Well this is a good opportunity to wheel out Jonathan Gullis's Desecration of War Memorials bill. www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwal...
Patrolling the culture war's boundaries looking for common ground. Former Fellow of the Adam Smith Institute. Now centrist. Telegraph watcher. https://open.substack.com/pub/rolandmcs buymeacoffee.com/rolandsmith
23,843 followers 351 following 5,058 posts
view profile on Bluesky
Well this is a good opportunity to wheel out Jonathan Gullis's Desecration of War Memorials bill. www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwal...
It has leapt into my Top 3.
This.... bsky.app/profile/anan...
Let's be honest, Starmer was always wooden. Nothing like Blair or even Brown. But there was no alternative at the last election. He just had to step up after that election and prove he was worthy. He's made an absolute dog's breakfast of it so far. There's only so long this can be tolerated.
Let's be honest, Starmer was always wooden. Nothing like Blair or even Brown. But there was no alternative at the last election. He just had to step up after that election and prove he was worthy. He's made an absolute dog's breakfast of it so far. There's only so long this can be tolerated.
Ministers need to start throwing ultimatums at him. Basically, 'be a Labour PM or I resign'.
I've been very forgiving re Starmer, but this has gone on long enough. Get a f*cking grip, man. Now. Today.
Tonight's posts are sponsored by Aber Falls Orange Marmalade gin.
Starmer has one week to stop f*cking about on this, otherwise I give up on him.
You would think that Yvette Cooper's decision to suspend the family reunion scheme for refugees would appeal to the Telegraph's readership, right? So what do they do? They surround a tiny headline with wall-to-wall anti Labour stories. You can NEVER appease the Right. A lesson Labour never learns.
Starmer could have said: Vandalism isn't patriotism; daubing red crosses on Chinese takeaways and writing racist graffiti isn't patriotism; perfomatively sitting in front of a flag or tying one to a mosque isn't patriotism; Patriotism is about making this country safe, happy productive for all.
Also here with Danny the Fink. x.com/rolandmcs/st...
Never seen any evidence that it's true and I did once go hunting for it. x.com/rolandmcs/st...
I suspect a similar effect when David Campbell Bannerman first told people he was descended from Henry Campbell Bannerman. It probably started as a story to impress local blue rinsers at a cheese-and-wine bash and no one ever questioned it.
I'm preaching to the choir here but I'm dismayed people are still using a site owned and manipulated by an obvious fascist. I think if you'd asked them 5 years ago if they'd use a fascist's social media site they would have said god no, of course not
Then again, that tweet is quite mild compared to others...
Actively promoting a breakdown of law and order.
bsky.app/profile/rola...
Here's Paul Brand lamenting how we got here... Weirdly, it's the "political climate" that's to blame. It couldn't possibly be anything to do with the media.
Labour are also REALLY shit at comms. Things like this are getting totally eclipsed by the flag nonsense and the phoney ECHR debate.
Fancy that....
GMB on ITV?
I turn on my TV and a TV presenter is asking a Govt minister why they are talking about rolling out free childcare when the big issue is asylum hotels. This is objectively insane.
Again - the reason that the Good Friday Agreement locks in the ECHR is that the UK had repeatedly been held accountable by the European Court of Human Rights for human rights breaches during the Troubles - while national courts had failed to do so, even upholding miscarriages of justice
My main issue with the debate around ECHR is that no one advocating for it seems willing to accept that the past decade of politics has shown us that withdrawing from organisations/treaties/institutions always has more unintended consequences than intended, usually negative.
(Exaggerated) "fears of mass unrest" were not realised. 3 disorderly attempts at violence (Hillingdon/Heathrow, Cheshunt, Canary Wharf) led to 10 arrests. 30 small protests. But one protest (Hillingdon) had 300-500 people: 1 in 10 protests (Falkirk, Braintree, Cheshunt) had 200+ Most <100
'Brexiteers hate the world they created', by Sam Bright. open.substack.com/pub/writesbr...
Both the Lucy Connolly and the Epping hotel cases have now taken on a political-media existence of their own, unconnected with what actually happened in court. It doesn't matter there were published sentencing remarks in one and a judge-prepared summary in the other. People want stories instead.
always good to check the edit history on Twitter as they can sometimes be revealing What Douglas Carswell has written today is awful bad in its final form, but his original tweet was worse He's not correcting a typo "From Epping to the sea, let's make England immigrant free" just showed his hand
![Douglas Carswell @DouglasCarswell From Epping to the sea, let's make England Abdul free 5h [Quote tweet @GBPolitics] NEW: Epping locals vow to stop paying council tax after the High Court ruled that asylum seekers can stay in a hotel [@DailyMail] Last edited 1:27 PM · Aug 31, 2025 60.9K Views](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2kf2qj56o2vq7jfaq4x4ogp6/bafkreiaumorv4doqx6ozqqxlsrvs4rne3cuqiyetljv3cdwozck6vszoxq@jpeg "Click to view full size")
![Douglas Carswell @DouglasCarswell From Epping to the sea, let's make England immigrant free [Quote tweet] @GBPolitics *NEW: Epping locals vow to stop paying council tax after the High Court ruled that asylum seekers can stay in a hotel [@DailyMail] 1:25 PM Aug 31, 2025 509 Views There's a new version of this post. See the latest post](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2kf2qj56o2vq7jfaq4x4ogp6/bafkreihz7cel6hmysoidvh5whqaenwplsnan2nabdaega3dc6rmdzunree@jpeg "Click to view full size")
I think he's actually worse than Farage and Jenrick. Incredibly.
stochastic terrorism works
I think Carswell crossed the line some time ago but still worth cataloguing what an evil sh1tbag he is.
Douglas Carswell has skirted the line and now he's crossed it. This is disgusting racism from a former MP who now demonstrates who and what he is.
I was thinking that it is physically harder to get to than 'even' Great Britain.
If you are being asked this question, you've already lost the argument.
This again... bsky.app/profile/rola...
They missed the bit where Brexit campaigners talked about reconnecting with the world especially the Commonwealth, and not just 'Little Europe'. It seems some Brexit voters now realise this means more brown-skinned people as opposed to 'people like us'. Call it their 'breaking point'.
“We found help and support in Germany,” says Somar, “and I have never felt discriminated against”....
Yup
It's funny because the UKIP spokesman for migration (Woolfe) said clearly at the time that they'd expect to welcome more from places like Pakistan and India. It was briefly quite a moment and all because they were pushing the 'EU free movement is racist' thing. And it gave them 'non-racist creds'.
'The movement of people in Europe, fair enough....' Gotta laugh.
They missed the bit where Brexit campaigners talked about reconnecting with the world especially the Commonwealth, and not just 'Little Europe'. It seems some Brexit voters now realise this means more brown-skinned people as opposed to 'people like us'. Call it their 'breaking point'.
Ugh
People are generally fine while ignoring the news and social media.
I preferred the old silly seasons e.g. sightings of the Loch Ness Monster and suchlike.
The benefits given to asylum seekers in the UK are *very* basic compared to France, Germany and others. In the UK, they are also forbidden from working. If they were simply economic migrants, it would be far better for them to stay 'on the continent'. But some instead risk everything to come here.
Reminder that small boat migration is c.5% of all UK immigration. And asylum-seeking generally is far lower per head of UK population than most other west European countries e.g. 🇩🇪 🇫🇷 🇮🇹 🇪🇸 🇧🇪 🇳🇱 🇦🇹 🇮🇪. Yes even Ireland takes way more. Yet none have the same sense of crisis and moral panic as the UK.
For the last hour, Sky News has been almost wall-to-wall on migrant hotel protests... or as chief correspondent Jon Craig puts it, 'illegal migration'. They desperately need some real news.
'It'll be fine in the long-term because the young will save us.' Umm...
It's a good job Trump cares about the law...
Oh hullo...
'You can now see how Nazism happened in the 1930s' – Part 94
What a great little chart.
The news media want full civil unrest. Well 'it'll get people talking' – their raison d'etre these days.
Yeah-b-but he's Lammy's bestie. Personally, I don't think Vance has the draw of Trump and that it'll fall apart even quicker.
Morning.
You've heard of motivated reasoning. Welcome to motivated takery.
Has someone tried switching the Telegraph off and on again. Something is clearly malfunctioning.
There are BSE cells that are less mad than this article
Afternoon.
A rightly angry piece. Starmer urgently needs to sort his shit out on immigration and asylum.
More concerned mums at Epping
Court of appeal revokes ban on Epping hotel housing asylum seekers
Roland links here to an excellent Bagehot article (excellent imho because it challenges some my own assumptions) and also, in a comment, to his own brilliant thread on the history of British Euroscepticism (drawing from ‘Continental Drift’, a book).
I don't know but that's probably part of it. It was also quite expensive and was seen, I think, as more academic.
Exceptional piece by the exceptional @sylviekauffmann.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/8a14...
We're now told Trump is 'not happy with Kyiv strikes'. Whatever.
I imagine he and any siblings are liable now for the inheritance tax, such is the weird system we have whereby IHT is often due before heirs receive the proceeds.
The Sky News scrolling banner tells us how 19 people have been killed in Kyiv by Russian missiles, and how the big European states may revive UN sanctions against Iran. While this scrolls past past, Nazi Barbie fills the screen talking petty bollocks on behalf of Shitler in the White House.
Has the ear lobe hair started?
Nice. Oxfordshire to the west of the A34 is good value (but a pain if you need to get to London regularly).
Absolutely why we now need to move away from FPTP. The reliance on 'good chaps' doesn't work.
'Joe Rogan finally realizes Trump doesn’t have evidence of his biggest complaint' This guy and his gradual realisations. FFS. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
Shortly before we gave up on selling our own house, an estate agent told us that trying to sell anything over £1m in Bucks is a rather lonely experience. And the higher the price, the lonelier it gets.
Cough bsky.app/profile/rola...
This is Nigel Farage on mass deportations less than a year ago on GBNews. I wonder what has changed?
Become a plumber or electrician. My advice for kids entering the world of AI.
Morning.
Ooh thanks.
Fantastic thread on the history of “Brexitism”
There is that.
Tom has it starting during the second world war, so it starts well. bsky.app/profile/rola...
I'm now looking forward to @tommctague.bsky.social's book on the history of euroscepticism in Britain.... www.economist.com/britain/2025...
One could almost write a comedy series about it.
Yes, there is a plenty of time to correct this. But I increasingly wonder if always-wooden Starmer is the man to correct it.
FFS get a grip, man. That's what I'd be saying if advising him.
I mean, the clues are there about Starmer's lack of convictions/moral compass: Supports Jeremy Corbyn then a few years later invokes Enoch Powell in a speech and talks of the 'incalculable damage' done by immigration.
It should be piss-easy to keep the Farage Clown Show in check: he adores Trump (the British hate him); he comes up with cruel policies (that the British hate); he gets very prickly when asked hard questions and simplism doesn't work. Starmer is a rabbit in headlights. bsky.app/profile/youg...
Starmer doesn't have the courage of his convictions... and one starts to wonder if that's because he has no convictions.
These are the kinds of proposals that could squash the ceiling on Reform vote back down again.
FFS Keir Starmer is open to making a deportation deal with the TALIBAN in order to out-right-wing the right wing. www.thenational.scot/news/2541727...
Once hundreds of schools start closing across the country and the retirement age rises to 75, the current period of moral panic over immigration is going to look utterly ridiculous
And falling house prices, don't forget them. bsky.app/profile/rola...
This adulation is so repulsively disgusting. It's like they are appeasing a 3-year old little dictator. Don't they have any shame? Any self-respect? What the hell is wrong with these losers?
Whaddaguy. How did he do that? Having a father (and now business partner) with a well-established building company with a network of tradespeople... well, that helped. Expect Sam to write a book soon (destined for all good airport terminals) which says how it was all down to sheer hard work.
Well I have had a Brockmans Gin tonight so that's probably a factor.
I don't think I am. But I am annoyed with the mainstream media today, and this is not an isolated feeling.
I could be persuaded on this. It wouldn't level the playing field – the wealthier could still buy extra benefits for their kids and provide contacts – but it would help a lot.
Dismal, depressing day. And yet No10 will give a ready quote on some passing celeb fad.
I mean, everything else seems broken so why not the media too?