The PM of Mauritius has met with Labour's secretive National Security Adviser, Jonathan Powell, to discuss the Chagos Islands. Labour won't say what was discussed, but the Mauritian Cabinet meeting report confirms that they are threatening the UK with more lawfare and have met their lawyers. Rather than entertaining Mauritius any further, if Labour believes in our national security, they should defend British sovereignty and scrap their £35bn Chagos surrender treaty.

I read that Stephen Gray, the ex-copper who made an excellent apparent-causal joke about bacon has been fined because his joke was 'grossly offensive' I think that what a lot of English people would find 'grossly offensive' is the idea of a grown man having sexual intercourse with a nine year old girl But maybe criticising this would be blasphemy ? On the whole, I think that the provincial judge laying down this law, Steven Hood, may come from a different part of England from me

I never said John isn't funny...

📸bbciplayer “You’ll have to wake up early to pull a fast one on Shirley! #Strictly”

This is embarrassing

No. Double bills don’t need the assent of the other on the bill.

Implying that 17.2 million people were brainwashed by Russia into voting for Brexit and not wanting to take orders from the undemocratic, sovereignty undermining, socialist EU project … is dangerous misinformation. Designed by government to undermine its own people.

I found out by accident that it was the 40th anniversary of PHANTOM this week. As the proud original lyricist, arranger and producer of the smash hit title song that spawned the show I just want to say “you’re welcome” to anyone attached to the show who feels grateful. I hope the celebrations went well. 🙂

Mike arranged & produced the single.

Zelenskyy is a dictator: Leftards defend Zelenskyy skipping elections after his 2019 term ended in 2024. They call that democracy. Putin held Russia’s March 2024 vote and officially won 87% after resetting term limits in 2020. Flawed and controlled, yes, but he faced voters. Supporting no election is pure dictator talk. 😏

The people I would blame for destroying Britain. Edward Heath Tony Blair Theresa May Boris Johnson Rishi Sunak Keir Starmer Andy Burnham Rupert Lowe Anyone who voted Uniparty after Boris Others contributed, but these would be the main perpetrators of the death of Britain.

Conservative members and MPs are happier than I have seen them for a very long time. Because they have stopped sinking, as they had been doing both before the general election and for a couple of years since. The risk that they would drown, that Reform would replace them as the only serious party of the right, is now low. There are two reasons. First, the perennial chaos in Reform - the constant controversies around funding and money, the endless gaffes by councillors, aides and members - means it is a long way from showing the kind of competence that a party pretending to government must demonstrate. Second, the Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has found a voice, a set of simple ideas and poise. The question is whether she can turn “we’re still here” into “ignore Reform, we are again the main party of opposition.” The point, which I assume Badenoch grasps though not many of her slightly euphoric members here at the Tory conference in Birmingham appear to do, is that the polls show voters are prepared to listen to the Tories again, but they still see Reform as their main vehicle to challenge both Labour and a Westminster status quo which many of them hate. Burnham gets this. His devolution and anti-privatisation agendas, and his Livercunian accent, are conscious appeals to those who feel ignored and hurt by the British way of governing since around 1979. Badenoch will today attack him as a throwback to the political and economic mayhem of the 1970s. And if he cannot soon demonstrate he has a credible modern answer to the only question that matters - how to make the economy grow again for the benefit of the vast majority in this AI era - he will soon have a problem or many. But she is also a throwback, and deliberately so. She is trying to regain her party’s reputation for economic competence, after 14 years of Tory led governments when the economy stagnated except for the near heart attack under Liz Truss. With businesses, she is doing this by promising to shrink the state and allocate half the savings to reducing the government’s increasingly unaffordable debts - and also by halving the national insurance cost for them of employing 21-to-24 year olds. Badenoch is also trying to woo richer voters, old and young, who would traditionally have voted Tory, but have despaired and gone to the LibDems, Reform and even Labour. For them there are pretty transparent bribes - though I should say Badenoch passionately denied this to me, claiming hers were rational growth inducing tax reforms. Whatever. In practice, her proposed abolition of all child-care means testing and of stamp duty disproportionately helps those with well-above average incomes in their first round and direct impact. Though she is correct that they should stimulate economic activity that is of wider benefit. But her expected cut in inheritance tax would be a huge boon to the children of the 5% of British households with most assets- and in its case, I cannot see an argument that it stimulates economic growth. Per contra, it seems awkwardly timed both from a social justice point of view and for the imperative of shrinking the government’s deficit. As the OBR points out, by 2030 the number of estates paying any inheritance tax would double to 10% and very useful billions would surge to the Treasury. Here is the important demographic backdrop. For those born at any point from around 1930 to 1975, it was super easy to buy a home when they were in their 20s or early 30s, because there were more houses available for fewer people. This was their good luck, not their wealth-creating genius. The corollary has been a massive relative shift of wealth from young to old. 1/2

I would have assumed that non-Christians would wish to be excluded from a Christian tradition Just as most Christians don't want to be included in the celebrations of other religious traditions I am very happy, for example, for Jews to have their religious festivals, but I don't need to be part of them I don't feel excluded Should I ?

Sorry Gary but that's very non inclusive for us Aussies because it's summer at Christmas time, so we cannot have winter cards and neither can all the other Southern Hemisphere countries. So I guess you'll have to come up with something that is truly inclusive 🤡🤡.

Don't worry - nobody takes any notice of Lineker. He lost the plot years ago. Merry Christmas to all. 😊

What a bloody woke prat this man is 🤦‍♀️

Hes my 80s hero but all i can say now is 'f**k off Gary '

Lineker always tends to.beleive in his own garbage

Gary Lineker says he supports changing CHRISTMAS cards into WINTER cards so that they can be more inclusive and everyone can enjoy them

Tomorrow, join Question Time in Peterlee On the panel: Jake Richards, Harriet Cross, Max Wilkinson, Kevin Maguire, and Annabel Denham Thursday 8th October, 10:40pm on @BBCiPlayer and @BBCOne Apply now: eu.castitreach.com/ag/mentor… #bbcqt

Invite Rupert Lowe on, I double dare you. Watch your viewing figures go through the roof, and your other panelists and Fiona lose their minds like the leftist indoctrinated swine that so often are... You won't though, will you...