Ben Williams

I had to check this headline was correct…🤬🤬🤬🤬

archive.is/Fl2VI

Use of incendiary weapons to target military objectives in civilian populated areas is prohibited given their indiscriminate effects and causing unnecessary suffering even if Israeli hasn't signed up to CCW Protocol III

Dear UK, please send your aircraft carriers to Ukraine. We actually appreciate our allies.

Every single American in my life is apologising for what he’s doing. Colleagues, students, friends from uni. Everyone. One thing that isn’t being reported over here in the uk is that there are currently massive corporate lay-offs happening. The crisis is already here. He’s going to fuck us all.

A little bit obsessed with all the nut clusters currently ‘ashamed to be British’ because Starmer didn’t sign us up to this shit show.

Kemi Badenoch accused of insulting armed forces for saying RAF 'hanging around' in the Middle East The Tory leader said British forces needed to stop Iranian missiles being launched rather than just intercepting them.

If you ever had any doubt about the political ineptitude of Kemi Badenoch then her interventions on Iran should surely settle your mind

Weird how creating conditions where powerful people never have to face real accountability leads to powerful people abusing their power. Who could have predicted that?

Building on my General Election Prediction App, I thought it might be fun to build an app that allows you to look at UK constituencies in a bunch of cool ways. So this app doesn't turn polls into seats. It looks at seats as they are.

livedataoxford.shinyapps.io/Constituency...

Quick thread 1/n

Farage to be blocked from No 10 by left-wing tactical voting, poll shows. The I paper

One does not have to be ‘left wing’ to recognise what a disaster Farage would be for this country.

Shameful that Parliament makes no effort to rein in Farage or Cox to reasonable levels (= £40k on an MP’s salary). F & C clearly are full time on non-Parliament tasks.
And utterly dixgraceful that a massive Labour majority & a supposed Labour government does no reform at all. (Diagram Harry Eccles)

Russia murdered a child and five adults overnight

While Russians paraded under their flag to the sporting world’s cheers, their missiles murdered a 13 year old girl in Kharkiv. Shame on the IOC!

I think most of us who have advocated PR for decades know exactly how hard it is to make the case with the public!

So it's his legacy? I don't think he's really interested in legacy. He wants the accolades in real time because he won't be around to enjoy them when he is dead. Putin and Xi are somewhat different because they see themselves as the inheritors of great history - millennia-long [history] in the case of China. For Trump, it is just Trump. He completely trashes every other American leader - he doesn't have a good word for any of them.

This interview of Fiona Hill by @meganjgibson.bsky.social is excellent and full of insight and zingers such as this on whether Trump is driven by his legacy
www.newstatesman.com/internationa...

Could it be you? New vacancy listed on Lib Dem website: Head of the Commons Whips Office

It’s time to end Britain’s first-past-the-post election lottery The Gorton and Denton by-election confirmed just how capricious our electoral system has become

It’s time to end Britain’s first-past-the-post election lottery ft.trib.al/ba3mQJ6 | opinion

I’m just…staring at this

Russia is providing Iran intelligence to target U.S. forces, officials say — The Washington Post The targeting information has included the locations of American warships and aircraft in the Middle East, the officials said.

Not quite sure what it will take for MAGA to see Putin as an enemy.

The @demos-uk.bsky.social Our BBC report is rooted in solid evidence & analysis, & inputs from experts & stakeholders, so it is hugely gratifying to see that the #BBC quoted us twice in its own official response (see my read-along on - sorry - LinkedIn👇)...

www.linkedin.com/posts/sameer...

Trump has a dangerous new red line for his attack dogs Anything goes, the law and Constitution be damned. Just don’t make the US President look bad on television

"There is an old saying in politics: if you want loyalty, get a dog. The trouble for Kristi Noem is that she infamously shot hers as a 14-month-old puppy after failing to train it properly. So, freshly fired by Donald Trump, she has absolutely nowhere left to turn."

inews.co.uk/opinion/trum...

Paralympics To Open Amid Tensions In Middle East And Ceremony Boycott Paralympics To Open Amid Tensions In Middle East And Ceremony Boycott

Ukraine is leading the list of countries not attending the opening ceremony.

Once again, another mealy-mouthed half defence of the earned settlement proposals from someone who clearly hasn't read them/doesn't understand them.

As Badenoch's letter (accurately) makes clear, there is only a modest difference in degree between Mahmood's proposals and Tory policy.

Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch writes to the Prime Minister to say that tripling and quadrupling settlement times to 15 and 20 years "are a good start but should go further"

Settlement taking that long are very niche positions among the public - British Social Attitudes - but popular among elites

Mahmood (and Labour) just miss the point again. It’s like they learn nothing from the by-election. They keep going as if being more like Reform is winning back voters (it is not). It’s like Labour have no political antennae at all. Creasy is correct here.

Not hard to find examples of each in various conflicts - ie Kosovo being short, Syria lasting a decade plus

More broadly the Convention is focussed on refugee status specifically, not its broader relationship with immigration law, which is touched upon but largely left to state parties to work out

Untrue - the Convention provides both for the possibility that protection might cease to be necessary (ie the cessation clause: refugee status ends if there's a change in circumstances) AND the possibility it might need to be long-term (ie references to facilitating citizenship of the refuge State)

This article was amended on 5 March 2026. An earlier version said low-skilled workers would “receive immediate access to welfare and social housing” if Labour did not make them wait longer to apply for settlement. In fact, settlement status only gives people the eligibility to apply for welfare and social housing, it does not give them instant or automatic access to such benefits. This has been clarified. From breaking news to huge investigative proje

Guardian has now [after my complaint] corrected Mahmood's deliberate & incendiary false claim settlement gives immigrants "immediate access to welfare and social housing".

Good for Gdn but embarrassing/shameful that Home Secretary deliberately misled the public for political gain like this.

I’m so tired of seeing people bash Bluesky for being an echo chamber when X is an actual intentionally constructed echo chamber that is demonstrably radicalizing people across the political spectrum who still use it

Oh this is not great