Theory: much of this is explained by journalism being quite a young business (crap money at lower levels, lot of bottlenecks, people age out). A lot of political journalists barely remember Westminster before things went nuts c2014. Not enough of the lobby grew up in peacetime.

It's a good "these just aren't very bright guys" reminder that he could have just NOT done the tariffs and left the economy largely alone and taken credit for a whole lot of continued good news and instead did all this

The private equity firm Apposite Capital has quietly been plundering the care system for vulnerable children and young people. Here’s how. 🧵

This is correct.

"Democracies risk falling into a doom loop, in which restrictions on immigration mean ever greater demands on the purse of the native-born population and ever worse services, which in turn deepens opposition towards immigration" @stephenkb.bsky.social calls for honesty. www.ft.com/content/43da...

Trump has dragged the US to the abyss and Nigel Farage would do the same to Britain. Here’s how to stop him

So Trump tells Europeans to increase their defence budgets & buy more US kit, & the Pentagon tells them they can’t have it. Maybe it’s time for Europe to stop thinking it can rely on the US, & start investing in a rapid build-up of domestic arms production, even if it’s slightly lower quality.

(whispers) I wrote a book about this malarkey, and where it can lead: www.simonandschuster.com/books/Ghosts...

The time to address this was last time.

Three years since we lost our friend Paul Sartin, a man of exceptional gifts, character, intelligence and vision. He died on 14 September 2022, aged 51. Anyway: I wanted to hear him sing again, hope you do too. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGJL...

Took me until last November. But @oliverbullough.bsky.social is spot on: my mornings are much more 'hello trees! hello sky!' than they used to be. And a big +1 for More or Less too.

Once again for those at the back: they are ginormous probability engines, not God.

The UK needs a contingency plan for the very real possibility that the the US ceases to be a functioning democracy within the next year. That has to include accelerated re-integration with the rest of Europe.

Yeah, this is NOT IDEAL.

And they looked from podcaster to administration official, and administration official to podcaster; but already it was impossible to say which was which. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

One way to help get out of this mess: build a tonne more social housing Good thoughts from @johnharris1969.bsky.social I suspect @matthewpennycookmp.bsky.social gets it: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This is what I would call a leading indicator. And not a good one.

Actuarial innit. If they don’t cover your disease shot, they’re more likely to have to cover your disease. #vaccineswork

Brexit is the toxic epicentre of the political shitshow we now have to endure. It promoted idiocy and deceit, endorsed racism, divided us, made us poorer, weaker, less safe and less sane. It’s belittled the country, killed the Tory party and given birth to Reform. A relentless klaxon of failure.

Salary sacrifice is making electric cars and bicycles more affordable by allowing employees to pay for them in monthly instalments from their pre-tax salary. Could it be used for home heat pumps and solar panels too? Thom Groot, CEO at The Electric Car Scheme, says yes ⤵️

It's time to tell the racists to fuck off (FREE TO READ!) takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/this-is-en...

One irony of all this is that South Korea (until now) had a lot of pro-Trump love, central to its big pro-US right wing

'You can’t meet terrifying politics except with politics of your own' Buy here: www.amazon.co.uk/How-Defeat-F...

This is outstanding. And, while research doesn’t get much of a hearing these days on identity issues, everything in it is consistent with piles of research. Anti-racism norms don’t drop from the sky. They are built and buttressed by elites drawing red lines. They can be eroded when elites don’t.

There should be a Commons motion & a summons to the bar of the House to admonish Musk. His continued ability to enter the UK and the continued engagement of the state and the parliament with his website should depend on a public retraction (sincere or insincere) of the call for violence

Last week I suggested that we should shift cash savings into state guaranteed savings accounts. Then use the capital to fund housing. Well, the French Government has been doing something similar to build social housing. on.ft.com/4gp2GmB

Yes, when it comes to housing I am absolutely a statist. I'm afraid we now have half a century of leaving it to the market plus an outdated regulatory system. We hear a lot about the latter but not the former. There are fundamental issues with both.

Do it today!

Really good, concise and astute summary from @sjwrenlewis.bsky.social of the underlying pressures driving some of the government’s more bewildering actions. And a great final para.

Everybody gamely says “Vance hosted Kirk’s podcast” instead of “the regime officially turned the major channel into state-controlled media just as it began its violent crackdown on any opposition or dissident messages.”

The fundamental question the government needs to ask itself, is what it is trying to achieve? Burnham has an answer to that, I’m not sure the others do.

Here are Democrats saying ‘could’, ‘might’ happen in response to the thing actually happening. In the U.K. too I meet a lot of people who think nothing much is or will happen in our politics, even though it’s happening all around them. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/u...

Godspeed, @sundersays.bsky.social Cometh the hour, cometh the man 👍

I cannot believe that this is being proposed. We are so screwed.

In light of Saturday's demonstration, I'm re-upping this punchy essay we've published in Renewal about the class dynamics of far-right protest

I don't think Peter Mandelson is PM's biggest problem. The biggest problem is not standing up to the literal violent racism on our streets, supercharged by the richest man in the world, and threatening the very fabric of our society. If he and so many commentators can't see this, we're truly lost.

There's no excuse of ignorance any more. Every single person on that fascist march knew who Tommy Robinson was and every single one of them knew why they were there. This isn't Brexit. People weren't conned. They willingly went out to join in, led by a five times jailed thug. Stop making excuses.

‘I was there. I kept the receipts. I remember how normalized the sexual exploitation of teenage girls and even tweens by adult men was, how it showed up in movies, in the tales of rock stars and “baby groupies”’ Powerful piece from @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A rally organised by Tommy Robinson should be a slam dunk for a Labour government. Most people will recognise it as being led by the far right (and will not identify themselves as such). Violence is predictable too. The PMs and ministers should have been ready to respond immediately.

Quite a persuasive argument…

I think about this poem by Ian Duhig — about Jo Cox, the Labour MP assassinated by a man shouting ‘Britain first’ — every day at the moment. No other contemporary poet has looked so clearly at the political reality of the far right as a minority who must always be appeased

Want to be clear that the predictable violence against the police wasn't the only problem with yesterday's march It's that 100,000 angry racists gathered in London for the biggest racist march in 50 years, and anyone not white had to steer clear The govt can't see that because they are inadequate.

These all look like brilliant ideas "Stop talking about wealth taxes — make these reforms instead" on.ft.com/46tbbbY via @danneidle.bsky.social

The discourse is all around deradicalising young men and the crisis among young men. The discourse would be much better targeted if it was about deradicalising boomers (and increasingly Gen Xers).

The mistake many will make is to let the far right protestors take all the blame. Yes some are racist, drunk thugs. But they’ve been emboldened by mainstream politicians and media who have profited from racist, anti migrant, anti Muslim narratives. Now they’ll be ‘disgusted’ or distance themselves.

There has been far too much 'understanding' and far too little condemnation on the part of politicians and media of the flag movement. It is a far right campaign of vandalism and criminal damage. It is not a patriotic movement.

this didn’t happen at the height of the Brexit referendum. I don’t *think* it’s happened since National Front were at their peak in 1970s. This is organised racist intimidation & movement building, and it’s happening because Labour Party leaders have not opposed that campaign.