In charge of bins? A Nazi in charge of bins? No no. That man is clearly destined for greater things. Promote him immediately. The current leader of the most successful political party in the world ladies and gentlemen.

James Ball@jamesrball.com · 3h ago

Having said it was okay for Bonehill-Paine to be a councillor because it was just bins, instead of dropping him, Badenoch has given him an advisory role – *after* Jewish groups refused to meet with him? Does she just never want this story to end, or....what.

"Energy from heaven, not from hell." The best 11 minutes you'll spend today - this week - this year.

Bill McKibben@billmckibben.bsky.social · last wk.

So, I finally did a TED talk, and it got released today. I seem to have been quite intense, but I'm grateful they left in my Trump joke. www.ted.com/talks/bill_m...

“Kemi has instead offered that I become an adviser to the Conservative Party’s Culture and Integration Commission, specifically focusing on how young men become radicalised."

Padme Amidala's Iconic Look in Star Wars

ALT: Padme Amidala's Iconic Look in Star Wars

static.klipy.com

Alex Partridge@alexpartridge87.bsky.social · 3h ago

In a post on X he says he’ll instead be advising the Conservative Party on how young men become radicalised

as noted yesterday, Trump has now come around to treating an Iranian toll system covering the Strait of Hormuz as a given. Hard to overstate the level of strategic failure. US started the war purely as a war of choice and ends up dramatically empowering Iran and given the Iranian govt big wins.

Bill Grueskin@bgrueskin.bsky.social · 4h ago

Reuters: Iran wants fees of 5%-7% of the price of cargo from ships using the strait; Oman wants 3%. "Making fees voluntary, at least nominally, could be a way out of the impasse, although an implied threat of Iranian attacks could mean shippers would be ​unlikely to risk transit without paying."

Idiots out in force already on Facebook and X banging on about "migrants" and how Sadiq Khan's London "isn't safe"... even as they entirely ignore the nature of this very worrying incident

Badenoch's two biggest flaws are that she's nowhere near as smart as she thinks she is and is incapable of admitting error. Both well illustrated by this fiasco.

Alex Partridge@alexpartridge87.bsky.social · 3h ago

Joshua Bonehill-Paine steps back from being a Conservative council candidate following backlash

Maybe Kemi can put him in the House of Lords. That would *really* own the libs.

Alex Partridge@alexpartridge87.bsky.social · 3h ago

Joshua Bonehill-Paine steps back from being a Conservative council candidate following backlash

He's still representing your party, Kemi!

Will Reid-Tong@willthong.com · 12h ago

Somehow Kemi on R4 has just backed herself into the utterly farcical line "come on now it's not a *national* platform - he's only gonna be a Tory councillor, not a Tory MP!"

Badenoch won’t give Shapps a second chance, but will give Bonehill-Paine. Interesting choices she makes.

Some sensible suggestions for bio-banking www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Participation bias in the UK Biobank distorts genetic associations and downstream analyses - Nature Human Behaviour

The authors use information on 14 traits and create a representative pseudo-sample of the UK Biobank population, showing that participation bias distorts behavioural genome-wide association study and ...

nature.com

I think I know the answer to this one

Resolution Foundation@resolutionfoundation.org · yesterday

A decade after the Brexit vote, the UK has lost its trading edge in goods faster and more broadly than any G7 peer. How can we boost goods exports and regain our trading edge?

This is unacceptable, the increased abuse, refusing to allow people of non white races to help/treat them. It's part of the effect of people like Pharage emboldening bigotry and division, he's dedicated his life to that and lining his pockets. #TheFarageEffect news.sky.com/story/nhs-st...

Patients refusing to be treated by non-white staff as NHS reports shocking rise in racism

Paul Awah, a Bedfordshire-based diagnostic radiographer originally from Nigeria, said: "It's definitely got worse – people are more expressive."

news.sky.com

‘Hundreds of residents in Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta gathered to oppose a planned far-right anti-migrant rally, forcing organisers to cancel the event amid heightened tensions following a temporary influx of migrants crossing from Morocco.’ www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfe...

Residents of Spain’s Ceuta shut down far-right anti-migrant rally

Hundreds of residents in Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta gathered to oppose a planned far-right rally.

aljazeera.com

Kemi Badenoch’s Tory Party! What is happening in the mind of a Black political leader who supports an ethno nationalist promoter of white rights & considers this man to be an appropriate parliamentary candidate? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Former neo-Nazi activist selected as Tory candidate for Somerset council election

Joshua Bonehill-Paine, creator of satirical Crewkerne Gazette, has convictions including for harassing a Jewish MP

theguardian.com

Ridiculous person

Rob Jacques@knutcrosswords.bsky.social · 2d ago

This is profoundly upsetting

‘ I will meet some of these detractors halfway & accept that Londoners definitely lack something in the areas of gentleness & humility. To everyone else, I’d channel Millwall: no one likes us, we don’t care. Multiculturalism in action, in a single London heart’ www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Does Andy Burnham really hate London? He wouldn’t be the only one | Zoe Williams

Both left and right have it in for Britain’s capital. But is London a stabby wasteland, a den of faceless bureaucrats, or just a mess of overprivileged wokerati, asks Zoe Williams

theguardian.com

This article listing all 34 Clacton candidates should prove indispensable for any scholars asking the question "what exactly is Britain?"

The candidates standing in the Clacton by-election

The full list of candidates who have declared they intend to fight the Clacton by-election.

bbc.co.uk

The Fleadh Cheoil ("music festival") city hops each year, attracting 800,000 people, making it one of the biggest music festival in Europe. Qualifying competitors from all over the World showcase the best of Irish music, song, dance and language in All- Ireland competitions. 2/5

Huge hat tip to the Good Friday Agreement for what's happening in Belfast this week. TL;DR: Uniting people through music & culture works, customs, borders, currency (and curtseying) belongs in the 19th century. It was in Derry in 2013 but this couldn't have happened 30 years ago in Belfast. 1/5

Nigel Farage just took a question from a 'journalist' at his press conference, who turned out to be his former chief adviser Raheem Kassam, who asks him why the media are being so unfair to him

Striking how Reform have pivoted over the course of two days from the nonsensical claim that 'Ceuta proves we are in terrible danger' to the nonsensical claim that 'Ceuta proves there is a simple solution'.

As I say in this thread from our groups and polling I think Badenoch leadership critics ignore the counterfactual of not badenoch when the party could have collapsed entirely. In other words I think she might be inlynthing holding them at ~20%. bsky.app/profile/luke...

Luke Tryl@luketryl.bsky.social · last wk.

🧵Looked quite a bit over past week at appeal of Burnham, what about Badenoch, whose approvals have risen significantly since a low last Autumn, when barely 10% of voters gave her a gross positive approval, to over 30% and higher net approval than Farage, Polanski & Davey.

“We’ve moved into the Age of the Oligarch which is defined by a network of the rich and powerful and the authoritarians they prop up. The group transcends national borders and has zero interest in the countries that elevated them to power.”

The Third World War Is Here

And it's not what you think

open.substack.com

Well, they're on their way back to Morocco actually, as they never had any way to reach mainland Spain, let alone the UK, but who needs facts when you're Bobby J the King of Bullshit.

Whiskey Pete dropped a 2,000 pound bomb to kill someone that Iranian outlets ID as a taxi driver, per NYT. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/w...

Evidence Indicates U.S. Dropped Bomb on Residential Area in Iran, Killing 3 Civilians

The weapon, one of the largest in the U.S.’s arsenal, struck a house in a heavily populated area, according to a Times analysis.

nytimes.com

Among the very many dim takes around the Ceuta incident... the very, very dumbest must be the assumption in Reform circles that all those people were somehow trying to make it to Britain. How exceptionalist and indeed exceptionally stupid can you get?

25% voter turnout for what is arguably the third biggest job in politics in England www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Wait goes on for result in Greater Manchester mayoral by-election – as it happened

The turnout was recorded as the lowest on record for a mayoral role in the region

theguardian.com

Manchester mayor election results taking ages. Down to Reform candidate vs Labour candidate. Let's hope it doesn't go the Reform way, otherwise we'll be in for a terrible time in so many ways. <crosses fingers>

Eek! This has had almost zero publicity, which probably accounts for the historically low turnout. BBC News - www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn... Manchester mayor by-election: Labour and Reform UK candidates face off in second round of vote - BBC News

Manchester mayor by-election: Labour and Reform UK candidates face off in second round of vote

The contest was triggered when now-Prime Minister Andy Burnham stood down from the role following his election as an MP last month.

bbc.co.uk

Oh joy... The Manchester mayoral by-election is a tie between candidates from Labour and Reform, now going to second choice votes. And voter turnout was something like 25%. This is democracy manifest!