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Trump ally, Charlie Kirk has been assassinated at Utah Valley University event today.
Details are unclear, but if this was politically targeted killing its likely to be used by the Trump administration to further shift US politics towards a security state.
There will be some that will see Trump's hand behind this as a way to increase his chances of declaring military law (at some point)....
but however it plays out yet one more young man has been killed by US gun culture.
#politics
h/t FT
'This is England 2025.
It starts slowly at first, then all of a sudden it just creeps up on you'!
The view from Faversham.... 'Racists & thugs are acting with impunity, intimidating local residents & people of colour, who are living in fear'!
When the BBC gives Farage a platform to broadcast his hate this is the result... if we end up with a Reform Govt. then the BBC wil have comprehensively failed as a public service broadcaster!
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/09/racist-mob-menacing-refugee-children-far-right
Two hundred Neighbourhood Health Centres across England could transform NHS practice.... but, perhaps unsurprisingly the Health Dept. is exploring private investment to build & run them.
Seemingly Labour have learnt nothing from the part previous Private Finance Initiative projects have played in the ongoing budgetary crisis.
Ironically (?) this is exactly the sort of social investment one might have hoped Rachel Reeves new fiscal rules would have encompassed?
There is a long tradition of breaking specific laws to show that the Rule of Law (in its normative sense) is being compromised by non-sensical laws - such civil disobedience has a well-established pedigree.
As arrests of those breaking the proscription of Palestine Action, by holding placards silently, exceeds a thousand, I think we can safely say Labour is now confronting mass civil disobedience; if they know their history they'll know they are likely on the wrong side of this!
Well, well, well.... Nigel Farage uses a personal services firm in a common if often criticised 'tax planning' approach to (legally) reduce his tax bill.
Once again Farage is showing that despite his man of the people approach he's a lot more like the establishment figures he criticises... but, while this features in the Guardian, my guess is unlike Angela Rayner's, Farage's tax affairs will garner little interest or traction in the Right media.
That's a good point; but the current NHS with prescription charges does do sort of a similar thing.... but I would accept my position on university & the NHS would be different - partly I think because while tertiary education is in a sense a top-up with other alternatives available from self-education to training & other approaches to learning, when it comes to health really once we're past nutrition & exercise the health service is a necessary 'solution' to your health issues...
Yes, although actually I don't have a problem (in theory) with a student contribution to costs, on the economic grounds that its optimal to have those who benefit pay... but the key issue is the balance between public & private benefits... the current system is modelled on the notion that the individual captures all benefits of education & society almost none; rather its the other way round, which is why I favour a small (means-tested) UG fee, but extensive state support
As Richard Budd (LancasterU) suggests, anyone thinking undergraduate fees are a good move for Scotland clearly hasn't been paying attention to how they've played out in England.
While originally justified as a 'top up' to Govt. funding they came to replace such funding, and the associated fee-based business model lies at the heart of the crisis engulfing universities across England & Wales.
Better to find a different strategy for Scottish universities!
#universities
https://ddubdrahcir.wordpress.com/2025/09/03/fees-for-scotland-best-not-to/