"These are the things to look out for in a leader: vision, delivery, courage, decision-making and curiosity. The prime ministers of the last few decades have possessed few, if any of these qualities. They have been shit." Ian Dunt And on courage specifically: substack.com/@iandunt/not...

Just in time for #parkrun. (Not for everyone of course, dog walk and coffee for me.)

That's our problem right there... @privateeyenews.bsky.social

"Is Keir Starmer playing the long game or is Keir a busted flush with no tanks, ducks, lines, lawns, rings or even hats?" @privateeyenews.bsky.social

A good weekend read if you're wondering what 'Manchesterism' is. (Although I think James manages to avoid that label, well done!)

sea frets in south Devon

I know people are a bit tired of this but the people who wanted to leave the EU got their way by applying continual pressure, we must do the same.

Pope Leo previews his forthcoming encyclical on AI: “The challenge we currently face is not technological, but anthropological…”

Exclusive: Nigel Farage has court judgment for debt of almost £10K www.channel4.com/news/exclusi...

Don't worry, he doesn't jump...

"These are the things to look out for in a leader: vision, delivery, courage, decision-making and curiosity. The prime ministers of the last few decades have possessed few, if any of these qualities. They have been shit." Ian Dunt And on courage specifically: substack.com/@iandunt/not...

Recommended. A fascinating (at times terrifying) story, identifying a distinction between 'unintended consequences' and 'unanticipated consequences.'

Incredible

Two weeks ago, @manchestermill.bsky.social investigated electoral fraud before the locals. Now there have been five arrests. As the Telegraph writes: “An investigation by The Mill reported claims that the fake independents were put forward by people associated with the Tameside Labour group.”

'We need to future-proof the system... And we need explicitly to recognise and convince others of the fundamental merits of the democratic system, its fragility and of course that the alternatives are much worse.' Meg Russell gave her valedictory lecture as Director last week. Watch and listen 👇

excellent nuanced thread here

Probably moot point, but FBI director having an apparel store is not normal.

Not to be outdone, Farage owner Christopher Harborne will shortly launch a 50p lord of the rings bitcoin, to forever bind Farage in the darkness unto him www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

"After the costs of London-Birmingham and Cheshire to Manchester are spent and sunk, completing the line from Birmingham to Manchester Airport would represent maximum benefit for the least cost." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Somehow it looks even worse in French... #incroyablefiascoHS2

🚨🚨Breaking: @bsky.app Says #Kremlin Is Hacking Its Platform to Spread Propaganda. The company said it was fighting Russian efforts to hijack real users’ accounts to post fake content, an apparently novel tactic. 🧵 www.nytimes.com/2026/05/21/b...

Roughly 80 Reform UK councillors have now departed - around 70 between the 2025 and 2026 elections, and a further 10 since 7 May this year. By-elections to replace them cost approximately £20,000 each. ➡️ Watch Page 94, the Private Eye podcast: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaQ5...

Must admit that I am very surprised to find that over 50% of UK immigration is students.

So how will SpaceX make money? Enterprise application of Grok. 80% of their TAM. Do you know any business using Grok? Of course not. Nobody does. This $6.355B loss in 2025 is understated; the $1.7B GPU depreciation wasn't AI R&D, it was a cost of AI revenue. The real AI loss in 2025 was $8.028B. /16

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.

EXCLUSIVE: Reform UK’s Makerfield by-election candidate, Rob Kenyon, had a SECOND deleted social media account, and the archived posts are damning. hopenothate.org.uk/2026/05/21/r...

Somehow it looks even worse in French... #incroyablefiascoHS2

A #door with a view. Verona. #adoorableThursday #doorsday #urbangaze #streetphotography #phototography #photo #foto #city #architecture #anzaa #eastcoastkin

There will be lots of understandable scepticism about this, but Burnham really has been a long time advocate of electoral reform. Would be a big step forward if he follows through www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

“The researchers found that “large chunks of airtime were dedicated to vox pops”, which featured in 26.3% of all Welsh television news items covering the election, at the expense of coverage of actual policy or political claims.

The best Casablanca random anecdote.

Our new briefing on urban deprivation and affluence has four key findings: 1) Deprivation is an urban problem 2) It's concentrated outside Greater South East England 3) Inner city areas are most deprived 4) Inner city areas are becoming less deprived

This looks potentially interesting as a way of integrating blogging with Bluesky (although I confess I don't understand a lot of the detail in this post)

Manchester's legendary Haçienda club opened on this day 1982. Unsuccessful at first: oversized and cold, acoustics bad, programming eclectic. Comedian Bernard Manning performed on the opening night and it didn't go well.

"After the costs of London-Birmingham and Cheshire to Manchester are spent and sunk, completing the line from Birmingham to Manchester Airport would represent maximum benefit for the least cost." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is a cool photo of crescent Venus. And the Moon, too. Image credit: Iván Éder

📌 ICYMI — Reading the Riot Act: Reform UK’s Makerfield By-Election Candidate During the Summer of Trouble The archive of Robert Kenyon’s suspended X account reveals intense activity after three children were murdered in Southport in 2024

I’ve written about Lisa Nandy’s response to the rejoin argument. She said, “If rejoining the EU is the answer, then essentially what we’re saying to people is life was fine in 2015, we just need to go back there”. But that’s not the point pro-EU folks are making 👇 open.substack.com/pub/bestforb...

A bit more has come out now, courtesy of some quick work by @peterjukes.bsky.social This is perfect for sharing where RefBots are talking about him: bylinetimes.com/2026/05/20/r...

The Reform candidate in Makerfield has some questions to answer... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This looks potentially interesting as a way of integrating blogging with Bluesky (although I confess I don't understand a lot of the detail in this post)

eh, what the hell

This by Mark Drakeford hits the nail on the head, rather. If Welsh Labour, and Labour, don't take these sorts of arguments seriously, then the SLab outcome awaits them all... nation.cymru/opinion/why-...

OMG this is brilliant! Jacques Tati (M. Hulot!) as an eccentric French 2nd row who got his start pantomiming games for the crowd after the actual game he played in! Brilliant!

Yasuhiro Suzuki built a zipper-shaped boat that unzips the water.

Broadly happy with this I think: 🇬🇧 British Political Spectrum Quiz My result: Social Democrat Economic: centrist Social: leaning progressive Sovereignty: cosmopolitan Military: leaning hawkish Authority: centrist Constitutional: reformist Take the quiz: quiz.jmoxley.co.uk

BBC News - 'Millions' of pounds saved by replacing Palantir tech in refugee system www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...