Set myself a tricky writing challenge with the opening lines for tomorrow's The Week in Polls. Sign up here to see if I managed to meet it: theweekinpolls.substack.com

Green councillor Manu Singh joins the Lib Dems

I think "the prime minister's allies" may have missed that the way to help the PM is to float sensible ideas, not risible ones.

Magic, at the Twist Museum.

Simpler times.

Three council by-elections this week

Capita, the Cabinet Office and the civil service pensions fiasco

A Reform UK cabinet member in charge of purging Kent County Council (KCC) of waste and inefficiency has resigned

A double-dose of former Labour Mayors voting Lib Dem

so a month ago I was reading @markpackuk.bsky.social’s speech on Twitter in the lords and there were obviously fake stats the government used to justify Twitter’s UK reach and its continued importance to British audiences Rob has now found the source of the data was… Twitter

Howard Sykes retiring as a councillor

Capita, the Cabinet Office and the civil service pensions fiasco

Davey clashes with Starmer over Mandelson-Epstein Links

My back-up cattle-grid plan: if I can't loosen the grip of Whitehall, perhaps I can at least get Hansard standardised.

This is spot on. The absence so far of a consistent, coherent policy agenda that is understood and followed across government is not the fault of a staffer, and won't be fixed by sacking a staffer.

Updated, yet again

It’s the Fifth of February!

Never been to #LDConf? Now's your chance! Reduced rate of £35 for a weekend of jam packed action in York, 13-15 March! Meet fellow @libdems.org.uk, MPs & peers, plus loads of training and specialist talks, a packed auditorium programme AND special first timers' itinerary! What're you waiting for?

A reminder of the limitations of data about which news story people have paid the most attention to: plenty of attention gets paid to other stories too. From the paid-for bonus section of the latest The Week in Polls: buff.ly/2qeegDu

Cost of UK’s drug price with US will come out of NHS budget

Breaking: the head of DOGE in Kent has resigned. My impression of Matthew was that he was a decent man leading a fundamentally ill-conceived project.

New logo application with the Electoral Commission.

Lib Dems call for national inquiry into Epstein’s links with Mandelson

Reality 1 - 0 Reform UK

Great titbit exposing the latest in non-devolution: bsky.app/profile/mark...

Big Cow has clearly scared off Whitehall...

Labour u-turns on devolving powers over cattle-grids: even on such a small issue, the grip of Whitehall is intense lordseyeview.substack.com/p/labour-u-t...

The steady slip in his rating with most pollsters has gone largely unnoticed so far.

Britain Doesn’t Need Trump's Politics | Ed Davey

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey: 'I ain't going to surrender to Elon Musk'

It's time now for the Government to put forward legislation to strip Peter Mandelson of his peerage. It's the very least they can do for the victims and survivors of his friend Jeffrey Epstein. If Mandelson has any shame left, he'll retire from the House of Lords today.

Lord Wallace of Tankerness obituary

The latest Scottish and Welsh election polling buff.ly/2qeegDu

Catching up on some of the media coverage of the Assisted Dying Bill and it's striking how little coverage is able to get beyond 'some people say good scrutiny is happening, other people say it is filibustering', i.e. I've yet to find a political journalist who is into the detail enough to...

More reassuring electoral news from the US.

Grok is almost poetic.

James is, I think, right - but even on that premise, it's still a poor newsletter for the PM as it's so dull. If this was the debut of a newspaper columnist we wouldn't be rushing to say 'they're a new must-read'. Surely the PM can find - and empower - a high-quality writer to do better for him?

An update on how the candidate vetting system Nigel Farage boasted about is going.

Lovely to be out canvassing in Watford this morning. Though a little confused by the road that went from no.18 to a house right next door with no gap, no.50!

Could it be you? New vacancy listed on Lib Dem website: City & Financial Services Engagement Lead – Lib Dem City eXchange

Jackie Pearcey selected by Lib Dems for Gorton and Denton

I wonder how many by-election leaflets will be graced by this quote from someone who is now a prominent Reform member?

Coming soon: Political Fictions, a new podcast

It is worth much more than just one more plug Rob!

Pressure grows on ministers to end secrecy over UK medicines deal with Trump

Quick KPI check-in for Kemi Badenoch's "the Conservative party has moved to the right every day since I became leader” strategy.

Debuting a new rule of thumb for Sunday's The Week in Polls. Sign up for it at buff.ly/OQM67Pp

This is... an interesting pair of requested new logos for a political party.

This is just glorious. And I say that as someone who has never been to a Farmer J, is normally bored by eatery reviews and tends to be put off by long rants. But this: oh my. normallondonbloke.substack.com/p/mind-the-r...

Nigel Farage opens investigation into Reform candidate over 'racist' and 'sickening' social media posts | LBC