In accordance with ancient tradition, our next Prime Minister is announced to the nation while standing between a furry and a man with a bin on his head.

Mamdani's speech at the Knicks parade was easily the best I've ever heard at an event of that sort. I posted the whole thing on YouTube for your viewing pleasure. Highly recommended.

Politics isn't working. It's time to call time on the broken culture in Westminster and have a fresh start with a fair voting system. Add your name to @electoralreform.bsky.social‬'s call to #MakeSeatsMatchVotes action.electoral-reform.org.uk/page/3782/pe...

Brexiters’ claims that the UK would be able to aggressively deregulate and forge new trade alliances with the likes of the US have failed to bear fruit

This was excellent.

Protest isn't terrorism. The UK Labour Government are taking more action against people holding signs than those complicit in genocide. 🇵🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

It’s a pretty weird week when a guy who wants to be a trillionaire is simultaneously getting headlines for the economy-shattering IPO expected Friday and the racist pogroms he is accused of stoking — but these stories are viewed as separate and in no way connected or prescient of the future.

Those failing to above registered include the state of Qatar and its Royal family. 3/7 andywightman.scot/2015/01/qata...

... and the quality of life in the U.S. improved by leaps and bounds for everyone, and science, medicine, education, and culture flowered

Folarin Balogun, the 2x goal scoring star of the US Men's National team last night against Paraguay, is an American due to birthright citizenship....something the Trump administration is currently trying to end.

Don't tolerate the media legitimising thugs who attack people for the colour of their skin. They aren't 'anti-immigration campaigners' like the BBC said this morning, they are violent scumbags. www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/norther...

These aren't protests. They're racist riots. And it's time for the government to take them seriously. The PM should be convening COBRA and setting out a real plan to end this horrific violence and bring communities together. Now is a time for real leadership.

These pogroms are call in Loyalist areas. Why won’t the media say so? open.substack.com/pub/abolishw...

I just emailed my MP and asked them to sign EDM 240 and reject the draft Code of Practice that will otherwise become law imposing a new era of segregation and oppression for trans people in the UK. We have to stop this. Please contact your MP today.

Iain M. Banks died on this day in 2013. Years ago, I wrote about his career for Kirkus Reviews, and ended up interviewing @amendlocke.bsky.social about him. I figured it was a good time to resurface the interview: www.andrewliptak.com/iain-m-banks...

A smart city has nothing to do with artificial intelligence or sensors. A city is smart when children can walk and cycle freely and safely. Technology is only a bonus. 📸 Picture by @dutchcycling.nl

Our latest blogpost on how car-dominated streets are contributing to a public health crisis, and what we can do about it in Hackney www.lowtraffichackney.org/latest-news/...

The craziest French street performance company is called Royal Deluxe. You have to see the children's eyes during these parades. #art #culture

#poetry #socialism

NEW: Reform UK took another £3 million donation from crypto baron Christopher Harborne in the first quarter of the year, the latest records show

Persepolis - Eye of the Tiger (2007)

Watch The National Podcast on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVUy...

Henry's brutal murder and the failures of the police have been appalling. His father's words are vital: "We don't want Henry's murder to be used to create further hatred, division or tension."

Introducing a new cartoon project: Creativity Diagrams. Been a cartoonist for 20 years, trying (and quite often failing) to be creative. A series of cartoons on the topic in my newsletter every week. More about it: davewalker.com/creativity/ Newsletter: diagramclub.substack.com/p/072-introd...

This might be my favorite New York Post headline ever

happy pride month citizen now show me your genital passport

Lame duck

This is very good on the logical preposterousness of the trans bathroom ban. It simply cannot have been the intention of the Equality Act or the governments which administered it. www.liberalcurrents.com/the-end-of-t...

The new EHRC Code of Practice is not fit for purpose. It does not provide clear guidance or do enough to protect everyone from discrimination, and it is not compatible with longstanding British values. @EdDavey.LibDems.org.uk and @MarieCGoldman.bsky.social have written to Bridget Phillipson. ⬇️

It’s truly astonishing to see how comprehensively the US government is tearing down every part of the system that has made it up until now a world-leading power in science, research, and technological development. The entire world will suffer from this wanton destruction.

An absolute pleasure to talk to @privateeyenews.bsky.social about Democracy for Sale's investigation into Labour Together hiring a PR firm to target journalists who were reporting on the undeclared political funding that powered Starmer's rise to power The Paul Foot awards really are the best

Great work from Glasgow City Council here. Cowcaddens Road used to feel like a ring road, now it feels like a place. There's a university across from a bus station! Flats, and a theatre, and a fish restaurant!

Today's episode of The Ezra Klein Show. Yuval Noah Harari on Donald Trump’s Core Delusion The best-selling author of “Sapiens” and “Nexus” discusses the core delusions deranging our politics. open.spotify.com/episode/6mYi... youtu.be/9NCxS__rtAo?...

Scotland's Parliament has voted for a referendum on independence. A majority of MSPs elected last month stood on pro-independence manifestos and we are fulfilling our commitment to the public. If the UK is a voluntary, democratic union, this is Westminster's chance to prove it.

The handful of Labour MPs who have been strong supporters of trans rights up to now have issued rather hedged responses to the EHRC guidance with the honourable exception of @nadiawhittomemp.bsky.social, the only Labour MP I have seen calling explicitly for the government to *legislate* to fix this.

[Sighs wearily, taps sign, glares at UK derisorily over glasses]

Labour promised change and delivered change so slight you need to squint to see it. It seems like they are starting to realise how unpopular this is.

The Herald continues to be so hysterical about the Greens that I think even their core readership will be becoming immune to it by now. There's only so many times you can cry wolf before people stop listening.

RFK Jr. shuttered this lab and fired the director last year. should be a scandal

the whole "Make America Healthy Again" thing, is not going well: thehill.com/policy/energ...

Speaking to reporters in London, President Catherine Connolly has said she is “very proud” of her sister Dr Margaret Connolly, who has been detained by Israeli forces while part of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. jrnl.ie/7043338

I have some polling-retrospective content coming out later this week, but I can't do much better on the Q of MRPs than @eoghanly.bsky.social. On aggregate, they were useless and negatively impacted election coverage.

Proud ‘Terf Island’ flags at the Unite The Right March.

I am sure it says something interesting that while a number of X users are ranting about arXiv’s moves to reduce AI slop in its repositories, the comments on Bluesky are widely supportive.

Have to praise @anguscmillar.bsky.social and the team: - their response to the M8 woodside viaduct consultation is bold and politically brave, putting what is best for the city first - the scale and quality of works from George Square up to the Bus Station are incredible

‘It’s a really spread picture. The SNP are essentially fraying at the edges. The core of their vote turned out in the central belt, but they lost a lot.’ Rory Scothorne on May’s elections in Scotland, on the podcast. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

The local elections in one chart. Labour has been squeezed between the Greens in young wards and Reform in older working-class wards www.economist.com/britain/2026...

BBS Open Letter on Improving Scottish Parliament Results Reporting An open letter from Ballot Box Scotland urging significant improvements to reporting on Scottish Parliament elections; or, why does a hobbyist publish more data on the regional vote than the BBC?

FACT: The climate crisis will give rise to more frequent and severe pandemics.

Brilliant news that the city's taken this view in the consultation 👏 A really important step towards a proper examination of the (many) options around the M8 city centre corridor, rather than speeding ahead with like-for-like replacement. @replacethem8.bsky.social