think this is good, a narrowly split executive body just results in stagnation via infighting www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/150...

Theon Greyjoy rallying his men for a last stand at Winterfell before getting knocked out vibes

How is a short set of social media exchanges with a backbench MP worthy of an online article in Times Higher Education, slow news day?

Just a shadow sos incorrectly describing government policy as Labour legislating to allow secondary action... 'restrictions on secondary action (when an unaffected group of workers joins a picket to support another, taking out entire swaths of the economy) have been pared back.'

I would like to know which other governments have regular day drinking? Are we unique in UK?

I’d be interested to see if all the MPs’ staff who have been sexually harassed/assaulted by their sloshed bosses subscribe to the ‘let them drink’ mantra.

London Labour getting a kicking would be well and truly deserved

When slavery was abolished in Jamaica in 1834, the following Irish surnames were present in the long list of compensated slave-owners: Barry, Bourke, Boyle, Brady, Brennan, Broderick, Buckley, Burke, Byrne, Carey, Carroll, Codd, Coleman, Collins, Conway, Corbett, Costello, Cowan, Creighton, Crowley

Paging the ghost of Ramsay MacDonald to lead a government of national unity!

As if the soft left exists as a unified and coherent entity

If only the new legislation enabled employers and trade unions to negotiate opt out agreements of guaranteed hours to suit the workforce and business, oh wait

Any body reporting this sort of stuff should be saying to the MPs in question ‘numbers or gtfo’

www.itv.com/news/2026-04... Seems a bit of a mess

not a million miles away from Gove's 'island story' tbf, wonder how many who supported that will criticise this www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Could be worse tbh

3 Interesting write-up of the report from @patrickjbutler.bsky.social ain @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/education/20...

This -- a report on Relief Works from County May in February 1847, the very depths of the Famine -- deserves notice.

Lots of discussion of my article from January on trade union voting in internal elections in here: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/04...

The most Telegraph headline possible?

Dr Who fan, what would be your handful of serials from the classic show that you would show to someone who had watched a lot the modern series but none from the original?

A post will please the Labour righ and the Labour left, and annoy a lot of Bluesky. Man doesn’t miss.

Ed Miliband being mentioned seriously as a candidate for PM, Francois Hollande running for President again. The piss weak social democrats of 2012 are back and they're turning up the volume!

Running a little late due to travel - here's Daniel and Dharnish with the post-Chelsea pod. Nearly back in the CL, folks! Audio -> linktr.ee/nqatpod

NEW: More than 160,000 private renters on low incomes face rent shortfalls worth up to hundreds or even thousands of pounds a year due to Labour’s housing benefit cuts Greater Manchester and the West Midlands are particularly badly hit By me, for the Big Issue: www.bigissue.com/news/housing...

There's rarely a *good* time to hold a leadership contest if the contest is due to the incumbent's failings, as those failings can be related to why the timing is bad (perhaps only tangentially on this occasion) And there's never a good time to keep a PM who's actively bad at the job, as Starmer is

Always found it interesting how the Labour right in particular are keen to have massive love-ins with gambling.

Adorable www.ft.com/content/2310...

And there are still some in Britain who thinks the UK union movement has things to learn from its US counter-part; and grifters who will try to sell this. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Are you a historian of the 1926 General Strike? If so, we need your help updating the strike's bibliography to mark its centenary. sslh.org.uk/2026/04/02/h...

Nah. Also, nice to know the author feels inadequate enough they got the Oxbridge masters to put after their name (and it’s in classical archaeology which is one of the back door courses). www.cityam.com/labour-will-...

My book on the history of British South Asian political activism is available for pre-order now. www.waterstones.com/book/come-wh...

I don't know that I agree with this, I think his Batman run is pretty good, but the fewer constraints DC gave him (see Justice League, Dark Knights Death Metal) was when he really lost me. I quite like American Vampire but he just isn't on the level of Tynion IV, Ewing, or Kelly Thompson

I see we're at the 'hastily reaching for emergency measures/legislation' part of a Labour government faces a national dispute. See also strikes by dockers and power workers 45-51, seaman strike 1966, and firefighters in 2002.

So disingenuous, 'especially difficult to understand for businesses whose workforce is already represented by a union yet would still be required to grant access to other unions' Government response to the consultation literally says CAC can refuse access request if a union's already recognised

A movie couple who would definitely have a podcast top left: girl power self help top right: true crime bottom left: horseshoe brocialism bottom right: "just asking questions"

Most important? Nah.

I’m fairly ambivalent on the doctors’ strike, but it has really shown how little this place gets this dispute or industrial relations

The last time either of the unions representing nurses tried to win the legal mandate to call industrial action on a large scale, they failed. Big talk.

Wilfully disingenuous and/or myopically stupid from the government source. Fewer training places now means fewer future consultants, and the need for consultants is shown by how many are working in some capacity past retirement age (at great expense to the nhs) www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

The analysis in this is woeful, but some details in it are interesting (at least for understanding how much Greens don't get it) novaramedia.com/2026/04/06/c...

New rights at work take effect today, including extending sick pay to the first day of illness, and paternity leave entitlement from the first day of employment. All thanks to Labour's Employment Rights Act. The Tories and Reform would scrap it.

As this article says, there have been so many inquiries and investigations and recommendations and yet- here we (still) are

Zzzzz, framing a bit unnecessary and didn’t really help the piece

They’re not mutually exclusive, in fairness

Morning Star coming out in favour of wage consciousness morningstaronline.co.uk/article/why-...

What even is this piece? Just seems like professional envy from people working at UNISON and the RCN www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I’m so Labour brained that I think this man looks like Luke Akehurst