Tuesday 27th January 2026

[refitman]

Morning all.

[refitman]

The smartest minds joining Reform

[Frog222]

Morning, tho wet and windy !

Good one from that Atlantic post late last night, looks like it's Trump's turn to do another U-turn --

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her close adviser Corey Lewandowski, who were Bovino’s biggest backers at DHS, are also at risk of losing their jobs, two of the people told me.

For the past seven months, Bovino has been the public face of a traveling immigration crackdown on cities governed by Democrats. Noem and other Trump officials gave Bovino the “commander” title and sent him and his masked border agents to Chicago, Charlotte, New Orleans, and then Minneapolis. Bovino became a MAGA social-media star as he traveled the country with his own film crew and used social media to hit back at Democratic politicians and random critics online. Veteran ICE and CBP officials grew more and more uneasy as Bovino worked outside his agency’s chain of command and appeared to relish his role as a political actor.

[Frog222]

From last night's good Crace , OK she's an easy target !

JohnGlynn 14 hours ago 287

" I don’t understand how people who are not considered to be British by Reform are joining what is effectively the new face of the British Nationalist Party. Most of them will be ‘sent back home’, even if that home is the UK. All very odd."

[Frog222]

MADDOW : Trump in retreat as disastrous anti-immigrant campaign becomes political catastrophe

GOP candidate for Michigan governor leaves party ...

[Frog222]

CapGemini-- 'friend of ICE' !

With widely available modern tools analysing gigabytes of Big Data is no longer rocket science, so why do some institutions etc pay so much for it ?

[gilsey]

Meanwhile, the City is on a whingefest over capping ground rents. Starmer annoying the right people for a change.

M&G, however, argues that the changes are “disproportionate” and will “negatively impact savers and companies that have chosen to invest in UK assets”.

The firm, which was spun off from the insurance and pensions group Prudential in 2019, has £722m of ground rent assets in its Prudential Assurance Company shareholder fund.

M&G also said it is expecting a £15m hit to its annual adjusted operating profit from 2028, although it stressed that it is “well positioned to absorb and manage the negative impacts generated by this proposed legislation”.

The British Property Federation has said that the government’s plan to cap ground rents could discourage investment into the UK. It is also saying that landlords should get compensation. In a response to the announcement this morning (see 8.57am), Danny Pinder, director of policy at the BPF, said:

While we agree that rapidly escalating ground rents should be addressed, the proposed cap will interfere with investments made by pension funds and institutional investors over many years and undermine the government’s pursuit of investment in this country.

[Frog222]

Meanwhile, the City is on a whingefest over capping ground rents. Starmer annoying the right people for a change.

M&G, however, argues that the changes are “disproportionate” and will “negatively impact savers and companies that have chosen to invest in UK assets”.

The firm, which was spun off from the insurance and pensions group Prudential in 2019, has £722m of ground rent assets in its Prudential Assurance Company shareholder fund.

M&G also said it is expecting a £15m hit to its annual adjusted operating profit from 2028, although it stressed that it is “well positioned to absorb and manage the negative impacts generated by this proposed legislation”.

The British Property Federation has said that the government’s plan to cap ground rents could discourage investment into the UK. It is also saying that landlords should get compensation. In a response to the announcement this morning (see 8.57am), Danny Pinder, director of policy at the BPF, said:

While we agree that rapidly escalating ground rents should be addressed, the proposed cap will interfere with investments made by pension funds and institutional investors over many years and undermine the government’s pursuit of investment in this country.

"" Investment in assets "" indeed ! The big players were in it , easy money from 'rent-seeking' , as usual .

[gilsey]

“The Tories in England long imagined that they were enthusiastic about monarchy, the church, and the beauties of the old English Constitution, until the day of danger wrung from them the confession that they are enthusiastic only about ground rent.”

― Karl Marx

[refitman]

[refitman]

You'll never guess how this simple university student ended up getting a column in The Times.


(It's nepotism, in case you couldn't work it out)

[Frog222]

You'll never guess how this simple university student ended up getting a column in The Times.

(It's nepotism, in case you couldn't work it out)

Some fun comments downthread !

The article's 687 comments you can't see on an archive link,

https://archive.ph/95IlM GRRRRR !

Along with Anti-antisemitism Anti-transism is a nice little earner, even a good career choice ...

M Roy 1 day ago ---

She posts constantly on X - 100% of the content is gender-critical views. Not a few posts per day, more like 30-50. She contacted the Telegraph to complain when her uni friends un-friended her because they did not share her views. She got a couple of "free speech" organisations involved, along with gender-critical organisations. One of her new friends, co-founder of her women-only club, posted a picture in October on her Twitter feed which Sewell re-posted, showing Sewell protesting at a public Pride event in July, smiling while holding up a sign proudly proclaiming herself as a "TERF". The friend wrote she had waited until Sewell had gone public with her views.

Quite why she expected to be warmly welcomed to a pub which drapes itself in LGBTQ+ flags during Pride Week and advertises itself as LGBTQ+ friendly is a question. She has the right to her beliefs, but unlike you, she is extremely vocal and public about them, and constantly complains about being victimised by people who don't share her ideology.

So that's a capsule history. Now, on to the pub. Staff don't have to be trans to be offended by her views. But now, their employer must protect them from her espousing her views in their workplace - even as a preventative measure. So they have the law on their side in this case. She chose to be the public face of her ideology. If she wants to shout her views to the rooftop I suggest she finds somewhere else to drink.

Nice 'work' she has lined up .....

[refitman]

What have the people of Gorton & Denton done to deserve this?

[Frog222]

What have the people of Gorton & Denton done to deserve this?

Reform UK accused of embracing racism over its pick for head of student organisation
This article is more than 2 months old
Matthew Goodwin argued people from minority ethnic backgrounds born and raised in UK were not always British

And so ?

PS https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... ew-goodwin

[Frog222]