If the BBC were still a half-way functioning public service broadcaster, instead of the trivial issue of small boats dominating news bulletins, it would be holding Brexiteers to account on the orders-of-magnitude-higher cost of leaving the EU which is a permanent drag on growth and never mentioned.

“If the reading revolution represented the greatest transfer of knowledge to ordinary men and women in history, the screen revolution represents the greatest theft of knowledge from ordinary people in history”

this is, hands down, the best video I've seen on men's influencer content and it's not close either

Thank heavens the international break is over and we can get back to the real football

Niche post for toddler parents, but please be aware that if you visit Cbeebies Land at Alton Towers, you might have to deal with an upset kid when they realise Postman Pat has been demolished in favour of Bluey!

The real test of Polanski’s political skills will not only be keeping the Greens’ urban and rural tendencies together, but being ambitious enough to try to unite the whole liberal-green-left from Corbyn/Sultana to the Lib Dems under a single coalition of some kind. There’s a huge prize waiting.

Literally the only way to defeat Reform is to renounce actually-existing Brexit, bang on about the costs, and force Farage to go into the election defending ongoing economic stagnation while Sterling is rising and business is clamouring to get back into the EU

Mourinho back to United in a firefighting role - heard it here first!

Not only that, but he is never forced to justify the price of that fiasco: an economy 4% smaller with £100bn in lost output and £40bn in foregone taxes, every year

Does the BBC actually report on any news other than the "small boats crisis" these days?

School uniform gouging is a disgrace. If we must have it, then a government could pass a law tomorrow limiting it to a badge and tie sold at cost price to parents, with the rest of it made up from widely available basic supermarket items www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Blogged: there is a problem with political communication - but it's not the one Starmer thinks it is: stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_an...

Every company these days: Today: "LAST CHANCE to get the amazing 10% offer off the thing that you don't need that we've emailed you every single day about for weeks, ends midnight!" Tomorrow: "NEW OPPORTUNITY to get 10% off the thing you don't need, ends soon, hurry hurry" #unsubscribe

If Brexit has indeed been a resounding disaster, why isn't Ed Davey actually demanding that we seek to join the EU and making the pursuit of full membership Liberal Democrat policy? www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

It's ridiculous that Chris Woakes has had to go out and bat in this condition. Cricket really needs to update its medieval approach to injuries. If someone is seriously injured, a team should be able to substitute whichever batsman in their squad has the nearest average to them #cricket #EngIndia 🏏

It’s particularly shocking because it increasingly appears that the only way to defeat Reform at the next election is for everyone to disavow *their* project as having completely failed and force them to defend actually-existing Brexit against the alternative of higher growth and greater opportunity

Morning loves, to Clapton, where it was cheap to get in and cheap to get a drink, because that's what happens when football clubs are run for fans and by fans. Most importantly, it is a safe space for those who might not always feel safe at matches. unexpecteddelirium.substack.com/p/the-weeken...

Have to digest the small print in the coming days, but early sense of the ICJ climate change opinion is that it's very big news indeed earth.org/icj-advisory...

If this guy wins the Green leadership, there's non-trivial chance that he'll harness the disparate, latent progressive forces that have been suppressed since Corbynism, placing Labour at risk of the kind of PASOKification that has already befallen the Tories

Not to mention the many millions of British-born people who are, or have been at one time or another, "economic migrants" themselves somewhere else in the world

Surely they were just embarrassed because they were spotted at a Coldplay concert?

This x 1000 👇 If people aren't saving enough for pensions, it's because £9K fees have given many middling earners a 60%+ marginal tax rate and they pay another huge tax by shelling out much of their remaining salary to private landlords (including many MPs) to finance *their* pensions

Of all the bad things that The Apprentice has inflicted on society, people on [London] buses yelling into their phones on speaker while a distorted, disembodied voice shouts back is certainly up there

All the money Boris Johnson insisted on spending to bring back Routemaster buses, and nobody asked the question of whether, if they were to be hermetically sealed most of the time, they might need some air conditioning

Any serious discussion of UK tax increases needs to reckon with two facts: Brexit continues to depress receipts by £40bn every year and many “high earning” recent graduates already have an effective marginal income tax rate of c.60%+ and are still totally priced out of buying a home in many places

New Small Islands, Big Picture podcast out now! In this episode, we ask Darenthea Sweeney from Montserrat, Gregory Adams from BVI, @adomph.bsky.social, @thenissologist.bsky.social and Gemma Sou how people narrate disasters as they rebuild their lives afterwards odi.org/en/insights/...

This Bumrah-Jadeja stand has got shades of Stokes and Leach at Headingley all over it #cricket #lords

The new Pulp album gets better and better with every listen: a genuine masterpiece by one of the most underrated bands in British music history

Only 1% of #Jamaica ’s beaches are open to the public. The rest are walled off by #resorts, protected by private #Security and locked behind a #colonial law that is somehow still in force. Neelam Tailor digs into ...... www.theguardian.com/world/video/...

New Small Islands, Big Picture podcast out now! In this episode, we ask Darenthea Sweeney from Montserrat, Gregory Adams from BVI, @adomph.bsky.social, @thenissologist.bsky.social and Gemma Sou how people narrate disasters as they rebuild their lives afterwards odi.org/en/insights/...

It’s remarkable how rarely our “public service broadcaster” now asks serious questions about the “small boats crisis” that do not reflect Farageist framing One is: how can refugees fleeing persecution actually get to the UK safely so that we can uphold our commitments under international law?

How does the right tear down progressive societies? It starts with a joke | George Monbiot

Superb pedantry 👏

globalvoices.org/2025/07/07/r... My tribute to a remarkable #Caribbean journalist, a sharp commentator and observer in tumultuous times. One of a kind. I did have the pleasure of meeting him! @wesleygibbings.bsky.social @globalvoices.org #Guyana #politics #journalism #RickeySingh

British food is the inverse to what is implied in this question: everyone seems to disparage it endlessly, and yet there is not a single delicacy in our food canon, when done properly, that is not absolutely delicious.

Well, 28 Years Later was well worth the 23-year wait. A disconcertingly horrifying watch all round.

The UK will not escape its doom loop until politicians acknowledge two linked facts: Brexit is a perpetual drag on growth, output + tax revenues, and an ageing population requires immigration. So, until we rejoin the EU single market and labour markets operate freely again, stagnation will continue.

Fascinating piece on the under-researched problem of psychedelic tourism: www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ju...

globalvoices.org/2025/07/01/i... Here’s my little piece for #InternationalReggaeDay #music #reggae #Kingston #Jamaica @unesco.org @trilliontrees.bsky.social @stephenacooper.bsky.social @reggae-vibes-nl.bsky.social @trojanrecords.bsky.social @damionmitch.bsky.social

One paradox of Labour's rebellion this week is that these MPs were largely selected for their perceived loyalty + centrism, hence why it is so damaging Another is that, had CLPs had greater influence, with more leftists kept in the tent, it would likely never have come to this in the first place

I really hope I haven’t still got it as much as Jarvis when I’m 61 !!

Characteristically insightful piece by @brianklaas.bsky.social on the danger of letting robots think for us. Captures perfectly what a suspected AI-generated essay feels like. Decades of progress on university assessment is sadly being wound back before our eyes www.forkingpaths.co/p/the-death-...

Wonder how the algorithm will achieve this once people give up writing the books?

Saw Will Self riding a bike in a quiet bit of London a few years ago. We caught eyes. He seemed to panic — not sure if he was worried we were megafans, haters, or just people who might try to engage him in protracted conversation — and he promptly turned around and rode off back the way he had come.

NEW on Wonkhe: Gemma Ahearne shows how drawing on lived experience, playful pacing, and radical care keeps students engaged and in the room buff.ly/ASgmuFc

“Protecting the environment isn’t an abstract idea; it’s about [how] plastic waste is choking our rivers, damaging our coastlines, harming wildlife, and even entering our food systems and our bodies.”

Prediction: Reform/Farage are going to come out in favour of fully and permanently nationalising failing water companies (with no compensation) and will completely set the agenda on the issue www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Some reflections with Owen Parker on the @lsepoliticsblog.bsky.social blog about why Labour's softening of the (hard) Brexit settlement is definitely a good thing, but still a very long way from the actual soft Brexit we desperately need to get growth going again

Great to see the Calabash festival and Jake's hotel at Treasure Beach, one of the most beguiling spots in the Caribbean, featured in the global media www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...