‘Why here?’: inside mid-Wales village where far-right figure has created a settlement

During the middle ages, monks would travel to the village of Llanafan Fawr in mid-Wales to visit the church and relics of St Afan, a son of the king of Gwynedd, martyred by foreign pirates centuries before.Today, a different sort of pilgrim can be found there. Two hilly, wooded parcels of land in Llanafan Fawr have been bought by the Woodlander Initiative (TWI), a land-buying scheme led by Simon Birkett, a far-right figure with links to Patriotic Alternative, the UK’s largest fascist group. Critics say Wiltshire-based Birkett’s aim is to create a racially exclusive settlement; he has cited Orania, a whites-only town in South Africa, as an inspiration for the project.TWI successfully bought the two small plots totalling a few acres from a local farmer late last year, after attempts in Cumbria and East Sussex fell through

‘If I felt Zuckerberg and Sandberg were monsters, I wouldn’t have worked at Meta’: Nick Clegg on tech bros, AI and Starmer’s half measures

When Britain’s former deputy PM took a job at Meta, nothing could have prepared him for the ‘cloying conformity’ of the tech world. So why does he still think social media is a force for good? Read an exclusive extract from Nick Clegg’s new book hereThe rain is just starting to fall from a grey London sky as Sir Nick Clegg arrives, ducking through the traffic and carrying what looks like his laundry. Clean shirts for the photoshoot, he says, before apologetically wondering if he might possibly get a coffee. Within minutes he has further apologised for wanting to swap the leather club chair he is offered for a hard plastic one; and then, in horror, for any impression inadvertently given that my questions might send him to sleep.Impeccable English manners should never be mistaken for diffidence – at 58, Clegg remains the only British political figure who could convincingly be played by the equally posh but self-effacing Colin Firth, whose old London home Clegg recently bought – but there are backbench nobodies more grandly self-important than the former deputy prime minister who became number two at the tech giant Meta

Checked out: Jenrick’s migrant hotel record haunts his rightwing bid for attention

Robert Jenrick had been migration minister for just a few days in 2022 when he gave a broadcast interview that could easily have been given by a minister in the current government.“Suella Braverman [the former home secretary] and her predecessor, Priti Patel, were procuring more hotels,” he told Sky News. “What I have done in my short tenure is ramp that up and procure even more. Because November, historically, has been one of the highest months of the year for migrants illegally crossing the Channel.”He went on to add: “I would never demonise people coming to this country in pursuit of a better life

David Lammy given warning after fishing with JD Vance without licence

David Lammy has received a formal warning after reporting himself for fishing without a licence with the US vice-president, JD Vance.The foreign secretary took Vance angling at his official country retreat in Chevening, Kent, on 8 August as he hosted him at the start of a holiday in Britain.It later emerged Lammy did not possess the required licence for rod fishing, with a Foreign Office spokesperson blaming an “administrative oversight” and saying the minister had subsequently bought a licence.Lammy referred himself to the Environment Agency over the incident.Anglers in England and Wales aged 13 or over must have a rod licence to fish for freshwater species such as carp, and can face a fine of up to £2,500 if they do not

Sir George Reid obituary

Sir George Reid, who has died aged 86, was a Scottish politician, broadcaster and all-round public figure who also spent a dozen years as director of public affairs for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent in Geneva, a post he held between two separate phases of his political career.Reid was elected as a Scottish National party MP to the House of Commons in the general election of February 1974, but lost his seat five years later. Twenty years on he was elected to the new Scottish parliament, and in 2003 became its second presiding officer.Reid later reflected that in his 12 years with the Red Cross he “did far more good than at any other time in my life”. As well as overhauling the organisation’s image and communications strategy, he served on the frontline in war and disaster zones around the world, including following the Ethiopian famine and the 1988 Armenian earthquake

Diane Abbott: I advised Jeremy Corbyn not to start new party

Diane Abbott has said she advised her longtime friend Jeremy Corbyn not to launch a new political party because she believed it would struggle to make inroads under the first-past-the-post system.Abbott, the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, said last month she would not be leaving Labour in favour of Corbyn’s as yet unnamed party, despite the pair having worked closely together in the past.Speaking at the Edinburgh international book festival in conversation with the campaigner and commentator Talat Yaqoob, Abbott confirmed she had spoken to Corbyn before the party’s launch to warn him against it.“There were people around Jeremy encouraging him to set up a new party and I told him not to,” she said. “It’s very difficult under the first-past-the-post system for a new party to absolutely win