Yesterday as we anti-Trumpers marched across O’Connell Bridge, the Liffey Swim was on in full force. Briefly we clustered above the river to watch and it was just like that Jack B Yeats painting.
Elizabeth Wassell Montague
@elizabethwm.bsky.social
553 followers 333 following 652 posts
Novelist & short story writer; occasional journalist; Europhile; cinephile; New York-born Irish citizen residing in France; wife of John Montague
![Two headlines in The Times today
US claims human rights have got worse in Britain
One extract:
The report takes issue with Britains hate speech laws in general but also specifically with "public space protections (sic] orders"
- used by local coun-
cils to ban certain kinds of behaviour within limited areas -
and "safe access
zones around abortion clinics. Both are personal bugbears for Vance.
Vance holds court to top Tories in the Cotswolds
J D Vance discussed free speech, the Ukraine war an the future of the British riel with members of the shadow cabinet over tea in the
Cotswolds on Tuesday afternoon
(Katy Balls writes).
The US vice-president met
Conservative politicians including Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, and George Osborne, the former chancellor, in the garden of Dean Manor, the grade Il listed, 18th-century property that Vance is renting for his summer break.
Visitors also included Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary; Laura Trott, the shadow education secretary; and Katie Lam, the 2024 intake Tory MP and former Home Office adviser. Also in attendance was Sir Paul Marshall, the owner of GB News and The Spectator.
The gathering was organised by Osborne, who selected a group of people he thought would be of interest to Vance. The meeting ran for 90 minutes with a wide range of topics discussed, including border control, how the Tory party can recover and the possibility of a centre-right government in 2029.
Afterwards, Osborne went on alone with Vance and the US Vice president's family friends from Ohio for dinner.
The gathering was part of a series of meetings Vance has undertaken while in the UK as he looks to further understand and learn more about British politics. Yesterday
morning he met Nigel Farage, the Reform UK party leader, for a breakfast meeting.
Speaking after the conversation, Farage told The Times: "Good to catch up with my old friend JD Vance this morning. Everything we discussed remains confidential."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:c4xtyto7nrklhfkroyrsce2w/bafkreicwaxbndr3g6wniegeohpfxywz7zhoj4bgsvmtxu75tvwz7gtlpi4)
