R Phelps

This lurid headline is about British tourists no longer getting away with overstaying in Schengen. Or being 'illegals', as it's often called in the UK.

Fascinating marker of how far the Tory target voter has shifted from ‘middle class parents wanting their kids to go to uni’ to ‘old people who didn’t go and don’t see what anyone else should either’. (Obv there’s a solid case for apprenticeships, but not convinced that’s what this is about)

Are people in the UK 'over-taxed'?

@danneidle.bsky.social points out that the median worker is currently paying historically low levels of tax 👇

Rewatch the full discussion 👉 buff.ly/dQaGaNo

👍

Yes

But at least Ofcom's going after the real troublemakers... right?

Right?? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

It both the US and the UK, the political right teaches institutions not to mess with it – a small slip up with be ruthlessly and publicly exploited.

The left, meanwhile, teaches the same institutions it can be repeatedly and easily messed with, and there will barely be a squeak.

Asylum hotel protesters 'hit in the heart' to move East Devon demo Asylum hotel protesters in East Devon moved their demonstration after learning the plight of the migrant women and their kids housed there

This story is well worth reading. Asylum hotel protestors decided to pack up and go after learning more about the refugees inside and discovering Sidmouth and Honiton Tories had been lying about who they were.

Part of the problem of the Conservative Party is that they forget the internal party pressures to get on board with Brexit don't apply to the people who might, demographically, otherwise vote for them.

‼️ 🇷🇺 NWF Update

As of October 2025:

The liquid portion of the Russian National Welfare Fund holds:

👉 209.1520 Billion Yuan ( 0 billion)
👉 173.1096 tons of gold (-5.1513 tons)
👉 0.4737 Billion Rubles (-0.7937 billion)

And that’s it.

(Totals for September )

Here is something on Czechia's elections and the implications for the EU from me:

Tomahawks for #Ukraine? Trump wants to hand over the war to the Europeans. Listen to another episode of my 🎙️ #podcast, #TheGlobalAgora. I talked to @hoanssolo.bsky.social.
▶️ creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/... #Putinswar #Russia

Btw as a specialist in the politics and history of borders and migration I think it's important to discuss both topics.

But at this point much EU and UK political media debate is almost blind to how trends in the US have escalated to existential political questions far beyond migration

I see napalm is woke now

I said at the time to every 'moderate' Tory on twitter and who I met in real life this is where they'd end up but..

Agree, but what can anyone on the left actually do? The Tories are committing suicide.

Matthew Syed’s ‘journey’ has been grimly fascinating

Been following it ever since he wrote a column endorsing the Great Replacement ‘Theory’

Wild what passes for ‘public intellectual’ in Britain

Behind the Scenes of Abortion Travel Bans - American Oversight American Oversight has begun obtaining records in its investigation of how anti-abortion rights activists are pushing travel bans that prohibit the use of certain roads for travel to obtain an abortio...

It also depends on who you are and where you live. A woman of childbearing age living in Texas has her travel restricted, in case she might be traveling for an abortion. americanoversight.org/behind-the-s...

The left can't help save a party determined to commit suicide.

Tune in to the best Ukraine update, starting in 5 min.

Political reporters continue to cover the centre-left according to the old standards of honesty and legality while shrugging at the right: "Ah well, you know what these guys are like. What can you do?"

Here's the new video of how the Russian gasoline crisis progressed over the past 6 weeks. You can also hear me talk a bit more about the gasoline crisis tonight on @tochnyi.info . Tune in at 21:00 Kyiv time.

Wut?

I don't see why we can't see a '79 to '97 dominance by the left given the state of the right, but the left needs better ideas and leaders, and the media needs to take some responsibility for the country. Which they won't.

UK mosque set ablaze with two people inside, police investigating suspected hate crime | CNN A UK mosque was set ablaze with two people still inside in a suspected arson attack that police are treating as a hate crime.

JUST IN: A UK mosque was set ablaze with two people still inside in a suspected arson attack that police are treating as a hate crime.

Batshit.

British Politics' Midlife Crisis Why British Parties Can't Make Peace with Their Actual Voters

Just had time to properly read this brilliant piece by @benansell.bsky.social. It left me even more convinced than I already was that what he calls Labour's (and indeed the Conservative's) "prole-whisperers" are horribly mistaken if they genuinely think chasing after Reform voters is the way to go.

There will be no referendum on leaving the ECHR. That means far fewer than 50% of the vote is required for it to happen. The only way to stop it is to vote against the right at the next general election.

Let’s hope this sentiment translates into concrete policy measures in the months ahead. Europeans can blaze a new trail by severely limiting what Tiktok, Meta and X are allowed to do in their market.