Uncensored Free Speech Platform

The Tories seem less scared of their shadow, but honest consistency has to be the way forward
Ask who never gets charged.

At the very real risk of criticism from traditional working class Labour types, and their new right counter parts in Reform, I donned velvet smoking jacket and cravat last Thursday to attend at Conservative Party party.

Yes, yes “typical tory posh type, wets and bankers (they might not actually use a ‘b’)  living it up, while ordinary folk struggle with the cost of living”. I mean I sort of get it, but it was the dull the first time I heard it and it hasn’t improved with age.

I don’t, despite a friendly jibe from journalist Camilla Tominey, habitually dress in such attire but the theme of the night was the 1920’s, and almost everyone had risen to the challenge. One or two of the men had opted for the easy ‘black-tie as their dressing up option, one former Cabinet minister had not, but we excused it as him thinking it was “whatever I was wearing in the office at 19:20”

I mention bankers because this was a fundraiser dinner with a room full of people who far from thinking the Conservative party is dying, are funding it’s renewal. Yes, Reform have their backers with big pockets, as did Labour and presumably still do, just, but that old myth “the money’s dried up” seemed put to bed early on Thursday.

The 1920’s was an interesting theme: UK politics was dominated by David Lloyd George’s Liberal-Conservative coalition government, grappling with post-war economic slump, industrial unrest, and Irish independence demands. The year saw the passage of the landmark Government of Ireland Act 1920, partitioning Ireland, while Labour rapidly emerged as the main opposition to the Conservatives.

The most notable point was the mood.

The Conservative party is feeling both bullish and more confident, whilst completely aware that the brand, if not the leader needs a huge amount of work, and that persuasion is now less about appeasing the angry but persuading the indifferent.

This is the ‘delusion’ opponents like to refer to, that the Tories don’t get what is still required of them. They do, they are acutely aware of it, but they’re no longer afraid of it.

Reform have, they will under this article and online, continue their now well-rehearsed critiques. But those Conservatives who’ve stayed to fight are growing impervious to it. As I’ve mentioned before, a relentless series of attacks from Reform has hardened attitudes, as one shadow cabinet figure put it:

“Apart from giving Labour a free ride whenever they do it, the attacks on us, especially when Kemi is getting the attention they want, works both ways. Their base love it, but others are put off. People talk about indifference – well ok, but our people are starting to ignore it. They won’t be bullied off the pitch, especially when parts of Labour seem to want to do that to the PM!”

It’s a sentiment I’ve heard …

Newslinks for Sunday 15th February 2026
We're watching the same failure loop.

Labour rebels line up Healey to challenge Starmer

“Labour rebels are lining up John Healey, the Defence Secretary, as a “unity candidate” to challenge Sir Keir Starmer for the leadership, The Telegraph understands. A rising number of backbenchers believe Mr Healey would draw support from both the Right and Left of the parliamentary party. Some on the moderate wing of the party believe that Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, has become too “toxic”, particularly following his decision to publish his WhatsApp messages with Lord Mandelson. Meanwhile, allies of Angela Rayner admit it will be difficult for her to run in a leadership contest while HMRC continues its investigation into her tax affairs. It comes amid a push from within the party to steer Labour in a different direction to the one piloted by Morgan McSweeney, who quit as Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff this month over the Mandelson scandal.” – Sunday Telegraph

Badenoch calls Starmer a ‘lame duck PM’ — and worse – Sunday Times

Will Starmer shift to the left? – FT

I will lead Labour into election PM says – Sun on Sunday

The moment Starmer’s colleagues lost all confidence in him – Sunday Express

Unions and Labour MPs call on Starmer to end ‘narrow factional agenda’ – Observer

Miliband plots pact with Green Party leader – Mail on Sunday

Burnham hatches new plan to become MP – Mail on Sunday

Mandelson seen for first time since Epstein revelations – Sunday Telegraph

Did Mandelson lean on BBC to drop probe into his links to Russia? – Mail on Sunday

Labour activists paid for smear campaign against journalists – Sunday Times

PM backing Cabinet Secretary frontrunner ‘because she’ll suppress the release of private Mandelson messages’ – Mail on Sunday

Starmer urged to go slow on replacing ousted head of civil service – FT

PM’s hiring mistakes create a culture of drift – FT

Comment

Starmer accused Sunak of protecting paedophiles. Now it’s his turn – Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times

McSweeney’s fall was inevitable — he couldn’t do it all – Jason Cowley, Sunday Times

Starmer says he is ready to fight but now he must prove he can fight to win – Editorial, Sun on Sunday

Both Britain’s main parties are sinking in the electoral quicksand – Stephen Bush, FT

Give the PM a break: not even Churchill could survive our drama addiction – Matthew Syed, Sunday Times

>Today:

ToryDiary: The Tories seem less scared of their shadow, but honest consistency has to be the way forward

Starmer surrenders to EU net zero rules

“Sir Keir Starmer has drawn up plans under which the UK will ramp up its net zero targets and cede control over its energy policy as part of closer alignment with Brussels. A memorandum, published by the Cabinet Office earlier this month, spells out the price that the UK is willing to …

How Marco Was Received
This feels like a quiet policy shift.

(John Hinderaker) I want to add to Scott’s comments immediately below on Secretary Marco Rubio’s speech to the Munich Security Conference by asking, what did the Europeans think of it?

Actually, if you watch the video to the end, the question answers itself: Rubio got a rapturous standing ovation. The European who came out at the end to ask Marco a few questions began by saying that the room had received his remarks with “relief.” No doubt he referred to Europeans’ trepidation–misplaced, I think–about President Trump’s foreign policies. They apparently take seriously the idea that the U.S. might invade Greenland.

To some extent, of course, Trump has brought misunderstanding upon himself through his sometimes reckless chatter. Rubio is, as Scott said, the Trump administration’s best spokesman on foreign policy.

The London Times produced a long analysis of Rubio’s speech almost immediately after it was over. It grudgingly credits Rubio, but consists mostly of hand-wringing:

When Marco Rubio got off the stage at the Munich security conference after declaring “that the fate of Europe will never be irrelevant to our own”, there was relief among Europeans, with many standing to show their respect.

It was a far cry from a year earlier when his colleague JD Vance shocked and rattled those present with a speech that warned that their biggest security threat came not from China or Russia but “the enemy within”. He lambasted European allies for destroying themselves with mass immigration and censorship.

There are plenty of Europeans who think their countries are destroying themselves with mass immigration and censorship, but they aren’t the ones who attend international conferences.

In his speech, Rubio was unsparing in his critique of the globalist fantasy that took hold after WWII:

On Saturday Rubio said that the idea that “every nation would now be a liberal democracy” and that “the rules-based global order, an overused term, would now replace the national interest” was “a foolish idea that ignored both human nature and it ignored the lessons of over 5,000 years of recorded human history. And it has cost us dearly.” His speech was tightly guarded before the event, written by his inner circle with Rubio adding large chunks himself.

The Times writer, speaking for the European establishment, apparently disagrees but doesn’t say so directly. She also suggests that Trump’s (and Rubio’s) exhortations to Europe are taking hold:

European countries are looking to reduce their dependence on America. …

One of the arguments for this is the idea that the US is effectively abandoning Europe or giving up interest. However, the truth may actually be of greater concern to some European diplomats. They don’t want to give up on Europe, they want to change it. …

Willful ignorance
How is this acceptable?

(Bill Glahn) The purpose of a system is what it does. From the Minneapolis Star Tribune,

Why is Minnesota so vulnerable to Medicaid fraud?

Everyone already knows the answer: because the people in charge of Minnesota prefer it that way.

But the Star Tribune spends 49 paragraphs pretending to seek an alternative explanation. In the world of journalism, an article like this used to be known as a “thumb-sucker.” I’m not kidding. In the interests of decorum, I will forgo the obvious joke.

They consult more than 15 “experts.” The experts blamed the usual suspects, “outdated technology,” “oversight gaps,” “a decentralized system,” “outsourcing” and “complexity.”

Complexity? It could not be more simple. And it will continue as long as voters keep re-electing those politicians that benefit from wide-scale fraud.

One expert they didn’t ask, apparently, is Governor Tim Walz. He maintains that there is nothing wrong in Minnesota,

Fraud is a nationwide challenge and is not unique to Minnesota. Higher visibility does not equal higher fraud. Targeted misinformation thrust Minnesota into the spotlight, but we are committed to leading the nation in Medicaid program integrity and fighting fraud.

Over and over, expecting a different result.

Day No. 1 of Shutdown No. 3
Who's accountable for the results?

(Bill Glahn) Day 1 of the latest government shutdown has already claimed its first victims. From The Hill newspaper,

Johnson’s delegation cancellation upends lawmakers’ travel to critical global summit

Following “shutdown” protocols, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson cancelled the official Congressional delegation to the Munich Security Conference.

I can’t recall of hearing of this “critical” conference before today. But, maybe that’s just me.

As for the ongoing shutdown, The Hill tells us that Democrats “have been demanding sweeping reforms to the White House’s immigration tactics, including an overhaul of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”

What sort of reforms? No. 1 on the Democrats’ wish list for ICE is a requirement for “judicial warrants.”

From Fox News,

Over 1.5 million illegal aliens with deportation orders in US, ICE director reveals:

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said, ‘There’s 16,840 final orders at large in the state of Minnesota’

Let’s start with the Minnesota figure. Keep in mind that “final orders” mean that each alien has already received their full measure of due process. They have been ordered deported from America but have not complied. Judical warrants begin an entire new due process system beginning at square 1.

Let’s assume that it would require one hour of a federal district judge’s time to obtain a warrant, or a least a decision on a warrant application. Assume an 8-hour workday per judge and 250 workdays a year (excepting weekends, federal holidays, vacations). If he did nothing else, a judge could process 2,000 warrants per year. It would take more than 8 judge-years to process just the current number of aliens with final orders in Minnesota.

Ignoring judges on “senior status,” there are only seven sitting federal judges in all of the district of Minnesota. And that’s all they would do, for a full year: no civil or criminal cases, no other court business, just arrest warrants for illegal aliens already slated for deportation.

Likewise, processing 1.5 million warrants nationwide would require 750 judge-years. There are only 677 district judge seats across America. The requirement for judicial warrants is a demand to end enforcement of immigration laws and a requirement to open the borders.

Math is relentless.

Raves for Rubio
Who benefits from this decision?

(Scott Johnson) Secretary of State Rubio spoke at the Munich Security Conference earlier today. The Department of State has posted the video below along with the transcript of his remarks here. The video and transcript include a few questions and answers following his prepared remarks.

Toward the end of his speech he reviewed the peopling of America by European immigrants. Here he brought his family story into the mix:

[I]n the year that my country was founded, Lorenzo and Catalina Geroldi lived in Casale Monferrato in the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. And Jose and Manuela Reina lived in Sevilla, Spain. I don’t know what, if anything, they knew about the 13 colonies which had gained their independence from the British empire, but here’s what I am certain of: They could have never imagined that 250 years later, one of their direct descendants would be back here today on this continent as the chief diplomat of that infant nation. And yet here I am, reminded by my own story that both our histories and our fates will always be linked.

I think it’s fair to say that the Trump administration has no better spokesman on its behalf than Secretary Rubio. He crushed his assignment in presenting the case for the administration’s foreign policy in these remarks.

You Don’t Have to Be Well-Informed…
Transparency shouldn't be controversial.

(John Hinderaker) …to be taken seriously as a pundit. Check out this riff by Bill Maher. It is so stupid that at first I thought it must be an AI-generated fake. But apparently not:

Bill Maher: “Doug Burgum, he’s the interior secretary. Listen to this… He said, CO2, carbon, was never a pollutant. He said when we breathe, we emit CO2.”
⁰“Okay, Doug, you know what? Let’s try this little experiment. Um, tonight when you get home, go in the garage, close the…

— RedWave Press (@RedWave_Press) February 14, 2026

Amazing. Apparently Maher skipped that part of junior high school. Don’t they teach kids about photosynthesis anymore? And doesn’t he have writers? Does no one on his staff know the difference between CO and CO2?

It is dangerous to have voters who are so ignorant, and worse yet when people who know nothing are taken seriously as thinkers.

Doug Burgum, by the way, is an exceptionally bright guy–unlike Bill Maher–and an expert on energy.

DOJ’s failed side quests could undercut Trump’s accountability message
This looks less like justice and more like strategy.

A handful of Justice Department attempts to build highly politicized criminal cases on weak or untested legal foundations is threatening to undermine public faith in the accountability agenda President Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail.

The unsuccessful attempt by prosecutors this week to secure an indictment against six Democratic lawmakers who appeared in a social media video encouraging military members to defy “illegal” orders was the latest side quest to spawn negative headlines for the Trump DOJ. It followed a backlash to the Justice Department’s subpoena of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, as well as criticism of the inclusion of former CNN anchor Don Lemon in the indictment of anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement activists who shut down worship services in a Minnesota church.

Trump’s DOJ has not shied away from pursuing political cases. His FBI raided the election offices in Fulton County, Georgia, last month as part of a criminal investigation into the 2020 vote count. His Justice Department has signaled it is looking into whether Obama-era intelligence officials fabricated the intelligence that led to the Russian collusion investigation during Trump’s first term in office.

But those moves target alleged wrongdoing that was central to Trump’s identity for years, and which voters might have expected his DOJ to pursue when they reelected him in 2024.

Critics say some of the other, less clear-cut political cases could threaten to undermine the controversial work Trump’s supporters want to see the DOJ accomplish.

“If you can’t even get a grand jury indictment, that’s pretty embarrassing,” former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told the Washington Examiner. “Statistically, you can count on one or two hands the number of times per year nationwide the department is unable to secure an indictment, and it seems to be a regular occurrence right now.”

Washington, D.C., has one of the most dense concentrations of Democratic voters, meaning it is highly possible some grand juries, which consist of selected citizens, are rejecting these prosecutions on purely political grounds. Meanwhile, the Washington Examiner previously uncovered left-wing groups that have been meeting and coaching residents on how to “influence outcomes” in jury deliberations.

Grand jury proceedings require only probable cause, not proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and are conducted without defense counsel present.

“You need a bare majority, 12 out of 23 grand …

Kevin Kiley faces election crossroads as he rebukes Trump’s tariffs
What's the endgame here?

Rep. Kevin Kiley’s (R-CA) decision to break from President Donald Trump and GOP leadership on tariffs could complicate his political future as he weighs running for reelection in two different California seats after his own was eviscerated by Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s Democratic gerrymander. 

Kiley has defended his decision to vote with a small group of GOP rebels against extending the House’s ban on considering legislation repealing Trump’s tariffs. He told the Washington Examiner that banning measures from coming to the floor “is a direct shift in power from the membership to leadership” and Congress needed to go in the “other direction.” 

“I think that tariffs are an issue of great importance to the country,” Kiley said. “And regardless of what you think of any individual tariff or the overall policy, I think that the United States Congress should at the very least be discussing and debating these matters. So I don’t see the harm in that.”

The vote dealt a blow to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and the White House by opening the door for Congress to pass legislation rebuking Trump’s agenda. While any measure repealing Trump’s tariffs will likely be vetoed, it still puts lawmakers on record as opposing the president ahead of the midterm elections.

That’s exactly what happened when Kiley and five other House Republicans voted with Democrats to terminate Trump’s tariffs on Canada. The move came as Trump was engaged in a public back-and-forth with Canada over control of the Gordie Howe Bridge connecting Michigan with Ontario. 

Ahead of the vote, Trump pledged there would be a price to pay for defecting lawmakers. 

“Any Republican, in the House or the Senate, that votes against TARIFFS will seriously suffer the consequences come Election time, and that includes Primaries!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. 

Kiley, whose district split into six factions because of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s gerrymander, has yet to announce what seat he will contest this year. He has until March 4 to decide between California’s newly drawn 5th and 6th congressional districts — each seat is considered an uphill battle. 

“None of us have seats because the map has been totally obliterated and there’s a new map,” Kiley said. “So there aren’t any incumbents, per se, in the sense that there are incumbents attached to a particular district.”

Jeff Le, who served as a deputy Cabinet secretary to former Democratic California Gov. Jerry Brown, told the Washington Examiner there is …

Debunking the Democrats’ flawed arguments against the SAVE America Act
Transparency shouldn't be controversial.

Democratic opponents of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, also known as the SAVE America Act, have deployed dubious arguments against the latest version of the federal election integrity law.

In its third iteration, the “new and improved” SAVE America Act, which would require both proof of United States citizenship at the time of voter registration and physical identification when casting a ballot, passed the House this week despite scant Democratic support.

Only one House Democrat joined the GOP in advancing the nationwide voter ID bill, designed to prevent foreigners from infiltrating the U.S. election process.

As the SAVE America Act now heads to the Senate, Democrats are deploying some of the same fear-mongering rhetoric about voter suppression that they pushed previously in past fights over Republican-led election reform, though those predictions fell flat once put to the test at the ballot box.

Their most recent claims, also hyperbolic or reliant on far-fetched scenarios, similarly fail to survive basic scrutiny.

No place to photocopy

Some critics of the SAVE America Act, such as Vice President Kamala Harris, have argued that certain voters cannot possibly photocopy their identification documents due to a supposed dearth of photocopy services.

In a 2021 interview that recently went viral on social media, Harris publicly opposed voter ID legislation because she said it would be “almost impossible” for Americans living in remote areas to make photocopies of their ID cards.

“You’re going to have to Xerox or photocopy your ID to send it in to prove you are who you are,” Harris told BET News. “Well, there are a whole lot of people, especially people who live in rural communities, [where] there are no Kinko’s, there’s no Office Max near them.”

Kinko’s no longer exists. It was bought by FedEx in 2006 and operated subsequently as FedEx Office. By 2019, FedEx Office was offering photocopy services at 2,000 locations across the country — and it is far from the only place where customers today can make copies of their documents.

Thousands of places providing photocopy services, whether commercial or self-service, currently exist in the U.S. In fact, on-the-spot photocopying is accessible in every state.

Photocopy machines are widely available at more than 5,300 UPS Store locations, 831 Staples sites, 9,207 public libraries, and over 4,700 CVS stores across the country.

REPUBLICANS LOOK TO USHER THROUGH VOTER ID LEGISLATION FOR THIRD …