Many will feel that the need for a written, enforceable constitution must surely be beyond doubt. But imagine if Johnson’s government decided to write it? [They’d want to ensure they were in power forever, thereafter, for sure. Ed] 1) When a prime minister or minister breaks the ministerial code, an apology will suffice instead of […]
As some of you might expect, the latest banshee howl that is #TheWeekInTory is quite lengthy, and I advise a deep dive into your preferred sedative before beginning. Let us begin where the last one ended, which is, astonishingly, a mere five days ago [cue wobbly screen]… 1. Having spent a week insisting there was […]
Dear Derek, I’m really not sure how much more of this you and your colleagues can take. I know you entered politics to help people, to change society for the better, to make a difference. And at a local level you appear to be succeeding, albeit up against 12 years of austerity and economic and […]
Here is a sample of the letters MPs will no doubt be receiving today and for days to come. The anger is not going to go away and the fact that the Conservatives feel they have no one to take Johnson’s place merely adds yet more insults to the very many injuries. Attention Mr Jupp […]
We are at a very dangerous point for our democracy. We are not being shelled, starved and murdered by Russians, but we are being cheated, lied to, gaslighted and exploited by the most corrupt, mendacious and cruel government seen in our lifetime. Johnson is so greedy for power and so utterly contemptuous of truth and […]
It’s high time we got real and faced up to the disastrous performance of the Johnson government and its damaging impact on our lives argues David Knopfler. We live in fictitious times, where magical thinking has replaced facts: where we pretend that pandemics are over despite the bodies piling up at our mortuaries in ever […]
Let’s start #TheWeekInTory with PartyGate, where randy Honey Monster and (no, really) Prime Minister Boris Johnson denied 20 fines meant there had been wrongdoing. 2. This doesn’t quite explain why he had personally phoned the Queen to apologise for all the wrongdoing. 3. Regardless, The Metropilitan Police issued MASSIVE fines of £50 for breaching lockdown […]
Dear Sheryll Murray, Thank you for your letter replying to this email: Dear Sheryll Murray, I hope that you are well and that you enjoyed celebrating your wedding anniversary. Fines have now been issued to people attending ‘gatherings’ at 10 Downing Street. More are in the pipeline. Mr Johnson told parliament that ‘all rules were […]
On 4 December last year you published a letter from me that expressed my theory that the leadership (and subsequently the policies) of this country is finally decided by some 180,000 Conservative Party members, plus 370 sitting Tory MPs and a small number of press barons. Obviously, we can now add a number of Russians who […]
Being an inveterate reader of the online Spanish press, my attention was drawn recently to an article in El Mundo online which linked the Ukraine War of 2022 to the Falklands War of 1982… in the context of Boris Johnson. On the 40th anniversary of this conflict, this article is timely; is it really 40 […]
Many of us are watching the disintegration of democracy and the UK’s reputation for trustworthiness and integrity and (naively) wondering when the rule of law, standards of conduct will reassert themselves. Surely someone, some authority will step in and stop the canker from spreading? Andrew Levi tells it like it (unfortunately) is… It won’t take […]
This edition of #TheWeekInTory fell on April Fool’s Day, and there was an obvious temptation to slip a fib into this. I didn’t. So if you feel fooled, it’s only because some of you voted for these gibbering apes. Anyway, here we go, with the longest, stupidest one yet… 1. Grant Shapps (who has more […]
This article by Mark E Thomas explores whether the Johnson government is the worst in recent British history. You can read the ‘summary’ or delve into the supporting articles. Either way, it’s a compelling and damning reckoning. All politicians (and all people) occasionally lie. But Johnson is “probably the best liar we’ve ever had as […]
Russ’s epic and epigrammatic summary of the madness and horror that is the current UK political scene. We’ve left the numbers in so you don’t get lost! Buckle up! I was going to do #TheWeekInTory, but try as I might, I can’t find a single thing they’ve done wrong this week. Only kidding. It’s been […]
Welcome to our latest edition. We champion social and climate justice, democracy, human rights and the rule of law and attempt to call out lies and corruption. As a result, we truly have our work cut out with Johnson’s mob. Despite the best efforts of the Lords, this government is still pursuing an agenda which […]
How low can he go? Equating a conned 37 per cent of the electorate voting for ‘freedom’ from Brussels with the Ukrainians’ valiant, tragic, determined battle to stay free from Russian rule (and to be able to join the EU, of course) is an absolute disgrace and a gross insult to the people of Ukraine. […]
Watch and share! Jon Danzig is an independent campaigning journalist and film maker who specialises in writing about health, human rights, and Europe. He is also founder of the information campaign, Reasons2Rejoin You can follow Jon Danzig on Facebook and LinkedIn
Usually in this notebook, my favourite one, with coffee on the cover, I write fairy tales. However, a new tale about adorable, winged cats has been paused uncompleted. Now I am writing about the war. To this day we all think it’s a dream. A nightmare that is about to pass, you just have to […]
“They slaughter and maim tens of thousands of men, and then they say prayers of thanksgiving for having slaughtered so many people (inflating the numbers) and proclaim victory, supposing that the more people slaughtered, the greater the merit. How does God look down and listen to them!“Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace Almost exactly 33 years […]
It’s day 8 for David Fox-Pitt and his team at the Medyka crossing point on the Polish/Ukrainian border and they’re working non-stop, 24/7, to feed the women and children arriving in their thousands from war-torn cities, towns and villages. I spoke to David via WhatsApp. Thank goodness for modern tech! ‘It’s like Groundhog Day,’ says […]
Polish journalist and lorry-driver Tomasz Oryński translated this short piece about Ukrainian truckers who are still going into the war zone with humanitarian help. Originally written for a Polish trucking magazine, we are very glad to be able to publish Filip’s piece here. It carries this important message: “By the way, as I was talking […]
In the first of a series of interviews with politicians, environmentalists, campaigners and creatives in our region, Anthea Simmons spoke with Ben Bradshaw at his constituency office on 4 March 2022. We got stuck into Russia immediately. Way back in 2016, Ben was one of the very first to question the role of the Russians […]
This article is a timely reminder of the politics of hate and division at a time when our own government moves to remove or dilute our human rights and as the Home Office goes through endless contortions to dehumanise and avoid helping the refugees from conflict in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Syria; and, of course, as Russia […]
Dr Sarah Wollaston left the Conservative Party to join the LibDems, leaving a rock-solid seat-for-life for some lucky Tory. The Conservatives needed a new candidate for the election that was to come later that year. Would they pick another local candidate, known in the community? Anonymous reveals the ‘interesting’ selection process. In 2019 the fate […]
𝗪𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗡 𝗞𝗘𝗣𝗧 𝗟𝗢𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗕𝗘𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗪𝗜𝗡𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 𝗧𝗢 𝗩𝗢𝗧𝗘, Jon Danzig reminds us. Today – 8 March – is International Women’s Day, which for more than 100 years has celebrated the economic, cultural, political, and social achievements of women across the world. And 100 years is about how long it took women in the United […]
Tom Scott investigates the role played by the ‘whataboutists’. If, like me, you have a lot of left-wing friends on social media you may well have seen posts from some of them asking what right people in the West have to condemn Putin’s war crimes in Ukraine, when western countries have themselves perpetrated war crimes […]
Editor’s note: the original source was Christo Grozev of Bellingcat: Last night, an alleged FSB whistle-blower letter was published that damned Russia’s military performance in Ukraine and predicted a disaster for the RU in the next weeks and months. I wasn’t sure if it was authentic – as Ukraine had previously leaked fake FSB letters […]
A richly scatological analysis of the parlous state of our domestic politics by multi-award-winning author, A L Kennedy. This article first appeared as Handgranaten gefüllt mit Dummheit in Süddeutsche Zeitung I know, it’s mystifying. Popo, our killer clown, the dog turd on our national mantelpiece – why is he still Prime Minister? The answers to that question reveal […]
You will have heard every minister interviewed in the media or standing up in parliament claim that we are doing more than any other country, that we are at the forefront doing everything we can for refugees, that we are leading the world in standing up to Putin and his horrific, illegal war. We aren’t…and […]
