Boy, I bet New York is going nuts right now about James Cartlidge messing up his question count at DPMQs.

On Farage, the economy and how spent he looks when he can’t work the Maga playbook www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Sharkbait: Nigel Farage needs the threat of an election to keep Reform moving forwards. My SKETCH.

🎯

Brutal age split - clearer if you bin into blocs (LAB+LD+GP+PC:CON+REF) 24-49 = 67|28 50-64 = 46|50 So, cross-over point ~50+ Note, Wales is older than England (median age 42 vs 40) and the electorate is a bit older than that, but the different is turnout propensity x age.

"The result would be removals on an epic scale. The comparison with Idi Amin's expulsion of Ugandan Asians is not one many Tory MPs welcome. Some appear unaware their own policy was that monstrous, until Lam spelled it out in a newspaper interview" - Guardian www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Also, if any Tory tries to wriggle out their wild, unhinged and unworkable deportations policy by saying it’s a work in progress, details tbc etc, this is what the press release said at the time about how complete and ready it was.

It is not “broadly in line”. It is *exactly in line* because it is literally the policy as set out in a “draft bill” presented to parliament as the law a Badenoch government would enact.

I would happily join any such group - if you would too then get in touch with Marie. The madness being proposed by Tories and Reform needs to be opposed, and migrants' rights need to be protected.

Boris’s Children: my SKETCH of Today in subjects he loves to forget.

On Starmer and Reeves stiffening their Brexit posture www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The constants of British policy over my life: - pledges to cut red tape/regulation - talk of a ‘contributory welfare system’ - calls for more ‘on the beat’ police officers The cyclical one: a pledge to cut backroom health/education staff & promises of more support staff to free up frontline staff

"The future is already here, its just not evenly distributed" William Gibson

🚨NEW EPISODE🚨 After the collapse of the China spying case, do we have to accept that Britain is way past being able to spar with Beijing? @rostaylor.bsky.social is joined by @sianberry.bsky.social, @rafaelbehr.bsky.social, @rmcunliffe.bsky.social to discuss 👉 linktr.ee/ohgodwhatnow... #China #OGWN

On France’s political crisis, the sadly misaligned political trajectories of Macron and Starmer and what the former’s failures can teach the latter www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

New post just out: The relationship between Russia and the European radical right goes well beyond Reform's Nathan Gill being bribed. In this post I trace the history back to the 1990s and look at the threat it poses now. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/r...

🧵🚨 The UK’s independent scientific bodies are highly vulnerable to politicisation - over the past 5 months I've been working with @martinmckee.bsky.social to map out their vulnerabilities and it's not good news. Today our report is published! www.ucl.ac.uk/policy-lab/n... 1/11

3 days of mild side-effects from combined Covid and flu jabs. Better than having Covid and flu, but I feel I should get a good few bonus days of *not-sick* leave later in winter to specifically bask in not having Covid or flu. Otherwise it just blends into background health.

There's a touch of the Liz Truss about Kemi Badenoch. Both in the tax cut paid for by fantasy figures and also a belief there's This One Special Trick The British State Doesn't Want You To Know About! that will somehow solve everything. Be rude to some civil servants and the UK's problems vanish!

Badenoch’s only achievement is to have shrunk the Tories to a low-wattage Faragist think tank and warehouse storing future parliamentary candidates for Reform www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Not saying they look *exactly* alike but would definitely cast Robert Jenrick (shadow justice secretary) in biopic of Paul Reczeh (Gestapo agent, all-round sociopath)

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

I'm guessing Robert Jenrick might be hard-pressed to see a black face if he walked round his own constituency of Newark for 90 minutes, given the ethnic minority population of its main town looks to be smaller than the white population of Handsworth. (Source: citypopulation.de/en/uk/eastmi...)

Not a serious person. Zero mention of what this would mean for the over a million British citizens whose own access to welfare in the EU is protected by the withdrawal agreement.

Can always rely on @jonathanfreedland.bsky.social to say what needs saying and say it well on occasions such as these www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

OUT NOW: More Jam Tomorrow MILTON KEYNES It’s built for cars. The buses are baffling. But it’s got the most energy efficient housing in Britain. What did it take to build a city from almost nothing? Listen now at morejamtomorrow.com/episode/milt...

Sitcom idea: ventriloquist couple living together, relationship frosty, discussing divorce, but their dolls are deeply in love and do what they can to keep the couple together.

We’ve just moved into an old house where the carpet underlay seems to consist entirely of copies of the Times 1965-1970, and it’s kind of reassuring to find the headlines (arms sales to Israel, teachers’ strike, rows about some MP calling another MP a drunken buffoon) are so utterly relatable

A story that’s attracted surprisingly little attention in our media: Ex-Reform politician admits Russia-linked bribery charges www.bbc.com/news/article...

On anti-Faragism, the point of the Lib Dems and Ed Davey finding himself unmarked in front of an open goal www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

On anti-Faragism, the point of the Lib Dems and Ed Davey finding himself unmarked in front of an open goal www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

One of the main ways that the US was traditionally covered in the UK was the "only in America" story - tales which played to the British sense it was a bizarre place where mad people did mad things. The Express had a daily column of such stories. Maybe we should just go back to that framing.

There should be a high bar for politicians attacking the media, but maybe Ed Davey has half a point here? For example, the first three paragraphs of this BBC story repeat Reform's £243bn figure without saying that the thinktank behind the estimate now disowns it. (This is mentioned in paragraph 35)

It was obvious when EU citizens had the terms of their settlement here retrospectively revoked that a precedent was being set and that, in time, the argument would move on to other categories of migrant, always tending towards a purity test of who is ‘indigenous’. Unless resisted.

Retrospectively removing indefinite leave to remain would be immoral and economically damaging. It would tear families apart. Attacking it as ‘potentially illegal’ is completely beside the point. Argue with the (awful) idea. Don’t try ’well, actually you can’t do that’.

It might be worth reading my paper on how Europe should fight a war against Russia without the Americans, and which are the key gaps that need to be filled first www.martenscentre.eu/wp-content/u...

Someone with audio engineering chops this happen, please

See me live on tour! I’m going to Leicester, Northampton, Bristol, Edinburgh, Newcastle, York, London, Birmingham, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Taunton, Southend-on-sea, Cambridge, Southampton, Leeds, Liverpool, Guildford and Brighton. www.livenation.co.uk/matt-green-t...

does seem tremendously unfair that, when the main centre left party breaks, we get centre right hegemony... but when the main centre right party breaks, we get the far right. the sheer asymmetry of it offends me

Column: UK foreign policy is an all-in bet on an idea of America that doesn’t exist anymore. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

What does it mean to be a party member these days? Is it a badge of identity, a fan club or a thing you can actually influence? Good chat with @rafaelbehr.bsky.social and @jonnelledge.bsky.social

My column in tomorrow's paper:

Retvrn

Found it. Quoted here www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Hey bluesky, help me out here. Looking for a quote from, I think, Bannon in an interview this year where he responded to Q about stolen election conspiracy by saying something along lines of "who cares if it's true when we've won the argument". Can't now find it. Anyone remember source?

Plus, it's me playing the harmonica break at the very end ...

Epic achievements by @jonathanfreedland.bsky.social with the Traitors' Circle, bringing psychology of tyranny - and courage to resist it - to life with verve of a thriller; letting modern resonance shine through without breaking narrative stride. Congrats on publication day linktr.ee/jonathanfree...

V good thread.

🚨NEW SHOW🚨 Regulars @rafaelbehr.bsky.social & @nndroid.bsky.social plus guest @steverichards.bsky.social rage at the uncontrolled power of the far-right press after Rayner's departure. Plus: As Steve publishes a new analysis of Tony Blair, we look back at his reign ➡️ linktr.ee/ohgodwhatnowpod