Ben Williams

There is a significantly greater than zero chance that they try running the Donbas playbook with Alberta and very few people in the US are willing to take that and all of the implications of it seriously

The US Navy now has ten warships in the CENTCOM area which covers Iran.

Any serious alternative (no, gold isn't money, & no, crypto is not that: bsky.app/profile/mcop... ) to replace the dollar in global finance involves either/both 🇪🇺/🇩🇪 &/or 🇨🇳 moving from having large current account surpluses to large current account deficits, as 🇺🇸 has now.

It is a weirdly bad answer to my question. Even a direct negative answer like 'none' would at least got a brownie point for being an answer. But being evasive like this just makes it look like the answer is 'none' and also 'we can't be bothered with your question'.

YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free

Badenoch's strategic genius on full display here, telling centrist voters to fuck off, including in the 60+ seats the party lost to the Lib Dems, so she can focus on competing with an extreme right party ahead of her in the polls.

Badenoch shoots herself in the foot on the Tories’ long march to the right | John Crace Not content with haemorrhaging MPs to Reform, Kemi decides to drive others into the arms of the Lib Dems

it's a serious question though, if the far right nutters switch to Reform and the centrists are driven to eg the libdems, who's left in the #tories for her to lead? https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jan/28/badenoch-tories-mp-defections-march-to-the-right #ukpolitics

Philly DA drops bombshell: ICE agents CAN be arrested and charged in state court—and Trump can't pardon them. www.dworkinsubstack.com/p/movement-t...

Put simply: if you tell voters you don't want them or are unwilling to represent them, they will vote for someone else.

Centrist ideas no longer wanted in Conservative party, says Kemi Badenoch Party leader tells MPs that one-nation Tories doubting her rightward direction ‘need to get out of the way’

One of the stories of British politics over last 15 years has been Conservatives and Labour valuing narrower and narrower ideological coherence over their historic, broad coalitions and then being astonished that their vote shares keep falling.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

This is, strategically, batshit

6.6: Candidates in UK elections, and representatives of permitted participants in UK referendums, must not act as news presenters, interviewers or presenters of any type of programme during the election period. BBC ODPS are not required to remove archive content for the election or referendum period.

Business Before Questions Volume 779: debated on Monday 26 January 2026 New Writ Ordered, That Mr Speaker do his issue his Warrant to the Clerk of the Crown to make out a new Writ for the electing of a Member to serve in the present Parliament for the Borough Constituency of Gorton and Denton, in the room of Andrew John Gwynne, who, since his election to the said Borough Constituency, has been appointed to the Office of Steward and Bailiff of His Majesty’s Manor of Northstead in the County of York.—(Jonathan Reynolds.) https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2026-01-26/debates/FE168B6D-BDE2-4BCA-BAC3-CBA32A63C48D/BusinessBeforeQuestions

Ofcom: For a parliamentary by-election, this period begins with the issuing of a writ or on such earlier date (in the London Gazette)

6.6: Candidates... must not act as news presenters, interviewers or presenters of any type of programme during the election period
www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and...

Hi @electoralcommission.org.uk, is it permissable for a parliamentary by-election candidate to present their own TV show during the election period?

Trump hangs picture of himself with Putin in White House Trump hangs picture of himself with Putin in White House

📸 PICTURED: Trump hangs picture of himself with Putin in White House

Neil Young gives complete musical catalogue to Greenland for free Neil Young also told fans that his music will “never be available on Amazon, as long as it is owned by [Jeff] Bezos”.

Neil Young gives complete musical catalogue to Greenland for free - while removing all his music from Amazon

www.rollingstone.co.uk/music/neil-y...

I'm very hopeful. I'm just in a briefing in Parliament hosted by the Fair Elections APPG and it has very good attendance and lots of support.

I am fairly confident we have no real appreciation of quite how insanely different modern warfare is.

The UK doesn’t have a productivity puzzle The obstacles to higher growth in Britain are well known

First, THERE IS NO PRODUCTIVITY PUZZLE. If you find something "puzzling" about how the financial crisis, Brexit vote, pandemic, Brexit, 5 PMs and energy crisis knocked our low investment economy downwards, do something else. See @tejparikh.ft.com 1/

www.ft.com/content/583a...

How the centre of government can design better growth policy | Institute for Government Why does the UK struggle with growth?

I have a report out today on the near-perennial question of why UK governments struggle to stick at growth policy in anything like a strategic way. Some hurried points:- 0/

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...

Halachically the first in his family to go to university.

Scoop: Stephen Miller behind misleading claim that Alex Pretti wanted to "massacre" agents The episode illustrates the sheer power of Miller, Trump's close and longest-serving political adviser

Breaking Axios:

Kristi Noem's language that Alex Pretti wanted to "massacre" federal agents was dictated to Noem and her department by the man most responsible for the controversial operation: Stephen Miller.

That's according to four sources who spoke to Axios. www.axios.com/2026/01/27/t...

Hard to overstate how strong the consensus was 12 or so months ago that Trump II meant a stronger dollar.

Reform MP Backs Privatising the NHS to Make It More 'Efficient' Andrew Rosindell, who defected last week from the Conservatives, says he "would not object" to replacing free healthcare with a private insurance system

Reform MP Backs Privatising the NHS to Make It More 'Efficient'

Andrew Rosindell, who defected last week from the Conservatives, says he "would not object" to replacing free healthcare with a private insurance system

These are the kinds of clips that shocked me many years ago. Now its just another day. bsky.app/profile/acyn...

Nearly at 5,000 now - many thanks to everyone who's supported and shared so far! action.goodlawproject.org/tell-ofcom-s...

Matthew Goodwin has previously said he was born and raised in St Albans.

Reform say he was "made by Manchester" and his famiıy are from there (grandparents)

He did study at the University of Salford as an undergraduate.

This is how the BBC is reporting Matt Goodwin's selection as Reform's candidate in Gorton and Denton.

He's not an academic. He holds no academic position and hasn't done for quite some time.

Well.

How long until we find out that Dominic Cummings is advising Reform?

The Legislation Upon winning a general election, a Reform government under Prime Minister Nigel Farage will: 1) Leave the ECHR 2.) Repeal the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British Bill of Rights. 3.) Pass The Illegal Migration (Mass Deportation) Bill: This Bill will: Create a legal duty to remove illegal migrants for the Home Secretary The Bill opens with a blunt obligation for the Home Secretary: "The Secretary of State shall ensure the removal from the United Kingdom of each person who does not have extant leave to remain and is not an Irish citizen or otherwise protected by regulations made under this Act." The following parts of the legislation are introduced on an emergency basis, with an in-built sunset clause after 5 years: Disapply the 1951 Refugee Convention, the UN Convention Against Torture, the Council of Europe Anti-Trafficking Convention (ECAT) Derogation is justified under the Vienna Convention doctrine of state of necessity: Britain faces a national emergency in which uncontrolled illegal migration undermines public order. These treaties will otherwise be used by activist judges to frustrate deportations, even after the repeals of the HRA and ECHR. Create Detention Power Without Hardial Singh Constraints This means illegal migrants can be detained until they are deported. Activist lawyers routinely use Hardial Singh to secure their client's bail, after which the client absconds. If you came to the UK illegally, you are ineligible for asylum. End of story All asylum claims will become inadmissible if made by a person within the Act's scope. If you came to the country illegally, you are ineligible for asylum in the UK. This strips the Home Office, the immigration tribunals and the higher courts of jurisdiction to even consider claims. A claim that cannot be considered cannot suspend removal and therefore, cannot delay a flight. Re-entering after deportation and destroying ID becomes a serious criminal offence Re-entry after deportation will be…

The Operational Plan We will create an enforcement unit called UK Deportation Command, including an Illegal Migrant Identification Centre - harnessing cutting edge data fusion A Reform government will create a cutting edge enforcement data centre to relentlessly identify and detain all illegal migrants in the UK. Using powers granted by the new legislation, it will automatically share data between the Home Office, NHS, HMRC, DVLA, banks and the police. It will power bulk warrants, including mandatory biometric capture during any police encounter. Each power addresses a failure mode observed over the past decade - for example, banks and GP surgeries unaware of a customer's status, or overstayers slipping through because a warrant covered only a single property. Secure Immigration Removal Centres (SIRC) will be built rapidly to detain up to 24,000 Detention capacity for up to 24,000 will be created within 18 months. The Home Office will build Secure Immigration Removal Centres. This will be modular accommodation built in remote parts of the country. Conditions are basic but not punitive: prefabricated two-person rooms, canteen catering, on-site medical suites. Robust perimeters and internal movement controls prevent escapes. This enables detention-on-arrest: no more bail. This capacity would allow for up to 24,000 illegal migrants to be deported per month. Initial Voluntary Return Window A six-month Assisted Voluntary Return window precedes large-scale raids. Illegal migrants will be offered a financial incentive to self-deport. An app will be launched to facilitate this. The Deportation Flights The Home Office will scale up charters to 5 flights per day. To guard against last-minute aircraft unserviceability, the RAF will keep one Voyager aircraft on six-hour 'hot-spare' readiness. If a commercial charter breaks down, detainees can still be flown out that night, preserving operational integrity. The legal reset will mean activist lawyers will no longer be able preven…

The UK version of “Project 2025” by the Reform party includes a British ICE, a concentration camp for 24,000 people, mass surveillance and withdrawing from refugee, anti-torture and anti-trafficking conventions.

It’s on their website. That’s how comfortable fascists are in the UK today.