Hitchin is a beautiful part of our beautiful country 🇬🇧 But after last week’s scenes in London and pockets of disrespectful graffiti, our communities aren’t immune from the same fears felt by many. It’s important we all step up and showcase our values at their unifying best.

From an advisor to Gordon Brown to MP to Secretary of State to leader to the backbenches to Energy Secretary once more - you can’t look at the last 3 decades of Labour and climate without running into Ed Miliband. Hear from the man himself about what has been and what is still to come. Register 👇

Obama on Charlie Kirk:

As ever, Nick Lowles is spot on. When it comes to taking on the far right, progressives haven’t got a moment to waste in building a vision of togetherness we can unite the country behind. Plenty to reflect on from his Guardian interview 👉 www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Community energy allows local people to produce, consume and own energy where they live, together. It is incredibly positive to see community energy continue to feature so prominently in the delivery of the Clean Power Mission.

Trump’s 2nd term has left many clinging to the status quo on climate multilateralism. We argue for more. Proud to publish w/ @americanprogress.bsky.social 's Ryan Mulholland & @mwilli.bsky.social on how global trade policy can back workers, industries & the planet. 🔗 renewal.org.uk/blog/a-multi...

Not that anyone in politics listens to research, but there is a bucket of research (including some excellent recent studies) which show exactly this. Voters listen to leaders and respond to what they say.

👇 Leadership matters and does change things. (A smaller scale version of this is watching people on here who have a red rosette where their own moral compass should be sharing a statement that only earlier this morning they thought it was Actually Wise Not To Make)

Horrendous.

In 2023, we won the Build Public Renewables Act — a groundbreaking law empowering NYS to speed up the clean energy transition and lower your bills with publicly-owned power. Today is the deadline to tell the New York Power Authority that we need a plan for 15 GW by 2030. Take urgent action below.

Read this thread. Please.

Great to speak at TUC congress on the unhelpful narrative of builders vs blockers. Its not how you take people with you and get development moving in communities. Thanks to Prospect Union for hosting and their report showing supported regulators on the front foot can be accelerators or growth.

A rare example of an all-women planning panel - you love to see it! #GGsummit

In a few short years we will put Sadiq Khan in this category for ULEZ.

Sort of dizzying to think about how many people are alive today because Patricia Hewitt (ban on smoking in enclosed spaces) was health secretary and because Norman Fowler (mandatory seatbelts) was transport secretary and health secretary (HIV/Aids).

Thrilled to be working with the @ippr.org as an associate fellow, with a specific focus on (winning) the new politics of climate change. Excited to get stuck in with @samalvis.bsky.social et al!

I think this, from Peter Hyman (former Blair and Starmer advisor) is simply excellent. Some pragmatic advice for crafting and delivering a message, as well as a lesson on the virtue of 'navel-gazing' and the value of having (and interrogating) ideas. peterhyman21.substack.com/p/how-to-cra...

I turn on my TV and a TV presenter is asking a Govt minister why they are talking about rolling out free childcare when the big issue is asylum hotels. This is objectively insane.

Ben Obese-Jecty is the only Conservative MP and frankly one of the vanishingly small number of MPs, full stop, to react to this stuff in a normal way.

Christ. I mean, why not just suggest adding phrenology to the points based immigration system?

A week late to this v good piece but icymi (like I did) - worth reading!

I've written about why the older demographic of the Palestine Action protestors should be unsurprising – given that, from becoming councillors to activism to just voting, it is very often older people who are actually *doing* politics in this country: www.newstatesman.com/politics/soc...

Stephanie 'Steve' Shirley has died aged 91. She is the subject of I think, one of the best ever FT lunches, which you can read here (registration or subscription required, will post a first 300 clicks free link in the replies):

Two whole years since The Sun provided some great artwork for the bathroom 🧟‍♂️

Political trust is at crisis point and the decline of community infrastructure is a big part of the story. As pubs, youth clubs and libraries disappear, loneliness grows, and so does support for the radical right. Nick Garland, research fellow at IPPR, for LBC 👇 www.lbc.co.uk/opinion/view...

Great new @ippr.org report from @sachahilhorst.bsky.social, making very clear the link between the decline of community spaces and the rise of the radical right. Sacha reimagines the 20th century miners' welfare fund as a model for reviving social infrastructure: www.ippr.org/articles/pla...

is left yimbyism in chrisis? or is it a chrisatunity for reflection ? @mcortonscott.bsky.social investigates: renewal.org.uk/blog/the-chr...

As a recess treat, I wrote about the week where the Labour Party lost two Chrises, and what it means for the ongoing discourse on growth, planning and Labour YIMBYism. renewal.org.uk/blog/the-chr...

Excellent write up of the fleecehold misery that so many homeowners across the country are facing- a sharp example of the many reasons why people don't feel like the system works for them anymore. 👏 @rmcunliffe.bsky.social and @alistrathern.bsky.social! www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Great to hear @umakumaran.bsky.social using an adjournment debate to commemorate the 137th anniversary of the Matchgirls Strike. We published an essay on its importance by Diana Holland, patron of the Matchgirls Memorial Trust, in our Return of Spring collection:

That cake up close:

I think the mission here is hugely important for the govt. The growth frame feels too abstract for many, who judge the economy on their day to day. Cost of living above all else is driving national misery - and sense that life is just about living to work/working to live.

What’s the odds on “a major social network has an antisemitic AI built into it” being raised by lobby with PM’s spokesperson today? A special DCMS committee? Ofcom launching an emergency investigation? Seems it’s so hard to comprehend that people will just focus on more manageable screaming at BBC.

Last Christmas I asked people on Bluesky for help with a fundraising campaign for an amazing London youth club and loads of people kindly stumped up. Anyway, this is where your money went…

NEW: 12 of England’s 13 regional mayors* have signed up to develop a “national active travel network”, based initially on safer routes to schools. This includes Labour mayors, and two Tories *and* Reform’s Luke Campbell. Are the transport culture wars over? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Not saying there aren’t big problems, but all the pieces saying Labour has wasted its first year are in very stark contrast to the reality on climate and energy policy, where there’s been largely positive progress on a near weekly basis.

If you’re a traditional business and are found to be employing people without the right to work you face up to 5 years in prison and an unlimited fine. The same should apply to Deliveroo, Uber, Just Eat - who skirt this via the classification of their workers as ‘self employed’.

Today is the last day to apply to be editor of @labourlist.bsky.social ! Given this 'Top Stories' side bar, and the fact I had to scroll through 31 (!) articles on the homepage before getting to one written by a woman (who was Bridget Philipson) - I would encourage good women to apply 🙂

‘One Labour staffer’ needs to realise that these anti abortion protestors have been targeting Labour conference and wider offices for years regardless of parliamentary amendments, and quite possibly get their head out of their ass whilst they’re at it.

Spot on, imo

Good. The use of hotels was a) designed to immiserate the people in them to avoid a 'pull factor' (didn't work) and b) has been very bad for the towns in them. Now need to end the ban on people working while they claim asylum.

One of the biggest winners? Ed Miliband! The minister who commentators keep insisting is imminently for the chop or is having his budget slashed, whispering net zero is in doubt or GB Energy is being quietly binned. The reality is he got the the biggest increase in capital and GBE alone got £8bn.

V v pleased today - big wins for DESNeZ despite months of anti net zero briefing, along with investment into transport infrastructure and nature friendly farming. All wrapped up into a speech that was the clearest articulation of Labour values we've seen from this govt yet.

“Are you a builder or a blocker?” is not the question we should be asking Housebuilding should be a collective effort – not a fight, writes Labour MP @pollybillington.bsky.social

good news day today - common sense for people and planet !

For many people, having to go to the job centre is a sign that something's gone wrong in life. I am determined that from now on, it will be the day that things turn around. www.gov.uk/government/n...

Last night, LCEF and the Co-operative Party launched our new report, Power in Our Communities, with Energy Secretary Ed Miliband MP. 🌱 The report showcases how we can give local people a real stake in our clean energy future—while also building lasting climate consensus within our communities.

We are living through a moment of extraordinary change – one that future generations will look back on as either the moment we transformed our energy system, or chose not to. Our new report with @lcef.bsky.social says it clearly: now is the time for community power, in every sense of the word.

Absolutely thrilled to have been part of this report and to be able to shout so loudly about community owned energy - transforming not only where our energy comes from but how the whole system works, and for who. Download the report and have a read, link below!

Another good piece from @morganj0nes.bsky.social - on how Labour talks about the Greens. It is striking to me that voters we lose to the right are treated as people with serious concerns - about immigration, welfare, the economy - whereas voters we lose to the left - labourlist.org/2025/06/gree...