Love this. I think there's sometimes a danger of assuming that many men are emotionally stunted compared to women, rather than just finding emotional connection in different ways. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Good piece and pleased it doesn't solely focus on the political consequences but also on the societal ones and how we live together.

I’ve taken to revisiting books in these winter months. One of these is Orwell’s Coming up for Air. This read felt far starker and more relevant - it helps situate us in the present moment, whilst also being a guide in how nostalgia and accepting inevitability are not how we should respond to it.

I’ve taken to revisiting books in these winter months. One of these is Orwell’s Coming up for Air. This read felt far starker and more relevant - it helps situate us in the present moment, whilst also being a guide in how nostalgia and accepting inevitability are not how we should respond to it.

The challenge for progressives (& govt in particular) is to appreciate they are in a very different sort of ideological fight, and respond accordingly. Hints of this in PM’s speech at party conference in September but much, much more needed, as @parth0 & I argue here. www.ippr.org/articles/the...

I feel like going home for Christmas is going to really hammer home how bad things are for Labour in a way that successive dire opinion polls cannot do

Spoons chicken wings: surprisingly good with a hint of lemon to them

Start of the season predictions from me and my West Ham lot - my vindication thus far not overcoming dread

Been thinking about Rowans, but also about places like Kaieteur Kitchen and Moth Club, other places that have closed or are under threat. Worry one day we will wake up and much of London has become more like Battersea/Nine Elms and the soul will have gone.

When everything is a priority nothing is a priority.

Employment Rights Bill passed - a milestone. Wrote earlier in the year about how it'll transform the lives of many precarious and low paid workers. www.jrf.org.uk/work/how-the...

I am generally against the graffiti over the tube but more specifically against it on the Bakerloo line, where it jars most heavily with the aesthetic and feel of the line - going through those old stations and feeling like bowling about London on your living room sofa as I saw it once described.

A very useful and timely contribution by Frances on the seeds of a political project that synthesises the democratic and communitarian impulses within the soft left and Blue Labour.

So much of football and English culture distilled in this.

Water you can't drink. Water boss on 400k, 30% increase from last year. Bonus last year 115k. Bills up, previous supply issues. Part-owned by overseas pension funds and investors. It's beyond shocking. Blood boiling along with the dirty water.

Another great story from @manchestermill.bsky.social on how people saved their local cafe when the ICB decided to close it down. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” manchestermill.co.uk/what-it-take...

Good example of 'owning unpopularity'

Think this gets at a blunter honesty the govt needs to find, and a need to speak to what people see and feel everyday. Add in a bit of hope and that's probably where the comms would need to be.

Billy Bonds claret blue army ⚒️ Rest in peace.

Imagery in this is pretty telling in who Reform sees as its voters, as is continual reference to small business. Farage speaking with a register which I've not heard from him before. x.com/Nigel_Farage...

Government hopes that the new Office for the Impact Economy will help to crowd further capital into the Pride in Place programme.

I don't think the hypnotits jokes land for this reason

Really great piece that gets across what the economy, social life (or lack of it), and disparity actually feels like dispatch-media.com/the-empty-so...

NEW! How should Labour respond to the two key issues to voters of the economy and immigration and what are the electoral stakes this week of the budget? Read on for our answer... @nprcoxford.bsky.social @jrf-uk.bsky.social

On the Greens, clear No.10 and Lab more generally alert to the threat but I do not think fully understand the depth of discontent in its modern urban heartlands and how the vote could collapse.

Richard Feynman once wrote about "Cargo Cult Science" - "they follow all the apparent precepts and forms, but they're missing something essential, because the planes don't land." I wonder if we currently have a Cargo Cult model of messaging and media management in British politics

In a future leadership contest Labour MPs + members will need to value candidates ability at attentional politics. The way it'll be covered will put more emphasis on broadcast ability and what the lobby think/deems acceptable. Not that these are totally unimportant but certainly less so than before.

Bright and cold winter's morning listening to England taking wickets in Australia 🙏

Think Julian Coman is right to identify Mahmood and Burnham as representing two different democratising tendencies in Labour. But the examples he picks (borders + bond markets) actually inadvertently highlight where there's overlap on sovereignty. There are differences.

Great to see No.10 finally owning the news agenda

Welcome news that the Chancellor is gearing up to invest in children & their futures by fully removing the two child limit. When families hit hard times they should be able to rely on Universal Credit. It is also the most cost effective way to get child poverty falling this parliament.

Breaking the tax pledge is the right call...and politically sulphurous. Reeves must argue, far more forcefully, that taxes are *the* essential downpayment we all pay for a fairer society. Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇 renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...

On X Tommy Robinson is spreading bollocks about West Ham 'saying no to poppies'. We're not, obviously. This is West Ham.

I don't think the 'we are the grown ups' technocratic response to the Greens is going to work, much as it doesn't with the populist right. There needs to be an actual counter argument that gets at why they are wrong and what the govt wants to do.

I think two questions this raises is the extent to which the modern left has an idea of the common good/really cares about it, and whether 'anti-bedtime leftism' is an expression of left individualism

Tax policy on the British left is pure "anti-bedtime left". Bizarre idea that you can have a big social democratic welfare state without everyone contributing properly www.economist.com/britain/2025...

Failure of imagination from politicians and commentators dismissing any lessons from Mamdani because NYC-style politics wouldn't work in Labour's former heartlands. His launch video was literally going to the more Trump-supporting areas in New York and listening to people.

Labour may then be 'ajar'

Good ideas in this, and Peter right to say there's nothing to lose - crucially trying different things out is needed to find what works authentically for you even if it's not your comfort zone comms wise.

Yep. Also relentless focus on issues that concern a majority of voters, looking like you actually enjoy being around said voters, questioning the worth of old taboos, seeing 'strategic consultants' for what they are, not being scared of old men running old newspapers, and being *funny*.

Think what there is to learn from Mamdani is what applies outside of a New York context. Charismatic candidates who can work the new media environment and attract attention, combining that with listening to what people care about and rooting yourself in that + organising at the grassroots.

Yeah, agree with this and Reeves deserves some credit for owning the argument and proactively doing the pitchrolling for the public and the markets when broadly the government has not been v good at setting the agenda.

Patrick Maguire column identifies Reform's pitch to the petty bourgeoisie. It could be potent too as it'd be fair to say the govt currently lacks a distinctive offer to these workers. They don't often feature strongly in Labour's conception of its people and that shows in policy and comms.

Interesting to compare the Democrats and Labour on this. Klein positions part of the Democrats' problem as the censoriousness of the left reducing the pluralism of the party, and therefore its ability to win in more places.

Would like odds on Southgate for Labour leader within next 10 years

Spoke to the BBC about the drivers of deprivation and the impact on families. There's a clear link between living in hardship & feeling socially/politically disconnected. To make meaningful progress, communities must be involved in decisions affecting their lives. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Awful consequence of Love Island is people treating a discussion about a disagreement as one of those ‘we need a chat’ moments and mimicking all the rhetorical style of it (currently overhearing one such moment in the pub)

Guardian editorial on latest IMD stats. Of course it is right to say that incomes need a boost too. But a mistake to not position policy on place AND incomes / living standards as BOTH pushing in the direction of greater opportunity and good lives for people living in those neighbourhoods.

Walter Lippman quote from 1914 that feels relevant today in a disturbed information environment shaping reality: “We have changed our environment more quickly than we know how to change ourselves”

You'd be selling to the public that you will be sorting out public services and getting child poverty down by the end of this parliament because this is a Labour government. The politics isn't being bashful or half measures.