Sort of have to admire that the Starmer team run a Facebook page, an X account, an Instagram, a Substack, and a LinkedIn, all with distinct voices that sound nothing like each other OR Keir Starmer.

This doesn't scream "PM in 2029".

This made me think. Has an MP ever run for another seat while an MP? In the UK or indeed any other Westminster system? Is it even possible?

"the equivalent of a lottery win" www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Funny scenario: Starmer runs in Clacton and beats Farage, then claims it proves he can take on Reform. It won't happen.

“I am the most verbally and physically attacked public figure or politician of modern times.” The disgraceful Nigel Farage. Remembering Labour MP Jo Cox, born 1974, murdered 2016.

Farage announced the by-election within an hour of the deadline he was given by the Guardian for responding to the story

The public have been very good at aligning themselves behind the anti-reform candidate...

Game on, Nige.

Dog: "I can hear a whistle, can you hear a whistle?"

Has any other politician ever called a by-election on an explicitly anti-transparency, pro-sleaze ticket before?

oh, this is fun. Farage spent decades failing to become a member of parliament. Here's a proposal to stop him *ceasing* to be one

The Government must block Nigel Farage’s resignation until the Standards Commissioner finishes investigating him. The people of Clacton deserve the full facts. If a by-election does go ahead, all parties should stand aside. We cannot give oxygen to this vanity project.

It might happen!

Just @countbinface.bsky.social should stand against him.

"The Makerfield by election didn't show a mandate for Andy Burnham to be leader. Also I will hold a Clacton by election to get a mandate for me to be leader."

It will be so funny if Restore deprive him of being an MP again.

A Facebook comment broadcast live on national television.

Saying you're the "most physically attacked" MP when two MPs have been killed in the last decade is just horribly self-absorbed.

they should really cut this off

Hey news editors, you know there's no new news here right? You're just broadcasting a pub bore.

He's a real snowflake isn't he

The cheek of getting Jo Cox killed and then saying this. God help us if he ever became PM, the most aggrieved and pathetic man in politics.

Don't you think he looks tired

Well that was a good match to accidentally get drawn into watching.

Time for football fans to have the "waking up to nervously check your phone" experience that anyone invested in politics has semi-regularly had for a decade plus now.

Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you. 🌧️

Blimey there's a Zeppelin over Central London

Running for president, or really any federal office, without a plan to deal with this out of control institution is pointless. You might as well play pretend

You cannot hope to bribe or twist / thank God! / the British journalist. / But, seeing what / the man will do / unbribed, there's no occasion to.

My article with @carto-graph.bsky.social on Japanese private railways is out. Rule of thumb, only privatise railways as much as you privatise parking. worksinprogress.co/issue/why-ja...

The marketing team for Doctor Who: Circuit Breaker are good, I'll give them that.

The end of an era - After almost a century we said goodbye this morning to our great companion of the airwaves Radio 4 198 LW. I shall miss her warmth and crackle. Here’s the final sign off at the end of #theshippingforecast before she fell silent… ❤️

remember when they lost in Uxbridge and Keir Starmer leader of the opposition then told the mayor to “reflect” on this policy

Hard to overstate just how much of the Brexit campaign was based on lies. Looking back it’s a sad case study of a country voting to immiserate itself due to the mendacity of right-wing politicians and tabloids. But it’s almost never framed that way in UK media. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

remember one of the things I found most disgusting ten years ago was Farage talking about the referendum having been won “without a single bullet being fired”, a week after Jo Cox was shot (and stabbed) to death by a far-right assailant

Immigration went down, and they didn't even care. Time to continue taking their demands at face value, I guess.

10 years today! What a wasted decade. So many things we need to be doing that got pushed down the agenda to deal with a deeply stupid idea.

The whole Burnham thing does feel strangely reminiscent of ‘we’ll just stick Billie Piper’s face in at the end of the ep and work out the rest later’

With nothing to speculate on any more as to whether he will reach Downing Street or not, Burnham’s mind can turn to the real nail-biting question: is his train going to tip over the Delay Repay threshold, and will it do it by enough margin that it isn’t wiped out by the timetable padding at Euston?

keep seeing reports that markets are jittery about a potential Miliband Treasury and it’s pure vibes right? he is a mainstream, experienced, capable politician who understands economics and they’re treating him like Green Liz Truss

Not really. Starmer pursued a strategy that made essentially every political scientist suck their teeth and go 'that's not a good idea', his administration was not centrist (looking Tony Blair when I take my glasses off does not make you centrist)....I don't think polsci will be that troubled.

Our society has spent the entirety of teenagers' lives systematically destroying every alternative to online interaction, from youth-clubs to broadcast TV, and now wants to cut off their access to the one thing that was sold as replacing it all.

It's easy and convenient for institutions that help perpetuate the transmisogyny and broader transphobia that clearly contributed to Brianna Ghey's death to blame social media or extreme online content or whatever. It doesn't explain why her killers saw her as somebody they were allowed to hurt.

'We are clamping down on the harm caused by social media. 'Read all about it on the Nazi pogrom deepfake abuse website'

It's really fun when a knee-jerk policy comes into contact with the people it is ostensibly for, and you realise that no one involved has actually engaged with them as anything more than symbolic stand-ins.

Please Use AI

The racist pogroms in the UK are going to produce even more calls for compromise and understanding with the racists’ “reasonable concerns” but that is exactly what got us here.

The Railway: Goes out of its way to set up a fun 40th anniversary tribute to Network SouthEast, including on the announcements. Evening peak busker: Time to turn up my amp as high as it'll go. God this is frustrating.