Can we stop using Eurovision as an accurate judgment of public opinion

Feel like in the past few weeks, the other site's algorithm seems more muted and in line with my consumption habits - less conspiracy nuts

Donald Trump just threatened to tax Guinness. Right before St. Patrick’s Day.

I wonder if this will be Badenoch’s Salisbury moment? Like Corbyn’s desire to give Putin the benefit of the doubt, this is a statement of obvious, politically motivated myopia at a time of political crisis. Voters saw what Corbyn was doing and never forgave or forgot. Same could happen to Kemi.

This is the most awful Trump moment to date. And as for Vance. . .

Huge respect to Zelensky for standing up to bullies like this, however unfortunately this is terrible diplomacy and any minor Trump sympathy for Ukraine's position now utterly erroded

I hope Ukraine wins the war and Zelenskyy gets to live the rest of his long, long life in complete and utter peace, jesus christ

Shows how much more serious Europe is about defence in spite of commentary otherwise. (Although I disagree how its funded)

International aid cuts are wrong. We need more defence spending, but it's counterproductive to abandon soft power for a bit more hard power. We need both.

Why does 25% AfD among young men spark a thousand "what is going on with young men?" posts yet Die Linke 34% among young women generates...nothing at all? Yes, young men voting for the radical right is an important phenomenon. But so is young women going rad left *at even higher rates*.

Not a Merz fan but his Ukraine and defence policy stance is great news for Europe. Shame CDU/CSU and Greens couldn't get a majority and form a cohesive majority government (I know Söder ruled out black/green)

I think Linke's shift to a more West German progressive left party is strategically positive, as being an eastern interest leftist party concurrently with AfD consolidation in East Germany wasn't sustainable

This

Need to stop using twitter for German election coverage. The American takes on it are incredibly uneducated and batshit. Suddenly everyone thinks they're an expert in German politics and history

Still internalising the Vance Munich speech. A sitting Vice President goes to Europe, barely says a word about the despotic murderous regime which has invaded its neighbour, and instead lectures his allies about freedom of speech. It’d be funny if it weren’t so serious.

These are genuinely terrible policies. If I was leading a populist right party (which I'm happily not) and promoting cutting energy bills, how the f*ck do you justify taxing solar farms and putting energy cables underground as a way of cutting bills? Stupid policy from a stupid party

Absolutely fascinating situation in Canada happening right now. Longstanding contingent of left-wing nationalism in Canada has been unleashed following tariff wars. MAGA world fundamentally misunderstands that the US isn't the only nationalistic country.

Labour's specific migration policy is a smart centre-left response in many ways- emphasising competence and delivery on asylum processing within frameworks of international law, however they risk repeating previous mistakes of elevating migration as an electoral issue, playing into Reform's hands

Do not understand the media obsession with Birbalsingh. Undoubtedly a good headteacher, but does not give her credibility as a political commentator or engineer of education policy. Accusing the education secretary of being a Marxist shows a lack of substantive alternative ideas for education policy

still don't understand what's taking her so long to defect to reform

Thought this was Charlotte from the traitors at first

Tariff wars begin

Feels like he's making the same mistakes as the UK Tories last year. Trying to prioritise migration as a top issue, and legitimising radical right opponents as a result

This looks look more like a reversion to normality back to 2-3 months ago. Trudeau's resignation and Trump's accession doesn't fundamentally change Liberal fortunes in the medium term.

Territorial threats are historically the strongest fuel for nationalism. This man represents a far-right party, but plain nationalism trumps (no pun intended) any admiration abroad towards Trump

Those claiming Musk did a "roman salute" should know the the Nazi salute is literally based on a roman salute

Okay straight to illegal migration and weaponisation of justice. If you thought Trump 2.0 was more moderate, you were severely wrong

Hot take: Robert Jenrick will defect to reform in this parliament. Feels like he's trying to be as controversial as possible to make his position untenable and then defect to Reform

feel like British politics rn is reminding me of 2008-12 in US politics. Newly elected centre-left govt dealing with shit economy, and originally popular policies now being faced with huge resistance from effective campaigning against the right /1

Concerning poll here with only 36% of Brits wanting to support Ukraine until victory to 32% wanting a negotiation. Putin is not a credible negotiating partner and cannot be tamed. Even if you freeze the conflict next year, he'll happily break it like he did with the Minsk agreement.

Its normal for opposition leaders often start with a pretty classical party line approach, however her inability to sufficiently define herself against Reform or Labour has meant gaffes have become magnified under media pressure, as there's not really a whole lot else to comment on

Really good article. Might be unpopular to say but MPs are increasingly becoming part of the welfare state rather than being legislators for the welfare state.

Great to be here 👋🏽 Let’s start with some good news. A new report shows free school meals in London's state primaries are having a positive impact: ➡️ Improving children’s health and wellbeing ➡️ Supporting families, esp. those struggling with the cost of living www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

Went to the other site today. There's still a lot of progressives on there, but the algorithm feels fixed around culture war issues to an insane amount. A lot about transgender and migration issues, a lot of soundbites, and shorter posts tend to be more prevalent.

Clarkson is the person farmers should actually be angry with. By piling into farming as a tax dodge, he and other greedy millionaires brought this on.

Really good article on the upcoming Irish elections. Interestingly, Ireland's far right surge being encapsulated mostly by independents, mostly due to Ireland's electoral system. How this affects policymaking under the next govt will be something to watch

Elon Musk's relationship and (to an extent) fixation on the UK very interesting. How this affects UK-US relations is something to watch

Obvs not surprised about Conservatives capitalising on this. Makes sense, but preaching to the converted

Big day for reasoned debate on farms/inheritance today - a debate undermined by @BBCNews repeatedly and wrongly reporting as fact that “farms worth more than £1m would have to pay inheritance tax”. This is just flatly wrong in vast vast majority of cases

Interesting how the Lib Dems and Greens are taking a more traditionally centre-right approach to rural affairs. Eg- farming, planning reform. Key nod to their new constituency of voters, however may be tricky balancing this with a core urban, progressive constituency.

Conservatives love talking tough on welfare until affects groups that traditionally support them. Eg- pensioners, farming subsidies, etc. We need a more holistic approach to debating welfare, not just focussing on the very poorest

Regardless of the fact that this is closing down a tax loophole for millionaires buying farmland, this proposed policy is only 20% of assets after a £1m threshold. Pretty reasonable and clearly a wealth tax

There seem to be a significant number of accounts springing up falsely claiming to belong to people in the UK political sphere, and in that vein I am incredibly sad to inform you that the George Galloway account appears to be real.

🤦

I support this bill, mostly for personal reasons and the safeguards are strong. However the lack of transparency originally and lack of time for parliamentary debate makes me think unfortunately it's gonna be voted down

I thought Badenoch's focus on governmental reform in the leadership race was smart, as it was vague enough to mean anything to anyone. However leading on this in opposition doesn't appeal to voters and won't shift the conversation.

My instinct says this is the right move. Historically Putin is provoked when the West doesn't act. Eg- Georgia and Crimea annexations. Post-2022, escalating arms exports hasn't necessarily led to a more radical response. Hope UK will follow

This trend is derived straight from Instagram stories when I was in year 9

Bluesky starter packs giving me mid-2010s DLC pack vibes fr

Honestly hoping for a CDU-Green coalition to come out of this; would cut AfD out of leading the official opposition, be more pro-Ukraine and greener than another grand coalition probably