Vidhya is well known in the communities sector, well respected for her intelligence and competence, and well liked.

GM: Charisma check. Mamdani: [rolls natural 20] GM: that’s a d6 how did you Mamdani: [direct to camera] Did you know you can check out board games at your local public library? 😊

‘Many of these new groups want their communities to own, manage and profit from enterprises far larger than the pubs and post offices once associated with community control. They want to take on the town.’ www.ft.com/content/a604...

The change happening in Plymouth is - rightly - inspiring people across the country.

Mamdani wandering through a darkened dungeon, hidden away in the bowels of a forgotten library, pulls an ancient crumbling tome off a forgotten shelf, blows the dust off the cracked cover to reveal the words "How To Do Retail Politics"

The truth is not enough for justice. Systems are designed by those with power, for those with power. Solidarity fuels strength. Not exactly wild that the themes of this play were a series of gut punches tonight. Feels like a gift to have watched Comer’s final London performance of Prima Facie.

Faraaz has got the numbers wrong. He clearly wasn’t in Labour Srudents. #thetraitors

Oof. Quite the video.

I am loath to the idea that progress is a fool's ambition when my parents marriage was illegal in large parts of the US within their own lifetimes. Every day we live lives that our own parents and grandparents considered impossible

Thanks to @york.ac.uk publishing my blog, based on the speech I gave at graduation last year. 3 lessons to drive change for social justice. Read it here: blogs.york.ac.uk/social-chang...

1. Pick your battles. 2. You can disagree passionately with people, without thinking they’re evil or seeing them as the enemy. 3. To achieve change you can’t just talk to the people who already agree with you.

This is probably the most accurate description. Someone in their mid-50s today told me that this is the first time he had thought about or been affected by politics. And that guy is actively guarding buildings and his coworkers from ICE.

People shouldn't have to enter a high profile reality show just to get on the housing ladder!!!

Stephen is turning from the colour of one stripe on his jumper to another #TheTraitors #TheTraitorsUK

Roxy has this incredibly irritating pattern of presenting her accusations in a way that attempts to recuse her of all responsibility of having an opinion. Own. Your. Views. #TheTraitors

Vikings are back, baby.

Should say as well it’s exactly the same in the qual, you can’t do a general focus group on politics (and other stuff) without cost of living coming up in first five minutes, and the stories are so grim - sense life is about surviving not living, all the fun stuff has to be sacrificed.

Would like to know how significantly NOW's subscriptions spiked this weekend.

“When I speak about making our city more affordable, my vision is not limited to the homes that we live in or the child care that we’re making universal — it’s also a vision where we make it possible for working people to afford lives of joy, of art, of rest, of expression.”

Genuinely thinking about reporting Fiona to Prevent #thetraitors

Zohran just went out and fixed the Williamsburg Bridge bike entrance. Just did it. No faffing, no nonsense. Bam. Fixed.

The Barrister quoting Napoleon about enemies making mistakes but pompously attributing it to Sun Tzu is almost too perfect 😂 #TheTraitors

"I'm not a policewoman." "I observed you, a Caucasian female in her early 20s, approximately 5'4", at my 12 o'clock." #TheTraitors

How long before the retired copper on #TheTraitors starts a tape machine and tells everyone what time it is.

‘I’m not going to tell them I’m a police officer’ says the woman who looks more like a police officer than any other person in the entire world #Traitors

This is fun. Love this.

For this week’s Betwixtmas column, I wrote about the joy and importance of service to others as.ft.com/r/8c5dbbc4-3... ‘Wellness’ culture is empty without service to others (Gift link! 🎁🎄)

I remain convinced most of my problems can be fixed by the right notebook

Christmas has started. Resting on the sofa with a glass of fizz, and my boys (grown-ups but still my boys) are home and cooking supper for us. Unforgettable image of indolence from @ashmoleanmuseum.bsky.social exhibition on colour

This year - one of both mat leave and reporting travels around the country - I've found an alternative story to the "Broken Britain" narrative. My column for the @newstatesman1913.bsky.social Christmas issue:

This is why: 1. Never stop writing. If you are using AI only use it as a light editor. 2. Politicians should write the first draft of all their speeches to organise their thoughts. 3. Prose is vital to democratic societies.

Obviously a heck of a lot to digest from the Covid inquiry but this one rings true with our experience at the time. Stronger multi disciplinary expertise might have helped show the interconnections and trade offs between health, economics, geography and societal impacts www.bbc.com/news/article...

This stuff is honestly so far gone now, it would take a political generation to rebuild. And none of the incentives in British politics are taking us that way.

Research on this is clear: the uncertainty created by this policy will lead to people integrate less into British society. It is trading-off the reasonable policy goal of integration for the useless symbolism of immigration numbers. Bad policy to appease the far right. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Yes, I think this is what the “it’s smart not to do income tax” stuff is missing. If you remove salary sacrifice on someone’s pension contributions you are increasing their income tax! If you freeze thresholds you are increasing their income tax!

The fact that they got an extremely tense game of cat and mouse between the worlds most obvious flamboyant gay man and a giant monster man who has had 37 concussions....this is britain this is british pride

They should have advertised who everyone was playing for, throughout. Popped it under their names everytime they were in the diary room. The opportunity for tens and tens and tens of millions of pounds of free advertising for charities, totally wasted #CelebrityTraitors

Anyway, we need some joy, so here's the Egyptian foreign minister being given a Lego Pyramid by the Danish foreign minister.

Yes! This is much better than all the stupid "make November more miserable" initiatives

We have progressed from data collection to data analysis.

An email from Lewisham council, after four stabbings in Catford this week. Entitled “Mayor of Lewisham addresses serious incidents in Catford” This is. Not how to comms. No. God no.

If you can persevere through the ads this is worth a read. Wirral Council may have made a mistake with the leisure centre but lack of money will be the underlying reason. Goes back to the point oft made - it’s the lack of local government funding and provision which is creating the rifts in society

Well now I've planned a whole charity scandal-themed D&D one shot in my head.

I write because I love writing. I love writing even when I'm struggling with a writing problem that is killing me. Finding a way through that problem is both intensely rewarding and also helps me become a better writer. There is no reason for me to ever outsource that.

Today, we published a new @theifs.bsky.social Green Budget chapter on children with special educational needs & disability support, which is joint work with colleagues @eduinlatimer.bsky.social and Darcey Snape I wanted to delve deeper into some of the key findings....[1/6]

As the Trump administration threatens them, liberal nonprofits have been quietly preparing to do everything from surrendering 501(c)(3) status to relocating outside the US.

V interesting thread on something that could have been the headline going into conference if it hadn’t all been about ID cards & immigration; rebuilding communities, reclaiming ideas about roots & togetherness (the appealing bit of Blue Labour) from the ‘Maurice Glasman saying mad things’ bit of BL

Kirsty cites globalisation and tech as the two big drivers of dislocation. And champions the importance of social clubs in helping to tackle this dislocation. "We need a politics of joy and relationships"

Consumer debt is down, but like air being squeezed around in a balloon some of it looks to have shifted shape into arrears on priority bills