Always worth an outing.

Much UKIP fox. Very shot. Wow!

maybe the british should call a referendum on voting systems?

They did during the Con/LibDem coalition and failed.

And David Cameron also destroyed his Conservative party’s place in UK politics.

To think, if he'd lost the Scots Independence referendum, or the Alternative Vote referendum, he'd never have dared... He thought third time was the charm, and oh boy...

And ironically if it hadn’t happened, I suspect the most likely path is that Reform would have gone down the Orban route of “EU but nationalist”. (Brexit accelerate the shift away from exit in the far right bloc but it was already in motion)

Interesting counterfactual is if Britain doesn't leave, does some other state push through button IMO *someone is going to do it and prove to everyone else how idiotic leaving is* was low key baked in

I don’t think so. Maybe just about DK but unlikely. Anyone in eurozone doesn’t go. Anyone in Schengen probably doesn’t go. Anyone with big inflows of money or big outflows of workers (A10+2 essentially) has no interest in going. Hard to see who else it could have been.

I suppose SE an outside chance as well.

SE going on an anti immigrant and "we can be like Norway next door" platform plausible (Agree no one in the eurozone goes, not sure Schengen is a barrier given Sweden de-facto abolished it's Schengen compliance years ago)

Did it abolish on SE/NO border too? That could bite. As well as not having EU rights when arriving at foreign airports.

Sweden is part of Schengen. Sometimes Sweden has passport control checks when coming in from another Schengen country. In the last 3 years, I rarely encounter the checks when flying into Sweden from another Schengen country; but I encounter them occasionally when coming in by surface transport.

Moving towards a repeat of a "Trump scenario" in the UK ? Not wishing that to British friends...

Idk. Turnout was half that a general election and I’d assume REF voters pretty motivated. Also, Reform vote is pretty inefficient and the threat will drive tactical voting. In short, read @benansell.bsky.social’s forthcoming substack post.

Great now I have to write it

@anthonyzach.be has moved beyond the Posting to Policy paradigm (h/t @duncanrobinson.bsky.social) and is now at the "posting to make others post" paradigm

Using former ambassadors as my catspaw. Can’t deny it feels classy.

Today only an activist at @defenddemocracy.bsky.social in Brussels 🇪🇺. Still classy, I suppose.

V classy.

Now That's What I Call Thought Leadership 2025

Yeah sorry about that. But I wanted to read it, so….

We need a @benansell.bsky.social AI. Sadly the one I coded to do Seumus Milne, Brendan O’Neill and Simon Jenkins won’t do the trick.

Jenkins was the easiest. Just write something sensible and the AI alters each sentence to make it mean the opposite (e.g., insert a ‘not’, change “will” into “won’t”, etc).

It's interesting that Reform voters are typically the least likely to vote in elections... Farage is now perhaps going to have to work quite hard to keep them onside? bsky.app/profile/luke...

All eyes on the next iconoclast...

Well one of the things about “reform voters do/don’t” is that by definition is refers to people who have previously voted reform. If there is a big CON>REF shift, how Reform voters behave changes mechanically.

So, potentially, a beast has been awakened?

Cameron wasn't a smart as he thought he was. Also, he lacked the courage to face down the ERG lot.

As not 'a'.

Cameron is a turd

Indeed so.

The very worst of a terrible crop of prime ministers.

Trotters up.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Atku...

And destroyed the British economy too, both with Brexit and procyclical austerity in a time of historically low interest rates. The perfect time for strategic investment.

Cameron's cheery little tune? The minute I heard it, I thought, job done. That greasy bastard was in on the Brexit con from the start. It explains the weak Remain campaign. Cameron is a fucking traitor.

It shows that ‘playing Reform lite’ does not work. The Conservatives and Labour can’t seem to get out of this death spiral - like moths to a flame. I think launching a party called ‘Not Reform’ might fair better. Reject Trump, tax big corporations and Rejoin EU - a vote winner.

…and made a Lord as a result.

He turned out to be spectacularly bad