The people of Piddington have spoken. I say, grant them independence. Border controls. Visas to cross into the UK. Tariffs on goods. No GBP. No NHS. No benefits or pensions. Let us know when your little lilywhite enclave has gone all Mad Max and you started eating each other. BUH-BYE!

I've done a deep-dive on the Harborne and Delo mega-donations over the weekend, and whether they may have to be handed back From my reading, a lot of unlikely things have to be true at once for the two £36m 'gifts' to be allowed once the (retrospective) Representation of the People Bill becomes law

Why Reform UK Could Be Forced to Hand Back Their £72m Donations From Crypto Billionaires

Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo gave a record £36 million each over the weekend to Nigel Farage's party, but a new law means they may have to take it all back

bylinetimes.com

£72m for Reform over the weekend could be just the tip of the iceberg There's nothing to stop Elon Musk giving, via a UK X subsidiary, £300m to Restore Britain today Or a Trump ally giving £500m to Farage via a UK-registered firm There's a v narrow window to tackle big money in the elections bill

So how about this for a "pause AI" proposal: "pause credulous AI reporting". No more media about "breakthroughs" or "rogue agent swarms" or ... UNLESS and UNTIL that media demands the actual empirical evidence and/or focuses on the motivations of & harms by these companies.

I’m just a person on my fucking knees begging the government to use its absolutely massive majority to do something extremely fucking popular: save our democracy.

The UK now needs to introduce political spending limits across a parliament, not just for election campaign years. Otherwise, its election spending rules could fall over. Current rules: parties have a limit (about £34m) for 12 months before an election - but no limits outside the 12 month period.

"The labs are saying to governments: ‘We’re quite likely to kill every human being on Earth; please stop us.’ Governments respond with ‘Can we give you a tax break? Build you a datacenter?’ Perhaps govs will remember that their voters prefer not to be dead." giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Why the AI race has its creators fearing human extinction

Advances in autonomous agents and bitter rivalry between Anthropic and OpenAI have pushed once-fringe fears into the mainstream

giftarticle.ft.com

The TUC campaigning against donation caps - despite all the proposed amendments having carve-outs for affiliation fees - will come back to bite the union movement if they succeed in delaying it. Frankly, billionaires will always have more money with which to buy parties than unions will.

‘Step backwards’: Union leader warns Burnham against political donations cap

Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said he is concerned about union members’ voices being ‘silenced’

politico.eu

The balaclava blackshirted thugs are a result of a decade of politicians, tabloids and the broadcast media telling racists they have "legitimate concerns." The normalisation of actual fascism rhetoric and action has led to this and is a far greater "legitimate concern" than any migrant on a boat.

Depressing. But true

Musa Okwonga@okwonga.bsky.social · last wk.

On Germany: something I can’t stand is the idea that the Left and the Green parties haven’t offed arguments about the cost of living. They have! It’s just that they haven’t offered *hate*. The AfD have offered hate, that is their most passionate offering, that is primarily why they are thriving.

@ stephenkb.bsky.social hitting the nail on the head of course. "the Labour Party has now produced two governments whose response to acts of thuggery and intimidation is to reiterate that perhaps the thugs have a point" - as.ft.com/r/97d33f08-a...

Labour’s muddled migration policy won’t stop thuggery

A government that can’t distinguish between ‘legitimate concerns’ and open racism is only making things worse

as.ft.com

I want the Prime Minister to look into a TV camera and say the RNLI are heroes, that we do not change policy by street violence in this country, and that he expects any criminal action to face the full force of the law. That's it. That's all he has to do.

Is Burnham scared, complacent or complicit? Silence is not leadership. Where does he stand on masked men in black intimidating the public and terrified asylum seekers? I have a legitimate concern about fascism taking over the UK.

When blackshirts are marching through the streets of Dover and Portsmouth, the focus shouldn’t be on the disruption they cause, but on their fascist ideology and deliberate intimidation of migrants and people of colour. [1/2]

Seems the difference between ‘protestors’ and ‘terrorists’ is that protestors wear balaclavas while terrorists hold placards.

Absolutely astounding that Labour ministers seem unable to condemn masked violent racist thugs who are intent on terrorising migrant and non-white communities

Jonn Elledge@jonnelledge.bsky.social · 2w ago

I simply do not understand what's going on in Labour that renders its leaders incapable of finding a TV camera and speaking out against street violence. Even if you assume they agree about immigration, violence is wrong, unpopular AND against the interests of any even vaguely left wing govt.

Let me get this right: if you're a retired vicar and peacefully hold up a sign opposing genocide, you're a terrorist. But if 1200 morons put on balaclavas and close half of Dover to stop people *escaping* genocide, police "constructively engage." Is that it? www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Black-clad protesters in balaclavas block road at port of Dover in Kent

Traffic on A20 in and out of port grinds to halt as Kent police say they are in attendance and engaging with group

theguardian.com

Now James Orr has stepped down as Reform UK's Head of Policy after C4's report, questions remain for Cambridge – where he is Associate Professor. Byline Times revealed serious concerns about his activities there months ago. We all know there won't now be 200+ articles on him and his life don't we?

The Electoral Commission appears to be straightforwardly wrong about its role and responsibilities in law as the regulator when it says publicly "Information about any potential attempt to evade the controls on donations is for the police to consider". It is the core job of the Electoral Commission

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · 2w ago

Tone of the Electoral Commission response is not confidence-inspiring about its own role An Electoral Commission spokesperson said: "The law requires political parties to report ... "Information about any potential attempt to evade the controls on donations is for the police to consider."

If you falsely but strongly believe that your students' intelligence is based on race and gender you will be unable to treat or grade them fairly. This includes giving white and male students too high grades as well as giving Black and female students too low ones

1 in 3 UK university students are not white. 57% are female Being unable to treat 70%+ of UK students fairly because of your irrational and immoral beliefs just is you acknowledging you're not qualified for the role (Believing empirical and moral falsehoods to be true is also disqualifying)

Universities are actually not just bigger schools for older students: to get higher education 'right' in 2026-27, they need to put research and teaching in a shared analytical frame. The research funding side of the equation is also out of control (see toys being flung from prams in parliament). 2/3

Conservative policy: - Demand criminals get long sentences - Don't build prisons to house them - Oppose early release of prisoners - Cut prisons budgets so that fewer people are rehabilitated 👍

Hard agree!

Hannah Elias@hannahelias.bsky.social · 3w ago

Dear Andy Burnham, Things we would like: - no North Sea drilling - fix higher education from freefall collapse - nationalise Thames Water - £ limit political donations - tax corporations who operate here but don’t pay tax, and higher tax on the ultra-rich - Closer ties to EU - Net Zero

Unions are failing to see the bigger picture, that a handful of people can buy our democracy with hugely disproportionate means at their disposal, using fear of a cap being weaponised against them to let the main issue at the heart of political financing to continue unabated. A catastrophic U-turn.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3w ago

Burnham drops support for political funding cap aimed at curbing mega-donors

Please don't overreact to Roberts Court decision on the contemplated USPS ballot moves They simply held that the injunction came too early in the process, before there was a final rule👇 Now we HAVE a final rule & we will litigate it. I'm as confident in our arguments here as in any of our cases!

Wise words:

Senthorun S. Raj@senthorun.bsky.social · 4w ago

If the only time you care about “academic freedom” is when it involves defending a white supremacist while ignoring the many Black academics hounded by racism, it’s time to reset your moral compass. Just saying.

Hi @vicderbyshire.bsky.social if Jason Arday and marathons ever come up, please see the evidence and references below. Better yet, invite @monkemma.bsky.social on and ask why she was able to find this information but most journalists have not

Emma Monk@monkemma.bsky.social · 4w ago

One of the first "outrageous" claims I saw as Jason Arday's media hounding unfolded was that he ran 30 marathons in 35 days! Wow! What a thing to claim! And the newspapers all suggested there was no evidence he actually did it. Well, they clearly didn't look very hard 🙄 🧵 1/26

So, it’s not a conspiracy, and you are not imagining it. The biggest and wealthiest tech leaders are genuine fascists. They are leading an active and intentional systematic attack on labor. And they have radicalized each other while sidelining or removing the remaining decent execs in the industry.

This article is brilliant. And heart breaking

Supertanskiii@supertanskiiii.bsky.social · 4w ago

I know what they’re like. I grew up with them. This is about poverty, class, boredom, radicalisation and the boys I used to know. I didn’t want to paywall an article about poverty, so this is free. If you can afford to subscribe, I’d appreciate it! supertanskiii.substack.com/p/the-men-wh...