I get Spain and can communicate there. Italy? It's totally different. And that is fantastic!!

The more time I spend in Italy and with Italians the more I realise what a totally impenetrable country is. Things just work here differently. It's great. Proper abroad.

Sadly, it could just be that Labour is not suited to (good) government. No party is.

There is a hell of a pattern emerging with Polanski. Someone who makes so many "mistakes" is not close to credible.

Non-US NATO soldiers killed defending the US in Afghanistan: 🇬🇧 457 🇨🇦 158 🇫🇷 90 🇩🇪 62 🇮🇹 53 🇵🇱 44 🇩🇰 43 🇪🇸 34 🇷🇴 27 🇳🇱 25 🇨🇿 14 🇳🇴 10 🇪🇪 9 🇭🇺 7 🇸🇪 5 🇱🇻 4 🇸🇰 3 🇫🇮 2 🇵🇹 2 🇦🇱 2 🇧🇪 1 🇧🇬 1 🇭🇷 1 🇱🇹 1 🇲🇪 1 Denmark and the UK suffered amongst the highest per‑capita soldier death rates in NATO.

Update: Kemi’s green shoots of Conservative recovery

Miatta Fahnbulleh, Jess Phillips and Alex Davies Jones; so far all 3 ministerial resignations are women, 2 directly responsible for delivering on the manifesto pledge to halve violence against women and girls. There has been real simmering anger in the women's PLP about not being listened to.

Fuck Blue Labour. Blue Labour is not Labour.

One of the things Starmer's defenders on here get so wrong is to insist it's all about media froth. In fact, as that Jess Philips letter demonstrates, the most damning criticism of Starmer comes from those concerned about the policy and delivery process.

A theme here is the refusal to properly regulate tech companies- including when it comes to child safety. Taking on tech power is an example of something that could have helped create a sense of change and public mission. So many opportunities.

The first thing a new PM should be doing is demanding Ofcom intervene at GBNews

This is absolutely brutal - and gets right to the heart of Starmer's flaws as a leader. His position is now unsurvivable. It would be a kindness if his advisers made this clear to him.

The Starmer government's policy on Europe is fundamentally unserious.

Very much this 👇

Chris is right, and in addition, these maps actually *understate* how bad the local elections were!

We've had 2 years of non government I genuinely think it's an insult to voters to ask them to hang around with a lame duck PM for 4-6 months on the off chance all the stars aline and Andy gets to Westminster. And what if he doesn't? The choices are the choices and they are the ones who are MPs.

Amazingly a very good interview on Today on gilts market/UK fiscal policy. Key points -Main driver currently is global events (war, oil) - UK borrowing/debt compares relatively well - UK doesn't have much scope to change policy but doesn't matter that much who is PM

She understands she can’t actually deport him, right?

Bongiorno ...

Labour factionalism will deliver the UK to the far-right. It is unforgivable.

This is, quite literally, mental.

I won't sleep tonight. Too much sugar from the dodgy after dinner drink. Tomorrow will be grimissimmo.

Europe is endlessly fascinating, brilliant and magnificent. Thank-you for attending my TED Talk.

We found where Milan's trams go to rest for the night ...

Blue Labour ministers and MPs have some front telling Starmer to go when their fingerprints are all over this Government's failures.

In Italy they throw dodgy, sugary, herby spirits at you on the house after dinner. How will I sleep tonight after three shots? I've got nine hours of work tomorrow. It will be hell. But I love it. Submerging into another culture. Though this is Lombardy. The south, they tell me, is very different.

Milano ...

This is becoming an annual event

It's sort of ironic that many Labour MPs are finally in the same place psychologically as most of the country: Desperate for change, angry, helpless, and casting around for anyone to do anything, but without any idea who or what.

This response is understandable, and feels compassionate. I said very similar things about the area that I grew up, which voted heavily for Brexit. But the thing is: these people have been indulged in their ideas — which are racist, and also simply incoherent — for over a decade.

One of many talented, smart 2024 entry Labour MPs whose thoughts and views the leadership has studiously ignored.

No, it is actually in fact a huge policy issue that the prime minister does not adjudicate between departments, does not command the support of his MPs and does not grip whether policies are actually being delivered!

The public is not exactly rewarding Labour now.

Total curtains

They should also talk to their kids more

There's a sort of core to Labour support, of people who feel a genuine connection to the party and see voting for - even working with - those of other parties as a betrayal. This group seems chronically unable to understand that *even among historically reliable Labour voters* they're a minority

Yeah, I've made this observation before, but the fact that I could no longer find basically any Tory voters amongst my cohort of university educated higher rate tax payers really could have been a transformational moment for Labour and Britain's oldest party.

More people in the UK work for McDonalds than in the whole steel industry.

it’s such shibboleth of modern politics to blame politicians for failing town centres when the primary driver is - surely - all of us buying more and more stuff online

Permission to despair.

One thing you can say about Keir Starmer is that he is entirely predictable.

Starmer's speech tl;dr: 'The UK and the world faces its most dangerous moment in over 50 years and we need much more than incremental change, and that is why we're nationalising one steel plant, might introduce a European youth movement scheme, and want to fund more apprenticeships'.

Whilst I appreciate Stephen’s point about Labour, I’m going to argue that the Labour Party isn’t the load bearing force against the far right. It’s the Tory party, and our issue here is they’ve decided instead to join in.

Why get sentimental about a load of old xenophobes and bigots who fall for grifting snake oil merchants time and again. ?

I know that localised cultural norms affect voting patterns but Blue Labour's inability to recognise that demographic differences between places doesn't mean that the core Labour coalition differs massively between places has me wondering if they would recognise their own mother if she put on a hat.

As Keir Starmer now prepares to say that “incremental change won’t cut it”, a reminder of what he said to @tommctague.bsky.social last summer:

Counterpoint: without Ericsson, Nokia and several other European entities, standards-based, interoperable, global communications would not exist. Look at the patent licences every big US tech company pays to them.

Starmer was up against candidates who had long involvement in the CLP and knew the constituency far better. HIs pitch was "I am well known". Too many members valued that over actual ability. And we are where we are. We should have known better!

I keep thinking back to the original sin: Starmer's selection as the candidate for Holborn and St Pancras by the CLP for no other reason than he had a high profile. It was a contested selection and there were several other candidates who were far better in terns of pitch and political nous.

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is unfit to represent Europe in any peace talks to end the Russia-Ukraine war, the EU’s chief diplomat Kaja Kallas has said.