News Round-Up
- “Local elections 2025 live: Results come in across UK after Reform victory” – Live results from the Telgraph of the local election bloodbath.
- “A new dawn has broken – and Nigel Farage might just be our next prime minister” – Reform’s historic by-election victory brings a level of euphoria we haven’t seen since the Brexit vote. This time we do get our country back, writes Allison Pearson in the Telegraph.
- “The SDP failed to break the mould of British politics. Reform has a better chance” – The public is more fed up with the old parties than it was in 1981 and Farage is far more natural a politician than the Gang of Four were, says Charles Moore in the Telegraph.
- “I am sorry for Tory election bloodbath” – We knew it would be hard. These results show the scale of work needed to rebuild trust in the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch tells the Telegraph.
- “Kemi Badenoch vows turnaround after Conservatives’ drubbing” – The party leader says reviving their fortunes will not be easy but she tells the Times has a plan.
- “Net zero subsidies cost British households £280 a year” – Levies are a key factor in sky-high electricity prices, says Renewable Energy Foundation, reports the Telegraph.
- “Expert glory and law’s effectual truth” – On taxing sugar: how technocracy works and where it comes from. Latest post from David McGrogan on News From Uncibal.
- “The Supreme Court ruling on the Equality Act should cause no confusion – the judgment is a model of clarity” – Last week I had the honour of hosting an event in the House of Lords to celebrate 15 years of the Equality Act 2010, writes Kishwer Falkner in Politics Home.
- “Florida passes bill to ban “weather modification”” – New legislation would make unapproved cloud seeding a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison, reports Newsweek.
- “Pro-Palestine activist ship ‘bombed by Israel’” – Israel bombed a ship carrying supplies to Gaza, just moments before Greta Thunberg was due to board, reports the Telegraph.
- “Assisted dying ‘will kill as many as 4,500 people a year’” – A report says the assisted dying bill could save taxpayer £90m as critics flag dangers of ‘money-saving prejudices’, says the Telegraph.
- “The press has a big problem: Its regulator wants to be nice” – Following its ruling against the Telegraph, critics claim Ipso is prioritising minority groups’ feelings over protecting free speech, writes Gordon Rayner in the Telegraph.
- “Private schools branch out and merge to offset VAT effect on fees” – Some of the UK’s most prestigious independent schools are growing in strength and looking at ways to expand, says the Times.
- “AfD classified as extreme-right by German intelligence” – The AfD came second in February elections and has a record number of seats in the new parliament, yet it has been classified as ‘extreme right’ by the German intelligence service, reports the Times.
- “Brutal drive-by on Bridget Phillipson by Sir John Curtice” – Bridget Phillipson tries to spin Labour‘s losses on Newsnight. John Curtice sets her straight.
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Friday Shores Rd & Woodham Lane Woking
https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-jets-trump-state-department-pentagon-training-equipment/33403301.html
‘The US Department of State on May 2 announced that it approved a deal through Foreign Military Sales to provide training and equipment for F-16 fighter jets in Ukraine.
The State Department said it notified Congress that it has given the nod for a $310.5 million sale to Kyiv that will include non-lethal, non-major defense equipment items, such as aircraft modifications and upgrades, personnel training, spare parts, and consumables.
Additional support will also cover repair and return services, ground handling equipment, as well as classified and non-classified software delivery and support.
$310.5 million package
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) explained in its announcement Friday evening that, the Ukrainian government had reached out with a purchase request for equipment and services to support the operation and maintenance of its future F-16 aircraft fleet.
Kyiv has previously received F-16 jets from US allies under a transfer authorized by former President Joe Biden’s administration.
The administration determined that this proposed sale would support the foreign policy goals and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a partner country, which the DSCA describes as “a force for political stability and economic progress in Europe.’
So?
“A new dawn has broken – and Nigel Farage might just be our next prime minister”
Well yes indeed, I did vote Reform, but I suspect like many others I did it with a metaphoric ‘peg on my nose’ and I am not joining in the euphoria that a new era has dawned.
I had three major concerns that influenced my vote; Net-Zero, Immigration and the need for smaller Government that does less and stops interfering in our lives. Reform is not perfect on any of these 3 issues but it is marginally better than any of the others. It will be very hard for Reform to make any significant change in any of these areas and the idea that we have somehow entered a new political era is, in my view, cloud cuckoo land.
I think we have to have some optimism, but it would be naïve to think that Reform wont get heavy resistance from all sides. I fully expect the unions and lefty lawyers to tie up what are a lot of inexperienced councillors and stop them moving us forwards on any topic. Important to know which battles to fight. This is not Trump, and his mandate. However, neither is it ‘business as usual’ uniparty. Caution at every turn and expect to fight every single step of the way.
I believe the correct approach from Reform is blitkreig – don’t give the embedded council apparatchiks time to organise. Straight in with P45’s by the bucket load – as Farage said “if you work in DEI or nut zero start looking for another job.”
Damned right.
Seconded 👌
Cheers Dinger.
No doubt they will be educated by the Borough Solicitors and the like, on the professional side, so that will learn what they can actually do in office.
Therein lies the rub, and although I have sympathy with Huxleys view, its not so easy to fire people, and turn off the DEI when it is embedded in laws that the council have to abide by.
They might have more success turning off Stonewall, Mermaids (and similar) and as mentioned below, ‘Common Purpose’
Bureaucrats will find it hard to have councillors telling them what the policy is rather than vice versa. LGA and various other officers’ quangos will be on full alert for policies they have not approved, including Common Purpose.
I’m as sceptical as you are.
Should Reform ever form a government in this country, I have some doubt as to how much they’d actually like to change and very serious doubts about how much they’d be able to change even if they wanted to.
The state bureaucracy is a formidable thing and not one that is going to allow itself to be scaled back or dismantled without a bitter fight.
I am sorry for Tory election bloodbath
After locking down the entire country because of a common cold ILI, burning through £500bn for nothing, running down defence so that we cannot even defend our own borders, overtaxing, over-regulating, stifling the entire country with an overmighty public sector; the roads are knackered, the railways are hopeless; the rivers, beaches, are unfit, even, for fish; nitrate run off producing choking weeds, neonicotinoids wiping out insect life in our waterways, the welfare state bloated and unaffordable, drug taking rife but nanny state silly pettifogging rules, non hate crime incidents dreamt up; we can’t hunt but we can shoot and wound, leave animals to die, unrecovered because we can’t hunt…….
Seriously……..fecking hell………
What, really, did they expect……
I wonder how the democratic will is going to go when the entire fiat money system collapses?
This is an American perspective about the scandal involving the Royal Marine who spoke out about the woke ideology having no place in the military, as well as the state of the U.K in general; ”This incident stinks to high heaven and serves as another stark warning that the U.K. is descending into utter madness. When elite warriors express grave concerns about their country’s military readiness, competent leaders remedy problems before they turn into catastrophes. They do not undermine those elite warriors by smearing their reputations and treating them as terrorists. That is a catastrophe in itself. As the unnamed commando says, there is a “very important reason” that combat units have “high standards”: to keep them “from being killed in dangerous situations when we go to war.” When physical fitness and other performance standards are lowered for political reasons, warriors die and national security disintegrates. Wokeism, political correctness, and obsessions over D-I-E special treatment endanger the lives of both soldiers and the civilians they protect. Only in the West does this nonsense take root. Our most likely enemies on future battlefields are not sabotaging their fighting forces by weakening standards and protecting the feelings of less lethal social groups. Russia is not indoctrinating its military with “trans” ideology. China… Read more »
Obviously a racist. Someone call Starmer, he needs to tell Trump to arrest this individual.
Given the opposition towards the AfD from churches in Germany, this should come as no surprise. Disgusting example of racism towards indigenous German kids here, though. Religion should not be politicized or infested by wokeism, but this is sadly what we are seeing everywhere;
”The German Evangelical Church (EKD) is being accused of racism after banning White children from attending a workshop on being “courageous and strong” during its Church Congress in Hanover on Wednesday. The Church is now being questioned about its commitment to anti-racist and universalist principles.
The “Become Courage and Strong” workshop was only open to Black, indigenous and children of color. However, while ethnic Germans and ethnic Europeans are indigenous to Germany and Europe, the designation did not apply to them, only indigenous people from other continents.
“This offer is aimed exclusively at Black, Indigenous and children of color,” reads the program website.
The Church features a huge number of workshops on racism, climate change, and workshops “against the right.” There is an “interactive exhibition on anti-Muslim racism” as well as 24 other workshops and events on racism. Another 34 on climate change are featured and 13 in the “fight against the right.”
https://rmx.news/article/german-evangelical-church-bans-white-children-from-workshop-on-being-courageous-and-strong-at-national-congress/
Dear Starmer
Ref your ‘further and faster’ remark on the occasion of all the losses you have racked up in a few short months. When you find yourself getting into a hole, it is generally a good idea to stop digging
I wonder how long you and your party have got left, though
‘Elections are always won from the centre’
God knows how many pompous ration wasters have trotted out that banal, trite load of old nonsense.
So strong defence, particularly of borders, small government, low tax, low regulation, pro business is now the centre ground?
But, on the other hand, probably those tenets are, always have been the centre ground (and so have, once again, just shown themselves to be election winners); but the Conservatives, who triumphed multiple times on that ticket four decades ago, have somehow lacked the intelligence, vision to see that ever since.
‘Thinking of our 1st Lady of girl power, Margaret Thatcher, a greengrocer’s daughter who taught me anything is possible.’
Geri Halliwell
If you’re referring to Reform with your description of a potentially winning platform, I think you are being a little generous. We shall see. That may be the platform that their supporters wish they had, though my suspicion is the overriding motivation is to do with immigration.
I think there is a good deal of support for such a platform, but also a great deal of appetite for a nanny state that solves all our problems. See “Covid” for further details.
It’s time for the Fake Conservatives to sod off. They are now utterly pointless. Anyone still voting for them should get off the fence and either back the only credible party of the right, or admit to themselves that they are really lefties and vote for the Illiberal Undemocrats, as so many did yesterday in my county, which I now discover has been taken over by champagne socialists.
https://www.reformparty.uk/policies
Not a bad manifesto.
It was a local election. The Limp Dims won here, Reform nowhere, really.
I don’t trust Mr Farage:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/george-cottrell-nigel-farage-reform-geostrategy-international-unlimited-company-donations/
No need to prejudge where politics may be in this country in four years time.
Definitely a long uphill trudge for the Conservatives but Reform have already shot themselves in the foot once. The potential for self demolition is always there for Farage’s political parties.
Not bad compared to the others. Doesn’t go as far as I would like or start from first principles. But worth a try. I don’t fully trust any politician, nor should I or anyone else for that matter. Farage would not be top of my list. I don’t like the idea of “smart immigration” and I think the NHS should be abolished.
We shall see.
If the Tories continue their “uphill trudge” and their delusional supporters follow them, we will probably see a Labour government again, perhaps in a coalition with the other Far Left parties.
The worry about Mr Farage is Putin/Russian funding via ‘Crypto Cotters’ in Montenegro. UKIP may very well have received some funding from a similar source, as have many other political parties across Europe.
Certainly, today, a coalition between Reform and the Conservatives would appear to be a likelier outcome in 2029.
Of course the NHS should be retired. How right you are.
https://iea.org.uk/publications/universal-healthcare-without-the-nhs/#:~:text=In%20terms%20of%20outcomes%2C%20quality,innovativeness%20of%20a%20market%20system.
Well as you know I’m relaxed about the Russia business.
A coalition with the Fake Conservatives is possibly a logical course of action, though not one I can muster much enthusiasm for – for reasons you set out so eloquently in another post.
The Conservatives have now received a succession of powerful messages. So many of them are out of a job which always concentrates the mind. I believe Mrs Badenoch has received those messages. This latest result gives her good cover to move further away from nut zero, tax and spend big state.
It really is far too early to write her off.
She seems better than the last one, but she failed on Covid and has not undergone conversion and atonement in the way that Bridgen and De Santis have.
She was a peripheral figure, Equalities Minister, a completely pointless role which should be closed down.
In her statement to the ‘inquiry’, she states that the evidence showed that those worst affected were the elderly and infirm which is correct.
She just hasn’t yet admitted that that is typical of all common cold coronaviruses, ILI, of which covid was simply another one.
It is going to take a lead from the U.S.A. for governments everywhere to come clean….but the potential for massive litigation in the U.S. may very well prevent that from ever happening……
Incandescent…..still……£500bn….ye gods…..
I too am incandescent.
Milei would have closed down that ministry.
Her role was peripheral but I think the folly and evil was on such a scale that it was the duty of all of us regardless of circumstances to resist as best we could. Some public figures managed it – among them, the gracious host of this website. The congress of South Dakota was presented with a bill from the Governor asking for extended powers to “fight Covid” as she correctly recognised she had no authority to shut down the state. The request was rejected by a huge majority.
“The ethnicity- and ancestry-based understanding of the people prevailing within the party is incompatible with the free democratic order,”
that is one massive contradiction in terms!
If one side/party/individual/leader/organisation or department decide what is democratic then it’s not democracy
Watched the BBC 6 o’clock news yesterday to get the lowdown on the election results, not done that for years now.
I wanted to see how the BBC spun it, as only they can! – is it just me or is it a bit odd they decided to release / spend the first 15 minutes of the 30 minute programme talking about some US based chap called Harry, who’s fell out with his family, rather than cover the largest political event of recent days, the local elections?
It almost felt like they’d timed this news ‘release’ (turns out of their own interview) perfectly?
Surely not. Al-Beeb 😀😀😀
“I am sorry for Tory election bloodbath” – We knew it would be hard. These results show the scale of work needed to rebuild trust in the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch tells the Telegraph.”
“Kemi Badenoch vows turnaround after Conservatives’ drubbing” – The party leader says reviving their fortunes will not be easy but she tells the Times has a plan.”
The sheer brass neck of the woman! The “plan” must be to STEP DOWN.
May I add the disturbing news today that Ukrainian troops are to join British troops for the Victory in Europe celebrations: Ukraine troops to join British forces for VE Day procession What exactly were Ukrainian troops doing during WW2? Here’s an illuminating BBC archived article that seems to be partially blocked, so I have copied it below for your information, in case it gets blocked again. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4739645.stm Last Updated: Tuesday, 2 August 2005, 18:03 GMT 19:03 UK “UK ‘DIDN’T WANT’ UKRAINIAN NAZIS” “British officials were very uneasy about the decision to allow AN ENTIRE UKRAINIAN SS DIVISION TO SETTLE IN THE UK in 1947, newly released files show. The papers from Britain’s National Archives deal with 8,000 Ukrainians who had been recruited by the Nazis to fight the Soviet Union. “WHAT LITTLE WE KNOW OF THEIR WAR RECORD IS BAD”, commented Beryl Hughes, an official at the UK Home Office. The Ukrainians had fought in eastern Europe and surrendered in Austria. They were being held in British camps in Italy. When in 1947 the Italian government signed a treaty with the USSR, that meant the soldiers could be repatriated. But the UK Foreign Office was anxious to thwart their repatriation,… Read more »
Mark Felton did a report on the Ukrainians here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB_Gs-0dhOo. It also explains how Yaroslav Hunka arrived in Canada, the SS guy who was embarrassingly publicly honoured by Trudeau and the Canadian government during Zelensky’s visit in September 2023.
Oh gosh, I had completely forgotten about that standing ovation in the Canadian Parliament!
Thanks for that link— I’ll definitely check it out later.
I think both the king and the Armed Forces top brass should put a stop to this intended travesty march, or else let the Russians join in as well, to show how ridiculous the Ukrainian participation is.