Meanwhile, on a rare trip East of Offa’s Dyke, trying to work out whether it’s really a mark of patriotism and respect to festoon the public conveniences in flags?

New blogging: Starmer’s Weimar moment. open.substack.com/pub/neilscho...

I trust it has not gone unnoticed that for all the excluding rhetoric about “working families”, Labour has decided to undermine the operation of Article 8 of ECHR in respect of asylum seekers - of people fleeing real danger and persecution. What hypocrites and cowards Labour have become.

Labour ‘dithering’ on child poverty as Education Secretary admits to being ashamed. Govt finds money for corporate bailouts, subsidies, foreign wars and tax perks for corporations and the rich. Child poverty is an unacceptable political choice. Blights lives.

As someone once put it, Mother of God…

Exactly this.

Were the flames that nearly singed Will’s keyboard spreading from Jo Stevens’ pants? We all know it’s a lie. Everyone in that room knows it’s a lie. So why do they keep lying to us and patronising us? Don’t they understand that the serial dishonesty plays into the hands of hard-right populists?

Something I wrote exactly nine years ago, the morning after that Brexit vote. Apart from the forlorn hope that Labour might stand up against the toxic politics that led to Brexit, and even though I say it myself, it stands up astonishingly well. neilschofieldhughes.substack.com/p/a-vote-for...

I believe the second word is “off”.

My MP was Starmer’s legal enforcer, parachuted into a constituency (Cardiff West) with which he had no previous connection. So I don’t expect him to do anything. Nevertheless, numbers of emails in MPs’ inboxes matter. It’s worth the few minutes it takes.

And not just on rail. The spending review being hailed by Welsh Labour ministers leaves us worse off overall - a poorer settlement than even the Tories gave us. But “both ends of the M4”… why do Welsh Labour always accept second best as being good enough for Cymru?

“In power at both ends of the M4…” Spending review could mean cuts in Wales - experts www.bbc.com/news/article...

There is much in here that I wholeheartedly support. But we absolutely must not base the economic case for independence on MMT woo. There is a powerful economic case for independence; resorting to fiscal faddism undermines it.

The importance of public space - safe places of public interaction, free of charge and unsullied by traffic - is one of the things that the British political class doesn’t get, and reveals their privilege when they don’t.

🚨 New: 'Shocking' scale of Labour’s Big Tech ties In its first 6 months, Labour ministers and top officials met with tech giants an average of *six times a week.* We’ve got the documents. 🧵 New on Democracy for Sale with @lucasamin.bsky.social democracyforsale.substack.com/p/revealed-s...

This is a terrific disc. But, more importantly, what a composer Grace Williams was. Such a powerful and utterly distinctive voice. And, as well as this, her masterpiece - the huge, stunning Missa Cambrensis - is at last now on disc too.

It’s always worth a reminder that the Brexit that Starmer wants to make “work” was among Putin’s key policy aims.

Exactly this. And it probably deserves to be Cardiff Council’s obituary - fine words about the climate emergency, but greenwashing and unsustainable over-development in practice. @cardiffcouncil.bsky.social

How tactical voting could shape the outcome of the next Senedd elections - important piece from @simonpaulhobson.bsky.social in @bylines.cymru

They haven’t learned, have they… These stunts may amuse the political class but are irrelevant to those losing faith in the political process, the targets of authoritarian woo. What about serious engagement to show why liberal and democratic politics provides the best social and economic outcomes?

Well. I had an Italian grandmother. My first wife - and my daughter’s mother - was a New Zealander. And I identify as Welsh and European. Funnily enough, we’re all quite white. I wonder whether that’s quite what the Telegraph means.

“In power at both ends of the M4…” The reality is that Cymru is expected to get what we’re given and be grateful. I believe that Cymru is better than that.

A brilliant - and wholly deserved - evisceration of Welsh Government’s pathetic “Priorities for Culture” document. I would simply add - as an active amateur musician - that WG’s lavishly illustrated document does not include a single photo of a performing musician.

Your reminder that one of the salient characteristics of the populist Right - a category in which I certainly place McSweeney’s Labour - is its vicious anti-intellectualism.

This doesn’t surprise me. Labour has taken the votes of towns like Llanelli for granted for a century, and repaid them with neglect and decline. Reform offers no answers, but people have every right to be angry and disillusioned with a system and a party that has failed them.

Exactly this. It may be counter-intuitive but the empirical evidence is clear; the way to reduce congestion is to reduce road capacity, not to increase it.

It is fascinating - but typical of what we know of @welshgovernment.bsky.social’s attitudes towards classical music and opera in particular - that this lavishly-illustrated document does not include a single photograph of a musician of any genre or description.

Well, quite.

I was a Labour member from 2013-2018 and saw at first hand the people and the that now dominate Labour’s nomenklatura. Seriously, the ship of decency sailed long ago. I watched it slip its moorings. Decency is elsewhere now.

A reminder of why politicians should resist the temptation to announce the arrival at the New Jerusalem on the basis of one quarter’s figures.

One of my favourite words in Cymraeg is “pwdu” - it means a strop or a sulk. It came powerfully to mind watching Starmer’s toddler petulance in response to @lsrplaid.bsky.social’s question yesterday. The response of a weak man who knows he’s been found out.

PMQs. Bad Enoch vs Poundshop Enoch.

Island of Strangers - by @michaelrosenyes.bsky.social m.facebook.com/story.php?st...

“I woke up with a sense of dread…” — from an EU citizen in the UK on how Labour’s new rhetoric is shaking people’s sense of belonging. Powerful open letter. 👇

Exactly this.

New blogging on Labour’s intellectual dishonesty on immigration. open.substack.com/pub/neilscho...

👀👆💯”One of the most egregious myths surrounding immigration is the idea that immigrants act as a drain on the public finances - when in fact the opposite is true, with migrants contributing more to the public finances than the average native-born Brit.” www.bestforbritain.org/six_reasons_...

It's true many recent migrants are working on lower-paid jobs/sectors. But on average they're *not* dragging down wages etc. (And earnings *progression* appears quite rapid -even in health/care)

One again, this is simply not true. Non-UK origin employeea have (slightly) higher median earnings than UK-origin ones -and the gap has if anything widened (slightly) recently.

Looks as though the next PMQs will be a tussle of wits between Bad Enoch and Poundshop Enoch?

Exactly this. Labour have crossed a line today. They have succumbed to some of the most potent lies in politics. They have left any shred of decency behind.

Absolutely spot on.

Absolutely this. In one of the richest countries on the planet, this should go without saying. It is a terrible indictment of the Westminster political system - and the politicians who inhabit it - that it needs to be said.

The claim that immigration “undermines British workers” is an outright and outrageous lie. The evidence is overwhelming and Starmer knows it. And all Starmer’s lies will achieve is to empower Reform. McSweeney’s Labour are not just liars, they’re moronic liars.

Absolutely. It’s not - and was never going to be - a trade agreement. It’s a political document designed to give bogus credibility to two politicians in need of saving face.

Cutting govt spending - public services - doesn't "save money." It SHIFTS the burden to regular people. It transfers wealth away from the public upwards to the very richest. This has been happening since Reagan/Thatcher. So now people turn to the liars - Trump, Farage - promising to fix things.

Demonising migrants will never work for Labour. Farage will always do that better than Starmer. No one will be taken in, let alone fooled by what Labour is announcing today. So why are they doing it? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05...

Quite.

There can be few politicians who have so effectively combined a Johnson-like mendacity with a Truss-like incompetence in office.

The feeling that Labour’s dog-whistling over immigration is in part a grubby distraction technique to divert attention from the plight of people that Labour used to speak for.