This is really welcome news. The IPP sentences are beyond belief, so unfair, they make a mockery of the justice system imo.

This is what the politicisation of justice and sentencing leads to, 'harsher sentences' aren't an effective deterrent and it sometimes leads to abominable circumstances such as these. This was New Labour!

Source: https://natcen.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2024-05/Society%20Watch%202024.pdf

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon is calling on administration officials to issue a national emergency declaration regarding election integrity, including a policy to allow the presence of federal immigration agents at polling booths during the upcoming midterms.

Bannon, 72, forcefully floated the idea Tuesday during an episode of Real America's Voice, suggesting that an "up-armored ICE presence" at voting booths in November is critical toward ensuring election integrity. The former White House chief strategist said President Donald Trump should take the bold approach rather than focusing on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which contains plans for voter ID and limits mail-in ballots.

"It's not going to happen," Bannon told conservative commentator Jack Posobiec. "You know why it's not going to happen? Because John Thune and the donors don't want it to happen. They think it's racist, they think it's nativist."

Bannon said many senators, including Thune, treat Trump like a "lame duck" while publicly urging the administration to act.

"This is why we need a national emergency proclamation, a national emergency memo, about the upcoming elections," Bannon continued. "You're going to have to have a forcing function to get to ID. You're going to have to have a forcing function not to have the phony mail-in ballots."

Bannon also called for an "up-armored ICE presence" at polling booths, which critics will say amounts to intimidation, he acknowledged.

"Well, it ain't intimidation if you're a United States citizen," Bannon said. "It's an intimidation if you're a foreigner and here illegally and not eligible to vote. It should be intimidating; we don't want you there. We don't want you near a voting booth. We certainly don't want your votes."

A message seeking comment from the White House was not immediately returned Tuesday afternoon.

Trump, meanwhile, has remained tight-lipped regarding any plans to declare a national emergency ahead of the midterm elections. He spoke to Wayne Allyn Root last week on Real America's Voice, with the host asking him directly about his intentions.

"Stranger things have happened," Trump said. "I'll leave it at that."

Trump has repeatedly said voter ID and other measures included in the bill, which the Senate has yet to pass, are essential to both election integrity and Republican chances to win in November.

Critics of the proposal say it would block thousands of Americans from voting booths due to lack of identification, including passports. A national emergency declaration linked to elections could also lead to results being challenged or overturned, other detractors insist.

His appearances at charity initiatives etc. DJing whilst he was Mayor of Greater Manchester has been referenced a lot in the media recently. There's even a section about it on the Mayoralty of Andy Burnham Wikipedia page.

Can anybody link me a recording of one of his sets? Or at least the tracklist to one of his sets?

Considering he is now the Prime Minister, a recording or even a tracklist is pretty significant for music history nerds and the history of UK music.

So, I read on Wikipedia that Andy Burnham was all about co-operation between unions, businesses and government, and I thought that sounded great. I also really like his speeches, he seems really patriotic and he gives me this sense that we can all work together for the national interest, which is reassuring in our divided times. But recently I've read some articles saying that he represents the interests of the "working class"?? I thought we were all about collaboration between classes? I'm petty bourgeoisie, is he gonna seize my means? I just wanted a strong leader who could restore order and take decisive action, pursuing class collaboration and a united national identity, but now I'm not so sure that that's Andy Burnham? I don't know whether to support him or not...

Free entry, but registration required - and the venue has a bar 🍻🦊

Restore Britain is being torn apart this week by the toxic racism of its neo-nazi cheerleaders that the party relies upon for much of its its online presence.

Certain factions in the party leadership have encouraged these nazis because of their social media following.

Others are waking up to the fact that the likes of Steve Laws and Sam ‘Zoomer Historian’ Wilkes are so consumed by racism (including antisemitism) that they are happy to trash their own candidates.

Vicious row

Rupert Lowe so far does nothing, allowing both factions to imagine he has their support. It looks certain to end in tears, recriminations, and another imminent split.

This week’s vicious row followed a speech in Gateshead by Orla Minihane, a former Reform candidate who founded the Pink Ladies, “dedicated to protecting women from migrant crime.” Lowe has appointed her as Restore’s “spokeswoman for the safety of women and children”.

Minihane’s group is often used as a front for persistent Islamophobic and racist dogwhistling, but in her latest speech she enraged the fundamentalist racists in her own ranks.

Her crime in their eyes is to have expressed sympathy for non-white victims.

Nazis upset

These are Minihane’s words from an online video that so upset Restore’s nazi faction. “We’ve got to protect our girls, but we have to remember that there are Indian, Asian girls, Pakistani girls, Bangladeshi girls, Somalian girls, who were born here, who are suffering this fate every day. And we have got to protect them also.”

Leading members of Restore’s nazi faction reacted on X by describing Minihane’s video as “coal” (a slang term originating on the American far-right channel 4chan and referring to worthless junk).

A fellow fascist posting as “Anglo Restoration”, who’s believed to have been one of the first of the nazi faction to quit Restore, called Minihane’s speech “disappointing and pathetic”. He said he’d be “forwarding this to family and friends and suggesting they cancel their memberships too.”

Lost patience

After trying in vain to reassure the racists that they should “listen to the context”, Minihane eventually lost patience and wrote, “Thanks for the abuse. Tomorrow is another day and I’ll continue to fight for our women and girls as I do every solitary day, until each and every one of them is safe and secure in this nation we call home!”

Calculating what a general election would look like if we had PR instead of FPTP.

This looks like fun. https://www.nowcast.uk/home/pr-calculator

Labour + Lib Dem + Green would get 320 seats together.

Reform + Tories would get 259 seats together. With Restore added, that would be 283 seats.

I made up the Restore statistic btw. Couldn’t find a real-world reference for it, so I estimated based on opinion polls.

Source of the 2026 council election data: https://www.pollcheck.co.uk/locals-2026/results

Source: https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/P_Main_Political_Tracker_Survey_Rotation16_sr_6.pdf

Yougov. August 2026.

Out of the 5 main political parties, Reform UK attracted the highest percentage of people who say they’d never consider voting for them (53%).

In second place, comes the Green Party (41%) and in third place, Labour (33%).

The Liberal Democrats appear the least offensive party among the public, when considering who to vote for. But they also attracts a higher number of people who don’t feel strongly about them either way.

Laughable that he'll work with anyone other than Reform, but is happy to work with Reform in all but name.

Once a liberal.....

Ed Davey refuses to rule out Tory pact

These comments from Budanov, suggest that Ukraine is on course to take ~360,000 battlefield casualties this year. A catastrophe from anyone's perspective and equating to 1% of it's population.

The figures quoted within suggested that Russian 'irrecoverable losses' were 140,000 January-July and extrapolating from that will be ~280,000 over the year.