Ian James

[GET A GRIP @docrussjackson]

This post substitutes assertion, mythic nationalism, and moral polarisation for evidence.

The repeated use of "they" is especially important. It creates a vague but powerful enemy figure - media, political opponents, institutions, educators, and critics are all folded into one hostile bloc - without ever clearly defining who is responsible for what.

That vagueness is useful rhetorically because it allows multiple grievances to be fused into a single persecutory narrative.

The language is saturated with crisis framing and fear appeal. Britain is depicted as under assault from "mass uncontrolled migration", institutional corruption, poisoned education, attacks on heritage, and coordinated efforts to destroy Farage. This is classic declinist rhetoric: the nation is imagined as being in moral and civilisational collapse, and political conflict is cast not as ordinary disagreement but as an existential battle for survival. That intensifies emotional identification while discouraging nuance.

The post also relies on hero construction. Farage is presented not simply as a politician but as the singular figure who "has always stood up for Britain", "achieved results", "stopped the far-right", and now leads "the one party that can save Britain". This is a salvational narrative, elevating him into a near-messianic role. Once politics is framed this way, criticism of him can be recoded as criticism of Britain itself, which is exactly what the post encourages.

There is extensive speculative and unfalsifiable claim-making. Statements that opponents are "desperate", "scared", "terrified", or motivated by "evil" are presented as fact, but they are mind-reading claims rather than evidenced arguments.

Likewise, allegations of "lies", "smear campaigns", and coordinated attacks on his family are asserted without substantiation.

The effect is to immunise Reform supporters against contrary information: criticism becomes proof of persecution.

A further striking feature is the use of moral inversion. The post accuses others of fascistic behaviour, malevolence, corruption, and dirty tactics while itself using highly absolutist, antagonistic language. Opponents are not mistaken but wicked; disagreement is not political contestation but an attack on the nation. This binary moral structure is a hallmark of populist propaganda styles because it divides the world into virtuous people and corrupt enemies.

Overall, the discourse is populist, conspiratorial, and affect-driven. Its persuasive force comes less from demonstrable evidence than from repetition, emotional escalation, national grievance, and the construction of Farage as both persecuted victim and national saviour.

The central move is to transform criticism, scrutiny, or controversy into evidence that entrenched enemies fear democratic change, which is rhetorically powerful but ultimately absurd and analytically weak.

[Dan Neidle @DanNeidle]

It is highly unusual for a private individual to buy a property and pay, not in cash, but by buying shares in an unrelated offshore company.

The likelihood is that this was structured for some unusual tax or legal purpose. I’ve no idea what.

[ALASTAIR CAMPBELL @campbellclaret]

Very good point @Jeremy_Hunt … I remember leaving my house with my daughter (then 8) and being filmed as we walked down the road. “Don’t worry” shouted a TV Cameraman “we’re rolling you from waist up so she’s not in shot.” “How is she supposed to know that?” At times we had cameras outside 24 hours a day. My sons got hassled and pushed. Annoying at times. But whether we like it or not part of being a controversial political figure. Farage’s kids could walk down any street with nobody having a clue who they are. As it should be if they don’t want to be in the public eye. But his pathetic whine yesterday brought to mind the saying about heat and kitchens. As for being the most attacked politicians of modern times never forget that Jo Cox was murdered during Brexit campaign which he then said was won “without a shot being fired.” Finally - the claim that his car was mobbed and written off by fifty thugs. Yeah, and he didn’t tell the cops or claim insurance (presumably part or the establishment) and none of the 50 phone obsessed yobs filmed it. A chancer and a grifter and he is being found out. Finally. Ps latest @RestIsPolitics discusses

[Brett Erickson @BrettErickson28]

Moments ago, the United States revoked the General License that lifted sanctions on Iran oil. The significance of this move cannot be overstated. It is a complete destruction of the Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Iran.

Two things need to be highlighted right off the bat here:
1) Washington had justification for doing this after Iran struck multiple vessels crossing the Strait of Hormuz via the Omani Route in the last 24 hours
2) This was an incredibly stupid move from Washington

Something I have highlighted since its original issuance on June 21st is the General License X is more politically damaging for President Trump than it is economically game-changing for Iran. While it likely could have resulted in a windfall of ~$1B for Tehran over the course of the initial 60 days... this is really inconsequential when compared to the massive damage their country has seen throughout the war.

And that political damage for Trump? It already happened! You can't put that genie back in the bottle. He's already taken those blows.

The oil sanction waivers were the only notable up front concession that Iran received for the joint lifting of blockades in the Strait of Hormuz. The frozen assets being released is orders of magnitude more important for Iran... but as of yet, not a penny has moved. This has been repeatedly confirmed by both the Iranians and the Americans.

What this revocation DOES accomplish, is a complete and total destruction of the Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Iran. This is far more detrimental to negotiations and an permanent cessation of hostilities than a tit for tat response to the vessel strikes by Washington.

This destroys the MOU.

Did Washington have some justification for revoking this waiver? Absolutely. Is this a catastrophic move for securing an enduring cessation of hostilities between the US and Iran? Absolutely.

Was this an insanely foolish move from the Trump Administration given the political blowback already received, the relative insignificance of this waiver, and the irreparable damage to the US/Iran negotiations?

Absolutely.

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

Robert Jenrick has a meltdown on #C4News

He refuses to accept that there are parliamentary rules that Nigel Farage may have broken

And insists the only people who can judge Nigel Farage are the people of Clacton

😅 - Whatever you do, please don't share this humiliating clip

[David Henig 🇺🇦 @DavidHenigUK]

Farage is doing what fascists do. Claiming the "will of the people" or "his people" is more important than the law.

[medoyid_ua @LetsArmUKR]

The video from Slavyansk-on-Kuban is instructive. Not because the refinery is burning again, that's routine now. What stands out is the total absence of any firefighting effort. Flames just eat tank after tank while the smoke column climbs like a middle finger to the sky. Spare me the cope that "some fires can't be extinguished." Iraqis torched nearly a thousand Kuwaiti wells in 1991; specialists capped and killed every last one. BP's Texas City refinery explosion in March 2005 produced a blast that shattered windows 1.5 km away. They had the fire under control in two hours and fully extinguished in five. Technology exists. Equipment exists. What doesn't exist in this particular moscovian backyard is the will or the capacity to use it.

That's the real multiplier effect of Ukrainian long-range strikes. It's not merely the kinetic hit. It's the engineered reality that moscovia cannot protect, cannot repair, cannot even pretend to defend its own critical infrastructure anymore. Every refinery strike forces them into a choice: divert scarce air defense from the front, or accept controlled burn as national policy. They have chosen the latter. The economic bleeding is now structural. Refineries aren't just storage; they're the conversion mechanism turning discounted crude into usable fuel for the war machine. When you turn that into a perpetual bonfire, you don't need sanctions theater in Brussels. You create daily, compounding sanctions with better accuracy than any SWIFT cutoff.

This is precisely why the "just negotiate" crowd remains either stupid or on the Kremlin's payroll. There is no diplomatic off-ramp while moscovia retains the illusion that it can absorb these costs indefinitely. Every unextinguished fire in Kuban or Bashkortostan or wherever the next drone package lands proves the opposite. Their rear is porous, their repair capacity is exhausted, their ability to convert oil wealth into combat power is literally going up in smoke.

And before some isolationist genius in DC starts whining about American taxpayers, remember the math. These strikes cost Ukraine a fraction of what equivalent Western munitions would. They achieve what layered sanctions never could: direct, persistent degradation of the aggressor's warfighting economy. This is not charity. This is the cheapest European security insurance policy ever written. Moscovia wins in Ukraine and the next set of borders moves west at higher cost and higher risk. Every European capital that still treats aid as a favor rather than enlightened self-defense is simply advertising its own strategic illiteracy.

The fires will keep burning because Ukraine has decided they must. No amount of kremlin copium about "NATO escalation" changes the simple fact on the ground: an imperial project is learning, in real time, that aggression has a price tag it cannot pay. The only variable left is how quickly the West decides to stop treating Ukrainian victory as optional and starts treating it as the non-negotiable prerequisite for its own survival.

[Anna Soubry 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇺🇦🇪🇺🖤🤍 @Anna_Soubry]

That’s not the evidence
We are poorer
We will flourish again when we rejoin the #EU but it seems only our children will have the courage to face up to reality.

[Piers Morgan @piersmorgan]

And it’s been a total disaster.
Thanks. 👍

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

Worth asking yet again, Are these the actions of an administration that believes it will ever leave power?

[Parody Nigel Farage @Parody_PM]

I'm confident nobody will share this.

[Brendan May @bmay]

On the 10th anniversary of Britain’s National Suicide, please enjoy right wing imbecile Lord Hannan’s glorious predictions about how brilliantly Brexit would turn out. A timeless classic. #idiocracy

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

Ffs. Even now you can’t actually own it.

[Mark Cockerton @CockertonMark]

This could be interesting.

[Greg Bagwell @gregbagwell]

The commemoration of the bravery, tragedy and importance of D-Day is not ever the place to try and score cheap political points. What an ignorant and disrespectful dumbass.

[Brendan May @bmay]

Farage is a cancer on our country. He must never be allowed to govern, ever.

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

Left: Theresa May, "Brexit Means Brexit"

Right: Sunday Times, "Suspend border checks for Britons this summer, airline tells EU"

Your reminder that on On Nov 30th 2017, when the UK was still in the EU, the UK government (as part of the EU Council, where it still had a seat and vote on legislation) voted to adopt Regulation (EU) 2017/2226, which established the EU Entry/Exit System (EES)

This is a biometric border system requiring the collection of fingerprints and facial images from non-EU (“third-country”) nationals entering the Schengen Area

Such is the love of queues for Brits, that before we left the EU we voted to make queues for Brits wanting to visit the EU 🤷‍♂️

[Roger Gall @Shambles151]

Nigel Farage - the leader of Reform UK - is under investigation for failing to declare a £5 million 'gift'.

Please RT this until the BBC gives this story the same level of blanket coverage - as it would for the leader of any other UK political Party.

[Double Down News @DoubleDownNews]

BREAKING: Israel dismisses IDF top lawyer Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi for leaking video of Israeli soldiers raping Palestinian.

Minister of Defense of Israel Israel Katz threatens her with 'imprisonment for many years" & calls her actions "a grave blood libel against heroic IDF fighters."

Rape victim suffered ruptured intestine, severe injury to anus, lungs & broken ribs.

Israelis rioted for the right to rape, ministers defended rapists and one rapist became a TV celebrity. All charges were dropped.

This is Israel

[Karl Flinders @Karlfl]

Government happy to throw taxpayer money at Post Office legal defence but not so for police investigation into its wrongdoing #PostOfficeScandal https://t.co/foFZJCR6xp