NT Misanthrope. A dreary, overlong show that failed to make me care about anybody on stage & even more failed to interest me in their increasingly interminable talk.

Hi there and hello! Welcome to the US Politics Thread for w/e 10th July 2026, or The Ceasefire is Off, No It’s On Again Edition… (1/36)

Listening to the R3 relay of Du Yun's Angel's Bone before it falls off Sounds tonight is not tempting me to book for the Oct run of perfs at the Coliseum...

Very grateful to have made it to the Glynde Billy Budd revival last night. The production is as powerful as ever. Superb singing & detailed acting across the ensemble. Standouts among the principals - Allan Clayton's Vere & Thomas Mole's Budd - the latter reduced me to tears in the darbies scene.

BBC Radio drama is often very variable these days but this is marvellously done (Geraldine James varies her age through voice brilliantly). Made me want to go back to Penelope Lively’s novels wch I haven‘t read for years: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

I find conclusion of this that HE is "in a better state than it was under Sunak" very hard to take seriously. The endless redundancies and course closures continue. From where I'm sitting I cannot see that Starmer has done anything to meaningfully improve the situation: wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...

So Burnham, convinced of his own genius, has persuaded himself that his fellow mayors are also geniuses and with more power (but with fiscal rules maintained presumably little new resource) will solve things. File under: Hmmm…

Greetings Friends! Welcome to the belated US Politics Thread for w/e 28th June 2026, or, The Will It Be As New York Dems Go So Go National Dems Edition… (1/41)

Donmar The Guilty: Well acted & staged but my fundamental problem was that notwithstanding the police make mistakes I became unconvinced they would allow someone so plainly unfit to answer 999 calls.

Apologies to our regular readers owing to transport issues we won‘t be publishing a US Politics Thread tonight. We hope to get one out on Sunday.

Hi there and hello! Welcome to the US Politics Thread for w/e 19th June 2026, or, The Trump Would Never Strike A Deal That’s Bad For the American People Edition… (1/54)

Have either Carns or Healey specified yet what they would cut in order to increase defence spending or are they still claiming that’s somebody else’s problem?

Debussy’s Pelleas was v well sung and played at Aldeburgh Fest and I was interested to hear it but I can see why it isn’t often done - there isn’t enough drama finally even in the orchestral writing (wch is the strongest aspect).

Greetings Friends! Welcome to the US Politics Thread for w/e 7th June 2026, or, The Sitting Senator Says President is Fun, Dangerous & Unpredictable and That’s Wonderful Edition… (1/38)

It’s tough in U.K. HE these days but it’s been wonderful to see a lot of fabulous degree show work this wk - our two final year musicals and launch of the Fine Art degree show. Congratulations to all the students involved & hats off to all the hard work of my superb colleagues in supporting them.

We are hoping to get a US Politics Thread out this week but it will be on Sunday owing to work busyness.

Gone much too soon. In addition to Buffy I shall esp remember his sparring with Stephanie Cole & Roger Allam in Cabin Pressure & his perf opposite Eve Best in the Menier’s Love in Idleness - esp powerful scene where they put on public faces concealing breaking hearts: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

If you’ve got half an hour to spare this evening I commend the Mozart Piano Concerto that opens this edition. The slow movement especially is just magical, the orchestra floats and time seems to stop: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

NT Les Liaisons Dangereuses: Elliott did not persuade me that it’s a great play. An unusually unsubtle piece of work on her part with overblown choreography generating real problems of pace. Prod seemed confused about when it was set & makes Merteuil & Valmont so obv villains diff to take seriously.

Hi there and hello! Welcome to the US Politics Thread for w/e 29th May 2026, or, The Yes This Time There’s Definitely A Deal…A Better Deal Than Obama’s…No Really Edition… (1/46)

Highly recommend this deep dive into the local election results data (lots of v instructive comparisons): dylandifford.substack.com/p/2026-local...

Just forced myself to sit through the Burnham campaign ad. Four mins of mostly people apparently telling him what a great guy he is. Tiresome anti-Westminster whine. Only substantive policies I could spot were nationalise the buses & some kind of partnership with business wch lacked any detail.

Greetings Friends! Welcome to the US Politics Thread for w/e 22nd May 2026, or, The Oh Yes We Definitely Need a Third War Edition… (1/44)

File under: When I said I was going to take on Reform I didn’t mean on Brexit/EU…or immigration…or (I’m sure he’ll find a third one before this by-election is over) www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I thought this was overall a good thread on the issues with Burnham, but this particularly captures something for me:

So Burnham’s been plotting how to become PM for months and the best he can come up with when Europe is raised (as it was bound to be) is to get his allies to complain that it’s unhelpful to mention it. File under: oh yes he’s definitely up to this.

It’s completely obvious why Streeting has emphasised Europe & if Nandy really doesn’t grasp the reasons for that it would be surprising. If this leadership election forces meaningful debate over whether Reform can be beaten without addressing the Europe question it‘ll be a good thing.

Burnham should be asked if he agrees with Streeting that Britain should rejoin the EU “one day”. Streeting should be asked what precisely he means by a “new special relationship” with the EU & how he would achieve it.

Burnham to set out vision of “Manchesterism” next week. File under: raises eyebrow.

Hi there and hello! Welcome to the US Politics Thread for w/e 15th May 2026, or, The GOPer Said What Now Bumper Edition… (1/40)

Notable, given multitude of issues in HE listed in HoC Education Cttee report, that King's Speech had as far as I can see nothing to say on the sector. As usual HE minister Smith remains typically invisible. This tots up things govt has said it wld do on sector & hasn't: wonkhe.com/blogs/for-th...

I wasn’t a fan of Streeting to begin with but he is so far doing a magisterial job of showing why he shouldn’t be PM either. Failed to organise a coup & then announced a resignation since when a sufficient amount of time has elapsed without him going that he gives impression of having bottled it.

If the press can spare someone from Starmerwatch perhaps they could locate the as usual invisible higher education minister & ask what the govt’s plan is to address the many issues identified by this report: committees.parliament.uk/publications...

It really is striking how bad Starmer/Number 10 are at doing basic politics. In the scenario he‘s in clearly you arrange the mtg with the backbench cttee before they ask for it & if you can’t manage that when they do ask for it you jump to it. Saying you’re still trying to find diary slot?!

Among the many things being demonstrated by the current Lab farrago is how nondescript in their roles most of the Cabinet have been. Names keep popping up & I find myself thinking I had completely forgotten you were holding X role (& I cannot recall anything notable you’ve done in it).

I presume, tho reporting is ambiguous, that Hinder opposes even softening Brexit over youth mobility. If an outcome of Starmer failings isn’t an abandonment of the Reform-lite elements & taking on of their own Brexiteers then I think they’re learning the wrong lessons: www.lancs.live/news/lancash...

Statements of Lab MPs calling for Starmer to go seem to me as empty as Starmer's statement of any specific details of what needs to be different - what specific policies do they want changed? If it isn't the policies what else has to be changed? If you can't answer that changing leader won't help.

So unless I've missed something Starmer's only concrete announcement was that he's going to nationalise British Steel which the govt controls anyway & wch, per a quick Google, employs 3,200 people. And the govt wonders why its support is falling...

Grace Pervades wch I caught Sat has much that I enjoyed - Fiennes is v well worth seeing & ensemble is strong. Hare’s play has often great wit & can move. Two issues - Hare doesn’t seem quite sure if he is telling Terry/Irving’s story or that of Terry’s children and the two don’t quite fit together.

Without minimising the dire results for Labour, it’s extraordinary how chipper the Tories are. They’ve lost 500 seats from a low watermark, lost historic major councils to Lib Dems and Reform, show no signs of recovery in the esp LD areas they need to win. But MPs seem to think it’s going well.

Greetings Friends! Welcome to the US Politics Thread for w/e 8th May 2026, or, The Now Is Definitely The Time for Americans To Take a Roadtrip & See the Country Edition… (1/33)

Watching the results in Edinburgh with interest. I suspect being 4th on the Lothian list will not be high enough to save Robertson now he‘s lost Edinburgh Central.

Been some excellent archive drama on R4 Extra lately. This David Nobbs play is brilliant: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

Hi there and hello! Welcome to the US Politics Thread for w/e 1st May 2026 (a day late edition), or The It Was Very Important That Everybody Agree The War Was Terminated Or Congress Might Have To Vote Edition… (1/43)

Note for regular US Politics Thread. There will be an edition this week but owing to travel and other circumstances publication will be at some point over the weekend rather than this evening. Apologies.

It’s taken me about a month to read John Gunther’s Inside U.S.A (wch has been on my shelves for approx 20yrs since my PhD supervisor’s big library clear out passed this copy to me). I do suspect that it is a book that may have sat on a lot of shelves but was not often read right through.

Just catching this before it falls off BBC Sounds. Classic R3 drama at its best. Can be v hard to make this stuff funny but this succeeds (some esp fine work from Rhind-Tutt & Smart): www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

Another day, another round of cuts in HE (meanwhile the Higher Education minister is about as visible as was the Secretary of the US Navy until his recent defenestration): go.bsky.app/redirect?u=h...

Greetings Friends! Welcome to the US Politics Thread for w/e 24th April 2026, or, The They Really Have No Idea How to Get Out of This Self Inflicted Mess Edition… (1/41)

Really interesting to see works that first reached these shores via the EIF finally making it to London next season. Only just catching up with Southbank announcement - I highly highly recommend Julia Wolfe's Fire in my mouth (22nd Sept) - a really powerful EIF experience a couple of yrs back.