Crazy move to dump “Brunel’s SS Great Britain” for sanitised and bland “Bristol Docklands” Erasing Colston’s name from our street scene was right but ditching Brunel, one of our country’s greatest historical figures, is utterly stupid and unwarranted. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn4r…

As defence companies set up at the new drone centre on the outskirts of Swindon, the two defence ministers meant to be there to celebrate the launch have quit and the media are no longer invited. Starmer was due to use it as a backdrop to his funding package.

The limits of a UK political system that has refused for ten years to make hard decisions are reached. There are no easy answers. There is no magic money / growth tree. Leaders are going to have to make choices. And justify them.

Japan lobbied Brussels diligently for its car industry, the UK arrogantly for its, the UK won no friends in doing so, but at the end of the day probably nothing lost except another opportunity to learn.

This even as they temporarily pause restrictions on Chinese chipmaker Yangzhou Yangjie Electronics, which was sanctioned in the last round, so that it can fulfil existing orders to European car companies.

Gert lush!!👍

#US #EU #Tariffs: U.S. Trade Representative proposes 10% additional duty on EU and other trading partners through section 301 investigation relating to failures to take action on trade in forced labour goods. ustr.gov/about/policy-office…

European commissioners are annoyed that their Strasbourg trips involve a pit stop to recharge their electric vehicles. It has become a growing source of irritation for some of Ursula von der Leyen’s top team, officials told POLITICO. politico.eu/article/european…

France signals volte-face on ‘Made in Europe’ subsidies for UK car industry via @FT ft.com/content/475122ec-5923…

Colleagues were caught up in this. Scary stuff.

That depressing feeling that the UK and perhaps much of the rest of Europe may become stuck in a Peronist downward spiral of failing to come to terms with a changing world. Because it is so much easier to promise past glories than future unknowns.

Keir Starmer has told friends he intends to stand down as Prime Minister and set out an orderly timetable for his departure > Mail Plus > dailymail.com/news/article-1…

There is a scene in @HBO's Chernobyl that most viewers miss. A scientist presents evidence of the disaster to a Belarusian party official. The official dismisses her expertise, then boasts that he used to run a shoe factory. It is not central to the plot, but it explains everything. The Soviet Union was governed by a snowball of incompetence - decades of nepotism where ministries were handed to people with no relevant knowledge, provided they had the right party connections. Pedigree was political, not professional. I grew up there. My parents were subject matter experts who spent their careers battling apparatchiks enforcing decisions they did not understand. That is why I flinch when I hear the same logic here in Britain. @UKLabour politicians celebrate the "right background" - the poorer, the more deprived, the better. Council house to government, presented as triumph. Progress and resilience deserve recognition. But in these jubilations, merit vanishes. And celebrating ascent without competence is not progress. It is the embryo of disaster. Look at the Labour Party's front bench. Britain's central challenge is wealth creation - economic growth. Yet these are former charity workers, public sector lifers, people who have always been on the receiving end of funds rather than generating them. They have never had to create value others willingly pay for. So they look to regulators for growth ideas. It is farcical. It is only possible in a culture where navigating party structures replaces proven ability. A friend told me recently his wife had to close her coffee shop - high traffic, real revenue, still unprofitable due to taxes and business rates. In his frustration he said something raw: he no longer cares if folks running the government are toolmakers' sons or landed gentry. He wants competence. He found himself saying he would rather be ruled by Old Etonians. Not because Eton College guarantees talent. It does not. But sheer competence - knowing your subject - has become so scarce in British governance that the impulse is understandable. We are not the Soviet Union. We are nowhere near collapse. But on the left of our politics, the distance is shrinking faster than we admit.

Despite evidence of localised cult practices in northwestern England, historians doubt the existence of a historical Andy Burnham, instead viewing him as a mythical saviour figure appealed to only in times of great trial and desperation

1/2 Trump’s plan to impose 25% tariffs on EU cars is unacceptable. EP is still honouring the Scotland deal, working to finalise legislation. While the EU delivers, the US side keeps breaking its commitments.

Yes, Britain recorded the first European landing on the Falklands in 1690 (Captain John Strong) and formally claimed them in 1765—decades before Argentina existed (1816). The islands were uninhabited with no prior sovereign claim. Britain has maintained its position and exercised continuous control since 1833, while the current islanders overwhelmingly choose to remain British.

The entire TISZA community, along with millions of Hungarians who support us, is awaiting the close of polls this evening with optimism, confidence and calm. The turnout figures during the day clearly show what we have known all along. Today is a historic moment that will go down in Hungary’s history books. Claims that anyone is preparing violent actions or planning to occupy buildings after the polls close are the usual scaremongering and lies from Fidesz. Such attempts to sow division are likely coming from Russian advisers present in the country. This kind of fake news is nothing more than the usual weak and desperate fearmongering and disinformation from Fidesz.

sick of these catholic converts showing up and saying "well I have a different interpretation of the scripture" no you don't. that's protestantism and a heresy. don't like it there's the (incredibly beautiful and heavily ornamented with precious metals) door

Trump leaving the umbrella for someone else to close, because he can’t do it himself, is a perfect illustration of what he did with Iran.

Trump has just lost a war to Iran. I would liken it to the Suez débâcle except that, at Suez, Britain successfully swept Egyptian resistance aside. We were defeated by Eisenhower’s hostility, not Nasser’s tanks. This time, the US just flat out lost - and the world is vastly worse off for it.