I live just down the road from this weather station, and can confirm from my own scientific observations that it was at least a gazillion degrees. And to be more sombre about this: any politics that doesn't start from the existential nature of the climate crisis is just not a serious contribution.

For the first time, the parents of five of the girls who were stabbed in the Southport attack have shared their stories. Humbled and privileged to meet them. Here is their story - a difficult read but with hope at the end. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-i...

How vulnerable children became a gold mine for investors This piece by Chris Smyth, Alan Smith and Jennifer Williams is worth your time as.ft.com/r/b1fb6cb0-4...

The Prime Minister described yesterday's migration stats as "great news". In fact, the government's current immigration strategy is both economically damaging and politicallly self-defeating. But there is a better way. Me in @prospectmagazine.co.uk www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/pol...

The Green Party candidate for Makerfield has withdrawn, the day after being selected, citing personal reasons, after apologising for social media posts describing the attack on Jewish ambulance service as a "false flag", discovered by the Times. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Stunned, appalled, shocked etc to see actual tax reform from a politician. This from Wes Streeting today. A thread on why capital gains tax is broken. It's too low AND too high. & why this is a good proposal.

I wonder if anyone run the numbers of how many members they already lost to Greens and others? This would certainly help explain why they’re happy with Mahmood- as those who were not already left?

Looking at this 2005 paper by Shaun Bowler, @davidfarrell-ucd.bsky.social and Robin Pettitt doi.org/10.1080/1368.... Back then experts preferred MMP. Would the results be the same today?

The National Conversation: a UK-wide listening initiative on community life in our country - including what unites, what divides, and what might bring people closer together. You can take part here. www.thenationalconversation.org.uk

If you want to get angry- read this thread. I’m literally shouting (as always in Neil Kinnock’s voice):a Labour government, a Labour government, pretending that immigration is not falling when it is, so they can continue with their anti-immigrant policy agenda!!

The UK media and parliament seem curiously unbothered by global events (Commons is spending its time discussing the King's Speech and Mandelson, again). Meanwhile the EU has an action plan on imminent fertiliser shortages...

There’s a massive immigration operation in Memphis right now, but you may not have heard about it. Why? Community members face retaliation for trying to spread the word out, a lawsuit alleges.

I’m off to the launch of the Pensions Commission Interim Report this morning. It sets out our analysis of the problem of inadequate savings for retirement in 2050 and beyond. PN is here, full report to follow. www.gov.uk/government/n...

think that we should rejoin the EU slowly, county by county starting from the south coast, just to see how it feels

Indeed… begging the question: WHAT IS THE POINT? Surely Labour can appreciate that there’s more to Starmer’s poor numbers than lack of personality? If you replace him with somewhat more likeable Burnham but nothing else will change Burnham will soon post poor numbers too.

Currently reading The Smartest Guys in the Room, and it is astonishing how much Secret-Enron-Shit has become not-so-secret OpenAI shit. Enron’s CFO set up his own fund so he could take both sides of Enron’s deal flow. (SCANDAL!) Sam Altman does the same thing (OH SAM, YOU RASCAL.)

The Voting Rights Act “was born of the literal blood of Union soldiers and civil rights marchers,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent. “Only [the American people] have the right to say it is no longer needed—not the members of this Court.” | TNR newrepublic.com/article/2096...

As ever a thought provoking piece from @tobysjames.bsky.social Although I must say I would prefer making access to citizenship for long term residents cheaper and easier, rather than enfranchising them without citizenship. Why? Because citizenship confers additional rights, security etc, to voting

What if unenfranchised adults could vote? If all UK residents could vote, 257 seats could have had a different outcome at the 2024 general election. By @tobysjames.bsky.social and Jamie Underwood politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/what-if...

Just received this in my inbox - interesting both for what it says and that the Mayor's office (Burnham's office) saw the need to say it. Burnham can *run* for Westminster and remain Mayor while doing it, but if he wins he has to immediately resign. That's good for Burnham & Lab prospects imho 1/2

By my count this is the seventh Reform councillor suspended after being elected just one week ago*, mostly for expressing direct support for Nazism or other forms of racism.

Must we keep holding our politicians to such impossible standards?

What is up with the scam that are ‘official’ Louvre tickets? There are so many websites claiming to be the official site, with believable web addresses … It took an actual while to figure out the real real official Louvre 🙈

The only difference: no one wants to see them naked

A great lesson from history for some areas of the UK right now- politics of exclusion hurts those who vote for them too!

My post on tactical voting at the local and devolved elections 2026: blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp... No evidence of effective anti-Reform tactical switching by the left, so 50% of Reform gains were in places were most votes were for parties of the left....

I spoke to a few people involved in randomisation in research funding in some way for this piece, none of whom seemed to be aware that UKRI had moved towards lotteries being an optional tool in grant assessment Most were also supportive of the idea in general, but there were plenty of questions 🧵

Today's university job losses info is from Edinburgh Napier. The crisis is still accelerating. Nothing will be done. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2610095...

The House of Commons Education Committee is out today with a report on Higher Education... I'm quoted four times! There's a lot of good meat in there, even if I think the recommendations don't meet the case. But the policy disaster is very clear. (1/2) committees.parliament.uk/work/9012/hi...

Time and again, parties' internal constitutions have been rewritten with no consideration of how they would interact with our actual parliamentary constitution. The ability to change PM at speed was once a boast of the British Constitution. It is now yet another symptom of its dysfunction. [END]

Labour's processes for changing leader are hopelessly, catastrophically unsuited to government. More than half of all prime ministers since 1945 have taken over between general elections. This is not an unusual procedure. So it really matters when parties screw this system up... 🧵

I still think letting members choosing is the single most disastrous thing- a reason - why we don’t have good leaders. Members are weird for being members, possibly the most unrepresentative gathering of voters. Semi-jokingly only have a feeling that prison population might be more representative?

Reached that stage of any British political nonsense where it becomes impossible to distinguish between breaking news from political reporters, shitposts from random people, breaking news from random people and shitposts from political reporters.

“No clear government plan” for a major industry that is a) by definition an engine of growth b) has been one of the most lucrative for decades before the freeze in fees and freezing out foreign students. Yet it is on no Labour agenda - and no, I do not believe changing the leader will help. 1/2

'In a report, the Education Select Committee said 24 institutions are now said to be at risk of insolvency within the next 12 months - with many already making job cuts, closing courses and selling off buildings or land.' Link to report: committees.parliament.uk/committee/20...

"Doing nothing is not an option" with @uniofnottingham.bsky.social set to run out of money by 2031 without major change, v-c tells @julietterowsell.bsky.social - 600+ jobs now set to go www.timeshighereducation.com/news/notting...

Thoughts from a Labour MP: “We have to face up to the fact every single one of them is fucking useless. Andy’s strategy has been a disaster. Angela has bottled it. Ed clearly a hiding to nothing. Wes is AWOL. God knows what Catherine West is doing. I am not quite sure how we ended up here.”

One of the reasons why I’m uneasy with the new habit we developed as a nation if getting rid of leaders so often. Surely this only adds to the personalisation of our politics. Pretending that Labour’s trouble is personally Keir’s fault and will be gone with him. What about the Cabinet, party etc?

An excellent piece and I could not agree more. A system no longer delivers stability and strong government- the two arguments for it no longer hold. It needs to change / not to prevent anyone, but to truly represent ppl, restore trust&faith, and encourage consensus not polarised politics

I am not sure if having a timetable is better than an immediate departure of a leader. Wld make him a lame duck surely? Though I agree the speech was weak. Very little in terms of new ideas, no shake up of the cabinet announced. Surely esp Home Sec prevents his aim of not being Reform light

Great thread full of surprises snd other data treats

Retractions never get proportional attention. This one should.

"Keir, I'm sorry I've written your name down, I hope I'm wrong"

The biggest divide in politics in the UK is between those parties who think a vote is a vote and those parties who despise their own core supporters and fetishise voters who at best resent them.

I fear Labour people risk falling into an ecological fallacy visible from space when reacting to these results. Here is what is very clear in results so far: Labour are losing *seats* to Reform, but... Labour are losing *votes* to the Greens Greens split the vote, Ref comes thru middle

An excellent piece and especially relevant today- as more than one foreign journalist already asked me about Burnham for PM

This seems like a good day to announce that the fabulous @iandunt.bsky.social will be speaking at the @mileendinstitute.bsky.social on 25 June on what's wrong with British politics - and what we can do about it. All welcome! Book your free ticket here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/how-westmi...