Translation: “I don’t want to be deposed”

At this point you have to start wondering if cabinet ministers are spread betting on precisely how many council seats Labour is going to lose in May. Because that would be the sanest explanation for:

Someone should make Starmer's angry letter the captions from the Downfall bunker scene

Using boilerplate messaging that would use for George Galloway about Hannah Spencer personally & how she will approach being an MP is tin eared, graceless, implausible to the immediate audience (Labour MPs) and esp the broader one (Labour waverers/switchers) underpinned by the wrong strategy

Mary Walsh, a name almost no one outside journalism knows, is one of the most significant and righteous truthfighters out there! Her departure is a five alarm fire.

This is not a reasoned political response. Labour has spent two years making all the voting groups who backed the Greens feel unwelcome and unheard, and now attacks them for daring to back someone else. They believe Labour isn’t listening and Starmer seems determined to prove them right

Remember when parties who lost elections used to be like "This is a strong message from the electorate and we will listen and learn and change" rather than "Fuck everyone who didn't vote for us, you're all extremists trying to destroy Britain"

Starmer is a broken, outdated replicant whose memory banks have all but fizzled out and update cycles ceased, now only able to repeat old rhetoric programmed in during better days... www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKFg...

There’s no chance of redemption here, it’s game over.

Good to see Starmer is committed to learning absolutely nothing morally or politically from this

That's the way to do it. So good to see progressive politicians pushing back hard on Reform's messaging. Highly effective and so refreshing and Labour could learn a lot from Polanski in this regard. Take the attack to the Faragists - don't let them get away with it.

@zackpolanski.bsky.social : "Once again Reform are spreading misinformation & smears, and the press & the media seem to repeat them.. its really important that the media.. take responsibility so when Reform or Farage says something they don't just keep repeating it"👏👏👏

Matt Badlose, amirite?

This should be the No.1 case study in privatisation. Private water companies pumped human waste in British waterways & ran off with all the money.

Gorton and Denton is yet another reminder that Labour MPs have managed to become MORE gutless and delusional than their Tory contemporaries. They are lemmings refusing to turn back as the cliff's edge gets ever closer.

This is why only Labour can stop Reform.

The migration doom loop at work: does anyone in government seriously think that a strategy designed to keep out skilled workers and students makes either economic or political sense? ://www.ft.com/content/7408ad00-e4eb-41c7-8849-36061bc0eac1

Blue Labour as a concept needs to go in the bin, alongside the idea of Lexit. Cut the twin cancers out. Brexit should go on the scrap heap of history. FPTP has had its day too. Roll on PR, and a full-throated and unashamed campaign to negotiate with the EU to rejoin ASAP.

As noted in replies, that Labour’s candidate is in fact local makes this observation about their campaign failings even more powerful. No attempt to communicate a positive proposition or humanise the candidate — or, if there was, so bad it totally fail to cut through even to the hyper-engaged.

I can't believe Keir Starmer's "the Greens want to sell spice and crack to toddlers" messaging didn't win over the voters of Gorton and Denton...

This is the inevitable result when Labour tries to outgun the repulsive hard-right on immigration, failing to learn a central lesson of the Tory implosion

Can't wait for nobody to learn anything from this except 'maybe if we insult traditional labour voters who are switching to green EVEN MORE, they'll know their place this time'

It's probably not as simple as half the Labour 2024 vote going to the Greens, given the ~10pts worth of voters freed up by the Worker's Party not standing, many of whom will have gone Green. At least some of Labour's vote will have switched to Reform, but massively outnumbered by Lab->Grn switchers

Waiting for… ‘BBC News: Reform may have finished a distant second to the Greens, but this will feel like a win for Nigel Farage’s party’

I keep thinking of @dylandifford.bsky.social's point that everything wrong with the McSweeney-Starmer governing strategy was obvious to anyone who had done the most basic and broad of first year political science.

But it is another example of how Reform boost turnout for progressive parties. They are so profoundly toxic. When you put it alongside the Tories losing their deposit, the right have a serious problem.

Worth noting the combined Green/Labour vote was more than double Reform. Didn't even need tactical voting to beat them in the end. Maybe if they hadn't picked such a useless candidate they would have done better.

Apologies to all of Hannah's customers! Something exciting is happening. Be a part of it ⤵️

Trump style. Note the insistence that Goodwin, who was absolutely rejected by voters in Gorton and Denton tonight, was a "great candidate"

Always, far right parties like Reform Ltd which say they hate corruption turn out to be just as corrupt, or even more ... "Hertfordshire County Council Greens call for spending probe after Reform UK member’s grant to husband’s group" www.bishopsstortfordindependent.co.uk/news/herts-c...

Poor Labour. If only Reform hadn't split their vote.

The richest man owns X. The second and third richest men control Google. The fourth richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The fifth richest man owns The Washington Post. And now the sixth richest could soon take over both Paramount and Warner Bros. See the problem here?

She was 13 years old! Why aren't more people talking about this?!

If Bill and Hillary testify, Don and Melania should testify. Simples.

Farage and Nuttall in Oldham a decade ago. UKIP went for an overnight message of voting fraud, then declined to make a complaint when asked to produce the evidence. www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2015/1...

Manchester City Council have questioned why the Democracy Volunteers group released a statement to the media after voting closed, but did not report any information about the allegations to the police at each polling station, or to the by-election hub during voting hours

Bobby Brainworms should wear a hooded cloak and carry a scythe at all public appearances.

And I see that the Council, who are responsible for the electoral process, say they observed no problems (despite the allegations being that up to 12% of the votes were affected), that the police were on site throughout and that the group alleging the problems mentioned nothing at the time

it's the same thing everywhere. "if i don't win, the election wasn't legitimate."

Given that the probability of Trump being a paedophile seems significantly greater than zero, it's incredible to see the entire Republican Party continue to back their failing and historically unpopular leader. www.npr.org/2026/02/24/n...

Fancy that, eh.

FACTCHECK: Claire Coutinho claims UK gas power only costs £55/MWh… …but she is ignoring a few small details: 🤫 Gas prices always rise in winter 🤫 Gas plants cost money to build 🤫 CO2 causes economic damages THREAD with receipts 1/8

Trump: "This is the Golden Age of America."

December, 2025, there was widespread speculation online that Marco Rubio was under the influence of narcotics after his bizarre behaviour during a press conference.

In 2025, Rubio and Bukele reached a deal where gang informants, key to combatting cartels and gangs, would be betrayed by the US and sent to El Salvador. The deal hands Bukele custody of people who threatened to reveal agreements between Bukele's government and MS-13.

Orlando Cicilia, who is married to Marco Rubio's older sister, Barbara, was part of a "Cocaine Cowboy" era drug ring in the 1980s. He was considered a "front man" and second-in-command for a ring that distributed millions of dollars worth of cocaine to the United States.

So just as a final word on this by election before polls close: No matter what the result, Gorton and Denton is supposed to be in a category of safe seat that should essentially render it uncompetitive. The fact that it isn't is a damning indictment of Labour's time in office.

The second you leave this country for even a few days, you realize the place you call home is decaying at an almost exponential pace. The realization that you don't have to live like this is stark, and that nobody in power is taking tangible actions to fix it in your lifetime is even starker.

👉NEW -- How Labour megadonor won Israeli medal of honour by John McEvoy and Alex Morris Exclusive: Documents expose how Sir Trevor Chinn, who has funded Keir Starmer and Labour Together, was awarded Israel’s highest civilian honour www.declassifieduk.org/how-labour-m...