I agree with some of this, disagree with some of it, unsure about plenty of it. But lovely to see politicians sharing information reasonably and clearly like this.

*slams print out of post on table* "This is what we believe!"

Paging Robbie Gibb and Michael Prescott: if you’re pulling together another of those little dossiers on political bias at the BBC, I’ve got a submission for you.

The Chancellor's interviews today are the definition of the performance of scrutiny - it looks dogged and aggressive, but there was absolutely no chance that it was going to reveal anything important or in any way actually probe the decisions in a budget built on sand!

Maybe we should build HS2 in full and increase capacity on the network. It was never just about speed.

I know I rant about this all the time but the rabid - and omnipresence - anti immigrant line on BBC 6 music news is so jarring Feels like a text book example of how an Overton window is shifted

Exclusive: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave an order to “kill everybody” in the first strike on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean. After two men survived, the mission commander ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, according to two sources.

god this reminded me of the incredibly daft list I wrote up two years ago for my newsletter, or the worst/best/funniest things to include in your will: youngvulgarian.substack.com/p/where-ther...

"my mother died in labour, turning blue in the process, and you want to help elect a Blue Labour government?!?!"

Right after my second birth, I had a postpartum hemorrhage. This happens in about 1% of births. Whenever I talk about this, free birth advocates ask what interventions I had in the hospital that caused the hemorrhage. None. There wasn't time. I gave birth 30 minutes after being admitted.

UK housing policy is permenantly stuck with the assumption that every high rise housing development must be like del and rodney's flat instead of frasier crane's.

I'd never seen an interview with Jane Williams (winner of the first at Warwick with La Luna Artista) before. Refreshingly honest, insightful and lovely interview with @racingtv.com.

A perpetual quirk of voter psychology (and one I'm not really sure you can 'solve') is people automatically assuming that all punitive measures will apply to them. See ULEZ in London for another example It does make pushing through policies harder than it probably should be

Trying to imagine ITV and Racing TV's coverage of the Grand National if this rule was brought in... www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

When I was a young boy, the next word out of Goodwin’s mouth here would be “blacks”. I don’t particularly see it as any type of progress that now it will be some euphemism for “Muslims”.

When I arrive at the party

Scotland! Congratulations. Fantastic.

This description very much sums up what people who support Trump mean by "respect the office."

Shocking article in the Sheffield Tribune. A solicitor, Andrew Milne, buying up freeholds of houses and then making (false) threats to the leaseholders to bully them into buying the freehold at a huge premium.

And that's it. Overall impressions are - there's still a surprising lack of detail - lots of new work for officials but unlikely to lead to much change on the ground - refugees will still live here rest of their lives but will struggle even more than before to integrate

The excessive "hesitancy" around deporting children + families obviously refers to the 2010-24 governments. It is Labour's argument that Theresa May, Priti Patel, Suella Braverman, Robert Jenrick and their colleagues were too hesitant about child deportations + that need to be tougher

This piece is important. It is also a great (annoyingly great) example of what a properly resourced team of journalists can do. There are five bylines and almost 20 additional reporting credits on this piece. I've wanted to write this story for months but... do not have that many colleagues

THIS MORNING's AKBets The Racing Room podcast is now live; www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXjp...

Had the day off today. Thought I'd have a nice little placepot at Plumpton. Got the fav beat in Race 1. Now got two horses who didn't run. Farcical.

It is weird how much travelling in this country is just making a short term interest free loan to a train company/government.

I agree with this, but I think if the BBC were better led, it would make fewer culpable errors and it would both directly and indirectly be better placed to fight the real and concerted campaign against it.

Which is a long way round of saying: a lot of the pieces I’m reading on the crucial role of the BBC massively overweight news and underplay the wider role of 50 odd radio stations, a dozen TV stations and the vast majority of its output.

Rage against group think, writes Matthew Syed in the Sunday Times, by reading out a paragraph of what *I* think at the beginning of every BBC editorial meeting.

What an absolute hero Samir Zitouni is - doubtless he saved lives that day www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I remember having my phone stolen and the thief offered to sell it back to me. When I told Avon & Somerset Police, they said that sounded like a good deal and I should pay the money. One of my less happy days.

"For the government it’s quite mad to keep using X. It’s active participation in its own destruction and against its own interests. I cannot fathom the logic of doing it. It would be like a Reform government communicating entirely through the Guardian comments section." 👏 @samfr.bsky.social

One problem with just focussing on national voter flows is that it hides differing patterns of behaviour in differing types of constituency, with this never more true than today. A 🧵 with some flow of the vote deep-cuts...

"Let's not forget, when we remember the service and the sacrifice with this poppy, that the people who bled and died for our democracy and our freedom, weren't just my grandfather who looked like me & worshipped the same God, but people across Empire & Commonwealth, who were Muslim, Sikh & Hindu'

For anybody seeking context on this one: this policy on its face would result in the deportation of my wife, who has been living in Scotland for 17 years, is married to a Scot, shares the mortgage on a house, and works in a university. Lots of perfectly comfortable people earn < £38k.

Katie Lam has made a video - focusing on not giving new ILR grants to people who don't have it But quietly including the Conservative proposal to be the first government since Idi Amin in 1972 to revoke the permanent leave to remain, then expel: she underplays to what extent x.com/Katie_Lam_MP...

For context on just how far the Overton Window has shifted to the right on this issue, here’s a snippet from the BNP’s 2010 manifesto.

Some of the worst people are taking advantage of farmers' fears about IHT changes to sell them doomed schemes to avoid the tax. The worst of the worst is a man called Iain Clifford.

VAR should exist, basically, to protect the referee from people watching *live* at home. It should not exist to protect the referee from “we have rewound and slowed it down five times on Match of the Day”.

@jayrayner1.bsky.social Have you visited Higher Ground in Manchester? £60 seasonal tasting menu, and definitely the best food I've had in Manchester (maybe with the lovely rice and three from Maida Grill House in second).

Tbh everyone pontificating about who is up, who is down, what does it all mean - including yours truly - could do with taking a deep breath and reading the collected works of @dylandifford.bsky.social over the past year.

I suspect connections expected a bit better from the system bet tonight...

Utterly despicable.

This is a really key chart. Look at the difference between concern about immigration between Lab to Reform switchers and Lab to LD/Green/don't know switchers. The latter group is five times larger.

That was a ridiculously smooth and calm ride by Billy Loughnane on After Love.

Wow. Wise Approach.

This is really dangerous territory for Farage. He's being pushed towards crankery by the radicalisation of online support.

What on Earth is this? An "in depth" BBC article about free speech in the UK that only cites examples of right-wing/ 'anti-woke' speech being suppressed. How can you mention Lucy Connolly but completely ignore Palestine Action / Just Stop Oil? Gob-smacking. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

There should be a high bar for politicians attacking the media, but maybe Ed Davey has half a point here? For example, the first three paragraphs of this BBC story repeat Reform's £243bn figure without saying that the thinktank behind the estimate now disowns it. (This is mentioned in paragraph 35)