David Carslaw

Today the voices of division will be loud. They don't speak for the country I know, one that belongs to all of us. That's our Britain. A Britain worth fighting for. lbc.co.uk/article/keir-s…

@5haronl @Nigel_Farage Here's a hint, good politicians don't take £5m backhanders. Nor do good patriots take £5m backhanders from people who do don't live here.

I don’t care what donations @Nigel_Farage received or how he spent it. All I care about is whether he’s is a good politician & a patriot & what he will do for the country. He’s our best politician, a great patriot and he has our best interests at heart. That’s all we need.

Almost 10,000 likes for straight-up lies by Annunziata Rees-Mogg, quote: "Asylum seekers make up 0.08% of Dorset's population and 44% of alleged sex offences. So unbelievable I had to check. It's true." It's not true, it's utter garbage. I'll go through facts and figures. /1

Two things have happened in the past 48 hours ➡️ Tax expert Dan Neidle published a detailed report on Green leader Zack Polanski likely owing around £4,000 in council tax after living on a houseboat for three years without registering it as his main residence ➡️ Ben Habib says a foreign-based billionaire gave: £1m to Boris Johnson £1m to Nigel Farage £5m to Nigel Farage £14m to the Brexit party Our media and online focused on the ~£4,000 in council taxes with Polanski, and has largely ignored a foreign billionaire giving £21 million to Johnson, Farage and the Brexit party This doesn't mean we ignore the former and focus on the latter, but the energy on the former and the near silence on the latter, ought to worry all of us who are concerned about fairness and accountability I apologised in a previous thread to @DanNeidle for not having read fully his report last night before commenting, and in case that was lost and not seen, I'll do so again - It's important that we acknowledge when we get things wrong But what frustrates me is the language and framing of the report. If you read it carefully, Neidle is measured. He uses "if" conditions when laying out evidence, and has since clarified that "carelessly paying the wrong tax is not a crime" It's like saying, what if, but not really. And that nuance is easily lost if people only skim it (as I did initially) or only see excerpts from the report or the news The result was a massive pile-on against both Polanski and Neidle, both for different reasons One group accused Polanski of being a tax avoider, while another insulted Dan Neidle simply for conducting the investigation and asking legitimate questions All politicians should face proper scrutiny. They represent the wider public and are expected to set a good example And that's exactly what Polanski did, once he learnt of his mistake, and he corrected it by approaching the council It’s also fair to ask why Neidle devoted such a detailed report to ~£4,000 in council tax, far smaller than the multi-million pound avoidance cases he usually tackles But the principle is that all politicians - especially those who strongly advocate for tax justice, fairness and especially wealth taxes - should lead by example and get the basics right Don’t hate on Dan Neidle for looking into this - scrutiny is healthy Don’t hate on Zack Polanski for getting it wrong and now fixing it We all have to get better at responding to information with nuance instead of instant outrage or pile-ons At the same time, it’s entirely legitimate to ask why a foreign billionaire donated around £21 million to Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage, and the Brexit Party/Reform UK - and what, if anything, was expected in return Brexit has had serious consequences, it has widened inequality in Britain, and become a deep divider of social cohesion And we should also be asking whether we’re doing enough to protect our democracy and economy from foreign influence, no matter where it comes from

Spoiler alert, this man has not won a national election.

What is remarkable about this letter is not merely the resignation itself, but the extraordinary political miscalculation that underpins it. At a moment when the Labour Party possesses one of the strongest parliamentary mandates in modern British political history, there are those within its own ranks seemingly prepared to weaken the Government from within rather than recognise the scale of the challenges inherited after fourteen years of Conservative decline. To suggest that the Prime Minister should now prepare an “orderly transition” barely into government is not an act of strategic wisdom. It is an act of impatience and political self indulgence. Governments are not rebuilt overnight, economies are not repaired by rhetoric, and public services shattered over a decade do not recover within months. The contradictions within the letter are striking. It speaks of transformational programmes, of meaningful work undertaken in Government, of efforts to tackle hatred and division, yet then abruptly pivots into a demand that the very leadership overseeing those policies should effectively step aside. One cannot simultaneously claim to believe in collective responsibility whilst publicly detonating confidence in the administration one serves within. Most damaging of all is the timing. At a period where the political right, Reform, hostile media networks, and increasingly aggressive populist movements are seeking to fracture progressive politics across Britain, internal grandstanding of this nature only serves their interests. The electorate does not reward parties that appear consumed by internal ego and permanent instability. History has shown this repeatedly. The public delivered Labour a mandate to govern, not to descend into another era of factional warfare and theatrical resignations. The country requires seriousness, endurance, and discipline. Those who cannot uphold collective responsibility during difficult periods perhaps misunderstand entirely what government is supposed to demand of them.

Although no PM has ever resigned due to local election results, although he still holds a huge majority of councillors, and although 70% of the manifesto has already been achieved which the media persistently ignore they have exploited all of this regardless of how it will affect the stock market and the cost of living. Tomorrow, feel free to hold them accountable because THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE MEDIA IS HUGE. We are witnessing a manufactured crisis where 80% of our media is in foreign ownership, serving agendas that have nothing to do with the stability of the UK. If you want proof of how this machinery operates, look at Patrick Hurleys experience. He was ready to speak about stability, yet he was cancelled because the national broadcasters were explicitly looking for someone to demand the Prime Ministers resignation. This is not journalism. It is an active intervention by those who find Starmer a threat to their plans. The playbook is identical to the one used against Theresa May. This investigative piece by @BylineTimes reveals how external figures like Bannon and Epstein were pulling the strings then, and the same dark money and media manipulation are at work now: bylinetimes.com/2026/02/16/ban… Democracy is a delicate creature, but a living one. If we do not feed it with its own rules and instead allow the media to manufacture coups, it slowly dies. Loyalty and honour are for the rare few, and it is time we demand them back in our politics. #UKPolitics #LabourParty #KeirStarmer #MediaBias #Journalism #TheresaMay #PoliticalStability #BylineTimes #Democracy #SteveBannon #BiteBack #IntegrityInPolitics #NationalInterest #ManifestoAchievement #BBC #SkyNews #Channel4 #BBCPolitics #SkyPolitics #C4News

If a decent party leader is removed from office and a bribe-taking grifter stays put, our politics is not fit for purpose.

Reform is not a normal opposition. Labour MPs detonating this government are being wilfully ignorant. Take a look at what Trump has done to the United States in just under a year. The erosion of checks and balances, the attacks on American institutions, and the corruption. That is who Reform are. That is what you’re risking by throwing in the towel and creating more instability at the heart of government. The public will never forgive the Labour Party if they behave the same way as the Tories did. This revolving door must stop. But more than that, if you screw it all up, and an early election becomes inevitable, you’re giving Farage the keys to Downing Street. If that happens. Labour will suffer the same as the Tories did, and may never recover. Ever.

If people are calling for @Keir_Starmer to go, he must be doing a terrible job And yet he isn't Think of the mess Labour inherited Look at the progress made in under 2 years Look beyond the right-wing media campaign #TenYearKeir #TenYearKeir Who's with me? Retweet

If Labour MPs detonate this government, the calls for an early general election will be immediate. Reform will claim that whoever succeeds Starmer will be illegitimate, because they didn’t win the election. The media will hound them, as relentlessly as they have Starmer, and the cycle continues. This all plays into Reform’s hands. It’s exactly what they want.

Whatever complaints MPs have about Keir Starmer, they are now descending into the kind of headless chickenry that - whatever and whoever the outcome - will make the situation even worse for Labour. If there is a grand plan starring Catherine West and a few PPSs, then it doesn’t feel terribly thought through. A period of calm would do none of them any harm. The general election is a fair way off. The next legislative programme is about to be unveiled. There are better ways to reach such an important decision and better times too. You are MPs not commentators who exist to feed a frenzy.

Times columnist Fraser Nelson pointed out over the weekend that new Home Office statistics paint a striking picture: net migration has fallen dramatically since Labour entered government, now sitting around 80 per cent below the record highs reached under the Conservatives. And it is not just the headline figure shifting. Remove international students from the equation and long-term immigration levels are now “probably at a multi-year low”, Nelson wrote on his Substack — a remarkable turnaround after years of Tory chaos, broken promises and soaring numbers. The asylum backlog is also being rapidly reduced under Labour. After ballooning in the aftermath of Covid while successive Conservative ministers appeared paralysed and unwilling to grip the crisis, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has begun making serious progress in clearing the system. Away from the Westminster psychodrama and endless Reform stunts, an uncomfortable reality is emerging for Labour’s opponents: the Government may quietly be delivering results where the Tories failed for years. Source: The London Economic

Fraser is linking a Home Office chart published by the Labour Government & briefed out to all UK Media in the twice-daily Downing Street Press briefings that have been given daily since the General Election. Fraser should be asking *why don't UK Media tell the UK public this?"

Posted elsewhere, posted here for info. The map of Reform Councils in the UK. So much for 'WE'VE TAKEN OVER THE NATION !!!"

The asylum backlog has also more than halved. Odd that such progress is barely mentioned by Labour.

2 stonewallers not given last night. celtic handed an offside goal today.

@ibroxrocks Getting beat is one thing, we know what our problems are and where we are vulnerable, but the truly dispiriting thing now is the constant cheating not being dealt with. It almost pointless us even turning up.

You’d think after Monday at HT the players and manager would be saying right, let’s not start this half slowly. But no, just the same again.

@4ladshadadream It's an easy decision. He's not it and has to go. Soon as the final game is done, get him gone and get someone new in early.

Groundhog day again Decision to be made over Röhl, regardless of what’s gone on before because we have all seen this before. The scar tissue will be too much, a dodgy start to the season & the noise is too much from the support This is woeful Over to you Andrew Cavanagh

@Geeb1872 Just add it to the catalogue of shit they've got away with all season.

Missed this at the time. Stick on red card