Right that the prime minister has resigned. His successor, Keir Starmer, has a very difficult inheritance.

Very strong FBPE vibes. holdtheline.org.uk

How could I have possibly known that Peter Mandelson couldn't be 100% taken at his word, says Keir Starmer, about a man whose public nicknames include 'the Prince of Darkness' and 'the Dark Lord'

For a long time I thought Starmer would hang on. But now I think he might be done. This feels Johnsonian.

I'd sort of assumed most murders happened at home?

Amazing news! 🎉🚌🎉🚌🎉🚌 Well done @mayoroflondon.bsky.social "If a private company is making profit, would it not be nice if it was run by us, and we made the profit and reinvested it in public transport rather than in our shareholders getting dividends?" 👏👏👏 www.cityam.com/tfl-wants-to...

We've just published this report - it's well worth a look. Income maximisation is an issue that doesn't get nearly enough attention. We have a system that can, in principle, make a lot of money available to people who need it, money that can be vital - but it's too hard to access for way too many.

The government’s suggestion that rolling out 20 minute courses on writing “AI“ prompts, sponsored by Google, Microsoft and Amazon, is somehow comparable to the founding of the Open University (the Wilson government‘s, & Jennie Lee’s, proudest achievement), is an insult to our human intelligence.

The events of the last 24 hours show why it's important to build functional verification structures in public and counterpublic spaces to resist the authoritarian erosion of our democratic systems, as described in this thread.

Some of this, I think, is the Labour leadership's distaste for activism. They see their role as positioning, not persuading. They haven't built the skill set to convince any more of the public they're in the right than already believe it.

Trump's theory of government does not accept the existence of independent committees.

It's probably nothing and will clear up in a couple of weeks if we don't scratch it, but if not they'll give us some steroid cream.

During lockdown I ran straight into a bike that had been secured to some railings at head height, but had been obscured by the overgrown foliage.

They've trained 170 ex-offenders. Statistically, 93 should have reoffended & gone back inside (55%). But only three have (2%). In just 3yrs XO bikes have helped rebuild 167 lives, saving £9.3m in reoffending costs in the process. xobikes.com

Unhelpfully for my trip to visit my girlfriend's family in France, the Eurotunnel is closed and they're not boarding us at St Pancras. No information beyond that, or seating.

I am not a fan of this development.

Purely speculation on my part, but I wonder how much of this is due to the lack of a mandate for specific policies during the election. Without that, the need for consultation and work with arms length bodies is more vital to ensue democratic accountability.

I feel like politicians often confuse political trajectory with political position. It may well be the case that the trajectory at the moment is towards social conservatism etc, but that doesn't mean it's what most people's political position actually is - or that the trajectory is stable.

Can we just stop and reflect on how fucking terrifying it is that “mainstream” conservatism is just straight up normalising anti-semitism and the Nazi holocaust now? Six million people were murdered! Synagogues still get attacked. What the fuck is wrong with you people?

Instructions unclear. Man starved to death while I was marking his angling theory exam.

My parents successfully taught 3 year old me who the Prime Minister was. As a result was quite sad when Thatcher resigned, which my mum found disconcerting!

I'm an exciting development, despite it's ancient pedigree, my partner's seven year old daughter genuinely enjoyed Knightmare series 1 episode 1.

I realise it's petty to be irritated by lazy turns of phrase, but I'm fairly certain if you've got a headwind, you're not stuck in the doldrums. www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...

The problem with Your Party is that their only red line disagreement with the Greens is over who's in charge and most of their prospective voters don't care much about that.

And once again I am annoyed with Google Docs for lacking functionality. I would like to merge the comments on two otherwise identical documents together into one - but this is apparently not possible.

THE POLICY ADDRESSES THIS ALREADY. "Homeowners will be able to roll up the annual payments and defer them until they move house or die." www.ft.com/content/5b07...

OK... so you agree that your house should not, in reality, be worth £2 million? Or... is it that you quite like it being worth £2 million but don't want to take responsibility for the wider consequences of that?

I cannot deny this.

A problem at the moment is that there's an argument between people like me who basically think anyone who wants to come and live here should be able to and those who think no-one but those born here (or even born to generations-present families here) should be able to. 1/

I'm in a pub in Northumberland. The conversation opposite me is about the Archbishop of Canterbury and whether her diocese is in a good position. They seem worried about CofE finances - hotspots of hope but lots of neglect. On the other hand fairly positive about her grace.

Many of us who support the ECHR believe that if it is applied fairly, it will result in many more people being granted asylum at first instance. We are happy with that result - and are happy for resources to be committed to ensuring the burden is born equally. Doing so is seen as a problem. 1/

We do seem to be getting quite a lot of instances of major internet infrastructure going down recently.

... AI: You're right, those prisoners weren't due to be released for several years and some of them are very dangerous. I made a mistake and I will try to do better next time. Would you like me to draft an apology statement for a the press and a dignified resignation letter?

An under appreciated aspect of UK politics is that all of the constituencies are named after actual places. Gerrymandering still happens but it's a LOT more difficult redefining a place you have to describe than just having US style "32nd district" etc that means nothing.

Just had the utter joy of introducing my partner's 7 year old to Dungeons and Dragons. We created her a Tiefling Rogue - specifically with glowing green eyes that spit acid. 1/

Not sure who will win out in the New York mayoralty, but I'm hearing some *very* confident noises from Susan Hall's team.

Not going to pretend Tolkien isn’t flawed but this thread is bang on. Tolkien couldn’t be more explicit that the Hard Men of Gondor are *doomed to fail* no matter how Tough they are. The victory against evil is brought about by pity.

Gosh, some of these I genuinely don't think I've thought about for 30 years or more. Also, Knightmare, which I think about regularly (and keep meaning to run a D&D campaign based on it...)

The funny thing about this is that if Labour had been much more left wing and progressive, they could be on around 30% while Reform would still be on 27%. But the McSweenys of the world would be claiming Labour's disastrous leftism is pushing people to Reform.

Oh you're a jpg? I'm sorry for your loss.

New version of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Dualism is now live! This update was a huge job, and there’s still plenty I’d like to improve in the next version, but this will have to do until 2030. plato.stanford.edu/entries/dual...

As an asthmatic who's lived on the Zone 1/2 boundary for 17 years, the difference is palpable. The only time London's air has felt any cleaner was during lockdown.

Martin Lewis advocates for better money management tools to support nearly 2 million people. How can we improve financial literacy? #MoneyManagement https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2025/10/martin-lewis-mmhpi-sharing-money-management/

📢 We and our Founder & Chair @martinlewis.moneysavingexpert.com are calling on the government to ensure all banks offer customers a standard package of tools that make it easier for people to share money management in a safe and protected way. 🔗 www.moneyandmentalhealth.org/press-releas...

I was a member of a website that pioneered social media way way back in the early 00s before any of the modern platforms. The connections, research, writing and community building skills I developed there have done more for my career than 2 degrees.

This #WorldMentalHealthDay we want to thank our 5,000-strong Research Community, whose insight makes all of our work possible. So thank you - for sharing your experiences, for making it easier for the next person to do the same, for helping to break down stigma. We couldn’t do it without you 💜

When the AI bubble bursts, the tech bros will tell us that the economic slump is why they couldn't deliver AGI. The truth, of course, is that the bubble will burst due to them not being able to deliver on their overhyped promises of AI. But they will never accept that.

My son, doing politics A-level, uses @originstorypodcast.bsky.social as research. I have however advised him not to describe Marx as a ‘messy bitch’ in his coursework, regardless of how accurate it plainly is.

Gutted to have missed tickets for this (and will be there in February!) But the world needs more of this sort of thing. London needs more of this sort of thing. Have a cool idea! Find a venue! Tell people about it! Marvel as a community grows!

This is especially annoying where I want to break up a paragraph. It makes it really hard to see the structure of the piece at a glance, which in turn makes it harder to make further decisions about the structure.