Essentially a confidence vote then. If triggered allows the contenders to enter without officially having wielded the knife.

This is also a theme I come back to again and again. Taking a few different examples to Stephen, Jess Brown-Fuller used to run a pub; Josh Babarinde got an OBE aged just 27 for helping young people find viable alternatives to gangs and crime; Helen Maguire served in both Bosnia and Iraq in the RMP.

So really a 4 way tie with Reform slightly ahead, but not as strong as last year. Nothing about 2029 is a given if any single party can get their house in order.

Reasons for optimism by party: Reform: we are ahead, we have replaced the Tories in many places, the strait of Hormuz is closed. Labour: this is a surmountable lead for an opposition, the strait shock will be over by 2029 Lib Dem: we are deepening our grip on our 2024 gains Conservatives: ????

Glad to see my hometown ward has firmly said no to Reform. Congratulations @johnmckay81.bsky.social

First Birmingham ward result.... Green 20 Lab 17 LD 17 Ref 16 Ind 14 Con 11

Sorry but how on earth can the BBC push ‘signs of renewal’ line from Kemi Badenoch without a proper factcheck in the same headline. The Tories are doing disastrously.

Yes. None of the Greens best chances in London have counted yet but they've won fewer seats than I'd have expected so far. I'd have thought they'd win more in Ealing, some in Westminster and a few in Hammersmith at least.

Good news from the Oxford count is that both Reform and the pro-car party have not won their targets and look set to get 0 seats between them.

I’ve seen enough: the Liberal Democrats have won Stockport. #LE2026

Looks like Lib Dems will take control of Stockport council. One of their main targets.

Correct. Turnout is massively up in these places Reform is taking on enormous swings from Labour.

Love that to get to one of the main student dominated polling stations in Oxford, you have to literally walk through a pub to get there.

Judging by window posters across some areas of the city if ‘Save the UPP Cinema’ were running today it would be elected with a supermajority.

It’s interesting how much analysis skips the party which might (quietly, and probably there is the problem) become the largest party of local government tomorrow.

I wonder what year it will be when I finally see a last ‘Stronger Economy, Fairer Society’ stakeboard out in the wild.

Not a great place to be after fairly minimal exposure. Other leaders here have election cycles or government behind them.

I checked and somehow this is a real post.

CELEBRITY TRAITORS SERIES TWO CAST ANNOUNCED 🚨🚨

Happy May morning.

You can, unfortunately, get away with a lot of bigotry and be a viable party for national power. But I don’t think you can be open to positions like this one on crime and be viable.

Oh my god. Did they not do even basic vetting? The real Anne Frank, seriously?

Tomorrow marks two months of the Strait of Hormuz being shut, two sets of negotiations have been cancelled over the last two weekends, and ... front month Brent is at $106. Honestly, wtf are we doing here?

Exhibit A: in a recent antitrust filing, Meta argued it isn't a social media monopoly because it isn't really a social media company anymore. Only 7% of Instagram time and 17% of Facebook time is spent on content from friends or followed accounts. The rest is algorithmic video from strangers.

It says a lot about Labour that their "saviour" is a politician who came 4th in a leadership contest vs Ed Miliband, a very distant second to Jeremy Corbyn, and whose maneuvers against Starmer backfired so badly as the last conference even his allies asked him to stop.

Still feel like "Musk and his crew of incels destroyed a bunch of stuff they didn't understand and thereby hastened the deaths of millions of children" did not get the public attention it warranted.

Pardon me for having a memory that goes back any further but there were credible accusations of genocide in both the Syrian and Chechen wars, the former aided by Putin, the latter undertaken by

“I’ve never seen him threaten genocide.” Aside from the examples Tom gives, incurious Zack might want to read up on recent Russian state TV output www.theguardian.com/world/2022/m...

He’s obviously a goner as he will not be able to escape questions on this issue, is low in the polls and has no easy big domestic achievements to point to. But nothing is going to happen before the locals.

edstone spontaneously arising from the water while thus spake zarathustra plays

What explains the still high but much lower rate for women? Can’t think of a definite answer to explain the big difference. Higher cohabiting amongst young women, age-gap relationships? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A plausible explanation given the stated claims, if those claims are correct.

The EU probably should have efficient entry for tourists as it is an important part of their economy, but ultimately it is up to them and a decision and club we opted to leave. Long term the problem is we voted to be poorer and less influential.

Good and informative thread from a former senior civil servant (and current Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesperson).

A crash back to reality, which I think will mean he is out after the locals in May. Unclear if he misled parliament or not, you would think it to be extraordinary for the PM not to be informed about this?

For election fans, this is the ballot I need to fill out for the BMA council elections. Ranked choice 😬

Seems reasonable, but funding will need to be sufficient to allow GPs to be confident to take on the personal financial risk of setting up a practice. Alongside enough quality training positions to produce doctors.

"Trump said Monday he posted the image but insisted it was meant to depict him as a doctor, dismissing suggestions it portrayed him as Jesus Christ as a fabrication by 'fake news'."

crowd at the Tisza rally singing "Europa! Europa!"

one immediate dramatic consequence of the Hungarian result: Magyar has promised to repair relations with the EU and unblock a €90bn EU loan for Ukraine

BREAKING: Viktor Orbán concedes defeat in Hungarian elections after 16 years in power - with opposition Tisza party on course for landslide victory.

In the 5pm update the opposition turnout advantage has virtually disappeared

Oh, yeah, that was the Obama Iran deal.

Anyone who describes a mere twenty-hour period as a marathon in any negotiation where there are fundamental disagreements, including peace talks, shows they do not understand negotiations.

You can see the growth in Green and Reform memberships here. Getting and organising for candidates to stand in so many wards is not an easy task.

Scrolling through the declared candidates for the Oxford City Council elections, I note how the norm now is to withhold your specific address. Perhaps my memory is serving me badly, but I do not recall this being the norm 10+ years ago.

Credit where due, I’m glad Miliband is forcing through reliable and renewable energy for the UK. Just imagine how much better things would be if we already had the kind of renewable energy capacity we hope to in 10-20 years.

They have not though (on NATO). His naive view that we should unilaterally exit NATO and ask Putin nicely to behave is dangerous. Just because the current US president does not believe in it, it does not mean NATO has not been incredibly successful at defending itself.

After Trump's latest shocking threats, Keir Starmer faces a choice. Withdraw US access now to UK air bases, or risk letting British soil be used to commit war crimes.