Described as a “rollicking read” and “your reporting on this is brilliant, it has to be said”

People in and supporting Reform seem to have lost all sense of perspective. The way they chuck around £5m like it’s a normal sum of money is insane

Putin likely to escalate Ukraine war, despite Trump peace push, sources say - www.reuters.com/world/europe...

😑

Someone is walking a cat around inside the press building here in Ankara. No comment on Trump saying ceasefire is over

I HOPE YOU ARE HAPPY NOW SKY NEWS

I can assure you Farage is wrong when he says the media doesn't want a general election. We are addicted to chaos.

A pretty great mystery guest speaker

What is astonishing about all this is that he genuinely seems to think he’s the victim

Wow Farage is absolutely losing it

A genuinely impressive number of drunk England fans littering the streets of east london this morning

One of the most bewildering arguments being made by Reform UK at the moment (regarding the stories about Farage) is that the media is attacking him because he is on track to be the next PM. Why would the political media attack someone who is on track to be the next PM, rather than court him?

Donald Trump has exposed how terrible FIFA is and ruined football. Balogun should not have gotten the red card in the first place, of course. But FIFA folding under pressure is a disgrace, and that brilliant player will now have this hanging over his head.

Absolutely extraordinary story from the Sunday Times that is going to be very hard for Farage to deflect. "Nigel Farage secretly funded by convicted criminal" www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

13 killed, more than 80 injured in massive Russian missile, drone attack on Kyiv kyivindependent.com/explosions-r...

Does* Andy Burnham have a mandate? Constitutionally, yes. The debate is conflating the constitutional mandate and the right to be PM, with the political mandate PMs need to sustain themselves in office New from me www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/does... *Will he

Trump's new financial disclosures show $1.4 billion in crypto earnings, secret Micron stock buys before touting a "$250 million investment," a billion-dollar Qatari jet, and more. Your midday update is here:

… ok

As I’ve said before: international football is the equivalent of the BBC marching into your newsroom when a general election is called, taking all your staff, not paying them and retuning them knackered

All I’m saying is Ben White wouldn’t have done that

PRO: Air conditioning can actually lower room temperatures in a matter of minutes. Fans, by contrast, merely make it feel cooler through the clever trick of moving hot air around. CON: Air conditioning might temporarily delude you about quite how much trouble this planet is actually in.

Having my first ever *really* bad Brexit passport queue. Didn’t see that on the bus!

Pretty damning statement from Labour Friends of the Forces: "Today’s announcement by Keir Starmer was an unserious response to a self-induced crisis. He and the outgoing Chancellor have been unwilling to commit the necessary resources our country needs."

“We don’t have a solution,” an Israeli military official said. foreignpolicy.com/2026/06/30/i...

Too little too late is quite a silly line for the Tories to take on DIP, if the core argument is that we won’t have the capabilities until 2030 while the threat is today. Well … we cannot magic equipment now, so is their argument really that it’s too late to even bother?

EEAS is one of the bits of the EU that world really well. Would be a disaster if they shut it down www.politico.eu/article/euro...

That answer will drive MAGA crazy.

Genuinely would be fascinating to see Trump's activity from that day. I hope this happens.

BBC Demands Trump’s Diary and Phone Logs in $10B Court Battle www.thedailybeast.com/bbc-demands-...

What social media has done to Britain is really scary at the moment. Ant Middleton is offering a “special forces” training course where if you pass you get to join some secret club he’s forming. Here is a comment that is quite typical of other comments below the post

I see it’s all going well … The US says it has attacked radar, missile and drone sites in Iran after accusing Tehran of launching at least four drones in the Strait of Hormuz news.sky.com/story/iran-w...

Simply the classiest person in all of sport www.ringmagazine.com/news/oleksan...

Who’d have guessed that Trump is a really creepy guy? www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-blond...

Expect this to get twisted by Kremlin propaganda: EU has made this decision at Ukraine's request to reduce the risk of desertion – a problem that all countries at war face. kyivindependent.com/eu-restricts...

But that Tucker Carlson chap seemed so sensible

"The public is becoming increasingly comfortable with the idea that governments can effectively be reshaped through pressure campaigns. The impression created is that real democratic legitimacy is earned outside Parliament and outside election cycles" lukemcgee.substack.com/p/self-indul...

Self-indulgence has paralysed British politics. We are not going to get out of this rut until people who know better grow up. lukemcgee.substack.com/p/self-indul...

I don't mean to excite anyone, but I started writing down all my thoughts about the Paris Metro and 1,500 words in realised I still had so much to say I'd make it a miniseries, and this is just part one. Don't say I do nothing for you

I should have said - this is my latest substack post. If you want to subscribe, please do! lukemcgee.substack.com

Self-indulgence has paralysed British politics. We are not going to get out of this rut until people who know better grow up. lukemcgee.substack.com/p/self-indul...

Putin's attempts to spin Ukraine whacking Russia's energy infrastructure as actually proof Zelenskyy is losing kyivindependent.com/putin-commen...

Seeing as it's Brexit anniversary day, plugging once again my long(ish) read on the honest conversations we need to have about the EU if we are going to seriously consider rejoining. A lot has changed in 10 years. www.thenewworld.co.uk/luke-mcgee-t...

I find this sort of shtick incredibly odd. Really not sure how much more they want – we are outside Single Market and Customs Union. Anything else would be incredibly experimental and given where country is probably too big a risk to take.

I think I feel most at odds with the rest of Britain whenever I see people who can afford it sweat uncomfortably through a sweltering heatwave because they inexplicably refuse to buy an air conditioning unit.

If that storm is anything to go by god is *not* happy about Starmer resigning

General thought: the public may have become too used to politics happening outside of democratic, electoral and parliamentary framework. Very hard to undo that.

Well done Labour you’ve ruined Brexit www.politico.eu/article/eu-u...

Whatever happened to no coronation

This will be the seventh PM in 10 years/since the Brexit vote. The last stable government was a coalition. We need to seriously rethink our electoral system and attitudes to majority/coalition governments. I wrote this a while ago - lukemcgee.substack.com/p/is-it-time...

This is how the President is choosing to spend today - as his Iran deal looks to be falling apart 🧐