Fish

[Matt Goodwin @GoodwinMJ]

I would like to say something about Zia Yusuf, Tim Montgomerie, and Reform.

I wouldn't normally say anything publicly but in case you haven't noticed there is clearly a coordinated campaign underway to discredit and demonise Zia Yusuf.

It is being pushed by ex-Tories like Tim Montgomerie, Fraser Nelson, and their allies in legacy media -- including The Times and The Spectator.

They are pushing a deeply misleading narrative that goes like this: Zia is a liability, divisive or "sulphurous", is too angry, and is limiting Reform's reach.

This is complete nonsense.

Zia Yusuf has done far more for Reform than the people who are briefing against him.

He set up countless branches, turned Reform into a serious party, and turned up at every single campaign.

When I asked Zia to help us with something during a by-election he just said: "whatever you need".

When I had to listen to an SW1-type podcast on the same campaign, which included "Reform supporter" Tim Montgomerie, I did not hear a single positive word said about us. It just seems some are more loyal to the media class than the party they claim to represent.

Zia is one of the most followed Reform politicians for a reason. Our activists and members love him. And the idea he is limiting Reform's reach is for the birds.

Here's what his critics won't tell you.

When did Reform peak? Last summer. On 35%.

When only a few of us were touring the country and Zia happened to be one of our main spokespersons.

And when did Reform actually start drifting in the polls? In January. And what happened then?

Reform started taking lots of ex-Tories.

The more we took on people who are associated in the minds of voters with the establishment, the more we diluted our anti-establishment zeal.

Which is why I have time for Zia and why he is central to the broad coalition that we need.

Neither of us are ex-Tories. Neither of us are Westminster types. Neither of us put loyalty to the media class ahead of our loyalty to the British people.

And both of us understand what this is really about -- the need for a radical, fundamental, and complete break from the failed politics of the last 30 years.

Many Tory voters want that.
Many blue Labour voters want that.
Many Lib Dem protestors want that.
Many Restore voters want that.
And many 'none-of-the-above' voters want that, too.

And if Reform doubled down on that we would start rising very quickly in the polls once more.

A complete departure from the failed model of politics that started with Tony Blair in 1997 and is still reflected on the front bench of today's Tory party.

A complete end to mass immigration, broken borders, ECHR membership, welfare for foreigners, two-tier justice, record taxes, surging energy bills, and more.

When Zia recently accused failed Tory Ministers (not Tory voters) of betrayal, I agreed strongly with him.

The political and media class said "tut tut" but there is a clear and direct line that runs from Tory Ministers importing tens of thousands of Afghans while gagging media and lying to voters to the current epidemic of sexual assaults on British women and girls.

Tory politicians willingly put our own people in danger. Much like they sold British workers down the river with the Boriswave. Much like they removed the requirement for British companies to advertise jobs in Britain first.

I don't care if it upsets them - they betrayed the British people. They should be called out on it.

When Tim Montgomerie first joined Reform, I text Nigel Farage to say it would end in tears.

It wasn't just because Tim had already called for myself to be "removed from public life" after I suggested the British people had every right to feel angry about how the son of Rwandan migrants had murdered children in Southport.

It was because Tim was clearly joining to try and "police" Reform's message, policy, and style.

To make sure we didn't venture "too far" beyond the boundaries of acceptable, polite, Westminster politics. To make sure we didn't upset people on BBC sofas.

And so all we've had for nearly two years is constant criticism. Criticising Nigel. Criticising Nigel's team. Criticising our refugee policy. Criticising our choice of candidates. Criticising our brilliant campaign in Gorton & Denton (despite never being seen on the ground).

And constantly, constantly criticising Zia.

All. Of. The. Time.

Critical friends are important for political parties but if your friend is only ever p*ssing inside the tent and never p*ssing outside the tent you get to a point where you have to ask: why am I hanging out with this friend?

I say all this because it speaks to an important point.

What Zia recognises, what I recognise, what the vast majority of Reform activists and voters recognise is that we do not want to be policed or controlled by the failed politics that has very nearly destroyed Britain.

We reject that politics completely.

We do not want to operate within the parameters of the failed Tory-Labour consensus in Westminster.

We do not want to be kept within the boundaries of a political project that inflicted all the chaos and carnage you see around you today.

We do not want to have to work alongside people who literally said they called Tony Blair and Boris Johnson to check if it's ok they defect to Reform.

And yes, we are angry. Rightly so.

Who isn't angry when they look at the state of Britain? Who isn't angry when they look at how politicians are treating our people like second-class citizens in our own country? Who isn't angry when they see British workers and British kids being sold out at every turn?

Those people, the silent majority, deserve a new politics that unashamedly and unequivocally puts them first.

Zia gets that. So do I. And so do countless others in Reform. So what we should be doing is leaning into all those people and reasserting our anti-establishment zeal. If we do that then those voters will not only return Reform to 35% in the polls, which is where we were last summer, but will also hand us the only thing that will actually save Britain: a Reform majority.

That's all I want to say on the matter.

[Seán Duffy @duffy_sean_]

The biggest concern for Scottish Labour is that they’ve just had a debate between two leadership candidates and almost no one is talking about it.

We are fading into the background and the debate between these two men is basically of no interest to the public.

We are into 90 minutes plus stoppage time and the lads are just passing it around at the back.

[James Melville 🚜 @JamesMelville]

I don’t want technology to “evolve” another bloody inch. I hate that everything demands an app or QR code. I hate supermarket self-checkouts that scold you for “unexpected items” as if you have committed a hate crime with a packet of biscuits. I hate ringing a company and suddenly you’re trapped in a doom loop of an endless conversation with a robot before being left on hold long enough to waste an entire afternoon. I hate how local bank branches are closing and customer service is no longer communication with a bank manager but with an AI bot. I hate websites that force you to prove you’re human by enforcing a dystopian farce quiz to spot 3 sets of traffic lights in a fog of pixelated misery. I hate digital app passwords, verification codes and subscriptions. I hate how town centre car parks often no longer accept cash payments and the only way to park is by registering to another bloody app. I hate receiving unsolicited phone calls from an AI automated robot. And I really hate how the whole digital circus excludes half of the country’s pensioners simply because they never signed up to live inside a smartphone.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Rant over.

[Fish @LeighWilson94]

@BBCDavidWL Thank God. She's obsessed with trans nutters.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

It shows what your deficit would be on day one of separation from rUK. What happens after that would be up to you. But no amont of bluster or obfuscation can hide the fact you haven’t a clue what you’d do. Decades of whining on about separation and you still haven’t a clue how you’d deal with the biggest deficit in Europe. It’s pathetic. You’re credibility is zero. You’re an embarrassment to Scotland.

[Ross Martin @ScotIncGrowth]

So tell me @kevverage what are the particular characteristics that make Scotland so uniquely ill suited to be an independent country? And why - in your analysis - has the current constitutional set up led to such a sorry state of affairs? 🤔 1/2

[Kevin Hague @kevverage]

here’s why i think we are where we are in Scotland:

people with a visceral desire for Scotland to separate from the UK get drawn into Scottish politics honestly believing false grievances like “we send more to Westminster than we get back”

1/3

[Richard Dawkins @RichardDawkins]

Extracts from article in Spectator 16th August by Brendan O’Neill:

Behold the human wreckage of the cult of diversity. The tragedy of Jason Arday is that he was both built up and destroyed by the ruthless machinery of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion). The academy made him into the golden boy of its philistine project of ‘decolonisation’ and gave not one thought to what the consequences might be if his thin story unravelled, as it inevitably would. No one can deny it now: wokeness makes false gods and real tragedies. . .

This is the poison chalice of the state religion of diversity. It lays traps for the very people it celebrates. It handpicks members of ‘the oppressed’ for moral anointment and institutional gushing while leaving them open to exposure as others start to query their credentials. That’s the toxic bargain of identity politics: it builds teetering pedestals for ethnic-minority thinkers, meaning their fall from grace is often twice as fatal.

And what a pedestal they made for Arday. They worshipped him as ‘the best in the world’. They beatified him as a black wunderkind whose very presence in a place like Cambridge might help to wash away its sins of whiteness. They canonised him as a living monument to ‘decolonisation’. It was precisely this, their giddy, narcissistic desire to manufacture a kind of black saviour, that made them turn a blind eye to the questionable elements of Arday’s CV and life story. They sacrificed their due diligence to the god of decolonisation.

And Arday suffered. He was both poster boy and sacrificial lamb of the diversity crusade. Even as he gained from it – reaching the dizzying heights of a Cambridge professorship – he was being damned by it. The foundation of myth and sand his starry career was built on was untenable. Its collapse was a given. It is a testament to the ideological blindness of the inhabitants of our ivory towers that none of them foresaw it. . . .

The Faustian ruthlessness of it all is mindblowing.

. . . The media is the only institution in this entire tragic scandal that did its job properly. Journalists found a story and they told it. It was the academy and Arday’s colleagues who failed to do their jobs. Who failed to prize merit over identity, and failed to foresee the public embarrassment that would befall their falsely promoted friend. They ignored the truth – the media found it.

I and others have been arguing for years that the politics of identity is a disaster for all, black and white alike. White kids are overlooked, black kids are patronised. Whites are branded ‘privileged’, blacks ‘oppressed’. Whites are seen as the beneficiaries of historic crimes who must atone for past sins, blacks as history’s perma-victims who require the gracious helping hand of the state. We are demonised or infantilised according to the accident of our race.

Enough. Let our monument to Jason Arday be the restoration of the true ideal of equality. We couldn’t save Jason but we can save merit from the monstrous jaws of identity.

[Tony @EvacTony]

Man on the left weaves a web of lies to make money, gets found out, kills himself. The far left are inconsolable and outraged at those who pointed out the lies, accusations of racism and shows of solidarity with the deceased fraudster.

Right, 78 year old lady, brutally bludgeoned to death, in her own kitchen because of her honest held political beliefs. The far left (in vast numbers) find it all Hysterical.

Explain

#JasonArday #AnnWiddecombe

[David @BR3Loyal]

I’ll be in the minority here but I actually feel sorry for the manager. Waited all his life to manage this club and he is betrayed badly by others. Gerrard was right.

Something big needs to change and fast. This is the worst squad for a long time and it’s cost tens of millions!

[Evon @_evon3929]

If your phone is more than 3 years old, don't replace it.

AI just pushed phone prices up 13% and the shortage runs past 2030. Your phone isn't old, it's carrying settings that have been slowing it down since day one.

Works on iPhone and Android. Here are the 8 to change tonight:👇

[Christopher Hale @ChristopherHale]

The most underrated political ad of all time.

[Gordon Mckenzie @kezzy1965]

Scotland's deficit has now increased by more than £6bn in just 3 years, condemning the SNP's independence dreams to the rubbish bin.

New figures showed that the net fiscal deficit dropped only slightly, from £26.5bn to £25.3bn, which is 10.9% of GDP.

There is no case for Indy.

[Fish @LeighWilson94]

@JamesMelville Who do we vote for to deliver this, James?

[Paul Mason @paulmasonnews]

The Green Party in one clip 👇🏽

[Dr Zubir Ahmed MP @zubirahmed]

I'm touched to occupy your head my little friend. But I'm concerned for your health at being so prematurely triggered. Here is the whole article. https://t.co/bNoDIwtJJf
I think you'll enjoy it. There's even a little listen button in case you don't last beyond the first 280 characters.

[BBC Breakfast @BBCBreakfast]

'I'll give you a sample'

Comedian Matt Forde tries out his impression of Prime Minister Andy Burnham on #BBCBreakfast 😂😂

https://t.co/3mnUQLsMfw

[Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh]

🔥 LMAO! Grandpa Trump just sprung into action to stop the little boy from running off stage

*Runs after the kid*: "I don't want him to be BIDEN and fall off the stage!"

😂😂

[Camus @newstart_2024]

Cristiano Ronaldo’s daily diet is almost aggressively simple.

Eggs, avocado and black coffee in the morning. Fish or chicken with big portions of vegetables the rest of the day. Black or red rice instead of white. Olive oil, lemon, minimal salt. Occasional liver.

No flour, no bread, no pasta, no added sugar, no dairy, no processed sauces.

Dr. Clay Moss noted why this works so well for someone still competing at the highest level: high nutrient density, low glycemic load, and very little of the inflammatory load that comes with ultra-processed food.

The real advantage is simply repeating real food day after day with almost no exceptions.

Consistency over complexity.