Freaky Friday, UK politics edition

"Have enshittification been enshittified?" thread locked after 2,394 posts

"Trump’s personal wealth has increased 165 per cent during his presidency. To say he has not delivered in the same way for the people who voted for him would be the understatement of the century. Americans hired Trump to grow the economy and cut inflation. He is managing the opposite."

"Trump's son, Eric’s wealth is now $400 million, more than 10 times its value during the last election. Don Jr’s wealth has increased sixfold, to around $300 million. Even Barron Trump, the president’s youngest son and 19-year-old college student, still has a net worth of around $150 million."

The series is never getting finished. Also: authors and publishers *do* owe their audience – imo – and an ending is the bare minimum. Between Scott Lynch, Patrick Rothfuss and Martin I have basically given up on high fantasy. Just don't trust you to have the juice to finish what you started.

Sacking middle managers and then rehiring them is pretty much the oldest false economy in business. AI is just the newest excuse to do it. I do think AI will replace millions of jobs (just like word processing, email and spreadsheets did). It's just probably not gonna be these ones, long run.

This is exactly the same bullshit trick Labour Together pulled – claiming a Russian hack without evidence to change the narrative on a negative story. The Mail was pretty furious about the whole thing, as I recall.

It’s the 36th anniversary of this today

Why, Mr Kipling, these are exceedingly bad investments.

It is extremely clear that Reform capped out a year ago at 30% have fumbled their way back down to the low 20s because they cannot be normal and are eminently beatable by whichever of Labour or the Conservatives remembers that the average voter does not have a Klan hood first.

When I reported on the 15 Minute Cities protests in Oxford I was struck by the way lots of people I spoke to described themselves as a car driver in a way that really felt like an underrecognised form of identity politics. Having said that OH MY GOD

“The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the U.S., or any of them.” [i.e. state govs]

Well yeah if the friend is slower you don't need to push them down, you don't need to tell us the obvious, NPS.

The only thing we seem to have a cross-party consensus on in the UK at the moment is stealing dumb policy ideas from the US and using then for headlines.

A Labour win because Reform and Restore split the vote would be *quite* the outcome here. (But remember: 1. *it's just one poll* 2. Constituency polls are markedly less reliable than regular polls 3. *it's just one poll*)

for his pan-influenza vaccines entirely because Memoli is a contrarian whose entire claim to fame was working at NIAID and opposing COVID vaccine mandates. It was $500 million to a single researcher and the justification was a canard about mRNA vaccine inferiority for protection.

We absolutely should have hantavirus vaccines (at the very least to offer to people at high exposure risk) and ideally pan-hantavirus vaccines. But this is entirely being done to curry political favor. Kennedy transferred funding for mRNA technologies directly to the pet project of Matthew Memoli...

YOU’RE LISTENING TO SISYPHUS FM, THE HOME OF NON-STOP ROCK

There isn't "a record" of a radio show – it's not parliament (where this refers to whether or not it makes Hansard). The show can apologise to the audience for broadcasting material it shouldn't – such as airing swearing – or a speaker can apologise for their own comments. This isn't quite either?

This policy is not "closing a loophole", Congress specifically allows adjustment of status and several work visas are formally designated as "dual intent" meaning you can come with the intent to apply for a green card on arrival. This BBC reporting is a mess

"Asking Burnham to outline his cogent political programme is like asking my cat, who came from a shelter near the Etihad, whether she supports Man City. You’re asking about something she has no interest in and that forms no part of her life."

Good thread. This tends to be true of almost every technological change and even of broader reform – Yes, Minister parodies it very well for the example of introducing more women in the senior civil service. Everyone agrees it's a *marvellous* idea, just not for their specific department.

The hidden arrow in the FedEx logo is design perfection. Paris Tennis School: Tiens ma bière.

I've you've watched DWP or DWP2, trust me and click.

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Perhaps the best so far

"The order’s failure does not return AI governance to deliberation; it returns it to the closed-door process that produced the rejected draft. The same intelligence agencies will continue their evaluations."

Howard Lutnick made this donation on April 1—four weeks after his Epstein testimony was on the books, but just a day after the quarterly filing deadline, ensuring the donation wouldn’t be disclosed before his testimony. (House GOP also said nothing about it fwiw) www.nytimes.com/2026/05/22/u...

A lot of attention for Matt Goodwin’s “Afghan goat-herders” comment What about Goodwin calling the ceremonial for the swearing in of Brum’s new Lord Mayor (a councillor for 16 years) “UNBELIEVABLE”, and the subsequent social media smears and abuse of Cllr Choudhry? www.facebook.com/share/r/1Kb4...

Bit of doomscrolling relief for you here. Genuinely sweet story. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

(Taxes on work are, though few believe it, historically *low* for most UK workers at the moment. Overall tax is at an all-time high, but most of that increase is indirect taxes because no one will touch the big three. But politically we just keep pretending that's not the case.)

Feels like there's a non-zero risk that this ends with Trump bombing Iran this weekend out of social embarrassment.

Same energy

Someone sent me this image yesterday and I think it's the rosetta stone of online discourse. 1. A pret sandwich being *$16 PLUS TAX* should definitively end any US vs UK food discourse. Good GOD, guys. Good God. 2. I now finally understand the US vibecession, too. 3. And why you're all so angry.

Index is hiring! We are looking for a senior editor to join our editorial team. Are you a journalist passionate about freedom of expression? Learn more and apply ⬇️ www.indexoncensorship.org/2026/05/inde...

think this marketing campaign for The Bangles is a bit much www.theguardian.com/world/video/...

Think it's commendable that Denyer has been open that she's suffering from burnout here – I've seen it absolutely ravage friends, and it can take a good while to recover. Hope she gets that time (and a good break).

Thanks to a chain of shifting plans and expensive non-refundable tickets, later today I will be travelling from London to Brussels (for work) via Manchester. 🙃

"Long-forgotten" people who are, somehow, never ignored www.economist.com/britain/2026...

It's also spreading: just a few years ago it was restricted to the Alex Joneses of the world. Now everyone is at it: the number of idiots across the political spectrum who claimed it about the WHCD attack was…depressing.

The last round of aid cuts weren't used to fund defence spending. They were just set against the deficit. We've already committed a horrifying dereliction of duty at the worst time – when the US has withdrawn its own aid too – repeating it would be small-minded, short-sighted and self-defeating

TIL: female tarantulas can live up to 30 years or so. RIP Cronus.

It is *incredibly* shabby that the Green Party cited "family and personal reasons" for their Makerfield candidate dropping out, given it was actually in relation to sharing antisemitic posts. Had a right-wing party done the same, they'd be getting called out loudly here for it. And rightly so.

Seems mean of the Russians to pick a means of influencing bluesky that doesn't even up the accounts total.

This is an absolutely unworkable mess. It's going to end up having to be withdrawn, *probably* over cis people being 'wrongly' challenged over facilities. Given how easy it is to see that shitstorm coming…how's it been issued in this form?

Oh my God.

Starmer saying he'll campaign for Burnham is obviously a fascinating statement, but particularly so given he didn't turn up in Gorton and Denton – presumably because it was thought he wouldn't actually help Labour's chances. So…if he *does* turn up in Makerfield, is he really 'helping'?

"Epstein’s victims, and those who claim to have been abused by Mountbatten-Windsor, have had to do everything for themselves. By contrast, until very recently, Mountbatten-Windsor has had the machinery of the British state at his beck and call." inews.co.uk/opinion/roya...

🚨 Our Summer 2026 issue is out today! We unpick the lies behind the health and beauty industries and ask: Are we pushing our bodies too far? Let's take a look inside... 🧵 (1/9) newhumanist.org.uk/2026/05/21/n...

Competent political party vetting would be much more extensive than even an enhanced DBS check, and would pick up lots of things a DBS check rightly wouldn't even consider. Outsourcing vetting to official agencies isn't just a bad idea on democratic terms, it also straightforwardly wouldn't work.