLOYEE [handing an activity sheet and pencils to the kids]: Every autumn, the Reform Trust gammons flock back to the National Trust for the AGM. Just follow the trail round the grounds, and see how many you can spot! 6 NT EMPLOYEE [hearing something in the gardens]: Listen - that's their call [Calls emanating from the landscape]: tut-tut woke-woke 7 NT EMPLOYEE [showing the family an apparently empty fenced enclosure with some bushes in]: They are extremely sensitive and fragile... But you can bring them out of hiding if you put a little sign down mentioning slavery. 8 KIDS [pointing]: There they are! [Some little red faced PEOPLE wearing Barbour jackets and gilets emerge cautiously from the bushes. They are creeping towards a TINY SIGN in the middle of the enclosure]. [Little people noises]: woke-woke tut-tut woke-woke 9 [Close-up of the TINY SIGN - we can read that it says]: Slavery had a bit to do with building this massive house. [Noises from the little people again as they inspect the tiny sign]: tut-tut woke-woke 10 MUM [pointing]: What's that one doing there? NT EMPLOYEE: Oh, that's so sweet… 11 [We see that one of the people is sat on a rock, with a little laptop open on a tree stump, and they are furiously typing away]. NT EMPLOYEE: I think he's writing a column for the Daily Telegraph… 12 [We see close up to the little person’s screen, it is a word document reading]: Are National Trust scones secretly WOKE? [ends]

If you're a National Trust member, it's that time of year again: Midnight tonight is the deadline. It's a shame people have to keep doing this to keep a toehold on historical truth in this country, but here we are. Voting link: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/a...

Good evening. Another sunset greeting from SW #Scotland #photography #sunsets

A world without Keir Starmer Is it time to change the Labour leader?

A world without Keir Starmer: Is it time to change the Labour leader? iandunt.substack.com/p/a-world-wi...

Latest @theguardian.com cartoon

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

#Halloween #Budget #Budget2025 #RachelReeves

Late afternoon sky, Ayr 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

So why does the BBC label the academic and economist Faiza Shaheen an "activist" but refuse to do the same for the former academic, turned anti-migrant activist Matt Goodwin?

Important Public Service Announcement!

Captain Haddock looking very frazzled, saying, “What a week, huh?” Tintin leans into the frame and says, “Captain, it’s Wednesday.” Snowy is very excited about the drink he has found.

"Britain used to administer an empire from a company building around Downing Street in the 1820s,” the Reform MP for East Wiltshire said during a press conference, arguing that in the past the number of staff needed to run departments was far fewer than today."

If the model here is that you let a private company conquer a country, co-opt local elites to exploit it for profit and govern it by force, while providing no public services and never worrying about elections, then, yes - this is a really good analogy, Mr Kruger.

I follow posters i find ineresting and/or informative.

And so to bed. I suspect my days as chair of the community council are numbered.

Random photo.