Can we really write a shopping list of policies that have worked elsewhere and import them here? My piece, on @johnkampfner.bsky.social's intrepid new book Braver New World:

Can we really write a shopping list of policies that have worked elsewhere and import them here? My piece, on @johnkampfner.bsky.social's intrepid new book Braver New World:

As every party has a tricky coalition to hold together, the great @emilylawford.bsky.social finds the same at Tommy Robinson's demo - a confused and chaotic union of self-styled christians and EDL-styled cokeheads:

New @newstatesman1913.bsky.social pod! @tommctague.bsky.social talks us through "Manchesterism":

“Labour has suffered a heavier loss to progressive parties than to Reform, and the small section who have peeled off from Labour to Reform are far less likely to reconsider Labour than the “progressive defectors””

New! @newstatesman1913.bsky.social pod - @pronouncedalva.bsky.social and I chat through how we got to here, and ask whether Wes Streeting has the numbers:

"The question for Labour in the inner city is: what is its offer to young economically insecure women?" Fascinating, granular Hackney post-mortem by @sampallis.bsky.social:

My column in this week's @newstatesman1913.bsky.social - on the inconvenient lessons from the local election results, and how London became "the next Red Wall" (feat. a 2014 warning from Starmer himself):

Labour’s Reform defectors are never coming back By @anooshc.bsky.social

That's a short thread - there is a ton more graphs (80+! (yes i almost lost my mind)) in the full deck, lots of stuff on each nation. You can get it here: persuasionuk.org/research/may... Thanks to @yougov.co.uk, others who contributed and @anooshc.bsky.social for featuring it in her latest column

Just a reminder of where voters (including Reform ones) are at with this story:

There is so much great stuff in this week's @newstatesman1913.bsky.social issue - start with @pronouncedalva.bsky.social's must-read report inside the coup:

The government has moved to its "don't coup us or the bond vigilantes will get you" defence. a) Are you really saying that's the reason you should run the country b) The bond markets don't like you as much as you think they do www.newstatesman.com/business/eco...

Good thread from @robfordmancs.bsky.social - really no point doing anything unless your priority is local gov (eg. you can't enforce Renters Rights without properly resourced councils, among MANY other examples). Here's my column on The Townhall Theory of Everything: bsky.app/profile/robf...

Can't believe this didn't work! www.newstatesman.com/politics/the...

Sadiq Khan accuses Rachel Reeves of "talking down our country" - the same accusation Jacob Rees-Mogg made of Mark Carney in 2018. www.newstatesman.com/politics/lab...

A great sketch - both elegant and utterly brutal - by @willdunn.bsky.social of Keir Starmer's make-or-break speech:

Must-read Morning Call from our eagle-eyed Ethan Croft this morning - subscribe here to keep up-to-date daily with UK political news: morningcall.substack.com/subscribe?ut...

and lots more, including warning Labour's top team to stop "obsessing over hero voters":

He also accuses Rachel Reeves of two years of “doom and gloom” putting off investors in London - “We are, inadvertently from the noise coming from the Treasury, encouraging people to leave this country to go elsewhere. It’s bonkers.”

Sadiq Khan calls for Andy Burnham's return for the creation of a "team of rivals" - and says “one of the things that No 10 and No 11 could do is to say to the NEC: ‘If Andy wants to stand, don’t stop him’.”

New! Sadiq Khan tells me “ten years is not realistic” for Keir Starmer...

“We can’t pretend that Keir Starmer was popular or an asset on the doorstep. I mean, we can’t pretend, right? Because if we do so, we can’t address the issue, the importance of change, the importance of a North Star, the importance of sunny uplands, the importance of a vision.”

“We can’t pretend that Keir Starmer was popular or an asset on the doorstep. I mean, we can’t pretend, right? Because if we do so, we can’t address the issue, the importance of change, the importance of a North Star, the importance of sunny uplands, the importance of a vision.”

When the great @pronouncedalva.bsky.social says it's happening, it's happening - find her must-read coverage here:

“Every time I hear the Chancellor speak, it’s doom and gloom for the last two years. People didn’t vote for a Labour government for more doom and gloom.” Sadiq Khan says Starmer talking about ten years in office is "just not realistic"

Sadiq Khan tells @anooshc.bsky.social what Starmer and Reeves get wrong about Britain

New! Sadiq Khan tells me “ten years is not realistic” for Keir Starmer...

New! @tommctague.bsky.social, @pronouncedalva.bsky.social, Ethan Croft and I chat on the latest @newstatesman1913.bsky.social pod about the mayhem within Labour since the local election results:

link here: www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

How would a Labour leadership election work? Here’s a handy guide by me for @newstatesman1913.bsky.social. After Catherine West’s unexpected intervention this weekend, read it if you want to understand what might come next!

"I haven’t actually even looked at the rules because I don’t actually want to do this." I love this exclusive interview with Labour's "stalking horse" Catherine West by the ace Ethan Croft:

Follow my colleague @meganekenyon.bsky.social for live updates on this weekend's festival of recrimination and backstabbing www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

New! @newstatesman1913.bsky.social pod! @bwalker.uk, @tommctague.bsky.social, @pronouncedalva.bsky.social and I react to the first results out so far - and discuss Keir Starmer's position and the thinking of potential leadership contenders:

And there is no route back to rebuilding the sense of shared purpose which defined the period up to 1979 and has been eroded both by deliberate policy choices - austerity and privatisation - as well as structural factors - deindustrialisation and Brexit - that doesn't run through local government

Reform has taken its first London borough - Havering. The @newstatesman1913.bsky.social ran an on-the-ground report from Havering by Maya Sall this weekend - read it here. www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

As I wrote at the time, of course the police could have found McSweeney's phone. It says a lot more about the country that they didn't than whatever was on there... www.newstatesman.com/politics/soc...

Almost every plotline in the narrative of Britain’s malaise, on both left and right, among the apolitical and hyper-online, can be traced back to the state of local government. My column in this week's @newstatesman1913.bsky.social election special:

"Almost every plotline in the narrative of Britain’s malaise, on both left and right, among the apolitical and hyper-online, can be traced back to local government" @anooshc.bsky.social on how years of Westminister failure is turning up at council doors www.newstatesman.com/politics/ele...

“…what has become increasingly clear is that the council administering your local services can no longer be separated from your politics.” This is great by @anooshc.bsky.social www.newstatesman.com/politics/ele...

“Margaret Thatcher ruined my life. I moved from south Wales to south London, and it’s still shit.” Great report from Lambeth by @meganekenyon.bsky.social - England's 2nd most-complained-about council, where Morgan McSweeney cut his teeth + local Labour figures admit “the energy is with the Greens”

"In private, it’s a different story and there will be hell to pay if Reform’s dreams come true and Labour slips into third place." Great piece from an outwardly bouyant Scottish Labour campaign by Ethan Croft:

High street decline, dodgy vendors, SEND diagnoses, asylum seeker housing, antisocial behaviour, NHS waiting times, homelessness, rising bills... All can be laid at the flaking frontdoor of the council:

High street decline, dodgy vendors, SEND diagnoses, asylum seeker housing, antisocial behaviour, NHS waiting times, homelessness, rising bills... All can be laid at the flaking frontdoor of the council:

Almost every plotline in the narrative of Britain’s malaise, on both left and right, among the apolitical and hyper-online, can be traced back to the state of local government. My column in this week's @newstatesman1913.bsky.social election special:

Only 13 per cent of people polled say they are not concerned that the money will have “inappropriate influence” over Reform's political decisions and priorities:

On the @newstatesman1913.bsky.social podcast, @pronouncedalva.bsky.social and I discuss what she learned when interviewing Zack Polanski, and how Labour is countering this latest Green surge:

New poll! What do voters think of the Nigel Farage-Christopher Harborne £5m gift story?

Only 13 per cent of people polled say they are not concerned that the money will have “inappropriate influence” over Reform's political decisions and priorities:

New poll! What do voters think of the Nigel Farage-Christopher Harborne £5m gift story?