Dan Wilberforce

@ZackPolanski Double standard decree no.578789722: Classist stereotyping is permitted from the leader of a political party when it’s directed towards someone assumed to be from a privileged background.

"Hamish de Bretron-Gordon." Clearly a champion of the people. Join.greenparty.org.uk

@JMPSimor Not even surprised anymore

To the core.

Much of the article is quite properly argued. But this: “Instincts forged at the Bar, not in the real world” - this extract alone demonstrates the sophistry and lack of awareness endemic within journalism today. I would like to see Tominey come down to the cells and see what it’s like at the coal face. The Bar is one of the most diverse work places imaginable. Not recognising that is a slap in the face to the thousands of barristers who very much exist in the real world, who see it, hear it and smell it everyday. The Bar is far more than left leaning trendy human rights activists.

⚖️ '[His] instincts were forged at the Bar, not in the real world. Britain is now paying the price' | Writes Camilla Tominey Read more ⬇️ telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01/3…

@campbellclaret @KemiBadenoch @RobertJenrick Is there a politician going that isn’t opportunistic? Can’t think of one. Isn’t Rory Stewart’s book aimed exactly at this type of culture and what our political system fosters and facilitates? It’s not a partisan issue, it’s endemic.

Smart move @KemiBadenoch - I think the Tories and the public (the minority who know who @RobertJenrick is) decided some time ago there there is something deeply untrustworthy and opportunistic about him. Once a Cameroon he has decided his best route to high office is now via Reform. Trouble is with every defection of every Tory architect of the mess 🇬🇧 is in @Nigel_Farage chances of power dim rather than grow. We could well be passed peak Reform already. This is the time for both Labour and the Tories to step up the fight

Our politics favours this kind of person. The same rot gave us Truss. It’s the ‘yes minister’ approach to government. Strong minded, charismatic people are feared and chopped from the list early in order to protect the old guard. It also prevents good, strong policy being robustly critiqued from within the parties. God forbid anyone publicly disagrees with the party line.

Men like Mike Tapp are extraordinarily limp. They are strong against the weak, and weak against the strong. They don’t stand up for this country, or its allies, or its interests, the minute it’s tough. Labour needs clearing out.

This type of religiously inspired ethnocentrism is not an isolated phenomenon within the Jewish community. Identical sentiments can be found in the meetings of the far right ethno-nationalists and the sermons of imams up and down the country. All forms are equally as dangerous to the UK. @JMPSimor, when you say that this kind of rhetoric fuels antisemitism, what is the social/psycological mechanism/process that you think leads to antisemitism in this instance? As in who (generally) would likely take exception to this rhetoric and manifest antisemitic sentiments?

@DrDanielAlbert I’m afraid she fuels antisemitism and, with her supporters, hatred of Muslims.

She does so much harm to Jews, Muslims, Christians - to all of us. So much harm.

Because finger pointing and name calling gets us nowhere. The point of a controlled debate is that interrupting and overbearing behaviours are avoided. If you can’t see that increasingly polarised enmity between left and right is incredibly dangerous, you’re part of the problem. I simply want respectful debate and a restoration of conversation with a focus on how we can compromise and coexist. Perhaps that’s a forlorn hope, but I feel it’s a necessity if we are to avoid a genuine decent into sectarian violence. Anyone who knows anything about history knows that to be a terrifying prospect.

@PolaBear2637 @Dan_Wilberforce @JMPSimor So Goodwin can interrupt and talk over her, whilst avoiding answering difficult questions. That’s the usual right wing way.

The wannabe Lord, whose ambition never fails to get the better of him, has, it seems, blocked me. It’s the free speech “warriors” that fear being faced with free speech - just like Putin & every other autocrat in history. Reform covet power, whatever the cost for Britain.

@PaulEmbery Great book. Have bought it many times as a gift. Should get an audiobook version sorted

Published on this day five years ago. Reviewed positively by many. Hammered by elements of the left, who accused me of echoing the 'far right'. Still in print and provoking debate. I stand by every word.

@BladeoftheS They can only choose from those who applied to go on the show. You have no idea what the starting numbers were like. Submit an FOI request and get back to us.

Bradford is nearly 1/3rd Muslim, Hindu or Sikh. Question Time picked an audience that was more than 90% White. That tells you everything.

@5Pillarsuk @DillyHussain88 The reality is that he expressed moderation and an unpopular nuance in an age and within a community that will simply not accept breaking ranks. He spoke his truth, and he will be punished for it.

OPINION: The recent interview between Nottingham-based imam Umayr Mulla and the notorious far-right Islamophobe Tommy Robinson was, to put it bluntly, a disappointingly naïve engagement that has done far more harm than good, writes @DillyHussain88. 5pillarsuk.com/2025/10/26/san…

Years ago? They weren’t in government years ago. They weren’t in a position to help. Now they are trying to help. Where were you for the last 15 years of Tory rule? Damned if you help. Damned if you don’t. How about some constructive/practical suggestions with regard to how community unity can be improved? Because it sounds an awful lot like the responsibility for the current situation is being placed on everyone else.

The Government doesn’t get applause for throwing £10m at a crisis it helped create. If it had stood up to the far right and backed real community unity years ago, we wouldn’t need a “damage control” fund.

So he was conscripted into the IDF at some point in the 1980s?? Clearly he left Israel, and little is known of his actual deployments. He was not a commander or such like as far as I can tell… And he is now a professor, teaching economics at university, imparting knowledge and contributing to society. If that is correct, on what fathomable level is this behaviour acceptable? They made threats to behead him… But they are young and impulsive. You however, have no excuse. And having been an academic, you should know better. How many conflicts have there been since the 80s? How many wars and atrocities- Kosovo/bosnia, Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Syria, Congo, Iraq… just to name a few. But of course, your obsession just ‘happens’ to be with a jewish professor who, half a life time ago, was conscripted into an army tasked with defending a country full of the most persecuted minority in history. It is well documented that we have individuals in this country have actively participated in ISIS related atrocities. Where’s your outrage? It’s simply a double standard. You should be condemning the fatuous behaviour of these students. They demonstrate beautifully the total decline in academic rigour and critical thought plaguing our universities. You need to seriously examine your ethical and moral parameters here, as well as your logic. By your own analysis of this situation, Islamophobia cannot be held to be an issue of racism, as Islam is also not bound by race…

👏🏾Any British-Israeli who served/serves as IOF/IDF should be investigated & prosecuted in Britain for war crimes. Shamima Begum's passport was revoked for 'marrying' ISIS why not passports of British-Israeli IOF/IDF murderers & babykillers? Don't you dare expel these students @CityStGeorges. Hold Michael Ben-Gad accountable. Just because he's a Jew doesn't make it 'racism' to oppose, resist & protest IOF terrorists. Jews are NOT a race & this is NOT antisemitism. If a Jewish person commits/participates in a war crime he/she should be held accountable. Period.

Well, well. The Metropolitan police have banned this weekend's planned Ukip demonstration against 'Islamists' in Tower Hamlets, east London. The police stated that the protest cannot take place in Tower Hamlets owing to the number of Muslims who live there and the risk of 'serious disorder' breaking out. They added that an alternative location would be acceptable. You don't have to be a supporter of Ukip or the demonstration to be concerned over the precedent this sets. Are the police saying that the right of a group to peaceful protest and assembly is contingent upon who may hear its message? That anyone who doesn't like the message need only threaten 'serious disorder', and the police will intervene on their side? That it's fine to protest against radical Islam in, say, Bognor Regis, but not Tower Hamlets? Is this not proof that there now exist parts of our country in which the well-established norms of protest and debate are off limits? That we have become so fragmented, and so beset by communal sectarianism, that political arguments that may be supported by millions must not be made in certain localities? What a slippery slope we are on. And of course it will be seen as further evidence of two-tier policing.

In the UK, the top 0.1% of earners pay more income tax than the entire bottom 50%. The rich are paying a “fair share” - why does Reeves pretend otherwise? My column:- thetimes.com/comment/column…

George Abaraonye has been removed as President-Elect of the Oxford Union in a confidence motion by the required two thirds majority. That majority came largely from life members, who either voted by proxy or returned to Oxford today. The adults had to step in. The system worked.

@AaronBastani Prevent has been very divisive and its efficacy is certainly questionable. My guess is that people are defending it because there is no alternative to it on the table. And, given the data, it would appear that Prevent or something like it is a necessary evil at this juncture.

Can someone explain to me why so many on the right are eager to defend PREVENT? Rudakubana took a knife to school 10 times. He was caught with a knife on a bus by police. He called childline saying he wanted to kill people. He was referred to PREVENT 3 times. Nothing happened.

@PolitlcsUK The sentiment is reasonable. Implementation will be very tricky. Many people invest in property as an alternative to a pension, these folk are not the super rich. It will also likely crash the housing market. I would like to hear more about how they propose to action it.

🚨 NEW: The Green Party's conference has voted for a motion that makes abolishing landlords a party policy

The Southport inquiry heard today that the taxi driver who dropped the killer at the scene witnessed girls screaming and running into the road in front of his car, but simply drove off and did nothing. He eventually made a call to police 50 minutes later. I genuinely cannot get my head around that.

@AaronBastani 🤣

Reform are winning wards in Cardiff bruv