You all might hate me for this, but I think Keir is right about the NATO point. I think the UK should remain in NATO for now, and the UK should keep its nuclear weapons for now. Russia, a country with nuclear weapons, poses a big threat to the security of Europe and the UK. I think Britain’s nukes will help to keep the UK safe for the time being. Also China could pose a major military threat in the future. Even the US could potentially pose some form of threat to the UK; look at Trump’s strong dislike of European nations and the independence of those nations.

What’s great about those numbers is Con+Reform is soooo far behind Lab+Lib+Greens.

Because of our crappy first-past-the-post system though, the most likely next government (if an election were held soon) would be a Reform government, or maybe a Reform/Conservative government.

Reform’s support in recent polls has only been around 24% - 30%. So around 70% of British voters don’t support Reform. Nonetheless, because Reform polls better than any other individual party, they could run the next government. Like how Labour in 2024 only got 34% of votes, but this gave them 63% of seats.

If the anti-Reform vote continues to be split between Labour/Greens/LibDems/SNP (and even Tories, since there will be Tory voters who don’t like Reform) then Farage will be the next prime minister. Surely the best counter to Reform would be a big tent centrist or centre-left party with wide appeal.

You claimed that Epstein was “running a child raping blackmail ring on Israel’s behalf in order to manipulate world events”

Maybe Epstein raped children because of his own inclinations; not because Israel made him do it, or because they paid him to do it, etc

Which specific quotes from these articles do you think show that Epstein committed his crimes “on Israel’s behalf”? I suppose it’s possible that all his crimes were directed by Israeli intelligence or something like that. I would have thought it would be bigger news if that were true. Also surely possible is that he was just a wealthy criminal and abuser who didn’t have much to do with Israel.

I think it can easily be interpreted as antisemitism so the artist probably should have avoided it

You claimed Epstein was “running a child raping blackmail ring on Israel’s behalf” but that article doesn’t seem to mention sex or rape

If Epstein had conversations with Israeli officials then okay, but I don’t think that means his sex crimes were some sort of plot masterminded by Israel

You also said “criticizing the government of Israel does not equate to antisemitism” and yes I agree with that. But putting a Star of David on Epstein’s underwear in the artwork seems to me like an antisemitic dog whistle. Epstein was not known for links to Israel (as I said, maybe he had some conversations with Israelis, but this isn’t widely known). He is widely known to be Jewish though.

I just think criticism of public figures should be based upon facts (which seem to be horrible enough in this case) instead of bigotry or conjecture

Please prove the “fact” that Epstein was a “Mossad agent” working on “Israel’s behalf” with a reputable source to substantiate your claims

You’re right. Without the Star of David it would be a good piece of art, but instead it looks like the artist really doesn’t like Jews

I assume that belongs to a Newcastle United footballer

Quite right. The Trump administration are the ones who decided they don’t need allies. Fine, then there is no obligation for America’s old allies to help America.

Maybe there should be an official alliance between America’s old allies: Europe, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, etc. A big free trade area with Americans excluded.

I think it would be patriotic to play …And Justice For All, by the red-blooded American rock band Metallica, endlessly on repeat

What better way to celebrate the rebellious act of American independence than to play a song which rebels against powerful figures like Brendan Carr

The font is probably the least bad thing about his administration

When I saw this news my reaction was to say “lol”

He’s a bit of a silly billy isn’t he

Interesting, I didn’t know China had little oil. I would have guessed that it was just a pragmatic business decision from China (“there will be global demand for green tech, so let’s serve that demand”), whereas Trump and his administration are too ideological to make sensible, pragmatic decisions

Obama clarified his comments on Instagram:

I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it’s gotten attention let me clarify. Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there. But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!

What’s crazy is that Trump would never say anything even half as intelligent as that.

I noticed a similar thing with Reform - at one of their rallies, nearly everybody in the audience was an old white man.

Larry is apparently 19. I didn’t know cats lived to such a grand old age.

If you want to support European companies then Here is apparently majority owned by a group of German companies (Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Bosch, Continental) with 15% owned by Intel and the remaining 31% owned by Japanese companies (Mitsubishi, NTT, Pioneer).

Brit here, and I don’t know which statues you mean are being displayed in a garden but yeah you could well be right.

There was famously the statue of Edward Colston, a slave trader, in Bristol. In 2020 the statue was toppled by some protestors. The statue is now in a museum. The people who toppled it were tried in a court for criminal damage, but they were found not guilty by a jury who I guess were sympathetic to the defendants.

Add some veg, and some butter for the bread, and it’s a good meal

Anyhow, Keir seems like a lame duck right?

If he can keep Labour members of parliament happy then perhaps he can stay as prime minister. But he might lose his job if Labour do badly in the May local elections. Polling shows they might indeed do badly.