With caveat constituency polling is hard there are only 250 odd expressing a preference, but if this is close to where we are next week then result would really come down to ground game on the day.

Points towards Labour continuing to haemorrhage votes to Greens (and Independents) in areas with a high proportion of Muslim voters (around 50 percent in Stoneygate).

🔴 Gorton and Denton's large Muslim population (nearly 30% of the seat) is a key target for political parties in the by-election. Are their messages getting through? @sajeraj.bsky.social visited Longsight for @hyphenonline.com to find out. hyphenonline.com/2026/02/17/g...

What is misconduct in public office? An ancient offence under English common law, its modern incarnation dates back to a 2004 case By David Allen Green

Andrew sounding like a dodgy district councillor here.

Thank you, Popbitch

Just over half of Home Office immigration staff have completed equalities training, six years after it was recommended for ‘all immigration and policy officials’. Apsana Begum MP: ‘It is clear that the lessons are not being learned fast enough.’ hyphenonline.com/2026/02/19/1...

Okay, this is quite outstanding from Bedford Council.

The thing more public authorities should do to dissuade journalists from filing FOI requests is put us on their press list for mundane (but locally important) announcements about changes to half-term park opening hours.

Imagine if SEND was consistently seen as a social justice issue, as it is here. In 25yrs, no exclusions. CEO: '...look at who is being excluded, it’s always the same children...Disabled pupils, Black and minority ethnic children, Gypsy and Traveller children' www.theguardian.com/education/20...

RIP Jesse Jackson. When I interviewed Simon Woolley at the end of last year, Jackson was very ill and we talked a bit about how he mentored Woolley: www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

I wish I had fewer opportunities to encourage everyone to read 'Hybrid Hate', an absolutely terrific book that covers the long and fraught relationship that modern racism has with Christianity.

I went to Gorton and Denton to see how Labour and Green campaigns are landing with British Muslims, who comprise 30 percent of the electorate in the constituency hyphenonline.com/2026/02/17/g...

Unclear what Starmer is thinking on u-turning on suspending local elections at this late stage (councils have six weeks until the election period starts!). Aside from the month it'll cost, you'd think he'd prefer not to lose even more councillors (almost a certainty given the polling).

Very good story from @manumidolo.bsky.social with shocking details of how top ST hack Gabriel Pogrund was targeted. I have spent the week arguing with Josh Simons’s aides how a contract to investigate the sourcing of an article obviously targets the journalists - they disagreed.

Anneliese Dodds: "I felt Peter Mandelson was a clear blackmail risk" Samir Jeraj speaks to Anneliese Dodds for the Weekend Interview

I interviewed former minister Annaliese Dodds for the @newstatesman1913.bsky.social on Mandelson, tech bros and aid policy www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Terrific piece this. Something that Yvette Cooper said the government would do that seems to have fallen by the wayside is to release this data *themselves*, but instead they've seemingly quit the field leaving it only to bad actors (and now, thankfully, Anoosh)

Reform in Worcestershire confirming my reporting from the end of last year that they would need to raise council tax over the 4.99 per cent threshold. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

"Soon it is already mid-afternoon. Following a collaboration-fostering knot exercise that culminates in Kruger losing a shoe, it is time for the trust fall" @mrhenrymorris.substack.com reports from the front lines of a Reform defectors' away day www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/723...

This was 16 years ago…. www.theguardian.com/politics/200...

How is it still raining?

Well, Jon Cruddas is right. "Dark shit" indeed.

Waiting for @direthoughts.com to do a Subject Access Request 👀

Really moved by the latest episode of Starfleet Academy. Also - Jay-Den! ❤️ 🏳️‍🌈

Revealing from @georgeeaton.bsky.social - voters are drawing a contrast between No 10's treatment of Mandelson versus Burnham:

"You could be a part-time Ambassador, (but you'd probably not do a good job)"

Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth has pledged to take ‘every possible step’ to protect Welsh Muslims from the far right’s rise. He told @sajeraj.bsky.social he wanted Muslim communities' at the heart’ of the Wales his party would build if elected in May. hyphenonline.com/2026/02/03/p...

Labour is creating a vulnerable migrant underclass @zoejardiniere.bsky.social

I interviewed the Rhun ap Iorwerth on what a Plaid government would look like for Welsh Muslims and whether a Reform government in Westminster would mean a dash for independence: hyphenonline.com/2026/02/03/p...

Strong Brasseye vibes: this is the one thing we didn't want to happen.

What radicalised you? Me: excessive admin

The PRs are getting better at gaming the subject line length

Greens announcing their Gorton and Denton candidate at 11am.

'Will we be guaranteed a policymaker? Yes' Good scoop from @ethanshone.bsky.social thedarkarts.substack.com/p/revealed-l...

Fun fact: The 1911 Parliament Act was also the piece of legislation that provided for the payment of MPs. Before then, the handful of working class MPs were sponsored by trades unions (Everyone else in parliament was rich). www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Just had to go back through some of my work for New Statesman and honestly am not sure I will ever top this piece on councils' crappy investments into crappy business parks. www.newstatesman.com/business/202...

A Grain of Sand review – a child’s eye view of the horror in Gaza

Who will be the Green Party candidate in Gorton and Denton? @meganekenyon.bsky.social

Why a Green victory in Gorton and Denton would be so dangerous for Labour – the "wasted vote" argument would no longer hold. www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Apparently, deporting your parents is the new Cricket Test

End of an era for some of us. RIP.

The New World asked me to speak to some British trans women about what life has been like for them over the past few years - here's what they had to say, in their own words: www.thenewworld.co.uk/marie-le-con...

Remembering a dear friend who passed 14 years ago today.

Loved this. Shout out to the London A-Z and making maps of your route. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

I've written a blog at Relight My FOIA on the fight to force the Met Police to disclose an internal report on its effectiveness at policing violence against women in the aftermath of the death of Sarah Everard. This process took more than three years. relightmyfoia.blog/2026/01/20/o...

🔴Excl: The children’s commissioner for England is 'deeply concerned' by data obtained by Hyphen revealing a tenth of all youngsters at two young offender institutions have been sprayed with a controversial synthetic pepper spray in the months since ministers greenlit a trial of its use by staff

The Hillsborough Law is on ice, with no deadline for its return. How did we go from the warm endorsement at Labour conference for Starmer from Hillsborough families - to here? My read, with the great David Conn www.theguardian.com/law/2026/jan...

Sums up how rubbish Badenoch is that she has been forced into a “You’re dumping me? I’m dumping you!” rather than just sacking and disbarring Jenrick over the many, many things that would have kept him out of any Tory Cabinet since 1968.

There's too many primary school places in London for not enough kids. So schools are competing to stay alive, copying private school marketing tactics with Instagram ad campaigns — and in one case offering a £50 Amazon voucher referral scheme for parents. www.londoncentric.media/i/184437718/...