A jewish atheist takes on the big Christmas issue. www.ft.com/content/5d06...

As so often, great piece from @robertshrimsley.bsky.social and truly sensational illustration by Ellie Foreman Peck - 🎶REACH (beat) for the stars (ti tum ti tum ti tum ti TUM) 🎤🎵

"In his endorsement of Brexit trade freedoms, Starmer resembles Alec Guinness’s half-mad colonel in The Bridge on the River Kwai, defending an edifice he has forgotten was built for the benefit of the other side." www.ft.com/content/2d00...

If the Tories do manage to get through their slump - and it's a big if - they will have sloughed off almost all the dregs of their party

Rutherford Hall on the art of humblebragging as.ft.com/r/f1df5aa2-8...

A little perturbed by latest Facebook recommendation

Labour is slow-marching working people to populism as.ft.com/r/2aedc22e-6... @robertshrimsley.bsky.social

Excellent article by @robertshrimsley.bsky.social

"The overall impression continues to be of a system loaded against younger workers, paying more to fund older citizens with assets." @robertshrimsley.bsky.social Labour is slow-marching working people to populism www.ft.com/content/1052...

Great piece by @stephenkb.bsky.social on all the things the govt is getting wrong. www.ft.com/content/b0ed...

Perfect Tom Stoppard story from DTel obituary: His response to a letter from Harold Pinter canvassing support for a proposal to have the Comedy Theatre in London rechristened the Pinter Theatre, “Have you thought, instead, of changing your name to Harold Comedy?”

In a grim world, this story is a necessary source of joy and laughter. news.sky.com/story/jeremy...

Am pretty sceptical of this but it would be an epic by-election

Well you can't say he hasn't done his time.

The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.

Thank you. It's always a joy to be there. The most engaged, passionate but still delightful audiences around

Another superb piece by @robertshrimsley.bsky.social "One of the reasons why the Starmer government looks so uncomfortable in its skin is because it is trying to seem more frugal than it either is or wants to be" The inescapable logic of Labour’s choices - on.ft.com/3XeDTc5

Labour needs to stop fooling itself and lean in to the political logic of its choices. It is a high taxing, high spending government. www.ft.com/content/00a5...

You don't have to be on team Ben Shapiro, or agree with everything he says here, to understand the importance of Conservatives drawing a line against the far right, and those like Tucker Carlson, who promote them. This is important x.com/i/status/198...

This is typically excellent from @robertshrimsley.bsky.social. Merely pushing back on Reform's extremism on race and migration won't be enough alone. www.ft.com/content/c54d...

“Or members are not our weakness” - thwack

This: www.ft.com/content/9a1d... excellent by @stephenkb.bsky.social The Katie Lam gambit is not merely unpleasant and unfair. It's unworkable. And all it will do is bolster Farage

This week's FT column: why I've stopped worrying about birthrates:

"They want the truth that no one else dares tell them, even if the reason is because that it isn’t actually true". www.ft.com/content/ffdd...

The revolution will not be televised. It will be monetised. How the outrage economy is commercialising politics www.ft.com/content/ffdd...

From Robert Jenrick's video - in which he did not see a single other white face on a brief trip to Birmingham, despite his video showing that he did. "He must have been walking around Handsworth with his eyes closed" writes Dan Cave www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/a-notorious-...

Assuming No 10/ Powell/ FO action intentionally or unintentionally scuppered the China spy trial, they might be better off just owning it and defending their reasoning rather than tying themselves in knots pretending otherwise and leaving hostages to fortune in their evasive answers

Thatcher once said her greatest achievement was Tony Blair and New Labour, because she forced her opponents onto her agenda. Today's new right begs to differ. www.ft.com/content/49ec...

Thatcher once said her greatest achievement was Tony Blair and New Labour, because she forced her opponents onto her agenda. Today's new right begs to differ. www.ft.com/content/49ec...

The UAE is an authoritarian autocracy, a petro-state with no income tax for citizens, to bribe them for the lack of democratic voice or free speech It is 85% migrant, a segregated society with a ban on integration in principle and practice, few rights, equal opportunities, nor voice for incomers

"Of course, like around two-thirds of British Jews, I am a Zionist. What about the history of Jews in Europe would make me not see the case for a Jewish lifeboat outside of it?" 100 per cent agree with this excellent piece by @stephenkb.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/14d4...

When someone tells you who there are, believe them.

It should be obvious that this is not a tiger Jews want to ride.

If you feel the need to do something in the wake of the Manchester attack why not donate to the Community Security Trust, the organisation that works to keep jews in Britain safe cst.org.uk/donate-now

Really good piece this from @stephenkb.bsky.social. Hilariously brutal on the “What did we learn on our summer holidays?”memo. "The title sounds like it was written by an eight-year-old, which would surely have been preferable to the actual content."

What gift to I give to a host who hates me? An ill-qualified journalist solves your domestic issues Your one stop shop for family warfare and petty passive aggression. www.ft.com/content/3a46...

I do think this has been a week in which new levels of 'why don't senior Labour politicians understand we can ALL hear them' have been reached. Why would Andy Burnham do a 'I'm gonna hike taxes on London and the south, you're all rich!' Why would Steve Reed use 'regional politician' as a putdown?

Brutal new MRP poll out today showing Reform at 311 and Labour support collapsing. Worth reading steaming @financialtimes.com column on Starmer by @robertshrimsley.bsky.social “Starmer can’t afford to wait for reckless Reform to implode” on.ft.com/3VxxCaR

Terrific column by @robertshrimsley.bsky.social: laughed out loud at the description of Andy Burnham, " popping up, as so often, like a hopeful beneficiary at a deathbed"

The way to defeat Reform is not to parrot them on immigration while hoping they'll self-destruct. Instead, it is to take the fight to Farage relentlessly and aggressively, while offering hope voters can buy into. Can Starmer do it? He has no choice. @robertshrimsley.bsky.social absolutely nails it.

'Starmer can't afford to wait for reckless Reform to implode' – by @robertshrimsley.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/e895...

Hmm, I wonder if there is some kind of lesson/ message in this.

To no-one's deep surprise, the Charlie Kirk aftermath shows Repubicans and conservatives never really believed in free speech after all. Which is a pity, because their criticism had a point. My latest. www.ft.com/content/2dcc...

"What makes the Republican and conservative hypocrisy so depressing is that, at a time when free speech in the west needs thoughtful defenders, its self-proclaimed champions have revealed themselves as posturing partisans." @robertshrimsley.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/2dcc...

Opinion: What makes the Republican and conservative hypocrisy so depressing is that, at a time when free speech in the west needs thoughtful defenders, its self-proclaimed champions have revealed themselves as posturing partisans. on.ft.com/46aEwsF

It should be obvious that a march whose organising principle is that the mere existence of Badenoch is a crisis and that Starmer needs to be overthrown can’t be beaten by either politician equivocating on whether they are wrong Excellent from @stephenkb.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/fbbd...

If only there had been some clues about Mandy’s past

Lammy getting the Raab combo of DPM and justice confirms the constitutional role of DPM as demotion blow softener