ajh24.bsky.social

By all accounts this is what most of the recent Reform media events have looked like. Bubble well and truly burst

Big day today for ending centuries of secrecy about who owns our land! A new government consultation will propose revealing who owns the vast majority of England and Wales. To get this over the line, I’ll need your help to send in supportive evidence! www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

All those scandals are starting to stick.

First Orban, now Vučić. Both fundamentally undone by rank corruption of their regimes. Which is so often the reality of the authoritarian right in power. Really worth paying heed to in Western Europe right now

In one day, two politicians - Bolsonaro in Brazil and Vucic in Serbia - with ties to Trump have lost surprise elections thanks to high turnout. The rise of the international far-right is not inevitable.

Victory for Lula, who has already reduced Amazon deforestation by 70% since 2022, means there is now a chance of ending deforestation of the rainforest entirely I’m weeping with joy for Brazil, for the Indigenous peoples of the Amazon, and for life on Earth 🇧🇷🌳🌎 www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

In his acceptance speech, Lula says he will work to regulate digital platforms in Brazil. “Digital crimes must be dealt with like real-life crimes.” This comes after Meta directly interfered with the Brazilian elections, favouring Flávio Bolsonaro.

Brazil and Serbia, defying rise the tide of autocracy. This is how we do it, everywhere. 🌈

Amazing 👏

"Suicidal provocation of Russia while our armed forces are at their most woeful state since WW2". Mate, the Russian army is currently pulling T-55's out of storage and losing ~1,800 men a day in foot and motorcycle assaults that achieve nothing. This is "poke the bear" nonsense.

If patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, then "performative pietism" is surely the panic room inside.

The lessons from Brazil and Serbia? Don't concede one inch of ground to the far right. Don't appease. Don't triangulate. Don't grovel. Don't say they have "legitimate concerns". Mobilise your base, and fight them with all the democratic means at your disposal.

Me: "You've said 'because of the war' maybe 7 times..." Ex-Trump adviser: "Because it spiked prices..." Me: "But you're treating the war like it's a natural disaster... like it fell from the sky. The war was started by your guy, deliberately, a war of choice." Full: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLJV...

"Lula’s Incredible Comeback Shows How Democrats Can Win in 2028" The Brazilian leftist's big win is a blueprint for taking on the far-right, and shows up Democrats in the U.S. who appear ready to botch the next presidential election in two years, writes @alonso-gd.bsky.social for Zeteo:

Bolsonaro's loss is not just a loss for Bolsonaro. It's a loss for Trump. For Musk. For Milei. For Netanyahu. For Farage. For Meta and Zuckerberg. For the meat barons, the fossil fuel corporations, and the rest of the neocolonial looters. And it is a massive win for humanity and the living planet.

This went on for the rest of the full hour, at which point the BBC apologised for having to go to the weather and urged viewers to follow continuing live coverage on iPlayer. Forty-one minutes of unfiltered, unchallenged propaganda by a far right party with 8 MPs, now third in the polls. Discuss.

Beautiful scenes in Serbia tonight where a student-led protest movement has overthrown the corrupt and autocratic Vučić regime. www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

Folk music represents the best culture of Great Britain. It's not "my place is better than your place", it's "I've got a song about a great place I love" and "let's all have a jam down the pub". It transcends our home nation borders and is delightful.

The new Chair of OfCom has rather oddly suggested I should set up a left wing version of GB News. This suggests he doesn’t quite know what his job is. But I have taken him at his word. app.prospectmagazine.co.uk/story/75420/...

Slamming into reverse so fast you can hear the gears crunch

Depressing to hear the BBC propagating the non-story started by the Tories about the possibility of power cuts because of renewables A classic fossil fuel lie being given credibility by our public service broadcaster #BBCR4Today

They smashed the globe. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

🚨 NEW: Nigel Farage's Reform UK has been fined £2,187 by the Electoral Commission after failing to identify itself as the publisher of campaign material distributed to voters.

Having just handed in my book edits for THE GHOSTS OF CHALK COUNTRY, had a lovely afternoon off today seeing the sublime art exhibition ‘Eric Ravilious & the artists of the Chalk Downs’, on now in Bath. Glaucous greens galore. Thanks @casparhenderson.bsky.social for flagging it!

In troubled times Trump’s attempt to sue the BBC ... which is backfiring on him quite spectacularly... brings both hope and amusement newrepublic.com/post/216805/...

When I see articles in the Telegraph etc ranting about solar panels in the countryside, I think of what the era of fossil energy inflicted on communities in Wales and beyond. I know which I would choose. youtu.be/wzQggqG2zcI?...

Proper shocking stuff here

Also, filming on the Dr Who set and seeing the tardis and some weeping angels in a storage area. Seeing the Pobol Y Cym set! Being told Patrick’s Kate Bush story. So grateful to be invited in to it all.

The ECHR is not a "left-wing project" but a "safeguard against arbitrary government" He describes the Tory party now as “a political party that cannot tolerate support for fundamental human rights.” What a disgrace. How are they different from Reform exactly? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

We should do a duel. On Mars. Meet you there at dawn.

The BBC is to close its BBC Three and BBC Scotland television channels in the spring, as the corporation continues to make £500m of savings over two years. #Defend the BBC

Government failures in care settings created an environment that allowed Covid to spread like wildfire, an official inquiry has said.

“Quick! Do some racism, you’re losing the crowd.”

The Covid Inquiry’s Module 6 report is devastating. Its central conclusion: adult social care was treated as “something of an afterthought”, while “protecting the NHS” sometimes came at the expense of people receiving and providing care. 1/10

This is damning. So much could could have been done at the time, with what was known about COVID, and with what what resources we had. It’s hard not to read callous neglect into these findings. And that intentional neglect was layered with lies - like the “protective ring” - which did not exist.

2020: Matt Hancock, "We've tried to throw a protective ring around our care homes" 2026: Baroness Hallett, "The claim that a so called protective ring has be thrown around care homes right from the start was unfounded. The adult social care sector appeared to be something of an after thought"

For did not the Good Lord say, "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, kick them in the nuts, for this is the Law and the Prophets"?

Not to underplay the violence, but I'm in France, and it's been its normal, quiet self. Some trouble nearby, in Avignon. The entire country is not in flames, as some the press would have us think. And to be fair, the French, when they riot, don't do it half cock. Buses must always be burnt.

“Hope is a discipline and despair is a luxury… And the best antidote to despair is repair” A privilege to hear @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social give the first of his Reith Lectures tonight - on the human superiority complex, and how we become interdependent with the rest of nature again

This book rocks! I’ve read a preview copy It tells the story of a bold young lady who bravely embarks on a magical adventure of growing pies & dripping down. Unfortunately she is turned into a lettuce. It’s being called the best fantasy book since Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings.’🤓

There’s a problem with the media coverage around the racism in the Reform Party. Most of the focus seems to be disgust that we have racists in Britain and the effect on the party. What about saying or doing anything about the actual racism itself and its damage to minorities, mainly Muslims?

In this undercover footage, Nigel Farage's righthand man, Dan Jukes, appears to suggest that corruption, with Farage, is "priced in". Like Trump, he uses politics to enrich himself. Don't let anyone claim they were not warned. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Really was the case on broadcast media yesterday too. I was a bit shocked frankly

The apparent eagerness in the media for this to spread elsewhere and especially here is strange and noticeable