really enjoyed having a geeky US Midterms discussion with @sturdyalex.bsky.social

Tree of the Day

In case you missed it earlier, I've been talking to the @ohgodwhatnow.bsky.social podcast about my new book on the Blair governments and the crisis in Higher Education... Take a listen! megaphone.link/NSR1340804685

I'll be launching my book on the Blair governments in London on Monday 9 March! Between 6.30pm and 8pm. We'll be at the Gilded Acorn bookshop between LSE and the Hunterian... Come along! Booking details below: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/new-labour...

As you see the reports out of Texas SD-9, keep in mind: This was the cash discrepancy. Money speaks -- but it's not as loud as it used to be.

Superb guest and conversation on this episode of BTL. Bravo, @snellarthur.bsky.social! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

I have just listened to this. It was my first time listening to a Behind the Lines podcast with @snellarthur.bsky.social , and after listening I feel approximately 95% better informed than I was before. Highly recommended.

🎄 Merry Christmas, dear supporters, gorgeous friends, and precious listeners. Check your apps first thing, for a cracker 2025 Review, with @mrjamesob.bsky.social. We'd never abandon you without company, on what can be a pretty stressful day. 🎁 ☃️ We love you lots! A, N, K & other A x

By this time tonight I was meant to have made my bread sauce, cranberry sauce and begun the gingerbread stuffing, and yet I find myself, tasks still undone, on my sofa, with drink and cake to hand, happily gazing at my Christmas-Grotto-garden. Rather thrilled with my new light-up deer, I must say.

You could argue that the roast potatoes are the most important element to get right at Christmas. Perfect Roast Potatoes create perfect happiness. Which is why they are, indeed, #RecipeOfTheDay! www.nigella.com/recipes/perf...

Full text of peace plan 🇺🇦🇺🇸

The UK Trade and Business Commission’s new report sets out how the UK and the EU could implement a Youth Experience Scheme. “The report is likely to give weight to the arguments of Britain’s negotiators in talks over the deal,” writes Arj Singh. Read: https://bit.ly/48tqyTY

This is a significant report on UK-EU youth experience / mobility as the first to be released from either side on how the scheme outlined in May's common understanding could actually work in practice. I'm pleased to have been involved as an adviser.

🆕 SPOILER ALERT - Unpicking the Budget 📈 The good stuff The less good stuff The economic rationale The political consequences Balance, humour, @pimlicat.bsky.social , @sturdyalex.bsky.social & top economist Vicky Pryce. 🍊 open.spotify.com/episode/05mP... 🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/q...

Sorry, everyone. I think we've gone and done a thoughtful, balanced episode on #Budget2026, that is more about the economics and the politics, rather than the gossippy nonsense that gets hacks excited. #NotSorry

You may have seen some headlines about welfare spending going up to £406.2bn by 2030/31. That is correct, it is the OBR figure. Here is what you may not have seen. Of the £406.2bn A) £195.4bn goes to pensioners B) £13.9bn goes on child benefit. Facts matter.

On Truss & Kwarteng in ‘22. Allister Heath, Telegraph: “the best budget I have ever heard a British chancellor deliver". Alex Brummer, Mail: “a genuine Tory package elbowing to one side the Treasury's fiscal conservatism". These men will now be paid actual money for their analysis of today’s budget.

www.facebook.com/share/r/1K3n... Is this real? #MTGB @nikkimcr.bsky.social @jacobjarvis.bsky.social @americanfric.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/football/202... That’s only 0.8 Trussecs (Or 3.5 Scaramuccis) @sturdyalex.bsky.social 😉

Nice. Now negotiate a return to the programme known as the EU.

NEW: We are joined by Luke Tryl to talk about everything from: 🔵📉 Tory Party Demise 🏆 Trump’s ache for a NobelP 🇪🇺🇬🇧 reducing reliance on 🇺🇸 Plus Wokey Dokey is BACK. @pimlicat.bsky.social @sturdyalex.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/6ZMU... podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/q...

The scale of the backlog arises because the Sunak government, while clearing the 2022 backlog, stops processing asylum claims of those who arrive in 2023-24, despite having no real world prospect of removing 99% of those it is accommodating, in limbo. No plan except to leave it to after the election

Great thread (h/t @columnist.bsky.social)

@quietriotpod.bsky.social wonder how far this translates across to reform/tory playbook- for me it’s the nhs versus US health insurance that is a bulwark against a ‘fear’ of empathy

🎉 Some exciting housekeeping news in tomorrow’s show🎉 Make sure to be subscribed wherever you get your podcasts

UK chemistry industry professionals Please fill in this short survey to help CAMS help us all by modernizing what graduates are taught with respect to data handling. Which can be as simple as organizing yourself and naming files sensibly! #chemsky forms.office.com/Pages/Respon...

The ongoing marine heatwave in the Mediterranean Sea is one of the the largest marine anomalies observed globally

🚨 WALES SPECIAL: Senedd Stakes Labour’s future, Reform’s rise, the fate of Taith, and who’s winning the long game ahead of #Senedd2026. @pimlicat.bsky.social chats to @willhaycardiff.bsky.social. #WelshPolitics #QuietRiot 🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/5etY... 🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/q...

England win the toss and put India in to bat! 🏏 Come on England! #ENGvIND

Brexit: the next phase. New post on my Brexit & Beyond Blog. With the Gibraltar agreement ending the A50 issues, and the Reset Summit over, we're entering a period of technical adjustments. Thoughts on that, and the 9th anniversary of the Referendum: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2025/06/brex...

Day 204 of the #GeorgiaProtests

Yes, We are still alive and resisting. But gdream of course wants to kill protests in Georgia. Don't forget about us ♥️ #GeorgiaProtests #TerrorinGeorgia

My kingdom for an edit button. FFS.

Classic Vienna. -- After all these years, I still find new features at the Stephansdom: like this statue of St. Lawrence (with the gridiron used to torture him), atop one of the romanesque towers above the main entrance. #Vienna #photography

12 Scaramuccis = 2.67 Trussecs for the British measurement

The stats say Trident was even more popular than Teeth on its first day, so join many, many other More Jam Tomorrow fans and listen to me and Bertrand Russell talking about the end of the world. morejamtomorrow.com/episode/trid...

In amongst all the excitement I fear many have missed this outstanding bit of trolling by Friedrich Merz. The Chancellor gifted Trump a gilded framed copy of his grandfather’s German birth certificate... reminding Americans that Trump is both the child and grandchild of migrants.

Hamilton, Larkhall & Stonehouse Scottish Parliamentary By-Election Result: 🌹 LAB: 31.6% (-2.0) 🎗️ SNP: 29.4% (-16.8) ➡️ RFM: 26.1% (New) 🌳 CON: 6.0% (-11.5) 🌍 GRN: 2.6% (New) 🔶 LDM: 2.0% (-0.8) 🔴 SSP: 1.0% 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 SFP: 0.8% 🙋 Ind: 0.4% 💷 UKIP: 0.2% Labour GAIN from SNP.

🚨🚨you won’t want to miss this!!🚨🚨 Mike Martin MP on the Strategic Defence Review @libdems.org.uk podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/b...

The next More Jam Tomorrow is out ... tomorrow! And it's timely, given what the Strategic Defence Review said this week: "The UK is deliberately ambiguous about precisely when, how and at what scale it would contemplate the use of nuclear weapons." www.morejamtomorrow.com

That Ukrainian attack on Russia is genuinely extraordinary.

I spoke to Charlie Gammell about recent developments on the Iran nuclear file. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/b...