I do think this is actually turning around. Not sure whether pink and blue will fully flip genders again but the recent associations are near an end.

This one is a bit more accurate tbf. Grilled cheese is a basic staple lots of people eat, that’s friends, ok, will accept this comparison

Why did we spend so much money on testing, tracing but essentially nothing on isolation? Just built a big machine to be able to go 'wow! There's a lot of covid out there!'

There is a second political strategy imho. GM is not as robust as it looks. One or two Reform led councils could completely disrupt the entire show, which is predicated on everyone largely moving as one. This is partly intended to futureproof a collective investment strategy and its principle

FT investigation: Tuna-fishing has among the worst working conditions of any fishing. If you buy tuna from a UK supermarket, you may be buying the product of modern slavery. ig.ft.com/supermarket-...

If you like cute cats with stupidly brilliant names, photographed amongst very pretty Oxford architecture, this article from @oxfordclarion.bsky.social is for you: oxfordclarion.uk/college-cats...

What was the lower court thinking

Weird thing: the UK minimum wage has risen against inflation for years. It's now really high. Millions of people are earning more than they were as a direct result of this policy. And the impact on the vibes of the country is… entirely absent?

Why do things when you can just make announcements and backtrack them?

Just read this @londoncentric.media piece and my main question is that if this sort of thing is possible, why aren’t councils doing it? www.londoncentric.media/p/james-gold...

This must be read, and not for the rare good budget news.

AI slop gracing the cover of Royal Society B. Not only in AI yellow but scientifically nonsensical. Come on. I'm certain human photographs and artworks were ignored to platform ... this.

What the hell were they doing for the TWO YEARS it was obvious they were going to win with a massive majority?

new paper by Sean Westwood: With current technology, it is impossible to tell whether survey respondents are real or bots. Among other things, makes it easy for bad actors to manipulate outcomes. No good news here for the future of online-based survey research

Remember, always, that the post-Brexit-vote Tory government, and specifically Home Secretary Sajid Javid, deliberately and with malice aforethought reduced to almost zero the timely processing of asylum claims in the UK. They literally created the "overwhelming backlog" that traps people in hotels.

Always migration discussions have to deal with this decades-old point, and they never do.

It is bad on its own merits that there is serious discussion about jewellery theft proposals!

Tough on the small boats, tough on the causes of small boats.

Are you a minister? Are you unhappy? Do you hate your job or have no idea what you're doing? Would you like the entire UK progressive media to praise you for the next 72 hours and talk about you as a future leadership contender? RESIGN!

One of the political issues where all the arguments that seem sensible and correct strain against all of my instincts.

I simply do not understand how the govt can simultaneously believe (1) they don’t have enough political capital to breach the manifesto on tax and (2) they have enough to political capital to pick an unwinnable fight with their own MPs on immigration.

And in different directions it feels, at least for the BlueSky constituency.

And once again, I ask whether Ministers and No10 realise that the readership of one paper can in fact read the contents of another.

Absolutely not, if the hole is new infrastructure as the picture suggests, get Britain back in that hole.

This is exactly what was happening with conservative MPs and the Rwanda policy. Who knew Labour would mirror the Tories in both policy and competence.

I mean, it’s quite clever politics for someone from the Greens to pretend to be Shabana Mahmood’s special adviser and brief this sort of stuff to the Times, but I’m not sure it’s especially ethical.

Two-thirds of English councils have not prosecuted a single rogue landlord in past three years despite 300,000 separate complaints. Less than 2% of complaints led to any action. 2010-2020 Austerity: 41% cut in enforcement funding, staff cut by a third. Law without enforcement is a cruel hoax.

Me: "I need to name my military operation. Any ideas?" My WhatsApp group of incredibly gay Dungeons and Dragons nerds:

Me: Jesus, how is it that you learnt to speak with me this way? Jesus: ܐܝܩܐ

A “fun” manifestation of that is that is that Labour in 1964, 1974 and 2024 all won with fewer votes than they got in the heavy defeat they suffered in the election before, while Blair got fewer votes in 1997 than Major in 1992.

It must be a huge relief for our politicians to know they can once again avoid making any tough decisions. Hurrah for being able to can kick the can a little bit further down the road again!

Issue for Labour now isn't whether they break their manifesto pledge on tax. It is whether they do so in a way which is blatant, honest but sustainable - or whether they do so by a myriad of complex and likely insufficient means whilst arguing they are not. Imho, one seems more toxic than the other

Respectfully would argue that the Brexit referendum itself was a symptom of a political class that had withdrawn from governing and instead entertained itself with spectacle politics. (Wrote this in 2018 with @martinlodge.bsky.social). www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

If “amid fears the move would anger…mutinous Labour MPs” is true (meaning not the fear, but that the fear is right) then the problem is not just the leadership.

Every now and then there are hints of systematic thought. www.bbc.com/news/article...

More to the point, it is clear why they see it and are amazed.

Pretty grim stuff

We rag on Reform here on this site but we also all want Labour to do exactly this.

🚨BREAKING: In a sweeping victory for voters, a Utah court struck down the GOP-controlled legislature’s congressional gerrymander and a companion law designed to entrench partisan power — restoring a fair map for the 2026 elections. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

I’m going to go with he probably actually believes this, given how many times he seems to have just not paid people etc. and come out fine.

I’m leaning not towards deliberate malice, but to he has no idea what he is doing.

The term “unique habitat” has come around to implying “basically meaningless piece of land”, and I don’t think that’s a good thing for conservation.

The cuts to BBC World Service are one of the dumbest soft power moves ever made.

£140 pounds a night to stay in a traffic island. They’ll do anything but zone new development.

The key is to raise taxes enough to actually be able to do something with it, beyond placating the OBR and bond markets

Bloody hell www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I’m with Vince. And 2p on income tax plus 2p off NICS to raise £6bn feels like being hung for half a lamb. www.ft.com/content/9e56...

What the hell is Labour’s theory of governance?

Western history being broadly admirable (whatever that means) and love of nation is admirable are surely in contention with each other.