I want people like this to realise that there is beauty to be found outside the high church tradition as well

There's a limited case for some industries needing state support to exist regardless of market conditions (taking control of the last primary steel plant to prevent china running it into the ground during a rearmament drive) but beyond that...no! Britain bring a services powerhouse is good actually!

Irony: Britain does now have a "intensify industry" button that it refuses to press and that Blue Labour would die in a ditch to stop It's the "rejoin the single market & customs union" button

On the contrary, I know of some party members who would prefer her to keep her distance

It's kind of hilarious ngl that the end point of the rise of streaming has turned out to be *recreating the studio system* www.ft.com/content/6532...

I'm just glad Ellison's been denied the opportunity to further expand his empire

Goodness knows I'm no fan of Polanski, but I do enjoy watching Mike Tapp squirm here

I am....dubious of this, to say the least

Sadly this is exactly the sort of thing I've come to expect from Graham Stringer, but it's still reprehensible that he hangs around with these people and underlines why he shouldn't have the Labour whip

What has struck me about recent UK polling is how clear a lead the combined centre/left bloc has over the right bloc.

Also that we're genuinely a much less polarised country, so ideological trends drift across the political spectrum in a way they don't so much in the US

I suspect there are other neurodivergent diagnoses I could probably get, but I don't think there's much point pursuing them. My autism diagnosis, on the other hand, was genuinely life-changing.

There is some truth to this, but it is also the case that up until 17 months ago, Labour's primary opponent was *Rishi Sunak*. Nigel Farage at that point was a secondary figure. Donald Trump has now been the leader of the American right for almost 10 years!

There is absolutely a British version of this as well

I think what's so encouraging about this result is that it's in an area where the demographics have been drifting in the Republicans' favour (Trump barely lost any ground between 2016 and 2020, then significantly outperformed his 2020 result in 2024).

I've no idea how generative syntax – a field founded by a Jewish American man – came to be dominated by Italian women, but I think it's cool

For some reason I completely misread this earlier as 'trans-inclusive' and felt sad about it

Many Labour MPs have done and continue to do so. It doesn't get reported but there is a lot of work going on between backbenchers.

The big problem with the UK housing market is that prices need to keep rising in order for new development and new mortgages to be viable – yet prices are already far too high for the average working age person to afford the repayments. www.ft.com/content/283b... 1/

The whole Pride in Place scheme is deeply infuriating, in England as well as the rest of the UK. Whitehall should not be using its time dictating how councils can spend small amounts of money on community assets.

I find it quite odd that so much of the Anglo discourse about inequality focuses on wealth inequality – which, at least in the UK, is not particularly high by European standards? Just off the top of my head, France, Italy and Sweden all have higher wealth inequality than the UK

The people going after the CEO clearly haven't read the full article. It's obvious that the WI is being threatened with ruinous litigation, and in response it's setting up alternative structures to accommodate trans women. What else is the CEO supposed to do? Direct your ire at the government.

This looks like a fantastic opportunity. Had my life taken a different trajectory when I left school, I might be applying for it myself. Alas, I've got quite enough to keep me busy already!

"I spoke to one 80-year-old woman who has been in our organisation for decades, who said it was one of the greatest experiences of her life, and the only place in her 80 years where she’s been treated as a woman with respect.” What does this do for women's rights?

Radio 3's Round Midnight is a seriously good programme. Been studying in the evenings recently as it's when I'm best able to focus, and the selection of jazz played is a great accompaniment.

No, you cannot afford to distance yourself from your biggest export market. No, do not increase your minimum wage by significantly more than inflation several years running. No, do not keep running deficits when you have persistently elevated interest rates and above-target inflation.

Politicians used to be intimately aware of the political danger of persistently elevated interest rates, but now just.... aren't?

We should also be quite careful about using inflation as a cost of living measure. Stuff like, e.g., interest costs can have a big income on the cost of living but aren’t captured by CPI numbers.

I was not considered all that unusual in uni for not drinking alcohol – something that is borderline incomprehensible to people just 10 years older than me

This is also central to Methodist teaching!

Not the main point here I know, but US racial categories will never not be weird to me. Ruben Gallego is very white. I was in sixth form with a white guy from *Catalonia* (not even the southern Spain!) whose skin was considerably darker than Gallego's.

Finally starting to reconnect with my night owl tendencies now that I'm back at uni, and it's simply joyous

What the wrangling over the Employment Rights Bill has demonstrated to me is that more labour market regulation is probably not in the trade union movement's best interests vs. more freedom to recruit and organise in workplaces

It's so grey and miserable today that it's got to 12pm and I still feel like I've barely woken up

Family holidays in southern Europe are interesting because me, my dad and my sister are all blonde northern Europeans, and then my mum (less than 5 foot tall, very dark brown hair) looks like she could plausibly be from Italy. We always wonder if people will think we've kidnapped her.

Not true – Akua Reindorf is still there for another month!

I really do look like I come from northern Germany or Scandinavia so I cannot go to those countries without people trying to talk to me in the local language

Sometimes I do think we should have more media outlets that just go 'Labour good' – you know, for balance

This is a brilliant stat that is often overlooked. Large, complex polities like the UK are phenomenally difficult to govern – and most commentators fail to appreciate that.

Travelling back from Birmingham and I've had to make an unscheduled stop for lunch in Sheffield due to signalling faults around Leeds

Look, I have my concerns about the changes to building regs for flats, but thinking that's the proximate cause of the slowdown in construction is frankly barmy when there are much more obvious macroeconomic explanations

I mean, this is nuts - HS2 should be the lead developer and owner of the land around its stations, it should be the leaseholder for both commercial and residential property around the line. Why is Labour determined not to learn any of the lessons of why British rail was crap?

Went to see CMAT's Birmingham show and she was bloody fantastic

Curious about this for me now @profanity.accountant

Linguistics itself is actually a remarkably transferable and interdisciplinary subject, but very few people are aware of this

In Birmingham for the first time in almost a decade today (for a concert). It's a city I like and think is unfairly maligned: it has a lot to offer if you know where to look. That said, I'm immediately struck by how dramatically divergent Birmingham and Leeds's fortunes have been this past decade.

Can't believe we've gone and done what even the Tories couldn't bring themselves to do, for no electoral benefit whatsoever. Utterly ridiculous policy making done by utterly ridiculous people.

Hadn't realised that there was a Toynbee in the GPEW

This is mostly because we don't have an unemployment insurance system. Labour could legislate for the establishment of one on the Ghent system – which would both incentivise trade union membership and free up savings for investment.

How is it 10 years since Heaven Sent/Hell Bent, like genuinely how