Paul Haviland

I don't understand where you're going with this. Are you suggesting that what leaders say, how they address the public, how they energize a crowd, the language they use... all this is unimportant and we can ignore it?

I beg to differ. I wish it weren't so! But since ancient times oratory is precisely what we require of our political leaders. It's the one skill they cannot do without. They may deploy it on grand occasions of state like JFK or in smoke-filled back rooms like LBJ, but deploy it they must.

(I'm not suggesting Jeffries here is talking shit. It's actally a pretty good performance.)

But acting, i.e. persuasive public speaking, is what politicians do. It's actually the only thing they need to know how to do. They don't need to know how to dress, ride a bicycle, boil an egg or tie their own shoelaces. If they can talk they can run for office, even if—especially if—they talk shit.

Fair enough. It does amuse me that you use the term "the journalism community". My experience of journalism tells me it is nothing like a community. "Pit of vipers" comes closer.

Apparently BBC News was biased against Trump, didn't support Israel vigorously enough, and was too emollient towards trans people. So from now on I expect notorious lefties Fiona Bruce, Chris Mason and Laura Kuenssberg to cut Reform and the Tories some slack. Oh wait

Out of curiosity, have you direct knowledge or experience of BBC Arabic, or are you taking other people's word for it? Because labelling it a farce suggests that you are in a position to judge, but perhaps not objectively or dispassionately.

The BBC's senior leadership resigning en masse over one dodgy edit in one programme, simply because the right wing press demands it, tells you everything you need to know about where the power really lies in that relationship

The Spectator this morning published a piece headlined "Zohran Mamdani will destroy New York" 😱 and if you don't find that hilarious enough, it goes on to describe the city's next mayor as "uninformed, entitled and self-important" – was the author confusing him with one or two other NY politicians?

It's unfair to claim that cruelty is the only Republican value. Hypocrisy, thievery, treachery and chicanery would also like a bit of recognition, alongside willful ignorance and dereliction of duty.

Philp is the new poster boy (he'll be replaced soon) for shambling incoherence in the top ranks of the [checks notes] "natural party of government".

The BBC is just being culturally coherent, as per its mission to misinform, re-educate and entertain, i.e., distract viewers from noticing that Tories are racist, xenophobic pond life.

The argument is invalid — you cannot invoke "anyone in power" when there is no-one in power except for Trump and his mob. Congress has abdicated its role in the power strucure and the Supreme Court is fatally compromised.

Some Senators are born useless, some achieve uselessness, and some have uselessness thrust upon 'em. I don't know which Susan Collins is, but that she is useless there can be no argument.

Magical thinking is fun and harmless when it's my insistence that if I don't watch Carlos Alcaraz in real time, willing him on across oceans and continents, he will lose the match.
When policy-makers of all persuasions are addicted to—and don't realise the absurdity of—magical thinking, it's deadly.

The ceaseless snip-snip-snip of a dying state Fifteen years of cuts have left the UK trying to "efficiency" its way out of a collapse – and somehow still expecting growth to show up as well

The Bear hears it everywhere: snip-snip-snip. ✂️

Every party’s reaching for the scissors again – even though there’s nothing left to cut.

A furious, funny howl at Britain’s obsession with “efficiency”.

@eastangliabylines.co.uk @bearlypolitics.co.uk

I always think of Peter Hitchens as a bergamot: both sour and bitter, with a nostalgic perfume of 19th-century drawing rooms, not originally from these shores (he was born in Malta).

High school seniors in Florida in 1965 had to take a one-semester course "Americanism vs. Communism". Two teachers delivered it; luckily, mine was an enlightened individual and taught the history of socialism, starting with St-Simon and Fourier. The other taught Masters of Deceit by J. Edgar Hoover.

I never thought I'd say this, but I wish we could have had Matt Gaetz instead, given that he is an obvious shambling fool who would never be taken seriously. Whereas Bondi is a stone-cold amoral psychopath who can do a convincing (to some) impersonation of a no-nonsense government official.

Remember the Ministry for Brexit Opportunities, 2020-22? Has there been a cost-benefit analysis of this Boris Johnson vanity project? Anyone?
...

I'll take that as a "no"

I'm Canadian and quite fond of our country but still don't understand how pond life like Harper and Poilièvre are able to rise to the top of the political heap.

We've been in "boy who cried wolf" territory for so long that nothing Trump says has even a sliver of credibility. As you rightly point out, what matters is the sheer number of manipulators and fixers in Washington who are hooked on Russian money and oil and arms.

Not to minimise the great and enduring evil that is Murdoch and all his henchmen, Sky UK is not among them. It has been owned since 2018 by Comcast.

And immediately the Sky News presenter interviewing the Palestine Ambassador begins with a flat assertion that there is no actual state of Palestine to recognise, and continues with a barrage of hostile remarks, leading questions and interruptions.

MEN!
Are you over 50, a tech billionaire or media mogul, and worried about share loss? Experiencing spinal weakness or dysfunctional guts? Then you should

CHECK YOUR PROSTRATE

Remember, a supine position may seem safe and comfortable now, but it could rapidly become a serious handicap.

Humming to myself "the darkest hour is just before dawn" (which isn't true, of course) but it's the last floating plank of the lifeboat I desperately cling to.

I think you'll find that Piers Morgan is the loud middle-aged bloke holding court on his barstool who knows all about everything.

Maria Caulfield deserves a special thickness designation above and beyond "brick" or "two short planks". Maybe a brick sitting atop two short planks, with a slathering of mince?

That's part of it, but equally Vance is just one more narcissistic psychopath like everyone else in this administration. A media adviser probably told him to get in front of the cameras and make headlines asap or watch his brand tank. "Kirk is getting more airtime than you, and he's dead!"

"Oh my gosh, one day that could be us!"