Jacq Dodman

I wonder why the UAE government doesn't mention raising taxes at the first sign of economic trouble...

Worth listening to Richard & Marina, The Rest is Entertainment on the subject

I’ve spent years, decades, obsessing over the Bush Administration’s Iraq WMD lies, writing about them, debunking them.

I can think of no lie about Iraq WMDs told by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al that comes even close to the enormity and absurdity of this lie from Donald Trump.

Sign the Petition Katie Hopkins is not welcome in Wimborne!

The groundswell of anger against Katie Hopkins touring Britain like she's just some normal celebrity grows.

Well done to local people in Dorset who aren't taking it lying down.

www.change.org/p/katie-hopk...

Exactly this. ⬇️

@jeevunsandher.bsky.social: "Members opposite promised us that by torching our relationship with Europe, it would make us richer and it would make us stronger.

"They were wrong on both counts."

Wealthy Dubai residents race back to UAE to avoid tax bills Some risk spending too few days in the emirate and too many in the UK

Tax exiles stuck in London desperately trying to get *back* to Dubai to avoid becoming tax resident in the UK? Just great stuff. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Presumably she’s trying and failing, to channel her inner Maggie.

Be ready, have a plan, know what we’re going into. Says Badenoch. Has she listened to Trump, Hegseth or Rubio? #R4Today

Badenoch thinks the UK should have shot down the archer who fired at the bases that we’ve placed in other countries. Problem is we don’t know where the drone fired at our Cyprus base comes from #R4Today

Take a bow, @privateeyenews.bsky.social.

Sky News report MoD says a drone similar to those from Iran which struck a UK base in Cyprus was not launched from Iran

If it wasn't launched from Iran, where did it come from? Is someone else targeting UK interests? This is worrying :/

Over 40% of global shipping by volume exists to move fossil fuels from one place to another.

A huge share of the world's maritime infrastructure has been built around a system that is going to change dramatically as renewable energy and electrification displace fossil fuels.

The influencers leaping to Dubai’s defence [FREE TO READ] As missiles streak across the region, unfazed residents insist they ‘know who protects us’

‘British expats, he claimed, were refusing to fill out evacuation forms provided by the British government “just in case it somehow turns into a tax form instead”.’

No notes.

as.ft.com/r/65cf2b43-6...

Excellent question. Is this just another Tory choosing Twitter twattery over science & expertise?

What we learned PMQs: Keir Starmer is getting Brits out of the Middle East Kemi Badenoch displayed a total disregard for the evacuations – but the Starmer is haunted by the threat of soaring energy bills.

PMQs review: pretty astonishing for Kemi Badenoch to be quite so blatantly disinterested in evacuated British nationals stranded in the Middle East, but there we go

A strong performance from Starmer - but energy bills are coming for him

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

YouTube video by Maz H Churchill getting booed in Walthamstowe in 1945

Churchill getting booed in Walthamstow in 1945.

History is always more complicated than the myth.
youtu.be/MJnilKI-IoI?...

BREAKING

Labour defection to Reform UK

At a press conference, Sir Robin Wales has joined Reform UK as Director of London Government

The former Mayor of Newham & council Leader is also joined by former Labour Newham cabinet member Clive Furness who will be a candidate

@lbc.co.uk

It's a common refrain for ministers to note Nigel Farage's absence from the Commons, but the stats do seem to back it up. So far this year he has spoken five times and voted seven times. As a very rough, smaller-party comparison, Ellie Chowns of the Greens has spoken 46 times and voted 24 times.

GB News grows revenue by two thirds to £26m as losses narrow GB News losses fell in the year to May 2025 as it posted strong revenue growth. Total losses now stand at £131m+.

"The latest financial results for privately-owned GB News prove you need deep pockets to launch a TV channel [/propaganda outfit] in the 2020s

"Losses to date for owners Sir Paul Marshall and Legatum Ventures have grown to more than £131m."
pressgazette.co.uk/media_busine...

🚨🚨 This is a symbolically good recognition by Labour of the damage #brexit has done to the UK economy and society. Nonetheless, these statements need to be backed up by more ambitious plans on how to restore the relationship with the EU. /1

This is important. Reform keep taking positions that are only supported by the 25% of the electorate they already have and in doing so are negatively polarising everyone else against them.

Another masterful decision by Honest Bob

Prof. Robert Pape:

"I have studied every air campaign since WWI... I've modelled the bombing of Fordow and regime change in Iran for 20 years... We are now in the grip of the escalation trap... This has never worked in over 100 years... Trump is up against the weight of history".

A reminder: Matt Goodwin lost heavily in spite of an almost total lack of tactical voting, not because of it.

The combined Green/Labour vote was 66%, versus 28.7% for Reform.

If Labour and the Greens split the vote 50/50 – a total coordination fail – he'd have finished third, not second.

Newspapers that told their readers austerity, Brexit, Johnson & Truss would be brilliant are attacking the British Prime Minister for not unquestioningly following a lunatic President into an illegal attack. And on social media, he gets attacked from the other 'side' for doing the precise opposite!

"The Peace President."

So much will be said about all this in the coming days, but IMO the biggest takeaway is that James Watt and Martin Dickie each pocketed more than the price BrewDog was eventually sold for, while 500 hardworking staff are now out of a job & 220k equity punks don't get a dime.

Absolute charlatans.

Evening.

'Donald Trump showing up just what an indecisive loser Keir Starmer is on Iran' This is yet another headache our fence-sitting Prime Minister simply wants to go away.

I have a feeling that the British public are closer to the Starmer position on Iran than this gung-ho commentary suggests

www.express.co.uk/news/politic...

The home secretary did not take part in a minute’s silence for Ayatollah Khamenei – Full Fact Claims on social media that Shabana Mahmood marked the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader in this way are false, and the photo used in the posts is over a year old.

A false claim that the home secretary took part in a minute’s silence to mark the death of Ayatollah Khamenei has been spreading on social media.

The Home Office has confirmed this is not true. A picture shared with the claims is over a year old.