The best take I've seen on this is to create a citizen's assembly to govern the BBC. Let ordinary people decide whether that Trump edit was important, or whether failing to take Bob Vylan off the rewind function really mattered.

Just absolutely classic BBC. You've just broadcast the most successful programme of the year, uniting Gen Z kids online and Boomers on broadcast in a return to appointment television. And instead of celebrating, your DG reigns due to a made-up right-wing scandal.

A fun question. In 5 years time, what looks better? The US’s enormous bet & capex on AI? Or China’s equally enormous bet and capex on renewables?

We're going to dismantle the legacy state with our new ID cards and in-car trackers, enabling better and cheaper public services. It will feel like a sort of friendly and reassuring 'big brother' figure is with you at all times.

Wincing on behalf of the officers working at Kent County Council.

We need more reporting of local government. This is quite a thread...

You can have an Australian-style department for the PM when you have an Australian-style federal system of government.

This piece is extraordinary. She went to Cambridge - which is certainly not the UK's wokest university - and no one spoke to her. That's all it is. And the Express published it. Not even filler.

@zohrankmamdani.bsky.social when's bins?

There is little public understanding about what local authorities spend their money on (ie principally adult social care). Labour Together's polling finds people think it takes up 13% of council spending, in fact it's 39%. And they overestimate admin costs. www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

Council tax raid? www.ft.com/content/8fce... Is it possible to raise taxes on 'expensive homes' through the council tax system without a revaluation? Many 'expensive homes' will have been below bands G and H 35 years ago...

I've been re-reading a Gandhi biography recently to try and understand what he did. The most useful concept I've come across so far is the idea of non-violence as holding to the truth (that which brings life) with compassion and love but without moving. It's strength in conviction rather than arms.

I'm always very confused by the fact that America has blue for the left wing party and red for the right wing one. Couldn't we agree to standardise these colours internationally?

If you want extra money quickly and reasonably fairly - and god knows #localgov needs it - this is probably the best way. It will compensate losers from the fair funding review and avoid a slew of de facto bankruptcies. That isn't the same as thinking it's at all optimal.

The FT reported a "Budget tax raid on the owners of expensive homes", expected to raise around £4bn. But 80% of that comes from the homes in the *second* highest council tax band. As with many tax increases, most of the burden falls on the not-so-rich. Here's why:

Nob.

Where are the public sector reformers? Can you help us find them? At @kinship.works, we thought we'd try to map the different public sector reform 'tribes' & where to find them (orgs, events, networks/communities, online spaces, newsletters/publications/podcasts etc) - but we need your help!

Data nerds rejoice. Massive drop of irresistible numbers.

I'm starting to get why a wealth tax is so popular. If you're being asked to pay more tax, you want to be sure the people above you are paying even more. It doesn't really matter if that's just performative - it's what feels fair.

This is surprisingly accurate - or at least the 'more in than out' reflects roughly the % that make net contributions through the tax system.

To the best of my knowledge one council is doing this.

Everything is a distraction from this.

Torsten should sit on a spike. And his team should all sit on Torsten, to save on extra spikes.

On November 5th we are hosting a public lecture with Lord Nicolas Stern. He will challenge the outdated idea that we must choose between climate action and development. Register here: www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminst...

I actually agree with this. There are certain strands of political belief so dangerous that they can only be defeated, in the Gandhian sense of insisting on the truth and not budging, no matter what they throw at you.

If PM Farage wanted a different interest rate, he would be able to change the inflation target by writing to the governor. That's the right way to approach this, rather than mucking about with the MPC for political reasons. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

There is too much polling. I do not care what Janan Ganesh thinks of the great man theory of history. I care even less what the general public thinks about it. Historical theory is not settled by doorstep opinion popularity contests. Stop asking people stupid questions now please.

It's Ursula K Le Guin's The Dispossessed except it's Matt and a bunch of septuagenarians complaining about ethnic purity in Magaluf.

I remember back in the cretaceous @richardvize.bsky.social telling me to take my sodding Ken4London badge off. He was right and I knew I was taking the piss. Journalists are there to report. Campaigning is something else. But does anyone still wear BLM shirts? www.theguardian.com/media/2025/o...

I would love to read a sensible, economically literate piece on the case for very substantial reductions or even reversals on immigration. What happens next? Why is it better? 'Fewer immigrants' is not in itself a policy goal.

The simple fact is that the Government is going to have to find a way of rebuilding local government finances systematically. The decay of public realm and social infrastructure is deeply corrosive of public trust. Everyday, people can see the state not working all around them.

I've seen a couple of polls recently showing that public sector workers - or as Matt Goodwin has it, the new elite - have very different social attitudes to the rest of us. To which I say meh. Of course they do, and we should be very glad of it.

This is a grim read. I stick to my view that the wilful blindness of the government to the financial crisis in local government will cost them their majority at the next election. Why not roll the dice for change when the local public realm is falling apart? www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

The absolute bloody vandalism of austerity in one chart. Good analysis of the overall picture here.

Reforming council tax would be a very good idea but we need to be realistic about how long it would take. Changing the system would be a huge logistical undertaking, not least because c-tax is collected by district councils that will be abolished by the end of the parliament.

Turns out the establishment is composed entirely of public sector workers.

This reminds me... there was a criminal investigation going on into Bob Vylan and I can't find any evidence about what's happened there. I assume it's been quietly dropped on the basis that it was fatuous?

On the basis of POSIWID then yes the UK government is deliberately shrinking the HE sector. This feels counterintuitive as it is a thing we do very well. I'm not saying it's wrong, but it would be good if they could explain why it's a good idea.

Christ I actually wasted 10 minutes googling the evidence for this. It's a quarter truth. There are studies that suggest associations between tylenol, early circumcision and autism. But I can't find any evidence of a proposed causality. It's classic more research required territory.

There is too much polling.

The class debate in Britain is utterly broken, exhibit 3,456,649.

*People* being fundamentally good obvs. Must stop skipping words.

Hard agree. Progressives frame racism in economic terms because it plays into their priors about being fundamentally good, and because it makes the problem amenable to progressive policy solutions. At best 'people turn to racism because of poverty' is a partial account.

What gets me about lanyards and lattes is the weird nostalgia they encode. Amazon warehouse workers wear lanyards and white van men buy lattes in Greggs. The working classes don't generally go down mines and drink coal any more.

Continue to be surprised that the fair funding dog hasn't barked politically. The figures here are eye watering. I'm sure London Councils has cherry picked its stats, but even a fraction of this will be extraordinarily difficult for some boroughs.

You don’t actually have to both sides this. The Jewish community in the UK is not the Israeli government. You can just condemn the murder of two British Jews killed in their place of worship and you don’t have to say a single other thing.

Future being cancelled all over the place today.

Reminded of the (now quite senior) Labour figure I once met who despite being a highly accomplished policy professional and Oxford graduate insisted that they now only read The Sun. Apparently this helped them understand the working class, who also only read The Sun.

Churchill got rid of them on the basis that they were expensive, difficult to administer and an invasion of privacy. I expect we will find all three of those things remain true.

unforgettable television