Summer sunset cat

And now for something completely different! A four-way marriage that helped propel the cause of women's suffrage! Sisters-in-law writing angry letter to prime ministers! A subplot involving psychics and illegitimate children! "Intimate female friendship"! www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...

I mean, technically Christianity is a foreign import and truly indigenous Brits would be pagans...

Find out: * How student loans were marketed to teenagers * How the interest and repayment terms were(n't) explained * The impact this is having on young people's lives * The implications for generational fairness and economic stability * What Meg thinks of Tony Blair www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzaH...

Good news story for Friday! The London penguins, housed in a tiny basement enclosure with no light just opposite parliament, will be moving to a proper enclosure in Birmingham, and the breeding programme is being phased out. I went to meet them last year www.newstatesman.com/culture/natu...

Totally normal Thursday evening, just my husband measuring the cat so he can tell her how long she is

"The emphasis put on the defendants’ lives not being completely derailed by their actions has ignored the derailing on the other side of the ledger. And only one side got any choice about what happened." On the Hampshire rape case and sexual violence www.newstatesman.com/comment/2026...

Ahem!

"The emphasis put on the defendants’ lives not being completely derailed by their actions has ignored the derailing on the other side of the ledger. And only one side got any choice about what happened." On the Hampshire rape case and sexual violence www.newstatesman.com/comment/2026...

Lots of Today prog focus on young grads failing to get their first jobs, which is of course a problem - but here's the real Neet story, about the majority who are not only not working, but are now not applying to:

52,000 responses to the Treasury Committee's student finance survey! What did they say? I spoke to chair Meg Hillier to find out - with bonus chat on why it wasn't *technically* "mis-selling" but only because it was the government doing the selling (yes, really) www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzaH...

I have lost my cat and gained a puddle

Even if you don’t find podcasts with me in suitably stimulating (what’s wrong with you), you should listen to this one just for the title

Watch this !!!!!!!

52,000 responses to the Treasury Committee's student finance survey! What did they say? I spoke to chair Meg Hillier to find out - with bonus chat on why it wasn't *technically* "mis-selling" but only because it was the government doing the selling (yes, really) www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzaH...

Obsessed with these slides the DfE sent out to schools in 2019 to “inform” teenagers about how student loan repayments work. Published alongside the Treasury Committee’s survey results in which 2/3 of graduate responses say they didn’t fully understand the terms You can see their point…

Firefighters tackle blaze at Kosher Kingdom in Golders Green www.jewishnews.co.uk/firefighters... Awful news..

"A system designed to produce clear results between two parties is buckling in the new electoral landscape, with so many colours that the map resembles Elmer the Patchwork Elephant." @rmcunliffe.bsky.social

“Imagine, for a moment, those words on the gender debate or immigration or the EU spoken not in a rousing Scouse accent, but in nasal and slightly robotic Surrey drawl. Would you be able tell them apart from lines delivered by Keir Starmer? Are you sure?” www.newstatesman.com/politics/lab...

THIS. We are so bad - we see 33 degrees and go “well, 25 degrees is nice and we get those days so rarely, 33 must be 8 degrees nicer!” Then we go to the beach/park/OUTSIDE and scald ourselves on reality Alternatively: stay home, cold showers, spray the kids with the hose in the garden, BE MORE CAT

Has anyone actually done the thing where you make up water with a stock cube and then freeze it to make cat ice lollies? Is it too salty for them or actually a good idea? From someone whose cat refuses to drink water and has just melted into a cat puddle

“If we can easily picture an example of something – people in lifejackets crowded on to small dinghies, say – our brains have a habit of overstating its likelihood” On immigration, public misconceptions, behavioural science, and why politics gets this wrong www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

british fan chat

The answer is of course zero Thank you all for playing!

Fun Friday quiz! How many times is "Manchesterism" mentioned in Head North, Andy Burnham's 2024 memoir-cum-manifesto co-written with Steve Rotheram?

Fun Friday quiz! How many times is "Manchesterism" mentioned in Head North, Andy Burnham's 2024 memoir-cum-manifesto co-written with Steve Rotheram?

In all the locals analysis, you might have missed the fact that in two councils, the party which won the most votes failed to win the most seats. And 13% of votes went to parties who won no seats on their council. Welcome to British democracy, boardgame edition www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

It is *incredibly* shabby that the Green Party cited "family and personal reasons" for their Makerfield candidate dropping out, given it was actually in relation to sharing antisemitic posts. Had a right-wing party done the same, they'd be getting called out loudly here for it. And rightly so.

Oooh, Andy Burnham hinting at electoral reform, you say? Like I predicted in my New Statesman column this week? "Might a new Labour leader take a new approach to a question that has divided the wider party from the parliamentary front bench for years?" www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

"The resentment directed towards Cooper isn’t because she sold one version of womanhood while living another; it’s because she lived the kind of autonomous life feminists fought for, and it’s going great" Very much enjoyed this by @jillfilipovic.bsky.social www.newstatesman.com/world/americ...

This is literally the Lib Dem strategy (for now)

Best Andy Burnahm analysis of the day goes to @hugorifkind.bsky.social, who points out that everyone is getting the Game of Thrones reference wrong - it's King IN the North, not of the North. Although going down that train of thought reminds of just what happened to the King(s) in the North

FPTP is like The One Ring of politics in the UK. They know they need to destroy it, but once it's in their hands they think "Why shouldn't we keep it? We can use it for good!" and then everything goes dead-Boromir-shaped

Like Josh Simons's parliamentary career, Labour Together is no more! @alisonjourno.bsky.social, ex Mirror editor and CEO of the newly rebranded Think Labour, lays out the role for the controversial think tank - and for Labour itself - in these turbulent times www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3-b...

People who would not in a million years ever suggest someone speaking Arabic was grounds to attack them - who would rightly think anyone arguing that was horrifyingly racist - seem to have a blindspot when a Jewish man in a Jewish area is beaten up by a masked gang for speaking Hebrew

Stellar reporting

In other news, I really needed to read this by @naomialderman.bsky.social today

“Don’t listen to the cat, she has actually already been fed” “I know, I can tell when she’s lying” “…how?” “I don’t know, there’s a different timbre to her meowing”

KITTENS ON THE PICCADILLY LINE

In other news, I have written in defence of early morning airport drinking! Not because I enjoy it (beer at 6am? No thank you!) but because of what the whole sorry debate teaches us about how regulation gets made and its unintended consequences www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

On the UK entry, not be cruel to Sam Battle but what were we thinking? Why do we keep trying to be clever and edgy, and miss the point every bloody year? Why do we never send anything you can actually dance to? Genuinely think we should send a folk duo and Morris dancers and just see what happens

Top five: 1. Finland. BRING a violin. Flaming duet of passion, should have won 2. Poland. Hozier gospel with kabuki backing dancers. What a voice 3. France. Drama, opera, ooh-la-la! 4. Australia. Retro Eurovision, a glittery piano salvages all 5. Romania. Operatic BDSM, extra points for boots

Eurovision in a nutshell

Well that was tense! Still think Finland should have won, but hats off to Bulgaria for that epic banger. See you in Sofia!

Only just got to this excellent piece. The ban is both objectionable on democratic grounds and unenforceable. ‘Sending a signal’ is not a justification. We have all known what tobacco does for decades.

"The peppered moth evolved darker colouring to better camouflage in the sooty landscape of post Industrial Revolution Britain – then started reverting to its lighter form as clean air legislation reduced pollution" Stay with me here - this is about Wes Streeting www.newstatesman.com/politics/lab...

After a hectic few days, a look at the runners and riders so far.

I think this maybe the most niché bit of trivia I’ve ever heard.

CAPTION CONTEST

"I thought it'd all take a bit longer to fall apart and that I'd be in prime position when it did, this escalated timescale means I need to break the promise I made to my constituents two years ago and pressure a sitting MP to move over for me, prompting two by-elections we might lose. That cool?"