I'm afraid it's now a convention under our constitution that Lisa Nandy is culture secretary.

Ok one post from holiday… Today’s appointments make it clear no one knew Burnham’s mind for cabinet appointments. There were plenty of people going round Westminster claiming to know, claiming to be inner circle but they were not. Only three people actually knew - as I wrote in this piece 👇

I can't work out if this is intended as a punishment to Lisa Nandy, who clearly hates the job; or a punishment to the entire UK culture sector, which is suffering as a result of that. Maybe both?

Back into the Cabinet after two years in a silent monastery in Tibet.

Can’t believe Lisa Nandy is still not the culture secretary.

Oh dear. Setting aside competence, this is*terrible* optics.

Infantino trying to get Trump off the stage lol

UK friends. Time to fill in yet another skewed and pre-loaded government "consultation". HMRC really hates creatives, eh? Short version: UKG wants writers etc. to pay tax monthly and change our "projections" online every time we ... don't get paid regularly. BECAUSE WE ARE FREELANCERS.

Another example of political perceptions of the world not matching reality. Freelancing is becoming more important to the economy as there are fewer large employers, but governments treat this as an aberration to be squashed.

With the overdue arrest of the Tate brothers perhaps it might be time to highlight the content creators and streamers watched by a lot of young people who manage to be generally decent and honourable figures, and work out how to boost them over the misogynists, fascists and grifters

curious slip of the tongue by Nigel Farage www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Always found it curious that the BBC is essentially destroying itself by its failures in news reporting, which are fuelling populist parties, which thrive on the disinformation the BBC is too timid to unpick, and which will, if they win, undermine the BBC altogether.

Small boats to UK now down 45% year on year to mid-July. The BBC continues to (mistakenly) tend to hypothesise a weather effect. It is neither weather nor UK govt policy. It is a change in EU-wide flows.

I meet people every week when out vox popping who are completely convinced that small boat crossings are rising exponentially. They aren’t - they are falling substantially. Journalists and politicians have a duty to get this message across. Some are mendacious, others just incompetent.

Just one para from @jdportes.bsky.social brilliant (and beautifully written) @theguardian.com piece on Burnham and the economy. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Why is Kemi Badenoch never asked about the hefty funding the Conservative party has taken from the oil industry and its lobby groups whenever she talks about her decision to scrap her commitment to Net Zero?

He might be the doyen of the world's disturbed young men but his trousers suggest Andrew Tate hasn't mastered the hot cycle on his mam's washing machine.

"Vincible" The Tate Brothers arrested on video. youtu.be/OkgYFlMG3Js?...

Perhaps a journalist might like to ask Farage on the campaign trail when he was last in contact with Tate, and whether he still thinks Tate is a "role model" and "important voice" for schoolboys.

In an angry, divided world, this is a great image from last night's France-England game 👏

In truly incredible timing for CPAC GB and for Liz Truss herself, the Tate brothers have just been arrested.

Hahahahahha he finished the bloody speech by getting Neil Kinnock clapping along to True Faith by New Order, incredible.

A bit from me about what Burnham may mean by “redindustrialisation” as.ft.com/r/afe5abd3-4...

Just received a call claiming to be from Amazon saying my account has been hacked to buy an iPhone. I said I will check my account online at which point the caller started shouting “you are a f***ing c***, you are a f***ing c***” until I hung up. Something tells me this may not have been legit 🤔

This is excellent analysis, and moving testimony. "the EU referendum was the moment a politics of blame was ratified at national scale."

Labour's Bev Craig is on course to win the Greater Manchester mayoral by-election by a clear margin First round Bev Craig, Lab: 38% Sian Astley, Ref: 24% Geraldine Coggins, Grn: 17% Phil Eckersley, Con: 11% Marlon West, Res: 7% Second round Bev Craig, Lab: 62% Sian Astley, Ref: 38%

Just had to waste 30 mins of my day trying to disable 2 AI features - neither of use or interest to me - that Google notified me by 2 emails last night they'd unilaterally imposed on all Workspace (paid a/c) users, that was immediately active even if you'd disabled all other AI features... 😠

@jasonhazeley.bsky.social I cheered out loud when you suggested the New FADS EP for Burnham! 🙌🏼 Have fond memories of being threatened with expulsion from a uni field-trip for wearing my Music Is Shit t-shirt, alongside my mate wearing her 'Cool As Fcuk' Inspirals t-shirt... ☺️

There's a lot of this about. It's the way people think when they assess politicians by their capacity for triangulation, rather than their performance in a department.

I've been told that Matthew McGregor, currently chief executive of campaign group 38 Degrees, will go into Downing St as Burnham's director of political strategy www.ft.com/content/cba0...

Every time I turn on the News, someone is discussing who *might* be Chancellor and what that *might* mean. These are good and important questions, but they are not "News". We need to find a way to shift the dial back to reporting on what *has* happened, rather than speculating on what *might*.

These years of anti-immigration hysteria we're living through right now are going to look utterly incomprehensible in the coming era of closing schools, ageing populations and massively understaffed public services

Ah wait, so there *are* actually "hurty words" that deserve prosecution in the UK, but the trick is it's only when they're aimed at conservatives?

Weird thing is most testing will show you that one of the most vote losing positions Labour could adopt is explicit anti-Net Zero signalling. This is because climate still disproportionately matters to Lab/Green voters while Lab/Reform voters don’t care either way...

New post just out: "Burnham's Inheritance" I look at five of the biggest problems facing the new prime minister - from financial woes to dealing with an immigration revolt from MPs. And some of the trade-offs he's going to have to make. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/b...

Or much of a drop in public support. Fascinating example of elite consensus switching despite popular opinion.

I've been let go by Stuff today as one of their weekly cartoonists. I'm incredibly gutted. I've been with the paper for over 8 years. To every person who read, shared, laughed or felt seen by my work. Thank you. You're my people! I won't give up. Just need some time to recalibrate.

These hero dogs chased off a man who tried to sexually assault two female dog walkers. They were able to push him away, and then their pack of 11 rescue dogs ran him off into a tunnel and ripped off a piece of his pants. The dogs are all getting our highest honor, a 15/10

Can ENG surreptitiously replicate John Stones & bring the replicant on as a sub?

Why can they not simply arrest Simeone?

Wondering which one of the Argentina players is going to dive to get Anderson sent off. 🙃

It's amazing that Diego Simeone isn't involved in this game in some way

I'm Irish, but even I'm started to think Trump may have whispered in the ear of the American ref on brhalf of his bezt mate Milei... 🤔

One of the quiet bright moments of lockdown was Sam Neill serenading us on the ukulele. This type of tenderness feels rare nowadays, how lucky we were. Thank you for everything. ❤️❤️❤️

It is mad that we have, somehow, allowed net zero - a policy common to all major parties under 5 years ago and supported by a majority of the public - to become a synoym for mad radicalism. It is doubly mad that we've allowed this to happen during the hottest summer on record.

In Ireland, data centres used 22% of the country’s total energy in 2024 – more than all urban households combined in that same year. An incredible 80% of Dublin's electricity use can be attributed to data centres. Via the excellent @eurcorrespond.bsky.social. europeancorrespondent.com/en

Almost £10 billion of the £15 billion that Boris Johnson's Government spent on PPE during the pandemic was wasted, the Covid Inquiry has concluded. The Inquiry found money was wasted on a "vast" scale, with companies with "connections to government" given first preference for contracts

The guy advocating mass removal of citizenship was convicted of fraud in connection with a Brexit film

The way this whole story is playing out is deeply concerning And impossible to ignore that this time last week Farage, and Reform’s, funding was the only story in town Now Reform and its leader is playing the tune everyone else is dancing to www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

He wouldn't want official government security knowing where he went or who he met.