andy little

[GET A GRIP @docrussjackson]

Nilatpal Basu posted this on FB:

At the #WorldCup on Tuesday — a man in a red suit stood completely still for 90 minutes in the stands. Then he covered his mouth and pointed a gun to his head.
FIFA’s cameras cut away immediately.
His name is Michel Kuka Mboladinga — known as “Lumumba Vea,” which means “Lumumba Lives.” For more than a decade he has stood motionless at every DR Congo match — suit and tie, arm raised — as a living tribute to Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of an independent Congo.
Patrice Lumumba gave a stunning Independence Day speech on June 30, 1960 — standing before King Baudouin of Belgium — excoriating Belgian colonialism. Malcolm X called him “the greatest Black man who ever walked the African continent.”
Six months after independence, Belgian officers and soldiers captured Lumumba, tortured him, and executed him by firing squad. His body was dismembered and dissolved in acid. The only known remnant was a gold tooth kept by the Belgian officer responsible for 39 years until his death.
That is what Lumumba Vea stands in tribute to. Every single match. In a suit. Motionless. For 90 minutes.
On Tuesday against Colombia — he added something new. He covered his mouth and mimicked a gun to his head. A silent, devastating protest against the world’s silence over eastern DR Congo — one of the globe’s most severe yet least-covered humanitarian crises, which has displaced millions and claimed countless lives through violence and massacres.
Lumumba Vea went viral this week — covered by USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, CNN and the BBC. Every outlet explained the Patrice Lumumba connection. Not one mentioned the link between Lumumba’s CIA-backed assassination, the Western strategy to destabilize an independent Congo, and the current humanitarian catastrophe in eastern DRC today.
That connection is not a footnote. It is the entire story.
The same Western powers that assassinated Lumumba in 1961 — because he wanted Congo’s mineral wealth to benefit Congolese people — have spent 65 years ensuring the DRC remains destabilized, its cobalt and coltan flowing to Western technology companies while its people are massacred in the east.
FIFA cut the cameras. The mainstream media covered the gesture without the history. And a man in a red suit stood in the stands and said — without words — what the world refuses to hear.

Lumumba Lives.

[andy little @andybarca75]

@Daniel_kidd7 @OllieGoldsmithh @Boropolis @JacobsBen Satire is a literary & artistic genre that uses humor, irony& exaggeration to expose& ridicule societal flaws, vices or corruption. While making people laugh, its primary goal is to provoke thought or inspire social& political change by focusing on absurdities in human behaviour.

[Reform Party UK Exposed 🇬🇧 @reformexposed]

Hi @LeeAndersonMP_ and @marcolonghi4dn, please do tell everyone why Adam Mitula is campaigning for @RobKenyonReform, when he is supposed to be suspended over racist and anti-Semitic comments?

@reformparty_uk don’t take it seriously.

https://t.co/tm3XhkD7Mn

[andy little @andybarca75]

@Smogg1876 @Boro_Breakdown If you think Sorba Thomas is adding defensive work rate to the team, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

[andy little @andybarca75]

@Smogg1876 @Boro_Breakdown I don’t know where to start on this tweet. Not sure how many of Thomas’s matches you watched if you think he plays for Bristol City. Oh and he takes all of Stoke’s set pieces and has no defensive responsibilities. Plus Whittaker also had 21

[andy little @andybarca75]

@CarlDraper98 He scored against Coventry, Ipswich, Hull, Derby and Southampton twice. Plus the goals against Ipswich and Derby were match winners.

[EFL Communications @EFL_Comms]

The Independent Disciplinary Commission’s written reasons in respect of Southampton FC have now been published.

Yesterday (Wednesday 20 May) a League Arbitration Panel dismissed Southampton’s appeal against the Independent Disciplinary Commission’s sanction. The League Arbitration Panel’s written reasons will be published in due course.

Read more: https://t.co/FiJS1gN70b

[andy little @andybarca75]

So proud to have him as our coach #UTB

[andy little @andybarca75]

@AlanFoster24 @SkySportsNews @Boro Yeah because not fulfilling fixtures has worked out so well for us in the past #UTB

[Narinder Kaur @narindertweets]

Extraordinary allegations from @benhabib6 !!
Ben Habib alleges that Nigel Farage & Boris Johnson were paid £1m each by Christopher Harborne to essentially rig the election in favour of Johnson. He also claims the undeclared £5m "gift" Farage received in 2024 from Harborne was payment for Farage to take over as party leader of Reform UK and stand in Clacton.

[Miami Dolphins @MiamiDolphins]

Giveaway time 👀

RT for your chance to win a signed mini helmet from @KadynProctor1!

[andy little @andybarca75]

Let's get more people riding! Join Roll https://t.co/JsSz9AMGOf

[The Labour Party @UKLabour]

Our latest Party Election Broadcast cannot be shown in full on TV. But we think you should see it anyway - uncensored. https://t.co/bp91qJnyP2

[Don McGowan @donmcgowan]

Yesterday, Reform UK dropped a billionaire bombshell via their pet [paid] media channels.

Ben Delo — one of the UK's youngest self-made billionaires, declared that he would re-migrate to the UK in order to donate to Nigel Farage's pension fund.

I had questions — I went looking.

A mathematician and tech entrepreneur, he made his fortune in cryptocurrency as co-founder of BitMEX alongside two others in 2014.

By 2018, he was reportedly the UK's first Bitcoin billionaire. So far, so standard for this type of guy.

But when you start reading about those he has donated money to, and the circles in which he moves, things become a bit murkier.

There are few firm details about Delo's philanthropy, but among other things, he helped fund Toby Young's Free Speech Union.

He maintains a suite of offices called The Sanctuary, close to Westminster Abbey, in which he allows 'guests' to use his facilities for free. Podcasts, office space, networking events.

The notorious Triggernometry podcast, hosted by Konstantin Kisin, records from the Sanctuary. From which he told the world that Rishi Sunak could not be British because he is a brown Hindu.

Other notable purveyors of Ben Delo's generous office complex are: Rupert Lowe, Ben Habib, Kemi Badenoch [multiple times], Claire Fox [and her Academy of Ideas] and his close friend, Jordan Peterson.

A genuine smörgåsbord of right-wing, free speech warriors.

Another feature of Delo's philanthropy is his summer party in Westminster Abbey. Attended last year by such notables as Matt Goodwin, Maurice Glassman and Paul Coleman — director of ADF International, the Christian law firm that opposes abortion.

When Nigel Farage gave testimony to the US Congress last year, he was flanked by Lorcán Price from ADF. The ADF helped topple Roe V Wade in the US and have cosied up to Farage in recent years. Watch this space for Reform UK's forthcoming anti-abortion stance, I'd suggest.

Of course, it's widely reported that Delo pleaded guilty to financial crimes by failing to implement anti-money laundering controls within his company and received a 30-month probation sentence alongside a $10 million fine.

In 2025, the crypto president pardoned him.

According to the Guardian, Delo has been biding his time, burnishing his reputation since receiving the seal of Trump approval [and by extension, of course, Farage's]. He is now launching himself into the UK political sphere as the latest white knight to attach his steed to Nigel Farage's rickety bandwagon.

The timing yesterday was not coincidental, nor was its method of delivery. It's no secret that Reform UK have been fighting to keep the spotlight in recent weeks. Dropping poll numbers testify to that.

Farage and Delo coordinated their announcement yesterday to coincide with a lull in the war [supposedly] in order that they maximise the headlines. And it worked.

But, as you can see from the examples above, Delo runs in the same right/far-right circles as all the others. Propping up some of the most hardline anti-immigration and Christian Nationalist figures.

This isn't a story about money — these people run together. It's an assault on our British freedoms. We need to be VERY wary of them.

[andy little @andybarca75]

@ConnorMarshall Who doesn’t understand the statement? It literally lists only 3 things and says in that order. Maybe the dead racist podcaster included more in his quote but you certainly haven’t. Nothing more patriotic than being obsessed with trying to make the UK like the US

[andy little @andybarca75]

@BobP9000 @GazetteBoro Not really. You have us only picking up 8 points

[andy little @andybarca75]

@Jane68303427762

[Martin Lewis @MartinSLewis]

The govt's Student Loan Plan 2 repayment freeze in April 2027 must be reversed. It isn't moral.

I'm concerned that my debate with Kemi Badenoch this morning distracts from the most immediate problem. In April 2027 Rachel Reeves will freeze the Plan 2 student loan threshold until 2030 which by then will increase graduate repayments by £300/yr more.

This is effectively a unilateral negative breach of the student loan contract. Students were told the threshold would rise with average earnings. No commercial lender would be allowed to do this. The govt shouldn't do it either.

Changing the terms of future students loans is a political decision - people may not like it but it is transparent. Negatively changing the terms of contracts already signed, and long in place, is a breach of natural justice.

[Emma 💛💙🇩🇰🇬🇧🇪🇺 @MonkEmma]

🧵
So I posted this earlier…

Had to mute it fairly quickly 😬

I was accused of racism for suggesting it was a white guy preaching and was told he was black. I deleted my comment accordingly for getting it wrong (spoiler - I wasn’t wrong🙄)

And everyone piled in claiming he didn’t say anything offensive to Muslims, he was just preaching Christianity.

So I decided to watch the full (1 hour😱) video…

1/13