Thread 41 Starmer : "Alban Arthan" the returning of the light

[DuncinToffee]

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Welcome to 2026 for political discussion, general chat and taxes in kind.

Maybe it's a typo ? He has a defect ? Maybe hypertension or something ?

Looking at his face , high BP is likely. Maybe also gout.

The picture of Macron that the Beeb news page is using is cracking me up. He looks like Tom Cruise in Top Gun.

I loved Top Gun back in the day - and always have had a soft spot for Macron. So I had to look and I do agree 😃
Apparently, he’s wearing shades due to a burst blood vessel in his eye - think he maybe should keep this look though - sorry not serious of me at all when all this is so much so 🙈

Just seen via Derbyshire Times that a labour councillor, Steven Bower, has defected to Advance.
Never heard of him and barely heard of his seat, except I drove through it.
Seems he’s joined a few councillors who went to Advance recently, though they went from Reform.

Oh yes. That's the most important thing 😁

Update on flights - all sorted and paid! Sister and I travel together which is such a relief.

Shocking stockings (which isn't rhyming slang).

Excellent news
i have nothing sensible to add re the giant orange toddler apart from he is stark raving fucking mad.

The only thing I want to hear from the Beckhams is David's opinion on his former football team (the one just outside Manchester). Which he may not give as a co-owner of another team.

The MS for Brecon and Radnorshire has been expelled form the Welsh Conservatives following alleged discussions over the possibility of defecting to Reform UK.
James Evans was sacked from his shadow cabinet role within the party and had the whip removed on Tuesday (20 January) morning.
https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2026-01-20/welsh-conservative-shadow-minister-sacked-after-reform-defection-talks

Mark Carney not pulling any punches.

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2026/01/20/opinion/mark-carney-just-shook-world

Nor is this Danish MEP...

https://bsky.app/profile/esqueer.net/post/3mcunnwudi225

Loved the post that said David wasn't that great a football player because he went to Real Madrid after Manchester United 😂

As a follower of United who enjoyed watching Beckham and the team - glory days - I did chuckle.

Meant to add your latest post @LlynTegid

It's all going tits up for Wilders, the Dutch version of Farage. Basically after doing much worse than expected in the last elections there's now been a mass mutiny as a quarter of his MPs quit his party citing his leadership as the reason
https://nltimes.nl/2026/01/20/wilders-influence-slashed-seven-pvv-parliamentarians-break-away-form-new-faction

I know it's not directly relevant to UK politics/Labour. But it's interesting because even a year ago his party were apparently on the up blah blah blah (much like Reform). He'd been trying for decades to get that much power (much like Farage). Then it all fell apart in a completely self inflicted way. Hahahahahahaha

I've just been reading up about Trump's speech last night. Davos could make interesting viewing.

David Beckham was someone who made the most of his football talent by hard work and a football brain. Even made Gary Neville look good by the way they worked together.

I have been reading about this on Dutch websites, one of the complaints was that you can't govern by angry tweets

Oh, that's excellent. The far right does have a habit of eating itself.

NEW: NEW: Standards commissioner finds Nigel Farage committed seventeen breaches of MPs code of conduct.

He failed to declare £333,000 in outside interests (more than 3x MPs annual salary)…

… including payments for promoting gold, presenting on GB News and from his friend George Cottrell, within 28 days.

Reform UK leader apologised for what he described as administrative errors by his team.

https://bsky.app/profile/pippacrerar.bsky.social/post/3mcwbyu75ck2h

Calling Dan Hodges

This could be an interesting thread to follow

https://bsky.app/profile/mrjamesob.bsky.social/post/3mcwclroaac2n

Has anybody collected pro-Trump headlines from UK newspaper commentators in one place? First & second term. Especially ones attacking his critics. If not, bung me your favourites & I'll do it myself.

🙄
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/reform-hypocrite-blasted-letter-joe-36585042

You mean he blamed someone else?

What a pointless regulator they are.

Wow. What an absolute two faced tosser.

But Angela Rayner ...