I mean, ever since school I have put the name and address neatly in the middle. I am sure we had a lesson on this and we would have been in trouble putting them in the bottom left hand corner! When did this change? Why weren't we told? It's a conspiracy!

Watching The Righteous Gemstones and can't help feeling Pete Hegseth is giving off serious Kelvin energy...

I don't dislike Burnham but there's something a bit irritating about the tone of faux naivety, as if somehow he has been insulated from politics for the last decade. He's held one of the most prominent elected positions in the country - as a Labour politician. Granted, not Westminster, but still.

Labour has one card to play: cap all donations, foreign AND domestic. No ifs, buts, maybes. A clear, strong signal our democracy is not for sale.

🤷🏻‍♂️

There we have it. The Tories and Farage's goons are now one thing.

This feels like a fair assessment, one that is a little overlooked in the breathless and hysterical reporting of Reform's performance - and Labour's.

There's something almost endearingly batty about Kemi Badenoch's determination to present catastrophe as triumph. It's certainly an intriguing way to present 189 losses.

What unspeakable evil is Trump planning? America should know that many of us will see no way back to the family of nations for them if Trump commits the atrocities he is threatening. And EU/UK leaders should know we want unequivocal condemnation, not mealy-mouthed 'walking of fine lines' BS.

When you put it like this, it's hard to imagine how we could ever trust the USA again.

The incongruity of this, all currently on the BBC front page. At some point the UK has to call him out and say no. Not constantly pander under his insane and bizarre tantrums.

Yeah, well your Gangster in Chief's antics have pushed prices here in the UK to the equivalent of $10.80/gallon for those of us on diesel. Those prices on display are pence per litre. I wonder how you'd all cope paying those prices?

The Rycroft Review is out. www.gov.uk/government/p... Some good stuff in it, as well as areas needing more exploration. This is increasingly urgent, bearing in mind the breathless way our media now treats odds in elections. Relatively small amounts of money could have disproportionate influence.

The International Olympic Committee are a total shower. At least they're consistent in their support for fascism, historic or modern.

Westminster's toxic culture again, this time in Labour cosplay. It goes beyond Westminster though and is a hallmark of the exercise of political power the country and world over. www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

From last weekend.

This feels like a bold claim.

As well as the awful horrors, there are fascinating snippets in the Epstein files that show glimpses of the connections between those with power or access to it. The lack of context though makes them dangerous. e.g. Who sent this and what was the context?

Badenoch is not a serious politician.

This arrived today. Just found it in a soggy package outside! Looking forward to a weekend by the fire while it rains... @worklesshard.bsky.social tells me there's a good digital section too! 🤓 @robfordmancs.bsky.social @psurridge.bsky.social @timbale.bsky.social @drjennings.bsky.social

Various people said I was scaremongering and that this was not a concern. 🤷🏻‍♂️ www.itv.com/news/2025-12... You can read my thoughts here: open.substack.com/pub/bpwillia...

Good. Can't come soon enough.

I mean, how much more of this stuff is it going to take before it all comes crumbling down around Trump? Surely people can't keep pretending that he wasn't in this up to his neck until he realised he needed to extricate himself? "I don't want to come early and find trump in your house." 😳

Thank goodness @eddavey.libdems.org.uk is speaking up. Rightwing politicians are trading on a serious editorial misjudgement (which didn't change in any material way the accuracy of the reporting) to undermine the BBC. Others are cynically and cowardly covering themselves. It should worry us all.

The idiocy of this is that there was just no need to do this. Trump said what he said. The words stood. He was inciting violence - a congressional committee investigated. "Trump lit that fire" was the chair's comment. Now, they get to cow and bully the BBC because of a stupid editorial decision.

Part of me thinks it's time other countries start putting this requirement on Brits living in their countries, to show up how pointlessly pernicious it is. Of course a good standard of English is required. But A Level standard? This Labour govt continues to plumb populist depths.

It is quite something just how irrelevant the Conservative Party has become in a very short space of time. In previous years, their party conference would have dominated the headlines. Now? The only reference on the BBC front page is a Laura K comment piece. Remarkable.

Of course, Farage is nothing like Trump... 🙄 www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

The double standards on display at the highest level of government are a grim sight. One is rightly shown the door, the other - a babbling, science-denying idiot - is given more privileged treatment than any other president, despite shedloads of evidence of his very close associations with Epstein.

Regardless of your views on Mandelson, the logic of Badenoch's position is that she should extend her criticisms to Trump in equally vociferous terms. If this is enough to sink Mandelson, she really should be appalled by the wealth of material linking Trump and Epstein.