Alternative view: We live in a parliamentary democracy, not a presidential one. The last leader to be elected afresh and then rejected by the electorate was Ted Heath. This is the system. Short-term tenures of prime ministers are the historical norm.

I spoke to a graduate recruiter last night. He said he places a much higher premium on someone’s degree achieved before 2022 than after (i.e. pre ChatGPT). This is something universities have done absolutely nothing to counter.

This requires cooperation from airlines. Pointless getting to the airport early if they refuse to check your bags until 2 hours before the flight. www.theguardian.com/travel/2026/...

I don’t think it will surprise anyone that this week’s essay by @sarahoconnorft.ft.com is characteristically brilliant. Her new book has been added to my reading list.

Very superficial description of American hegemony. It completely ignores soft power. Hegemons provide global public goods convincing others to join the system they lead. It is this dimension that threatens US hegemony. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... America’s hegemonic glory is under threat

Good argument from @soumayakeynes.ft.com. It does not mention the tricky issue of critical minerals and rare earths though. A vital chokepoint that China can use to throttle German manufacturing as part of its retaliation. www.ft.com/content/9876...

Started my morning by reading a papal encyclical; then an essay by Tony Blair. There’s a sentence I never dreamed I would write in 2026. Ending the day with this by @himself.bsky.social, which I hear is excellent and the type of thing I might usually read in a day. knightcolumbia.org/content/ai-a...

If Burnham has just trounced Reform in one of their strongholds, I don’t see Farage hankering for an immediate election. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Aircon abundance is the best way to sell electrification, a solar revolution and the wider green transition to the electorate 🥵

Now we know why the pope chose Leo. The last must-read papal encyclical was Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum on industrial capitalism and social policy back in 1891. Now in 2026, Pope Leo XIV recognises the epochal moment we are in and makes an important intervention with his Maginifica Humanitas.

This is surely just parody now.

🤦🏻‍♂️

So far in the Labour leadership phoney war, Streeting is saying a lot more that I like than Burnham is.

Burnham standing in a Leave voting constituency is just continuity McSweeney.

As the Smiths didn't quite put it, 🎵 Ban the vox pop, Ban the vox pop. Ban the vox pop, Ban the vox pop 🎵

It’s a great irony that Reeves seems to be one of Labour’s genuine deep thinkers and came to office espousing a ‘modern supply side economics’ and yet here we are throwing microeconomics 101 text books out of the window. “What happens when the supply curve shifts left, class?”

blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp... @johnvanreenen.bsky.social flags up impressive increases in output per worker under Labour/Reeves Since flagging productivity has been the UK disease for decades, this seems worthy of remark. @lsepoliticsblog.bsky.social

It’s obviously not ‘odd’. It is smart politicking. The issue will now come up in the by-election for Burnham in a Brexity constituency and he either disappoints the electorate or the selectorate. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

What a saddo reading a manifesto on holiday…

Memo to Burnham: DO NOT MAKE ANY PROMISES ON TAXES ON WORKING PEOPLE.

It’s positive that Burnham is running in a Reform leaning constituency. If/when he wins it will help to counter the lazy narrative that a Reform government is inevitable.

Live footage of Burnham boarding the 17:47 Manchester to London Euston.

Feel the Burn…

Would be nice if we got a wider reshuffle when Streeting is replaced and ended up with an Education Secretary capable of doing something about the crisis in higher education.

The ultimate kingmaker is actually Starmer himself. If he accepts reality and sets out a timetable he can allow Burnham to come back who would trounce Streeting. If he tries to fight it, the most likely outcome is Rayner or Ed Miliband.

The BBC’s “retreat to babytalk” became their way of saying “sorry, it turns out when you take a look at the detail of Brexit, we were sold a false bill of goods! Don’t hurt me!”

Starmer attacking the politics of hate. He needs to have a word with his Home Secretary.

“Next up on BBC News it’s Newscast, offering a more in-depth take on the major stories with… Laura Kuenssberg”

Orderly transition cabinet: - Burnham PM - Starmer Foreign Sec - Miliband Chancellor - Cooper Home Sec - Reeves at a beefed up business and innovation department that had universities back under its full control - Rayner subnational government and devolution sec - Haigh Education

So much infrastructure investment was wasted on the largely obsolete USB-A charging port!

We should be nearly two years on from the newly elected Labour government increasing income tax by 2p. I doubt it would have had anywhere near the political impact that disappointment with progress on public services has had, coupled with constant speculation over fiscal headroom.

Well, the snooker final was very emotional.

Interesting letter on university management structures in the @economist.com this week.

Good to see at least one Democrat call out this idiocy. European welfare states and redistribution efforts are built upon broad based taxes.

“Even Liz Truss had loyalists as she Thelma-and-Louised her government off a cliff” What a line from @duncanrobinson.bsky.social 😂 economist.com/britain/2026... from The Economist

Some brilliant points in the article on the potentially long term implications of the Starmer-Robbins episode.

Always amazes me how many hospitality businesses don’t put their address on their Instagram page. “That looks a nice place for a coffee, where the hell is it?!”

It’s at moments like this you miss the letters going into Graham Brady’s secret safe.

The PLP should roll the dice on someone else ASAP. There’s still enough time to get it wrong and replace them again before the election. The SNP are on their third leader and cruising to victory. Boris Johnson won a majority 3 years on from David Cameron and only after Theresa May was dethroned.

Devastating and hard to disagree with a single word. What is deeply worrying is there no obvious replacement and yet as this article highlights, there is no Starmer relaunch that can turn things around. A PM utterly disinterested in both politics and policy is uniquely terrible.

Is this whole saga an 8D chess move to bolster Badenoch at the expense of Reform?

John McDonnell 🎯 I keep reading appointing Mandelson was the original sin but the original sin was the factional approach adopted by Starmer from the outset and that is how he has ended up in this mess.

This is an excellent point!

Is he going to claim Orbán’s loss was because of ‘family voting’?

Some great live-posting on the Hungarian election here.

The University of Michigan has been measuring consumer sentiment since 1952. We just got the first Iran-afflicted measure for April, and it's at the lowest level ever recorded.

Our neighbour has put wind chimes up in their garden. That rules out relaxing in the garden forever! If the LibDems promise to ban them along with blasting your phone on public transport, oh and throw in putting your seat right back on planes, I will actively campaign for them at the next election.

You just did the impossible and mobilised Gen Z to vote in droves in the mid terms.

Good article, as always, by @robertshrimsley.bsky.social. The answer to the question in this passage is ‘renewal’. That was Labour’s word, ‘a decade of renewal’. The problem is they have been too timid and frankly unprepared to deliver it. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...