Happily retired journalist & translator, Andalucía. Flâneuse 🙂. Travel, Nature, Cats, Politics, Languages, Books, Wine (not necessarily in that order 😉). Activist in Spain's Historical Memory movement.
"Dear Diary The launch of our scheme to use the Royal Navy to stop small boats has gone exactly to plan. It is so patently absurd that it is all anyone can talk about, providing the perfect distraction from all our dodgy financial dealings"
How the hell have journalists allowed Farage and Yusuf to pretend that their Royal Navy idea is a ‘humanitarian’ mission if ‘innocent’ immigrants are taken back to France, but a full-scale war-like ‘invasion’ of ‘illegals’ if coming our way? I mean, seriously. Please don’t be this hopeless…
“a brand new party full of new people” - Badenoch www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Former neo-Nazi activist selected as Tory candidate for Somerset council electionJoshua Bonehill-Paine, creator of satirical Crewkerne Gazette, has convictions including for harassing a Jewish MPwww.theguardian.comToday I have mostly been telling lies about using Navy warships against dinghies and forgetting to mention that small boat arrivals are down 44% and net migration fell by 80% last year.
Striking how Reform have pivoted over the course of two days from the nonsensical claim that 'Ceuta proves we are in terrible danger' to the nonsensical claim that 'Ceuta proves there is a simple solution'.
And 25% of voters would put these ridiculous moneyed fools in charge of the govt and treasury, would they? How many investigations into Reform’s dodgy finances are there now? I’ve lost count. And no, it’s not an ‘establishment’ plot. It’s just what happens when corruption/incompetence meets scrutiny
Paul BrandBREAKING: Parliamentary standards commissioner is now investigating Reform UK’s Deputy Leader Richard Tice (as well as its paused investigation into Nigel Farage). Tice is being investigated for allegedly failing to declare a financial interest.
Which is an example of why I think the term 'Brexitism' is useful, as I argue in this recently published piece: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/ZGMSN... (not sure if this link wil give full access: apologies if not) 2/2
Brexitism: Brexit’s new domainsThis commentary argues that the term ‘Brexitism’ is a necessary addition to the lexicon of concepts used to understand contemporary British politics. Its value lies in capturing how Brexit continue...www.tandfonline.comReform's latest proposals display many features of pro-Brexit arguments, including bogus but technical-sounding claims (here, UNCLOS, cf 'CTA', 'WTO terms', 'GATT 24'), and assumptions aboutt what other countries/ EU will/ should/ must do. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... 1/2
France hits out at Reform UK plan to return migrants using Royal NavyIt comes after the party said it would override French objections to return migrants to France.www.bbc.co.uk
Of course Farage's 'policy' doesn’t work. It isn't intended to work. It's meant to cause a splash in the unthinking press (and GMB) and thereby get Doris at Number 33 Lambert Road, Peterborough to go 'Ooh at last someone is trying to do something about these awful boat crossings.' That's it.
The GuardianFormer navy officer criticises Reform plan to use military to stop small boats
Aprendamos de la gente de Ceuta y regalemos a Vito Quiles y Alvise Perez la misma cálida bienvenida en cualquier sitio de España.
How come Farage is allowed to hold a press conference, which was broadcast on the BBC?
Sending the navy to stop the boats is not a serious policy, and it would help if the UK media made that clear. Seriously.
Long, but worth your time. Farage, the money launderer and me: a decade of denial www.thenerve.news/p/nigel-fara...
Farage, the money launderer and me: a decade of denialThe Reform leader’s relationship with the UK media has enabled him to operate with impunity for years. This past fortnight, that impunity finally appeared to be coming to an end. Carole Cadwalladr, wh...www.thenerve.news
Vance, Farage and Weidel posted fear-mongering messages about a Spanish migrant crisis that weren't true. They haven't retracted them. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
The Far Right Is Distorting CeutaWe’ve seen this before.www.theatlantic.com
Since the EU return directive (until its replacement) explicitly allows Member States to regularise irregular migrants, this would have been a nonsensical and unlawful response to Spain's decision to do so.
Bogdan BuduroiuItaly and other bloc nations should've suspended Schengen status with Spain when Sanchez announced mass amnesty, when most of the EU bloc wants the opposite. Sure, this was an easy political victory for Meloni, but the crisis is of Sanchez's own making
The legal details of why Spain's regularisation of irregular migrants was lawful under EU law as it stands, and therefore why responding to it by suspension of Spain's participation in Schengen would have been unlawful
Steve PeersAccession is subject to unanimous voting. Suspension by a group of Member States is subject to a detailed procedure in the Borders Code based on "serious deficiencies" in external border control. Again, as things stand regularisation of irregular migrants is expressly allowed by the return directive
Disgraceful conduct from the UK: EU citizens in UK get letters telling them post-Brexit residency rights were given ‘in error’ www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
EU citizens in UK get letters telling them post-Brexit residency rights were given ‘in error’After years of building lives in UK, potentially hundreds of thousands of EU citizens could be told they have no right to remainwww.theguardian.comThis declaration on Ceuta and Melilla in Spain's Schengen accession treaty is now reaffirmed in the Schengen Borders Code BTW eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016...
Steve PeersHere are those special rules on Ceuta and Melilla as regards Schengen - dating back to Spain acceding to the Schengen Convention eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-conten...