If I had to describe the fairly modest moves in the gilt market today, I would say it is a bit like the feeling of slightly needing the toilet after half an hour in the swimming pool.

The only compensation the Waspi women should receive is an apology from the bullshitters who have strung them along for years on the promise of extra cash to which they have never been entitled. www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

Among the revelations in this interviewis that Wandsworth was so short staffed, they asked someone doing 5yrs for fraud to keep track of where the prisoners were

Tax policy on the British left is pure "anti-bedtime left". Bizarre idea that you can have a big social democratic welfare state without everyone contributing properly www.economist.com/britain/2025...

Tice was introduced as “a local man” and a “self-made entrepreneur”, which is certainly one way to describe a man who spent 14 years as the CEO of his grandfather’s property company. @willdunn.bsky.social's sketch: Richard Tice’s pitch to Tory Middle England

In another brilliant sketch @willdunn.bsky.social nails the weird folk-public-school vernacular of Reform and the Reform-curious:

I asked Jimmy Wales why the reporting of the Daily Mail isn't linked to on Wikipedia. Fair play for a frank answer: www.newstatesman.com/technology/2...

I asked Jimmy Wales why the reporting of the Daily Mail isn't linked to on Wikipedia. Fair play for a frank answer: www.newstatesman.com/technology/2...

Jimmy Wales: “Elon Musk is very pleasant to me in private” 🗣️ @willdunn.bsky.social meets Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales

The oil market has turned against Putin New sanctions are not the result of political courage – they are an opportunity presented by the price of crude 🌎 @willdunn.bsky.social www.newstatesman.com/busine...

Can Mary Barton save Britain’s badgers? Parliament’s longest-standing protester is fighting to end the culls – but Labour’s Steve Reed is biting back 🖼️ The sketch with @willdunn.bsky.social

If you work in Westminster you probably know the DEFRA Badger (aka Betty). I asked her: has Labour betrayed Brock? www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Spolier: it's cement

Say what you like about Specsavers, at least they're not shaking your head over some burning henbane in the hope that worms will fall out of your eyes

A trip to the optician in pre-Norman England

Harris + Partridge = essential reading A point in favour of Late Partridge is the books, there is a line in Big Beacon that was so good a fellow train passenger asked if I was okay

Brilliant read on the lefty lawyers who actually run Britain

🚨NEW PAPER🚨 We all know the 2022 energy price shock fueled the cost of living crisis. It also caused a profit bonanza for the very rich. We show the US reaped the largest profits ($377bn) of any country. 50% went to the richest 1%, only 1% to the bottom 50%. A🧵 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

I wrote about the Tory conference, having watched most of it on GB News: www.newstatesman.com/politics/con...

Exclusive: 38 police officers were involved in Sycamore Gap investigation @willdunn.bsky.social: "If only real crimes were taken this seriously"

With the greatest respect to our Nation's Fallen Vegetable King, 38 police officers seems like a lot www.newstatesman.com/politics/soc...

Macron remarks are notable- some quotes: "We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks that are controlled either by large American entrepreneurs or large Chinese companies, whose interests are not at all the survival or proper functioning of our democracies."

Enjoy putting together mad pairings of places for the imaginary but generic conference speech I’d write. From Falmouth to Falkirk, Aldeburgh to Aberystwyth, Weymouth to Wick, Plymouth to Peterhead, Lerwick to the Lizard, Brighton to Bo’ness, Mile End to Ealing, Brixton to Bounds Green, Reading to Le

From the government's "Pepsi strategy" to speechwriting by committee, this is a brilliant sketch of Labour conference by @willdunn.bsky.social: www.newstatesman.com/politics/lab...

🚨🚨🚨Secret formula for political speechwriting EXCLUSIVELY REVEALED www.newstatesman.com/politics/lab...

I know this isn't as compelling as the question of whether or not the Prime Minister gave his parents the use of a donkey field. But it could be argued that it's more important!

New: Headteachers tell us they will have to cut activities or even staff to top up their (already inadequate) meals budgets. Expanding free school meals is great - but who's paying for it? www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

I’ve been saying this for years Schools should not be subsidising school meals Credit to @livinghealthy007.bsky.social for linking the issue to the FSM expansion

New: Headteachers tell us they will have to cut activities or even staff to top up their (already inadequate) meals budgets. Expanding free school meals is great - but who's paying for it? www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Exclusive: how a flagship Labour policy put a £310m hole in school budgets Expanding free school meals is a great policy, but the government does not seem to have accounted for the extra costs it imposes on schools 🖊️ @willdunn.bsky.social

🚨 This is serious. Ex Reform UK leader in Wales, Nathan Gill, 52, pleads guilty to accepting bribes in exchange for making pro-Russia statements in the European Parliament when serving as a UKIP MEP.

My feature in this week's agenda-setting New Statesman about the growing threat to Labour from the left. Pick up a copy at Labour Conference this weekend!

"You'll be safe as long as you're not paying tax." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Brutal and enjoyable piece from @willdunn.bsky.social on Clegg's return from Silicon Valley with Views to Share on standing up to the US and how to save the internet (errr) www.newstatesman.com/comment/2025...

NEW: “I’m not going back into politics”, Nick Clegg tells an audience of political party members, before espousing detailed political views, at a political party conference, while promoting his book about politics. www.newstatesman.com/comment/2025...

What if she has a point? Really great interview revising the Liz Truss legacy by @willdunn.bsky.social: www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Three years on from the Mini-Budget, @willdunn.bsky.social persuaded Liz Truss to talk to the New Statesman and it's worth reading. In which she: - Suggests Bank governor Andrew Bailey may have financially benefitted from her downfall - Restates her praise of Tommy Robinson

New: does Liz Truss still have a lesson for the UK? Within the cloud of grudges and paranoia in her thinking, is there a real point about who holds power? I spoke to the former PM about why she failed, and what she believes www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Release the pigs! It’s pannage time in the New Forest. But is the land more threatened by man or beast? 🖼️ @willdunn.bsky.social's sketch

Been banging on about this for a while now. It’s the end of days.

This is correct.

“Queuing in pubs combines the worst elements of communism – yes, the very worst elements – without any of the good stuff, like free housing or hastily built nuclear power stations.”

I wrote about the most frightening and dangerous trend in Britain www.newstatesman.com/comment/2025...

🚨🚨RRRELEASE THE HOGS 🚨🚨 www.newstatesman.com/politics/the...

🚨🚨RRRELEASE THE HOGS 🚨🚨 www.newstatesman.com/politics/the...

As the president visits the UK, we are a mouse sharing a bed with a walrus 🖊️ @willdunn.bsky.social: Trump visits his vassal state

Brilliant fun piece by @anooshc.bsky.social on the EFFING LIME BIKES (which I also ride sometimes, will probably use one later) www.newstatesman.com/culture/life...

I spent yesterday at Europe's biggest arms fair: www.newstatesman.com/internationa...

There are two ways to trust a politician: 1. Believe they are good (trust their integrity) 2. Don't care if they're good, but believe that they will do the thing you want (trust their competence). Labour offers option 1, Reform offers option 2 www.newstatesman.com/comment/2025...