Gearing up for BBCr4 Today Programme on where the State Visit leaves us on Ukraine and Israel/Gaza. How far did the rosy glow of Royal hospitality affect discussions on the tough issues? Give us a listen at 0712
Former UK diplomat. Neglectful gardener, baker, and maker. There is one planet. We pass through and are supposed to take care of it. Politics, as well as random observations on other stuff. No unsolicited DMs.
8,061 followers 1,961 following 4,096 posts
view profile on Bluesky
Gearing up for BBCr4 Today Programme on where the State Visit leaves us on Ukraine and Israel/Gaza. How far did the rosy glow of Royal hospitality affect discussions on the tough issues? Give us a listen at 0712
Many thanks. I’m betting it’s quietly dropped now he’s gone. But actually appalled that it could be used as a preventive by the authorities.
“We will change the laws so as to put lawyers out of jobs”
Unpopular opinion: 1)What is happening in America is hugely concerning. 2) It is in both Britain‘s and Europe's interest to work closely together. 3) Neither Brits nor Europeans can afford to openly break with the US right now. 4) Making the most of that impossible situation is very hard.
Psychologically healthy people rarely show racism. They don’t need to boost their identity by demeaning others. Dr Steve Taylor writes. From #TheConversation -- thanks!
Matt Frei, "President Trump is flying home happy, leaving no chaos in his wake, and propelled by an audible sign of British relief" "Asked about Peter Mandelson's ties to Epstein, President Trump said he didn't know who the sacked ambassador was"
I’m astonished
Just showing off, really.
In the US?
And you get the added bonus of not having to make eye contact with other humans because hey who needs to connect with their fellow humans and have a functioning society when we can have Meta AI glasses 🤓 🤦♀️
I imagine CPS will have something to say about the reported “charge”
100%
I love this Vonnegut post so much!
Just wonder whether Ministers understand that the endless churn of announcements great and small doesn't really achieve anything, and that packaging "investment" similar. Every day a deliverable, yet people demand deliverables. Maybe some food for thought?
Bye-bye Atlantic Declaration, we hardly got to know you, hello Memorandum of Understanding regarding the Technology Prosperity Deal, there's every chance you won't last much longer... www.gov.uk/government/n...
Excellent article by Katy Balls. Is she here, btw?
Stark. When the defence of a state visit becomes all about very large companies moving piles of money around then it shouldn't be a surprise that so many people think politics and economics is broken and not about them. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Why Maga’s next project is to fix ‘Broken Britain‘. V good analysis.
Brexit is the toxic epicentre of the political shitshow we now have to endure. It promoted idiocy and deceit, endorsed racism, divided us, made us poorer, weaker, less safe and less sane. It’s belittled the country, killed the Tory party and given birth to Reform. A relentless klaxon of failure.
Appalled to see this image of Donald Trump and the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein projected onto Windsor Castle. Please... for the love of all that is good, do not share it on all your social media channels... because it simply wouldn't be done to remind the world of the association
“Love of British royalty should not be confused with respect for the country’s political system.” Starmer will talk of shared values. “But that would be a polite fiction. In reality, Trump shares values with Farage, leader of Reform and the man who wants Starmer’s job.” www.ft.com/content/37b4...
Badenoch is a terrible, terrible politician.
President Trump claims that the European Union is paying $950 billion in tariffs - Except the EU are not
I find these two men (particularly these two) telling us their approved version of parenting - deeply sinister. I hope their christofascist, MAGA-flavoured manoeuvrings backfire so dramatically, in our secular, progressive country, that they rue the day they decided to tell us how to live our lives.
Several important questions raised in this
Catch your girl on GMB at 7.30 debating a “Republican abroad” who reckons we should be grateful that Donald Trump is gracing us with his presence 😅😅 We at @ukstoptrump.bsky.social have different ideas… and we’re proud our protest is keeping him out of London💪💪
Investment numbers announced during summits are almost meaningless, since most of these are totally unrelated to governments, some of them will have been announced before, and a number will never happen. www.ft.com/content/e7ba...
Bear with me, I anticipate your disagreement. There is a clear pattern to the advice given to those who want to press back against rising racism. What it boils down to is that if you point out that racism is often being dressed up as “legitimate concerns” you will alienate people. /1
Spot on. We must nake these things shameful again.
TLDR: Make racism shameful again. While you’re at it add fascism too.
Yes it is.
US President back-pedalling furiously after his administration treated some innocent hard-working Koreans like they were innocent hard-working Latinos.
Just spent sometime with family watching some of the Soul Proms with family. Weird disjunct in a country that can produce something so positive and life affirming about non English culture and at the same time the thuggery of racists parading our flag.
Catching up after a day travelling and seeing family. Well said, Richard. Well said indeed.
Mind the morality gap. My piece for @bylines.scot
I want my country back. The country that welcomed my Grandfather fleeing from the Armenian genocide. That welcomed the Polish grandfather of our political editor, who then fought against Hitler. That welcomed the Indian parents of our editor-in-chief, as citizens of the British Empire. That country
Elon Musk is in the middle of approvals for a new $1 TRILLION pay deal from Tesla, one condition of which is him involving himself in politics less. Yesterday he called for the overthrow of the UK government at a far-right rally, just days before that government hosts a Trump state visit.
Reform means Trumpism #RefUKkers
"sorry about the whole concentration camp thing. if you come back we pinky swear we'll be normal"
Musk, Tommy Robinson - fascist Britain. A hellpit of violence and racism. They’re using our flag as their rallying cry. And X as their megaphone. No more appeasement. No more ‘legitimate concerns’ horseshit. It’s beyond time to sanction Musk, regulate X and shut these fuckers down. (Sunday Times)
👍
Ok realise I transposed the number 🤦🏻♂️ it should have been 07546 279125 Sorry!
Another thought. Try sending me a DM.
No. I have another plan though. If you send a text message to this number: 07546 271945, I will get it (its an old 3g payphone about to be decommissioned) I can then contact you via my proper phone so we can exchange texts to sort the best way to communicate. Is that ok?
STOP APPEASING FASCISTS. Just sums up everything wrong with this government's approach at the moment, encouraging division rather than finding ways to bring the vast majority together.
That's the point, I think. They can arrest a lot of people who LET them, but very few who are throwing bottles at them. Which provides just the most terrible paradigm. Genuinely makes one think, well if THIS is the only sort of protest that gets heard, maybe it is the only sort that is effective.
"Don't Be Evil" – Google's original motto.
When we are close to choosing a government that half the voters would never vote for, democracy is failing. MPs are calling for reform Stephen McNair reports
We have defeated Fascism on our streets before, and we will defeat it again’. There, Keir. It’s not even hard.
First, a clear statement of rejection. Second, action. The US Ambassador should be called in and given a message for Trump. “X” should immediately be banned in this country and Musk should be declared Persona non Grata and banned from visiting.
🙏
We don’t need a deal with the US right now. These things have non economic costs.
Right now I’d be happy to see them do anything to show some spine.
Elon Musk is a wealthy foreign individual attemting to interfere directly in our political process and to stimulate violence on our streets. For our government to ignore this would send the wrong signal to the world. They must do something now.
They asked me to do the age verification thing a while back. It’s something to do with protecting minors.
What?
Some more direct incitement from Musk This man burned his sheep's clothing a long time ago and is now fully leaning into his right wing white supremacist nationalism
In which the richest man in the world tries to incite turmoil, fear and loathing in my city from the safety of his fortified home thousands of miles away. The pathetic little coward. Also why are these patriots being directed by an American? Can't they organise their own fist fight?
Left: Elon Musk, "You see how much violence there is on the left..The left is the party of murder" Right: Man on the far right march, "Keir Starmer needs to be assassinated. Someone needs to shoot, someone needs to shoot Keir Starmer" Anyone know if he has been arrested by the police yet?
Keir Starmer should be old enough to remember that we didn't use to call them patriots, we called them football hooligans.
Left: Sangita Myska, "Essentially you've got racist thugs trying to move into the crowd of the anti racist supporters. And the police are now having to align themselves against what is essentially a wall of racists" Right: Footage of what Sangita Myska describes
I am sure that lovely chap who called today for Starmer to be shot will be persuaded to vote Labour with just one more government push to demonise immigrants. He is after all the voter they most want to win over. And they know what they are doing.
Don’t believe Farage. He’s ok with incitement to murder. He even put it in writing to Congress. Pass it on. 👇
There's been a shift towards support to the far right here and it's horrible to see. But this remains a vastly less racist/homophobic/anti-semitic country than it has been in the past. Which makes it all the odder that our politicians today seem more scared to make the argument.
Great. A little later.
A hit, a very palpable hit.
Remember, Reform cannot win unless we let them.
Since we are talking radical echo chambers...
Remember that ridiculous lawyer called Steven Barrett...? He's still ridiculous.
Why do people look at this and see it as a good thing? Unless you’re independently massively wealthy you are one nasty accident away from disability benefits. These benefits exist for a reason. You are not poor because of people being sick and needing a support structure.
Last November Mr Farage said he had "just exchanged contracts on a house that I'll be living in there". Now Farage says he has no financial stake in Clacton home.. Via BBC News
Any politician who claims to know what the British public thinks is clearly projecting his own views and prejudices on other people. Gove seems to do this in the hope that he will encourage the normalisation of his obnoxious views. Some may fall for it. Those who think for themselves won’t.
This obnoxious weirdo can absolutely do one with his poisonous little take on what the British people think. He lost the right to appropriate our opinions when he foisted his prejudiced and dishonest Brexit shitshow on us and told us that’s what we wanted. Reform is the grim hangover of that failure
The thing is, not just is this not true (of current Reform intenders or especially their 2024 vote), but it's actually somewhat unusual in British politics to be the most popular party and have a support base as deviant from the median voter.
I have more ideas about how one would do it and it occurred to me it could be done by phone? Would you be interested? If you would can I send you a DM as a next step?
I’ve been wondering what it would be like as a dabbling artist to make a ”painting” as a response to someone only heard and not seen (hope that’s clear). Imagine a painter sitting blindfold with a subject and having a conversation, then committing brush to canvas as a record…
Farage is *such* a spiv. It’s staggering that he isn’t seen by all as a grubby little crook. He’s done so much harm to our country but gets to breeze on through, never being held to account on any of it. If the excuse is - well he’s not in power - the answer needs to be… it’ll be far too late then.
All tied in with whether politicians in the UK (or elsewhere in Europe, or the US) manage to find coherent politics for the modern age, or just continue with various forms of simplistic populism. Populism easily winning right now.
I need you to understand what this country feels like right now for those of us who look different. I'm sitting here, trying to plan for Saturday, make sure I don't even need to go to the corner shop for milk, like it's Christmas Day or lockdown. Why? Because I live near where Yaxley-Lennon will 1/
Good for him. 👏
I’m inclined to agree about Burnham. He seems to me politically “savvy” but likely to appeal to the frustrated left.
The more I see, the more I think Streeting would be a poor choice. He’s glib, but the Health reforms are in chaos, according to insiders.
Thank you Chris. I think it’s obvious really. But sometimes I feel a need to state the obvious.
“The narrative” is important. It can stir people’s emotions. This why the right want to control it (and spend a fortune to try to do so) and why this Labour govt is making a mistake relying wholly on facts and their record. If only people were so rational.
Better yet, read a novel. And consider that people feel stuff.
Exactly. These things stir emotions.
I hope that one counts as wise? They don’t work consistently. Very frustrating.
Wonder if Karen would want to?
There’s a reason that we have career diplomats.
Exactly
Actually, they were very upset...about the criticism of guns
Yes
It was very risky. And misguided, in my opinion.
And he did
It takes someone with poor political judgement to appoint someone with poor political judgement. Mandelson will go, but the damage being done will last.
And please, spare me the idea that the normalisation of political violence is confined to one side or group of people.
Peter Mandelson's rather effective predecessor www.gov.uk/government/p... #r4today
Kirk’s murder is horrible and political violence is unacceptable. But he was not a “conservative” talking “common sense”. TPUS is not best known for getting the vote out. We can condemn the killing without sanitising his views and actions.
Tekkno@jimmy_rakete SpeedoProseccoEdition 