I didn’t mean to look quite so much like the midlife crisis had just struck but it was really cold in the studio and the only jacket I had was the one you see m.youtube.com/watch?is=oXw...

It's only "The Will of the People" if it's from the Farage region of France, otherwise it's just sparkling populism

Part of my anger last night is so very many of our commentary complex spent years pandering to "will of the people" and have just now memory holed it to speak out "against the evils of populism." I didn't keep all the receipts, but I do remember. bsky.app/profile/indy...

"I don't care if they arrived on a dingy via Dover, or with a visa at Gatwick." old enough to remember being told we needed to respect these people, and there was nothing wrong about making a distinction between illegal and legal flows and some of us said, you just watch,,, that train is never late

Incidentally, Labour MPs don't get to claim they are decent good hearted people until they have done something about the Home Office. You might not like that reality, as you'd prefer to give out participation prizes, but in reality, standards are a thing.

As ever, I'll take on the whining, puking, mewling of people defending Labour as "making the hard trade offs for growth" when they show some courage vs euroscepticism. Until then, no medals for hard tradeoffs, it's just cowardice by the back door.

Central guidance is that they have to effectively half the workforce, but there’s no additional cash from govt to cover redundancies so those will come out of the operating budget. Another finance director friend left the NHS because budgeting was basically impossible.

The structural issues long predate Starmer but the commitment to firing “managers” and taking out admin costs seems to be driving scorched earth approaches that will result in nobody to manage or report on waiting lists, check patients in, deal with bed management, handle complaints etc etc.

Marton's important story really gets to the heart of how Orban's system works and where it goes wrong. Enormous state resources were moved to build a privately-owned national champion, and the result was neither coherent nor sustainable www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Cops have twice raided Quaker meeting houses to arrest people- and seize their phones/laptops - without so far charging anyone. Are we seeing pre-emptive policing to make the very idea of protest impossible? www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/identi...

Ok, we've been doing this for over a decade now, it's time to reconsider what actions would actually persuade the Home Office to stop breaking the law intentionally. Because nothing so far has worked.

Damn. @jkleske.bsky.social is absolutely on fire right now: futureslens.substack.com/p/doomscroll...

Incidentally, if anyone had the money to commission a poll, I can guarantee that a large majority of the British electorate think that Associate Editors at the Sunday Times are overpaid. bsky.app/profile/indy...

In 1931, Tolkien pushed to have Shakespeare taken off his part of the English syllabus in Oxford.

can't tell from the photo which ones are Angles and which are Saxons 🧐

This is the kind of question the govt will have to answer if it enacts the retrospective ILR changes. Imagine the headlines once we see cases of British families ripped apart because the foreign spouse can’t travel back in time. Some journalists might want to consider whether that will be ‘popular’.

On some level you just have to dislike foreigners, per se just not want foreigners around, to get the decision making of various powerful people in this country. I think that's quite a common way to be! But it is entirely alien to me, I think it quite pathetic and contemptible really.

Alert.

Those who know me from the Twitter days know I have not been a Bloodworth fan, but I would say this isn't just good, but important. cc @paulhebden.bsky.social

Hundreds of thousands of disabled people will have their benefit almost halved if the government assesses their condition might one day improve. Charities warn the move could cause large-scale hardship, including “destitution.” My report in tomorrow’s Guardian: www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

It does feel like the frequency of this stuff is increasing. (See recent public appearances.)

One for @preachypreach.bsky.social and some others

*Everyone* thought Sheffield was losing the snooker - there was no chance Sheffield could match the Saudis' cash. So how did we save it? www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk/unsnookered-...

Too late as always. The propaganda effect is complete. Thousands of voters will believe that Muslim men’s coercion swung the vote and corrupted “our” democracy because false allegations were reported. This is how right-leaning media have rolled the pitch for Reform. news.sky.com/story/politi...

Interesting angle on UK productivity jundu1.substack.com/p/a-hub-with... cc @flipchartrick.bsky.social @oldtrotter.bsky.social

Said it before: governments have created a situation where restructuring the sector is inevitable. However, having seen all the mistakes of the last 40 years across many industiries, it's very wearying that we're going through a thoughtless knee-jerk dismantling.

'New starters joining the university will also be employed via a subsidiary firm and prevented from being able to access the Teachers’ Pension Scheme, UCU said, adding that teaching-only staff also face losing the union’s current bargaining rights.' 2/2

@robmanuel.b3ta.com has you covered on the weirdness of age when it comes to Orbison et. al. www.monkeon.co.uk/the-time-tra...

OK, the apocalypse is near, Wes Streeting has listened to someone other than the Centre for Policy Studies.

I note that as usual they left “House of Commons Bar” off the list.

Everyone should read this short thread and the linked piece at the end. cc @paulhebden.bsky.social

UK government is constantly falling into this trap, having stripped itself of expertise in all sorts of areas. What's interesting is that after 40 years of this, most of our politicians still can't get their head around it.

The full list of recommendations from the Government's Rycroft Review of foreign political interference

Another one for @barryfreed.bsky.social

What happens when you rely on the private sector to deliver social objectives and another reason for the state to play a much bigger role in commissioning new housing with the private sector acting as a contractor.

And on this, two things can be true at the same time. For some, a digital ID might be a better and more affordable option than a physical ID. Meanwhile, for some other people, digital ID that requires an iPhone 8 or newer might be a barrier to participating in society. Diff people need diff things.

I do think the people who kept repeating 'oh their bark is worse than their bite' like a mantra when Starmer did the island of strangers speech - which made abundantly clear they were willing to let the Home Office go pedal to the metal - have to bear a share of the blame if they get away with this

Flawed, imo, but may interest @dsquareddigest.bsky.social

Curious how this relates to US polling

Nobody understands this about the government’s settlement reforms. People think it's 10 years for most & 15 years for care workers But its 15 years for all midskill roles, whatever the salary, if not a graduate job role classified at RQF level 6. Lab technicians, data analysts, hotel managers

One for @barryfreed.bsky.social perhaps

Goose meme - which Home Secretary might have acted in ways to inflame that, Sajid?

I know people are sceptical about journalism right now but this is the kind of story that takes weeks to get to the bottom of. I hope people see the value in what we do

So it turns out Reform are laundering their donations through crypto, before converting them into cash, hiding the original source of the money. So who is really funding Nigel Farage and Reform UK? observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Going in a different direction: Do you have any equations memorised? If so, which ones? (As for me and poems, I think only The Lake Isle of Innisfree.)

Roy Lilley commentary on Module 3 of the Covid Inquiry. Read it.

Great illustration of the ratchet effect. There are all sorts of things Labour could say about "rejoin" that wouldn't make me happy, but I might well put up with. However, triangulating with the adamantine preference of Reform voters for "never" just leads Labour to this. 1/2

In the end, Morgan McSweeney's strategy worked, we have a clear competitor to Reform for voters to coalesce around?

UK authors - I urge you to read this article about a school in Manchester who removed hundreds of our books from their library they deemed ‘inappropriate’ and share. This is appalling censorship - and it’s coming from the school’s head and SLT themselves. @indexoncensorship.org

Racism in the UK has reached a completely new level. It probably was always there but it's now fully out in the open and is getting more and more normalised by the far-right and even the not-so-far-right. The fact that racists have lost all inhibitions and don't hide any more is truly worrying.