Anyone thinking that Burnham is the answer to Labour's problems should ask themselves what he's actually achieved as mayor in Manchester.

The one thing Trump wants even more than money or power is respect. Putin may well have made a fatally bad decision in consistently showing him an open lack of respect.

This is how the Tories die: as a dessicated Reform tribute act. Farage fans will always prefer the original. Centre right voters who shun Reform’s polarising politics are given nothing to vote for (and many will end up voting Lib Dem).

This is exactly the right attitude and focus. What matters in terms of rail is customer service. Who delivers that, and how, is secondary, as long as it works. www.libdems.org.uk/news/article...

This is entirely right from Tony. You do not lead an argument against morally repugnant policy on the basis that it's impractical (even if it is: you save that for after the 'besides ...'). Unless you combat their values, you let them dictate what is acceptable.

Rob is quite right. Whether the other parties do condemn Reform in these terms will reveal the extent to which Farage is living in their heads.

Reform's plans to end indefinite leave to remain go to the post I wrote last week on their slide towards chaotic authoritarianism. The British constitution would allow them to do it if they had a majority but at vast cost to our society and way of life. samf.substack.com/p/the-route-...

Note that: 1. Trump is talking about this as a commentator and observer, not an actor. He is distancing himself from any commitment. 2. When he says 'this could be big trouble', he probably means for himself and his quest for a Nobel Prize. He hates violence he can't control; it scares him.

This is not how journalism works in a free country. The United States is not a free country. It is not just that Trump is destroying previous essential norms of behaviour, he's replacing them with new ones - which will condition how people think and act even after he's gone.

wrote about this last year and sure I wasn't in any way the only one but imo people voting for populist politics in the 21st century *is* a sign that they do just have too much faith in institutions, as opposed to not enough - they want to have their little tantrum but assume things will just hold

Trump is using the murder of Charlie Kirk as his own mini-Reichstag Fire. Yes, the response isn't *as* extreme but there has been a step-change in the administration's attitude towards what it sees as hostile speech and actors. Expect similar events/excuses to turn the ratchet further, later.

Yes, it's FON but still. Reform with more than twice the vote share of any other party and a +18 lead (with the next four all clustered within 4 points). If these were the figures at a general election, Reform would probably end up with more seats than Labour have now, despite Scotland.

Labour's planning reforms going well then. There is so much more that needs doing to get homes built and so make the entire market more affordable. It is a massive failure of government - of politics - that so many young people are suffering as a result. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Don’t you dare call us fascists, they say, as they force people off the airwaves for criticizing them while vowing to crush and criminalize their opposition.

If you don't want tricky questions, don't do a press conference. This is a prime example of everything that is wrong with Labour's Trump strategy. Betting the farm on not upsetting him means playing along with all his whims and prejudices, whatever our values and interests. No.

A wealth tax doesn't work politically, even if it did fiscally (it won't). Put simply: can you satisfy more people with better services the tax would raise than upset those you're taxing? No, you can't. It takes way more than 3 years to assess, tax, spend and improve. But the upset is immediate.

This should be an extraordinarily craven act of compliance in advance for a country so proud of its First Amendment. But, in reality, America is just going through its latest bout of McCarthyite policing. Their First Amendment has never really meant much in reality. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Good. About time the UK govt did likewise. Although given the circumstances, sanction all Israeli settlers in Palestine. No visas unless you're living within the 1967 borders (though frankly, no visas should be the default position now anyway, bar humanitarian and diplomatic exceptions).

This may be the single best arguement against assisted dying I've read. Basically confirming all of the worst suspicions of those arguing against. The sheer contempt it holds for the old, the ill or the disabled is stunning.

Are we 1) regulating large companies' IT security adequately and 2) putting enough resources into catching hackers? www.ft.com/content/c67b...

1/n This indirectly gets to the nub of why replacing Starmer will be tough. Labour only has three ways: 1. A direct challenge from an individual; 2. Persuading him to step down; 3. Mass resignations making his government unviable. Problem is that all of these are either damaging or difficult.

I love these travelogues from @politicanimal.bsky.social . They're fun, interesting, very well made and a nice bit of escapism in a troubled world - with a small amount of jeopardy thrown in.

The 'senior strategist' quoted here is spectacularly stupid, though the indecision it implies would explain why Labour has no coherent narrative. Labour voters *do* expect Labour to be left wing, to some extent. It's part of the brand. And any attempt not to be will feel (and be) false anyway.

The extent to which American politics and attitudes are infecting Britain (and other countries) is in no small part down to the dominance of US social media companies going unregulated. They need holding to legal standards. Society also needs alternatives based in, for example, Europe.

X has a pro-racism philosophy, policy and above all practice that is a clear & obvious breach of UK legal duties. Any other organisation that was not a social media company would be more likely to be held to account for more modest + less egregious breaches of legal duties bsky.app/profile/sund...

Useful figures on the breakdown of political violence by cause in the US. And that's not counting the exceptional level of violence by the state under Trump.

I don't think this necessarily follows. Being a critical voice within Labour could just be a means to Burnham protecting his own position within Manchester, and influence within Labour, without angling at any higher office. Or maybe he *is* positioning for a leadership contest - but as king-maker.

Rather than obsessing about political violence in America (and, to be honest, 'man shot dead' is par for the course there), we should be paying more attention to the political violence here. But Washington is further from London than Washington.

Exactly this. Yesterday, No 10 was insisting that "due process was followed". Do they stand by that?

Quite. British media need to get the idea that we are somehow a distant part of America out of their heads. They are a very different - and retreating - country, society and culture. Dealignment is necessary, both politically and psychologically.

It's bad that somebody tried to shoot Trump. It's bad that somebody shot Charlie Kirk. And it was bad when crowds broke into the Capitol building chanting that they planned to hang the VP. This is why pardoning those responsible for political violence is a stupid move. Do you see it now?

The failure of either Mandelson or Starmer to act is a measure of both their political judgement and their inability to grasp the initiative. Weak.

I think Janik overstates it on both scores. There's neither the organisation nor desire for violence at scale needed to drive a civil war. But that's not to say that political violence in the US won't become the norm. Likewise, a US collapse would be bad for the rest of the world. But survivable.

Mandelson's position is no longer tenable. He should resign. If he won't resign, he should be removed. I get why he was appointed initially. He may even have been a good fit for the job re a Trump White House. But he can no longer represent Britain.

This escalation has been expected by many of us since at least the point when it became clear that Trump would be re-elected. I hope European NATO has a plan to respond, given the ample warning they've had to develop one, because this won't be a one-off. 🧵

Indeed. But then Labour has been more interested in ticking boxes (mostly for show) than in just picking the person most capable of doing the job for a long time. Although it still always seems to end up with a white, middle-aged, middle-class man as leader.

I agree. Russia sent drones into Poland: that is an attack. It is also a test. If Nato does not pass the test, Putin will push harder, later. Responding is not a provocation; the attack is the provocation. Responding is a necessary reaction, required to deter further attacks.

I see why NATO members don't want to call this an armed attack, ie an Article 5 contingency. But @phillipspobrien.bsky.social is right. 17 yrs after Russia invaded Georgia, Western leaders still don't understand that Putin is provoked by weakness, not strength. Deterring him will require force.

A whole load of interconnecting issues here - globalization/ the rise of China and others, social media algorithms, demographics - driving resentment, the rise of populism and division. Mainstream parties struggling / failing to find the policies and methods to adapt to the new environment.

A bit of a bizarre suggestion that the election to replace Rayner as Labour deputy leader could be 'blocked'. Delayed, yes (18 months max, IIRC), but it'd still have to happen sooner or later. It'll be interesting to see how Labour's NEC schedules the election timetable vs conference.

Good. The EU perhaps not quite so craven to Trump after all. Google will be able to absorb a €3bn fine but it's still not chicken-feed. This will be a meaningful hit to their accounts and profits.

Brave move from Starmer if he goes through with this idea and does appoint a new Deputy PM. No guarantee that the Labour membership will elect that person Deputy Leader, which could make for a difficult relationship between the three, and between the PM, DPM and membership.

Dear Lord that's bad. (She can be sacked as Deputy PM - she can't be sacked as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party as that's an elected position).

Rayner's resignation as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party will make for an interesting election. It'll be the first time in decades that a standalone election has taken place for the Deputy Leadership. Lots of opportunity for campaigns to make implicit or explicit criticisms of Starmer.

A general rule for politicians: don't get involved in oh-so-clever tax avoidance schemes. Even if they work, you'll look like you were taking the piss. And if they don't work (which is entirely possible as a lot of these plans depend on HMRC's unknowable judgement), you'll destroy your career.

Two things can be true at once. Rayner was foolish in her conduct and right to resign. It’s also true she was always despised by much of the right wing press because she was a working class powerful woman.

The US is not alone in these recent rate rises - though it is particularly exposed given its huge deficit, low tax base, large debt stock and stuttering growth. But maybe the markets are waking up to the systemic risks of so much debt. Stress-tested a recession, perhaps.

A mainstream party would have expelled a council candidate who called for the eradication of Israel as a country. The Greens elected him Deputy Leader. But given many Green members' extremist stance on trans issues - views Ali is perceived not to share - he may fall on that instead.

This story might be worth bearing in mind next time shadow justice secretary @robertjenrickmp.bsky.social talks about law and order😐 From today's Northern Agenda newsletter, great scoop by @paddyedrich.bsky.social in the Liverpool Echo 1/2

One thing Polanski's election as leader of the Greens does is make the Corbyn Party even more pointless.