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
We answer for our actions not our friends. Lord Hermer isn’t “Starmer’s mate”, he’s a consulting lawyer Starmer shunts public money towards. The ownership of Rennaker aren’t friends of Burnham. They’re the recipients of misallocated public funds. Which are both corruption.
Quite possibly the worst edition of BBC Newsnight ever
As Reform UK's Laila Cunningham reveals herself to be an absolute disgrace, shouting and speaking over other guests
What a sad day for the BBC and the country at large
The Brexit *vote* was after six years of Tory government. There’s no actual chronology to “when the despair took hold” because increasingly there’s no need to tie it to *real causes*.
The argument of Democracy in Britain is clearly not between Kemi Badenoch, who has no policies besides media censorship, and Andy Burnham, who has no policies except media censorship.
If you think this reflects actual opinion then you are just thick.
“The scrutiny he deserves” is wholly divorced from the actual final cause of democracy. If Farage refuses to care about the scandal, the scandal doesn’t exist. The media cannot confect reality, they can only coincide with it.
One thing in Nigel Farage’s speech really resonated with me. We indeed do not have enough people in politics who have been given £5m gifts by other people. This experience would be so valuable to good government if only it were more widely shared.
You would be a wiser man if you took this to heart. You are hated. There are reasons for this, but the facts remain the same with a vehemence that is fierce. Rather than thinking something has to change, let us instead keep doing the Silly Sleaze Dance to appeal to the rain gods.
Lord Alli is a political lobbyist who has been employed by the Foreign Office and the secret services. Cottrell is working for no one. No one cares about this scandal, therefore it is proof people hate you and the political class you leech on more than they demand uprightness.
Nigel Farage opened his Party Conference speech in 2024 by whipping out a pair of glasses, in the wake of the Lord Ali scandal.
"Do you like them?" He asked the crowd.
"Very expensive, but guess what I bought them myself! How about that!”
Fake, nonsense, didn’t matter, it’s just a question of whether Farage can wake up and realise it doesn’t matter. The people of Britain have been talking of nothing but Trump drone striking Gianni Infantino for 3 days. They DON’T CARE about COTTRELL.
That Starmer thinks putting yourself up for judgement by the people is dodging scrutiny says everything about his understanding of political legitimacy, which has nothing to do with democracy.
Remember that when they explain controls on social media, donations on that basis.
It is in the nature of polemic that a conditional argument sometimes must be made, even one we are unsure of the falseness thereof, in order to advance to a more creative or receptive starting point.
Burnham devo latest:
🔴Rayner tipped to return to MHCLG - leading on devo
🔴Haigh widely expected to take on CDL/chief sec to the PM type role - could mean overseeing No10 in the North
🔴Machinery of govt details still being ironed out and until agreed Cabinet remains in flux