Can anyone explain to me what the Blue Labour justification for this is? Who out there will vote Labour because Mahmood prevented a Sudanese Chevening Scholar? And to be honest, why won’t the PM simply overrule her?
FACTS:
Net Zero barely nudges your bill.
Fossil‑fuel wars send it through the roof.
So when Farage and his ilk slags off renewables while fanning conflict, remember who actually hikes your costs.
We are facing an energy crisis. Britain is the worst exposed in Europe with only 2 days gas supply stored. If only we had our own gas to exploit. Or our own oil. Or our own coal.... Blame @Ed Miliband (Allison Pearson on X)
If only we had clean, renewable energy and were not beholden to a dirty, expensive, dangerous commodity that pollutes our environment and is the source of most of our geopolitical woes.
And so we write to brilliant postgraduate students from Sudan, withdrawing the offers and scholarships they won in open competition with the best in the world. A sad day for the University of Oxford.
Your regular reminder that almost everything Trump is getting away with is not because of presidential strength, but because of congressional weakness and judicial deference.
The constitutional tools are already there to fix this, but those who can fix it are refusing to do so.
A close up image of a rust covered corrugated iron shed, over 100 years old and very colourful!
I went to the Cairngorms and came back with a rusty shed photo! Snowy ones will follow, I promise.
#fsprintmonday
#sharemondays2026
#photography #abstractphotography #photographers
Eric Trump and Donald Trump, Jr. are acquiring a drone company that is seeking to meet Pentagon demand after Trump banned the use of Chinese drones.
We’re barely a week into Trump’s war and already his family has found a way to cash in.
Everything is for sale.
Imagine the reaction in the US if ~175 schoolgirls had been killed by a targeted Iranian missile. (Or anyone's missile.)
This is an atrocity.
Cor, sure would feel great right now if we were self-sufficient in renewable energy, and laughing at all the rubes reliant on global oil supplies. We'd have a bit of a swagger in our step today.
It's taken almost ten years to get the whole thing any real investment, but Zohran Mamdani is proposing to spend $25 million on secure bike parking, finally letting the city join backwaters like London and Paris in offering the common sense amenity nyc.streetsblog.org/2026/03/05/l...
Gimme an F
Yes, UK energy policy should focus on the North Sea. For tidal and wave power, that is. We have an immense, endless energy resource right next to us.
Inside the main library at John Rylands in Manchester. A gothic style building with a high vaulted ceiling. There is a beautiful stained glass window, carved stone arched with small reading books. The photo is taken low level in between two long glass display cabinets that run full length in the room. There are several people walking around the library
#Alphabetchallenge #WeekIForInteriors
John Rylands Library in Manchester
Thank @sheena-mck.bsky.social for a brilliant week
“Setting an immigration policy which is fair, rational, and consonant with economic and demographic needs is not 'left-wing'. Operating an efficient and humane asylum process is not 'left-wing'. Making a clear distinction between immigration and asylum policies is not, in itself, 'left-wing'.”
It really is something to see politicians, commentators and media outlets whose whole identity is based on being so-called ‘patriots’ frothing with excitement as they line up to back a deranged megalomaniac who consistently attempts to belittle and bully the country they claim to love
Just fascinating to see Blair, a man whose reputation was ruined by the Iraq war, advocate joining a war that is exponentially stupider and more chaotic. How is it possible to learn nothing from the worst mistake of your life?
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekIforInteriors
#AlphabetTechPhoto #LightAndShadows
The competence issue matters because what is at stake here is not, as many commentators claim and, no doubt, some political activists and voters hope, that Labour need to respond to the by-election defeat with a ‘lurch to the left’. Setting an immigration policy which is fair, rational, and consonant with economic and demographic needs is not, in itself, ‘left-wing’. Operating an efficient and humane asylum process is not, in itself, ‘left-wing’. Making a clear distinction between immigration and asylum policies is not, in itself, ‘left-wing’. To think otherwise is to cede the idea that these are somehow ‘extreme’ propositions and that the policies of virtually zero immigration, mass deportation, and the near-total rejection of asylum seekers advocated by Reform and others are the ‘norm’ or ‘moderate’.
As @chrisgrey.bsky.social says, rejecting Mahmood's plans would not be a "lurch to the left" but simply about restoring a basic level of (economic, political and administrative) competence.
chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2026/03/real...
In my work as Mayor of London and in my life, I’m surrounded by women who make our city and our world better every day.
To the women leading, creating, caring and keeping our city thriving: thank you.
Happy International Women’s Day.
Multiple news outlets are reporting a US attack on an Iranian #desalination plant.
If verified, this violates international law protecting #water systems during wars, and it sets a dangerous precedent, given intense dependence of Gulf countries on desalination.
timesofoman.com/article/1691...
Exactly. And Trump can’t cope with Starmer’s probity because it makes it harder to hide his own culpability re the war in Iran.
Graph from UK government showing the nationalities of people crossing in boats. “Top 10 nationalities claiming asylum in the UK in the YE December 2025, by route of entry to the UK”
And Iranians already make up the third highest category of those crossing in small boats. #bbclaurak
It’s already happening. Iran attacked a desalination plant in Bahrain.
This war has to end immediately. If it turns into a water war we will be dealing with a whole different level of a humanitarian catastrophe across the region.
aje.news/64yl8m?updat...
If you want to see what a society that really does ban its residents from exercising the most basic freedom of speech, as online racist liars like to describe the UK, have a look at what various British ‘economic migrants’ are posting about the attacks on Dubai.
Feels like a day to reup this recent Democracy for Sale story
Tony Blair’s Institute privately pressed a top European Union official working on the rebuilding of Gaza to work with Donald Trump’s Board of Peace.
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/revealed-t...
Genuine questions: could these people be in the pay of the regime? And would that, to use language some of them favour, make them both ‘economic migrants’ *and* ‘welfare scroungers’?
Because...
👏Countries with more female leaders have less inequality. (WEF)
👏Countries with more women in parliament have lower levels of corruption. (European Journal of Political Research)
👏Female participation in parliament has a positive effect on the economy. (Frontiers in Political Science)
I'm sure it's just a massive coincidence that they used all the same words, ideas and punctuation.
A reminder. Israel currently stands accused of a genocide in Gaza, an illegal war in Iran, mass displacement in Lebanon and attacking Syrian sovereignty. Is this designed to be the new norm? Shifting focus away from Gaza into more widespread chaos and instability?
