Naomi Smith

Kemi Badenoch, a woman who excuse-makes for obvious racism and can't condemn it without doing mimsy false equivalences, talking about 'courage', is it?

Whoops. Priti Patel. Sitting right there. Everyone else is mentioned, except her. Camera lingers. Priti trying to cover her seething - and failing. Is alienating your Shadown Foreign Sec wise, while knives are being sharpened?

A headline saying the Tories want to curb students taking degrees such as English

Right wing parties "People coming here must integrate"

Also right wing parties "

Britons back staying in ECHR by 46% to 29%, poll suggests - www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Top Cory Doctorow, with splashes of ice water to the face:

"I firmly believe the (economic) AI apocalypse is coming. These companies are not profitable. They can't be profitable. They keep the lights on by soaking up hundreds of billions of dollars in other people's money then lighting it on fire"

Barely a squeak from the usual suspects on the free-speech right, of course, but this amounts to the most serious assault on free speech in living memory. We cannot accept a situation where hundreds of non-violent demonstrators are being arrested every weekend.

Did you read this? Exquisite. But terrifying.

bsky.app/profile/piml...

“You described Reform and other parties across Europe today as among the 'right wing equivalents of the fascists in the 1930s'. Why?”

“Because that’s what they are”

@vicderbyshire.bsky.social asks Lord Heseltine about remarks he made at Conservative Party Conference.

#Newsnight

And where 80% of people live in public housing

Among the worse interviews I've seen a politician give. There is no way Badenoch can (or should) survive until May.

- Do you admire Nigel Farage?
- On what basis?
- Do you admire him?
- I don't understand your question.
- What do you think of him?
- Why don't you ask me about Ed Davey?" 😱 ~AA

Robert Peston @Peston Heseltine has just addressed a packed meeting of the European Movement at Tory conference. He does not show the restraint of most party leaders in his critique of Farage and Reform: “right wing equivalents to the fascists of the thirties are back on the march: Le Pen in France, AfD in Germany, Fdl in Italy, Vox in Spain and conspicuously Reform in this country. Much of President Trump's language in America coincides with words here in Europe. The immigrant has replaced the Jew as the problem which needs a solution although recent events here have cast a dark shadow…We must make clear that we will never have any part in the populist extremism of Nigel Farage. We have to deal with President Trump for the next 3 years. we don't need his mouthpiece anywhere near Number 10.” 4:26 PM · Oct 7, 2025 · 16.2K Views

Michael Heseltine tells @europeanmovement.co.uk event that the Farage's Reform and European populist far right parties are “equivalents to the fascists of the thirties” and adds: ”We have to deal with President Trump for the next 3 years. We don't need his mouthpiece anywhere near No.10.” ~AA 🔥

Dad’s books are full of empathy, common sense, and a healthy suspicion of the powerful. But at its heart his work is also about how systems keep people poor while pretending it’s their own fault. So I hope Kemi’s taking notes as well as reading the jokes.

Should there be national service for Boomers?

A German think tank has called for 1yr of "mandatory social service" for all new retires - a move Britons would oppose for the UK

Support: 14%
Oppose: 73%

18-24yr olds: -43 net support
25-49: -58
50-64: -70
65+: -53

yougov.co.uk/society/arti...

Wow. Robert Jenrick doubles down by branding a black journalist's questions "ridiculous" and saying that the problem is not his comments, but "journalists like you who pop up and try to knock me down", adding that "this is the reason why terrorist attacks happen". ~AA

BBC Laura Kuenssberg Show Accused of Anti-Green Bias After Cancelling Zack Polanski Interview The new Green Party leader was the only major party leader not to have been granted a conference interview on the flagship BBC show

The Greens requested an interview on the Laura Kuenssberg Show with Zack Polanski when he was elected leader, but were denied, with a promise to interview him during Green conference instead.

This was then scrapped citing the Manchester synagogue attack. Polanski is both Jewish and from Manchester

The horror continues

Leaving the ECHR won’t fix illegal migration Half-baked tales of rulings turning on chicken nuggets are no basis for cutting Britain adrift

Half-baked tales of rulings turning on chicken nuggets are no basis for cutting Britain adrift. My Times piece on the Tories’ policy of leaving the ECHR based on spurious claims. www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

Would be helpful if a few people who were still MPs would say this...

A work of art

Goody-bag merch from Tory Conference branded "When Labour negotiates Britian loses" and signed "Kemi Badenoch".

It helps to be able to spell the country you say only you are competent enough to run.

Tory make-believe offers an uncomfortable lesson for Labour Neither government nor opposition are honest about trade-offs required to turn Britain around

"I would love to shrink the civil service to its 2016 size and have a proposal to do so... by dynamically aligning all our regulations with our nearest trade bloc and applying to rejoin it." 👍@stephenkb.bsky.social
www.ft.com/content/6fde...

I simultaneously want and do not want this to happen. Excellent, if terrifying piece from Doctorow.

This article is brilliant.

"AI is the asbestos we are shoveling into the walls of our society and our descendants will be digging it out for generations"

pluralistic.net/2025/09/27/e...

What do you think?

More austerity you say? This is the kind of bold outside-the-box thinking that will surely turn things around for the Tories 🙃
pa.media/blogs/pa-edi...

Still waiting for it to trickle down...

Yes, now confirmed: apart from pensions, if you are a (non-EU) non-UK citizen you would be barred from receiving any benefits of any kind, irrespective of how long you have been in the country and/or how much tax you have paid.

It breaks my mind that two British political parties have seen scenes like this and decided to try and replicate it in Britain. Thuggary, lawlessness, state brutality. Farage and Badenoch decided they liked the look of it.

Caroline Lucas!

At lobby today, Govt confirmed plans for further protest crackdowns via amending S12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986.

It will give police more powers inc:

🔴 Directing protests away from specific locations
🔴 Imposing time limits
🔴 Considering repeated protests' impact on religious communities