🧵1/ I worked in anti-corruption for years before becoming an MP. Nigel Farage has serious questions to answer following the undercover investigation into Reform UK's fundraising practices. This is now for the police and donations watchdog to resolve, but here is what I want to know:

Reform officials ‘plotted to break law on foreign donations’ in undercover film

Investigation broadcast by Channel 4 News shows man posing as ‘impermissible donor’ paying for polling that helped Reform

theguardian.com

I'm absolutely devastated for colleagues at Jodrell Bank who found out this morning that funding for the UK's e-MERLIN radio telescope array will be terminated. This is a short-sighted move, to save a tiny fraction of the overall UK science budget. #SaveJodrellBank 🔭🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Jodrell Bank's Lovell telescope faces axe in science cuts, BBC understands

Astronomers warn it would tear the heart out of UK science, and leave a generation untrained.

bbc.co.uk

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 3mo ago

“What will the Lovell Telescope discover/enable 20 yrs from now? I can’t tell you, and that’s the point. It will either be something extraordinary that none of us can yet predict, or we will defund it and leave Cheshire with a rusting monument to unfulfilled potential and discoveries never made.” 🔭🧪

🧵On @thenewsagents.co.uk yesterday, school closures and the lab leak theory were offered as two examples of legitimate questions that were hard to ask. Both have in fact been asked constantly since 2020. But here's a thread on why I think they were wrong and dangerous on school closures 1/12

Nothing says 'man of the people' quite like a politician calling a by-election at public expense on the issue of whether or not he should have the right to secretly take donations from Thai-based crypto billionaires and a convicted fraudster

Last year, Govt won a £122m judgment against Douglas Barrowman and Michelle Mone's company PPE Medpro, for supplying defective PPE The company had been emptied of cash and collapsed Now its liquidators are suing Barrowman, Mone and associated companies personally Short 🧵

So: £98k of corporation tax is due. Plus about £27k of interest This was a really basic mistake. Everyone in REIT world knows that REIT distributions are taxed - it's not some point only the tax nerds know That means HMRC are likely to assess penalties for carelessness

Our new report: Richard Tice signed accounts wrongly claiming £98,000 of tax exemptions A 🧵 with the evidence:

A tax barrister sued me personally for £8m for libel after we linked him to a tax avoidance scheme. Today the High Court struck out the claim, granted summary judgment, and ruled it was a SLAPP. The judgment is highly critical.

This IPSO adjudication against the Telegraph is quite something Confirms their story titled: ‘We earn £345k, but soaring private school fees mean we can’t go on five holidays’ was completely fabricated, with the family involved non-existent and stock pictures used www.ipso.co.uk/rulings/0210...

Poor Matt Goodwin. All he ever wanted was to be a hard working MP/academic/tv presenter/commentator/writer/pollster/wealth adviser/women’s health guru and you all ripped that away from him. A shame

On a Plan 2 Student loan? Why freezing the repayment threshold from 2027 to 2030 is, in my view, a breach of natural justice. A brief audio explainer

Martin Lewis: Freezing the Plan 2 student loan repayment threshold is a breach of natural justice

YouTube video by Martin Lewis

youtu.be

Just thought I'd post this:

And this:

Tbf it's not as if he's ever tried to pretend to have any shame or dignity.

Pippa Crerar@pippacrerar.bsky.social · 9mo ago

❤️‍🔥Tory sources confirm that Nadhim Zahawi made approaches to senior members of Kemi Badenoch's team about getting a peerage just weeks before defecting to Reform UK - but was turned down.

The Chancellor has scrapped the two-child limit, benefitting more than half a million families. In April 2025, out of families impacted by the limit: - 6 in 10 had 3 children. - 6 in 10 had at least one person in work. - And 6 in 10 are receiving a health or disability benefit.

Tobias Ellwood. That is all.

Well, this is pretty terrifying. The Daily Mail is buying the Telegraph. One massive consolidated right-wing media empire controlled by off-shore interests at a critical moment in global politics. What could go wrong? www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...

Daily Mail owner strikes £500m deal to buy Telegraph titles

Acquisition likely to trigger in-depth investigation by regulator after agreement between DMGT and Redbird IMI

theguardian.com

NEW: If you have *any* interest in the Nathan Gill story, you need to look at this. We’ve put all the dates into a timeline & it’s incredibly revealing. 1/ www.thenerve.news/p/nathan-gil...

Reform UK and Russian bribes: a Nathan Gill timeline

As Reform’s former leader in Wales is sentenced to ten and a half years for taking bribes from a pro-Russian actor, here's a chronology of his actions and the wider context of Putin, Ukraine and Brexi...

thenerve.news

See this thread here for a compilation of our reporting & why it matters. We are still seeing the press & politicians minimising the importance of this case even while a police investigation is ongoing & there are so many qs outstanding. bsky.app/profile/then...

THE NERVE@thenerve.news · 11mo ago

NEW There's no overstating how significant the Nathan Gill case is. On Friday, the close associate of Nigel Farage was jailed for over 10 years for taking bribes ultimately from a friend of Putin. It's a complex, detail-heavy story that raises questions about Farage’s claim Gill was ‘one bad apple’🧵

In case you missed it: our investigation into how Sky Bet relocated to Malta to avoid £55m of tax/year This kind of thing is often reported as "perfectly proper, and there's no suggestion that any laws were broken". But here it looks improper. Laws may have been broken. 🧵

Human Geography at Leicester is facing closure. Staff contracts are to end in June 2026; students are to be relocated to other universities, or taught out by a maximum of two (!) teaching-only staff. Other departments and subjects are facing closure, too. Please join the demo!

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

FYI: Reform councillor openly calling for the assassination of Keir Starmer.

If you want to show people in your life why doctors say Tylenol DOES NOT cause autism, here are two straight forward explainers: medicalnewsbulletin.com/acetaminophe... medicalnewsbulletin.com/autism-is-no... #AutRes #EduSky 🩺📊 medsky, 🩺,⚕️ #SciPol 🧪

No, Tylenol DOES NOT cause Autism and here's the evidence | Medical News Bulletin

Good news for expectant parents: taking Tylenol/paracetamol during pregnancy does not increase your child’s risk of ADHD or autism.

medicalnewsbulletin.com

As a colleague mentioned yesterday, Gamergate is one of the five most significant developments in US politics since the Cold War

Gary Lineker on winning the National TV Award, "It's not lost on me why I might have won this award" "Aside from presenting Match of the Day.." "Also, I think it demonstrates that perhaps it's ok sometimes to use our platform to speak up on behalf of those who have no voice"

Members of my family were tortured and killed in the Holocaust because countries like Britain said it wasn't their problem. Everyone said never again. And here we are. It's sickening beyond belief.

I'm publishing Mr Hurst's grounds of appeal, and the SRA's response, here: taxpolicy.org.uk/2025/08/05/z...

It is true that by the time Healey comes in and the CoA has ruled the government had to address the basis of their judgment and right to life arguments. That’s clearly what the Rimmer review was for. He deserves credit for finally ending this absurdity.

To be fair to him, he ordered a review, read it & removed the injunction. It was the Tories in power when the leak happened, then they covered it up to try & blag another election, leaving the new govt w/ an even bigger economic black hole & further endangering the Afghans