"Vladimir, look into my eyes not around the eyes and denuclearise."

Govt scraps all electrification investment. Midland Main Line to stay forever diesel Leicester Nottingham Derby Sheffield. Hugely embarrassing and inexplicable www.ft.com/content/5ecd...

And a little entertainment afterwards?

Just seal up that epistemic bubble. What could possibly go wrong?

🧐

I'm looking for some writers and an experienced story editor to help with the channel - please get in touch if you're interested! Ideally want knowledge/love of: - US politics - YouTube explainers More details here: brendanmiller.notion.site/Let-s-work-t...

Also he publicly insulted my science comedian sister by implying that women couldn't do either science or comedy, so fuck that guy.

I think we can all agree that you can publish a game-changing bit of science (especially if you have more than a bit of help with the tricky crystal structures) but also be a massive fucking prick. We contain multitudes, yeah?

So I’m on the bus in Toronto, capital of a country famous for being polite, where it’s national motto is “Sorry”. And there’s an annoying kid who won‘t stop whining to his mum. This goes on for a few minutes. Then a woman at the back of the bus snaps and just shouts “SHUT THE FUCK UP!”.

Has anyone checked the balcony?

Ahh, I see it's not enough for somebody to be a terrible person, as James Watson mostly was, but that also has to mean his scientific achievements should be rubbished. But they shouldn't, he made important contributions, often in the public good.

Amazing

Great to see *checks notes* two time Emmy nominee Nick Mohammed finally breaking through.

Hello from Canada, where the pun on this shop only works in a Canadian accent.

ICYMI:

Ragging on the Youth Parliament was vaguely amusing when it was politics nerds being a bit precious about it being overly earnest and a bit silly. Not when it's vicious, far-right accounts shouting at teenagers, posting their faces and names everywhere, and calling them mentally ill.

So you don’t want to break manifesto pledges on tax, but your pitch to the members who elected you was basically that you’ll make Downing Street do more left-pleasing things?

No idea what Powell’s plan here is supposed to be, other than undermine the government.

No idea what Powell’s plan here is supposed to be, other than undermine the government.

Without DEI, we would only make merit-based hires, like the genius strategist who decided to pick a fight with his boss’s new young wife.

It will technically be possible for the cast of Emmerdale to farm Minions.

Really nice, well-researched piece with some pragmatic options for dealing with the optics of a PPM scheme rollout.

The battle over pay-per-mile road tax could destroy Keir Starmer's government – here's how Labour can avoid disaster (FREE TO READ!) takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/pay-per-mi...

Some afternoon reading!

Clearly setting herself up for a Senate run as she’ll only be 86 next year.

Reform-run Kent County Council latest:

If true, delighted Reeves is doing it this way. Surprised by the negative reaction seen on here. Keep it simple, stupid. Just read the odometer at your annual MOT, no risk of 'Big Brother wants to track you' stuff. Leave the management congestion to local transport authorities.

Kent County Council is getting underway. Slightly odd arrangements in place where usual press seats have been closed, leaving us in the public gallery, which has 14 seats. Far more than 14 people are here, leading to several journalists and others being left outside of the room. But we’re in.

Very good politically-aware discussion of pay-per-mile road taxes. 👇👇

The battle over pay-per-mile road tax could destroy Keir Starmer's government – here's how Labour can avoid disaster (FREE TO READ!) takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/pay-per-mi...

Fantastic - great to see the government doing something important and ballsy. A good time to link fuel duty to inflation too!

Say you were in Toronto for two days, having been there a few times over the years but not recently... what would you do?

If they are running in New York this is a good election strategy:

It is I think, a classic case of overindexing a good/fun thing because it is good and fun. Like thinking Spurs are going to win the league because Van de Ven scored that wondergoal against Copenhagen. Things can be nice and good without having a direct read over into the bigger picture.

Feel like I'm going insane. Mamdani is charismatic and a good performer, including on social media, but there aren't many more deeper lessons that can be learned from his campaign that can be applied to (a) broader US politics (b) UK politics!

Great read on why bubbles can be good: stratechery.com/2025/the-ben...

Considering this is mostly a plan that originated under Grant Shapps, it’s depressing this is only happening… 16 months in to the Labour government. Everything is so slow.

🧵 Here’s why a left-wing Democrat winning in New York is proof that Keir Starmer needs to move further left to win in small red wall towns in Britain. (1/245)

Not sure an off-year election, where the disproportionately wealthy and educated vote, is a great time to draw strong conclusions!

Met the former editor of the York Evening Press last night, who said in the mid-90s he had 85 people working directly for him, including nine staff photographers. All that to serve a city and surrounding area of about 200k people. Local news was wilddddd.

Dick Cheney won’t see your jokes, but your friends who orchestrated a destructive and illegal war based on lies and also shot a guy in the face will.

I’m sure Matt Goodwin will be along shortly to tell us all whether LNER Customer Service Host Samir Zitouni counts as British or not. news.sky.com/story/train-...

Samir Zitouni, 48, remains in critical condition after the LNER rail employee heroically risked his life to save others from the attempts at murder on the Peterborough/Huntingdon train news.sky.com/story/train-...

It must be so easy for Denmark to come up with appropriate diplomatic gifts every time they visit somewhere.

How the government can raise taxes – and get away with it takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/how-to-rai... <— in which I pitch that the government execute the pivot by going full “crisis mode”, from last March.

Ive never been slow to criticise the Reach plc media for their awful clickbait headlines. But this is another level. They know exactly what they're doing with this headline, and it is horrible, divisive and dangerous. Shame on them.

This is great. Wrote about some similarly bizarre attacks by Liam Byrne here: takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/has-liam-b...

New episode of THE ABUNDANCE AGENDA! 🚄 We talk about @mjrobbins.com’s blockbuster HS2 scoop 🚦 I explain why a new database is going to fix driving 🏙️ And we speak to a former Boris advisor about how to build New Towns properly. Listen/subscribe: www.abundancepod.com/p/hs2s-bridg...

I posted this last thing Friday, so ICYMI: