Useful reminder from Peter Kellner on the problems we refuse to acknowledge are getting better, and the politics of hopelessness that this breeds open.substack.com/pub/kellnerp...

Thousands of Londoners have indefinite leave to remain. They have legal rights and are our friends, neighbours and colleagues, contributing hugely to our city. Threatening to deport people living and working here legally is unacceptable.

In London, hate will never win.

Good to see Labour leader of Westminster Council @adamhug.bsky.social making our values clear. Pride, not prejudice.

Really ugly scenes on the train home from central London this eve. I fear the same is being repeated across the city. Something dark and divisive has been unleashed. We need to find a way to take the temperature down and come back together.

Musk vociferously pushing Tommy Robinson is having major - predictable - results in terms of reach. We saw the real-world impact on the streets of London today. It is foreign interference, by any reasonable assessment.

Absolutely !!!insane!!! to me that the UK government, lobby and newspapers litigate at length every minor infraction by the BBC, rival newspapers, or what some random columnist has posted. But all of them just carry on not even commenting about this media owner. He’s not hiding, he’s telling you!

Good- London councils have higher costs than the rest of the country and face exceptional challenges, such as homelessness The new formula downgrades the impact of London’s complex needs, and should be revised.

‘Brigadoon’ at the magnificent Regents Park Open Air Theatre with @pollybillington.bsky.social Because everything in life is improved by musical theatre.

A crisis that’s been building over more than a decade (benefit cuts/freeze by 2010/2015 governments, cost of living pressures since 2021)- but devastating.

Yet more evidence that ‘mainstream’ opinion is getting soaked in extremism and disinformation on X.

Was very happy to highlight this research to Polly Toynbee at the Guardian (link next post) - hopefully this proves a rare and valuable example of timely research informing an ongoing political discussion

The Tories knew that abolishing mandatory housing targets in 2023 would torpedo housing supply but they ploughed on regardless. We are all still paying the price. Labour is doing what is necessary, including enabling strategic Green Belt release, to get Britain building again.

"He and his ministers knew what they were doing, and what the consequences would be. They consciously opted to ramp up net migration for economic reasons." As I have been explaining for some years, immigration was an adrenaline shot by Johnson explicitly intended to disguise the Brexit damage. ~AA

The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal. Donald Trump isn't a strongman, he's a scared man. Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.

It has been both a pleasure and a privilege to work with Angela Rayner over the past two years. She’s put her heart and soul into delivering for this Labour government and leaves a legacy to be proud of.

Something is being completely missed in the Graham Linehan / broader UK ‘free speech’ row – and it’s that much of this is a direct consequence of Elon Musk no longer doing anything like what’s required to moderate X in line with UK and European law. 🧵

Our latest research has found that local councils are sending TENS OF MILLIONS a year to private landlords to encourage them to house those experiencing homelessness. Read coverage of what we found in The Guardian: www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Three thoughts. 1 - Should be "claimed" not "says" 2 - BBC online puts anything remotely tendentious in inverted commas. So should be "political prisoner" in inverted commas. 3 - The prisons are full of nasty, deluded criminals with bullshit reasons why the court was wrong. Treat her like them.

Hard agree.

This isn’t a hard one. Right to Buy massively benefited one generation of tenants (and good luck to them) but at the expense of subsequent generations of people in housing need. And the consequential homelessness costs are destroying the finances of local councils to this day.

Once the language of hate is normalised this sort of incident becomes inevitable

Honestly, do nothing today until you have read this.

Made it into the new Private Eye @privateeyenews.bsky.social Now I can retire.

Inner London generates perhaps 15% of all UK economic output (Greater London as a whole, 22/23%). Clearly, it is national government's duty to punish it: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... #london

Fewer renters saving for home deposit. Gee, I wonder why. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

New YouGov polling. A monumental failure of our political class to educate, a monumental failure of our media to report fairly, for a generation

"When this is all over," she said to herself, "I'll take a little rest. When it's over." It was never over.

Maybe normalising sociopathic behaviour was a bad idea?

Oh no. Tom Lehrer gone. At his great age, it’s not a tragedy, I know, but it just does feel bad not having his genius in the world.

The number of children living in temporary accommodation in England has risen by 12% in a year. www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/number-...

I've lived in London for 30 years. It's safer, cleaner, more at ease with itself by far now than it was when I came here and the only people who believe otherwise have either never set foot in the place or have a massive chaos agenda. Check out homicide figures in that time 1/2

80 more police officers for the West End & St James's as part of Labour's crack down on crime and ASB. Important investment from @london.gov.uk and the Met that @rachelblakemp.bsky.social, @cllrpatricklilley.bsky.social and I have campaigned hard for www.westminsterlabour.org.uk/issues/2025/...

The monthly cost of renting a home has risen by £221 in three years, according to Zoopla. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I'm on page 8 of today's Guardian talking about latest @generationrent.bsky.social research on how the deposit protection system is failing renters

🚨CAMPAIGN WIN: Yesterday, the gov announced that those who are eligible would be AUTOMATICALLY registered to vote. Automatic registration is something we have campaigned to change. Read more here 👇 www.generationrent.org/2025/07/17/g...

5/ The long-serving former London MP @queensparkkaren.bsky.social on the extraordinary extent to which MPs are having to fill in for missing legal advice, and why this serves citizens less-well than it might -- and also strains our political system www.nuffieldfoundation.org/research/our...

Why Justice Matters - new essay collection launched featuring insights from experts in academia, policy & practice. Authors include @michaelmarmot.bsky.social, @davidallengreen.bsky.social, @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social & @queensparkkaren.bsky.social. Read them here: ow.ly/qY3l50Wr5kn

I appreciate that ‘what we need is more politics’ is not a popular take but the decline in local representation (approx 75,000 pre 1974, 18,000 now and on way down to 14,000) doesn’t feel great for community cohesion. Government getting further and further away from where people live…

Ed Miliband’s “State of the Climate” speech wasn’t just a warning-it was a challenge to politics-as-usual. By anchoring action in science, history and national interest, the energy secretary laid the ground for a new climate norm: accountability to the future. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Delighted to have been asked to contribute to this, inspired by working over many years with @wearelapg.bsky.social and others in defence of legal aid, but also in recognition of how the crisis in civil justice impacts on parliamentarians.

Second time of seeing this production at the @bridgetheatre.bsky.social and I think it’s fair to say it’s one of the best ever- visually stunning, funny, magical.

On the 30th anniversary of Srebrenica, let me just say: Death to Spiked/Living Marxism

Thing is, many of the veterans I know - and one of those who joined up but didn't come back - had their lives impacted because they were sent to Northern Ireland to try and control the squalid quarrels of people like those who built this atrocity.

Queen’s Park, July 10th. Who ordered the autumn?

Notting Hill Carnival was born from London’s Black and Caribbean communities- resistance through music and joy. Thanks to @london.gov.uk, it goes ahead: louder, safer, prouder. When the usual suspects take aim, they always fail. Carnival is going nowhere. www.standard.co.uk/news/london/...

It remains, along with the welfare cap, the undisputed worst policy of my lifetime. Piling on future costs and present misery for zero benefit beyond a few Sun and Mail page leads.

Err...

As Meg Hillier now saying on the Today programme, the public spending trade off here is not with support for adults with disabilities. Having a disabled parent is closely linked with poverty.

In ‘Many things are terrible, but still not actually everything’ news…