Taps the Ian Hislop demolishing Priti Patel on question time sign.

Can we just do a nation wide version of Goodbye Lenin for these people? Honestly, it is very difficult to feel any sort of sympathy for folks who basically go - I miss Catchphrase, let's be dickheads to those who don't like look like me.

Honestly, I'm glad you've enjoyed the traitors. But it's the sort of TV that makes my soul shrivel up and die.

Keep coming back to a quote in the differences between China and the US currently (I forget from whom) - both the Chinese Government and Trump administration are bastards. It's just that former are competent.

Even to someone such as myself - who has studied and worked in housing for over 15yrs - Leasehold law is very complex and difficult to navigate. This sort of behaviour is deeply predatory and utterly unacceptable. www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk/a-london-law...

This is very good from @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk, and gets to the heart of the turmoil engulfing the Conservatives. open.substack.com/pub/joxleywr...

Can we invent a new hate crime category for baking accounts on Instagram which use *that* voice. Overly soft and soppy influencer tones. No one willingly talks like that, you bellend. Stop it.

Whichever way you cut it, it does baguette belief this case made it to trial. Muffin in it, really.

Counterpoint, no it shouldn't. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This investigation from the @sheffieldtribune.bsky.social is absolutely staggering. It is very common in Sheffield (I live in this bit) to have a leasehold, often with hundreds of years left on and pennies in ground rent. This is extortion pure and simple. www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk/a-london-law...

"Home Office data suggests that recent immigrants are more likely to be working than British nationals and make higher wages than them." ✍️ Lauren Gilbert argues that migrants to the UK are net fiscal contributors, adding much more to the economy than they take out, ukandeu.ac.uk/lower-migrat...

Apropos of nothing, but one of the things you can't help notice is just how uncreative right wing culture is. It is rare to get good music, or art from those significantly to the right of centre. Maybe that's why they're always so miserable.

This is genocide. Pure and simple.

Ah, so he can say outrageously racist stuff whilst pushing a false narrative without issue, but drop a marginally naughty word and it's all clutched pearls?

This can, and will, make a genuine difference to kids who otherwise might not have had such an option.

Feels like momentum for government to disengage from X is growing. Musk has had his brain turned to right wing mush, and is trying to take as many other folks with him.

Chant wise, to the tune of Newcastle Utd fan's chant about Adam Johnson. Fuck off Infantino, Fake peace prize for a weirdo, He's too senile!

I love the naked corruption of FIFA. Like, it doesn't try and hide anything.

Couldn't have happened to a more deserving bunch of self-aggrandizing muppets.

These guys really aren't that well in the head. Are they?

Rather remarkable. Face eating leopards, etc, etc.

My Welsh-Australian wife has aboriginal ancestors. What is she? Does the Celtic lineage override the Australian?

Single cell amoeba learn faster.

Fascinating proposals. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Gotta love people's insistence on wilful ignorance. At Didcot Parkway waiting for a train. The chaps' toilet is shut for renovation. Annoying but s it goes. There is a sign up on the door plus a temporary fence in front of it. Still, seen multiple blokes ignore all of that and try to enter it.

I think having public services that continue to crumble will a) be more visible b) be more problematic for Labour in the long run. As ever narrative and context will matter. There are good reasons and trade offs in raising income tax (public services, national security, & renewal). Speak to them.

Very much worth a read.

This is very, very good - would recommend. Captures something I think a lot of people have been dancing around - and a crucial flaw in many moderate social democrats where we get so obsessed by practicality that we lose the broader picture entirely.

Always find it weird that the rich and powerful can't be satisfied with what they have. Like, how much money and influence is enough? And when bills are no longer an issue, why are you seeking to make things worse for everyone else? What a miserable life.

Obviously it is difficult to extrapolate New York Mayor vote to the UK. But was heartening to see unapologetic hope being offering over grievance and entitlement. Both of which dominate current politics on either side of the Atlantic.

The far left could start a fight with itself in an empty phone box. Class solidarity doesn't apparently extend to one's comrades.

Dick Cheney is a reminder that you don't always have to have nice things to say about the dead. Nor that you always need to express them.

The energy generated from my second hand embarrassment at this level of sycophancy could power most of Western Europe for a decade. Have a modicum of self respect.

This tracks because you get the impression that a lot of folks do not actually like their partner, so find it odd that others do. See, for random e.g the higher ups in multinational organisations who viscerally hate hybrid working arrangements.

Cheney was a Dick.

The Regulator of Social Housing has published its analysis of the latest tenant satisfaction measures. Headlines: LCHO c-sat (48%) remains far lower than LCRA (~70%) 79% of repairs competed within SLA Satisfaction with repairs at 74% General trends seem upward. www.gov.uk/government/n...

As a centre left YIMBY there is nothing more frustrating than seeing progressives attempt to block much needed housing on spurious grounds. It's the housing equivalent of expecting Russia to play fair if we dismantled NATO and hoped for peace and brotherly love.

Actually quite like this.

Another gift from Reform. news.sky.com/story/nigel-...

Literally said this at the time. It is the right message on the right reasons by 8 months too late. Can I get some of that party strategist pay, please?

Brace yourself the Christmas ad discourse is coming.

This is good, and I agree with two critical elements a) bad faith attacks on Tesco for headlines are unhelpful b) lack of basic economic knowledge is an issue. The reason why the former point works is because cost of living is a key concern. Populism of all forms is problematic.

The end of cheap credit in conjunction with housing costs rising faster than wages has had severe and long term consequences. The crushing of the pay lending sector was welcome. But the central issue remains. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Yes, because the closer to government you get, the more the gravity of reality hits home.

One of four brothers, at least two of us (of which I was one) got assaulted on the way home from school. Being Worcester I obviously knew who it was. Unrelated, a few years later their cousin threatened to slash me with a knife as I did a late shift at one stop.

It is remarkable that America has a literal fascist for a President and the Democrats are fighting eachother.

New today from DWP: Claims that just one in five employers have engaged with Jobcentre Plus. Actually, it's worse than that - the DWP employer survey says most of the contacts are about workplace pensions, apprenticeships (then not DWP), child support and disability issues, not JCP services.

Things America gets wrong: Weights Measures Political party colours Choice of president.

A Polish mate of mine once dryly remarked that Russians were great fun, so long as they stayed in their own fucking country. The main way it appears to achieve that is by military force. Pretending brotherly and sisterly love and cooperation will achieve the same aim is a criminal level of naivety.