Sandra Wood

Pope Leo says that President Trump's remarks are breaking apart the alliance between Europe and the United States

You couldn't make Love Actually today.

Well, no. If only because when our Prime Minister thinks about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport he is working out how to refuse entry to fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends.
#HumanRightsDay

Sorry, but this - from the @bestforbritain.org report - is just completely, obviously wrong. Who wrote this crap?

[The fact that more young people leave the UK on YMS visas than come here does not mean YMS reduces net migration! They (almost all) come back a year or two later! Idiotic]

So, simply put, 45% of Britons believe that some people deserve fewer rights than others based on where they were born.

Query, do those Britons supporting this want to stand up and explicitly say which of the human rights protected by the ECHR they personally would feel happy being denied?

this is my last night in before a frankly horrific (and very much not purposely planned) run of seven nights out in a row, expect posting to get into a mighty downward spiral from Saturday onward, and only start recovering the Saturday after that, if we're lucky

YouGov founder Peter Kellner has concluded there is now an 8.1 million majority in favour of rejoining the EU, thanks in large part to 3.2 million Leave voters having died since 2016.

Really proud of this. The complete story of Che Guevara: from wannabe Jack Kerouac drifter, to freedom fighter, to executioner, to secretary of state, to doomed guerrilla. An immense, complicated, fascinating life.

If there is an election, Ukraine and the world will be flooded with disinformation and misinformation from Russia and its ally the USA. With the objective of removing Zelenskyy and replacing him with a Russian client.

477. How Trump’s Security Strategy Destroys The Old World Order - Alastair Campbell Has Trump’s 2025 National Security Strategy officially upended 80 years of American foreign policy? Why does it warn of Europe’s “civilisational erasure” while downplaying threats from its traditional...

New @therestpolitics.bsky.social - deep dive on the seismic new USA national security strategy- quite something to see them on the same page as Russia on so many issues and openly campaigning for hard right parties in Europe

alastaircampbell.org/2025/12/477-...

I've shunned X for over a year but haven't yet deleted my account.

There's just something... 'nagging'... about this (Bluesky) platform long term.

"Tell me with whom you associate, and I will tell you who you are" (Goethe).

The offer contained in Trump's national security doctrine - to turn Britain into one of Washington's satellite states in a Europe partitioned between Russian and American spheres of influence - is not one that any truly patriotic politician should accept. It is easy to see the appeal for Farage, as a fellow traveller of the Maga project. For Badenoch it presents an important dividing line, albeit one that Conservatives cannot see or dare not name. It is the difference between an opposition party that is loyal to British democracy, and one that would serve a foreign despot and call it resistance.

Tories “won’t go on the record saying Farage is unfit to lead the country, even if they suspect it to be true, because they also suspect they may be propping up his government, or pleading for jobs in it, by the end of the decade”

They never stop letting us down.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Anyone who’s ever actually spoken to a single asylum seeker about their experiences in any country in Europe simply could not honestly conclude that what would improve things would be to further reduce their human rights protections.

It’s vile scapegoating unworthy of us & it needs to end #r4today

I’m getting incredibly strong “Cameron tries to renegotiate & reduce migrants rights in the EU before campaigning for Remain” vibes here -

Anyone else? ☹️ #r4today

Sweet Jesus Starmer’s here to make the headlines about immigration again. The actual worst politician I’ve ever seen 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Today - are foreigners really human? Should they REALLY enjoy human rights protections like the rest of us? #r4today

Starmer has aligned himself, again & again, with Trump, not Mamdani.

Even as Trump’s regime works actively to promote Farage & nationalist politics across Europe.

But then again, from Starmer’s behaviour you’d think he’s promoting Farage, too🤷‍♀️

Meanwhile, an actually decent, not to mention popular politician 👇

Under the Orange One it’s rapidly heading towards becoming an authoritarian dictatorship, it may seem ludicrous to say but I’d be amazed if the next election is free & fair.
The state system might be the thing that prevents this, but he’s already using troops to replace police & override democracy.

Good letters. What is clear is the U.K. and Europe has been asleep at the wheel when it comes to defending ourselves. Allowing our defences to be hollowed out whilst relying on the US to protect us.

That’s going to have to change and quickly.

Listened to Philips O’Brien yesterday on LBC with James yesterday truly terrifying and Farage is doing Trump/Putins work here again just like he did with Brexit

A photo of the front cover of issue 1664 of Private Eye magazine with the caption "on shelves now." The headline reads “IT’S PARTY SEASON!” The cover is split into four panels. Top left: Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner smile, with speech bubbles reading “Angela is coming back to the Cabinet…” and “Yes, as Prime Minister.” Top right: Nigel Farage gestures onstage, saying “They keep putting me on the TV!” Bottom left: Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana stand at a rally, with Corbyn saying “I’m not as Sparty as you!” and Sultana replying “Your Sparty.” Bottom right: Liz Truss sits at a desk in a broadcast setting, saying “It’s going down the YouTubes,” while another speech bubble adds, “She’s gone doom loopy!”

It’s party season!

The new Private Eye is out now.

American fears about 'civilisational erasure' 2 of 5 letters - all similar in opinion Sir, The Trump administration has officially declared that demographic change will make Europe unrecognisable, as Melanie Phillips notes (Trump is calling for Europe to save itself", Dee 9). Yet it is President Trumps dystopian world view that is unrecognisable for most democrats across Europe, as the transatlantic alliance has done so much to shape the world in which we live. As Phillips herself points out, the central irony of the new Trump doctrine is that it combines a commitment to regime change among democratically elected governments in Europe with an entirely hands-off approach to co-existence with its authoritarian allies in Vladimir Putins Kremlin. Britain and Europe will have to take more responsibility for peace, prosperity and democracy while this new turn in US politics lasts. We can take some solace in the fact that this offer to import the Trump and Vance doctrine into our own politics is something we will get to decide for ourselves at the ballot box. Sunder Katwala Director, British Future Sir, I find the fixation on migration, particularly Muslim migration, troubling on many levels. To start with, Muslim birthrates will decline with increased European education; educating women achieves that. Second, this is not the first time a Middle Eastern religion has travelled west: Christianity did it, with levels of resentment along the way. In these (one hopes) more enlightened times, religion will hold less sway than it did then. I cannot help but feel that this current attitude stems from a rather pathetic minority of "white" supremacists whose misplaced and erroneous superiority is under threat; hence the talk of "civilisational erasure" and other nonsense. These turbulent times call for tolerance, not the demonisation produced by a narrow and self-demeaning tribalism. Jerry Stuart

Letters in the Times - expressing disgust at anti-immigrant racism and the “Trump doctrine”- a meddling, authoritarian plan to undermine European democracies in order to have us all at the mercy of his USA or Putin’s Russia.

For all our sakes and futures, that *must* not happen.

Tighter visa rules will cost UK up to £10.8bn Home Office assessment shows impact of latest changes to immigration regime over next five years

"And tonight in 'Cutting off your nose to spite your face'...."

This is quite unbelievable

A Labour Govt

Give me strength

I will find it very hard to vote for a Labour candidate even if it is tactically when policies like this are in place

Shameful, really shameful!

Tighter visa rules will cost UK up to £10.8bn Home Office assessment shows impact of latest changes to immigration regime over next five years

While focus is often solely on asylum, and small boat crossings in particular, it's important to remember that Labour's hostililty against all migrants is harming not only individuals, but the whole country, with an estimated loss of £10.8billion, and zero actual benefits.
www.ft.com/content/2b60...

Sadiq Kahn is the most successful politician in the UK (and probably the world).

Elected 3 times and still popular.

You know who’s not getting elected again (without stealing the vote) … Trump.

Apparently Hitler had one of those too??

I hear those things are awfully loud
It glides as softly as a cloud
Is there a chance the track could bend?
Not on your life, my Hindu friend

Monorail
What's it called?
Monorail
Once again
Monorail

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Emily Dickinson Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), celebrated American poet.

In today's unexpected news, Radio 4 is running episodes of In Our Time selected by celebrities to celebrate Melvyn Bragg's tenure and Frank Skinner has selected one on Emily Dickinson featuring my wife.

share.google/ohHbDDQnLxyH...

We despair that the rightwing keep shifting the Overton Window further right. They never suggest that leaving the ECHR is impossible or not the right time. They just demand it. And we end up discussing it.
It’s time the left pushed back.
Not put up ‘can’t do’ barriers to our own hopes and aims.
👏