David O’Leary
daveoleary.bsky.social
David O’Leary
@daveoleary.bsky.social
Superb second mention for tomatoes in the FT today
@secondmentions.bsky.social
November 17, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Reposted by David O’Leary
"You know that guy you hate? We are just like him" - a comms genius, apparently.
Somebody is briefing the Times that the Home Secretary finds inspiration in Kristi Noem's leading the Trump mass deportation effort - which has gone much too far for Americans

What a kamikaze piece of political madness that is on the eve of their asylum package
www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
Shabana Mahmood threatens Trump-style visa ban on three countries
Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo will face Trump-style sanctions if they do not start taking back more illegal migrants and criminals
www.thetimes.com
November 16, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Reposted by David O’Leary
Someone should ask Starmer and Mahmood whether they think the Kindertransport, for example, should have been a return ticket. Whether Alf Dubs, rather than becoming a Labour MP and now Lord, ought to have been sent back with his family to Czechoslovakia once it was liberated from German rule.
This contribution to the volume of human misery is yet another policy from Labour based on a false premise, in this case that refugees are overly attracted to Britain. It will increase bureaucratic limbo, thus making worse the problem of "cohesion" it purports to solve.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays
Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Top stuff from Pope Leo, the Barry Norman or Roger Ebert de nos jours
November 15, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Reposted by David O’Leary
Great that personal bribery has become the default way to get deals with the world's richest and most powerful country. Really positive development.
“Apple set the tone” when Tim Cook gave Trump an engraved, glass disc. This week, the Swiss delegation gave him a “special Rolex desktop clock” and a $130,000 gold bar.

“.. It was tough to beat Apple, but the Swiss did it," an administration official told @axios.com

www.axios.com/2025/11/14/t...
November 15, 2025 at 2:13 PM
@footballcliches.bsky.social

Sorry that it’s rugby, but it’s international break, etc… but surely we can’t be having “25 unanswered points” when NZ already scored 12?

It implies the opposition has nil, no?
November 15, 2025 at 4:37 PM
@mrjamesob.bsky.social Nice to see you as a crossword answer in the i Jumbo General Knowledge Crossword, especially intersecting with a certain de-titled former Royal 😬😆
November 15, 2025 at 11:18 AM
We can add the European treaties to the long list of things that Elon Musk is both ignorant of and yet astoundingly self-confident in his 'knowledge'.
November 13, 2025 at 7:48 AM
Peru-born Hannan always has been a piece of work - an utterly odious, tedious and wrong man.
Spectator running a piece by Daniel Hannan which leans heavily into the inferred idea that you're not necessarily British if you come from a migrant background, even if you were born and brought up here.
November 12, 2025 at 10:22 PM
ReLiabEL StATisTIx (EIGHT BILLION!!)
November 12, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Reposted by David O’Leary
You have to be pretty ghoulish and thick to advocate for the death penalty.

You have to be an abominable moral vacuum to call for it exclusively for foreigners.
November 12, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Reposted by David O’Leary
Three points I keep repeating
1. Left and liberal voters actually really exist
2. The right and "centre" are trying to rule without liberals - they are way out over their skis
3. Reports of right wing total information control are greatly exaggerated
🧵/ How far does the public support net zero?

Support: 60%
Oppose: 25%

Net support by party
Green: +81
Lib Dem: +67
Lab: +64
Con: +11
Reform: -44

yougov.co.uk/politics/art...
November 11, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Reposted by David O’Leary
BBC Under Attack: Pot and Kettle Special

The new Private Eye is out now.
November 12, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Reposted by David O’Leary
In 2015 Cameron won an overall majority, and it was thrown away by May in 2017 because of Brexit.

In 2019 Johnson won a thumping majority, and yet he was out of office less than three years later.

In 2024 Starmer won a thumping majority and seems to have no idea what to do with it.

>
November 12, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Reposted by David O’Leary
One way of telling the political story of the last ten years is of three wasted overall majorities.

A substantive majority in the Commons for a full term is the greatest prize the UK constitution can bestow on a PM, and three times in a row, it has been wasted by those prize-winners.
November 12, 2025 at 10:41 AM
Reposted by David O’Leary
“Households hit by the two child limit” and “households who will be disproportionately hit by taxing salary sacrifice” are both “Labour 2024” voters. Keir Starmer managed to get “the dream electoral coalition for Blairism” but he is too embarrassed by success to govern for and with it.
November 11, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by David O’Leary
You know that time that a major British news organisation mistakenly sought out a random dude who happened to share a name with a former New York mayor in order to go after a left wing New York mayoral candidate? Did anyone resign?
November 10, 2025 at 10:19 PM
This is really good. I hadn’t realised David Grossman was such a snivelling, cowardly so-and-so.
The reaction to the Panorama edit has been nothing short of hysterical. Yes the BBC has some impartiality problems. But its biggest isn't the one you think.

New piece from me.

open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...
The truth about impartiality at the BBC
And the hysteria of the current "crisis"
open.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Reposted by David O’Leary
Trump Threatens To Sue BBC Over Misleading Edit Of ‘The Vicar Of Dibley’ https://theonion.com/trump-threatens-to-sue-bbc-over-misleading-edit-of-the-vicar-of-dibley/
November 10, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Reposted by David O’Leary
An attack on the BBC is an attack on its licence fee payers. That's us. Trump wants $1 billion from the British people.
Trump is threatening to sue the BBC for $1 billion over the documentary about him.

Trying to control a media outlet by bullying. Worked in the US where all the craven media capitulated. Will it work in the UK?
BBC Trump scandal - latest: US president threatens to sue for $1 billion over misleading speech edit - Yahoo News UK
The BBC has apologised for an "error of judgement" that led to the resignation of two senior executives.
uk.news.yahoo.com
November 10, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Reposted by David O’Leary
When Donald Trump threatens to sue the BBC ("for $1bn" in true Dr Evil style) now is the time for every other media organisation to stand with the BBC
November 10, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Reposted by David O’Leary
Should Gibb be sacked? yes, obviously. He's an abomination of basic journalistic standards. His GB News channel spreads conspiracy theory & disinformation. His Jewish Chronicle newspaper spreads invented stories. He is plainly trying to undermine the BBC so it's as bad as everything else he touches.
November 10, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Reposted by David O’Leary
Robbie Gibb should quite simply not be in that role. He makes no pretence of his own bias. While he has power the BBC will continue to rot.
November 10, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Reposted by David O’Leary
Maybe Keir should demand the heads of major US news networks any time they imply Britain is on the brink of civil war or that we live under sharia law. Or does it not work both ways?
November 10, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Reposted by David O’Leary
Last night, Dick Tice launched Students4Reform (See what they did there, the scamps? They replaced "for" WITH THE NUMBER).

It will be led by Matt Goodwin, a man in his mid-forties, and it looked exactly like you imagine. ~AA
November 10, 2025 at 11:07 AM