I think a neglected truth in life, frankly, is that the best and easiest way to succeed in your job is 'have a good predecessor'. In politics it takes a long time to work off having a bad one, because it broadly involves going 'well, someone needs to be the sin-eater, and that someone is me'.

"The populist thrives in an environment where people act on their intuitions; so does the scammer. This doesn’t mean every populist is a con artist, but it does mean that they are likely to package their message in a similar way" on.ft.com/49j3ND2 By @timharford.ft.com Vindicates a 2015 tweet! 1/

This is I think an underrated truth: being intelligent is I think primarily a matter of habit. Do you actually listen and try and take on board what you've heard or read before responding? Do you go 'okay, is that true?' about your own thoughts and prejudices? These are learnt, not innate.

I *know* this is not The Big Takeaway from the Epstein emails. But how many powerful men are barely able to string a sentence together over email will never fail to fill me with irrational fury

To knit together two stories: through intimidation, litigation & extortion, Trump is clearly trying to create a media ecosystem where nobody asks him about Epstein - or indeed anything discomfiting. It is appalling to see so many UK media individuals & institutions aiding & abetting his corruption.

Nothing sums up Trump’s arrogance and delusion more than Epstein. Trump must’ve known about his connections to him, must’ve known there was a trail and evidence connecting him if not to criminality then certainly knowledge of it, yet he spent months making capital out of it actually accusing others

BBC still going in hard on Trump then

The thing to understand about this is that this catastrophe in the UK has redounded to the political benefit of the very same people and political movement that pushed for it! Extremely perverse.

FWIW, I like Wes Streeting but hypothetically if Starmer did leave - or when he does - I think Darren Jones would be a much better replacement

Starmer allies coming out to defend him whilst simultaneously, accidentally and massively publicising the fact he might be ousted is very on-brand for this No10 operation.

I mean this is another punishment beating for people between 100k and 125k who’s the salary sacrifice to get the free child care and avoid stupidly high marginal tax rates. Complete nonsense of a policy.

“Charles Moore made a comment on the Today programme this morning that only someone who had never worked for Corporation could make: that all its biases come from a liberal direction. No- rather the only complaints it fears are from a conservative one”

This is very good - it also makes an obvious point, but one that does need stating clearly and repeatedly - the notion that Trump cares about journalistic accuracy or integrity is obviously, laughably absurd. The media and it’s reporting is something he seeks to manipulate, nothing else

The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.

Trumps speech & actions on January 6th were unlike anything anyone has seen before. He didn’t concede, he was aggressive. He still refuses to accept the result of that election even now. He knew what the emotions were of his base. A lot of this seems to have been forgotten due to some clunky editing

So make no mistake, this is a coordinated assault on one of the cornerstones of British civic life from people who want to weaken our democracy. Sadly, the BBC is so cowed it will actively abet them in its own destruction.

Precisely this. Outside of being openly mocked, no one, and absolutely no one on the right, is calling for anything like what is happening at the BBC for the Murdoch owned, Gallagher edited Times. Can’t think why

The significant negative consequences of Brexit. Meanwhile, Reform lead the polls 🙃

Both the football teams I follow are in good form. It’s a very odd feeling after many years of pretty lacklustre stuff!! Following football is actually fun when it’s a lot less attritional #DCFC #BromsgroveSporting

I don’t particularly care about the individuals involved, but it’s incredibly sad to see what the BBC, and especially its news output, has become. While it carries on trying to appease people that fundamentally hate it, eventually it will run out of supporters

The BBC's senior leadership resigning en masse over one dodgy edit in one programme, simply because the right wing press demands it, tells you everything you need to know about where the power really lies in that relationship

the right winger who was appointed to lead the BBC in the hope of appeasing right wingers has been driven out by right wingers for not appeasing right wingers enough and the BBC has the chance to do the funniest thing ever

Exactly this - of course it is on the current government to fix things. But to pretend what we see with prisons - and any other failing govt responsibility - has just magically happened in the last 18 months as opposed to the last 15 years is obviously false

Along with the meatpacking rant, further evidence Trump has clocked the cost-of-living issue but has no idea what to do about it. I guess cutting tariffs is out of the question. (NB I reckon that despite tariffs, inflationary risks from services are probably bigger than those from goods.)

Lowe doesn't need the money but the 'thrill' of engagment can be just as corrupting as the love of cash & if engagement/cash increase according to the extremity of the opinions expressed then you need integrity to resist the temptation to become ever more offensive. This is what Musk has engineered.

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.

These days, believers in free trade are generally found on the Left and Centre. The Right is now intellectually incoherent on this front. Frost looks ready to embody this incoherence – someone who actively damaged free trade but then heads up a free trade think tank.

FIFA awarding a "peace prize" to Trump would be so absolutely on-brand, a truly genius innovation.

Scumbags

Yet again - like with the economy, or immigration, or the NHS, or Brexit - it’s just another opportunistic political football where all MPs are encouraged to deceive or dodge scrutiny. Our way of doing politics is so broken

Labour will rightly be criticised for breaking a commitment not to increase certain taxes, but it is worth remembering the scale of the Conservative & Reform tax cut promises at the last GE

Boy, sure doesn't SEEM like wall to wall coverage of Mamdani dragged down Democratic turn out or juiced opposition in other races... 🤔🤔 Maybe the reactionary pundit class are fucking idiots?

Economic policy is one thing Nigel Farage can’t crib from the Donald Trump playbook | Rafael Behr

People who are relatively well off move to the Middle East so they don’t have to pay tax, an option certainly not open to everyone. I don’t understand how this comparison, given Dubai is 85% immigrant, doesn’t have a notable welfare state, is really relevant. It’s apples vs oranges

Notable in today's YouGov that the centre/left bloc - Lab/Green/LD/SNP are on 54%. With Reform/Tories on 43%. That's the biggest differential in a long time. I think useful to track blocs given instability between parties at the moment.

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-...

‘Let’s call an arsonist an arsonist.’ @mrjamesob.bsky.social asks why it’s taken Labour until now to challenge the ‘ignorance and dishonesty’ of those who ‘championed Brexit’ and now want to ‘move on’.

Farage is on record now saying Brexit has “failed” and was “squandered” - whatever that means. And yet, of course, he’s still here

Farage and Reform will fall away when he gets put under proper scrutiny. The real question is when l that will happen - he’s had a totally free ride since the last election to spout his inconsistent nonsense

In a move that critics are calling ‘ill-advised’ I’ve made a mini video documentary to accompany this post, featuring sexy drone footage and less sexy Martin footage. m.youtube.com/watch?v=qNPF...

Every time I’m in and around Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire or Northamptonshire and you see what’s being done to accommodate HS2, it enrages me. So much cost to appease so few people. The problems of NIMBYism brought to real life

The futility of our politics/media ecosystem means Farage can just spew out widely debunked claims about millionaire flight, spending cuts, the safety of London, immigrants etc and it will get streamed right to your TV screen with no analysis, correction or debate. Scary

Farage, who was paid £189,000 in January to promote gold bullion in his spare time, is currently wanging on about how out of touch the Labour frontbench is. Ok

I’ve been off X for approximately a year now, missed it at first, it was a really fun platform. Don’t miss it at all on days like today, my god I bet it’s been a bin fire

Lewis is absolutely right here

Let's just take a moment to reflect on the self-sacrifice and hope this person embodies - not the evil, hateful monsters thirsting for violence.

And all the while Far Right narratives run completely out of control and right up to Farage's doorstep. You think he'd pause and wonder why all these nasty racists [Pochin, Goodwin, Carswell, endless grassroots folk] keep turning up and following him around like a bad smell.

Hypothetically, if this attack had been carried out by a foreign national or asylum seeker, many on the centre or left I think would reflect. The problem with those like Lowe, is they see any story, however detached from their world view, as a further justification of it. Fundamentally dishonest

A Brexiter writes...