really starting to feel like the energy experts have been freaking out for a reason

British politics please be vaugely serious about what's happening challenge

UK politics now in a bidding war of universal fuel subsidies (sorry, "support") to, per ed davey "keep britain moving". The reality - that consumption must fall - is going to be a nasty surprise

Once again we come back to 'George Osbourne was the worst chancellor in modern history and so many of our major issues stem from him'

And all at historically low borrowing costs…Osborne hated green support, given apparently zero understanding of high up front installation costs followed by cheap energy. They then flogged off the Green Investment Bank to Macquarie in 2017… A staggering lack of strategic thinking across the board…

Really think there is a general underestimation of the scale and severity of the threats that MPs and their staff- of all parties- face

Following from @sarahowen.org.uk earlier this week another MP having to abandon their public presence due to threats and attacks. Its not a coincidence, I suspect, that its another woman. Something is badly broken

Can't think of anything more un-English than flying flags everywhere, all the time. Legally or illegally. Or performatively celebrating St.George's Day. Englishness is an understated patriotism. Apart from during international sporting events. The flag vandals have misunderstood what it's about.

This seems like the optimistic timeline now - the US continues strikes and perhaps limited ground ops for another few weeks, Iran continues to strangle the world economy and maybe we start to see a reopening in May with a ceasefire + charging. Hard to see what alters that?

And of course the grim truth is we're all trapped in that same speeding car with Trump at the wheel too. Because 77.3m Americans, at the height of immature, decadent folly, decided it would be funny or perhaps profitable, to put a mad man at the wheel of the world's most powerful country, ever.

Minimum wage rates go up this week, giving a pay rise to 2.7 million people. This is good news for working people – now let’s get on and deliver the New Deal for Working People in full. 🌹 @labourunionsuk.bsky.social

Jesus. I didn't realise the Greens' motion actually attempted to redefine antisemitism altogether to the antisemites' preferred version where it no longer refers to Jews.

Okay, I'll admit 6Music repeating Trump's ceasefire tweet and then going 'it's not clear who he's referring to' is quite funny

The Financial Times - correctly - embraces @jamesdaustin.bsky.social /Twlldun thought

Slightly more seriously than my previous post, freedom of navigation of the seas underpinned by the hard power of the dominant naval hegemon has been the foundation of the global economy for the last two centuries.

I sort of feel emotional about this. Finally, a clear statement that we made a mistake & we need to do better.

I appreciate that Kanye has severe mental health issues and has apologised but... ... this is within a mile of the largest Jewish community in the country! He has literally done a song called Heil Hitler which he released less than a year ago! He has been wildly antisemitic! The fuck?

Genuinely quite shocked by Wireless’s decision. He has a song called Heil Hitler! He sold swastika T-shirts! He’s wildly antisemitic! Booking him is amoral to the point of nihilism

For his press conferance I reckon there are 3 things Trump could announce: 1) A end to the war/the US stepping back from strikes 2) Ground forces will be committed to take some Iranian islands 3) The US is pulling out of NATO I haven't seen the latter much discussed but... seems fairly likely?

... @samfr.bsky.social's post raises a number of questions which are already being answered by the replies to his post ... ☹️

I've avoided writing this for a long time because of....well look at the replies I'm getting already. But something snapped watching the discourse around the Hatzola ambulance attacks last week. It's really getting out of hand.

A good, and brave given the subject matter and inevitable abuse, piece by Sam. It is pretty depressing to see it remerge on the left so strongly over recent weeks; both in response to Hatzola attacks and more widely. It's insidious. Education and then zero tolerance the only way to fight it.

The divergence between two of our best pollsters, in YouGov and MiC, is becoming really quite severe now both in terms of the wider political picture and the pure numbers. Any explinations from polling folks? Have a few theories...

Challenges of home working

One of the reasons I *really* hate populist corruption narratives is because not only are they largely untrue, they provide cover and justification for the properly corrupt 'They all do it. At least he's honest' No, they don't.We're seeing real corruption in the states and it looks very different!

From today, Labour has increased the minimum wage to £12.71 an hour, cut energy bills by £117, frozen prescription charges, expanded sick pay and brought in day one rights at work. Not bad for a government that’s supposedly “no different”.

I have a feeling we'll still be in the same place in a weeks time, the economic situation deteriorating and the US still frantically searching for a way out

People just haven't tuned into how bad this could go for the EU and UK. Reality hasn't quite hit them yet.

My version of this is a book called, I think, The Crowlings which tells the story of colonialism and integration from the perspective on native people on a planet that has been colonised by humans. Ends with civilisation collapsing. Scared the shit out of me at... 9 when I read it

We are now in what is, essentailly, a 4 way statistical dead heat on YouGov. This would be utter chaos

Labour's broad position with the whip seems to be that you can rebel, and speak out against the Government, but don't be a dick about it and... ... fair TBH. Entirely see why he, and earlier Hinchcliffe, were suspended.

EXC: First cracks in US-UK security co-operation are appearing in relationships btwn diplomats, officials & military personnel US officials embedded in Whitehall are having access to sensitive info increasingly restricted, while US requests for aircraft to land in UK hv become “stickier”, FT told

To be fair - I think this is less a cover up and more the fact everyone knows it and something everyone knows isn't news

Europe is the shield against imperialism. The US is gone.

Green motion on nationalisation energy voted down, by 0.3% of members. A reminder Labour are more ‘green’ than the Greens on state ownership of energy. Great British energy established by Labour is publicly owned energy company. Worth remembering.

This is horrific. Its the price of us no longer believing in, or able to do, liberal interventionalism. As big a stain as Rwanda.

Really pleased to be appointed as PPS to the government’s transport team led by the brilliant @heidialexander.bsky.social It’s a cracking team, working on delivering a transport system that works for everyone 🚂 🚌 🚗 ⛴️ ✈️ 🚲 🏃‍♂️

Europe deserves a hell of a lot more credit than its getting for this. But the US are proper scum, arent they? While I gather there is some intel sharing and they're selling weapons, but hard not to see this a betrayal of an ally

The 2025 numbers are really striking. www.kielinstitut.de/fileadmin/Da...

I will admit I did not expect this would be how Comment is Freed eventually dissolved into acromony. Presumably Lawrence will adjudicate. Never had @samfr.bsky.social as a horse guy

America has spent the last 80 years carefully building a world it largely controls, as much through alliances and trade as military power, and it is set to blow up most of that in the space of a few years because some influential right wingers think "300" was a documentary and diplomacy is woke.

The Knesset just passed a law mandating "Death Penalty for Terrorists", that will effectively apply only to Palestinians.

This would be a colossal strategic and military defeat - with Iran in a far stronger position than pre-war. A humiliation.

Yes, my view is that while old America was far from perfect, as a global hedgemon it was as good as we could hope. A rhetorical (and often real commitment) to multilateralism and human rights is worth a lot - look at the scale of US aid etc. Were now seeing the other side

i'm sorry but a solid 70% of why bad things happen in politics genuinely is "because people want them to happen"

This has been fairly obvious through their obvious disdain for Ukrainians standing up for themselves.

Is there any single public figure/gimmick that is as annoying as the Career Ladder man? Everything about him grates.

Questions to which the answer is no.