“U.K. asks for the Moon on a stick, again. Wicked EU unexpectedly says no, laughs in Esperanto.”

What do want in an ageing society? Fewer people to work in health and social care!! When do we want it? Now!

Yesterday’s missing quote. But as true today as it was then.

turns out when you legitimate a taste for bigotry people gravitate to the parties that serve it as an entree rather than as a garnish

He’s certainly doing well so far.

Burnham gets more Starmeresque every day. Just like in 2015 he disappoints every time he opens his mouth

'You must help me clear my attic, and you will be grateful for doing so'

Terrible politics too. The carists and white van men are never going to vote for this version of Labour (probably not for any version). Still drunk-texting your ex.

Well worth reading even if you’re not Welsh, for a brutally honest attack on Starmer-McSweeneyism from a genuine Labour man.

Israeli fascist and minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, posted a video of himself on Twitter abusing the illegally kidnaped and detained members of the Global Sumud Flotilla while yelling “Welcome to Israel, we are the owners of the house".

Blue Labour Heaven.

OpenAI Announces Construction Of New Data Center On Top Of Sick Child

Nope. There's nothing that can substitute for the 4-8% we are losing each year in income per head. It's a delusion of both the left and the right that you can. The former think they can industrial policy their way out of it; the latter think they can deregulate the UK out of it. Neither true.

I have spent the last 4 years being lectured by British colleagues about German weakness towards Russia. Well.

The worst part of seeing my grandfather get run over while crossing the street is knowing that I have failed this driving exam.

Andrew is right - austerity meant severe cuts to non social care spending by councils and at the same time council tax went up in real terms. Councils had no other choice. And so no wonder people are so fed up

One of the funniest concepts in recent developed world history is the emergence of a young mostly male policy wonk class that seems to instinctually blame some fringe, radical facet of the environmentalist movement for everything bad in society when they hold like no power anywhere

She really needs to join Reform. What’s stopping her? She’s fluent & has a relaxed relationship with facts, so is emintently qualified. Another Patel or Braverman in the making.

I really wanted this Burnham speech to leave me hopeful and was actively rooting for it. I found it deflating - to put it mildly. Where it needed to be brave and expansive, it was small and meek. Let me give one example that I found quite instructive, since Andy used it as a framing device. 1/

Very proud of Magdalen student Angus Barrett. And the poem is truly chilling... www.magd.ox.ac.uk/news/magdale...

I’m amazed anyone needs reminding of this, but local government spending power per person fell by 18% from 2010 to 2024 (would have been 26% but for increases in council tax). At the same time, social care pressures on local govt have grown a lot. The decay of the public realm is NOT a mystery

Israel formally declares war against [*checks notes*] international law?

This is easily the saddest time in American history. The absolute worst people are systematically destroying the country, and our system is completely failing to stop them.

I still think these two paragraphs from Ganz are the most important contemporary political writing

Kudos to whoever made this.

Labour has run its policies like a low rent corporate values exercise. Survey people on words that sound nice then put up posters saying these are the core values. In the meantime, the CEO is sleeping with an intern, the managers are booking revenues early & the workers are fiddling their expenses.

Euston, we have a problem.

Burnham basically lost the leadership to Corbyn because he was too cowardly, too centrist and showed no vision. Is he really going to do the same thing again.

Quite — re that Hinder guy’s Blue Labour-ish objections to any talk about Europe.

The only possible explanation for Labour’s conduct is they they don’t even like their own actual voters, let alone their _potential_ voters. I find it very easy not to support them. Their argument usually boils down to “we’re the lesser of two evils,” but then they blow it.

Nandy is a Lexiter. She wants to keep her Wigan seat at all costs, and thinks that is best done by staying out of the EU. She has underwhelmed completely as a minister; and, as a pro-EU person, I am not in the mood to take jack shit from the likes of her. More pro-EU militancy needed, folks.

Patriotism has officially been redefined in London, and it involves a staggering amount of warm Stella Artois and public urination. Thousands of deeply concerned citizens descended upon Westminster to save the nation. They did this by making sure nobody can walk down Whitehall

Out of every name that's come up as a likely replacement for Keir Starmer, Andy Burnham is the politician who's most similar to him. Not sure what it says about Labour that he's also the front runner.

"I can't be bought by anyone." #R4Today

We should start calling a parachuted candidate in a seat that has a high risk of blowing up in their face a Market Garden

"I've learned from my mistakes and I believe I can repeat them exactly." Peter Cook.

If the Farage bung really was for security, why did he get his lifetime's supply as a massive interest-accumulating lump sum? Why didn't the briber - sorry - benefactor come to an arrangement whereby he said "OK, get whatever security you need - weekly, monthly, yearly, you choose - and invoice me"?

Easily the best way to get screwed by Donald Trump's America is to be a democratic and free state which just wants to live peacefully within its own borders.

The local elections in one chart. Labour has been squeezed between the Greens in young wards and Reform in older working-class wards www.economist.com/britain/2026...

My phone just reminded me of this screengrab from 9 years ago, how timely

The current government has been criticised for many things but I suspect history will judge its total failure to act on the degeneration of both established and social media as its greatest and, in the longer term, most costly mistake.

In the UK Farage is investigated by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner and laughs on his way to the pub. In Italy he would be investigated by the Guardia di Finanza and antimafia magistrates and would fuc*ing terrified.

We'll probably all quite like Wes Streeting in a few years when he starts wearing Silk Cut-purple blazers and presenting documentaries about train travel.

Starmer had so many options. He could have offered cost-free eye-catcher progressive detonators like Baby Boxes and The Right To Roam. Or he could have pledged more substantively to settle down more centre-left. Instead we got Nothing Pudding

Not sure there’s any point having elections any more. We should just ask crypto billionaire, Christopher Harborne, who he’s paid to be the next prime minister and drop the absurd notion that the voters get to decide anything.

Ed Miliband discovers what a Wes Streeting premiership would be like

I could consider forgiving Keir Starmer saying he wants to get on with running the country, maybe even that he’s focused on delivering, if any of these statements were followed by a list of bold things he’s going to do and do differently, but they never are; they’re just bland substance-free waffle.

Andy Burnham is the adult equivalent of the “really good” footballer who usually plays for the other side and whom they insist would have made sure of a 4-0 win, rather than a 2-1 defeat. In reality, even when he turns up he is pretty average.

War on voting rights War on the environment War on public health War on democratic norms War on labor War on women's rights War on immigrants War on public goods War on history War on truth.....