What happens if a UK government removes benefits from EU citizens in breach of the withdrawal agreement? My analysis of the likely EU response to Reform Party policy, if ever enacted - eulawanalysis.blogspot.com/2026/08/what...

What happens if a UK government removes benefits from EU citizens in breach of the withdrawal agreement?

Professor Steve Peers , Law School, Royal Holloway University of London   Photo credit : Martin Robson , via Wikimedia Commons  ...

eulawanalysis.blogspot.com

I'm shocked that the 2024 Reform party candidate for Salisbury (!), who's tweeted about talking to Putin and refers to 'the Ukraine' and the 'SMO' - the official Russian designation for their unprovoked war against Ukraine - is amplifying the Kremlin's current attempt to scare the UK public.

Yesterday’s nightmare scenario has horrible habit of becoming tomorrow’s reality: US-Iran conflict in Strait of Hormuz wargamed for years. Here a more terrifying one: simultaneous aggressions by Russia/China. Small Cz European Values thinktank gets big mention. paxsims.wordpress.com/2026/08/18/w...

Wargaming nightmare scenarios

In The Atlantic (paywalled), Simon Shuster argues that NATO has done little or no planning for a potential nightmare scenario: a simultaneous Russian attack on NATO and Chinese invasion of Taiwan. …

paxsims.wordpress.com

Bálint Magyar’s new substack, building on his innovative thinking about post-communist regimes (and beyond with Bálint Madlovics, launchs with a post about the patronalistic self-enrichment of Trump. Worth subscribing postcommunistregimes.substack.com/p/make-trump...

Make Trump Rich Again

Or Take Back the Home

postcommunistregimes.substack.com

A summary of what I understand and do not understand about the way democracy works: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=7269378

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Good post-election post-mortem from the NS: Count Binface is the (unexpected) vehicle for anti-Reform voters, the role taken by the Greens or Welsh nationalists in other contests. Some voters, even those disliking Farage, feel patronised by parody-only option podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

Farage wins again at Clacton circus

Podcast Episode · The Politics Show · 14 August · 18min

podcasts.apple.com

Farage has dodged a bullet. Misjudged the resignation, poured effort into mobilising his base giving up on Manchester mayoralty. Got exactly vote national polls would predict in Clacton. Faces same questions about evading declaring crypto donation. Binface the real winner - perhaps the real story

Tim Bale@timbale.bsky.social · last wk.

Yes he won and won well, even if Binface's result is amazing. But Farage's decision to stay away because he apparently didn't want to be seen lining up alongside of a bunch of fellow candidates he's reported as dismissing as 'nobodies' doesn't sit too well with his claim to be a man of the people.

Okay Clacton. Let’s go.

My sense is that the Binface phenomenon - fired up by the unusual circumstances of Clacton - has opened forms of anti-political mobilisation other than abstention, angry populism and contentless insignificant joke candidates.

Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · last wk.

“… Binface becomes more than a satirical candidate (..) uses humour, symbolism and theatrical gimmicks to transform political satire into a form of democratic communication” I agree - and wonder where, after gaining thousands of real (protest) votes, it all goes next www.ntu.ac.uk/about-us/new...

“… Binface becomes more than a satirical candidate (..) uses humour, symbolism and theatrical gimmicks to transform political satire into a form of democratic communication” I agree - and wonder where, after gaining thousands of real (protest) votes, it all goes next www.ntu.ac.uk/about-us/new...

What Count Binface tells us about political memes

Dr Tine Munk explores how Count Binface's Clacton campaign reveals the rise of defensive memetic warfare and its influence on political communication..

ntu.ac.uk

Bohužel ani jeden český novinář, zdá se, neudělal rozhovor s Hrabětem Odpadkáčem – a to v zemi Haška a Járy Cimrmana.

Count Binface@countbinface.bsky.social · last wk.

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the world's press: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEsa...

A US tech oligarch and a Russian fascist, both preaching about the Antichrist and the end of history. What Peter Thiel and Alexander Dugin share is stranger than what divides them. shekhovtsov.substack.com/p/antichrist...

Antichrists and Empires

Peter Thiel, Alexander Dugin, and the theology of illiberal power

shekhovtsov.substack.com

Commenting today: “Two of these people around Farage were in and out of the Russian Embassy discussing Gold and Diamond deals. The third has been sentenced to over 10 years in prison for taking Kremlin Gold. What did Nigel know?” ✍️ @peterjukes.bsky.social

‘Thick as Thieves’: Nathan Gill and Nigel Farage’s Putin Problem

Far from being distant from the Reform UK Leader, insiders told Byline Times that the former MEP convicted of bribery was one of Farage’s closest aides, while we reveal how Gill worked on the Kremlin’s strategic plan to crush Ukrainian independence with ‘Moscow’s Man in Ukraine’

bylinetimes.com

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the world's press: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEsa...

Count Binface meets the world's press

YouTube video by Count Binface

youtube.com

This doesn’t quite square with the awesome power and might of the US he and Pete Hegseth boast of…

The New York Times@nytimes.com · last wk.

President Trump boarded Air Force One on July 8 as a ruse. He waved to the cameras and disappeared inside. Then he secretly exited the aircraft, hidden inside a catering container. It was an extraordinary subterfuge, aimed at protecting a president who has been in Iran’s cross hairs for years.

Behind closed doors, Tisza ditched high‑profile names before settling on Baka, the quiet jurist whose earlier ousting became a European human-rights scandal.

Ousted by Orbán, back with a vengeance: Hungary’s president András Baka to restore rule of law

Behind closed doors, Tisza ditched high‑profile names before settling on Baka, the quiet jurist whose earlier ousting became a European human-rights scandal.

euobserver.com

Cuts a part of move which will leave the BBC without any decent coverage of Central & SE Europe. As with axing of excellent BBC Ukrainecast podcast, you do wonder if there is an agenda here Outsized coverage of US incl obscure MidWest primaries to continue as usual www.nuj.org.uk/resource/cut...

Cutting foreign correspondents risks BBC’s global reputation, says NUJ

The NUJ is calling on the BBC to reconsider its decision to cut dedicated foreign stringers (correspondents).

nuj.org.uk

Seán Hanley @drseanhanley.bsky.social · last wk.

BBC is foolishly dispensing with services of its excellent Prague/ CE Rob Cameron as false economy measure. Expect to be more in the dark abt the country than you were. Politically motivated cuts by Czech govt curtailing Eng lang output of CZ public media robjcameron.substack.com/p/goodbye-to...

BBC is foolishly dispensing with services of its excellent Prague/ CE Rob Cameron as false economy measure. Expect to be more in the dark abt the country than you were. Politically motivated cuts by Czech govt curtailing Eng lang output of CZ public media robjcameron.substack.com/p/goodbye-to...

Goodbye to all that

A 22-year relationship with BBC News ends today. Emotions are mixed.

robjcameron.substack.com

Yup. I picked half a kilo and made crumble as a break from trying to make sense of Bulgarian politics. Recommend it.

Rebecca Taylor@beccaet.bsky.social · 2w ago

Normally this time of year I can easily pick 1kg of big ripe juicy #blackberries from our communal gardens. This haul took me over 10 minutes. The few ripe berries were small. Just enough for 8yo's porridge. Won't be making blackberry ice cream 😢 #ClimateCrisis #Heatwave #Drought

What exactly is the problem with local news? A look at how the steep decline in genuine local journalism came about and how you could help the sector revive | Rebecca Maer

What exactly is the problem with local news?

A look at how the steep decline in genuine local journalism came about and how you could help the sector revive

sussexbylines.co.uk

There's no way this ends well. And one way it may end is for the BSW to allow the AfD to take power for the first time in a German state.

Le retour de Baka : le nouveau président hongrois pour la transition post-Orbán

Le retour de Baka : le nouveau président hongrois pour la transition post-Orbán | Euractiv FR

András Baka devrait devenir le prochain président de la Hongrie, aidant ainsi le Premier ministre Péter Magyar à tourner la page sur des années d'autocratie sous Viktor Orbán

euractiv.com

'Transcribe Bentham began in 2010, and another 20,000 or so manuscript pages require transcription. We’d like to invite your readers to help us complete the project and to explore the writings and correspondence of a figure of enormous historical importance.' #Skystorians

Join the crowd digitising Jeremy Bentham | Letter

Letter: Dr Tim Causer invites readers to help complete a transcription project and to explore the writings and correspondence of the philosopher and reformer Jeremy Bentham

theguardian.com

Binface sites have unleashed a torrent of anti-Farage memes, some with little to do with the intergalactic space warrior. Here one with anti-Putin theme. I guess this is all about mobilising the base and creating micro-publics. I wonder if the Binface subcultures will endure in some form.

Anyone interested in the emergence new centre parties and/Irish politics may be interested in this summer podcast on the rise and fall of Ireland’s (neo-)liberal Progressive Democrats. @timhaughton.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/i...

Vote Binface!

In Clacton right now. (Real, not AI!) #VoteBinface

I hope I won’t find myself in the salt mines of Sigma 9 for saying this, but wrong comparison here -Martin Bell was a straight-up traditional independent. Worthy but not funny. Check out campaign of namesake Icelandic comedian Jon Gnarr who beat trad parties to become mayor of Reykjavik in 2010⚡️⚡️

Count Binface@countbinface.bsky.social · 3w ago

Can electoral lightning strike twice? #VoteBinface #Clacton

There now follows a party election broadcast by the Count Binface Party, And if I do say so myself, it's a banger. #VoteBinface #Clacton