richard-d.bsky.social

More to come on this, but those Labour MPs opposing talking about freedom of movement need to be aware that they are also condemning UK manufacturing to more barriers and probably further decline. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

The 'vote' was to leave the EU. It wasn't a vote for the idiotic 'deal' that BoJo and his cronies came up with. Arguably, if people had known what they were getting, they'd have voted Remain. Hence, there's no reason not to reopen negotiations with EU.

"Viktor Orbán, U.N. Secretary-General? Trump officials push the idea of a U.S.-Russia-China joint candidate." Yes, you read that right. www.wsj.com/opinion/vikt...

UK offering Freedom of Movement would be the game changer for conversations with the EU, one of the trio of people, pounds and positivity I identified earlier this year as crucial to any significant move to removing barriers.

😂

It's a joke that the third actor of the 'new Yalta' is Russia. It's a collapsing economy and smaller country than USSR in WW2. It's becoming another North Korea.

In parts of Merseyside, migrant care workers are being routinely racially abused and attacked by primary school-aged children Sickening in so many ways

Some raw material produced by Irish refinery ‘undoubtedly’ supplying Russian military, EU’s sanctions envoy says

Bob Mortimer as press secretary would be incredible

In many ways, govt already accepted defeat to our enemies, as the BBC warned last yr: "Two years ago, the BBC closed its Arabic radio service in favour of its digital-based service... That same year Russia's Sputnik started a 24-hour service in Lebanon, occupying the airwave vacated by BBC Arabic."

The banks say they’re overtaxed. The TUC says they’re undertaxed. We did the sums across nine countries, and we're going to annoy *everyone*. The UK isn’t a high-tax outlier. There *is* a case for increasing bank tax. But it comes with risks - and could hit households. 🧵:

Vance doing stand up now.

Governments offer successive exemptions and specific reductions rather than overall reform. Even 'abolishing the triple lock' doesn't end with something simple like - say -indexing the BSP to earnings. See also 'mansion tax'. Combination of 'things for Chancellor to announce' and HMT 'cleverness'.

Who is that on the side of Truss?

You can't make this stuff up. Cretinous naivety. Or maybe just sucking up to his pro-Putin boss. Come on American, get these clowns thrown out in November.

Chichester, for goodness sake....!

It turns out that spending your life mired in hate & grievance grinds you down and turns you into a victim. Good Morning.

What the hell? This is shocking. www.theargus.co.uk/news/2665180...

Trump laments that Russia's generals were too incompetent to end Putin's war of aggression against Ukraine on the first day

Q: If there is a problem with Ilhan Omar's age, could she be deported? TRUMP: She could be. She could also go to jail. I think she's a sick, very dishonest person who hates our country. She comes from a country that is essentially not even a country. Somalia. It's a real shit house.

Invasion, mass murder, rape, kidnapping of children - all fine

Shocked to learn, after all these years and thanks to expensive KCs, that care homes were not ring-fenced during the COVID epidemic.

Some people don't permit replies. Kennan's views oscillated from decade to decade. He was not an academic. He didn't win a peace prize.

So many people 'solve' housing problems quickly. It's a wonder we haven't done it. I'll offer two! 1) incentives to invest in housing increased v other assets raising prices 2) building costs rocketed + Brexit eliminating east European building workers.

⚡️️What Russia's doing to Ukraine is 'fine,' Trump says. "Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine. They haven't been doing much," Trump said, hours after a Russian drone strike in a public park killed six people, including two children.

That people don't understand this constantly astonishes.

Ex-BBC Director-General, last year. The key words are, 'Win over' & 'adapted'. No news service has to 'win over' viewers. They must report accurate & unbias news. The most sinister word is 'adapted'. Twisting news & introducing bias to support their plan. It's a scandal that they even consider it.

Social media #BBC correspondent obsessed with conspiracy theorists goes on a social media outlet that's full of conspiracy theorists and discovers it's full of conspiracy theorists. Goes on another outlet that's not full of conspiracy theorists and says it's boring.

Iran has hit Gulf infrastructure dozens of times in precision strikes, blunting the US war effort. Gulf governments have often hidden the extent of the damage. reut.rs/4yhRH5L

Love the Trump 'support' for Paxton.

Image on right, which is over 8 years old, is still gobsmackingly unbelievable! And students also number of years ago chanting "Make America White Again" 🤦‍♂️ It's lost country while orange manbaby & his rancid party are in charge!

Self-awareness is very dead in this town.

“Zelenskyy could’ve stopped this war many times, and he chose not to … he better damn well stop” — Trump is no longer trying to conceal that he’s fully on Putin’s side

This is completely outrageous and disgusting. This must immediately be blocked by Congress and Trump should be impeached for this. The US is now funding Putin’s war machine as he murders civilians including children. We are lost as a country.

The Bjg Time Chatlie account seeking to identify & incite vs RNLI staff as traitors was run by a recruitment consultant in Worcestershire who is a Restore donor & Cromwell Club member. He hss now deactivated the anon troll account after being publicly identifird www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

That’s the plan.

Never forget the 14 years of psychological warfare wreaked upon us by the Tories. They Broke everything, took all the money salted the earth & left! No ta.

The Jeffrey Archer obituary in @thetimes.com is an absolute classic. Funnier and better written than one of Archer's novels (admittedly not a high bar).

For those too young to remember why Archer ended up in jail www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/apr/...

"A gut punch in Ohio: Nearly 1,400 laid off at truck factory just days before Trump rally." This factory is the community's economic cornerstone, and its wages helped sustain everything from hair salons and coffee shops to local auto repair shops. 💔 apnews.com/article/trum...

UK trade policy failed in large part under the guidance of those quoted in this article, and worse still none of them appeared to learn anything from it, so really not a strong counter to movement towards the EU. www.politico.eu/article/tori...

Trump now blaming diesel price hikes on Ukraine, not his own stupidity in Gulf. Hence (even more) pro-Russia behaviour.

Let's hope Ed Davey, who (correctly) priorities social care, doesn't join the 'save the triple lock' brigade. LDs were tempted by the silly WASPI campaign.

By the same 'logic', we should cut council tax because we tax housing more than most OECD countries.

Russians struck Ukraine's National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv. People escaped via windows as the building caught fire. Half is destroyed, with potential casualties trapped under rubble. Emergency responders are on the scene.

Breaking: Trump administration considers building baseball park in Grand Teton National Park, to be renamed Grand Slam Park in Trump’s America.

So now we're publicising judges whose decisions we disagree with?