Stalin would be loving this

"One of the main functions of political commentary is to explain what is actually happening. This column, alas, will be doing no such thing, because I haven’t the faintest idea."

Read: Catherine West is mortified that she enabled the Wesignation

That's astonishingly good news

If the failing of politics is an overreliance on characters, what better character than one with a story arc?

Something absolutely surreal about hanging up my voicemail and getting a popup to rate the "phone" app on the Google store

This is all just so utterly stupid. Reform losing councillors hand over fist, Labour in a nervous breakdown, Tories utterly craven and useless, Greens just anti-environmentalism and posturing, Lib Dems AWOL, SNP about as popular as anthrax. It's all just so... stupid.

#YangGang let's go

Zak Chelli, what a hero. Rocky film stuff. A teacher by day, knocking out a former world champion

I took my models to the hobby shop today and these two young lads came to ask about how I'd painted them. 10/10 afternoon, well worth the hundreds of hours of painting to be a child's inspiration

This will be the only word on the locals from me. Has been clear to me for a while that Labour needs to go back to first principles and set out why it exists, who for, and why it is the best choice on these terms. Voters don't know what or who we're for, and I suspect we have forgotten too.

Genuinely this makes me feel quite ill. No disrespect intended to Atikur Rahman, but it's a broken system that's delivering a result this thin

I remember this being a Labour target in 2018 and 2022.

Nigel Farage's beaming face is featuring heavily in the local elections coverage, but the truth is that the real architect of Reform's gains is the man whose disastrous 'Blue Labour' strategy we were confidently told would prevent them bylinetimes.com/2026/05/08/l...

LRT: Woken up with an absolute fury that I've been made to hold my nose at silly triangulation all this time for nowt. Lots of hardworking Labour councillors paying the price for Govt's "we'll fix immigration" rhetoric. Total misframing, own goal, surrenders the principle to nativists.

Remember also that the average voter, when polled, says "immigration is a top concern" but also cannot identify ups and downs of immigration figures (or numbers re: small boats). Hence, these policies have no effect on public opinion. So it's actually just catering to a delusion. (Harsh, but true.)

Happy birthday to the centurion!

It's ironic that I would have a house move being held up by local authority searches on election day! Think I'll go pet the cat again...

I have a colleague with a very similar name, and about once a month someone assigns work to him instead of me. Today someone added him to a chat where they could see my name written out. Staggering incompetence.

Sharing, without comment, British newspapers’ depictions of the only Jewish person currently leading a UK political party . Times. Mail. Telegraph. Sun.

Isaac & Miria

There’s a reason I’m checking the polls for Westminster all the time. The worry is that the Conservatives could get in again with a majority, and check out their policies on active travel in this round up from Westminster Healthy Streets here 😨😨 … 1/2 westminsterstreets.org.uk/where-do-the...

Former UK prime minister John Major on climate change: "Some people deny [it]. I don't know what planet they are living on…It's a cop out" via @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social

My biggest conspiracy theory is that telling working class people that engagement in the arts is a middle / upper class thing and to do so makes you a class traitor is a psyop to make them disengaged with themselves and the world and the beauty of being human, so that they accept worse treatment.

Despair Is Not Wisdom

Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen Voodoo Chile - Hendrix Sunset - The Midnight Sunset - Dance With the Dead Give It All - Rise Against Travelers - Andrew Prahlow Sonne - Rammstein Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper Gone, But Not Forgotten - Evan Call More than a Feeling - Boston

Also Lush Life, but Carol Grimes It never entered my mind-Ella Fitzgerald God bless the child-Billie Holiday Atomic-Blondie 10th Avenue freeze out-Springsteen Harlem Shuffle-Bob and Earl Living for the city-Stevie Wonder A new bohemia-Pet Shop Boys Waterfall-Stone Roses Hurricane- Neil Young

Words fail me.

This is incredible writing advice

Read everything you write out loud. It helps you spot clumsy sentences and non sequiturs.

Celebrating a year since I brought Hartley home! Trading sleeping on flowerbeds for sleeping on human beds.

When the workday goes so badly you pop to Lidl for a 5L keg of lager

Today we remember the Armenian Genocide, and alongside it, the Pontic Greek and Assyrian genocides carried out by the same hands. My mother's family are Pontic. This history lives in us. Δεν ξεχνώ. We remember.

I'm not a supporter of the Lords and this is a straw that breaks the camel's back for me. The upper chamber cannot be a platform for a handful of unelected opinions to shape generational changes to the law. Scrap the whole HoL this parliament, a PR-elected Senate.

Green friends on the TL take note 😬 Probably want to use that famous democratic party structure to correct this

Happy Shakespeare day, everyone!

this scene hit the internet like crack in 2008

Giles co-authored the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act with Justin, and I was delighted to work with him on other projects too. I was, frankly, terrified of Giles’ razor-sharp intelligence but soothed by his kindness and great good humour. God, we will miss him.

I’m deeply saddened at the tragic loss of Giles Peaker. Giles was not only an exceptionally talented housing lawyer but a real force for good in the world who played an integral role in the development of the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act. My heartfelt condolences to all who loved him.

Nothing annoys me more in this discourse than the term "having a little flutter" which suggests that the typical gambler is a person who just put a tenner on the Grand National rather than - as we know - people who have an addiction fuelled by companies that specialise in human misery.

It's happened again, it's happened again. Tottenham Hotspur, it's happened again.

I see the Greens are opposing (checks notes) solar power now.

Today's odd little moment of University governance query was "how much academic data sovereignty do we have in a major Canadian university" I have reached out to a colleague, but with the far reaches of the CLOUD act - I suspect very little. Most of our systems are delivered by US subsidiaries.

Such a shame that although there are ways to whinge cryptically about work, some of wins are just too specific to post about :(

Alf Dubs should always be listened to.

The best days to be alive lay ahead of us, not back in the 1990s. No more despair

holy shit he actually conceded folks, they tell you they’re invincible they tell you they’re inevitable they tell you that you should give up and stop fighting and absolutely none of that is true

We didn't deserve this day.

Impossible to disagree with a single word that Ben Rhodes (Obama era NSC official) is saying here: