Scotland confirmed to have our first trans MSP! Congratulations @irisduane.bsky.social!

Not seen any big coverage of this but it's a big story imo Newcastle, a totally Labour-domianted city & home to the party central office, is a total wipeout for Labour with over half the wards counted. ZERO seats. The sole Tory to be elected to the council since 1992 has also lost his seat

That’s a spicy council meeting

I've tunred the vote against us

You may not like it, but this is what peak democratic performance looks like.

It never ceases to amaze me how many election pundits don’t understand the dynamics of First Past the Post, and how vote-splitting works under the UK’s electoral system. John Curtice does. Listen to John Curtice.

Anyway. Link.

Wtf is this framing? Why isn’t the headline “Britain more vulnerable to Putin and climate change, thanks to campaigners”? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

There was nothing in the pollen to suggest this would happen

A lot of racists will make snide remarks about how Birmingham doesn't look like Britain anymore, and they do have a point, it looks like Denmark.

what a time to be really really old

A couple of years ago I sent some author copies of a book to David Attenborough (he did an introduction for our ‘Animals’ book). A few weeks later I got a hand written letter from the great man thanking me! It may not sound like a huge deal but he did not have to do that. Happy Birthday Sir! 🎂

Evergreen headline.

A guess a lot people will be spending a lot of today checking some slowly changing numbers on a BBC webpage. If you enjoy that sort of thing and want it to be a more than annual occurrence - can I recommend getting into county cricket?

A huge thank you to our generous donors! 💙 Because of your kindness, people facing crisis and hardship across the UK are receiving the support they urgently need. Right now, there are 174 live requests for help on our website. ✨Your gift can make a difference today: www.acts435.org.uk/give

If I were a governing party hoping for re-election, I would simply govern well.

“Blue Labour” has comprehensively failed, because even if if you are willing to be exceptionally cruel to immigrants (and some people seem worryingly happy to), you can never outflank the actual fascists, while you’ll lose voters who see immigrants as people.

Happy (belated) 12th anniversary of the time Morrison’s managed to unite the entire North of England by simply projecting a baguette onto the Angel of the North. www.theguardian.com/business/201...

'If there is anywhere on earth a lover of God who is always kept safe, I know nothing of it, for it was not shown to me. But this was shown: that in falling and rising again we are always kept in that same precious love.' Julian of Norwich

If Labour react to this pattern by saying "we need to win back votes from Reform" they risk making a major misdiagnosis, one which could make their current troubles even worse.

I fear Labour people risk falling into an ecological fallacy visible from space when reacting to these results. Here is what is very clear in results so far: Labour are losing *seats* to Reform, but... Labour are losing *votes* to the Greens Greens split the vote, Ref comes thru middle

The current Labour stock response to this, incredibly obvious and predictable problem, is to blame the Greens for splitting the vote and continue to go after Reform voters. Because why not?

I propose a split between Stephen and Jo’s proposals. Main commentary done by the Test Match Special team. Expert summary/ debate from a panel of psephologists and, yes, lots of nerdy detail about the nuts and bolts of procedure at the count.

My 1am grumble on election coverage is the lack of understanding- or lack of effective explanation- of the actual counting process. Most viewers won’t know about verification, box counts, bundling and split vote tallying. But if they’re geeky enough to be watching, they deserve the nerdy details. 🤓

if you're staying up all night for the council election results who hurt u

***My substack is live*** My first newsletter has just gone out - looking at how the Home Office managed to make things worse for refugees and put them at greater risk of homelessness, just as everyone said it would chamindajayanetti.substack.com/p/the-home-o...

I really like the most popular cat names in china

I know I'm inclined to be cynical but I'm not sure anyone is really looking for this kind of HR speak from the police

Congrats to the Met on solving one (1) crime

Just took 93yr Mum to vote, she's registered blind. In a very loud voice she said, "Which box for boob hypnosis?" A cheer went up from waiting voters

Tell the Dads (literal and in spirit) in your life Jonn's got a new book coming out!

Guess he’ll have to do all his banking transactions via PaPal.

ok we used to have annoying "wait for it 😂😂😂 watch until the end 😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣" captions on videos, but people now put the climax of the video at the beginning and then play the rest of the video that's the lead up to what was already shown at the top what are we even doing anymore

I nearly fell off my chair when I found out that Gibraltar HAS NEVER HAD A SEWAGE PLANT and therefore ALL ITS RAW, UNTREATED SEWAGE (from a mere 40,000 people and their businesses) is dumped straight into the MEDITERRANEAN Sea. Great work, guys. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

everyone please share the wildest polling location you’ve seen

Don’t forget the best and most wholesome hashtag of the day!

If, like me, you are a muppet who managed to lose her polling card and want to check where to vote, this website is useful. (Remember: while you need ID to vote in England, you DON’T need to bring your polling card, that’s purely for convenience). wheredoivote.co.uk

if bike is short for bicycle, then mike is short for micycle

There is certainly far too much of this about on here, I agree.

Both depressing and commendable that Sadiq Khan not giving way on ULEZ is probably the most principled thing a senior Labour politicians has done in recent memory

Historically, there's also the example of Spain's expulsion of Conversos (Catholics of recent Jewish ancestry) and Moriscos (Catholics of recent Muslim ancestry) just decades after they had been promised conversion exempted them from the mass expulsions of practicing Jews and Muslims.

For instance, how homophobic society routinely said "Oh, it's just homosexual *acts* that are bad, not the attraction itself" and then still tried to identify and out closeted and celibate people who were "inclined" to be gay and force them out of their jobs anyway.

I don't know if there's already a term for this, but if not I'd call it "pseudo-assimilationist essentialism": in which a persecuted minority is nominally offered protection from persecution by assimilation into the majority, but is then treated and persecuted as a disfavoured minority anyway.

This is incredible. The new NASA image release from #Artemis includes a sequence of 'Hello World' still photographs. I've been processing / animating them and here's what the original didn't show us: Satellites, including their solar arrays, lightning storms and dancing aurora!

Sanctuary Sunday and Refugee Week 2026 15th – 21st Jun 2026 Challenging hostility with hospitality Resources are available for Sanctuary Sunday, which is marked at the end of Refugee Week. ctbi.org.uk/event/sanctu...

🚨French riot police are forcibly taking mothers away from their children as they attempt to reach safety in the UK.   Tearing families apart at the border is atrocious. Yet this is funded by our Government.   The Government must end its complicity and funding NOW. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

I'm not getting any less convinced that the main current driver of British politics, showing up in various ways and to various extents across the spectrum, is people's desire to be told "Here is a category of human beings whom it is legitimate for you to hate".

This is why “ban online anonymity to stop hate” will never not be funny to me. Have the people proposing this never been on Facebook or LinkedIn?