NEW: Lisa Nandy to look again at political appointments to the BBC’s board as part of charter renewal discussions. She said concerns have been raised over the appointment of Sir Robbie Gibb, a Conservative first appointed to the board by Boris Johnson.

I regret to inform you that they don't actually appear to have a plan, just whatever this clusterf*ck is going to turn out to be

Bluesky user #1: Ed Miliband would be a good PM, he’s learned from past mistakes and is a good communicator. Bluesky user #2: No! He’d be catastrophically unpopular, and vulnerable to the argument that someone rejected by the electorate is now being imposed on us undemocratically. Ed Miliband:

Anyway: both the state and private developers need to build at far greater rates, the default aim should be 'a dual earner couple on average incomes can live in non-crowded conditions and raise a family', and the model family *for policymakers* should be three for obvious reasons.

Please tell me this is someone doing some stirring? www.wesforleader.com

Idly wondering why our Govt seems to give few bothers on how they’re strangling our university sector. Maybe it’s as simple as a great many of them went to Oxbridge? Then again they seem to give few bothers about many baffling things so perhaps that’s unfair.

The Turkish government confirmed that 20 crew and passengers were on the C-130 that crashed near the inside of Georgia near the Azerbaijani border. #OSINT

Right, time to make some popcorn I reckon.

This is a genuinely intolerable reality…

Good on Ed Davey – speaking up for and defending Britain’s institutions in the face of nefarious actors. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

We have to take back control of our media and democracy from its fusion with the US infosphere. This isn't just on the right but the left too. We are a separate democracy and need our own civic commons. Today's events with Trump and the BBC show it's not just irritating; it's dangerous.

So the BBC board clearly needs a new chair right?

Nigel Farage used to believe in reforming the voting system, now he's rowed back because it no longer benefits him. We will keep fighting for a fair votes, not because it benefits us but because it's right for the country.

‘Al could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points’ Well that’s the best chart of the year in this @johnthornhill.bsky.social column and basically sums up where we are on.ft.com/4qMMkJd

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... "We've got to address the fact that millions of people vote in safe seats and they feel their voice doesn't count." Keir Starmer - 2020 @teamlabouruk.bsky.social @labour4pr.bsky.social @makevotesmatter.bsky.social

If this fella could also do southwest rail that’d be great…

Elon Musk wants to build slap drones. Uh huh...

Oh come on.

This is sadly totally on the money. If we wanted to protect our selves from a future authoritarian government accessing our data we would need to tackle companies collecting it now.

It's the failure to levy inheritance tax on farmland that has caused the problem we Lib Dems complain about. That is, that the value of farmland bears little relation to the income that can be generated by farming it. As long as farmland can be used as a tax shelter, that problem will persist.

“The Guardian asked Farage if he still adheres to his lifelong support for Proportional Representation. Silence. It’s become clear he has changed his mind, now that our wildly distorting First Past the Post system is his only path to power.” ✒️ @pollytoynbee.bsky.social

Now I suspect this is about the USA but it shows the deep malaise in no.10 that for a second in wasn’t totally sure. We have fewer factions and people involved though right so yay?

A great day for the golden rule of political analysis: when the right wins it is a resounding ideological victory that humiliates the left and when the left wins it is a precarious fluke that will surely end up humiliating the left. Conservatives are power’s landlords and the left merely tenants

Finally, it looks like Financial Education will be taught in every school! Hurrah!

What if there was a consensus on the tax reforms the UK needs? What if it was backed by policy experts from think tanks across the political spectrum, from the Adam Smith Institute to the Resolution Foundation? The consensus is real. The question is: will anyone act on it?

If you're just waking, it's been a good night for Democrats across the US, with voters rejecting Trump nationwide. 🎉 Mamdani's comfortable win in New York, on the highest turnout since 1969, provides further proof that you don't have to pander to the right to win. news.sky.com/story/zohran...

After an initial flurry (big thanks to those who contributed) the crowdfunder has gone a bit quiet. Please support it if you can. It's a story of political engagement full of hope and positivity. Yes. Really! www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/the-people...

A day of huge mourning for the Far Right in the UK. Not only was the Huntingdon train stabbings not the terrorist/asylum seeker/immigrant atrocity they’d hoped and prayed for, here is the hero of the day:

...and less than 24 hours later Condé Nast has fired Lex and the rest of the Teen Vogue political desk, even as stories like this were bringing huge numbers of readers to the site

woof

You really want to watch this, trust me.

The UK has become a genuine multi-party country – but our voting system hasn’t caught up. The Dutch elections this week show how proportional representation can give everyone a voice, while keeping extremists out of power. @eastangliabylines.co.uk @stephenmcnair.bsky.social

This is from Autocracy, Inc, about how modern autocratic propaganda works. I consider this every time I decide what to share and how to frame it.

This lobbying campaign reminds me of @samfr.bsky.social piece on the private school VAT. It actively makes me think the idea is good.

If you're a National Trust member, it's that time of year again: Midnight tonight is the deadline. It's a shame people have to keep doing this to keep a toehold on historical truth in this country, but here we are. Voting link: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/a...

I've written a couple of things over the last days about how the government and much of Westminster remaining on X as the platform becomes increasingly toxic is having consequences for our politics...

So either Labour need to ask candidates to step aside for the Greens to take on Reform.... Or actually bring in a fair democratic process where everyone's votes count equally. It's time for Proportional Representation. www.thenational.scot/news/2558507...

So what I can't get over with this is "Yours etc, Kev"

Worth saying (if the exit poll is right) that the far-right in the Netherlands hasn't really shrunk, just shifted from PVV to JA21 and FvD

Private Eye.

I used to work at a small shop that made little plastic vampires. There were only 2 of us working there, so I had to make every second count.

Your daily reminder that the government continues to commercially support an individual who wants to destroy it through fascist violence.

Do give this a listen. Grim stuff obviously but important to remember how bad things can get.

God that drives me mad. "Climate change is the number one priority which is why I'm only willing to countenance addressing it by introducing socialism and also, for some reason, blocking building of any energy infrastructure we don't 'need'"

Want an end to the Gerrymandering Wars? Embrace proportional representation. @andycraig.bsky.social

You shouldn't need a PhD in psephology to work out what parliament would look like based on a poll - but without a fancy statistical model, you would just be guessing to say what this would produce.

I mean the Welsh elections are proceeding under a new electoral system that was agreed without a referendum or prior manifesto commitment, and no one cares. Likewise Scotland has STV in local elections that was pushed through without a referendum or prior manifesto commitment, and nobody cared