Xi is really good at this stuff.

All good and well, not a “new plan”… the issue is Trump forcing Netanyahu’s hand. “”The U.S. outline was good but needed a bit more refining with input from Arab countries. After it is finalized the U.S. will have to sell it to Bibi," an Arab official said” www.axios.com/2025/09/24/t...

Negotiations have stalled. Trump keeps changing his policies. Ukrainians, backed by Europeans, are taking matters into their own hands, by targeting the Russian oil industry: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Well Farage's goading on the "Boriswave" turns out to have had an effect. I don't think this plays out well for him.

There has got to be a very realistic possibility - probability even - that there won't be anything like the 13,000 delegates supposedly selected by lottery to attend this conference.

Two headlines on the same day

Mrs R: "There was a woman on the ward today who didn't want to take paracetamol. We've had to explain that we're not giving it to her because she's got a fever and we want her to feel better, but because she's got a fever and if we don't get her temperature down then her baby is going to die."

Trots and their abiding fondness for the Fred Perry shirt. You could get a PhD out of this, I reckon.

I see Jeremy Corbyn has put the price of "Your Party" membership up by a fiver. She was knocking it out for £55 a year. Corbyn is now charging £60.

What a great story.

This is very good indeed.

Similar for parents of ASD children. Intensely relaxed about know-nothings spouting spurious, offensive nonsense about their families.

Georges Brassens.

Some shifts in this week's voting intention as Reform’s lead over Labour narrows again: now down to just 3pts. With both Labour and Tories up ➡️ REF UK 28% (-3) 🌹 LAB 25% (+3) 🌳 CON 20% (+2) 🔶 LIB DEM 13% (-1) 🌍 GREEN 8% (nc) 🟡 SNP 3% (nc) N=2055 |19-22/9|Change w 15/9

You can't do what's best for the British people if you're worried about offending a foreigner.

This more optimistic reading feels right to me. Ignore the positioning. Trump's shift seems rooted in the facts on the ground and the strong possibility that Russia's summer offensive has culminated in another stalemate, and hence failure.

We need one of these for the history of the Conservative Party since Cameron's Bloomberg speech. Hahahaha "Bernard Jenkin" Hahahaha "Timing of the referendum" Hahahaha "Liz Truss"

Clearly he does.

"My speech was very well received."

It's a huge achievement for anyone from Earlsfield. It would be huge even if he was from Southfields.

Right I think. But I also don't think there is much of a future in the alternative, Gauke-ian strategy. Becoming a kind of British FDP gets you maybe 10% in a really good year. The future may just be absorption. Rather like how Liberal radicals and National Liberals slowly sank below the waves.

Delighted to publish this first paper in @demos-uk.bsky.social Powering Public Service Reform programme today. And it’s only right that we start with one of reform's biggest, but simultaneously least explored, barriers: culture. demos.co.uk/research/the...

The Spectator goes with "well it might not be true but perhaps, despite evidence, it has an element of truthiness so you can't be too careful".

Reform appear convinced they'll be able to continue playing politics on "easy" setting. That is not necessarily the case.

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.

Telegraph now running fanfic in the comment pages.

Vindicated.

Played safe on the rapture and took the bins out anyway.

As America's most pro-business leader in a generation, I will choose one company each week and accuse them of witchcraft

Europe should tell Trump and RFK Jr. it exports an amazing alternative to Tylenol called paracetamol and use that as leverage in tariff negotiations.

Farage is against Leave to Remain because that's what life expectancy is doing to sentiment about the UK and the EU.

BBC's chronic America-brain in action. The brand name "Tylenol" means zero to most license-fee payers.

If you're a party member and your local MP is still on Twitter, demand that they explain why.

The immigrant experience, even the second or third generation immigrant experience, so often adds up to keeping the suitcases handy.

TFL should give up trying to run the District Line and attempt something more suited to its abilities. A whelk stall, for example.

Over on Twitter they have decided fast jets are gay.

The ratchet is inevitable and only goes one way. Post-Brexit settled status next.

Am I missing something or is calling for Musk to be arrested for speech uttered outside this country a bloody stupid idea?

Same night as bins.

Stellar winning run against disorganised teams in probable relegation trouble comes to a screeching end the moment we meet an organised team in probable relegation trouble. It's the #bristolcity way. Our tao, if you like.

Anis Mehmeti. The Modric of the Mendips.

Perfect nominative determinism

In response to "who is Gabriel Milland" plain old Google search links to a current bio. Gemini confidently claims I do a job that I left four years ago.

Moving from "what's the most authoritative answer?" to "what's the most plausible answer?" turns out to have downsides.

Laminate this so it can repeatedly produced and shown to slow learners.

Honestly this is pathetic, sorry, you can’t run a “boycott Rupert Murdoch” campaign from your column in the sun and you can’t run a “Twitter is for nonces” campaign on X

Can't work out from this piece whether it's the coke, the fraud or the kicking of a police officer in the head that Liz thinks he's been unfairly demonised for. So I'll presume it's all of it.

The RAF should consider temporarily renaming the unit carrying out this operation 303 Squadron.

"Last night a spokesman for the Duchess said that Epstein had threatened to sue her for defamation after her Evening Standard interview and she had been advised to try and 'assuage' him." Chinny, as they say, reckon.