'Sir Keir said the question of "how accusations of racism informed decision making" must be addressed.' Perhaps he might want to also reflect on how calling all instances of public disquiet "far-right" might have been a factor?: bbc.com/news/articles/cq8pn9…

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater on Radio 4 this morning bemoaning the polarisation in Britain and arguing that the "forces" trying to "divide us" need to be "challenged more". I'd pay a bit more attention if she had spoken out a bit more forcefully against the extremist forces in her own constituency who hounded the Batley schoolteacher and sent him into hiding. Instead, she released a statement (a year later) which included the line: "The reason I am not discussing this matter publicly is that I have specifically been asked not to by the family involved." How brave.

"Am I not a Man? And a Brother?" 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 The most famous image of the fight against slavery was made in a Staffordshire pottery. Josiah Wedgwood was the most famous potter in England. Born in Burslem in 1730, he turned pottery into an industry: division of labour, costed processes, and a heat gauge for his kilns so good the Royal Society made him a Fellow in 1783. Then he used all of it for something that mattered. In 1787 he joined the new Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and commissioned a small jasperware medallion: a kneeling African man in chains, hands raised, and 5 words around the rim. "Am I not a man and a brother?" He paid for them himself. He never sold one. He gave away thousands, and shipped a batch across the Atlantic to Benjamin Franklin. People wore them as brooches, hairpins, and snuff boxes. To wear it was to say, without a word, where you stood. It became the badge of the whole movement. Arguably the first political logo in history. And every ribbon, wristband and awareness pin since traces back to a potter in Staffordshire who decided to use his kiln for something more than dinner plates. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ He could have stuck to selling china to the rich. He chose to hand a movement its face instead. This is the revival of British culture. Be part of it. 👉 proudofus.co.uk/support 👈 Be part of us. ☝️🇬🇧 Be Proud Of Us. 🙏🇬🇧

Two global powerhouses? Oh please, I see only ONE. Singapore is what competent governance actually looks like. It's pro-growth and has strong rule of law. They CANE vandals, graffiti scumbags, and anyone who thinks they can trash a world-class city. Imagine that? The streets are clean and safe for families. Merit and results are favored over feelings and cheap sloganeering. You? You took one of the greatest cities in human history and ran it straight into decay and decline. Knife crime has exploded on your watch, phone snatchings have soared, and the rate of robberies and violent crime with injury are way up. Young Londoners are so terrified to walk certain streets that many have moved to safer towns in the countryside. The streets are filthier, the tube is far more unreliable and chaotic, and businesses and talent are fleeing London. Your woke policies are the EXACT OPPOSITE of Singapore's and the results are clear. And don't get me started on how you've poisoned race relations. London is now a seething cauldron of division and resentment. While Singapore builds unity through shared standards, forced integration, and zero-tolerance enforcement, you've peddled woke grievance politics that pit communities against each other. You've obsessed over "structural racism" and "anti-Blackness," pushing narratives that scream institutional guilt at every turn, all the while anti-white sentiment and antisemitism have surged to horrifying levels on your watch. Jewish Londoners living in fear, synagogues needing extra security, streets filled with chants that call for their destruction. You downplay it, equivocate, and let the marches roll on with kid gloves. Two-tier policing has gone off the charts with police being harsh on some protests, soft on others depending on the identity or cause. Native Londoners and white working-class communities feel abandoned and demonized, while certain groups get a free pass. Your own office even put out garbage claiming a White family "doesn't represent real Londoners." You've fanned the flames of resentment instead of demanding assimilation, excellence, and color-blind law and order. So sorry, but London *was* a powerhouse, but that was before your tenure. It's not anymore. In 1946, a young Lee Kuan Yew stepped off the boat into a battered London still licking its wounds from war. Amid the mess, he witnessed something miraculous - an unsupervised newspaper stall at Piccadilly Circus. People stopped, dropped their coins, took their paper, and walked on. There was no attendant, no fear of theft. “This,” he thought, “is civilisation. A high-trust society where men police themselves.” He carried that vision home. In the 1960s, as Singapore stumbled out of colonial rule - poor, swampy, fractious - Lee vowed to forge his city state into that London he saw first hand. Over time, Lee transformed Singapore into an orderly, courteous, disciplined, garden of trust rising from a chaotic swamp. Now the tables have turned as London, once the beacon, slides into low-trust decay. It's only accelerated under your leadership. It went from high-trust to low-trust to now, negative trust. There's actually a huge trust deficit now. The former colony has now surpassed its former colonial master as the latter forgot how to govern. Singapore actually has the playbook. Since you're there, you might as well learn from the best.

They don’t really care. They just count the short-term bottom line. A once great British brand continues its decline.

Everyone has been so impressed by Japanese fans cleaning up after themselves but most probably missed this beautiful moment at the post-game (🇳🇱2 - 2🇯🇵) press conference. Toward the end after reporters were done asking questions, 🇯🇵head coach, Hajime Moriyasu, asked to speak one more time. 🗣️ “May I speak?” He turned to the Dutch reporters in the room. 🗣️ “I think there are many Dutch reporters here as well, so I’d like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the people of the Netherlands once again.” Moriyasu explained that when he became part of the Japan national team, Japanese football still had no professional league. 🗣️ “I was trained by a Dutch coach named Hans Ooft. It wasn’t just me. Japanese coaches in general were greatly influenced by him, which has led to the development of Japanese soccer today.” He also mentioned another Dutch figure who shaped his career. 🗣️ “The legendary Dutch coach Wim Jansen served as the manager for J.League’s Sanfrecce Hiroshima and also as a coach for Urawa Reds, contributing to Japanese soccer.” 🗣️ “It’s not just those two. Many other coaches and players have contributed to raising the level of Japanese soccer, so I want to express my thanks. Thank you very much.” What a masterclass in graciousness and gratitude. Imagine after a high-stakes match, instead of basking in glory and bravado (well-deserved in my opinion), the coach took to the microphone to... thank his opponents publicly and sincerely. Japan's cultural operating system prizes harmony (wa), respect for precedent, and gratitude as a form of strength, not weakness. Japanese sports culture reflects its broader society where you'll see athletes bow to their opponents, thanking referees, and even crediting rivals or mentors. Think of sumo wrestlers, Olympic athletes, or even bullet-train staff apologizing for a 30-second delay. The Japanese have this concept of On (恩) - it is the sense of indebtedness to those who came before or helped you. It's what you'd expect from a culture that truly prizes continuity. Moriyasu was acknowledging a real debt to Dutch coaches like Hans Ooft (who coached Japan in the early 90s and helped professionalize the game) and Wim Jansen. Japanese football openly credits foreign influences - Dutch "Total Football" philosophy, German organization, Brazilian flair - while building something distinctly their own. Few nations do this with such little ego. Japan is pure class

You need a total ban on smartphones and internet enabled devices for U16s. Nothing else will work...

The political activism of David Hockney.

BBC News had a good run, inoculated from market forces and producing news - increasingly aimed, not at customers - but newsroom peers and awards judges. In recent years, most notably its coverage of the 2015 migrant crisis, Brexit, Trump and Israel, BBC News showed itself to be institutionally incapable of balance. It doesn’t deserve to be decimated. It deserves to be shut down.

I have 7 kids at home. They get a dumb phone when they get to an age when we need to pick them up from their extra curricular activities. As they get older they get a regular phone, but have restrictions and they are monitored, as is their access to computers. They do not get an email till they are 13. Their school has a no social media policy that parents sign on to. They are not allowed x, insta, snap or facebook till they are 18. No government supervision required. Just good old parenting.

Just left the @mcrjewishmuseum. I was the only visitor. A lovely volunteer gave me a private tour, and halfway through I turned to her and said: “This is all happening again. The same tactics. The same words. The exact same hatred.” And it is. We forget how recent it all was. Yet today Jews still integrate, build businesses, enrich this country - M&S, the raincoat, Slazenger… the list goes on. They have every right to be here. I’m not Jewish. None of my family are. But I will NOT stay silent while Jew hatred explodes in the UK. To the Islamists (not Muslims but extremists) and the middle-class white lefties cheering Hamas: you can simply do one. I’ve spoken to @antisemitism, Jewish students, and so many others in and around London. This vile poison must not win. Antisemitism is NOT British 🇬🇧. It goes against everything we stand for. ‼️Non-Jews: stop whispering support to your Jewish friends or local businesses. Be loud. Post it. Say it in your groups. Stop treating Jew hatred as some taboo because of the Middle East. Antisemitism existed for centuries before any of this. Antizionism isn’t “just criticism” - when they chant “put the Zios in the ground” and polls show 70-85% of British Jews identify as Zionist, who do you think that means? “End the Zionist occupation of the British government” - swap “Zionist” for “Jewish”. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? If it was Black people facing this - places of worship attacked, ambulances set on fire, students hounded - we’d never hear the end of it. But Jews? Too many stay quiet. Look at Iran. Persecution never stops at the Jews. Next it’s Christians, churches, gay people, women. History is screaming at us. The “antizionist Jewish” voices in London? When the next mob comes, they won’t ask if you’re Zionist. You’re Jewish. That’s enough. Hitler didn’t check political views either. I’m a Zionist. I believe the Jewish people have the right to a homeland. Being Zionist doesn’t mean I defend every action of the Israeli government - it’s complicated. But the deliberate “genocide” language is weaponised for a reason. And so, I’ll keep speaking up. Loudly. Working with groups fighting this. If it was this level of hate against Black people, Hindus, anyone - I’d do the same. I’ve always stood up to bullies. Non-Jews especially - Do Not let this become normal. #StandWithJews #NoToAntisemitism #ManchesterJewishMuseum #BritishValues @StopTheHate_UK

Terrible scenes here as the majestic Kyiv Pechersk Lavra- the Monastery of the Caves - burns, deliberately struck by missiles sent by Russia under Putin who presents himself as the leader of a Christian Civilisation and Russian World. The attack is a sign of desperation - a nihilistic attempt to destroy Ukraine's own history culture and religion, the ugly rage that if Russia cannot have it then nor can Ukraine. The Caves are older than Russia, much older since Russia was in part invented by Peter the Great but even a century older than the earliest foundation of Moscow as a minor fortress. Indeed it is not just ironic but revealing that the founder of Moscow itself, the Rurikid Prince Yuri I Vladimirovich known as Yuri the Long-Armed, Dolgorukiy, is buried there. Founded when Russia did not exist, when Moscow was a forest, it was initially ruled by the fissiparous Rurikid princes of Kievan Rus and built by priests from Mount Athos around the 1050s. It was sacked several times by Mongol invaders and the Mongol rulers of Russia the Genghizid khans of the Golden Horde - echoes of today - and later ruled by a succession of realms including the huge Grand Duchy of Lithuania.... And then swallwed into the Principality of Muscovy by Peter the Great's father Alexei. In 1787, when Catherine the Great progressed down towards the newly conquered Crimea, she rendez-voused with her co-ruler Prince Potemkin in Kyiv. He was half sybarite half coenobite and while he was waiting for her, he moved into the Caves and lived there for months, holding court for ambassadors and adventuresses - in between spasms of prayer and scourging. Putin identifies with Catherine and Potemkin who conquered Crimea and south Ukraine and he stole the body of Potemkin during this war. But Potemkin loved the Lavra... As the Red Army retreated in 1941, the Soviets blew up parts of the Lavra and it was rebuilt after the war.... Now its destruction is heartbreaking - it semaphores the barbarism and bankruptcy and nihilism of the Russian war - it may just mark a new low in a bloodcurdled spiral of brutality that is this unnecessary imperial conflict but one can only hope that the vandal madness of this attack marks another stage in the road to the realization that Putin's war has failed .... thetimes.com/world/russia-uk…

Britain can fix its energy supply within four years. Energy Abundance proposes 40 gigawatts of new gas and 20 gigawatts of new coal, fast, reliable power that works whatever the weather. Siemens built the equivalent for Egypt in under three years. We know it can be done. Once those stations are running, the rationing charges on your bill get scrapped entirely, prices come down, the lights come on and Britain gets back to work. 🇬🇧

Don’t make me laugh. Your party has stirred and baited racial tensions more than any other. Decades of goading and incitement, sloshing paraffin about with one hand and flicking a lighter in the other. I’d wind my neck in if I was you.

Its because 'Sophie' is a working class girl child that politicians & journalists were quick to publish & opinine about 'racist, feral, neds' living on council estates - its very clear & its deeply held class prejudice & bigotry. Iain might have written something eloquent here but never does he & all the others that did this reflect on their bigotry towards working class people.

It beggars belief that we’re back here again despite all the evidence. If we care about vulnerable people and if we care about being evidence led, we will reject this outright at 2nd reading, put an end to this nonsense and fix palliative care instead.

Absurd, but not unique. A quick skip through history books will highlight the fact that once govt reaches the "let them eat cake" stage, it historically doesn't go quite well for them.

British Jews in Edgeware, London today, joyfully dancing next to the hateful crowds who came to protest at a synagogue. We will always love being Jewish 100x more than anyone could hate us for it. Video Credit: Heidi Bachram

Why is Sir Keir Starmer’s Government set to ban under-16s from accessing 10 major social media platforms — including X — but not left-wing platforms like Bluesky? Since coming to power, this Government has been openly hostile to X, a forum for debate that prides itself on free speech. Ministers have even floated the idea of blocking UK citizens’ access to the platform altogether. Starmer can no longer pretend this is solely about protecting children.

They've tried banning going outside, the internet, noticing, jokes, self-defence, staying alive if you're very old or very young or having any money. Next up, thinking, breathing, eating, children, friends, pets, love, trees, birds, sunlight, God.

If they try and push through the Assusted Dying Bill we need a GE immediately because pushing through something extremely unsafe & expensive without the public voting for it is wrong. Something this big that changes the relationship between the State & individual needs a public vote. Starmer wont get away with this