Yep, breaking the law is one thing, but how dumb must one be to film yourself doing it?

..The IMF report has forecast the British economy will contract by 0.6 per cent rather than grow slightly grow as had been previously predicted.

In contrast, Russia’s economy is predicted to increase by 0.3 per cent.....

..Truss conceded she had made mistakes: She had not done enough to build support for her ideas and had moved too abruptly on an agenda that shocked the country. Truss did not put it this way, but she had tried to transplant American-style anti-tax politics onto British soil and she had failed.

If Truss had reconsidered the soundness of a program that sent the pound plunging, triggered emergency actions by the Bank of England and drew open scorn from the Biden administration, she did not say so. To the contrary, she seemed to believe her defective strategy of borrowing Republican ideas could be improved by borrowing more Republican ideas.

And in Washington, Truss found a new one she admired: the Republican Study Committee, an influential body within the House of Representatives that serves as an ideological anchor for the GOP and a clearinghouse for government-shrinking policies. In a meeting with Representative Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, the group’s chair, Truss said she wanted to create a similar caucus in Westminster to “house all of their ideas into a collective group, in order to hold the current prime minister accountable,” according to Hern....

A new assessment of Britain's research capability has concluded that it has "serious and longstanding problems"...

... the Prime Minister might not have received the best advice, following a BBC News report that he was considering alternative proposals...

... In summarising its conclusions, Sir Paul said that UK research was "fragile, in jeopardy, and needs fixing".

A spokesperson for the newly created Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) welcomed the report which was described as "thorough and thoughtful"...

Why is it that our politicians understand nothing of Science anything?

Corrected:

Why is it that our politicians understand nothing of Science anything?

Very world-beating funding

With the noble goal "to grow the UK as a global space superpower," the UK Space Agency (UKSA) has scraped together a princely £1.6 million ($1.9 million) to be divvied up between eight research programs.

This is part of "the government's strategy to use our £5 billion investment in space science and technology to grow our £16.5 billion commercial space sector to create the businesses, jobs and opportunities of tomorrow, and the space clusters from Cornwall to Scotland," said George Freeman, Minister of State at the newly formed Department of Science, Innovation and Technology.

But the sum is laughable when compared to the $32.33 billion in federal funding available to NASA for fiscal 2023, and even worse when you divide that £1.6 million [£0.0016 billion] into eight chunks. "Superpower" indeed.

Still, the UKSA saw fit to shout about the funding to coincide with Mars Day, which is March 7 by the way...

... "Supporting technologies that make that ambition a reality will help raise the international profile of UK space skills and expertise..."...

... So while the funding is pennies – to be expected from a country sliding into irrelevance that can't even launch a satellite – perhaps some of these projects may play a bit part in the future of space exploration. But superpower? They have to be joking.

Sunak reckons it just a matter for the BBC to sort out.

... Last week, in a tweet, Lineker compared the language used to set out the government's asylum plan to "that used by Germany in the 30s".

His words, about the government's new Illegal Migration Bill, were criticised by Conservative ministers, including the home secretary.

Lineker was told on Friday he had to apologise for his tweets or would be unable to present Match of the Day at the weekend.

When he refused to do so, he was taken off air, triggering an unprecedented wave of walkouts from fellow pundits and commentators which disrupted weekend football coverage across the BBC.

On Monday, Davie said: "Everyone recognises this has been a difficult period for staff, contributors, presenters and, most importantly, our audiences.

"I apologise for this."

After announcing he will return to presenting on BBC TV, Lineker tweeted: "However difficult the last few days have been, it simply doesn't compare to having to flee your home from persecution or war to seek refuge in a land far away.

"It's heartwarming to have seen the empathy towards their plight from so many of you.

"We remain a country of predominantly tolerant, welcoming and generous people."...