I've been extremely critical of Labour's comms lately, but this is much better from Starmer. It's critical that he now should relentlessly hammer this same message away for the next two years... it is the only way that voters will start to hear it.

The president is a political cartoon of corruption come to life, a gaudy grifter who is selling off pardons and lining his pockets, building a golden ballroom and protecting his fellow sex predator elites, all the while regular Americans are suffering and struggling to make ends meet. Run on *that*

He's so GD good at media, holy cow.

When a news outlet puts a reckless, undocumented claim by the Trump regime in the main headline and puts medical experts’ pushback in the smaller type, it’s making a choice. And not a good one.

If a drug was having this societal effect it would be banned within a week. Across the world, politicians are - through their inaction - completely abdicating their responsibilities to civil democratic discourse.

Kinnock voice - "I’ll tell you what happens with impossible promises. You start with far-fetched resolutions....and you end up in the grotesque chaos of a Labour government, a *Labour* government, rejecting visas for homeless 8 yr olds trying to joing their parents"

Excited by the prospect of Mamdani bringing his communication skills to talking about basic public functions and the people that provide them.

Another very large decline in net migration in today's ONS figures, with immigration falling and emigration rising. I'm sure this will get just as much media and political coverage as the earlier sharp rises, right? www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...

The Chancellor has scrapped the two-child limit, benefitting more than half a million families. In April 2025, out of families impacted by the limit: - 6 in 10 had 3 children. - 6 in 10 had at least one person in work. - And 6 in 10 are receiving a health or disability benefit.

Matt: we need measures to improve fertility - it's one of our biggest problems! Also Matt: No not like that. I meant white people only.

And honestly I don't give a fuck if it's popular or not. It's going to make a lot of kids' lives better. That's the point of government. Not an opinion poll.

Whatever else this government do (and there's plenty of issues with this budget) ministers will always be able to point to this as an incredible important contribution to the country's future. Almost half a million kids taken out of poverty.

EXCLUSIVE: US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff advised Russia on how to pitch Ukraine plans to Trump, in audio files reviewed by Bloomberg

Every "X will be unpopular" take which does not compare X with the other options available should be stuck in a bin. Raising big taxes is unpopular. Not raising them means starving public services. Remind me how many years of starving public services worked out for the incumbent in May last year.

Elon Musk accidentally providing the greatest amount of political communication-based transparency in the current era only for it to hilariously backfire is a great way to round out 2025.

Release the Snyder Cu- I mean, the "Epstein Files"! On this week's Horse Race Politics podcast episode, @drmatthewwall.bsky.social and I get up to speed on the only saga that seems that it could break up the MAGA movement (MTG has gone already over it). Enjoy! www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERjB...

Elon Musk donated $277 million to Trump so he could steal the federal government’s data, dismantle the nation’s infrastructure, and stop foreign aid from going to nonwhite people. It’s a quid pro quo breathtaking in scope, corruption, and damage, & completely unprecedented in American history.

In the span of 12 hours Trump called MTG a "traitor" and posted photos from his playdate with Zohran Mamdani. The only lesson I can take away is that anytime you find yourself trying to predict the future just stop

If RFK issued a rule forbidding surgeons from using antiseptic instrument cleaners... well yeah I guess that would be "challenging orthodoxy." Another phrase is "killing people."

This are some of the reasons why people are being fired at the FBI right now. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/how-the-fb...

No matter which way you cut it, this has become a very unpopular government - now at Johnson on resignation day and Corbyn in mid-2019 levels of dislike, including among their own voters. Only Truss-tier is yet to be reached, though with Reeves already at Kwarteng levels, it's not out of sight.

Exactly. If the files take time to release, it's a Schrodinger's Cat until then. Trump is both exonerated (for his deep deep base) by the content, or deeply implicated (for his enemies) or could have something to hide (for those in the middle).

There's a lot of Doomerism on here about this ("LOL the Epstein files will NEVER come out LOL") but as I argued yesterday, this dynamic can only keep sinking Trump and the GOP as long as the cover-up continues: newrepublic.com/article/2033...

never worry - democrats will work exhaustively to even those scores.

The “piggy” comment is really disturbing. Yes it is bullying and just mean and disrespectful. But it’s probably also indicative of a continuing loss of inhibitory control. And that’s a sign of cognitive decline.

These are the voters that Labour strategists have made very clear over a long period of time that they don't want any more, and it's a message that has now been heard

POV: you are a young woman celebrating a recent academic success

This is a good point - even if you are to grant Labour benefit of the doubt on strategy (generous move right now) - last week's strategy was "we are too weak to do thing which annoys some MPs" (break manifesto pledge), this week's is "we must do even more difficult thing which annoys more MPs more"

I simply do not understand how the govt can simultaneously believe (1) they don’t have enough political capital to breach the manifesto on tax and (2) they have enough to political capital to pick an unwinnable fight with their own MPs on immigration.

So fine, wait for the full details. But let's not pretend Mahmood's feeble little brief-the-Guardian-and-the-Mail gambit is balanced in some way. It is very lurid about the bits that appeal to Nazis and very subtle about the bits that appeal to liberals.

Confiscating jewellery from survivors of a war zone makes you look like a fucking Nazi. And the obscene thing is, that is the intention. It's there to look appropriately harsh. Indecent. Filthy. A moral stain. And no-one of good character would have ever proposed such a thing in the first place.

Labour seem to now come up with a new kamikaze nosedive operation to alienate social liberals while failing to attract Reform curious voters every month. Then back off again in face of anger from progressives and failure among social conservatives. A doom loop which may yet kill them off altogether.

made a similar point on the opinions podcast this week in response to the idea that epstein is a dead end. not only are actual voters interested in this but it divides the gop and puts pressure on the president. it would be political malpractice to treat it as a sideshow

The staying power of this and the actual political threat it’s posed to trump has honestly stunned me No, I am not placing a bet on it finally being the thing that brings him down politically, BUT that this won’t just go away is fascinating me, and infuriating the nominal leader of the free world.

This is the politics of blackmail. The alternative is not a Reform government. The alternative is maintaining our international commitments to being a compassionate nation

This is as bad as anything proposed by Reform. Leaving refugees in permanent limbo and unable to build a new life in the UK would be a complete abdication of our humanitarian responsibilities www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Wild graphic on front page of WSJ.

Trump just told reporters on Air Force One that he hasn’t ruled out a pardon for Ghislane Maxwell

Looking at this chart, it is no wonder that a Tory campaign which went hard on "we will cut your taxes" and "Labour will put your taxes up" gained no traction. Voters thought tax cuts were a bad idea and tax rises were a good idea.

@lucatrenta.bsky.social joins @drmatthewwall.bsky.social and myself to discuss all things Nathan Gill, active measures and disinformation on the Horse Race Politics podcast. Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/4QHL... YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRlT...

If you want an answer to these questions, with some dubious humour thrown in, listen to me, @drmatthewwall.bsky.social, and @louisbrom.bsky.social on Horse Race Politics Podcast. open.spotify.com/episode/4QHL...

A 2021 investigation (this one: epde.org?news=the-ris...) exposed Nathan Gill's contacts with Russian operatives. There was even a picture of him on the back cover. Why the silence until 2024? What are "active measures"? And why are they so dangerous? Why is the UK government not doing more?

probably something an innocent man would do

It's about to happen 👇

A convicted felon who had also been found liable for sexual assault and committed additional crimes in plain sight was close with a notorious child sex trafficker and likely participated in some of those crimes too got elected with much of that known and spent his presidency railing against “crime.”

Pizzagate: If you replace the word “hot dog” with “little boy” and “pizza party” with “child sex orgy,” you will see the lengths these elites go to cover up their crimes. Real elite emails: Send me nude pictures of those 8th graders we abused last weekend post-haste! I am the Ambassador to Turkey.

"is the president of the united states currently being blackmailed by pedophiles" is a legitimate question with supporting evidence that needs to be investigated

I don't want to jump to any hasty conclusions here, but this email exchange from 2011 between Jeff Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell about Donald Trump having spent hours alone with an underage girl does seem like it might be bad for him.

When are people going to start talking about the clear cognitive decline of the president?