It is deeply shocking that a Conservative councillor thought he could use West Midlands Police as his personal tool to silence comments he disliked about himself — especially when they were made by a 15-year-old child. More shocking still is that West Midlands Police investigated and arrested the child. This is not an isolated case: the force has a record of zealously acting on complaints about “hurty words” online. Calling someone a “rent boy” may be personally offensive to the councillor, but it is not a hate crime. We are in the UK, not North Korea. Politicians must not be able to use the police to silence people who insult them. This is a blatant abuse of power — an assault on both free speech and democracy.

Brendan O'Neill sums it up

Arabs and antisemites in the UK are calling for the expulsion of English Jews.

Its the political class that lives the eu

Well said. I would point out the economic argument no longer stands. When Britain joined in 1973, the EEC was around 20% of global GDP. Today it is around 14% of global GDP and is diminishing in importance with every month that passes. By 2050 it will have shrunk to under 10%.

Are you trolling us now? I am a barrister. Every single barrister, judge, senior doctor, nurse, local business owner I know voted Leave. Leave voters took the time and effort to consider their vote. To listen to the various groups (fishermen being the most obvious) it was clear that the EU was heading towards a Federal Project via the extension of remit of the ECJ. Set up as a Commercial Court to prevent anti-competition behaviour, the Maastricht and Lisbon Treaties widened the scope to Immigration, Matrimonial, Social care, Employment and Human Rights. What’s the problem with that? You wail. The problem is this: the laws being enforced by the ECJ are not from a democratically elected parliament, but from a body called the EU Commission. This is an appointed body, not elected. Before you ask: No, unlike our parliament, the EU Parliament does not originate law. It rubber stamps them from the Commission. Feel free to ask me any questions you may have on any of the EU treaties, I know them inside out. Before I go. Remain voters voted for the SQ. A lazy vote, just like the entire machine of the state: lazy. Don’t you dare call me stupid for my vote.

Mmmm So we need to rejoin the EU to get access to the EU cohesion fund Is that the EU funding where you pay £10bn in and get £6bn back AND are then told what you must spend it on AND EVEN WORSE you have to tell everyone the EU paid for it even though you gave it the money

Oh dear what have we got into with the upcoming Gibraltar Treaty youtube.com/watch?v=qMcgGxqz… Video Two

Well done Kemi!!! Emma Barnett set to leave Today programme after just two years mol.im/a/16124293 via @DailyMailCeleb

This gives the lie to the smear that the bill only failed last time round because a few belligerent opponents in the House of Lords were prepared to ignore the democratic will of the Commons. We subjected the bill to proper scrutiny, as is our constitutional duty, and discovered it had been poorly drafted without due regard to protecting vulnerable groups, such as the disabled. That conclusion has now also been reached by our colleagues in the democratically elected house. This was never about the people versus a group of unelected die hards. It was about protecting the most vulnerable people in our society from being browbeaten into committing state-sanctioned suicide.

I see that Stella Creasy is accusing me of leading a pitchfork mob against her, because I opined that she is less likeable and more hypocritical than the wild parakeet she mistook for an escaped pet. For those who don’t know, Creasy is an elected politician and self-proclaimed ‘old-fashioned feminist’ who is ‘still fighting the patriarchy’. She’s more than once publicly defined herself against me (and my reaction was not to accuse her of leading a mob, even though I was probably averaging a dozen death threats a day at the point when the article below appeared.) I thought it might be instructive for those of us who don’t share Creasy’s brand of ‘feminism’ to examine her campaigning record, so we can learn to do better. Creasy wants women admitted to the male-only, exclusive, London-based private members Garrick Club, a change that would benefit rather privileged women like Creasy. Creasy is a mother who wants better accommodations for working mothers, a change that would benefit Creasy. Creasy takes selfies at a men-only Muslim march because that reminds everyone how non-racist she is, which benefits Creasy. Creasy asserts that ‘trans women are women’, which keeps her in good odour with her party’s most aggressive activists, and benefits Creasy. However, keeping cross-dressing heterosexual men out of nurses’ changing rooms doesn’t benefit Creasy, because Creasy has never had to mop up other people’s piss, blood and vomit at work. Challenging the notion that a male basketball player becomes a girl if he says he is doesn’t benefit Creasy, who has no sporting ambitions. Speaking up against the patriarchy as practised by non-white men doesn’t benefit Creasy, who wants those selfie-opportunities. Criticising an ideological movement that persecutes, harasses and openly threatens women who don’t believe some women have penises wouldn't benefit Creasy, because she's already fully-signed up to self-id, where any man who says he's a woman must be taken at his word. As the late Gloria Steinem said: ‘“Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere.’ Creasy the patriarchy-challenger is provably more than happy to cosy up to men and misogynist movements when it suits her public profile and career advancement, no matter the harms those men might be causing less privileged women. By Steinem’s definition, what Stella espouses is not feminism, but Creasyism, and I suggest the emblem for this brave new rights movement should be an indignant parakeet with severely ruffled feathers. telegraph.co.uk/women/life/s…

“My utmost for the highest”.

Why do those, who must know better, keep talking down the Gove reforms and the successes of Michaela and other great schools? Don’t they understand that they are encouraging the ongoing condemnation of swathes of youngsters, year after year, to illiteracy and innumeracy?

In the Lords last night. Bit by bit, this government is dragging us back into the EU, thanks to the appalling Windsor Framework and the insidious and financially ruinous Reset

The Tory Shadow Chancellor, @griffitha, has more private sector experience than the entire Labour Cabinet….combined. Wild.

Interested to see in Seldon's book on Rishi that No10 and the Whips liked our 'Star Chamber' report on the NI Protocol. I challenge them to find one inaccuracy - the WF is verifiably useless and contrary to the Acts of Union. They just didn't like the message. As for their self appointed 'ERG whisperers', they never whispered and seemingly had no idea what the issues were. The whole Rishi episode was a depressing end to a succession of Tory disapointments. x.com/Tom__Egerton/status/20…

It is hard to overstate how insanely impressive the GCSE results from Michaela/@Miss_Snuffy were, yet again. 1 in 9 pupils got a 9 ('super A*) in 8+ GCSEs. National average: 1 in 526. 82% of grades were 7-9. Average: 23% 98% of grades were 5-9. Average: 55% (1/2)

Sweetie . . . .