Britain Beyond Brexit 7 years ago we published @gavin-kelly.bsky.social @iprnickp.bsky.social collection with articles by @duncanweldon.bsky.social @sjwrenlewis.bsky.social @profsob.bsky.social @robfordmancs.bsky.social @drjennings.bsky.social + more (no £) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/1467923x...

Good morning Bluesky

Why can’t the players simply kick the ball into the back of the net?

Around 410 CE, the Romans left Britain, opening the way for waves of settlement by Angles, Saxons, and Jutes and the displacement of its Celtic peoples. Subsequently,

NEW Economist/YouGov Jun 19-22 % who approve | disapprove of Donald Trump U.S. adult citizens 36% | 58% (-22) Last week 39% | 56% (-17) Start of term 49% | 43% (+6) Dem 3% | 95% Ind 25% | 66% Rep 81% | 15% 18-29: 25% | 70% 65+: 42% | 57% yougov.com/en-us/articl...

I missed the story about how our necrotic, rapidly decomposing husk of a president rode his fucking limo into the reflecting pool so he could "inspect" it from the back seat.

Why can’t the players simply kick the ball into the back of the net?

Seems bad!

I’m expecting a pub-off between Burnham and Farage tonight 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

serious question: has he ever had an original idea? www.nytimes.com/2026/06/23/t...

Not for the first time I ask: how can a bag be an unexpected item in a bagging area?

Gotta say, I'm more than a little curious about what it will be like when the idiotosphere denialists in eg The Telegraph etc finally concede that, yeah, the climate is changing. What will it take? 50°C in Newcastle? The Thames drying up?

Hello Nigel this is your lawer speaking. I am advising you today to please keep posting this

“Your wages will rise... weekly food shops will get cheaper… You and your family will benefit from a resurgent economy... Politicians both local and national will become more accountable..." A quick reminder of how Brexit was sold to us ten years ago today

I saw this referred to as the Strait of Warm Ooze. Very good.

I'm proud to share my effort to characterize how we should understand increasing political violence in this era, with lots of historical context & thoughts on what the future might hold. www.liberalcurrents.com/the-return-o...

They say this is advice from a mushroom but clearly it’s from a vampire.

Good afternoon Bluesky

NEW: UK plans to give established media more visibility on YouTube and TikTok. But who counts as a "trustworthy provider"? And who decides? Row ahead over the UK government's green paper... www.theguardian.com/media/2026/j...

Tomorrow's Deep Dive post at Strength In Numbers: ZOMG! Trump's approval has gone up by a point! The generic ballot sky is falling! Democrats are doomed! Or is this just polling noise? We've got the tools to figure out: www.gelliottmorris.com/p/2026-06-23...

This, as they say, aged well. (No actually it did.)

Nigel Farage says £5m gift from crypto billionaire is ‘not any of your business’

This, as they say, aged well. (No actually it did.)

Latest word clouds for Burnham, Badenoch, Farage and Starmer for comparison.

Interesting to see perceptions of whether the party leaders help or hurt their parties has changed over past year. Burnham seen as a clear asset for Labour, Starmer a big drag, Badenoch has moved from hinder to help, while Farage’s help score has dipped to tie Badenoch.

Aside from anything, Brexit has just been a colossal waste of time and effort.

Guys you’re not going to bait me into reading anything by Chris Mason.

You already got one, and you didn't like it.

Nigel Farage is running the bizarre line again on Today that he "wasn't in politics" when he stuffed £5 million down his trousers from a crypto-billionaire. He literally owned a political party.

Happy Brexit day everyone!

Fascinating the extent to which people responsible for billions of pounds base their views on nothing but vibes.

Demanding that a new PM call an election but only when they belong to a rival party is one of those ritual hypocrisies that is beyond shame. Everyone knows it’s not how a parliamentary system works but you gotta say it

I've had 2 journalists today asking if Miliband as Chancellor would be a "Liz Truss moment" and find it difficult not to just respond "are you on crack?".

This stuff doesn't have to be *that* complicated.

SNAP POLL: 62% of Britons say Keir Starmer right to resign as PM, including 52% of 2024 Labour voters All Britons Right to resign: 62% Wrong to resign: 19% 2024 Labour voters Right to resign: 52% Wrong to resign: 28% yougov.com/en-gb/articl...

These journalists do realise I presume that Ed Miliband was literally the leader of the party in 2015 and fairly few people were expecting him to be Mitterand then. Plus there’s very little HMT experience in Labour and Ed has tons of it.

The first defection...?

‘Rome is saved’ shouts Tory MP Desmond Swayne as Andy Burnham is sworn in as an MP again

The sealed train has arrived at the Euston Station.

This is basically my current theory of the centre-left in the UK and maybe elsewhere. Many people who claim to want higher redistribution and lower inequality maybe don’t when push comes to shove. But they definitely do want social liberalism and they’re not willing to trade that off.

For all the Greens complaining that ZP isn't included in the YouGov polling, here is the April 2026 polling...

The public rarely don't want a new election when asked in surveys (the weirdos!).

Undeniably funny that after years of everyone (including me at times) saying “who does Andy think he is, does he think someone will give up their seat for him, Manchester voters will still love him after he openly tries to leave them for Westminster, and then all Labour MPs just bow down”, ….

Rare red warning. Risk to life. Stay out of the sun. Avoid unnecessary exposure. Picture editor: "Counterpoint: Run the fun-on-the-beach shots?" We won't improve heat coverage until we stop illustrating public health emergencies with beach photos. www.independent.co.uk/weather/heat...

Soon we’ll get to find out what Elon thinks about Andy Burnham, a man he’ll discover exists about 30 seconds before he posts.

Andy Burnham is the most popular politician in Britain...

Makerfield could be a smart calculated risk. Burnham is popular nationally and in Greater Manchester, voters would be sending a message for a change of leadership and also prospectively getting a PM as their MP… and it would allow Burnham to claim ‘only I can defeat Reform’.

Response to 2019 New Zealand mosque massacre showed platforms can do many things to curb the socialisation of violence *if* motivated to do so. X in 2026 is a very distinct challenge: a leader actively interested in promoting imter-ethnic violence in the UK as inevitable + necessary + legitimate!

In The British General Election of 2024, @robfordmancs.bsky.social @timbale.bsky.social @psurridge.bsky.social and I note how Starmer's superpower as opposition leader was outlasting PMs who saw their ratings fall at varying velocities - while his relatively modest ratings remained stable.

With Keir Starmer announcing his resignation, our most recent favourability ratings (14-15 Jun) had him with a net score of -45. Here's how that compares to other recent PMs Starmer -45 Sunak -53 Truss -70 Johnson -40 (final poll as PM) Johnson -53 (final poll before resignation announced)