Scottish screenwriter. Elizabeth Is Missing, Dear Frankie, Mayflies, Miss Austen. Gallus. Fidget. Tea Jenny. Ne'er Do Well. Queen of the Kitchen Disco. #MDANT
Joined January 2009
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I wrote something about Friday's memorial and Simon and hunting bears.
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If you’re wondering why petrol prices aren’t coming down, why groceries are still painfully expensive, why healthcare costs keep rising, why the national debt keeps growing, why American farmers are struggling, why businesses are drowning in uncertainty, why the housing crisis remains unresolved, why the economy is losing confidence, and why America’s allies increasingly distrust Washington, don’t worry.
Your president spent the entire weekend writing angry essays about Bill Maher and raging at the country that refuses to give him the Nobel Peace Prize, squeezing it all in between his naps and rounds of golf, where even the scorecard apparently needed a little creative accounting.
Apparently, the nation’s most pressing emergencies are a comedian who hurt his feelings and a Scandinavian country that refuses to award him the world’s most prestigious peace prize.
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The sheer insanity of American diplomacy under Trump is becoming difficult to comprehend.
Steve Witkoff, a New York property developer somehow entrusted with negotiating Europe’s most consequential war since 1945, has just saluted Vladimir Putin as a humanitarian.
The man who invaded Ukraine, ordered the destruction of its cities and presides over a state accused of abducting Ukrainian children.
Apparently, releasing an American whom Russia wrongfully imprisoned makes Putin a humanitarian.
Imagine sending a property salesman to negotiate with a war criminal, only to discover he cannot distinguish between a humanitarian gesture and the man responsible for creating the humanitarian catastrophe.
They are so cringe. 😬
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America has spent eighty years winning battles and losing wars.
Vietnam ended in humiliation. Korea ended in stalemate. Afghanistan ended with the Taliban back in Kabul. Iraq consumed trillions of dollars without delivering the promised stability. Iran has exposed the limits of American military power.
And then came October 2026.
The United States suffered another strategic humiliation, this time at the hands of its oldest Cold War adversary: Russia.
Because Washington began surrendering its own leverage.
The Trump administration delayed sanctions against Moscow, pursued Russian diesel and pressured Ukraine while Russian aggression continued.
All under a president whose approval rating had fallen to just 30 per cent.
After decades of confronting Soviet and Russian power, America found itself with a government willing to accommodate the Kremlin while alienating its Western allies. 1 billion people.
The Cold War ended in 1991. The irony of 2026 is that Putin hardly needed to win another one. Washington was busy making concessions of its own.
Humiliating and dangerous: Trump has now finally just made America an ally of the Kremlin and is aiding Putin in his war against an American friend and partner. Shameful betrayal of a US friend, and pathetic submission to a US enemy.
theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1…
I saw Obama speak in Glasgow last night. Articulate, charismatic, profound. And now this? Dear God, America. You are cratering off a cliff with this horrendous excuse for a human being.
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Well, it’s a quick take, and no doubt data will come in, but it sure looks like based on today’s evidence that a lot of pro-Trump and pro-AfD bot work depends directly on Russian data centers.
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Polite reminder. Trump & Brexit are not 2 different things. They are the same thing. Same companies. Same data. Same Facebook. Same Russians. Same Cambridge Analytica. Same Robert Mercer. Same Steve Bannon. Same Breitbart. Same Alexander Nix. Same Donald Trump. Same Nigel Farage.
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Extraordinary letter in @ft from former UK defence attaché at Moscow embassy - we warned you about Putin but you listened to the City instead
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This is one of the best analyses of the Trump-Putin diesel deal that I've read. Thank you, @JPavytska.
Have you all seen Trump’s announcement of his SUPER PUTIN DEAL? Russia promises to immediately supply more than 300,000 tonnes of diesel to the market, including the US, followed by another 500,000 tonnes in November. Then come promises of EVEN BIGGER volumes. Because the deal has to be HUGE. At least in the post.
OFAC, of course, wasted no time issuing a temporary waiver until April 7 to accommodate the president’s latest “GENIUS” deal.
Except the BIG DEAL is not actually that big. More of a stage prop. Very Trump.
Let’s do the maths. Actual numbers. TERRIBLE, I know.
300,000 tonnes is roughly 2.2 million barrels of diesel.
500,000 tonnes is roughly 3.7 million barrels.
In September, Russia managed to export just 0.1 million barrels. Basically none, as there is export ban.
So Putin has already “sold” Trump a volume 22 TIMES larger than Russia’s entire September exports. Making promises is, of course, easier than rebuilding refineries after Ukrainian strikes. MUCH EASIER. SOME SAY THE EASIEST.
Meanwhile, Russia’s diesel export ban remains in force until October 31: the fuel is needed domestically, and Ukrainian drones have significantly reduced Russia’s ability to produce it. A VERY SUCCESSFUL phone call with Trump is unlikely to have fixed those problems.
Now for another comparison. Russia’s average monthly diesel exports last year were 18.3 million barrels. The promised deliveries amount to just 12% and 20% of that volume, respectively.
So we have a promise that Russia still needs to find a way to fulfil, given the state of its refineries. And even if delivered, it looks considerably less impressive than the presidential CAPS LOCK. Not quite THE GREATEST DEAL IN HISTORY.
The political logic is clear. The war with Iran and high fuel prices are a bad backdrop for the elections. One would hope politically FATAL, at this point. The administration desperately needs a story about how the president is about to FIX EVERYTHING. Preferably IMMEDIATELY. Preferably without explaining how we got here in the first place.
So perhaps the main product of this deal is not even diesel. It is another attempt to calm the market with a BIG, BEAUTIFUL ANNOUNCEMENT. Let’s see how much credibility these announcements still have.
Russia, of course, will sell this as a HUGE VICTORY. And why wouldn’t it? Promise diesel you still need to find somewhere, get a sanctions waiver UPFRONT. Plus another opportunity to tell the world that it simply CANNOT MANAGE WITHOUT RUSSIA.
But what worries me most is that this spectacle could weaken our European partners’ resolve. Trump’s latest “breakthrough” must not become an excuse to ease sanctions pressure on Russia — precisely when that pressure needs to INCREASE.
Of course, this decision will benefit Russia by generating additional revenues. We’ll be watching how much of its export capacity Russia actually manages to restore. One thing is CLEAR: Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries need to INTENSIFY.
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This afternoon in Marble Hill, a New Yorker was shot by an ICE agent in a residential neighborhood. Early reports indicate agents surrounded him and a 5-year-old child in his car before firing multiple rounds. We believe the child was physically unharmed.
This is an unconscionable and incredibly serious situation. I have called the President; when we speak I will demand that he ends all ICE enforcement actions in our city. I will not stand by while ICE agents terrorize our communities.
Our thoughts are with the injured New Yorker and his family tonight. We are praying for his recovery.
Get ICE out of our neighborhoods. Get ICE out of our hospitals. Get ICE off our streets. Get ICE away from our children.
Abolish ICE.
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Mamdani: There is no explanation for these tactics. There is no explanation for federal officers firing this many rounds into a car that has a five year old in the car. Look at how many people live right here. This is a residential neighborhood. We are right here by a subway.
And the pretext of ICE is, in their words, to keep this country safe. How is it keeping everyone safe to have, as you just heard from the police commissioner, individuals wearing construction vests in masks with long guns? Residents have no idea if these are law enforcement agents, or if they are simply attacking someone on the street. And when it comes to ICE, it begs the question, what's the difference? There is no explanation for this.
This is barbaric. This man is a clear and present danger.
Breaking news: The firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be live-streamed, the Defense Department said.
“People need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. wapo.st/4hNxK0C
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This is the bit of Right to Buy discourse that really gets on my tits, because I know loads of people who did it. My grandparents bought their council house after living there for decades. My mum did it at one point. Of course they did. If the state says, “Do you want to buy the house you already live in at a massive discount and actually own something?”, most working-class people are going to say yes. Why the fuck wouldn’t they?
And that is why Right to Buy was such brilliant politics. It was genuinely empowering for the people who benefited from it. You went from being a council tenant to owning an asset, having something to leave your kids, being less dependent on the state. I completely understand why that appealed.
It also fits Thatcher almost perfectly. I don’t think her philosophy was simply “fuck everyone, you’re on your own”, which is how “there’s no such thing as society” often gets remembered. It was more this belief that responsibility starts with the individual and the family, then the neighbours, the church, the voluntary group, the local community. Her father was exactly that kind of civic-minded greengrocer who got involved in everything, and I sometimes wonder how much of Thatcherism boils down to WHY CAN’T EVERYBODY JUST BE LIKE MY DAD?
And, well, because they fucking aren’t.
HERE COMES THE GOBLIN.
What happens when Derek doesn’t help his neighbour?
What happens when Derek is skint?
What happens when Derek is 84?
What happens when Derek has three kids, two jobs and absolutely no fucking time?
What happens when Derek assumes Sandra will do it, Sandra assumes the church will do it, the church assumes the charity will do it, and the charity has lost its funding?
You have rediscovered WHY INSTITUTIONS EXIST.
“People should step up” is a perfectly decent moral sentiment.
IT IS NOT A FUCKING DELIVERY MECHANISM.
You cannot organise healthcare, housing, education, social care and poverty relief around SOME DECENT BLOKE WILL PROBABLY SORT IT OUT.
That is literally why we build systems. Human beings are inconsistent. Some people are incredibly generous. Some are selfish. Most have their own shit going on. A functioning society cannot make essential things depend on whether an unusually conscientious greengrocer happens to live three doors down.
And Right to Buy is almost the perfect example.
For one family, fantastic. You buy your council house. You pay it off. You have security. Your children inherit something. Brilliant.
Then another family does it.
Then another.
Then another.
House 100,000: sold.
House 500,000: sold.
House 1,000,000: sold.
At some point some 25-year-old cleaner turns up and asks:
“LOVELY. WHERE’S MINE?”
And suddenly everybody gets very interested in personal responsibility.
That is the bit that annoys me about using someone’s mum buying her council house as proof that Right to Buy worked. OF COURSE IT WORKED FOR YOUR MUM. THAT IS THE FUCKING POINT.
The question is whether it worked as a housing system over generations.
Because if Brenda the cleaner could buy her council house in 1987, but Chloe the cleaner in 2026 is now paying private rent on Brenda’s old council house and needs two incomes, a massive deposit and preferably some conveniently deceased grandparents before she can buy anything herself, then you solved Brenda’s housing problem.
YOU DID NOT CRACK HOUSING.
You sold the chair and then told the next generation they should have got there sooner.
Dear @andyburnham
My mum died of dementia a few months ago. She was a cleaner.
She bought our council house. We were very working class.
She would hate the way you are wrecking our country and its future.
You don’t understand what working class is.
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Nobody knows about this. In your very final years, you could easily end up having only levels of “pocket money“ below, from your own money, while still needing to buy all your own clothes, shoes, toiletries, and anything else at all. The council takes the rest of your pension.
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If you had years in no/very low paid work, while claiming child benefit , please (please) check you have g@been awarded all the National Insurance credit you are entitled to from that - applies to both sexes. Just needs CB to have been in your name.
Women who stayed home to look after children can claim additional pension payments. Also, women who were unable to work as they were accompanying military personnel abroad can also claim. gov.uk/government/news/check…
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Ronster TV Review:
Slow Horses!
Not a bad little thriller series
but zero ‘Equine’ content!👀
