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"Nine of the groups are being run from Sri Lanka, three have admins in Nigeria, and the admins of six other groups appear to be located in Mexico, the US, Australia, Canada, Norway, Sweden and Kosovo. The remaining eleven have hidden their locations, but conform to the same pattern of fake address – AI memes – gaming video creator, suggesting they are similarly moderated." Katherine Denkinson explains how foreign entrepreneurs are monetising the clicks of British racists.

Rebecca Hamer on the common thread that links abusers, from grooming gangs to Jeffrey Epstein and his friends.

"His speech on Monday was a sprawling grievance tour, hitting every GB news talking point: immigrants, net-zero, lefty lawyers; all responsible for our economic woes and declining living standards." Zoe Gruenwald deconstructs Nigel Farage's big speech.

"In July 1616, nine women from the small South Leicestershire village of Husbands Bosworth were hanged after being found guilty at the Leicester Assizes of bewitching the teenage son of the Lord of the Manor." Margaret Brecknell says the case of the so-called Witches of Husband Bosworth shines a spotlight on the atmosphere of fear and superstition sweeping the entire country during the reign of King James I.

Rob Goulding reports on disagreements over the restoration of the Anderton Boat Lift in Cheshire. This marvel of Victorian engineering lifts boats from the River Weaver to the Trent and Mersey Canal.

Jefferson Pooley and Michael J. Socolow show that Orson Welles notorious 1938 radio dramatisation of War of the Worlds did not cause hysteria across the US and ask why this legend persists.

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David Howarth knows how to make the BBC less afraid of Nigel Farage: "Proportional representation would free the BBC from fear, but more than that, since under PR many parties would enjoy a reasonable prospect of entering government and so of supplying the secretary of state for culture, the BBC would have better incentives to maintain impartiality among democratic parties."

"Calling Andrew entitled is beside the point. He was raised with no economic purpose and now he finds himself as a connector to whom no one wants to be connected. 'I have no idea who he will socialize with,' one Norfolk grandee told me. 'All his friends are Chinese spies.'" Tina Brown claims to have the inside story on how King Charles pulled the plug on Andrew.

AI is supercharging abuse against women journalists, but Megha Mohan argues that it doesn’t have to be that way.

"For a period beginning in the 1960s and ending around the turn of this century, the preferred form of the homicidally inclined was the drawn-out danse macabre of serial murder. This was especially true in America’s Pacific Northwest, where an astonishingly large number of serial killers, from Ted Bundy to Israel Keyes, from the Green River Killer to the Shoe Fetish Slayer, from the Werewolf Butcher of Spokane to the Beast of British Columbia, grew up or operated." James Lasdun on the serial killers of Seattle.

Stephen Prince introduces us to the 1970 book Filming the Owl Service (1970), which is "long out of print and rare as hens' teeth to find second hand, which is a shame as it is a fine companion piece to the series, full of rather lovely photographs, artefacts, anecdotes, background story, prop sheets and designs from the filming and the series itself".

Robert Hartley explores the Leicestershire connections of George Stephenson, the father of railways.

The Joy of Six 1424

"By learning from Farage, the Greens risk becoming more like him in form, even if utterly different in content. And in politics, form matters. A democracy shaped by perpetual outrage and binary framing cannot easily sustain pluralism, however noble the cause. If we pick fights and make enemies now we will build a future full of fights and enemies." Mike Chitty worries that Zack Polanski has learnt too much from the populist playbook.

Caspar Hobhouse argues that Ukraine needs support from the European Union to transition towards a long-term energy system that is resilient, flexible and secure.

Rachel Sylvester on William's plans for a downsized monarchy.

"Kate Murphy’s work has changed how we think about the history of women’s roles in radio and television production forever. Had she not had the opportunity to make the transition from maker to scholar of BBC programming, and to do the serious detective work of tracking down these women’s stories via the archive, our understanding of women’s roles in the BBC would still be partial and centred on the stories of 'great men; that Asa Briggs and others have told us." Helen Wheatley joins the campaign against the BBC's decision to effectively close its Written Archives Centre to independent researchers.

Owen Hatherley reviews two books on the postwar architecture of South-East London: "It is stark, unpretentious modernism, but James and Audrey Callaghan were very unhappy to leave it for Downing Street when he became chancellor in 1964; it had, Audrey said, become 'like a second skin' – designed wholly around their needs and wants."

"Watkins based his thesis on three decades of legwork, on his interest in archaeology, history and architecture, and on his research into etymology, folklore and legends. And it’s hard for the non-expert not to be affected by his enthusiasm and sheer piling-up of what he sees as supporting evidence from these different disciplines." Chris Lovegrove looks at Alfred Watkins' The Old Straight Track, the book that gave birth to "ley lines" on the centenary of its publication.

The Joy of Six 1423

"The study, which examined nearly 300 child-arrangement case files and observed over 100 hearings, found that domestic abuse featured in almost nine in ten (87 per cent) of cases. Yet judges routinely treated it as background noise. In over half of those cases, courts ordered unsupervised overnight contact between children and alleged abusers." England and Wales's family courts aren’t just failing survivors, they are complicit in state-sanctioned abuse, argues Zoe Grunewold after a reading a report by two academics from Loughborough University.

George Foulkes says broadcasters are warping our politics by failing to subject Nigel Farage to the scrutiny that other politicians rightly experience.

"Along with restoring trust in the church’s safeguarding processes, Mullally must also heal divisions within the church’s hierarchy over leadership culture. In the weeks leading up to Welby’s resignation, both he and the archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, were accused of using 'coercive language' by the bishop of Newcastle, Helen-Ann Hartley." George Crozier on the many challenges facing the new Archbishop of Canterbury.

"Today, Denmark's wolf population is estimated to be just over 40 wolves, with at least seven breeding pairs known to have produced cubs. Yet even this small number has sparked fierce debates over livestock and public safety in one of Europe's most intensively farmed countries, with views on wolves seeming to reflect wider political divides across Denmark." Kristian Kongshøj and Troels Fage Hedegaard explain why 40 wolves have shaken Danish politics.

Ellen Hawley sets out the long history of curry in Britain.

Mike Taylor champions an undervalued Paul Simon album: "One of the most striking qualities of One Trick Pony as an album is how understated everything is. There are no big, heart-on-sleeve emotions, no vocal histrionics. Many of the songs have a stumbling quality, and almost all of them feel gentle. Every time a song starts to seem like it has a clear emotional shading, something undercuts it – whether it’s Simon’s idiosyncratic vocal delivery, a flash of colour from the band (and all of them are superb), or a switch in direction in a bridge or chorus."

Daisy Cooper accuses Nigel Farage of wanting to water down women’s rights

Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader, has called on Nigel Farage to explain why a US anti-abortion advocacy group helped arrange a meeting he had in London with Trump administration officials and diplomats.

The Guardian says the meeting took place in March between Farage and a delegation from Trump’s state department. According to the New York Times, it was overseen by the US embassy and brokered by the Alliance Defending Freedom  group. The meeting discussed abortion rights, free speech and online safety laws.

The Guardian reports goes on to say:

In response to the meeting, the Liberal Democrats accused Farage of working with Trump officials and anti-abortion campaigners who want to water down women’s rights and urged him to explain what was discussed.

Daisy Cooper, the party’s deputy leader, also called on the government to summon the US ambassador to get to the bottom of "what looks like a blatant attempt to interfere in the UK’s domestic laws".

"Nigel Farage needs to come clean … and explain if his party would weaken women’s rights if he came to power," she said.

"The Liberal Democrats will stand up against these attempts to turn Trump’s America into Farage’s Britain and roll back the clock on decades of progress."

The Joy of Six 1421

Nathan Gill, the former leader of Nigel Farage's party in Wales, admits taking bribes to help Putin. And his Russian connection – the Ukrainian politician Oleh Voloshyn - in turn has links to a key figure wanted by US authorities over election interference, reports Carole Cadwalladr.

Luvell Anderson explains why authoritarians like Donald Trump are afraid of satire: "Although humour can seem trivial to some, we should not underestimate its power to shift cultural agendas. Contempt toward elites in the form of satirical mockery can be cathartic and a demonstration of solidarity for those of lower status. Humourists can have a deep impact on the public imagination."

Joe Wilkins on scientists' confidence in AI: "In a preview of its 2025 report on the impact of the tech on research, the academic publisher Wiley released preliminary findings on attitudes toward AI. One startling takeaway: the report found that scientists expressed less trust in AI than they did in 2024, when it was decidedly less advanced."

"Children's books are personal. 'Often', he writes, the authors 'are writing from a wound – whether a wound sustained in childhood, or the wound of having had to leave it behind in the first place.' They are psychologically complex, too, 'a document not of how children are, but how adults imagine children to be, or how they imagine they want them to be'." Jeremy Wikeley review Sam Leith's The Haunted Wood.

Sean Burns looks back at Gillo Pontecorvo’s 1966 masterpiece, The Battle of Algiers.

"In a rational world, this remarkably resilient church would be celebrated, rather like the old bombed out cathedral in Coventry. It would be a tourist attraction, perhaps decked out with a few posters setting out its history and celebrating its fortitude. But no. The dour town planners in Plymouth instead implemented a far more cunning plan. They built a roundabout around the church ensuring no one could to wander round its walls staring at the sky and possibly think about their god and his purpose." Christian Wolmar on one church's sad fate.

The Leave campaign – Nigel Farage included – called for more non-EU migration to Britain

You'd never know it from the debate on immigration today, but:

In 2016, the official Vote Leave campaign actively advocated for more immigration from non-European countries. This wasn’t a fringe message – it was a central pillar of the campaign. 

This is a quote from an excellent article by Sam Bright, who reminds us that "every element of the Brexit campaign advocated for more non-white immigration – including Nigel Farage".

He backs this with quotes from a contemporary Financial Times report on Leave strategy and from Saqib Bhatti (now a Conservative MP and shadow education minister), Gisela Stuart, Priti Patel, Daniel Hannan, Boris Johnson and Douglas Carswell.

And here's what Nigel Farage had to say during the referendum campaign:

A Daily Mail headline on 8 June 2016 stated:

"More black people will be allowed into Britain if we leave the EU and immigration will become a ‘non-issue’, says Nigel Farage."

Farage claimed that Britain had:

"been stupid to turn our backs on the Commonwealth in favour of EU membership."

He argued that EU freedom of movement had made it "very difficult" for "qualified and skilled migrants from India and Africa" to come to Britain.

According to The Mail, after the Brexit vote, Farage favoured implementing an Australian points-based immigration policy, which would lead to “more black people” qualifying to enter the UK.

Ironically, Boris Johnson’s government – now the whipping boy of the far-right – implemented a points-based immigration system that directly reflected Farage’s favoured position prior to the vote.

That none of this is ever mentioned is a condemnation of the British media and of our politicians.

The Joy of Six 1418

Peter Jukes reveals that, during the crucial period when Nathan Gill, the former MEP convicted of accepting bribes, was most active, working directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most senior ally in Ukraine, he was also one of Nigel Farage’s closest confidantes.

"Labour’s former tough talk on sleaze and lobbying has largely melted away. Aside from tinkering with rules on MPs’ second jobs, there has been no sign of meaningful reform – despite the lobbying industry’s own trade body, the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, calling for it." Peter Geoghegan went to the Labour Party Conference.

Fiona Harvey fact checks the arguments Kemi Badenoch used in support of her vow to repeal Climate Change Act if her party wins power.

Hilary Cremlin, reports Varsity, has called for the "rewilding" if the school system: "Despite decades of reform, I think the school system as we presently configure it may be beyond redemption. This isn’t an attack on the idea of education, or on the thousands of brilliant teachers who give the job their all. But government after government has tinkered with education when the basic model is obsolete."

"The London Stadium was conceived as a world-class athletics venue and perhaps the kindest thing you can say about it today is that it remains a world-class athletics venue. The shallow rake efficiently disperses the noise up the back straight; the high distant seats offer a magnificent view of the javelin competition. There is a nice canal alongside and as much boutique street food as you can eat. But a walled fortress it is not, and can never be. And frankly it is the most visible symptom, if not the underlying cause, of modern West Ham." Jonathan Liew smells loss and dislocation at the famous London club.

Bearded vultures often pick up human artefacts to build or repair their nests, and those nests can remain in use for centuries. The result, reports Andrew Paul, is a gold mine for archaeologists.

A sure sign the tide is turning against Nigel Farage: Boris Johnson has condemned him

This is significant. Michael Heseltine once described Boris Johnson as:

"a man who waits to see the way the crowd is running and then dashed in front and says 'Follow me'."

Defections from Reform in the North East of England

It's not all one-way traffic as far as Reform UK are concerned.

Jonathan Wallace writes on his blog:

Two of Reform's constituency chairmen in Gateshead constituencies have defected to Advance, the party that split from Reform and was created in the image of its founder Ben Habib.

According to an Advance news release, Damien Heslop, who was Reform's candidate in Gateshead Central and Whickham, as well as chair of Reform's constituency branch, has defected to Advance. He was the only Reform candidate in the local elections last year in Gateshead.

And in neighbouring Jarrow and Gateshead East constituency, the chairman Paul Milburn has upped sticks and defected to Advance as well.

So it's bye-bye Reform and hello Advance for Mr Heslop and Mr Milburn. They are not alone. The news release also lists three other Reform constituency chairmen in the North East who have jumped ship: Stephen Holt (South Shields), Gordon Fletcher (Cramlington and Killingworth) and Sam Woods-Brass (Houghton and Sunderland South).

Advance UK is a far-right party led by Ben Habib, who was deputy leader of Reform before he fell out with Nigel Farage – which everyone seems to do sooner or later.

As Jonathan says, its launch, or perhaps relaunch, is taking place somewhere in Newcastle on 27 September.

The Joy of Six 1405

Adam Barnett itemises Nigel Farage's long history of support for Vladimir Putin: "On the eve of Russia’s 2022 invasion, Nigel Farage ... argued for ruling out NATO membership for Ukraine – an odd time to do that – and when the war started he called it 'a consequence of EU and NATO expansion'. Last year he called on the west to negotiate with Putin, adding that 'the relentless insistence on continued war is worrying. Whose insistence, Nigel?" 

"There are few fundamental political differences between Corbyn and Sultana. There is a clash instead of style, but this could well be used to their advantage. The conflicts are many when it comes to the wider group involved, however." Sienna Rodgers takes us the power struggles attending the birth of the proposed new left-wing party.

Francis FitzGibbon on the threat to jury trials: "Juries decide​ the outcome of about 1 per cent of criminal cases in England and Wales, and yet the jury system is permanently under threat. The latest threat comes in Sir Brian Leveson’s Independent Review of the Criminal Courts."

"The problem has always been where to place him. Unlike Monsarrat he wasn’t published in the 1930s, so can’t be ranked alongside early social realists like Graham Greene and George Orwell. Two decades later he was older than the proto-Angry Young Man writers John Wain and Kingsley Amis. Nor did he write about life outside London, like William Cooper, John Braine and others." Simon Matthews explores the life and works of novelist and TV dramatist Alexander Baron

"As luck would have it, the club had arranged Mick Channon’s testimonial match for 3 May, and so two days after the cup triumph, fans were still in a celebratory mood as they packed into the Dell to see their heroes. The FA Cup was paraded in front of an official attendance of 29,508 that night, although those who were there would probably tell you there were a few more than that. Spare a thought for the hundreds outside who could not get a ticket." Historic Southampton tells the story of The Dell.

Andrew Nette watches a favourite political thriller. "The Day of the Jackal spends a hell of a lot of time just showing things being done and the minutia involved. For Jackal this includes creating and sourcing a false identity and designing, ordering and learning how to use a bespoke lightweight sniper rifle. ... The mechanics of the police investigation into Jackal’s identity and whereabouts is also painstakingly rendered and I love every minute of it."

The Joy of Six 1404

Arthur Snell says the post-American world order is being created in front of our eyes.

"A Liberal choice exists, one that involves cooperation with other countries and sharing burdens. Labour seems so frightened of its own voters that it dare not even admit that this choice exists. Liberals should be braver." David Howarth has noticed the absence of Liberal (and Liberal Democrat) voices in the small boats debate.

Alexandra Hall Hall on the growing threat to US democracy: "A US President can declare a national emergency at any time, without approval from Congress, and without any legal definition as to what constitutes 'an emergency'. ... Trump could in theory use his powers to control the internet, take over tv channels, or freeze the assets of American citizens deemed to be 'hostile foreign actors', without judicial oversight."

"Rather than engage seriously with the reality of English sentiment and, yes, resentment, both Conservative and Labour governments have engaged in the serial ad hocery of constitutional change. They’ve played a never-ending game of constitutional Tetris in which plans for so-called English devolution are constantly made and remade. This process has, in turn, become a substitute for serious thinking about political voice and democratic influence within the state." Ailsa Henderson and Richard Wyn Jones argue that Nigel Farage is benefiting from mainstream politicians' habit of treating England as an afterthought.

"The zither score, by Anton Karas, is a masterstroke, because it centers every scene, regardless of its emotional temperature, within a wry and knowing acceptance of how hard life can be—and how tough, philosophical and willing to take a joke you’ll need to be if you’re to have any hope of getting through it. It’s the musical equivalent of the serenely smug yet  irresistible grin on black marketeer Harry Lime’s face when it’s revealed by light from an upstairs window." Matt Zoller Seitz celebrates the sensual pleasures of The Third Man.

JacquiWine reads A House and its Head by Ivy Compton Burnett - "widely considered to be one of the most original British modernist writers of the early 20th century".

Liberal Democrats call on Nigel Farage to sort our Nottinghamshire's Reform UK council

NEW: 'No idea, genuinely': Watch as Reform economic chief gets confused over existing relationships between Notts County Council and regional leaders.

Cllr James Walker-Gurley, a new Reform cabinet member in Notts, sat down with us last week. It didn't go well.@laurenamonaghan pic.twitter.com/6SjvTFtejL

— Andrew Topping (@AToppingJourno) June 23, 2025

Today's Guardian reports that the Liberal Democrats have written to Nigel Farage to demand that he steps in to reverse the "dangerous and chilling" decision by Nottinghamshire's ruling Reform UK group to stop talking to local newspapers and the BBC.

The Lib Dems, says, the paper, have suggested that the move may breach local government’s code of conduct, which calls on elected officials to "submit themselves to the scrutiny".

But why has the Reform leader of Nottinghamshire County Council ordered his councillors not to talk to journalists?

The Guardian suggests there are two reasons. The first is an interview the new Reform cabinet member Cllr James Walker-Gurley, a new Reform cabinet member, gave to Notts TV in June. You can see it above.

The second reason is a story in the Nottingham Post about disagreements between Reform councillors on the reorganisation of local government within the county.

Well, it's not the media's fault if a cabinet member appears not to be on top of his brief, and the Nottingham Post story was a perfectly reasonable one for a local newspaper to run.

Incidentally, Notts TV, a local television station, is closing down tomorrow, but that's not Reform's doing.

Ed Davey on how the Lib Dems can fight Reform and rival Labour

The Liberal Democrat leader joins tells Alison Phillips, Matt Green and Hannah Fearn as the guest on the latest Oh God What Now podcast.

He gives a reasoned defence of his general election stunts and talks about fighting Farage, Labour’s travails, the war on cruelty in politics and what the Lib Dems can get done in parliament.

I have wearied of this school of political podcasting - if everything right-wing parties do is laughable, how come they win so many elections? - but the comedian here is Matt Green, who I rather like.

When Davey met Davie over BBC bias

Ed Davey had a meeting with BBC director general Tim Davie over Liberal Democrat complaints that the corporations’s political coverage claim is weighted in Reform UK's favour at our expense

PoliticsHome says the meeting took place at Westminster in June:

“Previously, the BBC had always said: ‘We will cover you more if you get more MPs, but right now, you’ve only got 11,” a Liberal Democrat source told PoliticsHome.

“Now it really feels like they've moved the goal posts and they're just giving Reform massive amounts of coverage based on their poll rating, whereas we were always told it’s number of MPs, not poll rating.”

The insider – how many insiders does this party have? – also pointed to the number of times BBC News alerts feature Nigel Farage.

This reminds me of the BBC News analysis of the local election results in Shropshire this May. 

The Lib Dems gained 29 seats to take control of the authority, but that report mentioned Reform twice before it mentioned us and was topped with a photograph of Nigel Farage and some of his supporters.

I flagged this up on Bluesky, and the photograph was later changed to one that featured the Liberal Democrats. This may not have been due to my influence at Broadcasting House - it may be that someone noticed it was sheer bad journalism.

But I do think we should complain about this and often. The tone shouldn't be a whingy “It's not fair!” so much as “I love the BBC, but they need to raise their game” or “They've only gone and done it again!”

Pro-Palestinian campaign groups have their bank accounts frozen

At least two peaceful pro-Palestine organisations in the UK have had their bank accounts frozen, reports the Guardian.

The two examples the paper gives are the Greater Manchester Friends for Palestine and Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which have had access to their funds cut off indefinitely by Virgin Money and Unity Trust bank respectively.

The Guardian says of this news:

Coming amid the banning of Palestine Action earlier this month and the arrest of more than 100 people for showing support for the group, and the threatened arrest of a peaceful protester for having a Palestine flag and “Free Gaza” sign, it has amplified concerns about a crackdown on critics of Israel.

This has made me remember what I wrote when everyone on Twitter was hurhuring about Nigel Farage losing his Coutts account:

I'm uneasy with the enthusiasm for Coutts's decision to close his account.

Because, despite what right-wingers believe, the banks are not part of a woke blob. They are conservative organisations, and if they start refusing people accounts because of their politics, then it is left-wingers who will suffer more.

And I can see government and right-wing activists putting pressure on the banks. Why do Just Stop Oil activists have accounts with your bank? Ban them!

The Joy of Six 1386

“The government is about to publish a White Paper on Election Regulation, in preparation for the Elections Bill it will bring forward in the next parliamentary session.  Both have major implications for British democracy; both take us away from a Liberal approach." William Wallace on Liberal localism and Labour centralism.”

Phoebe Weston reports from the biodiversity desert that is Dartmoor today: “We have become so used to these landscapes,” says author and campaigner Guy Shrubsole, who advocates for Right to Roam on Dartmoor. “Good geology hides a lot of problems. We’re admiring rocks and not what should be a living ecosystem.”

“Nigel Farage spent a decade thundering about the virtues of British parliamentary democracy – the sanctity of ‘taking back control’, of laws made by “our” elected representatives in ‘our’ sovereign chamber. But now that he’s finally secured a seat in the House of Commons, he’s treating it with contempt.” Sam Bright says Farage’s disappearing act is a portent of things to come.

“Levellers had been briefly consulted on a new constitution, but the discussions were quietly forgotten once the business of deposing and killing the king was done. Their last significant challenge to the new regime was a sadly quixotic mutiny, defeated by the army leadership at Burford, making the honey-coloured Cotswold town an unlikely site of pilgrimage for later radicals.” Jonathan Healey reviews two books on England under the Commonwealth.

Off the Records listens to Hot Chocolate's UFO-themed hit No Doubt About It, which made number 2 in the UK singles chart in 1980, and explains why its subject matter was so topical.

A London Inheritance takes us to Highgate Archway, where a collapsed tunnel was replaced by a bridge.

Ed Davey's big day: Cheaper energy bills and challenging the BBC over Nigel Farage

This was Ed Davey on BBC Breakfast this morning. His determination to attack Nigel Farage at every turn, and hang his admiration for Vladimir Putin around his neck in particular, is clear.

Given that no one other party is prepared to have a go at Farage – the Conservatives agree with him, Labour is afraid its voters do – Ed is both performing a public service and exploiting a huge opportunity for the Liberal Democrats.

Ed Davey calls for Mark Carney to pay official visit before Trump

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Ed Davey has called for Mark Carney to be invited to pay an official visit just before President Trump and for him to be invited to address parliament too, reports The London Economic.

Trump will be here on a state visit from 17 to 19 September, while parliament is in recess.

In a statement quoted by the digital newspaper, the Liberal Democrat leader said:

“The Prime Minister should invite Mark Carney for an official visit to the UK just ahead of Trump’s visit, including the opportunity to address Parliament. This would send an important signal that Britain stands shoulder to shoulder with Canada against Trump’s chaotic trade war.

“With Trump threatening our Commonwealth partners like Canada with yet more tariffs while hitting the UK steel industry, now is the time stand firm with our allies.”

“Nigel Farage may want to abandon our Commonwealth allies and cosy up to his idol Trump, it just shows yet again he is a false patriot who cares more about promoting Trump at home than standing up for the UK abroad.”

If Mark Carney got to address parliament and he didn't, Trump would be intensely annoyed. This, of course, is a point in favour of the idea. Elbows up, everybody.

Ed Davey takes aim at Keir Starmer and the BBC

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Keir Starmer risks turning into "continuity Rishi Sunak" and the BBC has Nigel Farage on so often that it risks becoming his mouthpiece - "and this is a guy who wants to destroy them".

You can read these views from Ed Davey in an exclusive interview he granted Peter Walker of the Guardian.

After listing the deficiencies of government policy on health, welfare and defence, he turns to Starmer's performance as a leader:

"There needs to be something that people can get behind. He needs people to understand where we’re going. And I don’t think anyone, even his own party, have a real feel for where he’s going."

A Starmer supporter may ask how a Liberal Democrat chancellor would finance the extra spending implicit in Ed's criticisms, but it's clear that this government is going to have to increase taxation before the next election. 

Ed could call for tax increases or simply say they are inevitable. Vince Cable had a neat trick of sounding as though he was above politics while being very political, and Ed comes close to adopting such an approach in this interview.

And on the BBC is undoubtedly right:

On the rise of Reform, Davey argued that one factor was the disproportionate coverage given by the BBC to Nigel Farage and his party, something he said was "just completely disproportionate". 

"I come to this debate as essentially someone who supports the BBC," he said. "But I fear that they’re allowing themselves to be seen, by some at least, as an organ of Reform. They seem to bend over backwards to please Nigel Farage. They’re almost like a mouthpiece for Nigel Farage, he’s on so much, and this is a guy who wants to destroy them."