A striking thing about today’s Godwin’s Law argument on the other place - frivolity of supposedly hale and hearty Right-wingers shouting in each other’s faces. Own it and have a good laugh at yourselves/worry about the Budget or immigration instead, as per

didnt realise this

It’s like the Enlightenment in reverse, ironically 👇

I was laid off from Teen Vogue today along with multiple other staffers, and today is my last day. certainly more to come from me when the dust has settled more, but to my knowledge, after today, there will be no politics staffers at Teen Vogue.

How did the misreporting happen in the first place? What steps will news editors and management at the Mail, Telegraph and Times - the last two expensively pay-walled operations - take to nip this kind of retailing of lies in the bud?

After a week of faffing around the @dailymail.co.uk have agreed to apologise. Here it is. Fingers crossed for fewer lies/smears dressed up as news in future

X won't be removing the dangerous defamatory fake clip which manipulates a clip about football to pretend I said something crass about grooming in Rotherham

New post just out: "Never again?" On how the radical right are trying to change our collective memory about World War Two as part of their assault on the postwar order. And why that memory remains a critical defence against nationalism. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/n...

Anyway both got more votes than either candidate in the 2024 Conservative Leadership election!

I note in this piece that @sundersays.bsky.social and @robfordmancs.bsky.social seem to be doing more to oppose the Conservatives’ extremist new ILR policy than the entire political mainstream. www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-k...

The UK is not the destination of choice for asylum seekers in Europe. It is behind Germany & France and is 17th, or 5th at a stretch, of 28 www.gov.uk/government/s...

Note the author of this piece is a former Daily Mail biz journalist/editor, a former Times business editor and former Sunday Telegraph editor 👇 Where are these publications today on the Nathan Gill story? And where are they on the new Tories’ blithe, thrusting xenophobia?

Wrote about Katie Lam

What is it going to cost in enforcement and policing to deliver net negative migration of legal migrants, Katie Lam? How much would you be prepared to spend? Judging by the runaway success of the Rwanda Plan, how confident are you of achieving 200K negative net migration per year, every year?

Surely the headline + the point for every non-Conservative politician to hammer home is the costs in enforcement and lost GDP of these mitherings. And challenge Lam + Jenrick on granular details of the economic benefits they will say will be achieved TORIES’ £100 BILLION MIGRANT FOLLY

All of which is to say, this has costs, for us in HE sure, but also for business, medicine, finance, tech, arts and entertainment, pharmaceuticals. The industries that this country is a world leader in. And if you cannot fathom why this uncertainty is a problem then you are not fit to govern.

Please god don’t make it a verb Sam

Fab conference on 19th-century museums coming up in Birmingham next month. Taking the focus away from the big names to think about the regions, the empire and the working classes. Hope to see you there!

I've used this, and it's good. What Walsall now needs is a protected cycle lane on Mill Lane between the Arboretum and the McClean Way. That would mean a mostly carfree route from Birmingham to Chasewater Park and, ultimately, Lichfield.

For many Brits who have made lives abroad, the mere possibility of this becoming UK government policy makes moving back a hugely risky prospect. Who’d want to invest time and effort settling back in Britain while threats of expulsion are dangled over the heads of non-British family members?

This email from @rbgkew.bsky.social seem slightly ominous...

New HIGNFY line-up

What‘s the bigger gap in UK reporting? The deaths of 150,000 people in Sudan or Trump’s authoritarianism?

“The terms of our estate may not endure Hazard so near us as doth hourly grow”

Jews and Muslims in North Manchester: A personal story. Fantastic piece by @ophiraophira.bsky.social, who has covered the attack for @manchestermill.bsky.social like no other journalist. Read this alongside the other news coverage. manchestermill.co.uk/jews-and-mus...

New post from @ldfreedman.bsky.social "Will there finally be peace in Gaza?" A must read if you want to understand how we ended up with the proposed peace deal and what might happen next. (£/free trial) samf.substack.com/p/will-there...

Breaking - four Birmingham city councillors @bhamcitycouncil.bsky.social quit Labour Party @brumlabour.bsky.social @teamlabouruk.bsky.social with stinging rebuke to local leaders and national party. I’m currently in London but have filed my copy to newsdesk and story appearing shortly.

Arson attack at East Sussex mosque. Nobody injured, after two men failed to gain entry, then set fire to car outside & building www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Suspect they’re going to have to do a bigger and probably more grovelling apology than that before this is done (but better to get a quick placeholder out than to do nothing ofc)

This is a great piece of local journalism - about all those flags going up in Brum. Some interesting details.

Why has the Telegraph decided to post this particular video clip, filmed on Monday, tonight? Are Jewish people and antisemitism primarily useful to drive traffic to the Telegraph website - is that the intended message? www.facebook.com/share/v/1CSa...

Ed Miliband posted/Rtd on twitter 5 times in the last 24 hours

One of the Seraphim, guardians of the Throne of God. English make, c. 1450 (V&A museum, London)

Coaches C-F of the 13.02 special Sunday service from Crewe to Liverpool Lime Street virtually empty, of PMCs or anybody else 😕🥀

It's wild to read that the Mirror will soon have just seven general news reporters working on "original news" stories across a seven day operation . pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/n...

At last year’s Tory conference I asked a series of senior people/leadership contenders how they planned to win back any of those seats, or how else they had a route to victory. I didn’t get a real answer from anyone. I plan to ask again this year.

These belligerent Blue Ticks, dear oh dear

Today's the day! If you're free this evening join us @inthewarehouse.bsky.social at 7pm to watch ACTionism.

Incredible framing by @telegraphnews.bsky.social of @moreincommonuk.bsky.social’s research, for some reason deciding to treat the 93% of the UK who attended state schools like an exotic species www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09...

So long, Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, 1939-2025. One of the most original and inventive architects of his generation, an inspiring and effective President of the Royal Academy, and a gentleman.

State (of this) Visit 👑

There need to be Tories of different traditions prominently supporting this broad-based stand against racism - Ben Obese-Jecty, Nus Ghani, Albie Amankona, Kit Malthouse, Iain Dale, Steve Baker, Nick de Bois, IDS. Some Reform folks too

Why for our Prime Minister is Elon Musk *so* much more important than 9.7 million Labour voters?

If you’re trying to keep track of Labour deputy leadership nominations, a reminder that @politicshome.bsky.social has a list of MPs on Bluesky here: bsky.app/profile/did:...

Petition to start selling lavender soda in the UK...

This deafening silence is simply an abdication of responsibility.

At the first of a series of ‘Impact Forum’ events on immigration policy with Vialto. This one is about proposed changes to citizenship and settlement policy: “Earned Settlement — What Do We Know So Far, and How Can We Respond?”

It's disappointing that the government's plan to get people moving is focused around "Go for a jog" rather than, as the evidence suggests, building environments that encourage everyday incidental exercise: the ability to walk to amenities liveapp.inews.co.uk/category/388...

A Happy New Year to everyone who's spent too much of their life working in education