There's an exceptionalist belief that the UK's immune to the worst political extremes. In reality, we were lucky not to get a fascist government in the 1930s. Now that the world's richest man supports our most extreme political party, we need more than luck. We need to get the money out of politics.

Britain's university sector is quietly dying because of the policies of successive governments, and politicians are oblivious bsky.app/profile/davi...

I find that I have an actual political philosophy about this, so I am going to try to articulate it. For many decades now, if you are a left-wing person, you have been able to see laws get better. It has come to feel as if that is the way to improve the world.

There was a time, not long ago, when peaceful protestors were never sent to jail in the UK But at least 286 people have been locked up for protesting climate breakdown and genocide in recent years It's a fucking scandal

Vote Labour: Get Conservatives. Labour teaming up with the Conservatives is now likely to become a regular thing - as it has in Brent where Labour are reliant on Conservative votes to stay in power.

COMMENT // Phil Bialyk clings to Exeter City Council leadership with too few Labour councillors to fill executive seats Green Party call for “co-operative council” to “put people before politics” ignored despite opposition councillors holding balance of power. exeterobserver.org/2026/05/22/p...

Many children who grow up in Britain are denied their citizenship rights because families can't afford the high fee. I’ll keep pushing the government to stop pricing these children out of citizenship and strengthen their rights.

If anyone is interested in an arguably overly thorough analysis of the links (or lack of) between voting systems and political stability, here's one I made earlier: makevotesmatter.org.uk/wp-content/u...

How is everyone feeling about Reeves' cost of living announcements? My immediate reaction is that 'summer days out' support - clearly helpful for many families - appears to dismiss the scale of anxiety for many households right now. A day at the zoo isn't a top worry.

The fall in net migration gives Labour an opportunity to escape the migration doom loop. But will the Government take it? Excellent by Prof @jdportes.bsky.social at @prospectmagazine.co.uk www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/pol...

Have you seen the finale of #TheBoys? This post was a month ago. IYKYK

The last couple of days have clarified that a Burnham government would continue the Starmer agenda in every area. This won't beat Farage.

Andrew Neil out of touch as usual x.com/afneil/statu...

It was kind of Robert Jenrick to set me up for an obvious joke at his expense.

Burnham seems a nice guy with ardent aspirations, but that isn't enough. His policies on austerity, nationalisation, EU, immigration & PR are nebulous; his form sketchy; his only constant a Blairite love of vibe & triangulation. That's what enabled Reform. As Starmer 2.0, Burnham won't beat Farage

I really wanted this Burnham speech to leave me hopeful and was actively rooting for it. I found it deflating - to put it mildly. Where it needed to be brave and expansive, it was small and meek. Let me give one example that I found quite instructive, since Andy used it as a framing device. 1/

List of things Andy Burnham has already confirmed he will not do. No Water Renationalisation or any other renationalisation. No Rejoin EU. No PR.

Prejudice toward one community is prejudice towards us all.

So Wes Streeting is trying to win the Labour leadership from the left (because his right-wing credentials are secure); and now it seems as though Burnham is trying to win from the right (because somehow we've projected "left" onto him). This politics-by-vibes will destroy Labour permanently.

She's also the culture secretary ffs. So many artists crying out that they struggle to tour the EU (and viceversa) because of Brexit. Ditto for students/youngs taking gap years to learn different languages, foods, history, different people, different development/work/love opportunities. All gone.

I can't find the specific piece now but I remember reading a passage in which Streeting explicitly laid out that the best strategy for campaigning for Labour leader was to pivot left during the contest and then pivot hard-right upon becoming the leader. If you fall for his act, you're a sucker.

"The past two and a half years have been one of daily horror and fear as Palestinians have watched our families and friends massacred, starved and tortured." www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

The world travels by horse. It did when my great grandparents were born and it did when they were my age and it did when they died … oh wait no. They had a car by the time they were my age.

To be kicked out of one far right party may be regarded as a misfortune; to be kicked out of two looks like carelessness. www.devonlive.com/news/devon-n...

You know, a President accusing a NYT reporter of committing treason just for asking a question is actually quite a big deal, and this bunch just standing there listening to it and doing nothing is not encouraging the public to think of journalism as a serious business or of words meaning anything.

Forget the three-term project now: crisis-hit Labour needs a one-term mindset and priorities to match | Andy Beckett

The local elections in one chart. Labour has been squeezed between the Greens in young wards and Reform in older working-class wards www.economist.com/britain/2026...

Every pound of public money invested in higher education results in a £14 return. It adds hundreds of billions of pounds annually to the economy, employs half a million people, and projects soft power across the world. But government policies are destroying it www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...

Interesting development and hopefully good news for the west of England region.

It is true that Keir Starmer has no vision. But neither does Wes Streeting. The Labour Right hasn’t had a vision since the financial crash. That’s the problem none of them can resolve

When Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social shared his article about why universities were in trouble and why they need investment, a Labour MP jumped in to say they weren’t a priority for her. She may be surprised at how many people are employed in universities and how important they are to the economy.

Where’s the fury about rightwing antisemitism? The newspapers that call out leftwing antisemitism publish antisemitic cartoons and champion politicians with a record of antisemitic statements. So who is holding *them* to account? This week’s column. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

“Zionist” has become so loosely defined, and so often used as code for Jew, that I think we should consider dropping the term altogether. I’ve seen cases where it's used to camouflage blatant antisemitism (eg below) + many others in which it’s hard to tell.🧵1/5 farmsnotfactories.org/articles/zio...

Giving people the opportunity to be heard can be transformative, argues @georgemonbiot.bsky.social I think it's important to note too that reducing a conversation to a script can have the reverse effect www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Utterly in my head over the Starmer drama. Am I disappointed in him as a leader. Yes. Do I think the floated alternatives will be better? No. Do I want change? Yes. Do I think it unwise to change leadership now? Also, yes. Round and round in my head it goes.

Open letter to Labour on a fairer voting system Is the First Past the Post electoral system fair? Here's an open letter from Exeter Greens about an electoral system fit for multi-parties

75% of British millionaires are willing to pay more tax, to ensure proper funding for the "social, cultural, and economic attributes" that make them proud to live in the UK www.theguardian.com/news/2026/ma...

Now i have your attention (and brilliant ideas), here are five, immediate policies I would focus on. They're not exhaustive but I think they do three key things: acknowledge where things are broken, prioritise fairness, and take the fight to Reform. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Insightful reflections on how Exeter is turning Green privatisedeye.wordpress.com/2026/05/11/e...

Hi, as a small business owner I can tell you that our biggest challenges are: rent, business rates, energy costs, national insurance costs, VAT, inflation and the fact people are skint. These are all political.

Interesting bundling of Greens with Reform together as 'dangerous' and 'exploiting' and 'preying' on despair. Went pretty hard on *not* being involved in the Iran war, despite Louise Haigh excusing the local election results by saying 'We're in the middle of a war'.

I'm a climate expert. I know 1000s of climate experts. One fact we all know: poor people care about climate more than rich people. Hardly surprising when you can't afford AC, work outside, etc. A few issues in the article... /1

The great irony of the Welsh success of Reform, run by millionaire ex-public schoolboys, is that one the greatest Welshmen, & founder of the NHS, warned of this “How can wealth persuade poverty to use its political freedom to keep wealth in power? Here lies whole art of Tory politics” Aneurin Bevan

Nigel Farage received £5m from a crypto-billionaire shortly before the 2024 general election. Since then Farage has lobbied for more deregulation of restrictions concerning cryptocurrency. Mainstream news outlets have ignored this story. www.thenerve.news/p/stewart-le...

Absolute chaos in Milton Keynes. The Lib Dems won the most seats - despite coming FOURTH in vote share. Do we need any more evidence that First Past the Post isn't working?

At some point on my lifetime we might get a government which recognises that having an entire tier of elected institutions which are just powerless complaints departments for a failing social care system is not a healthy or sensible state of affairs.

Breaking: it turns out that a strategy that literally every political scientist went 'No, don't do that. That's nuts!' is, in fact, nuts.

In Wigan, Reform won 96% of seats on 46% of the votes. In Westminster, the Conservatives won a majority on 35%, while @greenparty.org.uk won 18% of the votes without gaining a single seat. We can’t let this happen in 2029 The time to change the voting system is *now* @makevotesmatter.bsky.social

Exeter MP Steve Race has posted about the local elections, blaming "false propaganda" by the Greens for one of the losses. The "Only Labour can stop Reform" slogan is pretty much the entirety of Labour's messaging, so it's worth examining further. 🧵 1 / 7

A tale of two Labour cities, via @theprsd.bsky.social Exeter becomes greener; Plymouth starts to lose its soul www.theprsd.co.uk/2026/05/08/a...