In Gorton & Denton, Reform parachuted in a typical candidate (for them), allegedly an ‘academic’, and lost to the Green’s ‘authentic’ candidate, a plumber. In Makerfield they’ve stuck with their 2024 candidate, who also happens to be a plumber. Unfortunately for them, he’s authentically everything

Oh for the days when election candidates just kissed babies. bsky.app/profile/samf...

Unpopular opinion: if I were a Makerfield voter, I would not be voting Labour. If they win, having chased the Reform vote, it’ll be seen as vindication of their ”hero voter” strategy. It’s an election that isn’t going to change parliamentary arithmetic; Labour will still have a huge majority. 1/

Here's a free version of the same article gcaptain.com/drowning/

Every summer I repost this article on how to spot drowning. Please read it and pass on. In the last few years I’ve had SIX messages from people who saved a kid’s life after clicking on the link from my feed. slate.com/technology/2...

When I lived in Kent I was able to finish work at 4pm, drive to Folkestone, catch le Shuttle and have an evening in Calais including some shopping. Not anymore. #FarageQueues www.kentonline.co.uk/dover/news/p...

BBC reporting the Farage queues too. #FarageQueues www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cv...

Farage queues, get it trending. #FarageQueues www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

You want to cut the benefits bill? The answer is easy: make work pay. Not cut benefits but raise pay. Literally make it easier for people to live off their wage, not make it more difficult to live off benefits. Make it so that working people don’t need benefits to put a roof over their heads.

The hot takes on here about Burnham and Makersfield, from people who clearly have never experienced a high profile by-election, are laughable. I wouldn’t like to say if he will win there but I know enough not to write it off.

Apparently, according to the Bluesky hive mind, Labour’s leadership shenanigans is keeping Farage’s £5 million out of the headlines. So what kept his (girlfriend’s) Clacton house out of the headlines? Or his schoolboy antisemitism? Or any of the other things that the media should have covered.

Counterpoint to the ‘Makerfield isn’t a slam dunk for Burnham’ narrative; this by-election will get a lot of media attention. Burnham will have the opportunity to show Labour MPs and members how he can take on Reform. If he fails, perhaps he’s not the man for the job anyway.

“the pull factors that are incentivised by our overly generous asylum system.” £49.18 per person per week (or £9.95 if in catered accommodation). Overly generous?

In retrospect, chaos with Ed Miliband may have been preferable to chaos with Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.

"At a time of global instability, the responsible thing to do is unite behind the Prime Minister and focus on delivering for Britain." Mike Tapp MP I imagine some MPs thought the same in May 1940. I wonder how different our history would be if their view had prevailed.

📌 ICYMI — ‘Andy Burnham’s Return to Westminster Would Be About National Resilience’ The media psychodrama about Burnham's potential return to Parliament misses a far more serious point, argues Labour MP Clive Lewis

Just an idea Naga Munchetty. If you and your BBC News colleagues did your job and asked Nigel Farage the difficult questions you ask politicians from other parties, there would be less need for “negative” campaigns.

If Reform cold called me, I may be tempted to stand and then defect, Alec Kellaway style (Newham North East by-election 1994), on the eve of poll.

Last night Vs today.

Unpopular opinion but I think it needs to be said. The most lurid of the recently released Epstein files are accounts of mainly unsubstantiated allegations made to an FBI tip line. Some of them, frankly, don’t add up. We shouldn’t let our dislike of Trump colour our judgment. Remember Op’ Midland. /

Am I wrong to think this isn’t just aimed at Iran?

New pet hate: people trying to be clever on social media, explaining the bleedin’ obvious by posting AI summaries. If you’re that damned clever you should be able to research and precis something yourself.

A year ago I nearly posted that gun control was more likely under Trump than any previous president. It seemed inevitable that he would eventually piss off gun owners and would want to disarm them before they turned against him. Not quite as I thought but here we are.

It’s only taken two days. Did they need to hold a focus group or something?

Lucky Canada www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Not quite as poetic as Pastor Niemöller but: First the came for the Muslims and I did not speak out because I am not a Muslim. Then they came for the gays and the trans, and I cheered them on because I am a homophobe. Then they came for me and I am crying about it because I am an idiot.

If they push regime change in Cuba, like Trump hinted after Venezuela, every single Cuban in the US will be on an ICE list.

Important perspective from Greenland.

Another one! It’s going to be difficult for Farage to claim Reform are different when half their MPs are ex-Tories. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Given US government hostility to Europe (including the UK) and threats to Denmark, at what point do we declare X, Meta, Microsoft and so on threats to national security as the USA did with TikTok?

Perhaps now Starmer will realise flattering and kowtowing to Trump is a fools errand. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c1...

Why would a big fish in a big pond leave to become a big fish in a smaller pond that’s tailor made for a shark?

Badenoch sacking Jenrick because she believed he was planning to defect has guaranteed he will now challenge her for the leadership. If he started the defection rumours, it’s a smart move. She now looks weak(er).

TANK vs TESLA "We've crushed fascism before and we'll crush it again" - ⁠WW2 veteran Ken, 98, in the tank

Is AI good or bad now? It’s so hard to keep up. /s www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c3...

Is that one of the eight wars he’s supposedly ended?

It was inevitable that a new Railway, connecting London/Birmingham with the north, would be built. I’m just surprised the announcement has come so soon. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

You watch things like this and wonder how the USA restores normality. It’s not just getting rid of the Trump admin but also reforming the organisations and structures that should have prevented this. Congress, the Supreme Court, the FBI, the military, even the constitution itself.

Everyone who said we were being alarmist to call them white supremacists and fascists need to read this and then they need to take a long look at themselves. Miller’s saying the quiet part out loud.

Dear Americans. Stop posting “Trumps gonna end up in the Hague”. This is your mess, you are going to have to deal with it. He could be charged with war crimes but you’re going to have to deliver him to the ICC and your laws make that a crime.

Maduro charged with “Possession of Machineguns” So they do want gun control?

“It’s to distract from Geli Raubal” said nobody about the invasion of Poland. It’s not about Epstein!

Thin skinned, in every sense of the phrase.

If he keeps his boss happy

“Prices” everything comes down to money with Trump. He views everything as a trade.

The “it’s a distraction” crowd are so tedious.

It’s always the coverup that gets them.

Waiting for some 5D chess expert to tell me how releasing the Epstein files is a distraction from the Epstein files.

There isn’t a ‘silver bullet’ to remove Trump. Removing Trump and his ilk will require people to make sacrifices. Sacrificing their time, their money, their liberty, possibly even their life.