Weird to think that this meme, being eagerly devoured & recycled by Team Trump, was given to him not by a political consultancy or an enthusiastic MAGA supporter, but by the Secretary General of NATO.

Excellent write up of our ‘New Labour Years’ class with @stewartwood.bsky.social in @rentouljohn.bsky.social Commons Confidential newsletter Apply to join @strandgroup.bsky.social MA Government Studies 2025/26 cohort👇 www.kcl.ac.uk/study/postgr... @policyatkings.bsky.social

My analysis of the politics, choices, trade-offs, winners, losers & silences of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Spending Review. Labour’s most social democratic moment in many ways, but all perched on a very high & very long fiscal tightrope. bradshawadvisory.com/insights/unb...

"For the first time a majority of supporters of all parties favour electoral reform: (55% Labour, 52% Conservatives, 56% Liberal Democrats, 90% Greens & 78% Reform)" One consequence of the decline of class voting: the rise of support for electoral reform. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

A pre-Spring Statement reminder that the OBR estimates that the cumulative cost of freezing fuel duty rates between 2010/11 & 2025/26 stands at about £100 billion - equivalent to about 2.5% of the UK’s GDP. That’s big bananas.

In the 2024 Presidential election, voters trusted Democrats on the main issues that the Democrat campaign majored on. The problem is they were all issues that the voters cared less about. From an interview with @davidshor.bsky.social of Democrat firm Blue Rose Research www.msn.com/en-us/politi...

Delighted to tell you that there is an extract from John & Paul in today's Sunday Times magazine. It's FREE TO READ online today because the paywall is down. Get in. www.thetimes.com/culture/musi...

The bulk of savings to the welfare bill is being sought from reducing a non-work-related benefit (PIP). The Government’s case for these cuts therefore isn’t about reducing inactivity (that it is necessary to get more people back into work) but overwhelmingly about needing to find money.

When I worked in UK academia I recall hearing of a Japanese man who was baffled at how Britain had decided to run its universities like firms. “Why? Your universities are excellent and your firms are terrible.”

Making Whitehall more entrepreneurial sounds good to me. But for Whitehall policy disruption & innovation to work, you need a culture of ministers backing those who experiment & fail, & defending (esp costly) policy failures to voters. That is a wider & more difficult revolution.

Took the plunge into the Bluesky after seeing tweets galore from people I like & respect saying "Come follow me on Bluesky". So here I am. Hello.