Londoners, there is a webpage for you to see where your nearest "cool spaces" are when the extreme heat hits - places with water, air-conditioning & shade. Have a look and spread the word, especially to those who may need this but might not think to look for it: apps.london.gov.uk/cool-spaces/

Of international headlines, @mm-ilmanifesto-bot.bsky.social has the best. 'Crocodile tears: Starmer exits without understanding why'

Arguably should close at least parts of the Tube in 40° heat, along with a number of other workplaces. Local authorities should also trigger their SWEP programmes or hot-weather equivalent: www.spearlondon.org/our-services...

Also something ignominious about arriving in triumph to the misery of Euston station. Though it would enable a stop at Roti King, so it has its silver linings.

But who will provide the brass band?

Honestly the most glorious feature for British democracy for me. The antithesis of fascist tinsel!

This is true of course, but I wonder if the parliamentary party hasn't been *reasonably* docile given how many are going to lose their seats. If you had five years as a backbencher and you *knew* that was it, what would you do?

Andy Burnham will soon be prime minister. What should the reality of Burnhamism look like on a national scale? Some ideas here:

The EWCA's Ammori decision marks a dismal low in the courts' scrutiny of national security issues. In a new post on @verfassungsblog.de, @alangreene.bsky.social, @daniellalock.bsky.social and I examine the depressing tricks by which rights protections disappear: verfassungsblog.de/palestine-ac...

The problem with this strained radicalism (and the vein of woke homophobia it conceals) is that it makes it *harder* to think clearly about how hookup apps have reshaped gay men's sexual and social behaviour.

On the podcast: FT infrastructure correspondent Gillian Plimmer and Matthew Lawrence, director of Common Wealth, join @piercepenniless.bsky.social to discuss what HS2’s failure tells us about Britain’s capacity to build things and the impact on our everyday lives. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

No one who opposes justice in Northern Ireland for those killed and injured by the Brits has any chance of Labour leadership. Our armed forces cannot and should not be above the rule of law.

More good points from Shrimsley. Recall that perhaps the top "risk factor" identified in the SpaceX IPO prospectus is national regulation and legislation that obstructs his revenue model. Musk is actually very vulnerable despite his self-presentation as omnipotent.

Speedy Boarding for Pensioners Who Couldn't be Arsed to Open Their Post!

Anybody who opposes or even scrutinises British defence spending - which, after all, gave us the Tank That Deafens People, the Innovative Self-Jamming Gun, and HMS White Elephant - is clearly a nefarious agent of the Kremlin.

Some of the most exciting thinking about political economy in Britain has come out of PERC. Its closure is a huge loss and an indictment of the state of UK academia www.goldperc.uk/project_post...

So glad that Luqman Saeed - an academic at Ulster University - has written this piece about the Belfast riots. I hope I could write this clearly and perceptively were I under similar pressure right now. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ju...

Justin Webb needs to issue a correction and an apology on air. Or preferably get the boot. He does this all the time. (Compare and contrast e.g. Robbie Gibb breathing down @lewisgoodall.com's neck during his time at the BBC.)

We’ve now had two nights of violence in Belfast and yet almost nobody talking about loyalist paramilitaries, the marching season etc Look at where violence is. These are very particular parts of Belfast And yet hear more about ‘Protestants and catholics coming together against migrants’ than this

Anna Turley is touring news studios calling the Common Travel Area into question on the basis that the open border is being exploited. This just throws huge uncertainty into febrile politics. Thousands rely on the CTA daily. The reason asylum seekers can't be returned to a safe EU country? Brexit.

Not only a lawyer, but one who ascribed a fundamental shift in his worldview to time spent in NI post-Good Friday Agreement, including the formation of the PSNI.

If the state has the capacity to control who uses toilets, then it should have the capacity to attack the agents of hostile foreign powers who are inciting racist riots. And if it doesn't, then it is not fit for purpose.

If Starmer was worth anything he would be on TV first thing saying that every thug is getting the book thrown at them. If he was the man he claims to be he'd make a speech saying he's on the side of the minority families who've had their doors kicked in tonight. He could lead if he wanted to.

This is what a pogrom looks like: men in masks coming to drive you from your home. This is a collective failure of our political and media class because we did not have the courage to say no, and because too many were allowed to embrace this without shame

BBC Pol Ed often a disaster but Mason is a real nadir. A way of answering the question: what if political coverage had no politics in it?

Absolutely horrifying and deeply reported piece on the Tates' abuse network, including a sidebar on British police failures. Drop everything to read it: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Some thoughts on this... 1. Proof of London Centric's concept - there really was a gap in good London journalism on the v weird things that happen in this city. 2. Every few years there's a panic about santeros maybe cutting the heads off chickens – unlike this case, usually thinly evidenced.

Yes! So would I! Move over Tudors, it’s time for the 17th century now.

TOUSSAINT. (I'd hoped one of the streamers might do this during peak woke, when they were swilling cash around, but alas.)

‘It’s profoundly misleading to talk about the situation in the US as simply a matter of polarisation, when the real issue is that one of the two parties has become a far right – in many ways anti-democratic – party.’ @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social on the podcast. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

‘To think: deep down, it's all economics, stupid, and if only you explain that to people properly, then we can forget everything else – clearly, that's too reductionist.’ @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social on myths of populism, on the podcast. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

‘The “populist wave” has become the go-to image or metaphor when one tries to understand what’s been going on. And I think it’s empirically profoundly misleading, and it’s also politically pernicious.’ @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social on myths of populism, on the podcast podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

Müller's insight: populism isn't about policy positions but about claiming exclusive representation of the 'real' people whilst delegitimising all opposition. Traditional parties' fatal error was treating it as just another ideological movement rather than a distinct form of political authority.

And if you truly can't get enough Mandy, the latest episode of our subscriber-only podcast EXTRA BAD GAYS aded @piercepenniless.bsky.social and Juliet Jacques of Suite 212 to the conversation for a personal discussion of New Labour and its effects on queer people. www.patreon.com/posts/extra-...

An absolute delight to speak with @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social, whose work I've been following for a very long time -- and of course he is characteristically insightful and acute in this conversation.

On the podcast: @jwmueller-pu.bsky.social and @piercepenniless.bsky.social discuss why misleading interpretations of populism have proved dangerous for traditional parties, and the role of technocracy and digital platforms in the rise of anti-democratic politics. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

The rapid erosion of the mainstream political taboo on Powellism and Mosleyism (etc) is one of the most striking and alarming features of the present moment. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

The argument I make in the piece is that he *was* a talent: he was made by the era of linear broadcast television, adept in its uses, and significantly changed the party's relationship to communication. But the world has changed significantly since - and he hasn't.

Mandelson's political advice amounting to 'You should Win instead of Not Winning' confirms my earlier impression of a mind completely overtaken by political banalities, and a talent entirely degraded through admiration of wealth. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

I assume when papers report that Burnham is 'considering' a snap election they're using the word in the rare sense of 'briefly imagining what it would be like to make an inexplicably mad decision and needlessly risk blowing yourself and your party to pieces, for the sheer thrill of it.'

Excruciatingly embarrassing to have this man as my MP. Completely incapable and utterly unsuitable. Shouldn't be in parliament and I hope he loses his seat next time round.

‘I’ve said this in the beginning of the genocide and I repeat it now: what Israel has been doing in Gaza is a targeted dismantlement of the foundations of society.’ @jehadabusalim.bsky.social on the situation on the ground in Gaza, on the podcast. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

I'm well aware I'm in a minority as a radio guy, but I honestly cannot fathom why you would want to watch a video of a podcast. I get that people *do* - apparently a huge chunk of the market - but I can't find a way into that desire.

"let people enjoy things" is over. we must want things to be good

This is emphatically not true, and I cannot think of a writer I know and respect for whom it is true.

‘A lot of the outstanding value of euros is in the 500 euro note, wittily known as the Bin Laden. They stopped making it in 2019, but it’s still in circulation – it’s still legal tender.’ John Lanchester on money laundering, on the podcast. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

You could do worse things with your morning that sit in the sunshine for a bit and listen to the new Ibeyi single, Aset: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwxA...

We’re publishing Sally Rooney in Hebrew, in line with BDS. Here’s how and why. www.972mag.com/sally-rooney...