This one point is proving remarkably challenging to get across: ALGORITHMIC FEEDS ARE EDITORIAL You wouldn't expect to do well pitching your ideas to a newspaper or TV that hates you. Why expect anything better from X or Insta, which are openly authoritarian media?

"Your doner is so awful, you better feed it to the cats." A 1* Google review for a doner place in Berlin. Their reaction is phenomenal. 😁

This is a very good summary of the economics of Brexit

We're stuck in "a situation in which, to put it in very broad terms, we have a country which ‘knows’ it has made a mistake and regrets it, and yet has a politics which can barely acknowledge that and certainly can’t address it." Spot-on by @chrisgrey.bsky.social

"Excuse me...!"

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Best back-up dancers ever! #totp

Well that was a bit of a not exactly pleasant turnover to #totp

Your periodic reminder that Article 5 is based on a promise, that an attack against one is an attack against all. The question is: Do all define what constitutes an attack in the same way? And what if they don’t? A thought worth bearing in mind as the nature of warfare is changing.

What should be central to all policy analyses of UK / Europe at this time - we have to assume low growth is the new normal. There are better and worse policy choices, but ultimately we have a mature economy / population that can't be wished away. Resource allocation is then the essential question.

Lots of mainstream commentators praising the Blair piece but if Starmer or Badenoch did a speech announcing scrapping the triple lock and disability benefits in favour of foreign aid and bungs to AI companies I suspect the reaction would be different.

Despite the headline, this is the third paragraph in this article: “There is no consensus among the broader scientific community that screen time overall is harmful to children.” www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I should of course note that (while I don't necessarily agree with everything!) @chrisdillow.bsky.social has done a much more thorough job of the same argument here. chrisdillow.substack.com/p/some-lefti...

Me on the Brexit rows in Labour. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Never too early to put up a potential Bond theme #Eurovision

That's not a 27 sec note - it's a 27 sec breath #Eurovision2026

Sneaking a giant screen into the flagshagger march is one of the funniest things @ledbydonkeys.org have ever done. "STAY HYDRATED" 😂🤣😂

My post on why prime ministers keep failing. And three big things that the next PM can change that will make their job easier. samf.substack.com/p/why-do-pri...

Beginning to wonder where I was or what I was listening to - don't recognise anything so far #totp

New post: "Why do PMs keep failing?" We'll be on our seventh in a decade soon. It's not an impossible job + recent PMs have all been v flawed. But the job is unnecessarily hard because of how it's evolved. Here's how it could be made easier. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/w...

For everyone currently talking up the UK's politics-driven bond market crisis -- please take some time to read Toby's careful walkthrough of the data which is ... oddly underwhelming.

Not for nothing, but I think a lot of people have wrongly settled on “Twitter became a right-wing cesspool because all the cool people left” instead of “All the cool people left because Twitter became a right-wing cesspool.”

Mamdani has demonstrated something that Democrats have largely forgotten. You can't just do good things for voters and expect to be rewarded for it. You have to tell them about it, over and over again. You have to advertise your work in office just as much as you did on the campaign to win it.

Pulp Something Changed (Token 2) Because it's the greatest love song ever written.

Lots more in the data, but a few things that stood out to me: - Reform are clearly building on areas of strength, not expanding their appeal geographically. Almost everything that correlates with Reform's 2026 swing were already strong predictors of their support in 2025.

Was reminded of this lecture on Structural Injustice I gave 7 years ago, where I noted that the concept was gaining momentum and predicting we would see much more attention to it. Call me Nostradamus. youtu.be/dppTGpcVGHc?...

Tight Fit's school of literal choreo obviously training for Steps #totp

Reform are tending to secure larger gains in areas that are older, have lower levels of educational attainment, and voted for Brexit.

As is so often the case with @ldfreedman.bsky.social (and @samfr.bsky.social), this is a wonderful combination of insight and elegant prose. There are plenty of sites with one or the other - or even a "pretty good" standard of both. But Sam and Lawrence absolutely nail both with alarming frequency.

Just played a CD.. All the songs were mixed to the same volume and, get this, no adverts at all. I'm telling you, this is the future.

Ally Pally.

That's the west coast mainline for you

EBTG - now that's a big step up for the evening #TOTP

Terrific piece from Pete. Always important to be reminded of what a monster John Martyn was, despite his incredible gift. Go Beverley ✊️

He sues seashells on the seashore.

Voyager 1 is now 25,4 billion miles away from Earth. Its instruments are still working, 49 years after the probe's launch. Prodigious. News bulletins should have to give regular updates: " Where is Voyager? What has it told us this week?", as Voyager's journey is what dreams are made of.

The Iran crisis will have lots of consequences but one of the biggest is that it's a further indication of how far the US has fallen.

New post just out: I talked to Alan Milburn on why the government is struggling, how politics has changed since he was in Blair's cabinet, and how he's proposing to tackle youth unemplyoment. (Free to read) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/m...

The underlying structural problems of UK politics that the country doesn't have the resources to do everything expected of it and a Westminster class in denial about this doesn't go away in the event of a new PM.

The Rhodesia Solution

The folks who blather about 'Western civilisation' are preventing teaching Plato and (some) Shakespeare

There was a fire last night at Pegwell Bay NNR. 💔 It tore through the reedbeds quickly & in the aftermath this morning, it's clear the impacts are pretty devastating - around 300m of scorched earth. The fire, believed to have been started deliberately, occurred during breeding bird season...

Well. news.sky.com/story/politi...

we need much clearer definition - and more distance - between ministers and civil servants. That would avoid the accountability mess we are in now. Reupping my 2022 contribution to @instituteforgovernment.org.uk constitutional review www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/defaul...

Meanwhile over on the "Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity" (TRIPP)...

Well, happy thrremony at tremony at the liremony at the libraremony at the library day to all who celebrate

Meanwhile, in Portugal, his concert has not been cancelled but the government is "analysing the situation", which can be translated as 'we will deny him entry only if everyone else does because our principles are very flexible' expresso.pt/blitz/2026-0...

Very helpful - the clearest explanation of the current AI agent space I've come across -