Roland Smith
@rolandmcs.bsky.social
Tracking the moral decay of the Right and the culture war's highly charged boundaries. Once a Fellow of the Adam Smith Institute, now firmly centrist. Telegraph watcher.
https://open.substack.com/pub/rolandmcs
buymeacoffee.com/rolandsmith
https://open.substack.com/pub/rolandmcs
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Roland Smith
@rolandmcs.bsky.social
· Nov 10
Long thread on how Brexitism started and evolved over 75 years, drawing from Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon's 'Continental Drift'.
Global Britain, Free Trade, Cakeism, Federalism, anti-federalism, EEA, Winston Churchill, Empire, 52-48 referendums, Enoch Powell, 1975, Thatcher.... It's all here. /1
Global Britain, Free Trade, Cakeism, Federalism, anti-federalism, EEA, Winston Churchill, Empire, 52-48 referendums, Enoch Powell, 1975, Thatcher.... It's all here. /1
Ooooo-kaaay, Oatly.
February 1, 2026 at 9:51 AM
Ooooo-kaaay, Oatly.
Interesting thought.
February 1, 2026 at 8:22 AM
Interesting thought.
Reposted by Roland Smith
I don't like to talk about stories before they are fully reported, but I am writing on ICE in a Minnesota town that isn't Minneapolis. However bad you think it is, it is worse. It is a campaign of pure terror whose only strategic goal is more terror. There is no strategy other than to break people.
January 31, 2026 at 9:03 PM
I don't like to talk about stories before they are fully reported, but I am writing on ICE in a Minnesota town that isn't Minneapolis. However bad you think it is, it is worse. It is a campaign of pure terror whose only strategic goal is more terror. There is no strategy other than to break people.
At last, the issue of student loans is properly hitting national politics.
Momentum is building among backbench Labour MPs to force action on student loans
Options include 0% interest rates, raising repayment thresholds and monthly payments so students aren't forced into overdrafts
MPs said to be "spooked" by possible Reform policy offer
observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
Options include 0% interest rates, raising repayment thresholds and monthly payments so students aren't forced into overdrafts
MPs said to be "spooked" by possible Reform policy offer
observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
Young Labour MPs team up to force chancellor’s hand on st...
Backbenchers hope to overturn chancellor’s change to scheme that could burden graduates with above-inflation interest rate increases
observer.co.uk
February 1, 2026 at 7:51 AM
At last, the issue of student loans is properly hitting national politics.
Peter Mandelson – the great genius at the heart of New Labour.
Dominic Cummings – the great genius at the heart of 'Leave'.
Nick Timothy – the great genius at the....
Morgan McSweeney – the great genius at the....
Can we ban all alleged great geniuses and cast them into outer darkness forever?
Dominic Cummings – the great genius at the heart of 'Leave'.
Nick Timothy – the great genius at the....
Morgan McSweeney – the great genius at the....
Can we ban all alleged great geniuses and cast them into outer darkness forever?
The "coincidence" of Epstein's cash payments to Peter Mandelson's partner/husband in 2009/10 and the then industry secretary's lobbying within cabinet for a softer post-crash policy towards bankers looks on the face of it like outright corruption. Certainly demands police investigation.
January 31, 2026 at 7:07 PM
Peter Mandelson – the great genius at the heart of New Labour.
Dominic Cummings – the great genius at the heart of 'Leave'.
Nick Timothy – the great genius at the....
Morgan McSweeney – the great genius at the....
Can we ban all alleged great geniuses and cast them into outer darkness forever?
Dominic Cummings – the great genius at the heart of 'Leave'.
Nick Timothy – the great genius at the....
Morgan McSweeney – the great genius at the....
Can we ban all alleged great geniuses and cast them into outer darkness forever?
'The wisdom of the British people'
On the anniversary of the UK leaving the EU, it is worth hearing once again the many benefits of Brexit, clearly articulated by those who voted for it.
January 31, 2026 at 5:38 PM
'The wisdom of the British people'
So being gender critical seems to mean you are also against assisted dying.
I'll work that one out later.
I'll work that one out later.
January 31, 2026 at 5:35 PM
So being gender critical seems to mean you are also against assisted dying.
I'll work that one out later.
I'll work that one out later.
[LOL/Spits coffee across the room.]
January 31, 2026 at 4:31 PM
[LOL/Spits coffee across the room.]
Reposted by Roland Smith
Great work from the FT's John Burn-Murdoch www.ft.com/content/b474...
January 31, 2026 at 4:18 PM
Great work from the FT's John Burn-Murdoch www.ft.com/content/b474...
Reposted by Roland Smith
Is this a Monty Python sketch?
January 31, 2026 at 3:06 PM
Is this a Monty Python sketch?
January 31, 2026 at 12:15 PM
Reposted by Roland Smith
The BBC is getting played here: if a contributor gets to flat out deny having his own words quoted to him on television (with the viewer not told the denial is untrue) then post about "dropping truth bombs". The mission to inform & counter misinformation is flailing if the editorial controls so weak
Konstantin Kisin has since posted on his own Youtube channel saying he 'dropped truth bombs on Question Time'.
Clearly 'alternative truth' bombs.
The video has had over 400k views and counting.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AN1...
Clearly 'alternative truth' bombs.
The video has had over 400k views and counting.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AN1...
January 31, 2026 at 11:13 AM
The BBC is getting played here: if a contributor gets to flat out deny having his own words quoted to him on television (with the viewer not told the denial is untrue) then post about "dropping truth bombs". The mission to inform & counter misinformation is flailing if the editorial controls so weak
Konstantin Kisin has since posted on his own Youtube channel saying he 'dropped truth bombs on Question Time'.
Clearly 'alternative truth' bombs.
The video has had over 400k views and counting.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AN1...
Clearly 'alternative truth' bombs.
The video has had over 400k views and counting.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AN1...
January 31, 2026 at 11:11 AM
Konstantin Kisin has since posted on his own Youtube channel saying he 'dropped truth bombs on Question Time'.
Clearly 'alternative truth' bombs.
The video has had over 400k views and counting.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AN1...
Clearly 'alternative truth' bombs.
The video has had over 400k views and counting.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AN1...
Reposted by Roland Smith
USA and Europe. One is an economically dysfunctional place of violence and no-go streets, restricted freedoms and censored media, immigration crises and a non-growing population whose choices threaten the ruin of a great civilization.
And then there’s Europe.
www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...
And then there’s Europe.
www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...
Opinion: Europe on the decline? Quite the opposite
While the Trump administration targets Europe as a failed continent racked by violence, it’s actually experiencing a revival of economic, political and defence unity, and some of the lowest crime rate...
www.theglobeandmail.com
January 30, 2026 at 3:14 PM
USA and Europe. One is an economically dysfunctional place of violence and no-go streets, restricted freedoms and censored media, immigration crises and a non-growing population whose choices threaten the ruin of a great civilization.
And then there’s Europe.
www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...
And then there’s Europe.
www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...
Reposted by Roland Smith
Nothing new here. And if anything it is counter productive for a UK leader to maintain the suggestion that all he cares about is closer trade ties.
Keir Starmer wants to take the U.K. deeper into the European Union single market — if Brussels will let him.
Starmer vows to take UK deeper into EU single market
Seemingly buoyed by a positive reception and a smaller than anticipated backlash, the U.K. PM is now doubling down on his Brexit reset.
www.politico.eu
January 30, 2026 at 5:26 PM
Nothing new here. And if anything it is counter productive for a UK leader to maintain the suggestion that all he cares about is closer trade ties.
Reposted by Roland Smith
I feel like I've bumped my head and woken up in 2019
Daily Express: NOW YOU MUST GIVE BRITAIN A PROPER BREXIT #TomorrowsPapersToday
January 30, 2026 at 10:06 PM
I feel like I've bumped my head and woken up in 2019
One thing I noticed in the run-up to this moment is the sheer number of articles/videos answering the question of "I've got a few bob, can I retire early?". There's clearly a market of people with insufficient funds wanting to retire (and advisers contorting themselves to say why it may be do-able).
Blimey I'm retiring in the next couple of days. It's just starting to properly register.
January 30, 2026 at 6:53 PM
One thing I noticed in the run-up to this moment is the sheer number of articles/videos answering the question of "I've got a few bob, can I retire early?". There's clearly a market of people with insufficient funds wanting to retire (and advisers contorting themselves to say why it may be do-able).
Reposted by Roland Smith
A good piece because instead of handwringing over Goodwin's radicalization it correctly focuses on the deliberately constructed media ecosystem that inexplicably elevated someone like him into the public eye and keeps rewarding him for ever more repugnant views.
iandunt.substack.com/p/matt-goodw...
iandunt.substack.com/p/matt-goodw...
Matt Goodwin and the end of England
How one man's career explains our public life.
iandunt.substack.com
January 30, 2026 at 6:09 PM
A good piece because instead of handwringing over Goodwin's radicalization it correctly focuses on the deliberately constructed media ecosystem that inexplicably elevated someone like him into the public eye and keeps rewarding him for ever more repugnant views.
iandunt.substack.com/p/matt-goodw...
iandunt.substack.com/p/matt-goodw...
Very gradually, they are starting to question the Good Friday Agreement. Why? Because it stood in their way during Brexit and continues to do so (re ECHR).
Hannan, who is a long-term fan of Gove, considers this article 'outstanding'.
['Powell' is Jonathan Powell]
spectator.com/article/the-...
Hannan, who is a long-term fan of Gove, considers this article 'outstanding'.
['Powell' is Jonathan Powell]
spectator.com/article/the-...
January 30, 2026 at 6:08 PM
Very gradually, they are starting to question the Good Friday Agreement. Why? Because it stood in their way during Brexit and continues to do so (re ECHR).
Hannan, who is a long-term fan of Gove, considers this article 'outstanding'.
['Powell' is Jonathan Powell]
spectator.com/article/the-...
Hannan, who is a long-term fan of Gove, considers this article 'outstanding'.
['Powell' is Jonathan Powell]
spectator.com/article/the-...
Reposted by Roland Smith
Reminder that the administration now arresting journalists, and its sycophants, are also whining that the EU and the UK are enemies of free speech
January 30, 2026 at 5:36 PM
Reminder that the administration now arresting journalists, and its sycophants, are also whining that the EU and the UK are enemies of free speech
A year on, I wonder how this theory is going.
January 30, 2026 at 4:58 PM
A year on, I wonder how this theory is going.
Reposted by Roland Smith
Does Matthew Goodwin, Reform candidate for Gorton and Denton, really think that accepting that Marcus Rashford is English denies Mr Goodwin's national identity?
That would seem to be to be a crazily overtly racist position for a mainstream party to allow its candidates to adopt.
That would seem to be to be a crazily overtly racist position for a mainstream party to allow its candidates to adopt.
January 30, 2026 at 4:43 PM
Does Matthew Goodwin, Reform candidate for Gorton and Denton, really think that accepting that Marcus Rashford is English denies Mr Goodwin's national identity?
That would seem to be to be a crazily overtly racist position for a mainstream party to allow its candidates to adopt.
That would seem to be to be a crazily overtly racist position for a mainstream party to allow its candidates to adopt.
I can barely keep up with all the free speech news coming out of America.
Don Lemon is not the only reporter who was arrested by federal agents overnight — local independent journalist Georgia Fort just went live on FB to say federal agents were also at her door to take her into custody over her protest coverage in Minneapolis.
January 30, 2026 at 4:04 PM
I can barely keep up with all the free speech news coming out of America.