I wrote this piece about Stamp Duty over 15 years ago. I still think it's broadly true. #KemiBadenoch is, unsurprisingly, wrong. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

If you cannot afford a house or flat for £500,000 when you are on a £40,000 salary then abolishing Stamp Duty is really not the main problem

Playing the world's smallest violin here...

Abolishing Stamp Duty would cost the Treasury over £11 billion. Any future #Conservative government is a black hole of fiscal fuckwittery

If the #Conservative Parry is between life and death, then Kemi Badenoch's speech should be the moment we put it out of its, and our misery

I wonder if "European Studies", majoring in geography and French, was a "rip off degree"? I can translate maps. What can #KemiBadenoch do?

Calling English a 'rip-off degree' is one of the most blatant exhibitions of personal barbarism I've ever seen. You've demonstrated nothing but the poverty of your own mind.

I say this with the bluntness it requires: they will get people murdered if this continues. This is not just populism anymore either: it’s completely unhinged and a deliberate choice that does endanger lives. I am not saying this lightly at all.

X-tinction - the life and death of the Twitter phenomenon.... And why it was finally time to leave. Me for @bylinetimes.bsky.social bylinetimes.com/2025/10/07/t...

The death of the media grid: @peterhyman.bsky.social peterhyman21.substack.com/p/revealed-h...

Thinking of your points about the Grid in Failed State @samfr.bsky.social

#Birmingham two weekends back. Fuck you Robert Jenrick

"They want to run the country. They can't even spell it right." @natashaclark.bsky.social hsa notecid a bti fo a blendur ni teh Troy Praty goodei bga...

What Sarah said

Sunshine in #Grindelwald. From a couple of weeks ago

Great to chat with @mrjamesob.bsky.social this week on @lbc.co.uk about my new book: VIP Lane & ITV doc: The Covid Contracts The UK wasted £10bn on PPE We were the only country on the planet to set up VIP Lanes during the pandemic Link below👇 📖 ➡️ viplanebook.com 🎥 youtu.be/uB58NJi63Co?...

Macron remarks are notable- some quotes: "We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks that are controlled either by large American entrepreneurs or large Chinese companies, whose interests are not at all the survival or proper functioning of our democracies."

A regular reminder that the Tories fucked the country and their party

Also read this, not to take away from Russell's book, this covers the whole story of the Johnson government's mismanagement of the pandemic.

False claims - including this one - circulate on here and on Meta’s platforms. But it is strategically brain dead for the government not to be trying to move politicos away from X, where this stuff circulates straight into political commentary freely and where the owner hates and opposes you.

Glasman would never defect. Essentially all of “Blue Labour” is about avoiding responsibility or even actually having to do anything other than be an Interesting Dissident.

You might want to look at what Lord Glasman and Ofcom are up to @mrjamesob.bsky.social

Hi @iandunt.bsky.social

Lord Glasman personally apologising to Nigel Farage on his own GBeebies show for his party leader "making false slurs of racism against him" should be enough reason to kick the brownshirt peer out of the Labour Party, and enough reason to properly implement broadcasting rules

The edict should go out from Starmer to every Labour MP to always refer to the small boats carrying asylum seekers as "Farage Boats" and, if challenged, explain that we're only seeing so many now because of Brexit. He made that point in one GB News interview, but it needs to be made infinite times.

This is the author @russellscott1.bsky.social. He deserves enormous credit

This is the book that @mrjamesob.bsky.social just discussed with #RussellScott. In a sane country, the Tories would be finished for good

This is great. It naturally follows that Musk can only get out of our politics if politicians and political journalists stop using the social media site he controls.

184 years earlier than predicted, London has met the legal limits for toxic NO2 for the first time. This historic milestone proves that bold action like expanding ULEZ works, protecting children’s health and giving millions cleaner air to breathe.

Starmer's speech was merciless. It's time to make racists feel afraid again inews.co.uk/opinion/star...

People often claim it's a mistake to call far-right figures racist. But it's extremely telling how much they hate being called racist. Farage doesn't welcome it. He is afraid of it. And he has benefited from people's reticence about using it to describe his policies.

It's quite noticeable over the last couple of days that more and more #Labour MPs are beginning to use this platform. That's a very good thing

Anyway, I rang @iaindale.bsky.social and suggested that #KeirStarmer is absolutely right to take on the plastic patriot Farage

Excellent and important piece from @benansell.bsky.social. I've written a few amateurish things on the same issue (see e.g. below) but this is a proper, data-rich, analysis of the political psychology/ sociology of it.

Strong moment as Keir Starmer calls out the racism we’ve seen in recent weeks and months: "Labour is proud of Britain's flags but if they are painted alongside graffiti telling a Chinese takeaway owner to 'go home', that's not pride - it's racism."

It was an excellent speech from #KeirStarmer @shelaghfogarty.bsky.social Probably the best he has made.

Amazing bit of 2019 footage this. Frei doing a great job of trying to hold Farage to account as he and Nathan Gill go walkabout. And I suspect Farage will come to regret his quip at the end about Russians if it does the rounds again.

hardly anyone will watch Starmer's appearance at Labour conference today but it was probably the best speech he's ever given he clearly signposted what he stands for - a diverse, tolerant, decent Britain - and how be believes progressives are in an existential fight with the populist right

"Brexit lies on the side of that bus," Starmer says, mocking populist rhetoric, "click here for your new country". Very rare moment of criticism of Brexit from him.

Maybe a tad light on detail, but one of the best speeches #KeirStarmer has given. #Lab25

I agree with this. The flags of At George and the Union Jack are OUR flags, not the repulsive far rights

Very good, too, on the importance of FE as well as HE. #keirStarmer #Lab25

Very good stuff by #KeirStarmer there. Shades of Gordon Brown with a list of achievements #Lab25

Very good stuff from Sadiq Khan at the Labour Irish society event. He said there are two reasons he loves coming to Labour Conference. “One is the reception at the Labour Party Irish Society reception. “The second is to get away from all the Sharia Law in London”

"The #Brexit lies on the side of that bus". Glad to hear #KeirStarmer calling out the biggest lie of all

Very online people will know about a memo circulating among Labour MPs, written anonymously but by someone in the Unherd / Jason Cowley New Statesman world. It is, to be kind, pretty execrable writing. But for our purposes its main problem is an obsession with the PMC. 2/n bsky.app/profile/greg...

Liverpool looking good in the sunshine. #LabourConference

I'm secretly thrilled. I've just found out that I'm a member of the left wing Illuminati

One thing making Trump so difficult to deal with is that it's impossible to separate his politics from his grotesque ego. He's obviously a hugely damaged, possibly deranged, person, but he articulates it through politics. I'm not sure that's ever been the case for the leader of a democracy before.