2026 Labour should try and learn from 2004 Labour

There are 2 other people on my bus to work. One lady started watching videos, loudly, on her phone. The man sitting near her sighed, got out his own phone and started watching different videos, louder. I hate people sometimes!

Lads, I'm not implying anything but this is exactly what a Batman villain would do.

These are unsettling times.

This is something I worry about a lot - missing groups in samples is even more important when we are making claims about public opinion than when we are predicting vote shares.

Off for family weekend with my siblings today. Woken to WhatsApp from daughter (19, upstairs) saying she's come down with what I have had for past 9 days, so won't attend. Instant reaction is "But she must. What will they all think if she stays home?". Where's her sense of guilt and duty?!

i post this story every christmas, and will keep doing so until it stops making me cry merry christmas xx

The results are in! People hate AI! But not as much as they hate the people foisting it on them!

I am proper poorly, wasting days of annual leave unable to do anything. In an effort to feel festive I decided to bake gluten free stollen bites. 45 exhausting minutes later, as I rolled the last ball, spotted an unwelcome addition to the mixture. Everything in the bin. Seeking strength to retry!

Huddled under a fluffy blanket, cat determinedly in my lap, watch Reeves and Mortimer Gone Christmas Fishing from 2020 while husband moves daughter out of uni, for now at least. Still got Christmas gifts missing due to ill health. Whoops.

Despite having absolutely no sense of taste or smell currently I have just spent £53 on a simple, 1.5kg free range and unstuffed turkey crown in M&S! There was hardly anything left on the shelves. Feeling much more festive now?

Grief can be a very selfish thing. This weekend has made that very apparent. I shouldn't be surprised as my father-in-law has always been pretty self-centred, but I am. And so sad for the adult children mother-in-law left behind.

On holiday for more than a week. Going down to Croydon to visit father-in-law tomorrow (almost 84, diabetic with heart problems). Cursing the member of staff who 'heroically' came into the office on Tuesday and coughed all over my desk. Feeling absolutely shocking :-(.

So very, very familiar. I can get stuck on "better or worse" for ages!

I've now marked 25 out of 64 essays, and I've written just under 7,000 words of comments. But everyone tells me it's all a load of rubbish and pointless and that lecturers are lazy wasters, so 🤷‍♂️

A mini-story to cheer you up this morning. The other day my teenage son returned to his locked bike to find the back wheel nicked. We went back yesterday to rescue it - and found this note taped to the frame. We have the wheel again. A very happy Xmas to Ollie and his note-writing other half.

My child lived in a flat of 4. They properly met one of the other occupants in the 6 weeks before they moved home. Tried to at least set up a flat WhatsApp group to manage practical tasks but no-one joined and no-one's emptying the bins or cleaning now they've left. It's absolutely horrific there!

Okay, when are we going to answer back? Push back? Fight back? Anything? Because our way of life and society-building institutions are under attack from outside. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Parliament is properly on Bluesky. Why isn’t government? Asking for a friend (of democracy).

Son works in hospitality (restaurant) and has finally got his rota for the Christmas period. He's working Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. No idea if there's extra pay for working Christmas Day, despite meals being £79/head and venue fully-booked!

It's extremely 2025 that the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize is actively calling for a war. Orwellian even

Sharing this because I am keen to hear the output of Rachel's data collection. I want to be reassured that people are working hard on safe use of AI, not just doubling down and hoping things will be ok.

Daily Fail front page spotted just now: "Stop Labour's 'grotesque' puberty drug experiment on children". So, hormone blockers for trans young people are banned due to lack of evidence, but to allow trans young people to help provide an evidence-base is grotesque? Riiiiight. Makes perfect sense.

Husband drives to work at 6.30am. Used to take 25 mins, but recently takes 35. He just said that he imagines other road users thinking "I didn't really want to get up, but who else is going to annoy Pete?", as they drive at 20mph below the limit in the fast lane. Time for a holiday I think!

Can we stop using the euphemism “women’s rights activist” for ardent transphobe?

The media's obvious bias is maddening. This is an example from the supposedly 'too trans inclusive' BBC, spinning that Peggie won her case, when she effectively lost almost all of it and was criticised for her own behaviour.

My 24 year old works in outdoor pursuits, min wage and only employed Mar-Nov. Company recruit 12 seasonal staff each year. Usually 1 or 2 return but this year nearly all have applied to go back. There are so few jobs out there.

Perhaps the key point to consider

Absolutely it could. Almost definitely. But why has it taken so long for mental health services to say this? Many trans people are already feeling the impact, particularly given the actions of some organisations this week. It's just so very sad.

Kishwer Falkner in The Times talking about the rights of "biological people". As compared to trans people, who are, of course, non-biological.

it might seem surprising that the people who said “look, let trans people live their lives, but i have Reasonable Concerns about sports and toilets” aren’t up in arms about this, but what you have to remember is that those people who said that are liars who were lying

And I say again … how will they enforce this?!? Do trans women have two heads? Will there be people there to ‘denounce’ anyone who - subjectively - ‘looks a bit too much like a ‘fella’’?!? The sheer crassness of it …

'A study published today in Nature found that participants’ preferences in real-world elections swung by up to 15 percentage points after conversing with a chatbot.' 1/3 Link to that article: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Deep sea mining has ‘devastating’ impact on biodiversity www.channel4.com/news/deep-se...

So tell me again how Nigel Farage, who just took the largest ever political donation, from a Tory mega-donor, and another donation from the Viscountess wife of the non-dom owner of the Daily Mail, is planning to "take on the establishment"

Spot on. Imagine not fighting for your member … Imagine relying on the victim of this injustice being polite and understanding of the decision … I am so tired of it being required of trans people to be polite and understanding…

Gender criticals: "Listen to women! Unless you're Girlguides or the Women's Institute or you disagree with the male judge who wrote this decision or if you don't 'look like a woman' or if you're a trans man because then you're definitely a man." Everyone will suffer from this madness. Everyone.

Farage. Grifter-in-chief. Racist. Russian asset. Trump groupie. He gets an MP’s salary and spends his time doing anything but. A professional piss-taker and national security (and sanity) threat, leading the polls to be the next PM. Come on UK. Get some sodding self-respect.

I despise transphobes with my entire heart. Absolutely foul people

1/🧵 This is an appalling decision by Girlguiding to bar trans girls and women from joining, but I hope it puts more pressure on Labour to reform the Equality Act. Indeed, ministers could sort this in five minutes simply by bringing section 14 of the Act into effect.

I have just spent 2 hours in a cafe with a lady who I have known for 20 years, met seldom and whose views and mine differ on nearly anything. I need to be in a darkened room for a week. Instead a young 'un on the bus is yelling about his D&D campaign plans. Make it dark and quiet. Please?

Today we mark #WorldAIDSDay. It's a day to remember the millions of lives lost to HIV and AIDS, but also to celebrate the lives saved by the scientific advancements of the last 40+ years. Compassion, science, and humanity has led the way.

There once was a key line of code, That fizzled when it read an ode, With poetic aplomb, A nuclear bomb, Could rhyme just enough to explode

The consultancy Nous takes hundreds of thousands of pounds from universities, leaves the exact same path of destruction everywhere, and keeps trying to avoid transparent contracts. We’re urgently need control over consultancy spent in #UKHE, @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social

Here's this week's column. Please - please - can we stop talking about migration in a way that's completely detached from the facts? www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Started a sunny Sunday with episode 1 of @watsoncomedian.bsky.social's @murderbastard.bsky.social. Very strong start but not sure whodunnit yet. Looking forward to episode 2.

As far as I can see, if students are excluded immigration in the year to June 2025 was just 381,000 and falling rapidly.

Book of Mormon matinee performance today in rainy Leeds. Second time I have seen it and again it was an absolute joy (which made me cry!). Sweary, blasphemous and with more on the evils of FGM than any other musical! Just superb ❤️. Empty seat beside me as offspring not up to joining us though 😭.

If you’ve been thinking about applying for the EHRC Commissioner roles, please, please do! Falkner and Reindorf will soon be out and there is a real desire for representatives of our 🏳️‍⚧️ community on the Board. Be quick though — the deadline is midday on Monday 1st December

Truly it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to pay more tax on their dividends