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Don McGowan

@donmcgowan • 22,638 subscribers

Journalist, writer, podcast host and designer. Political Commentator. Co-host of @noholdspod with @dodgson_sally.

Shorts

Why the far-right always use per capita data, and why it's almost always the wrong answer. Scary charts and numbers achieved by misusing statistics. Free to read on my Substack:

Why the far-right always use per capita data, and why it's almost always the wrong answer. Scary charts and numbers achieved by misusing statistics. Free to read on my Substack:

1,440,367 Aufrufe

The thirteen seconds that will end Zia Yusuf's political career. Smug, arrogant and now … deemed unelectable by his own party. Game over, loser.

The thirteen seconds that will end Zia Yusuf's political career. Smug, arrogant and now … deemed unelectable by his own party. Game over, loser.

482,680 Aufrufe

Naughty Shelagh Fogarty on LBC this afternoon. The chat was around KNEECAP and inevitably turned to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Shelagh didn't like what her caller had to say and perhaps forgot that her mic was still on? She dropped the F bomb live.

Naughty Shelagh Fogarty on LBC this afternoon. The chat was around KNEECAP and inevitably turned to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Shelagh didn't like what her caller had to say and perhaps forgot that her mic was still on? She dropped the F bomb live.

579,972 Aufrufe

Nigel Farage released a 2:22 video tribute to Ann Widdecombe. The first 2:05 mins were about Widdecombe and delivered with his ice-cold, lack of emotion. He couldn't help but using the last 0:17 as a political attack on the 'establishment'. Is this his get-out of Clacton?

Nigel Farage released a 2:22 video tribute to Ann Widdecombe. The first 2:05 mins were about Widdecombe and delivered with his ice-cold, lack of emotion. He couldn't help but using the last 0:17 as a political attack on the 'establishment'. Is this his get-out of Clacton?

98,232 Aufrufe

Farage has created a big problem for himself this week. He's been caught out lying. Again. Telling us all that Reform UK didn't promise to cut taxes on their pre-election propaganda material. Another Trump move. The ole 'deny reality and get angry' two-step. Unfortunately for Nige, there are receipts. Lots and lots of receipts — see the video below. When Beth Rigby challenged him on this yesterday, he got angry and started shouting at her; textbook fragile toxic misogyny. Unfortunately, Beth retreated as Reform UK pay good money for the publicity and no one can be seen to upset the apple cart. It's quite shocking, actually. Regardless, Farage is a shameless liar that does very little for his actual job, if anything. If he could point to Clacton on a map, his constituents would be very surprised. I'd happily credit the creator of the video if they make themselves known. Second video is courtesy of Sky News.

Farage has created a big problem for himself this week. He's been caught out lying. Again. Telling us all that Reform UK didn't promise to cut taxes on their pre-election propaganda material. Another Trump move. The ole 'deny reality and get angry' two-step. Unfortunately for Nige, there are receipts. Lots and lots of receipts — see the video below. When Beth Rigby challenged him on this yesterday, he got angry and started shouting at her; textbook fragile toxic misogyny. Unfortunately, Beth retreated as Reform UK pay good money for the publicity and no one can be seen to upset the apple cart. It's quite shocking, actually. Regardless, Farage is a shameless liar that does very little for his actual job, if anything. If he could point to Clacton on a map, his constituents would be very surprised. I'd happily credit the creator of the video if they make themselves known. Second video is courtesy of Sky News.

56,346 Aufrufe

Nadhim Zahawi joined Reform UK today. Why? Unclear. But, this from their joint press conference earlier is telling. He has the exact same smug, sneering tone as Farage to journos. In this case, Tony Diver from the Telegraph. When will they learn? Reform hate the press.

Nadhim Zahawi joined Reform UK today. Why? Unclear. But, this from their joint press conference earlier is telling. He has the exact same smug, sneering tone as Farage to journos. In this case, Tony Diver from the Telegraph. When will they learn? Reform hate the press.

24,056 Aufrufe

Nigel Farage and his Speculative Security Things we know: 1) a few weeks ago, the Guardian dropped a smouldering grenade into the Farage campsite with their revelation that he had 'forgotten' to declare the paltry sum of £5M, given to him by Chakrit Sakunkrit [Christopher Harborne] — Thai businessman and crypto magnate. 2) Farage regularly 'forgets' to declare income from his myriad jobs outside Parliament. In the last reporting period he 'forgot' 17 outside jobs totalling around £385,000. His excuse. “I don't do computers”. 3) there are already donations and gifts missing from his last register update — see The Finance Guy for more on that. Things we've been told: a) the £5M was an unconditional gift. b) the £5M was a reward for Brexit. c) the £5M was to pay for his security — for life. Let's focus on the security aspect because, I believe, Farage is trying to construct a counterfactual and has been caught lying. Again. In October of 2025, Zia Yusuf, Satan's Head Boy, was sent cross all media outlets — and I do mean all of them — to talk about the government's removal of some of Nigel's security costs; up to 75% if you believe Yusuf. What has never been made clear about this claim are, one, if it actually happened, and two, if it did, what sums of cash were being forfeited? There are two videos below. One in which Zia Yusuf took to 𝕏 on October 1st 2025, in a very earnest fashion to make claims about his best friend's safety where he stated at one point, that if Farage was killed, he would blame Keir Starmer. Yikes! He talks about donors stepping up at that point to cover the security costs for Farage. The second video is the one which contradicts Yusuf. From BBC Newsnight earlier this month when Farage states that he was given the £5M back in 2024 as: “an unconditional, non-political, personal gift. And it will ensure I can be safe for the rest of my life.” So. Two things are clearly jumping out at me from these statements. Firstly, lies are being told by Yusuf and/or Farage. Secondly, in the BBC video, he makes the claim that the 'gift' is non-political but to protect him … as a politician. To me, this is definitive proof that he's lying about the donation. If he received this money in 2024 for a lifetime of private security, then why the need for 'donors to step up' and pay for it again in Oct. 2025? Which is it? Neither, I'd suggest. I think the entire thing is a shonky counterfactual, hastily cobbled together to cover up the fact that he's been caught out pocketing millions in undeclared donations. Thanks to Jim Nauseum 2.0 and Chris S for the video and nudge, respectively. I have supplied a new branch of questions that our broadcasters can put to Reform UK MPs. I hope that they do. Have a lovely sunny Friday. ☺️

Nigel Farage and his Speculative Security Things we know: 1) a few weeks ago, the Guardian dropped a smouldering grenade into the Farage campsite with their revelation that he had 'forgotten' to declare the paltry sum of £5M, given to him by Chakrit Sakunkrit [Christopher Harborne] — Thai businessman and crypto magnate. 2) Farage regularly 'forgets' to declare income from his myriad jobs outside Parliament. In the last reporting period he 'forgot' 17 outside jobs totalling around £385,000. His excuse. “I don't do computers”. 3) there are already donations and gifts missing from his last register update — see The Finance Guy for more on that. Things we've been told: a) the £5M was an unconditional gift. b) the £5M was a reward for Brexit. c) the £5M was to pay for his security — for life. Let's focus on the security aspect because, I believe, Farage is trying to construct a counterfactual and has been caught lying. Again. In October of 2025, Zia Yusuf, Satan's Head Boy, was sent cross all media outlets — and I do mean all of them — to talk about the government's removal of some of Nigel's security costs; up to 75% if you believe Yusuf. What has never been made clear about this claim are, one, if it actually happened, and two, if it did, what sums of cash were being forfeited? There are two videos below. One in which Zia Yusuf took to 𝕏 on October 1st 2025, in a very earnest fashion to make claims about his best friend's safety where he stated at one point, that if Farage was killed, he would blame Keir Starmer. Yikes! He talks about donors stepping up at that point to cover the security costs for Farage. The second video is the one which contradicts Yusuf. From BBC Newsnight earlier this month when Farage states that he was given the £5M back in 2024 as: “an unconditional, non-political, personal gift. And it will ensure I can be safe for the rest of my life.” So. Two things are clearly jumping out at me from these statements. Firstly, lies are being told by Yusuf and/or Farage. Secondly, in the BBC video, he makes the claim that the 'gift' is non-political but to protect him … as a politician. To me, this is definitive proof that he's lying about the donation. If he received this money in 2024 for a lifetime of private security, then why the need for 'donors to step up' and pay for it again in Oct. 2025? Which is it? Neither, I'd suggest. I think the entire thing is a shonky counterfactual, hastily cobbled together to cover up the fact that he's been caught out pocketing millions in undeclared donations. Thanks to Jim Nauseum 2.0 and Chris S for the video and nudge, respectively. I have supplied a new branch of questions that our broadcasters can put to Reform UK MPs. I hope that they do. Have a lovely sunny Friday. ☺️

13,986 Aufrufe

Reform UK are mirroring, almost identically, Hitler and his Nazi party’s rise to power in depression era Germany, specifically the final three or four years leading up to Hitler becoming Chancellor. There are far too many similarities for it to be a coincidence. Read the 𝕏 Article here:

Reform UK are mirroring, almost identically, Hitler and his Nazi party’s rise to power in depression era Germany, specifically the final three or four years leading up to Hitler becoming Chancellor. There are far too many similarities for it to be a coincidence. Read the 𝕏 Article here:

16,816 Aufrufe

Pride was an absolute blast today. Just joy and happiness all across central London. My personal highlight was playing volleyball outside the Coach and Horses on Greek Street.

Pride was an absolute blast today. Just joy and happiness all across central London. My personal highlight was playing volleyball outside the Coach and Horses on Greek Street.

10,609 Aufrufe

If you missed yesterday's piece about Media Madness, the links are below. Sam Coates utterly humiliated himself on live TV last night by calling some photos of Keir Starmer 'government propaganda' because they showed him smiling. Coates has become so wrapped up in his role as news creator, that he's forgotten what objectivity means. His role as news reporter has been abandoned. The sheer desperation for some broadcasters and journalists to be the one who breaks the story of the PM resigning, is leading to more and more outrageous commentary. And in the case of Coates … perfectly unhinged. In my article, I wrote about the government shipping out some quick wins to push back a little bit — Starmer needs to announce a press reform act. Be it Leveson 2 or something far wider reaching. If he doesn't, I fear that we may not ever have a functioning government again. My 𝕏 Article is here: You can read it on Substack here:

If you missed yesterday's piece about Media Madness, the links are below. Sam Coates utterly humiliated himself on live TV last night by calling some photos of Keir Starmer 'government propaganda' because they showed him smiling. Coates has become so wrapped up in his role as news creator, that he's forgotten what objectivity means. His role as news reporter has been abandoned. The sheer desperation for some broadcasters and journalists to be the one who breaks the story of the PM resigning, is leading to more and more outrageous commentary. And in the case of Coates … perfectly unhinged. In my article, I wrote about the government shipping out some quick wins to push back a little bit — Starmer needs to announce a press reform act. Be it Leveson 2 or something far wider reaching. If he doesn't, I fear that we may not ever have a functioning government again. My 𝕏 Article is here: You can read it on Substack here:

13,135 Aufrufe

Videos

donmcgowan's profile picture

I think it's fair to say that Nigel Farage's return to the media round yesterday morning was an unmitigated catastrophe. When he began his defence to Sally Nugent on the BBC, he repeated his mantra “no one cares” to her three times. He could not have been further from the truth. With the exception of Ed Balls on ITV, the UK's interviewers finally found their backbones and took him to task over the five million pound bung/gift/donation. Immediately taking the über-defensive stance, he made so many different claims, that even Julia Hartley-Brewer and Nick Ferrari got in on the anti-Farage action. I assume there is a Grimm fairy tale that highlights the plight of a little boy that changes his story so many times that he can't remember his own truth. Probably in that tale, he'll be eaten by a witch living in a giant flying bowl of some sort — and no, this is not an allegorical allusion to Hartley-Brewer, before you @ me! Farage is that little boy. Talking to Sally Nugent, he told her that the money was an unconditional gift and it was none of her business what he spent it on, before saying he'd not spent it. Going on, he told us that he needed it for a lifetime of security while on Nick Ferrari's show, he got so muddled up that he said it was definitely not used for a house purchase but ... maybe, and even if it were, he'd not tell anyone. Oh, and he said he might have put it on the horses or bought some Ferraris. The root of his story began when he told the world that it was an unconditional gift, but within days the official line had changed to a donation to cover a 'lifetime of security'. Only for it to morph again the following week into a gift for his work achieving Brexit. Yesterday he trotted out all of these lines and more so you can see where the conspiracy stems from and why it won't be dropped any time soon. And I'm sorry Nigel, we do care, absolutely everyone cares. If you missed the relevant interview, here's the 3:45 when Sally Nugent instigated the end of Nigel Farage's career. Bravo.

Don McGowan

109,120 Aufrufe • vor 4 Monaten

donmcgowan's profile picture

Nigel Farage and his Speculative Security Things we know: 1) a few weeks ago, the Guardian dropped a smouldering grenade into the Farage campsite with their revelation that he had 'forgotten' to declare the paltry sum of £5M, given to him by Chakrit Sakunkrit [Christopher Harborne] — Thai businessman and crypto magnate. 2) Farage regularly 'forgets' to declare income from his myriad jobs outside Parliament. In the last reporting period he 'forgot' 17 outside jobs totalling around £385,000. His excuse. “I don't do computers”. 3) there are already donations and gifts missing from his last register update — see The Finance Guy for more on that. Things we've been told: a) the £5M was an unconditional gift. b) the £5M was a reward for Brexit. c) the £5M was to pay for his security — for life. Let's focus on the security aspect because, I believe, Farage is trying to construct a counterfactual and has been caught lying. Again. In October of 2025, Zia Yusuf, Satan's Head Boy, was sent cross all media outlets — and I do mean all of them — to talk about the government's removal of some of Nigel's security costs; up to 75% if you believe Yusuf. What has never been made clear about this claim are, one, if it actually happened, and two, if it did, what sums of cash were being forfeited? There are two videos below. One in which Zia Yusuf took to 𝕏 on October 1st 2025, in a very earnest fashion to make claims about his best friend's safety where he stated at one point, that if Farage was killed, he would blame Keir Starmer. Yikes! He talks about donors stepping up at that point to cover the security costs for Farage. The second video is the one which contradicts Yusuf. From BBC Newsnight earlier this month when Farage states that he was given the £5M back in 2024 as: “an unconditional, non-political, personal gift. And it will ensure I can be safe for the rest of my life.” So. Two things are clearly jumping out at me from these statements. Firstly, lies are being told by Yusuf and/or Farage. Secondly, in the BBC video, he makes the claim that the 'gift' is non-political but to protect him … as a politician. To me, this is definitive proof that he's lying about the donation. If he received this money in 2024 for a lifetime of private security, then why the need for 'donors to step up' and pay for it again in Oct. 2025? Which is it? Neither, I'd suggest. I think the entire thing is a shonky counterfactual, hastily cobbled together to cover up the fact that he's been caught out pocketing millions in undeclared donations. Thanks to Jim Nauseum 2.0 and Chris S for the video and nudge, respectively. I have supplied a new branch of questions that our broadcasters can put to Reform UK MPs. I hope that they do. Have a lovely sunny Friday. ☺️

Don McGowan

13,986 Aufrufe • vor 5 Monaten

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