I'm really not convinced the Burnham effect would be enough to win Makerfield.

Would love to see constituencies imposed on these charts, may even be more helpful for measuring state of play ahead of 2029 than MRPs.

If I had a penny for every time a former military Labour MP with leadership ambitions undermined their own cause by writing in the New Statesman, I'd have two pennies. Which isn't a lot but it's weird it has happened twice.

There really is an awful lot of overlap between the Growth Group report out today and some of the ideas thrown about in these essays. Opportunity for the current or a future administration to set a very firm governing direction by working with both, who don't forget represent around 100 MPs each.

This from @chriscurtis94.bsky.social and @markmcvitie.bsky.social has bucket loads of great policy/institutional ideas. Particularly like the devolution, land value capture, single legislative pathway for infrastructure projects, reorganisation of the centre. www.labourgrowth.co.uk

A more favourable leader without a plan is no more use to Labour than an unpopular one. This report needs to be slammed on a table in front of them all and the room locked until they've read the full thing.

Absolutely stellar work from @labourgrowth.bsky.social @markmcvitie.bsky.social and @chriscurtis94.bsky.social www.labourgrowth.co.uk

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.

Not clear to me whether the scandals engulfing the Greens will cut through enough to make a material impact in results by Thursday. But young, progressive and urban politics involves a pool of high information voters, and the way the leadership are responding tells me they are going to free fall.

Don't think I have ever watched snooker this intense.

You can't have Richard E Grant in there and not make him a Traitor. He'd make the turret meetings positively Shakespearean.

Prepare for the most eclectic list imaginable: All Along the Watchtower (Bob Dylan) Hotel California Smoke on the Water Complicated You Oughta Know Rolling in the Deep Baba O'Reilly Me and My Monkey (Robbie Williams) Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley Strange Fruit

This is abhorrent.

Not actively welcoming them in with open arms would have been a start.

Update on @zackpolanski.bsky.social's likes while his party runs people calling for genocide against Israelis and Jews: complaining about people criticising him for not taking anti-semitism seriously enough.

Newcastle Green Party candidate Tina Ion says "Israel must be eradicated. Even if it means killing every single Zionist.". Is Ion one of the "99%" of candidates whom party leader Zack Polanski stands behind?

The Greens were a respectable party two years ago. Now they are very intentionally choosing to embrace the worst of the Corbyn years in pursuit of Polanski's self-absorbed political ambitions. When Polanski said that the antisemitism claims in Labour were manufactured, he actively welcomed this.

Polanski is repeating every last mistake of Corbyn's Labour. Tolerant of intolerant candidates and a complete shill for Russia. He's an arrogant moron who knows virtually nothing about the issues he regularly pontificates about.

Never seen anything like the first 20 minutes of Man City v Arsenal.

Absolutely furious to learn that I was not actually the first to coin the term "Germanosphere" when jokingly describing German Peaky Blinders fans and this is in fact a real term think tanks in Berlin are already using to describe German misogynists.

I used to work at the Marsden and the proposal is superb. Thoughtfully designed, undergoing extensive rounds of consultations with locals, and will genuinely improve cancer care. I have no doubt that locals won't be impressed by this campaign doing its best to disguise what the development is for.

It will be nice to be able to finally visit Budapest guilt free.

This is so good

If you entirely changed the Parliamentary system you can think of a few examples, but British electoral politics tests an awful lot before you are anywhere near and even if you can manage that, the primary cost of doing so is time not money, so no not really.

What are the green areas? Was going to say copper but not sure how it would have been oxidised on the moon...

"Valiant attempt to do something narratively ambitious but executed atrociously"

Who did they ask???

Good.

Greens doubling down on the "everyone else are just bad people" narrative. Allows them to go on with ignorance about how things work or the trade offs required in governing with no self examination. The difference between a progressive and an egotist is the latter lacks any intellectual curiosity.

I wish people would stop taking candid camera pics of me.

Despicable comments. Simon Dudley doesn't have the decency or guts to resign so Nigel Farage should sack him.

If only Reform had evidence that Simon Dudley was a loose cannon with absolutely no filter before they appointed him, such as every single other thing he has ever said.

Being on a spaceship would trigger every bit of claustrophobic and existentialist anxiety in my body, which is a lot, and make the trip utterly miserable even if it was guaranteed safe. A nope from me.

...Is Kemi reproposing the Cones hotline in another guise?

Greatly enjoying the coverage of the Eurovision Asia launch.

Watched it not on Saturday, or at Night, or Live, but did watch it in the UK and thought SNL UK was actually half decent, if a little whiplash inducing.

Soft power! As seen in Hamburg

Shape of You, those opening five seconds would drive you loopy within about three rotations.

Have written for the @financialtimes.com about how decades of government policy has pushed integenerarional unfairness, and the political and economic cost of us not fixing it. www.ft.com/content/53f6...

Hello, I'm mental.

I remember the primary criticism of Tugendhat by other Tories was 'he is a hawk who wants to go to war with Iran' at the time...

Going to have to rename "common sense" at this rate.

My humble submission to the new Bank of England with concepts for the new bank notes to please both sides.

Higher taxes are actually lower taxes you see.

I know it's not the area of the American news ecosystem that captures the most attention, but the surviving parts of the liberal American media is really really weird.

This is grotesque and a road the Greens really really do not want to go down.

One of the biggest weaknesses of autocracies at war is that information to the leader is flawed as the layers of bureaucracy between the military and the leadership doesn't want to deliver bad news. Taking out several layers of leadership has probably made the IRGC more effective rather than less.

If I was commissioning editor at the BBC, I'd be telling the next celeb who requested a travel show that I'd offer to send them to the home front in Ukraine to visit civilians and show how people are managing to sustain life, culture, society under siege, and that they could take it or leave it.

A lot of enthusiastic Brexit supporters suddenly making very anguished noises about alienating our allies over not rushing to war with Iran.

Kemi called Labour MPs a 'sea of orcs and goons' at PMQs. The Tories are being led by a phone-addicted 10 year old.