We know who made this number up - it was the Centre for Policy Studies. However, after I pointed out two major errors, they have admitted it is completely wrong and have withdrawn it - see note on their webpage here. cps.org.uk/research/her...

I’ve written this for @theobserveruk.bsky.social on how Labour intends to show that loving our country does not - must not - mean hating others.

I’ve written this for @theobserveruk.bsky.social on how Labour intends to show that loving our country does not - must not - mean hating others.

A deeply misleading headline in the Sunday Times above a story saying the information provided on Epstein was a summary of “what was known at the time” - in other words the documents revealed by Bloomberg on Wednesday represented materially new information. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

At last, some decent reporting on the ECHR. observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

A deeply misleading headline in the Sunday Times above a story saying the information provided on Epstein was a summary of “what was known at the time” - in other words the documents revealed by Bloomberg on Wednesday represented materially new information. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

There is an awful lot of hindsightery on display from journalists about Mandelson today who, with honourable exceptions, stampeded to present his appointment as ambassador as a masterstroke. This includes broadcasters who regularly interviewed him without mentioning Epstein.

One of the things that annoys me most about the BBC is watching a package from Mark Easton, which *always* involves him going to a market town in the E Midlands and asking four people their opinions, bookended by a couple of meaningless pieces to camera

Vox pops are the lowest form of journalism because they allow news organisations to editorialise through selective interviews without even the spurious science of polling data. This is leading the website of the BBC which must think it’s the most important news happening today.

I have never been so disappointed in a BBC piece. Breathless admiration is, as far as I knew, not the role of the BBC’s political editor when describing a party political conference. Description+detail yes, rigorous examination of the conference content, yes. This, absolutely no, in my opinion.

More in Common have produced research on attitudes to deporting people who come in small boats, uninvited, by characteristics. A sixth of people support Farage (and now Conservative) policy in all the cases. A quarter will deport genuine refugees. Most will remove those without a refugee claim

Not a word of this, in the Sunday Times, turned out to be true.

The anonymous briefers don’t always get their way. They told journalists that Ed Miliband, Bridget Phillipson, Lisa Nandy and Richard Hermer would be moved or sacked by Keir Starmer in a reshuffle. But they are just about the only cabinet ministers still in the same job.

Angela Rayner’s mistake on tax pales in comparison to the law-breaking and sleaze of the last government. But this, from my updated biography of Keir Starmer, shows he was always determined to show that not all PMs are the same.

Oh.

Keir Starmer should look at what is going out in his name on X and rein it in. There is no point retracting the accidental allusions to Enoch Powell if the Downing St comms team seem to be apeing the Willie Horton playbook

Glad to see Keir Starmer defending the UK’s - and his - longstanding commitment to human dignity in the face of fashionable right wing extremism and the panicked knee jerkery of some “senior Labour figures” who really should know better.

This is an important point from @anandmenon.bsky.social, neither stated nor heard often enough.

Here The Times limps after Nigel Farage in describing asylum seekers arriving by small boat (less then 5% of total immigration) as a “crisis” when it’s a decade-old problem that has followed a predictable pattern since other routes were made more difficult. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Aussie unions don’t beat around the bush.

The right's canonisation of this women is sick beyond belief. You don't have to agree with her jail sentence to think what she did was foul.

The question should be whether they are decent landlords or not. Renting out a property does not amount to a conflict of interest anymore than owning a house, a car, or a bike. Perhaps some now expect MPs to renounce all worldly goods, like monks?

🎧: On today’s episode of Media Confidential, @arusbridger.bsky.social analyses Starmer’s appointment of former Sun editor David Dinsmore to a senior role overseeing government communications: www.prospectmagazine...

Some see Matthew Goodwin’s political realignment as self-serving—to make a killing through reactionary agitprop. Others see career setbacks as having wounded his pride and curdled his politics, writes @jamesbloodworth.bsky.social. www.prospectmagazine...

There is a dangerous disconnect: on Gaza, politics no longer speaks for the people | Gaby Hinsliff

Farage is making more silly mistakes. The rule of law matters to a lot of people.

Hot of the presses, the new paperback version of my biography of Keir Starmer with new chapters on a difficult first year. You can get it here: www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0008...

Hot of the presses, the new paperback version of my biography of Keir Starmer with new chapters on a difficult first year. You can get it here: www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0008...

An enjoyable and serious conversation with Paul Adamson about Labour’s first 12 months in power. encompass-europe.com/podcasts/kei...

‪🗞️ Our latest issue is on sale today - The comeback edition Featuring @tombaldwin66.bsky.social @petepaphides.bsky.social @soniasodha.bsky.social @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com @johnkampfner.bsky.social, Matthew d'Ancona and more 🔗 Subscribe here: www.thenewworld.co.uk/subscribe/?u...

There is no grand vision, no -ism, writes @tombaldwin66.bsky.social. But Keir Starmer can still succeed if he trusts his political instincts

“You need a plan! What is Keir Starmer’s plan?” @maitlis.bsky.social questions Keir Starmer biographer and former Labour advisor @tombaldwin66.bsky.social on the PM's vision.

As other contemporaries would attest Marc Stears was a scarily mature thinker 35 years ago, and this is a terrific attempt at reclamation of Blue Labour away from its far right drift and back towards thinking about individuals currently overlooked by far too many across politics.

Marc is one of the smartest political thinkers in the country and as @tombaldwin66.bsky.social rightly notes, this is an exceptionally thoughtful piece.

Marc Stears was one of the intellectual founders of Blue Labour. In this brilliant essay, he explains why, in its current MAGA-stained form, Blue Labour offers no answers to either the government or the country. @mds49.bsky.social www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/703...

I’ve written this essay for The Observer on Keir Starmer’s first year as PM, the very private side to him that you don’t often see in public, and how he has learnt from the mistakes he has made. observer.co.uk/news/politic...

I’ve written this essay for The Observer on Keir Starmer’s first year as PM, the very private side to him that you don’t often see in public, and how he has learnt from the mistakes he has made. observer.co.uk/news/politic...

Very struck by this passage in excellent @tombaldwin66.bsky.social read on Starmer one year in. observer.co.uk/news/politic...

From this magisterial profile by @tombaldwin66.bsky.social:

This interview with Starmer, by @tombaldwin66.bsky.social for @theobserveruk.bsky.social, is the most insightful piece I have read on the PM's year in power. Covers Reform, the island of strangers speech, the death of his brother and the arson attacks observer.co.uk/news/politic...

This is worth reading. @tombaldwin66.bsky.social It does make you wonder. Starmer has undoubtedly made significant mistakes. But to what extent might he also be a victim of a relentlessly aggressive and impatient culture determined to see the worst in any politician? observer.co.uk/news/politic...

“We didn’t convince any Australian that Dutton was just like Donald Trump — we convinced them that Albanese was better at dealing with Trump”

Immigration: @zoejardiniere.bsky.social & I debate Matt Goodwin and Nadim Zahawi. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXbQ...

Oh.

“The big plot twist this time is a Labour government that is prepared to say aloud that Brexit inflicted harm on the UK economy, and that closer relations with European neighbours are in the national interest” 👏 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Keir Starmer backs end of two child benefit cap and tells Treasury to find the money - my story for @theobserveruk.bsky.social observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

More should have been made about Farage's absence from Parliament in the week of the summit. After all, the date was well known in advance. And next week is a holiday for the Commons anyway. This is someone who deliberately chose not to be present.

As Lord Frost - one of Britain’s top Brexit bores- becomes tumescent in the Telegraph about spending months alone with some EU-UK legal texts, a lot of normal voters will just be happy we have a pragmatic government that has undone some of the damage his sort have done to our country.

When Boris Johnson posts weird BDSM insults about a successor as UK PM, is he doing it because a) Dan Hannan did it first, b) Russia’s pro-Farage bots are currently flooding Twitter/X with even weirder fantasies about keir_starmer or c) Johnson feels left out and wants some attention?

When Boris Johnson posts weird BDSM insults about a successor as UK PM, is he doing it because a) Dan Hannan did it first, b) Russia’s pro-Farage bots are currently flooding Twitter/X with even weirder fantasies about keir_starmer or c) Johnson feels left out and wants some attention?