Hector

Evidence based human. Increasingly a fan of the saying, Well, If you knows of a better 'ole, Go to it

[The Spectator @spectator]

London, to judge by a network of anonymous social media accounts and blowhard Maga podcasters, is now a dystopian hellhole where there are no-go areas for non-Islamists, the murder rate per capita is higher than Lagos, you need to be Snake Plissken to use the Tube between Mornington Crescent and Chalk Farm, and the police will arrest you for saying “God Save The King”.

Research published by City Hall presents evidence that this isn’t just a random meme: it’s a co-ordinated propaganda effort.

With the help of analytical tools used by the National Cyber Security Centre, researchers have established that posts about London have risen by seven per cent in two years, and “London in decline” narratives have gone up by 150-200 per cent.

These are coming, the researchers discover, not from the concerned citizens of Clapham but from from Sri Lankan-based troll-farms, Vietnamese Facebook networks, and Nigerian bot webs mimicking UK media.

✍️ Sam Leith

Article | https://t.co/aMcIRqZqF2

[Fraser Nelson @FraserNelson]

Significant.

Lawyers for Reform UK donor Ben Delo say that referring to his criminal conviction is a breach of privacy law, with no "public interest".

If highlighting the criminal records of those bankrolling UK political parties is not in the public interest, what is?

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

A few weeks ago I had a conversation with an American who genuinely believed Europe and Canada would help the United States in its war with Iran. I asked him why he thought that, given that Trump had spent months threatening to annex Canada and seize Greenland. He went quiet. Then he said he had never heard of any of that.

Not that he disagreed. Not that he thought it was exaggerated. He had simply never encountered the information. It had never arrived.

This is worth pausing on. Because in every other functioning democracy on earth, that information would have been impossible to avoid. Not because Europeans are smarter or more curious. But because of how news works outside the United States. The BBC and The Daily Telegraph hate each other. Le Monde and Le Figaro disagree on everything. Aftenposten and Dagbladet have been arguing since before most of their readers were born. But they all cover the same events. A threat to annex Canada is not a left-wing story or a right-wing story. It is a story. It runs everywhere. You hear it on the radio driving to work. You see it on the newsstand. Your colleague mentions it at lunch. Facts are not a channel you choose. They are the weather. You step outside and they hit you.

The only media ecosystems on earth that work differently are not political opposites of each other. They are North Korea and Russia. Not because the content resembles MAGA content. But because the architecture is the same. In all three cases, outside information does not get filtered or reinterpreted. It gets blocked at the door. A completely parallel reality is built inside, maintained by repetition, and sealed from correction.

This is why the rest of the world does not just disagree with MAGA voters on foreign policy. It finds them genuinely disorienting to talk to. Not offensive. Disorienting. Like speaking to someone who is absolutely certain the building has two floors when you are standing on the third.

Which brings us to today’s masterclass. And this screenshot says everything.

A Trump supporter posted: “Absolute masterclass by Trump. He got the Strait open without any help from Europe and without any boots on the ground.”

That post was written on the same day a refinery on Lavan Island burned for hours after the ceasefire was announced. On the same day Iran’s own official statement read “this does not signify the termination of the war.” On the same day Iran kept its toll system, its uranium program, its protocol over the strait, and walked away with sanctions relief and reconstruction aid.

The post is not stupid. It is not written by a bad person. It is written by someone who received a completely different set of facts than the rest of the world did. And from inside that information environment, with only that data, the conclusion is perfectly logical.

That is what makes it so unsettling. It is not ignorance. It is a sealed universe, doing exactly what sealed universes do.

Gandalv / @Microinteracti1

[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.

[Deborah Haynes @haynesdeborah]

Listening to the disingenuous mudslinging in Parliament just now between the @UKLabour defence secretary @JohnHealey_MP & @Conservatives shadow defence secretary @jcartlidgemp over which party is to blame for the UK’s diminished armed forces. Healey keeps repeating the government line about how defence was hollowed out during 14 years of the Tories. And I’m not defending the defence cuts that happened then which were hugely damaging. But they also happened under the previous Labour government. This current spat was prompted by the poor availability of our fleet of six Type 45 destroyers - with HMS Dragon still alongside, almost a week after the PM said she would be sent to defend Cyprus.
But it was the last Labour government that settled on the size of the fleet being just six warships instead of eight. And I think the original plan had been to procure 12. More ships = better availability.
I wish all political parties could accept their respective responsibility for the weakened state of UK defence and then seriously work collectively to fix it

[Al Carns @AlistairCarns]

The very reason that you have the right to protest is because this great man stood up against tyranny and Nazism. His leadership provided you the freedom and the security to object and to stand up for what you believe in. To disgrace his legacy is a prime example of utter stupidity and a lack of understanding as to what this great nation is all about.

[Led By Donkeys @ByDonkeys]

Tory MP Philip Davies put a £8k bet on himself to lose. This is what we found when we dug into his and his wife Esther McVey’s finances

[Deborah Meaden 🇺🇦 @DeborahMeaden]

Fun facts: European countries hold $8 trillion dollars in US treasury securities…( basically loans)

[RS Archer @archer_rs]

It's important to remember that the Pilgrim Fathers were not fleeing Europe because they sought religious freedom. In reality they were themselves religious zealots who wanted a more repressive and controlling form of Christianity.
They were fundamentalists

[Hector @hexf1]

@Rainmaker1973 It's why they're called "Screws"
https://t.co/vSErQMcOAd

[Hector @hexf1]

@TheNewsAgents @jonsopel Darwin will sort it out

[Hector @hexf1]

@brenkav Gullible isn't in the dictionary

[Hector @hexf1]

@Matedwards7 @LouisaUpcycler Or Hartest

[Hector @hexf1]

@Noahpinion Compulsion?

[Hector @hexf1]

@WeAreLWKS hi, when does the create discount code end? I've tried to get it but it is showing error when I try to check out

[Hector @hexf1]

@esjay100 @annamasm @emilykmay Bollox

[rob smith @grumpypostie]

Led by Donkeys do this because our media isn't doing its job of uncovering the facts

[Hector @hexf1]

@TrentTelenko He didn't say"western leaders"he was criticising the previous party of government.

[Hector @hexf1]

@Geiger_Capital Bollox- he was criticising the previous party's record in government

[Whipple Museum @WhippleMuseum]

🎉 New Exhibition Alert! 🎉

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of our new temporary exhibition, The Cavendish Laboratory and the Birth of the Atomic Age. @DeptofPhysics