Meta are never afraid to say the quiet bit out loud, but also, um WTAF?

The Guardian's Jillian Ambrose unpicks the many tens of millions in state support that Jim Ratcliffe's businesses have accepted, after the billionaire railed against people on benefits (and claimed Britain was being "colonised" by immigrants while himself having moved to tax-free Monaco).

It was unfortunate I saw this post in the middle of a very somber & serious meeting 😂😂😂

Babies as an antidote to women having intellectual and political lives is a tale as old as time, and anyone advocating for it is by definition a wrong 'un.

"Whites are a rapidly dying minority,” Elon Musk posted on 22nd January. The radicalised and radicalising X owner posted about race on 26 days out of 31 in January, the Guardian reveals. His site also invariably protects unlawful racist posts in the UK www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Interesting from @peterwalker99.bsky.social about why voters hate Keir Starmer. Can't help thinking there is something about coming from his modest background, putting on a carapace to move up the class/professional ladder, and struggling to take it off again: www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Understand that Wormald, UK's most senior civil servant, told perm secs he was standing down at 10am y'day - and left the building the same day. Mood among senior civil servants said to be "sulphurous" over way they believe he been treated.

Sorry how can you have three permanent secretaries jobsharing as interim cabinet secretary when they've all got departments of their own to run? However brilliant they might be it's surely a recipe for chaos?

LinkedIn posters have conditioned people to think "preparing for AI-induced economic change" means some kind of grindset, when really it should mean organising for welfare state expansion, the socialisation of key tech infrastructure and a dramatic reinforcement of the powers of the democratic state

You still have until 20 February to apply for two exciting positions at L&W! ➡️ Deputy Director, Policy and Research (Better Work and Progression) ➡️ Head of Research: Qualitative Methods and Evaluation Find out more about the roles: learningandwork.org.uk/about-us/joi...

Musk announces NEOM on the moon, named after a video game from 2010

NEW: Lisa Nandy referring the Mail's proposed takeover of the Telegraph to competition and media watchdogs..! The Telegraph sale saga is cursed to continue for some months yet. Story soon.

Headline as requested.

NEW ANALYSIS: China's CO2 has now been 'flat or falling' for 21 months * Down in 2025 * Still below Mar 2024 * Clean energy wave a key factor If this is China's peak (TBC) it's the climate story of the century so far… www.carbonbrief.org/...

Likely-historic photo by NBC News of all the Epstein victims asked to raise their hands if they've not yet been asked to meet with the DOJ as Bondi testifies in foreground

The US continues losing blue-collar jobs—year-on-year job losses have hit 170k as manufacturing, transportation, & mining industries lose jobs at a rapid pace while growth in construction remains low

Think this intervention from Miliband is quite a big deal. It's clearly a call for a wider reset of the whole government approach - including on the economy. Comes after the Tribune group last night called for a reshuffle and broader church. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

File this with all the other climate charts that look like someone plotted the latest data on the wrong axes

I'm convinced AI is our generation's radium - a discovery with genuinely useful applications in specific, controlled circumstances that we stupidly put in everything from kid's toys to toothpaste until we realised the harm far too late where future generations will ask if we were out of our minds.

Not sure any more hot takes are needed but... Humans are complicated and McSweeney was both extremely factional and ruthless and deeply protective of staff. He inspired a loyalty you rarely see. He fought a lot of wars he shouldn’t have started. No one is left in there to fight a war for Starmer now

Stay classy, lads...

Well, this quote has aged interestingly.

BREAKING: Morgan McSweeney quits as Keir Starmer's chief of staff amid fall-out from the Mandelson scandal

Exclusive: Cabinet Office minister Josh Simons was provided with intelligence files gathered on journalists (including me) who had reported on Labour Together, the thinktank he chaired at the time (before he became an MP), sources say. Know more about this story? Contact me, Signal: henrydyer.01

For the love of God Epstein sent woman to British anti-trafficking charity boss www.thetimes.com/us/news-toda...

😢 futurism.com/future-socie...

Have just been contacted and told by Labour the Hold the Line site is not from team Starmer and they don't know who's behind it - make of this what you will...

Er, no idea if this actually comes from team Starmer, but "in a world where Trump tears up international rules...." is quite bold when the source of the current trouble is that Starmer picked the bloke who gives less of a fuck about rules than anyone else anywhere and sent him to suck up to Trump?

"The British Olympic Association... is understood to be relaxed that Kenworthy has given a personal opinion on a subject that sits outside the Games." www.thetimes.com/sport/winter...

Even the dog doesn't want to be in this pic

Lots of great lines in this furious piece but this, on McSweeney asking if PM could be US ambo part time, replacing Karen Pierce, is 👌 “This gives you a good indication of Westminster’s relative assessment of value: One full-time experienced woman is worth less than a part-time inexperienced man.”

The Global Counsel "Our People" page is like a relic of Stalin's purges.

This could be why Bitcoin is crashing. People are switching back to high yield tulips.

Sorry I can't read anything about the Super Bowl without thinking of the Superb Owl.

so a month ago I was reading @markpackuk.bsky.social’s speech on Twitter in the lords and there were obviously fake stats the government used to justify Twitter’s UK reach and its continued importance to British audiences Rob has now found the source of the data was… Twitter

There are only two possible explanations for these statements and neither of them reflect well on him.

Very pleased @learnworkuk.bsky.social is part of this initiative. Please spread the word to all who might be interested in working in a think tank or research organisation.

The company known as Strategy is now just a pile of some 700,000 bitcoin, bought some 10% above where its currently trading, and presumably many of the holders of Strategy stock invested at a high multiple of where it's now valued. There are times I really wonder about efficient market hypothesis

🚨 WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM: LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION INTO LINKS BETWEEN ITS CEO BORGE BRENDE AND JEFFREY EPSTEIN

FFS 😡

Oh well, stopped clocks etc...

This is right, I think - hard to imagine any new No10/No11 team making a bunch of Truss-style unfunded spending commitments; not hard to imagine them sticking up income tax for example. Bond markets likely to create volatile backdrop to any contest tho.

Thomas-Symonds says government intends to start disclosing Mandelson documents 'today' - www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

I have never seen anger like this on the Labour benches in private and in public. This is the kind of territory where things can move very fast.

In a thousand years, people will assume "George Osborne" was some sort of mythic person, honourary role, or qualification that was considered for, or made you elligible for, every senior job in early 21st century Britain.

Going back to my past lives at Platts and as an oil & gas analyst at an investment bank (2014-18ish) - two things always taken as true on EVs: 1) Will be broadly limited to a middle class European rich country trend 2) Will be a small passenger vehicles only trend Doubly wrong.

Just a quick note to @greenparty.org.uk and @greenpartyhan.bsky.social - I was not consulted on being quoted on your leaflets and I have not endorsed your campaign (or any campaign in this seat). I think this note, like the bar chart next to it, is misleading and out of context.

Wes Streeting saying on Today that Mandelson is ‘not the man we thought he was’ but the trouble is, he is exactly the man we thought, just on a much worse scale than almost anyone thought. And there is an alternative world where none of this is this govt’s problem, because they never gave him a job

Quite the fishing trip!

Bit of analysis from me - “The clash between progressive policies and the powerful financial sector laid bare in the Epstein emails is still evident – and as in the case of Jamie Dimon, even some of the characters are the same”: www.theguardian.com/politics/202...