Duncan Morrow

Once upon a time in America:

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Wha’happen?

Post-Brexit sales of British farm products to EU fall by 37% NFU warn it could take years to restore Brexit losses despite efforts to smooth negotiations on farming and other elements of UK-EU reset

Every farmer who voted for Brexit needs to take a long hard look at themselves. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Mandelson’s attraction to Starmer was precisely what brought him down: his love of luxury and ostentatious wealth, and even his association with Epstein, seemed to make him the ideal person for today’s Washington. But then the details came out.

Starmer is going down for political stupidity: but Bannon, Trump, Farage and Musk are in the files. There is a difference.

The paradox of Epstein is that the conspiracy theorists were right: but the rot spread further than they speculated and did not respect the ideological boundaries they hoped for. Stunning elite take down.

Picture of central Pontevedra, Spain from the air

“It's not my duty as Mayor to make sure you have a parking spot. For me it's the same as if you bought a cow, or a refrigerator, and then asked me where you're going to put them.” — Mayor of Pontevedra, Spain (re-elected 6 times)

Elon Musk calls Spanish PM a ‘tyrant’ over plan to ban under-16s from social media and curb hateful content Pedro Sánchez says urgent action needed to protect children from ‘digital wild west’, drawing anger from owner of X

It is clear that western governments need to move to restrict the access of Musk and his ilk to children both as an act of safeguarding and to protect democracy. This is a man who recognises no limits to the harm he can cause in his pursuit of power. www.theguardian.com/media/2026/f...

US tariff shock strategy is surely now priced in, if unpredictably predictable. Surely also making a UK reorientation towards the EU predictably predictable. Inevitable almost.

The US norm that policing equals law ENFORCEMENT contrasts sharply with Peels principle that policing UPHOLDS law through prevention, based on consent and only resorts to force as a final resort. When policing becomes a battle rather than a service for and with the community, it loses its purpose.

I used to presume that Reform referred to significant change. But now I realise it means re-form as in the old band getting together.

It really is just the deja vu Leave back to the future party, isn’t it?

A great day for Wes Streeting. Starmer won’t survive losing Wales and Scotland in May, and the likely successor has just been blocked.

The difference between Carney and Starmer is that Carney has nothing to lose while Starmer is still trying to delay the inevitable. But Carney’s freedom to tell the truth and the respect it demands is striking compared to the sycophancy to which Starmer has condemned himself.

It is clear, again, that appeasement doesn't work. They just keep coming.

‘The US has abandoned.. the rule of law, human rights, democracy and the territorial integrity of.. states. Gone is..support for humanitarian aid and environmental stewardship. Gone.. is the founding principle of postwar settlement.. diplomacy and multilateralism’
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Almost everyone's Trump handling tactic is public flattery and private delay / obfuscation. Why? Because it works better than any alternative that has been tried.

There is though a big weakness which is that this strategy can't actually be publicly communicated.

Does Robert Jenrick’s defection not confirm that Reform are just ‘the same old Tories.’?

Donald Trump poses a threat to civilization | Robert Reich The moral purpose of civilized society is to prevent the stronger from attacking the weaker. The US was founded on that principle

Stephen Millar’s tv outburst ripped the veil: US power is the vehicle for unrestricted self-assertion as the basis of ‘western civilisation’-and direct opposition to remorse for violence or injury to others. Pure unhinged nazi-style Nietzsche filtered by Ayn Rand.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Well, that clears up any doubts about relying on America to uphold alliances or any other rules. Europe, and the UK, needs to end denial.

It's New Year, so time to look back and forward. These are 10 things I think we need to recognise in 2026. It’s a response to what I think are profoundly damaging mistaken assumptions I’ve heard and read from practitioners, journalists, and analysts in 2025. Warning: very long🧵

Most Europeans think state pensions will become unaffordable, polling shows YouGov survey finds many say payments are too low and oppose reforms such as raising retirement age or cuts

Total cakeism: people know that current state pension systems are unaffordable but they don’t want to pay more or work longer. No wonder democratic government is failing. Anyone telling the truth loses the election.

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Wonderful to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Interface Project in @ulsteruni.bsky.social today. A truly innovative project involving genuine intercommunity collaboration where it most matters but is most difficult to maintain. And the issues haven’t gone away, you know.

Gentle reminder that the European Union was established because the first four decades of our 20th century were mostly internecine war and genocide.

Diagnosing the Health Service Crisis in NI almost too easy. History will record that the underlying challenge is political drift and gridlock around decision making. Until that is resolved nothing serious can happen.

Executive ‘gridlock’ so bad a spreadsheet is needed to track ‘blocked’ papers A Stormont minister has claimed “gridlock” within the Executive has got so bad that a spreadsheet has been created to keep track of all the policy proposals being blocked by the DUP.

Gridlock is rapidly becoming as big a problem in NI as collapse. In terms of services both amount to the irrelevancy of politics to achieve change. We need reform to enable 'decide and review' (normal democracy) without requiring consensus on everything.
www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/norther...

"Regrettably, some political leaders in Northern Ireland were not always able, in this time of extraordinary crisis, to set aside political and sectarian divisions and to govern jointly and effectively in the interests of the whole of Northern Ireland."
(Hallett Covid Inquiry)

Who knew?

Italy probes claim that tourists paid to go to Bosnia to kill besieged civilians Italians and others are alleged to have paid large sums to fire at Bosnians risking their lives in besieged Sarajevo.

The possibility that some people may have paid money to go ‘on tour’ to a warzone and shoot civilians including children is simply staggering. Unlimited cruelty.

Italy investigates claims of tourists paying to shoot civilians in Bosnia in 1990s www.bbc.com/news/article...

Epstein Alleged in Emails That Trump Knew of His Conduct

Awkward.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/u...

Great to be at the launch @ulsteruni.bsky.social of our exciting new Flourish project supporting engagement and research on the long and rich cultural and linguistic contributions and interconnections through Gaelic languages and forms of Scots to the north of Ireland and west of Scotland.

Elon Musk Wins $1 Trillion Tesla Pay Package

Greed is apparently limitless. Shameless.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/b...

Reducing the cost of living is an easy and popular political message. And incredibly difficult to deliver when you also want to deliver e.g. fair minimum wage, net zero investment, protective regulations, tariffs if so inclined, investment from big companies...