Andrew McRae

He’s correct, @robertshrimsley.bsky.social, as usual.

The UN, though in Manhattan, is on international land, not American. Also a pretty central tenet of diplomacy is “we will not take advantage of proximity to murder your people” for reasons that should be very obvious.

It is quite astonishing to remember the Iraq war, the demise of a brutal dictator there, the principled opposition of France and Germany, the chaos and regional instability that followed vindicating French and German opposition - and to see only Sanchez have the courage to take a stance.

I love Jeremy Bowen in "I'm too old for this shit" mode #wato

Stop sane washing Justin. You eagerly repeat Trump’s comments saying he’s no Winston Churchill because it bashes Starmer, but pointedly ignore his comments about “windmills” [he means wind farms] and Sharia law operating in the UK. #r4today

Just one mainstream journalist who understands student loans: is that too much to expect? #r4today

It was, and I was thinking about this earlier - it's no longer just the papers. When Harry Cole thinks he's gotcha-ed Starmer by getting Trump to express disappointment that we aren't bombing the fuck out of Iran, I don't think that's because it's what his readers want - I think it's Twitter-brain.

Seems to me this all works for him politically. We’re being assured it’s the last thing he needs, but a point of difference with Trump is arguably just what he needs after last week.

I particularly resent rags like Daily Mail gleefully reporting Trump’s bullying of Starmer. It’s disloyal and hypocritical - they’d be screaming from rooftops if U.K. meekly followed European diktats, yet would have us unquestioningly kowtow to Trump. Starmer’s task is incredibly difficult.

It’s not difficult to imagine what Winston Churchill would have made of Donald Trump…

#bbcpm "Dubai was built on..."

Slavery.

But that’s not the worst case, by a distance.

The irrational strongman we’ve been warned about is here His name is Donald J. Trump.

New in PN: The irrational strongman we’ve been warned about is here

"The fantasy monster that president after president has conjured up is real, and he is squatting orangely over his phone in the bathroom at Mar-A-Lago."

Simple answer: potential. For a permanent position, that matters more than anything else. Or it should!

‘That resentment is real’: Mahmood’s Denmark visit aims to hammer home tough line on immigration On tour of returns centre, home secretary says ‘legitimate grievances’ have to be acknowledged as part of ‘responsible’ politics

You know what else is real? The resentment of immigrants such as myself, who fled nations ruled by tyrants, got our UK visas, did everything the UK government asked us to do, and are now being told we have to wait twice as long to get ILR, if we can get it at all. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

#EnglishCreates: Futures

To round off our series on 'Critical Reading', Prof Ben Davies (University of Southern Denmark) takes a fascinating look at some of the books that have shaped his research into reading and readers:

universityenglish.ac.uk/a-reading-li...

#EnglishStudies

Pres Trump told me tonight the US had identified possible candidates to take over Iran, but they were killed in the initial attack. "The attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates," Trump told me. "It's not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. Second or third place is dead."

complete insanity

I do struggle to understand Shabana Mahmood: if this was what she came into politics to do, why was it the Labour Party that attracted her? Throughout most of the last 20 years, the Conservatives would've been a much more obvious fit.

If it's not, why's she doing it so zealously?

So as a British taxpayer I am going to pay for tax avoiders like Isabel Okshott who avoid UK taxes and constantly slag off the UK to be evacuated from their tax haven - this makes me so angry

As Democracy Volunteers are the source of the claim of "Family Voting" in the Gorton & Denton by election, I got curious about their claims and thanks to @joenoonan.bsky.social I came across this claim about "Family Voting" during the 2020 Irish General Election.

A brief 🧵

So important, this 👇

from A Nature Poem for Every Day of the Year, edZ Jane McMorland Hunter

Sunday #morningread
The first day of March!
🌱🪻🪺

As journalists working today many of us are taught to recognise disinformation when we see it and fight back against it.

Unfortunately there are some who willingly seek it out and put it on their front pages. A disgrace to the profession.

The ridiculous extension of the wait for settled status isn't about putting up barriers to arrival, it's about putting up barriers to integration for people who have already been here for years. It's agreeing with Farage that these people should be treated with suspicion - and leaving it at that.

What you might call an unprovoked strike, in fact.

UN on the draft Statutory Guidance: "It is essential that the outcome of this process enables transgender people to live safe, dignified, and livable lives in the United Kingdom, while continuing to uphold robust protections for all women and girls against discrimination and violence."

Drop in overseas workers is ‘car crash’ for UK hospitals and care homes, say experts Care roles hit particularly hard by UK’s lurch to the right on migration, according to analysis of Home Office data

"Ministers need to wake up."

Indeed. Some shift away from the exceptional levels of overseas recruitment 21-24 was natural/desirable.

But current "strategy" - no new visas and making life as unpleasant as possible for migrants already here - is madness.

www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

A consistent recurring theme of Farage byelection losses over a decade - Oldham 2015 with Ukip, Peterborough 2019 with Brexit Party, Gorton & Denton 2026 - is to talk loudly about electoral challenges about minority voters. But never to actually put the case to authorities. Media should spot pattern

Anyone still wondering why two-party politics in the UK is falling apart?