From dismissing #coronavirus with 'Take it on the chin' To saying we are prepared To acknowledging people will lose loved ones To showing some guts To accepting our government's response to #covid19 has been a disaster Is Boris Johnson a hero or a failure?

So come back home

It's been the slowest dropping penny, but at least the polling tells us that a considerable majority seem to get it now. You voted Brexit in good faith, given what was promised, who can blame you - but, has the penny dropped for you yet...?

Yet we still have politicians tiptoeing offering half baked damp solutions. There is only one. Join EU. We want fom stop listening to the bigoted minority

Andy Burnham launches a campaign to tackle 'headphone dodgers' on public transport. Meanwhile, Burnham remains silent on Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper's protest policies, under which more than 3,600 people have reportedly been arrested, including over 100 outside Labour's recent party conference. There's something profoundly wrong with Labour's priorities when its leadership finds time to tackle minor antisocial behaviour but avoids confronting the erosion of civil liberties happening right under its nose. It's this failure to recognise the bigger issues, let alone challenge them, that's destroying public trust in Labour.

In 2016 the Conservative Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said, "The only country that would like us to leave the EU is Russia" In 2026 the former Head of MI6 Sir John Sawers said, "Russia was very keen that the Leave campaign should succeed and that Britain should leave the European Union. Because that would marginalise Britain as a global player and weaken Europe in general" "That's the strategic opportunity the Russians spotted, and the leaders of the Leave campaign fell into it" My view: The warning was there before the referendum: Moscow had a clear interest in Britain breaking with Europe. A decade later, a former head of MI6 has explained why — a divided Europe and a Britain pushed to the margins would serve Russia’s strategic interests. It does show that the Kremlin saw Brexit as an opportunity to weaken both Britain and the European Union, and was keen for Leave to win. The damage was predictable: less British influence in Europe, more friction between allies and a weaker collective response to Russian aggression. Brexit handed Moscow the kind of division it wanted. The leaders of Leave may have believed they were restoring Britain’s power. In reality, they pursued a course that played directly into Russia’s hands, and the country is still living with the consequences: weaker, worse off, with escalated societal tensions.

the Kremlin saw Brexit as an opportunity to weaken both Britain and the European Union

#Brexit was, and still is, #Russia and #Putin's dirty work. We need to stand up to Russia and end the Brexit disaster

It is always better if it is said by British. It may be better heard in UK.

Left: Conservative Helen Whately criticised Labour for 174,000 young people unemployed under Labour, suggesting they have the policies to fix it Right: But under the Conservatives, there were 872,000 young people unemployed, because of Conservative policy My view: Helen Whately talks as though the Conservatives have just arrived to discover a problem somebody else created. They governed Britain for 14 years. They had 14 years to improve education, strengthen training and help young people into secure employment. Yet in the final full quarter before they left office, an estimated 872,000 young people were outside education, employment or training. Roughly one in eight. That is a record they must answer for. If their policies offer such convincing solutions now, why did their government leave so many young people without those opportunities? Whately cannot claim authority on fixing the problem while skipping over her party’s responsibility for tackling it when it actually held power. Fourteen years gave the Conservatives ample time to turn promises into results. Labour deserves scrutiny. But Conservative politicians demanding better outcomes should start by explaining their own failures. Losing an election does not wipe away 14 years in government—or turn the people who failed to solve a problem into credible experts on fixing it.

Left: At a Reform UK Christmas party, Nigel Farage laughs as he calls his schooldays “banter” and jokes he’ll get “a hard time for it in 40 years’ time”. The moment was filmed by ITV’s undercover investigation. Right: Peter Ettedgui, whose Jewish grandparents escaped Nazi Germany, is one of 34 former schoolmates who say they witnessed or experienced Farage’s alleged racist or antisemitic behaviour. Ettedgui says Farage told him, “Hitler was right” and “Gas ’em,” followed by a hissing sound. My view: Racism is not made harmless by calling it “banter”. And when a politician laughs off allegations of racist abuse, while former classmates describe being targeted, it raises serious questions about whether he understands the harm—or expects people to accept it as a joke. The problem goes beyond one man. ITV’s undercover investigation showed Reform figures making racist and Islamophobic remarks. When supporters dismiss this as harmless humour or just a few bad apples, they help make prejudice easier to excuse and accountability easier to evade. That is a grim measure of our political discourse: people targeted by racism are asked to prove their pain, while those accused can laugh, deflect and turn it into a punchline. Politics should challenge prejudice, not teach the public to shrug at it.

Reform UK activist Jason Powell, who hopes to become an MP: “You cannot be Muslim and British.” “It’s like oil and water.” My view: For most of my life, I never felt that being British and being Muslim were in conflict. They were simply different parts of who I am: my faith, my culture and the experiences that have shaped me. Even going to a school with daily chapel services and a special Sunday service didn’t diminish my Muslim identity. If anything, it helped me think more deeply about what identity means and how its different parts can sit alongside one another. Then came Brexit, and questions of race, identity and belonging moved to the centre of public debate. They were often wrapped up in an isolationist idea of what it means to be British. I struggled to understand how migrants—whether from the EU or elsewhere—could be blamed for underfunded, overstretched public services when they, like everyone else, contribute as taxpayers. The policies that widened inequality were created by Conservative governments. Tragically, that pattern has continued under Labour. If Labour’s budget brings further cuts instead of the large-scale investment public services need, people who feel ignored or left behind may continue to direct their anger at migrants. That anger and insecurity can also make divisive messages more appealing: the claim, as Powell puts it, that someone cannot be both Muslim and British. These attitudes have long found a home among some people drawn to the parties Nigel Farage has led or been involved with: UKIP, the Brexit Party and now Reform UK. There will always be an undercurrent eager to weaken social cohesion by setting people against one another. But there is hope. If people’s real grievances are addressed, the appeal of extremism can fade, and we can focus again on what brings us together: a shared society where people’s different identities are respected. Labour has spent two years largely sustaining the status quo, with only minor changes. The coming budget will help set the country’s direction. It will show whether Labour intends to bring people together—or whether Andy Burnham’s legacy will be one of allowing division to deepen.

Left: Brexiter Alex Phillips, “say to Muslims in the UK you can't have halal slaughter, I'm not talking about kosher. When you look at Muslim abattoirs run by Muslims, there's so much cruelty, it's evil” Right: Halal and Kosher are pretty much identical except, most halal meat is pre-stunned, like regular meat. So I'm a bit confused, is she calling for unstunned meat instead, like kosher?

Former Labour Minister Alan Milburn wants to cut welfare to fund employment support for young people. Why not provide employment support first, and where success, welfare will come down itself. Why is the first leaver to pull away people's safety net, the very thing that isn't making them worse?

Not wrong.

Reform UK's only female MP Sarah Pochin, "They are so f*cking chauvinistic" "They exclude you if you're a woman" "It's really tough being a girl with all this alpha male sh*t going on" My view: Why remain in an environment she describes as chauvinistic and exclusionary? Perhaps she believes she can change it from within, playing the long game for equality? Or maybe her self-esteem has been worn down so much that she has come to accept this treatment and brush it off as acceptable and normal - not realising that most of the rest of the country doesn't subject themselves to such abuse and micro aggressions on a daily basis? Women talk openly on social media about the emotional and mental toll of being belittled, pressured or treated as though their voices matter less. If she is experiencing that same kind of treatment, what does it say that she appears to accept it? And what example does that set for women and girls, that they should tolerate disrespect to keep their place? Maybe she just dislikes seeing black and brown people on television more than she dislikes the alpha male attitude which she's complaining about, so just lives with it. Who knows, after all, she herself said of herself, "My kids say: mum, you're such a moron" 🤷‍♂️

Very true. Unfortunately the #VoteLeave campaign and collaborators had a complete stranglehold on the media and press narrative. They not only ignored the serious, substantial and justified warnings, but promoted populist propaganda to flood the zone and drown them out.

In France, they're rightly arresting those guilty of criminal damage in the protests. In the UK, @andyburnham is continuing with Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper's legacy of arresting non violent protestors - over 3,600 so far Lord Peter Hain said it was "intellectually bankrupt, politically unprincipled and morally wrong," and our prime minister seems more concerned about 'headphone dodgers' than righting the wrongs of Starmer and Cooper. Tragic for Labour's reputation.

Spot on 👏👏👏👏

Every European and also British citizen considering to vote for a Russian backed party should listen to this and should wonder if a vote like that would be in her/his best interests and in those of their children.

Oh look, the majority of people who want to rejoin the European Union want the Single Market and Freedom of Movement 👏