If a Labour government just didn't spend its time using the bully pulpit to talk about what bastards foreigners are and pandering to anti-trans cranks it'd make a real difference to me. So it's relatively easy for a new leader to significantly shift my opinion. It therefore *cannot* be Wes Streeting

We thought Morgan McSweeney would be gone by now – but we have to wait while Keir Starmer asks political genius Morgan McSweeney what he thinks he should do

I hope Angela Rayner et al are using their time in opposition preparing for power productively

The UK's political order may collapse over this Epstein stuff and the US is just shrugging this shit off like it's any given Tuesday because it is now the country equivalent of the guy who goes into Walmart without a shirt on

I'm all-in Bitcoin October 5th.

The MO's were a little different but Peter Thiel showed as a billionaire you can just shut down media you don't like.

Yorkshireness is dialectical: it depends solely on how you say "bath".

Man, imagine having a prime minister with a spine

People have lost site of just how much money 15bn is. You can build 10-15 shards for that. You could build a fair sized city for that! That’s enough for 100,000 social homes.

It's almost as if making key political and cultural institutions dependent on the erratic largesse of a handful of oligarchs means that democracy dies in darkness

The Sánchez 🇪🇸 government has - built Europe's boom economy - hiked minimum wage from €736 to €1221 - cut insecure work from c.30% to c.13% - regularised, not demonised, migrants - stood up for human rights - refused to humiliate itself before Trump No wonder Musk hates it.

1. In 2009 I wrote this. I argued that Peter Mandelson's department “functions as a fifth column within government, working for corporations to undermine democracy and the public interest.” This thread explains what I saw, and reaches a startling conclusion.🧵 www.monbiot.com/2009/05/04/m...

Happy worst month of the year to all those who observe

"The Democrats are pushing reforms that they know won’t work because they are doing performative, perfunctory opposition to try to quiet their base, instead of real legislating and fighting to dismantle Trump’s ICE and CBP." newrepublic.com/article/2059...

Makes sense, like when everyone finally fell in love with U2 once Apple forced their album onto everyone’s phone.

This is absolutely shocking. Something has to be done about this appalling situation in which so many now find themselves. The government needs to act

RTE weather updates on the radio just now warning of more localised flooding in Dublin and the South East "depending on how quickly the forecast rain falls".

Ossoff: "This is a seismic event. This should have people across the country absolutely shook. This is a huge deal. This is an FBI raid on the Fulton County Elections office ... This is a shot across the bow at the midterm elections. He tried to steal power when he lost it in 2020."

Everything we do, say, or give our consent - carries our name and reveals our face. We can't say "the ends justify the means" without also becoming the means. Whether kindness or suffering, love or hate, we are what we pour into the world. Our actions are our only belongings.

Excellent article

Hello, I have a new book out in the spring with Picador and I would love it if you could help me spread the word. IF WE TOLERATE THIS draws on years of work, to help readers understand why British politics is hurtling rightwards and what to do about it. Pre-orders: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/if-w...

Calling transphobia a 'gateway drug' to the far right undersells it. It's pure accelerant. Grimly fascinating to guess what crankery becomes any famous transphobe's secondary obsession, cos they all have one: 15 minute cities are fascism! Grok noncing is cool! ICE are good! We should kill all dogs!

Portugal and Spain are looking at tremendous precipitation from an onslaught of atmospheric rivers over the next 14-days. Flooding will certainly be a very real threat if these numbers materialize.

This is one of the biggest stories in America, comparable in scale to what’s happening in Minnesota. The largest social media platform is transferred to Trump’s allies and immediately forbids you from saying anything bad about him. Absolutely totalitarian in nature. No different than China.

One of the best things I’ve read in a while:

"As many as 30,000 people could have been killed in the streets of Iran on Jan. 8 and 9 alone, two senior officials of the country’s Ministry of Health told TIME—indicating a dramatic surge in the death toll." time.com/7357635/more...

Really hard to look at this and all the other examples of bravery and kindness from ordinary people in this moment not think also of the tremendous cowardice exhibited over the past year by some of the richest, most well-protected people in business, media and politics

A reminder to the news media: “conflicting accounts” is what you say BEFORE the incontrovertible video evidence appears. After that, your job is to ask why one side is lying, not to repeat the lie and pretend no one knows the truth.

Am beyond furious at the BBC bothsiding the latest murder on American streets. There isn't a "war of words" or "finger pointing". Watch the fxxxing videos. One side is fxxxing lying. This is shameful

workshopping a new take that the problem isn't that George, 27, is overtaxed, but that greg, 67, is undertaxed. lotta problems with Britain solved if boomers also pay 51% marginal tax at £50k

The task for political leadership now is not just to tell the truth, but to make people care about what is true and what is not.

They know what they say is untrue, they do not care it is untrue. The media know that what they repeat is untrue, they do not care it is untrue. Their supporters know what they are told is untrue, they do not care it is untrue. Telling the truth is not enough, unless people care about the truth.

Please share. 💔

This random online comment from 2018 remains one of the last half-century's most important works of political commentary. crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/l...

Do you honestly think people in the civil rights movement and other nonviolent movements faced no violence themselves? They practiced nonviolence because it works, because the oppressor wants a shooting war, which is the war it will win

the 45,000 gun deaths we suffer each year are just the price we pay to live in a society made safe from government tyranny by an armed populace

You're watching BBC Scotland.

🧵 @jburnmurdoch.ft.com is spot on about the conditions in his FT piece. Liberal democracy held it together thanks to growth, good demographics, and the promise of a better future. Those days are gone, and that’s the "why" behind the erosion. However...

Have just subscribed to this AI/jobs newsletter and it's excellent The AI Shift: What millions of job ads reveal about AI displacement - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @sarahoconnorft.ft.com @jburnmurdoch.ft.com

Last term I tried an experiment: I walked into my Tech and Design Ethics class, admitted that I had *no idea* what to do about ChatGPT - so I would let them figure it out. As in: their first project was to decide and write the ChatGPT policy for the class. Here's what happened:

L.A. Metro, the main transit operator for Los Angeles, just voted to oppose SB 79, a law legalizing the construction of housing near stations. You can't make this stuff up. Legislators should remember this the next time they come to Sacramento begging for more money. laist.com/news/housing...

The elites and institutions have folded but regular people haven’t

Just how bad was the 11th best film of 2025? I ask because "F1" is among the 10 Oscar nominations for Best Picture.

Odd ranking left to right that puts *this* Labour party to the progressive left of the Liberal Democrats.

Professor Jamie Spangler has been awarded the 2025 President’s Frontier Award for her groundbreaking work in molecular immunoengineering. Her pioneering research is shaping the future of therapies for cancer, autoimmune diseases, and more. https://bit.ly/4pMVsfo

Some Europeans will be reassured by this, and wind down the (cautious) assertiveness of recent days. But it shows that displays of European resolve move Trump in ways that the misguided sycophancy of previous 12 months never did. It's a reason to press forward, not pull back.

The AI miracle is all well and good, but I'm not sure it's enough to offset the productivity hit from being glued to a live feed of the end of Western civilisation.

Mark Carney gave the best speech at Davos by far. He understands the situation with clarity while others prevaricate, appease, and send late-night “Dear Donald” texts or call him “daddy.”

In a speech to the World Economic Forum, Mark Carney says middle powers such as Canada must accept that the rules-based international order is effectively dead, and great power rivalry with is here to stay. Key excerpt: