Yeah, uh. Regrettably, if Ed Davey stopped posting there tomorrow (except through being banned for trolling Elon Musk) like, the response from the media would not be to come here, it would be to add it to the list of reasons why both the Lib Dems and BlueSky are irrelevant.

Nah this is BS. You can't expect the LibDems, who already struggle for coverage, to abandon a platform that the Government, BBC, most major newspapers, other major parties, etc still prioritise. It absolutely sucks but the people they're in conversation with are there, not here.

Maybe we could establish a levy on every household which funds a hegemonic broadcaster that is required by royal charter to serve the public good rather than chase ratings

I fear the lesson we're learning from Trump (and indeed Le Pen) is that democracy is game you can't win against the far right. When in power the liberal order has to have the confidence to ban/ostracise the far right for being the seditionists they are, and dare them to do something about it.

The uncomfortable fact we all need to confront though is that where is the groundswell for alternative media that offers something different? There's the FT & Economist who due to their business audience are more policy heavy, but beyond that? No equivalent to the sports tactics/history nerd trend

Chris Mason should certainly not be abusing his opportunity to interview the leader of the third largest parliamentary party to throw childish insults at him because his feelings are hurt

Genuinely believe SW1 is addicted to elections and political drama after the last decade of instability in Westminster because a whole generation of politicians and hacks got into politics or reporting on politics during that period

And yet people expect to access online multipler with minimal input lag for free!

Why I'm the rare person who thinks someone may well have offered Kemi Badenoch an instant place into Stanford. These agents will say anything to get people to put the application in...

One of the weirdest aspects of the Brexit debate was the Tory/Right-Liberal Leavers for whom it was forever the Doha round of GATT with the wicked Europeans stopping global free trade. For better or worse, the European Commission has clearly been free trade's strongest advocate this century

The thing that baffles me is it’s like: “The scale of the problem is far greater than we thought. And what’s more, the international picture is in turmoil. And hostile actors across the globe are looking to tear us down.” “Therefore…?” “Steady as she goes.”

This is very good. "the core problem...is that we are not taxed enough to fund the public services we want. Actually, it’s worse than that, we are not taxed enough to fund the inadequate and unsustainable public services we have."

This is an excellent and deeply depressing article

The core logic is stark - taxes are too low for services, there isn't growth. Yet with large numbers of people already only just managing, and a limit to how much can be squeezed out of the top, there aren't very easy answers. A political conundrum across Europe.

"It is not primarily Rachel Reeves’ fault that the public finances are in such a mess, but it’s her responsibility to resolve the problem." Excellent piece this.

itcouldbesaid.substack.com/p/it-could-b... Did you know we ran a public sector deficit of 5% of GDP last year, a figure which adds up to £150billion? The public finances are in a far worse state than anyone admits to even before you consider public works backlog, gaps in defence & public services

“This policy is a fucking disgrace and will do harm to the people it affects, our economy, our services, and it’s morally reprehensible” is the correct response not “haha your numbers are wrong and it may not even be legal”

And Twitter is becoming if anything worse as companies stop advertising on it. I only visit it to check a couple of writers who still prioritise posting over there, and despite them being progressive writers, the adverts between their tweets are wall-to-wall pro-Tommy Robinson content.

In the Art of Delivery, Tony Blair was talking about needing to just get ahead on asylum before pivoting to exposing the racial prejudice underpinning the right's message. It never really happened for him, and its certainly never going to happen for Starmer. It's a complete dead-end.

really dislike that "Boriswave" used to be something you'd exclusively see being used by racist Twitter accounts but it's now made its way to the political mainstream, including today's Playbook headline

Not to be contrary but I think that's the same America or at least the same Disney. They were eager to jump in the direction they thought power was going 2019-23 in order to make profit and now in 2025 they think power is going the other way, they jump the other way. There was never a spine there.

Retrospectively removing indefinite leave to remain would be immoral and economically damaging. It would tear families apart. Attacking it as ‘potentially illegal’ is completely beside the point. Argue with the (awful) idea. Don’t try ’well, actually you can’t do that’.

If mainstream politicians stopped to *think* for a moment they’d notice that. It might help if newspapers noticed it, too. Farage has shifted further right in the last few months than he has in a decade. And instead of calling it out, media is cheering it on and mainstream politics is silent.

When you actually look at the national finances you realise how bonkers the current political debate is. Last year the deficit was 5% of GDP despite us having low unemployment and high inflation. It should be 0%. And then spending needs to be higher to actually secure improvements in public services

Honestly what is it with climate change ministers named Ed getting generational shifts to the British economy through while their party leaders just look increasingly sad?

he is trying to ensure that there aren't Black soldiers because he thinks they won't massacre protests

Buried details: the 18% of kids whose identities shifted over the course of the study were overwhelmingly between binary trans and non-binary or vice versa. The number who shifted between binary cis and trans was very low indeed - out of a subset of 254, precisely *one* kid shifted in this way.

The Religion and Belief protected characteristic has been warped beyond all belief. It clearly was designed to protect beliefs that place a burden on the believer and ensure employers/service providers made good faith efforts to accomodate them i.e. prayer breaks, dietary options, etc

My spidey sense is tingling with this Palestinian recognition. It feels like either the western governments are trying to trick Palestine and its advocates, or Palestine and its advocates are trying to trap the western governments. Either way its going to end up with broken promises & hurt feelings

What British politics demands is Ed Davey be as sober and serious as Nigel Farage.....

Maybe - just a crazy idea, but bear with me for a moment! - the reason why the Lib Dems should not “get serious“ is that the UK’s most important media organisation covers politics in babytalk so much of the time?

Could add "Mainstream politicians just cannot compete with Nigel Farage's unorthodox style" & "Wharever you say about Respect, they're clearly having fun" to this list

The media - no, we're not going to report on serious Lib Dem policies The media - yes, we will report on fun stunts The media, also - the Lib Dems need to show they've got serious policies

Me, watching WB get hit after hit with films they visibly did not believe in:

@stephenkb.bsky.social did you give Bill Kristol and the Bulwark your cold!?! bsky.app/profile/bill...

Apologies for the dodgy source of the clip but Theresa May gave a really good speech against the Assisted Dying Bill in the Lords and actually had the courage to say the hitherto unspoken part of the opposition's case - suicide is wrong & we shouldn't encourage it youtube.com/shorts/0Md4G...

My hands now hurt when I play the nintendo switch

Ever since I watched Chernobyl this conundrum has haunted me. You boost people's salary so they have the status & resources to tell the authorities to fuck off. But that only increases the authorities leverage because they can take that status & resources away. But poor people have no power either

Well at least not watching a Brock Lesnar match isn't the foremost reason to boycott Wrestleplooooozzaaaaaaa

I really think the scriptwriters are getting lazy having the President that shits all over American democracy be called Trump only for Americans not to get it because they don't understand Britishisms

A minimum wage worker who works 37.5 hours a week throughout the year is paid £5000 more than they were back in 2010 in real terms. And obviously the increase in young people's wages have increased even more. At some point we're gonna have to unpick this or pay a lot more for things

Burn it! Burn it with fire! You mean ChatGpt right!?! *thinks about his dreams of hosting a late night show* Sure, why not.

YAY OUR 150MILLION PIECES OF SILVER!

You can't spring a poorly thought through policy in the middle of an election & not expect it to be torn apart The person who this sentiment should be extended to is Burnham who really tried to build a cross-party consensus only for the Tories to collapse the talks to campaign against death taxes

Check out my latest Radican’s Take on how fans are the losers when it comes to WWE counter programming AEW @pwtorch.bsky.social www.pwtorch.com/site/2025/09... #AEW #WWE 🤼 #wrestlesky @richfann.bsky.social @zackheydorn.bsky.social @ceehawk.bsky.social @frankpeteani73.bsky.social

Never stops being funny, the one good thing Trump did as President, is the one thing his base gives him shit for