David Ryan

I know Rumpole's a niche subject, but the hardback of my book is a surprisingly steady seller on Amazon. (As are the ebook and paperback.)

Very much enjoyed Lionel Shriver's open-borders satire A Better Life, in which self-regarding middle class holes in New York find out they're - devastating word, this - pushovers.

The League of Gentlemen never specified where Pop was from, but I distinctly remember a press article describing him as "the terrifying foreign man". Try getting away with that comic stereotype today.

Can't get the Albanese clip out of my mind

Credit where it's due: Tucker is amazing at confidently delivering absolute lies. Here he is claiming that Churchill locked up members of the opposition party during WW2. When, in fact, Churchill led a National Government, i.e. one that INCLUDED leaders of the opposition parties in prominent roles. Labour leader Clement Atlee was appointed Churchill's Deputy and other leading Labour and Liberal politicians held major roles in the cabinet. The person Tucker is talking about is Oswald Mosley who was the leader of the British Union of Fascists and was not elected to anything. He wanted Britain to become a fascist country and work with Hitler. Despite this, contrary to Tucker's claims, he was not even detained for the full duration of the war and was released in 1943, two years before it ended. In most other countries he would have been hanged for treason without a second thought the day the war started. Britain's treatment of this tiny group of fascists, i.e. enemy sympathisers and collaborators, during WW2 is an example of extraordinary restraint and respect for the sanctity of human life and freedom that was not only unparalleled in the world at that time but arguably remains rare and hugely admirable even by the standards of today across most of the world. In short, Tucker is completely wrong and we can only conclude that the spreading of these malicious lies is motivated not only by his ignorance of history but also by the fact that he will say ANYTHING he deems necessary to suit his political agenda. His opposition to the current war in Iran, about which I myself have expressed some skepticism, does not justify this behaviour and is, in fact, undermined by it - no right- thinking person can take him seriously after this.

@LeoKearse My council tax bill just popped through the door. I live quietly and frugally most of the time, which means one of my main expenses each month is financing the lifestyles of seat-warming moochers.

Having worked in the public sector, I can confirm it operates as a mafia. A giant holding pen for mediocre people with mediocre degrees to wear suits and create work for each other so they can steal an ever larger chunk of taxpayers' hard-earned money. Of course they spent £180 million deciding not to build a road tunnel. When I worked in public sector management consultancy, we were tasked with finding efficiencies in the IT department of a large government agency. One man we spoke to had two laptops on his desk. He said one was for forex trading and the other one was to monitor his chicken farm in Ghana. There was no shame as he told us this, no realisation that he was actually being employed to do a job that didn't involve forex trading or managing a chicken farm in Ghana. We were struck by the number of people sitting around doing nothing, even for a public sector organisation. Then we discovered that the man running the IT department also owned an IT recruitment consultancy. Every man he hired into this IT department from his recruitment consultancy put money in his own pocket. So there was a huge incentive for him to just hire as many men as possible to get as rich as possible. Never mind being prosecuted over this - I don't think he actually lost his job. And there's an incentive in the rest of the public sector to hire as many people as possible because the more people you manage, the more important you are, the bigger budget you get, and the greater your salary. (On the plus side, as a management consultant, finding efficiencies in the public sector is a piece of piss.) When you hear about public sector investment, this is money taken from the real economy and given to people to produce very little. This isn't "investment" any more than a bank "invests" in bank robbers. It's not done to make a profit. It holds the real economy back, not just in terms of the tax burden, but also in the huge numbers of workers tied up in this false, public sector Potemkin economy. Those workers should be in the real economy producing something of value. Britain could be a paradise. We could all be rich. There's no need for mass immigration. The workers we need are already here doing nothing, on benefits or in the public sector. We just need to fire everyone in the public sector and scrap all benefits.

"All them cornfields and ballet in the evenings."

If Dustin Hoffman's character from Straw Dogs became prime minister...

If you want to inherit a seat, you'll have to do it the old fashioned way and run as a Labour MP.

So much of modern 'progressive' thought is effete chattering-class midwits saying "You can't say that" with quasi-religious certainty.

My son is doing a film course, they’ve just done a bit on 1984!! This is the same college that has an unrecorded number of undocumented migrants aged about 35-45. “The purpose of this letter is to confirm you had a meeting on 19 March at 12:00 with xxxx xxxx to discuss your recent behaviour on 17 March which broke the following rules of the Positive Behaviour Management Policy. Respectful - Students are expected to respect people, value diversity and are committed to equality ensuring a positive and professional learning environment in which all people are treated with respect and dignity. It is the responsibility of everyone to behave in a safe manner and not put themselves or others at risk. Collaborative - It is the responsibility of students to engage with WCUC staff and other students to develop positive relationships and work together to promote an active group learning environment. This requires them to be on time, in the right place, correctly equipped and ready to learn in all classes”

Instead of simply disagreeing with Nick, these MPs are calling for him to be “investigated”. This is exactly why an Islamophobia definition is so dangerous. People need to be able to disagree and debate without the authorities weighing in.

interesting case study that shows what white men have had to do over the last 10 years to remain employed in avant garde art spaces. Compare Ben Bogart’s bio from 2016 with 2026. Same guy. Except he reinvented himself as “neurodivergent nonbinary agender” (they/them, of course)

@lukejcr You belong to the Rapes-for-Votes party; the reward-Epstein's-mate party; the Nick Brown super-injunction party. Instead of claiming the moral high ground, perhaps you should reflect on the sordid compromises you've made to achieve lobby-fodder status.

Kemi Badenoch now tolerates Tommy Robinson style views in her shadow cabinet. Her Shadow Justice Secretary called Muslim prayer an “act of domination”. We all know she’s too pathetic to sack him.

New polling of 1,500 UK adults in @thesun Preference for Winston Churchill or an owl on the £5 note: All: Churchill (+12) 18-24: Churchill (+16) 24-34: Churchill (+9) 35-44: Churchill (+1) 45-54: Churchill (+12) 55-64: Churchill (+3) 65-74: Churchill (+34) 75+: Churchill (+14) White: Churchill (+10) Non-white: Churchill (+19) Conservative: Churchill (+32) Labour: Churchill (+1) Lib Dem: Churchill (+13) Reform: Churchill (+31) Green: An owl (+34)

It's just perfect that the set resembles the one on 'Hey! Wow!'

@bphillipsonMP Christians, Jews, Sikhs and Hindus don't wish death on apostates.

Christians, Jews, Sikhs and Hindus have all prayed in Trafalgar Square. Nick Timothy singled out Muslims, then had the brass neck today to sit on the front bench. He should be sacked. The Tories are following Reform into the gutter. Neither are fit to govern.

In a war to liberate 90 million Iranians from a fascist dictatorship, Starmer is strident about sitting on the fence. Were his grandparents Irish or Swiss, by any chance?