Sure but totally mental decision by government to waste a second of comms on this. Totally inept.

Former Tory councillor in court accused of drugging and raping ex-wife

X is just so horrifically vile right now. And yes it’s still leading the conversation. I get the boycott position but look where we are.

New South Wales police confirm 10 people dead in Sydney, including 1 shooter.

Grim news from Australia 😔

I would be fuming if I won the World Championship and couldn't get nuggies. www.telegraph.co.uk/formula-1/20...

Will there be any *political* accountability for this costly mess? Nope, thought not. If you're hoping to see or hear Rishi Sunak MP - the man in charge of the Treasury at the time - being interrogated about it on the Beeb and other broadcast outlets today or tomorrow, I have a bridge to sell you.

Starmer still lacks a true mission The Prime Minister’s ever-shifting priorities leave all sides disappointed 📫 Today’s Morning Call, with @georgeeaton.bsky.social

Hollywood rn

Great British Railways flies the flag as logo goes back to the future

The politics outrage loop just requires constant feeding now, even when there's not really anything to be outraged about

Why are people trying to make this a thing. It's not a scoop! MPs have long used green, not about ditching Labour for christ sake. Look at their bios. Absolutely woeful media story going around social.

As expected in Geneva - ultimately the EBU asked broadcasters what they thought and the majority went for the status quo with a few rule amends for #Eurovision. As always. Threshold for expulsion remains at international and widespread sanctions. Not met. Therefore on it goes.

A prime example of how the far right can never be appeased. Give them whatever they demand and they’ll bank it, then use it as a new base camp to strike out for more and worse.

Zipcar leaving the UK just as I'm about to move house.... great.

Started to play this and within 3 seconds knew this was Swedish written and produced. BORING! Do something new. I beg. #Eurovision

Nothing ever changes. Which is why the way government and the Labour Party communicates needs to. We can moan about state of the media as much as we like - but let’s fight fire with fire. Every center-left donor who gives half a million quid thinks they’re god. GB News loses *50* million+ a year.

Today's 70% fall in net migration to 205,000 was not one of the six stories in BBC ten o'clock news. Ta massive assymetry in whether rises in immigration and falls in immigration are considered newsworthy by broadcasters Down by 140k isn't thought to be. Up by 140k undoubtedly would be.

A graduate tax at this rate would have been dead on proposal. Yet, it's been created by stealth and is a huge drag on young people.

It's such a bizarre framing. Labour MPs think taking 450k kids out of poverty is putting the country first! That's why they wanted it to happen! It's not because they personally benefit.

"A new poll suggests nearly half of Britons think there are more migrants in the UK illegally than legally, but in reality just 7% arrive through irregular channels" Charlie Angela on how sensationalist reporting in the right wing press is fuelling falsehoods and misconceptions

Most of the public think net migration increased last year, when in fact numbers halved. New findings from the Ipsos/British Future Immigration Attitudes Tracker show that 56% of the public thinks immigration increased last year. Just 1 in 6 realise it was down www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Another way of looking at this, of course, is that if you took the triple lock out of the equation, the benefits bill would very likely roughly be increasing in line with projected inflation *if that*

The cap didn’t work to disincentivise people from having more kids. It just ensured they grew up in abject poverty. Right decision. One that should have been made in the first budget as a key argument about who is actually poor and who isn’t - not now.

Steady hands on a sinking ship. Today’s budget was for two audiences: fractious backbenchers and our fiscal overlords. A few progressive tweaks, but ultimately, a missed opportunity for substantial reform and the change this country needs. @theleaduk.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/theleadu...

First budget: 'Our infrastructure-led recovry plan will bear fruit very quickly or we go into the election delivering painful budgets' Second budget: 'Magic will happen or we go into the election delivering painful budgets':

That’s what happens when you create a budget designed purely for that purpose…

The amount of shit this government caused itself just contradicting all the obvious things it would have to do in the lead up to the last election for the sake of a uselessly massive majority...

You can’t buy a house. Now they don’t want you to save. The triple lock will certainly be gone by my retirement. And apparently this is for the long term? Pull the other one. It’s been sticking plasters since day one. The centre is on the ropes and looks out of road.

"Labour are concerned that raising Income Tax or NI will cut spending power, so instead they will just bring more of your income under NI and have you pay tax on that instead. No, this is not the same because shut up."

"Rachel Reeves believes strongly in getting the public investing, to move away from ISAs into stocks and bonds, she is also going to remove the tax relief from the most common form of investment held: DC pensions."

The government’s stated number one goal is growth. Its actual number one goal is scrabbling together enough money to meet the fiscal rules while trying not to actually make any tough decisions or piss anyone off. It is not very good at that goal, not least because it’s a stupid one.

The amount of pressure the Chancellor is piling on employers because of her manifesto pledge is going to test the limits of their commitment to growth. Job numbers already down, unemployment up. Really don’t see how this plays out in her favour.

In a more sensible and serious world, Mark Kelly would take Pete Hegseth’s job as secretary of defense, @radiofreetom.bsky.social argues:

1.3 million views for a racist AI video on X that’ll have generated them a load of cash and yet progressives hanging out on Bluesky apparently still the problem. 🙃

Can we go back to when this government lacked purpose cos it was better than this.

Tommy Robinson backing Labour policy while apparently us vaguely centre left people are the problem. Right ok. Sure.

We must bring Mark Carney back across the Atlantic. By force if necessary.

A strong immigration system doesn't need to be a cruel one. It shouldn't need saying - but refugees & asylum seekers are real people, fleeing war and persecution. This daughter of an immigrant is proud of our British and Labour values of respect and not turning our backs on people in real need.

'So, if we brief the Sun that our policy is to fleece refugees of their belongings and tell the Sunday shows that refugees are basically all 'illegal'...then we should have some room to get a piece in the Guardian saying that we want to fight the 'dark forces' of racism and xenophobia, right?'

Things get u-turned on *because* they are seen as unacceptable. Just swallowing them wholesale and ignoring their proposal because oh they'll get vetoed is a gamble. This debate is moving very quickly - we aren't far away from people thinking some of these things are just acceptable now.

This is a misreading of what happened. The inclusion of Russia in 2022 (and subsequent editions) was seen as bringing the contest into disrepute because of sweeping international sanctions packages and the exclusion of Russia from essentially the entirety of Western society & economics.

As always @stellacreasy.bsky.social worth a read. Labour is clearly in blind panic about how to deal with Reform. But we should be clear about what a good and right system looks like. This is a good start. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I remember campaigning with Alex in the Norwich North by-election defending Labour at a particularly low point in the party’s political story post-financial crash. Not sure even I’d have imagined nearly 20 years on this would be the defence of the next Labour government.

"Ok, you can have asylum, but we're going to spend 20 years treating you as an outsider and telling your neighbours to view you with suspicion. We are doing this to oppose the far right rather than to help them."

Thought the plan was to smash the smuggling gangs not emulate them.

I don’t think I’m a particularly soft progressive liberal but the idea of people arriving here fleeing war and persecution and having a necklace or a bracelet from their parents or family taken off them and sold by the British state just feels particularly cruel & unnecessary.

Any alternative to Starmer needs to not just sound different but *be* different. Does anyone really have a grip on how you can do government differently and communicate in a way that really is authentic and embodies change, truly? Why I hate our system - so much talent out there, unable to get in.