In entirely non-politics news, my husband has just coined the term "to Odysseus yourself", in the context of moving on from a breakup by blocking your ex on all communication and social media channels so they can no longer tempt or torment you

“If people want to audition for a pantomime, I suggest you go to the Old Vic.” At least, in a panto, Starmer wouldn’t have to ask where the biggest risk to his authority was coming from – the audience reply would have been deafening. On today's PMQs www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

“Of Nigel Farage there was no sign at all, except in a question about him appearing on BBC Question Time more often than he’s appeared in his own constituency” I watched Lisa Nandy defend the BBC in Parliament so you didn’t have to www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

“I knew a guy who was mistakenly released and he *told* them it was early. And they ignored him and shoved him out.” Chris Atkins recounts his time at HMP Wandsworth, where release errors came down to bad handwriting and mix-ups over which prisoner was which www.newstatesman.com/the-weekend-...

David Lammy will be grilled in the Commons today on mistaken prisoner releases and how and why they happen. A reminder of what James Timpson said in the Lords yesterday: our prisons system relies on “boxes and boxes of paperwork”

“Anyone wondering how the prisons system could fail – multiple times – at the most basic task of ensuring the right individuals are incarcerated at any one time might want to take note” Some thoughts on Lord Timpson’s answers on prisons in the HoL today… www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

“It happens every working day.” Great and revealing interview by @rmcunliffe.bsky.social:

📕 With the Booker Prize winner set to be announced tonight, how does voting intention vary by favourite book genre. Reform’s highest score is with fans of horror, while Labour enjoys a landslide lead among fans of self-help books. *Read* into that what you will.

Bloody hell www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

“I knew a guy who was mistakenly released and he *told* them it was early. And they ignored him and shoved him out.” Chris Atkins recounts his time at HMP Wandsworth, where release errors came down to bad handwriting and mix-ups over which prisoner was which www.newstatesman.com/the-weekend-...

New cat spotted in the garden! Very elegant black and white female (we think), who looks like she might be full of kittens. Since the Duke of Chesterton moved house we’ve been a bit short on nobility. So obviously we have named her the Duchess of Meowlfy. Photo to come at the first opportunity

only in the small print of this article do they make clear that the pensioners paying an extra £2,500 of tax would have to have “earnings over £125,140” I know many pensioners are asset rich but how many have income at that level?

Going down a rabbit hole of mistaken prison releases. They've definitely got up recently, but between 40 and 115 offenders were incorrectly released *every year* from 2011 to 2024 (so over 800 while the Tories were in government). It just doesn't normally make the news news.sky.com/story/how-ma...

WHAT a final

I loved Othello. David Harewood: phenomenal. Toby Jones: captivating. The set, music and acting all round: absolutely brilliant. But taken altogether... Jones as Iago was too entertaining, the play too much fun to watch. In the end, it's meant to be a tragedy www.newstatesman.com/culture/2025...

David Lammy’s first PMQs as deputy prime minister will be remembered for a question that wasn't even part of the actual session. Did the government know that a police manhunt had been launched for an asylum seeker wrongly released from HMP Wandsworth last week? @RMCunliffe.bsky.social

🚨ICYMI🚨 Starmer’s dilemma – Electoral reform or Farage in No.10? @dmk1793.bsky.social joins @rmcunliffe.bsky.social and @nndroid.bsky.social to discuss ➡️ linktr.ee/ohgodwhatnow...

So a weird thing happened to me in Aldi that I cdn't quite place until I was listening to Gabby Bertin talking about choking in porn on the radio this am. (NB: this is 100% not a sex thing). Having the usual polite chitchat with the cashier who is tired from working extra shifts to make £ for xmas..

Absolutely crucial piece for understanding how knife crime is changing, and why perceptions don’t always line up with what the data is saying www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

This from Policy Exchange is a good example of the spending cuts Reform and the Tories would need to back to match their rhetoric. www.newstatesman.com/politics/mor...

How does one move to this fuzzy city? Asking out of pure curiosity and in no way making concrete plans

If you haven't been listening to The House at Number 48 on Radio 4, you must. Historical epic told through one man's quest to find out who his father really was. Nazis, mysterious suitcases, a painting full of secrets... The best thing I've listened to all year www.newstatesman.com/culture/radi...

I went to see what Kamala Harris had to say to London. Answer: what if it’s all about love?

What we demand of Epstein’s victims @RMCunliffe.bsky.social: Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s bleak memoir shows how the struggle for justice warps those who've been hurt most

Unpacking Labour's humiliation in Caerphilly, with @bwalker.uk

Neat #Caerphilly graphic from the @financialtimes.com (Source: www.ft.com/content/d997...)

NDAs, questions about "taking a broader approach" to the inquiry's scope, and £50 payments - my report on the meltdown of the grooming gang inquiry:

"Abusers don’t always need lavish sex mansions and private jets to operate with impunity. They just need victims no one will care about." Some thoughts on Virginia Giuffre’s memoir, on Jeffrey Epstein and Prince Andrew, and on the nature of power www.newstatesman.com/comment/2025...

"Abusers don’t always need lavish sex mansions and private jets to operate with impunity. They just need victims no one will care about." Some thoughts on Virginia Giuffre’s memoir, on Jeffrey Epstein and Prince Andrew, and on the nature of power www.newstatesman.com/comment/2025...

This is brilliant and you should all go read it Bonus points for guessing which line made me spit out my tea with laughter (which possibly was not Joxley's intention)

🚨ICYMI🚨 Starmer’s China Syndrome – plus Green MP Siân Berry on the new power balance on the Left. @rostaylor.bsky.social is joined by @sianberry.bsky.social, @rafaelbehr.bsky.social, @rmcunliffe.bsky.social to discuss 👉 linktr.ee/ohgodwhatnow... #China #OGWN #ukpolitics

NEW What the Chinese spying case witness statements reveal The Crown Prosecution Service appears to have made at least one serious error, while the government's position now makes sense By me emptycity.substack.com/p/what-the-c...

“Hope is never something that comes easily. It’s always something you’ve got to fight for, to work on.” On Monday, as the last living hostages were released, I read Eli Sharabi's agonising memoir about captivity under Hamas and losing his wife and daughters www.newstatesman.com/culture/2025...

Good analysis here by @rmcunliffe.bsky.social of today’s PMQ on the dropped prosecution. It also kindly quotes my blog.

"Starmer seemed personally affronted as both a lawyer and a politician by the idea the government might get involved with a witness statement. But if the whole point is to provide evidence of the government’s position, how can this be the case?" PMQs thoughts... www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

This China stuff is extraordinary... not sure I've seen anything like this at PMQs before

“Hope is never something that comes easily. It’s always something you’ve got to fight for, to work on.” On Monday, as the last living hostages were released, I read Eli Sharabi's agonising memoir about captivity under Hamas and losing his wife and daughters www.newstatesman.com/culture/2025...

"Doucet is no protagonist. That honour goes to the people unable to flit in and out of the drama on international flights, who continue to make the beds and cook the food and sweep up the pieces" This history of Afghanistan by Lyse Doucet is really very special www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...

Hollow laughter

A great article from Rachel, who really understands the heart and soul of Dad’s work.

Good to see the Conservative Party committed to keeping the deficit down by *checks notes* spending £2 billion giving tax breaks for private education, creating a massive new deportation force and pledging to maintain pensioner benefits.

"While Britain was redefining what a woman is, China was building five nuclear reactors," says Kemi Badenoch. I cannot be the only person curious about how these two things are related

Pre-Kemi speech, the Conservative Party Conference livestream just played a video which said Angela Rayner had "evaded tax". Think they might want to be a bit careful throwing that term (with it's very specific criminal meaning) around...

I wrote a personal piece last week about anti-semitism in Britain in the last two years and how it felt to be Jewish. It was repromoted today, on the anniversary of October 7, five days after an attack on a British synagogue in which two Jews were killed. This is the immediate reply.

I wrote a personal piece last week about anti-semitism in Britain in the last two years and how it felt to be Jewish. It was repromoted today, on the anniversary of October 7, five days after an attack on a British subogohir where two Jews were killed. This is the immediate reply.

Kemi Badenoch says her favourite author is Terry Pratchett. One wonders what draws her to the Discworld. The Vimes Boots theory of inequality? The celebration of diversity in Ankh Morpork? The lesson that those who claim to have the answers are not to be trusted? www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Robert Jenrick is now doing his own version of the Hugh Grant Love Actually monologue if everything that’s great about Britain. To add to those performed earlier this conference season by Ed Davey and Keir Starmer. Richard Curtis has a lot to answer for

Dispatch from Manchester: cargo cults and effigies of Margaret Thatcher www.newstatesman.com/uncategorize...

Spotted: Robert Jenrick being trailed by a herd of paparazzi-like camera crews out his event, down a flight of stairs, through a corridor and across a courtyard while deflecting questions on whether he wants to be the next Tory leader