Thanks to @compassoffice.bsky.social for having me last night, speaking alongside @jydenham.bsky.social & @nadiawhittomemp.bsky.social on why I think Labour needs the moral courage to do things simply because they’re the right thing to do, and how we should embrace the broad church.

@hannahmerich.bsky.social « We’ve lost the motivation to do something good just because it’s right. I’d like to see us do that again. People might disagree with us, but they’ll respect it. »

@hannahmerich.bsky.social director of @chrleft.bsky.social on scrapping the two-child benefit limit : « it’s just the right thing to do. It’s just that simple. »

Is there a reason I ask that the Times are using a picture of asylum seekers in a boat to describe rules for migrants who came on legal routes such as skilled worker visas for doctors?

Great start to #Lab25 with a wonderful @chrleft.bsky.social service with Chair Anna Dixon MP and Director @hannahmerich.bsky.social. Then ending the day with the @bondngo.bsky.social @labourcid.bsky.social international development reception with Minister for development Baroness Chapman

I’m giving myself away as a kid who spent many playtimes inside with a book, but Rachel Reeves’ announcement of a library in every primary school is genuinely brilliant.

Genuinely hope-filled first day of #Lab25 conference, with the @chrleft.bsky.social church service, Catholics for Labour mass at the cathedral, hearing @albomp.bsky.social speak, and a panel on faith in development with amazing partners. More of this please!

My top Labour party conference tip is Rough Handmade Bakery just round the corner for stronger coffee and dreamier pastries than the ACC has to offer. (Also, drink a Berocca a day.)

Hostage is as ridiculous and silly as you all warned me, but you better believe I’m watching the lot.

I can't imagine starting conference any other or better way than in church with @chrleft.bsky.social - join us this Sunday in Liverpool. All, and we really do mean all, welcome.

'If we are to build compassionate, cohesive societies, we need to understand religious education as something active, lifelong, evolving and to be taken seriously.' - pleased to be publishing this Theos report in Nov, on where people learn about other religions/worldviews beyond the classroom.

The Kimmel thing is pretty funny but not as amusing as when every Conservative MP pretended to watch Match of the Day on the week that Gary Lineker was temporarily removed (lest anyone think we are not prone to the same nonsense in the UK).

Really pleased that the CAC has seen sense and this v important motion will be included in the priorities ballot on Sunday - it’s under ‘Supporting Families’ so if you have a vote, please do back it.

Good article effectively making the case that both Bridget Phillipson and Lucy Powell both need to subscribe to @renewaljournal.bsky.social

This is "mass deportation" being talked about for people here legally, settled into communities, who have done nothing wrong but have simply made the UK their home - our friends, family members, colleagues and neighbours. Utterly vile.

A couple of years ago, I preached at a college evensong about refugees, loving your neighbour & Nick Mulvey's beautiful song 'Myela', and a very well-to-do woman came up at the end to say she'd never thought before about how 'the boats' have real people & stories in them. How many such cases?!

'Jesus calls us to love both our neighbours and our enemies and to welcome the stranger. Any co-opting or corrupting of the Christian faith to exclude others is unacceptable.' - Grateful for the courage & voices of all those who signed this.

'An understanding of that heritage & intellectual tradition could be the reset the govt is crying out for, and this deputy leadership election a valuable opportunity to inject it into the conversation.' - me and @asgrey.bsky.social for @labourlist.bsky.social.

An actual quote from the Secretary of State for Business and Trade Too often people go to university to ‘explore research and knowledge’ Look forward to Wes S saying 'too often people go to hospital to have operations' or Heidi Alexander saying 'too often people go to the station to catch a train'

Do you have a lot of annoying admin tasks or household chores you need to accomplish, but never seem to find the time for? Then may I suggest: setting aside a day to do nothing but write, you will be amazed at how many such tasks you can accomplish.

There’s a big list of requirements for @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social and @lucympowell.bsky.social as Labour’s deputy leadership candidates! @hannahmerich.bsky.social & I argue that central among them is giving this Labour govt a compelling story & vision, drawing on our rich history of ideas:

'An understanding of that heritage & intellectual tradition could be the reset the govt is crying out for, and this deputy leadership election a valuable opportunity to inject it into the conversation.' - me and @asgrey.bsky.social for @labourlist.bsky.social.

I said what I said.

'By our commitment to social justice, our country can reaffirm that we will never lose sight of our moral compass.' - bang on from Gordon Brown. I'm v proud that as @chrleft.bsky.social, we're backing the conf motion on proposals to end child poverty with a gambling tax.

I keep getting insta ads for a concert of 'iconic football songs by candlelight,' which has to be a scam because who is paying fifty quid for a string quartet playing Waka Waka and Seven Nation Army?

I spend a fair bit of time defending working in politics as a hopeful & uncynical thing to family & friends outside the bubble who think it’s all a bit dirty, but some weeks that feels beyond even me.

Just received what (I think) is the first, or least the most blatant, AI-written request for an endorsement in the Senedd selection process and please, please, please let's not do this.

London, it’s an absolute jungle of first-time cyclists out there today, take care

My dad: 'It said in the paper that that duchess's funeral is at Westminster Cathedral. That's near your office isn't it, Han? Do you think you'll go?'

Not to pat myself on the back for being the best sister in the world (ahem) but one of the kindest things you can do this time of year is send mums flowers on their little one's first day of school, because it's a big thing for their hearts too.

Quite surreal to hear an emergency political podcast episode about the rights and wrongs of Angela Rayner’s tax affairs and whether she dodged tax sponsored by… Amazon.

'Wave the flag by all means but do so in a way that redirects its meaning towards humanising solidarity and hospitality... Wave a flag by all means, but don’t cocoon yourself in it.' -excellent from v wise @theosthinktank.bsky.social colleague Nick Spencer:

Duolingo stealing all the hearts and the NYT making you subscribe for a silly little daily crossword hit in the same week, truly I hate capitalism.

'[We need] not only generalisations about the benefits of diversity or whatever, but a story about the kind of vulnerabilities that people in the streets in the UK can identify with' - this is excellent from Rowan Williams. Compassionate and nuanced.

Had a brilliant day at the Faith Museum in Bishop Auckland yesterday, as part of our upcoming @theosthinktank.bsky.social @culhamstgabriel.bsky.social report on where religious education happens beyond the classroom. I especially enjoyed this display of teetotal propaganda...

Solidarity with Anna, who demonstrates the sort of compassion & integrity we need more of in politics, the polar opposite of what she’s facing here.

Someone I went to nursery with has a child getting their GCSE results today, and I don't know how that's possible when we're still babies ourselves.

A romcom in which Ed Miliband having two kitchens is a minor plot point? ‘Consider Yourself Kissed’ is actual catnip of a book and I love it.

6 year old nephew is making his FPL debut this season (Allison Wonderland, very educational as he learned the concept of a pun in the process) and I'm already feeling the pressure.

Amid so many horrors emerging from Gaza every day, this one managed to strike me afresh: the Israeli military’s targetted killing of five journalists outside a hospital. The IDF need to be held accountable for these deaths. We must continue to press for this accountability. (1/2)

It’s not a particularly high bar but men who wait and press the Close button after leaving the loo on the train is such a little green flag.

Some say this is my biggest contribution to Labour politics...

One of these transfer windows, my dad will learn that random Southampton rumours from Google aren't in fact 'on the Saints website,' but this isn't the window.

Something I'm not sure the govt (or indeed any govt) has grasped is how much being a 'private landlord' screams out of touch to most people, regardless of how good a one you are.

The story isn’t as bad as the notification but ffs this notification is bad. How can BBC justify such a thing?!? And what on earth does “miscalculation” mean in this context?

Currently wading through Monday without caffeine because I have a heart scan which is very rudely not until 4.30pm, send thoughts and prayers.

Reports reaching me that my 6yo nephew is practicing the Chloe Kelly hop-skip run up in the garden, talk about impact. His little brother casually pretends to be Sophie Ecclestone if he's bowling too. This generation, I love it.

The clarion call from church leaders I heard from for this @theosthinktank.bsky.social research was not to rush to find easy solutions but to engage in the deep listening needed to genuinely restore fractured communities - a year on, I think that's still the call.

Borderline political I guess but without the ‘David Beckham’s left foot’ speech in Love Actually, there’d be no Brexit.

Last month, we went away with Swedish tech type friends of the wife who did the weekend menu and shopping via Chat GPT, which resulted in insane amounts of food – 15 bottles of squash, enough rice to feed a regiment, 18 packs of bacon, pre-cooked meat to BBQ. Complete food waste disaster.