Fiona-Natasha Syms

The rise of antisemitism isn’t just down to Israel’s overreach (and that’s polite) after 7/10. It coincides with the rise of Reform, a hideous resurgence of the far right in general and a Tory Party suddenly taken to places it’s never been before. Islamophobia normalised. Both hatreds rise and fall together. I’m seeing language I haven’t heard since the 70s/80s on here since Musk took over. Being casually or extremely racist has been totally normalised. Reform fields racist candidates time & time again, I’ve had them in my hood. Tory frontbenchers are obsessed with Islam - strangest bloody thing I’ve ever seen, it certainly ain’t Tory and I’ll keep taking it on - and back an out of control Netanyahu, also crackers. We’re in a very bad place as a country on the right and the left. The Green Party has an antisemitism problem - course it does, it’s full of the Corbynistas Starmer kicked out - and a Jewish leader who plays it down. No words for that. The racist thug Tommy Robinson lauded by Israel as a mensch? A sick joke. Rupert Lowe an electoral prospect? Horrifying, he’s the National Front with a Sloaney drawl. It’s all fixable - at the ballot box. Don’t back extremists on the right or left. Don’t vote for the Brexit bloke who was rabidly antisemitic as a late teen and has lied fluently about it. Don’t vote for a bloke who changed his name but sold out his entire community when it was under attack. The inclusive, stable and unshouty middle looks good to me politically and it’s where most of us are. I got drowned out by my own party for years as it did plenty of things I thought were morally wrong or not good for the economy and picked a succession of idiotic leaders, Badenoch principal among them, she makes Truss look good. Happy to clean up the mess across the board from every party, reverse Brexit - also a driver of racism - and get us firing on all cylinders again and being the tolerant country we used to be. The centre is the one thing that always holds and it must continue to.

Firmly disagree. A disaster waiting to happen and the father of a catastrophic Brexit.

Three months ago, Congress passed more aid for Ukraine, and @POTUS signed it into law. It’s not charity – it is an investment in a partnership with the world’s leaders in drone technology. Who is withholding appropriated funds from Ukraine? Are senior defense officials unwilling or not allowed to visit Ukraine? washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/…

Would rejoining the EU be the best growth strategy? How much did Brexit cost the UK? Would rejoining make us richer? In latest Rest is Money pod I talk to Stanford prof Nick Bloom about his influential forecast, recently adopted by Rachel Reeves, that quitting the EU made Britain 8% or £240bn poorer than it would otherwise have been open.spotify.com/episode/48j5RF…

*I left any Abramovich references out whilst commenting on Wolfson’s interview earlier. He’s got very firm views on the Iran war machine yet serves a bloke close to Putin’s.

So both an ex-AG and the current Shadow AG are working for Russian oligarchs. Both should be gone. There is no grey area. What has gone wrong with the Tories. The ugliest of sleaze. 🇺🇦

"Media reports of late have suggested that Britain’s Jewish community feels under attack. This is incorrect. We are under attack, both figuratively and literally. Petrol bombs are being hurled at our cultural and religious buildings; people are trying to stab us. Are they acting alone, radicalised by online hate or tormented by untreated mental health conditions? Are they part of a concerted, organised terrorist effort? Or are they hired hands, providing violence-on-demand for extremist groups who head to the dark web to commission such attacks? I’ll leave that up to the police and the security services; to the community targeted, it hardly matters. Attacks on Jewish people and Jewish spaces, simply because they are Jewish. Isn’t there a word for that?" Rachel Cunliffe newstatesman.com/politics/socie…

I’m sure they don’t but I’d rather they had armed police patrols in the short term and are safe because the alternatives are too sad to contemplate. MPs have armed police around them, it’s never even remarked on just normal.

He should of course be carrying on as normal but should also stop letting antisemites like Farage off the hook by dismissing the allegations against him. He should also not attack other Tories who support both Jews and the recognition of Palestine. I’ve been on the receiving end of his wrath and it shook me up, I made his nasty DM public. Given my 22 yo father had both helped liberate Belsen and flown supplies in, it was particularly awful. Don’t insult your allies and it was always Tory policy to recognise Palestine. Badenoch has changed it. I called for marches either way to be banned after 7/10, he did not, he wanted only 1 side banned. He’s also been repeatedly nasty to Khan even when he expressed sorrow for the Manchester attack - disgraceful.

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'The Government is announcing £25m more funding' Chief political correspondent Henry Zeffman told #BBCBreakfast the Government has pledged more funding for police patrols and security in Jewish communities after two men were attacked in north London bbc.co.uk/news/live/c3ve…

Birds living in cities are more scared of women than men, a study has found Our Science Correspondent breaks down what the study suggests: telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/04/2…

And the entire Somali community will now get a pile-on of hate. Some of the far-right comments on here despicable. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, my kids used to play with the kids of the most delightful Somali-origin family who’d settled here. They worked hard, had very little and were some of the kindest and happiest people I’ve ever met. We have plenty of white violent & antisemitic men here - no one’s shouting about mass deporting them.

We already have plenty of homegrown antisemites. I applaud the Jewish News for a very effective cover piece but Reform has had multiple antisemitic candidates and a leader accused by dozens of being antisemitic. I had a Hitler supporting Reform candidate locally in the last general election. Farage and Tommy Robinson are not good people for anyone in the Jewish community to be cosying up to. What Mendoza says is also straight-up racist, a ridiculous generalisation. On brand Reform.

Amen to that little comment in the parish mag. 🙏 🗳️ 🗞️

I think they’ll do alright in locals actually and will pick up Tory and Labour tactical votes. Davey can be irritating personally and hasn’t been strong enough on an EU rejoin but given both parties on the right are totally unpalatable, Labour’s a mess and at war with Whitehall, the Greens are nuts & straight-up Corbynistas, they’re the only sane option for many. Every ex-Tory I speak to locally is either abstaining or going LD next week.

England's local elections will have a big national impact itv.com/news/2026-04-2…

An American soldier & the King of England, shaking hands in the U.S. Capitol building. A lot can change in 250 years.

Queen Camilla teams up with Anna Wintour and Sarah Jessica-Parker as she visits the iconic New York Public Library today 🇺🇸

Electoral Calculus has both of them out.

I don’t think she’s great, he’s a Truss-backing defecting & defective snake and I’ve got a fiver on him not holding his seat. Ditto Jenrick.