We better hope that this emerging consensus on Burnham doesn't turn out to be correct because UK politics needs the change that was promised and not delivered.

"...the shocks caused by Trump and Elon Musk’s attack on the USAID development agency receive nothing like the coverage they deserve."📌

The defence of Big Tech and of fake news require the hungry and sick to suffer in Africa and the far-right to prosper in Europe – piece from me on the paranoid fantasies of Musk and Trump

Nick is always worth reading and his sub stack is worth every penny.

The defence of Big Tech and of fake news require the hungry and sick to suffer in Africa and the far-right to prosper in Europe – piece from me on the paranoid fantasies of Musk and Trump

The same arguments Trump and Musk used to destroy help for the world’s poor will be used to attack liberal democracy in Europe Piece from me on how the rich world isn’t exempt

The same arguments Trump and Musk used to destroy help for the world’s poor will be used to attack liberal democracy in Europe Piece from me on how the rich world isn’t exempt

In other news: The defence secretary, John Healey, has urged Nigel Farage to provide transparency about the £5m gift he received from a billionaire businessman, in particular over whether any of the sum could have been linked to Russia-connected profits. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Feels like a good time to reup this

"The radical right devours moderate conservatism" Allegedly “respectable” conservatives embrace extremists. How the Makerfield by-election is another step in the funeral march of the moderate centre right. Piece from me

Brexit increasingly resembles a form of necropolitics through which the will of the living is outweighed by the will of the dead

The biological is political @nickcohen.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/nickcohe...

What hope is there for the belief in the power of rational argument to persuade now that neurologists can scan the brains of teenagers and decide whether they will be progressive or conservative? Interview with author Turi Munthe and long read from me

The truth about Israel’s torture of Palestinians is bad enough. No one needs to double down on dubious claims Piece from me on playing into the hands of your enemies

The truth about Israel’s torture of Palestinians is bad enough. No one needs to double down on dubious claims Piece from me on playing into the hands of your enemies

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! David gets 5 perspectives on the deeper causes behind the current crisis: historians @robertsaunders.bsky.social, Anthony Seldon and @dmk1793.bsky.social, @drhannahwhite.bsky.social from the IfG and political scientist @robfordmancs.bsky.social. Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

Honestly, when I was young I was prepared to believe a lot of things about the future, but I never expected it to be so stupid.

I think the best way to enjoy this list, which contains lots of predictable choices (made as it was by committee), is to find a book you like, click to see who voted for it, and then look at the voters' other top 10 choices. You might find something else you like that you haven't read.

Trump's capitulation on Taiwan has been explicit and striking. Has any of the China hawks who've justified support for or acquiescence to Trump because "he'll be tough on China" reconsidered? Has any acknowledged they were wrong? Feel free to offer names of those who have or haven't in the replies.

We are in a world where neuroscientists can say whether you will be left or right-wing, conservative or liberal, simply by scanning your brain. Piece from me on whether our ideas of democracy and rational argument can survive nickcohen.substack.com/p/how-neuros...

Alien v Predator news www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

Maybe the government should do something about corrupt foreign influence in British politics?

Not just is Burnham particularly popular among Labour voters, but in the North West as a whole his favourability ratings are 51% to 29%. Not just net positive, but clearly so. Very rare.

This is well worth reading. 👇

Your must read article of the day? The year?

You will miss Keir Starmer when he’s gone. Piece from me on how he was the perfect scapegoat for a dishonest nation spectator.com/article/youl...

'The dark secret of so much of Britain is that it wants change in theory but hates it in practice...

I have a creeping sense of dread that this might be correct. #Starmer

You will miss Keir Starmer when he’s gone. Piece from me on how he was the perfect scapegoat for a dishonest nation spectator.com/article/youl...

Glad to contribute to this piece on fixing the tax cliffs that punish workers, carers, families and small businesses. Progressive tax can be good for growth and help us create thriving workforces, high streets and communities.

Extremely proud to have edited this special issue of Renewal, in which @louisehaighmp.bsky.social, @yuanfenyang.bsky.social and the Tribune Group of MPs make a major set of interventions into Labour's economic debate

Is Labour finished? With Keir Starmer suffering an epic defeat, with the radical right, Scottish and Welsh nationalists and Greens hammering the government from all directions, we have a Lowdown special with Rafael Behr of the Guardian on the crisis on the centre-left

Senior Labour source says: "People are being held back to allow the cabinet to give him the opportunity to go gracefully, but if that doesn’t work there will be resignations. “He’ll no doubt try and hang on and avoid the inevitable but it’s done.” www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/keir-s...

In other news UK news shows continue to fail to call out bull**** like this from Nigel Farage and Reform

Great discussion between two of my favourite commentators and columnists @nickcohen.bsky.social and @rafaelbehr.bsky.social

"For Europe, Greenland was traumatic, and Europe was different after the Greenland crisis than before...I think Greenland was like, 'Oh, the United States actually is not only no longer not our friend. It could be a potential foe.'” youtu.be/8kwkymptOr4?...

It's very hard to say who the typical Labour voter is anymore. Graduate leftists and Muslim voters have gone Green. The white working class has gone Reform. Unless Labour can say who it is for, it is finished

Hating the voters you have for not being the voters you want seems a theme in UK politics. Labour in its current form will struggle to prevent voters from defecting to the Greens as long as too many in the party seem prone to bourgeois self-loathing projected on to much of its post-2000 base.

Is Labour finished? With Keir Starmer suffering an epic defeat, with the radical right, Scottish and Welsh nationalists and Greens hammering the government from all directions, we have a Lowdown special with Rafael Behr of the Guardian on the crisis on the centre-left

"Britain needs a bulldozing government". Sigh. Genuinely impressive to write 1500 words on why UK needs growth (no shit..) and not mention EU/Brexit or immigration... www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

This is an excellent piece. Patrick writes with modesty and accepts that other pollsters may come to different conclusions, but from all the LE2026 data, it's very clear we've lost more Labour votes to the Greens than Reform. Must read for all of us who want to rebuild a winning Labour coalition.

Completely unacceptable from the Board of Deputies. This nakedly partisan hypocrisy does not represent me or many other British Jews. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Despairing Britain retreats into a land of make-believe In a country that has been failing since 2008 most voters would rather embrace desperate fantasies than status- quo parties that deliver so little

Important data point here: “A sharp fall in Labour's performance is accompanied more often by an above average Green performance than it is by a strong Reform performance”. The Greens have already hurt Labour even before any direct gains.

The possibility of changing the pilot mid-flight is literally why you have two pilots.

Sen. Mark Kelly: "If you say something that the president or this administration does not like, they're going to come after you. The president is trying to silence us, and I can't think of anything that's more un-American."

Art in the age of autocracy – How scandals breaking out from Washington to Venice show that we are in a world where bully leaders can demand that artists serve their power