What a result! And to make it even more enjoyable, the Tories lost their deposit. Great start to the day.

Thank god. A great win for Hannah Spencer and the Greens, for #GortonAndDenton and for progressive voters. Made even greater by the huge Reform sulk. And the fact that the hateful Goodwin got whooped. Now Labour, look to your left because you will not win from the right. We’re sick of that failure.

🫣🤮

Celandine sunshine. Meteorological spring begins tomorrow. Lesser celandines along the hedge banks. Mirror-like petals reflect sunlight, drawing in pollinators. They close as light fades, keeping the sun folded inside. Loved by Wordsworth — and me!Small heralds. The hedge banks answer the light.

I did a bbc radio interview years ago and got the "sneer" treatment (me, a nobody, in what had no reason to be a combative interview) and it taught me to listen for it and who gets it and who doesn’t

Absolutely so. It's become a properly nasty organisation with an agenda that is increasingly conspicuously about moving Britain further and further to the Right.

Listen from 1h 35m 20 seconds in as Nick Robinson goes for Zack Polanski and then strokes David Bull's belly. Seriously, have a listen and see if you think it's what neutrality sounds like.

Successive interviews by Nick Robinson this morning perfectly sum up the BBC: with Zack Polanski: sneering, aggressive, constantly interrupting. with David Bull, Reform's Chairman: polite, nodding along, barely any interruptions. Amazing. Will share the link when it's up so you can listen too.

"Your attack on Iran is working. No one is talking about you raping children."

Sums up Trump nicely.

Netanyahu and his puppet on duty, Trump, are the biggest terrorists of planet Earth

Only one in five Americans supported an attack on Iran. But Trump did it anyways.

Remember when Congress authorized the use of force against Iran? Me neither. Any U.S. attack on Iran would violate U.S. and international law.

Today’s worrying signals regarding the Jeffrey Epstein Memorial War on Iran: - France, UK, Germany, China, US, Kazakhstan issue travel warnings/embassy evacuations in Israel, Lebanon, Iraq and/or Iran - Turkish Airlines/KLM cancelling flights to Iran/Israel - Shelters opening all over Israel

A few more thoughts. USFP/natsec usually works from bottom up, even for prez-directed policies. Bureaucrats, mid-levels, political appointees work the problem, then top people bless it. Diplomacy (JCPOA) works like this. Military planning can move faster w/ prior plans, but similar. 1/

Netanyahu Calls Iran Strikes Necessary To Prevent War He Just Started

Essential read.

@jago2012.bsky.social Probably a fair result (wasn’t at home to hear all of 2nd half); here’s a match report (Vale‘s own match report isn’t up yet):- www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/sport/nation...

Dunno if he's still there, but for many years a fella in Hunstanton used to go to the bottom of the cliffs every morning and place the rocks into ever-expanding colour-coordinated piles, like some sort of cliff pixie. I've seen him do it, he's very dedicated.

If you liked this experiment, I published a full piece today in the same vein: a text that gets 100 years older with every section, from a modern blog post to a medieval chronicle. It's a single story spanning 1000 years of English. See how far you get. www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-ba...

Written English has barely changed in 300 years. If you can read Harry Potter, you can read Robinson Crusoe (1719).

Saying you want to "restore Britain's Christian heritage" at the same time as committing to deport all the people most likely to actually attend British churches is quite something

Given than Farage admires everything Trump does — climate change denial, vaccine scepticism, DOGE data theft, ICE repression — don’t be surprised to see Reform trying out some voter suppression

It's bonkers. Imagine the power of a true progressive coalition, including the indy parties, and Labour are going 'no, fuck off, we're doing this on our own. Badly.' I'm sure there's a phrase about noses and faces.

Starmer calling the Greens “extreme” is striking when you read the document that won him the Labour leadership in 2020. Many of today’s Green policies are simply… what Starmer himself promised. 1/3 @mrjamesob.bsky.social @lbc.co.uk #lbc

Voters in Gorton and Denton can take a FREE personality test today. Simply go into a polling booth and if you find yourself voting for Matt Goodwin, you'll know you're a twat.

How many people will die because some wealthy men wanted to have sex with underage girls?

Reform FC Away Record L Gorton & Denton L Caerphilly L Hamilton

Trump punched a 12 year old in the face because she didn't know how to give him a good blowjob as he was raping her.

Here’s my takeaway from the State of the Union: NPR reports that the DOJ has “withheld” documents that include allegations that Donald “sexually abused a minor.”

It was the tiny and ancient (1993) Tapper-class patrol boat HMS RAPP that identified and electronically neutralized the Russian drone threat against French carrier CHARLES DE GAULLE a few days ago. This indicates Swedish navy have come quite far in equipping their units for a modern drone threats.

Well, colour me shocked.

I agree with this post. I wish Labour would stop chasing the Reform vote and focus on delivering improvements to people's social and health needs. There are may issues on which we need to make change.

As the analysis starts of the Gorton and Denton result, I wanted to flag some aspects that my experience yesterday suggests are being over or under-played (Caveats - I went to Longsight, Gorton and Denton town centres and spoke to as many people as I could, but it was mostly during the working day)

I don't think this election tells us that he is. It's a warning shot to gov. The Greens won't win a GE. This is why Labour would do well not to alienate Green voters, it won't win alone a majority on not Tory/Reform again. I want a Labour gov with a good sprinkling of Green MPs.

Epic Fail rather than Epic Fury judging previous foreign policy disasters

They might as well call it Operation Tiny Penis. Pathetic.

I'd rather have unrealistic admirable Greens in parliament as a check and balance on Labour than unrealistic nasty Reform - they're the dangerous ones Labour need to focus on. Polanski finally grabs headlines from Reform's performative cruelty instead of learning, Labour comes across snide & bitter

Other work by the Ladybird artists ‘Nuthatch’ Artist: CF Tunnicliffe

‘Forsythia, Chionadoxa, Hellebore, Crocus’ (Garden Flowers, 1960) Artist: John Leigh-Pemberton

Other work by the Ladybird artists ‘February’ Shell Guide Artist: SR Badmin

Other work by the Ladybird artists ‘Curlews And Turnstones’ Artist: CF Tunnicliffe

Beautiful everyday Ladybird things. Skipping rope (4th Picture Book, 1971) Artist: Harry Wingfield

Old Ladybird Books updated (1976). Oops. When you find out a bit late that their helmets didn’t have horns Artist: Roger Hall

Ladybird books in the spotlight. Crochet, Knitting, Sewing (1972-5) Artist: Eric Winter

Here’s a key to the trickiest bit: “I think-k kit = it wise = is one of yawn = yaw = your vest =best