A serious letter from someone who who is serious about politics and power.

I hear you’re a blairite now father.

Excl: Burnham’s northern No 10 would be the PM’s national growth unit as.ft.com/r/d3a8d635-8...

A fitting end to a failure of a government.

Amusing to see so many commentators lose their minds about Burnham before he’s even done anything. Many have been used to being able to bore nebulously about liberal metropolitan elites. Doesn’t work so well against the MP for Makerfield who anchors his politics in the north.

A bad trend since 2019 has been using the removal of the whip (and lesser sanctions) to make parliamentary scrutiny worse- if Labour MPs were not as terrified in the first 12 months fewer stupid things would have happened.

If only Jeremy Hunt could have a word with the Chancellor who cost the UK £20 billion by doing a gimmicky cut to National insurance. He should be laughed out of interviews.

Hilarious as Mike Tapp will no doubt discover what collective responsibility is! Who on earth thought it was good to appoint him in the first place?

Appointing Ed Miliband as Chancellor may or may not be a good call, but it’s worth noting that if Burnham went for someone else it would not buy him a single iota of goodwill with those lobbying against Miliband.

(while being killed) stay alert everyone this is just a trial balloon for them killing someone more important

This is key- Labour have pumped out so much messaging about removals, new agreements, ending hotels etc but it makes no difference for single issue voters who broadly hate Labour and modern social democracy. You can’t win on a hardline message of ‘reform is right, vote Labour’

Seriously good thread

The problem was that Keir did stand up to Trump but did it in such a low key quiet way that no one noticed- his entire problem is he appears to have a dimmer switch on the whole time.

Two historic heatwaves in two consecutive months, with monthly records broken in both, something not achieved since 1911 and not something achieved by such a margin either. May's record was broken by over 2ºC, and June's record is likely to go by perhaps 3ºC, extraordinary.

Quite how did we end up with European and North American politics dominated by unrealistic promises to bring back manufacturing jobs? Just a huge failure to adjust to reality on so many levels.

What happened in Makerfield? Some new constituency polling between @persuasionuk.bsky.social & Convergent (most accurate pollster in the race!), covering among other things: - Burnham assembling a coalition Lab needs nationally - 'Get Starmer out' + 'public ownership' at the centre of it. 🧵👇

Sharon said I should do a Groundnut scheme thread So, in the spirit of Mr. @garius.bsky.social of this parish, I shall embark on a short history of THE TANGANYIKA GROUNDNUT SCHEME, or the time the Attlee government tried to turn the worst land in east Africa in the world's largest peanut farm.

Nostalgia aside this is a real failure to understand our economy. The broken political economy the Labour Party oversaw in the 60s and 70s saw parts of these sectors becoming unprofitable while providing insecure work. Why do Labour MPs not read history of the party or even British history?

I am going to continue to push back on "high skill migration" even if I am the last dead ender. The UK has a much more pressing shortage of low-skill labour than high-skill labour. We have people giving up jobs as magic circle lawyers to take care of their parents.

What a lovely story this is, I had completely missed the viral original but all of it is absolutely wonderful:

NEW: John Healey quits over defence funding. Devastating letter for the government and Keir Starmer: “You have been unable and the Treasury has been unwilling to commit the resources the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats.”

Serious respect over this. It has been a huge policy failure of this Government and will be Keir’s most damning legacy along with his failures around race relations.

We must take on the hateful forces that seek to divide us. My statement on recent events in Belfast.

Last year, we shared a paper showing that Labour's accommodation of the radical right did not work. We now have a new version of the paper online: osf.io/preprints/so...

I usually enjoy Patrick Maguire’s work but found this passage odd- mostly because I assume makerfield will have people working in schools, the NHS and the council who receive public sector pensions!

I’m amazed anyone needs reminding of this, but local government spending power per person fell by 18% from 2010 to 2024 (would have been 26% but for increases in council tax). At the same time, social care pressures on local govt have grown a lot. The decay of the public realm is NOT a mystery

A really brutal letter and something that so many people in different sectors routinely say about No.10, Keir and this Government.

1. Labour needs a second term to renew this country after years of Tory failure. On the current trajectory, we won’t get there because we will lose, and Farage will win. That should be nobody’s legacy.

'summarise the failure of Labour's political strategy in one graphic'

He has no real interest in policy or politics and so Labour have no overarching direction, just a grab bag of policies. He is afraid of confrontation and so often avoids taking decisions if they are contentious leaving ministers unable to move forward.

As I said last week, I'm starting a substack focused on social affairs, public services, policymaking etc - and I'll be launching it soon I've given it the unglamorous but self-explanatory name Policy Matters. Free for now, and for a while yet I imagine Sign up here! chamindajayanetti.substack.com

“Expanding the Supreme Court is no different that redistricting in California and Virginia. It is a proportionate response to Republican attempts to degrade liberal democracy and move America toward a post-liberal order.” open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

Social media is no longer social. Most of it is passive viewing of videos and pictures from people we've never met. But we're still studying social media like it's 2010. We've entered the post-social media era — and research needs to catch up. osf.io/preprints/so... preprint w/ Richard Rogers

A really damning indictment- including from someone Keir appointed himself www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Why has no general resigned over illegal boat strikes, the operation in Venezuela, the Iran War, or an impeding operation against Cuba (apparently)? I think HR McMaster and Dereliction of Duty, a book that supposedly demands it, actually lets them off the hook, offers one explanation. My latest⬇️

Denmark's experiment with nativist social democracy results in worst electoral performance since 1903. Labour's similar experiment - modelled on the Danes - will too unless it changes course drastically. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Today's newsletter. Cheery topic!

It is the anniversary of the My Lai massacre today. I'd say that even more than most years, it's important to remember what happened. And the role Hugh Thompson, an active serviceman, played in both stopping and publicising it. Despite enormous military, political and public pressure to stay quiet.

here it is! my list of the 23 best things about Britain, according to me, Marie: youngvulgarian.substack.com/p/the-best-t...

YouGov has the Greens in second place for the first time

Yeah, having now slept on it properly, it is weird that no losing parties statement really reckons with why people might have chosen the Greens and instead they all chose to blame sectarianism. It does suggest that they still don't really recognise people who vote Green as, you know, real people.

Good analysis by Ben, my only addition is that I think psychologically Labour cannot accept that their median voter is closer to Hannah Spencer: still young, well off but still renting, female, and socially liberal than it is their desired median voter: Lee Anderson, and that is because of misogyny.

This is good; Labour have failed to work out how to talk about the Greens or the Governments own record and it is only when they lose (I suspect) at least three flagship London Labour councils that they will realise how deep the rot is

@stephenkb.bsky.social your point about what does Kemi do in recess- she clearly spends it on Twitter getting angry about renovation plans for Parliament!

What is the culture secretary doing about this?

This is a gimmick. Putting a building in Birmingham does not make a difference- the tories put a treasury campus in Darlington!

Keir Starmer is the man for the moment.

What is the point in this?