Ian Birch

@logan_nick Very, very sad news, Nick. I worked with him at Smash Hits. Endlessly funny, sharp business brain, and kind-hearted.

Absorbing the terrible news that Rod Sopp, my ad manager on The Face and Arena but so much more to both me and the magazines than that title can convey, died December 29. My thoughts with his daughter Ella; cruelly she lost her mother Jenny only a week earlier

Oh. theguardian.com/politics/2023/…

In the end, 118 Tories voted in favour of the report. Here are the 6 that voted against. Notice that Jacob Rees-Mogg chickened out, as did several of the other MPs that made ridiculous interventions during the debate. (Labour had to supply both tellers to keep the vote alive.)

NEW: Privileges Committee finds that Boris Johnson knowingly misled the House on several occasions and says that if he were still a member they would have a recommended a suspension of *90* days. That’s nearly as severe as it gets.

Just awful: A Missouri school board is set to decide whether to remove "Maus" after employees flagged it for review, due to a law banning "explicit sexual material." I spoke to Art Spiegelman. He fears our country is "yearning" for "authoritarianism." washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…

Johnson’s resignation statement is full-on Trump

The Australia and NZ trade deals kick in today. According to the official UK Government impact assessments, they will mean losses of: - £142 million a year to British agriculture, forestry and fishing. - £322 million a year to British semi-processed food manufacturers.

An analysis of book challenges from across the nation shows the majority were filed by just 11 people washingtonpost.com/education/2023…

🍏h. theguardian.com/politics/2023/…

I think @SimonUbsdell made a crucial point: "The worst crime of Brexit is not the dark skullduggery that secured it in the first place. It is the relentless mendacity, the shameless fraud, the arrogant deception, the unremitting shiftiness that has driven it ever since." 1/2

Appalling; over 1 in 100 voters turned away at local elections because of new Voter ID Law. Disenfranchisement here far outweighs the extremely rare instances of electoral fraud this law was needlessly brought in to stop. Whole thing needs reviewing. theguardian.com/politics/2023/…

Happy Europe Day! This is the perfect opportunity to remind ourselves of 100+ benefits of being in the EU. (It's a long thread...) 1. Trade goods freely with the biggest market in the world. No extra costs or rules for trading with Barcelona or Berlin compared to Bristol.

Richard Sharp, the BBC and the toxic legacy of Boris Johnson. Latest column theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

This understated Times column is the most sinister thing I have read about civil rights in this country for a very long time.READ IT PLEASE

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Patel - guilty of bullying Raab - guilty of bullying Wragg actually highlighted bullying culture of MPs a year ago Now a Tufton St orchestrated attack on the civil service to blame them for all Government failings It is why weak and woeful Sunak hides #ToriesOut289

"Bitter Remainers have learned absolutely nothing" The Telegraph is getting all hot under the collar because Ryanair's boss dared to point out that the country is becoming more pro-EU as time passes because of demographic change. But that's just reality. telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/04/2…

‘It’s so easy to read these people…they’re so unspeakably pathetic.’ @mrjamesob dissects Dominic Raab’s resignation letter, branding him a ‘pathetic man child’.