'We're all going to hell in a handcart.... well not me personally.'

🚗30 years after Yes Minister’s Jim Hacker ditched his chauffeur and ended up face down in the gutter, David Cameron also tried his hand at efficiency and attempted to reduce the use of chauffeur-driven cars across govt But did it work? www.politicshome.com/news/article...

Making news in the Netherlands... www.demorgen.be/nieuws/de-ke...

Galaxy Quest - a perfect movie, just a wonderful love letter to actors, sci-fi, Star Trek in particular, and to fandom - really deserves a proper physical release with decent extras. Think Weaver's right that releasing a R-rated cut would be fun, too.

“The last-minute christmas rush at the bookshop.” - my latest cartoon for @theguardian.com books

An essay I wrote about the idea of building motorways in London. It is - I am not joking - nuanced. That’s my brand. I hope www.onlondon.co.uk/lewis-baston...

Finally polished off a couple of stray chapters that had escaped me previously in this very good book from @philipjcowley.bsky.social - so good I did a podcast with him about it - www.markpack.org.uk/175771/the-s...

Late to this, as always, but my TV recommendation is Death by Lightning on Netflix. You just need to persevere past the first episode. The book on which it is (closely) based, Destiny of the Republic, is also really good.

19 December - and the email arrived from S E Water explaining why the hosepipe ban is still in place...

Check out Colm Murphy's @colmpm.bsky.social latest article in Past and Present: academic.oup.com/past/advance...

I agree - but it does pose the question of how (and why) the original REF proposals got it wrong.

🚨 The last issue of the House for 2025 is in Parliament now! 🚅 Heidi Alexander interview 🚗 The taxman v electric cars 🚯 Illegal waste dumping and crime bosses 📱 Laura Trott on phone-free schools 🎅 Is Santa a left winger? Read a sample and subscribe here: www.politicshome.com/house-magazi...

You'd think we could devise a way of flagging student work for AI use that didn't require the marker to put in more effort than the student did on the original submission *and* still write constructive feedback on that submission #grumpymarkingday

Absolute brilliant christmas cracker from @philipjcowley.bsky.social here looking at who voters think Santa and Scrooge (and Postman Pat) would support, and what this tells us about party images and partisan projection (and dubious poll headlines) www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the final @mileendinstitute.bsky.social event of 2025 last week, where we marked the publication of "The British General Election of 2024" with own very own @timbale.bsky.social, @psurridge.bsky.social, @stephenkb.bsky.social and @rmcunliffe.bsky.social!

Two things are going on: First, voters tend to think ‘good’ characters would do the same thing they would do. Second, even some of these voters thought Santa would vote Green which must say something about the party’s image. (£) www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/... @philipjcowley.bsky.social on his poll

Oh...

Article for the House magazine, in which I get a bit Scrooge-like about my Santa poll www.politicshome.com/news/article...

A very merry bit of political science from @philipjcowley.bsky.social www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...

Article for the House magazine, in which I get a bit Scrooge-like about my Santa poll www.politicshome.com/news/article...

What sort of shameless headline-seeking shyster would do a poll like this...? www.thetimes.com/article/8653...

Photo caption writer on good form

What sort of shameless headline-seeking shyster would do a poll like this...? www.thetimes.com/article/8653...

Ten league defeats in a row...

Going to do a full culture war pivot over whoever decided we can’t have cling film on rolls of Christmas wrapping paper.

One of our @qmulsse.bsky.social students writing for @brightblueuk.bsky.social 👏

Looks like she canto repayo her advance-o

Everyone using a Durham university toilet is confronted with this exhortation #inspirational

Two weeks to go and the book they are all* calling "the perfect Christmas present for that difficult relative in your life who likes politics" is 23% off at Amazon.** * Well, me. * Other bookstores are available. www.amazon.co.uk/Smallest-Roo...

Imagine the poor immigration officer who has to read 5 whole years of your social media posts. You may not kill them but surely you've diminished their capacity to truly love again

This is one for the academics... I have never understood the argument for allowing REF portability for "long form" outputs but not others. What's the logic?

Another day, another example of the awesome headline power of the word 'could'

‘The damp pink cylinders’ @secondmentions.bsky.social

But this bit did make me laugh. "So, Apsana, if you regain the whip, you will behave?" "Of course, Chief Whip. Sure thing"

London Centric has got hold of Reform UK's internal candidate training plan for next year's local elections, where it hopes to make big gains in London. "Don't drink and tweet", focus on bin collections, and copy the Lib Dems' tactics. www.londoncentric.media/p/reform-uk-... (£/free trial).

The House magazine: we'd like you to write about recently-published academic work... Me: www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...

As reported in the Times diary...

Apsana Begum regained the Labour whip in late Sep & rebelled against it on her very next vote – @philipjcowley.bsky.social www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...

The Appendices for The British General Election of 2024 book are available (for free) under "Back Matter" at link.springer.com/book/10.1007... The first 71 pages are constituency results analysis by John Curtice, @lottehargrave.bsky.social, @patrick-pme.bsky.social, and myself.

Preach, sister.

The House magazine: we'd like you to write about recently-published academic work... Me: www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...

Keir Starmer's Substack: the obvious choice for a middle-aged man about to find himself unexpectedly out of a job. thecritic.co.uk/hes-...

"I wonder why the public aren't aware of much of the amazing research that goes on in universities..."

2Casa2Blanca

My @politicshome.bsky.social story from the summer about the AI-generated "I rise to speak" phenomenon in Parliament has made it into @nytimes.com 🇺🇸 (sadly, without credit)

Deadline today!! :)

The excellent David Cowling has been monitoring local by-election results. Of the 153 between 8 May and 27 November, which were contested by Labour, Labour defended 54 seats, holding 14 and losing 40. The Conservatives lost three-quarters of the seats they were defending and gained eight.

Excellent to see this from The Economist. We are slow walking into a constitutional crisis driven by the electoral system, and very few people are taking it seriously enough yet.

Late to this, but the idea that every single budget resolution (and presumably clauses in the Finance bill?) is akin to a vote of confidence seems novel to me. clauseshttps://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/labour-mp-suspended-rebel-farm-tax-l6mlq5wxw?utm_source=Sailthru

I need the most “Labour’s strategy and its obvious consequences” poll finding you have, and make it snappy!