John Beare

Labour can find millions to save industry in England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 - or even Belgium. 🇧🇪

But nothing for Grangemouth or Mossmorran in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 - what are they playing at?

Quite the thing to witness Fife Labour not only beholden to and proposing motions (about Coalfields) with the Tory’s but now relying on and negotiating with Reform to get their policy positions through Fife Council meetings.
#GUBU

Chart showing first preferences by polling district. In percentage terms, best district for each party was SNP 58.6, Labour 27.1, Reform UK 21.1, Lib Dem 11.6, Conservative 9.6

Map of the ward with polling districts coloured by lead party at the by-election. SNP led every district, covering Town Centre, Woodside, Pitteuchar, Thornton and Coaltown of Balgonie.

Glenrothes Central and Thornton (Fife) by-election results by polling district, strongest area by party:

SNP: Town Centre
Labour: Woodside
Reform UK, Lib Dem: Thornton
Conservative: Coaltown of Balgonie

If you missed it (extra, due to Bluesky crash) late last night, results of the Glenrothes Central and Thornton by-election.

Won't get to charting til late this evening, but final round was SNP 53.7% (+2.6), Lab 29.1% (-10.4), Didn't Transfer 17.2% (+7.8); pretty dire for Labour, this one.

SNP win by-election with more than double Labour vote as Reform UK surge The SNP have won a council by-election, holding the seat with more than double the Labour vote

SNP wins Fife by-election with more than double Labour vote
www.thenational

With US history being rewritten daily, we are now entering Orwell’s 'endless present' THERE’S an ongoing argument I have with a friend whenever I express shock or outrage at the latest spasm of authoritarianism from the United…

"Critical thinking is an abomination to the new US regime" @mikesmall.bsky.social

#fascism #colonialism #usa #trump
www.thenational.scot/politics/251...

Trump’s Wildly Unconstitutional Plot to Banish U.S. Citizens to Gulags His plan to send American citizens to foreign prisons is the latest in a long series of affronts to the American constitutional order.

Trump's Wildly Unconstitutional Plot to Banish U.S. Citizens to Gulags

newrepublic.com/article/1939...

UK families will be £1,400 a year poorer by 2030

Things are not getting better.

Labour are on track to LOWER living standards by the next election.

An average family in the UK could be £1,400-a-year poorer by 2030, according to analysis by @jrf-uk.bsky.social.

HEY PSST! ZOOM IN. [wee text] Labour's £5BN cut to welfare spending is "austerity by stealth" - Labour MP Clive Lewis, 23/03/2025

🔍👀🧐🔭

The image is a screenshot of a post on X by the account Jim Himes (@jahimes ). The post reads: "Last week, Tulsi Gabbard said 'any unauthorized release of classified information is a violation of law and will be treated as such.' By the Trump admin’s own 'standards' everyone on this chain would lose their access to classified info and be subject to criminal investigation." Below this, there is a reposted tweet from Shane Harris (@shaneharris ), which states: "In 25 years of covering national security, I’ve never seen a story like this: Senior Trump officials discussed planning for the U.S. attack on the Houthis in a Signal group—and inadvertently added the editor-in-chief of..." (the message cuts off). The reposted tweet was made 6 hours prior, as indicated by the timestamp.

They’re gonna move the goal posts a lot for the DUI hire.

Labour refuse to rule out 'copy and pasting' Tories' Rwanda scheme

Labour have refused to rule out a 'copy and paste' of the Tories’ Rwanda scheme for migrant deportations

Reeves to reveal biggest UK spending cuts since austerity in spring statement Labour MPs uneasy as chancellor prepares even deeper reductions that economists say will harm key services

“I don’t know how much longer we can go on pretending this is not austerity”

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

A quote card with an image of JRF chief executive Paul Kissack saying "2 in 5 working-age families receiving disability benefits already experience hardship – cutting benefits will only serve to deepen this. It is no answer to the nation’s health or employment prospects and an unethical and short-sighted approach."

Slashing benefits to meet an arbitrary fiscal target would be unethical, short sighted and illogical. ❌

2 in 5 people receiving disability benefits already experience hardship.

This means they are either unable to afford enough food, heat their home or pay household bills. 1/3

Broxburn Uphall WInchburgh (West Lothian) by-election 1st prefs (vs BE 22 / full 22):

SNP: 1375 (31.8%, -3.4 / -8.2)
Lab: 1263 (29.2%, -10.6 / +0.9)
RUK: 809 (18.7%, new)
Con: 324 (7.5%, -0.3 / -9.5)
LD: 229 (5.3%, +1.6 / +1.7)
Grn: 185 (4.3%, +1.6 / +0.1)
Alb: 135 (3.1%, +1.3 / +1.8)

SNP win stg7

Starmer hasn’t invited the 3 Baltic states, which is shameful given their support for Ukraine and their vulnerability.

Baltic states 'very unhappy' after UK fails to invite leaders to Ukraine summit Sir Keir Starmer, fresh back from a friendly meeting with Donald Trump in Washington, is due to host the leaders of more than a dozen European countries for a summit in the UK on Sunday to discuss Rus...

Starmer not inviting 3 frontline states to his summit is shameful, and will be interpreted by the Kremlin as a weakness and an opportunity to exploit.

news.sky.com/story/baltic...

Honestly I think a lot of vance and trump’s petty behaviour is driven by jealousy of Zelenskyy and deep personal insecurity. They both know deep down they would flee in a heartbeat in the face of an invasion.

Scotland's renewable share is the best in Europe – so why are energy bills so high?

EXC: Scotland's renewable share in Europe, yet Scots have some of the most expensive energy bills. Why is that?

Human toll of Russia's war in Ukraine explained in graphics – DW – 02/24/2025 Three years on, Russia's war in Ukraine has reduced infrastructure to rubble and displaced millions. Though estimates of the number of people killed in the invasion vary, the human tragedy is indisput...

Human toll of Russia's war in Ukraine explained in graphics

Three years on, Russia's war in Ukraine has reduced infrastructure to rubble and displaced millions. Though estimates of the number of people killed in the invasion vary, the human tragedy is indisputable.
www.dw.com/en/human-tol...?

Councillors’ tributes to Ross Vettraino – a man who ‘made things happen behind the scenes’ Every single councillor within Fife Chambers – regardless of party or politics – rose to their feet to hold one minute of silence in honour of long serving Fife councillor Ross Vettraino OBE.

Fife Council united in tributes to our colleague Cllr Ross Vettraino who passed away last Friday.

www.fifetoday.co.uk/news/politic...

I’m very sad to advise that my friend & colleague Ross Vettraino passed away yesterday.
Ross had been a Councillor since 2007.
He was a shining example to us all in challenging colleagues/officers or existing policy in striving for a better Fife & Scotland.

🥀 Before the Westminster election, Labour promised to save Grangemouth - they’ve broken that promise. 👇

Trump says Palestinians should leave Gaza permanently and US will ‘take over’ strip | CNN Politics President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the US “will take over” the Gaza Strip, after saying earlier that he doesn’t think there is a permanent future for Palestinians in Gaza.

Well if you can’t invade Greenland or Panama, then ethnically cleansing Palestine has to be next on your list, eh!
🙄🤯
Only 206 weeks to go…...

www.cnn.com/2025/02/04/p... Trump says Palestinians should leave Gaza permanently and US will ‘take over’ strip

Europe needs to stand up for Greenland. It is failing | Nathalie Tocci There are rational explanations for the continent’s muted response to Donald Trump’s threats – but that’s not how you deal with this president, says Guardian Europe columnist Nathalie Tocci

An important read
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

How an arcane Treasury Department office is now ground zero in the war over federal spending | CNN Politics A few weeks before Donald Trump was sworn in as president, members of his transition team went to the Treasury Department to talk about the handover of power.

Why an obscure Treasury office is now a key battlefront in a wider war being waged by President Donald Trump and his allies over federal spending: cnn.it/42C7cJy

Labour's plan to invest money in "all corners of our country"...is almost entirely for South-East England

Labour have announced they are investing taxpayer money to drive growth "across the UK".

Guess where almost all of it is going.

Labour stood up for WASPI women - right until they got into government. Now they’re nowhere to be seen.

The SNP have supported these women throughout, and that’s why we’ve put a Bill before Westminster calling for them to be compensated for this historic injustice.

Aaand Labour MPs just swerved a vote on compensation for the WASPI Women 👀 Here's what this whole issue is about...

A bird's-eye view of a former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp showing a wide dirt pathway flanked by parallel rows of barbed-wire fences. Groups of visitors walk along the path, surrounded by the remnants of brick structures and barracks, now reduced to foundations. Green grass contrasts with the somber history of the site, as the path leads toward a guard tower in the distance.

Auschwitz was at the end of a long process. It did not start from gas chambers.

This hatred was gradually developed by humans. From ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder.

Auschwitz took time.

Meanwhile: