I admit I did initially read this headline on CBC as "Mark Carney's 159th birthday".

Only just clocked that England's path to win the World Cup would be Mexico > Brazil > Argentina > France and Southgate at his prime really was just incredibly lucky with team draws wasn't he.

The No10 North thing is a lot craftier politics than it looks. Proposing a huge expansion of the capacity and resourcing of Number 10, the shrinking of other Whitehall departments, and making it feel connected to normal people while opponents get bogged down by the Manchester stuff.

A theme we can expect to hear from Burnham again and again is that politics is broken as it is set up for conflict, not collaboration and that opposition for its own sake is behind voter alienation. His opponents in the press and other parties seem intent on helping him stress test the theory today.

Two significant things in Burnham's speech that speaks very well to him: He gets that you do not need to adopt this weird anti-London stance to be pro-communities elsewhere The acknowledgement that Holyrood and the Senedd feel as distant to some in Scotland and Wales as Westminster does.

Not enough heavy metal fans.

Learned from a failed hunt round several of my local grocery shops and supermarkets for ice lollies that freezer trucks that deliver them aren't good enough in the UK to handle the heatwave and they all arrived this week as boxes of flavoured water.

The anti net zero backlash going on in some parts of Labour at the moment does seem rather poorly timed given most people live in houses with windows and have the ability to detect temperature.

To be fair, we know Number 10 as a building is not cut out to be the hub of government activity it ought to serve as, so as the Treasury has extra resources in Darlington it would make sense to beef up Number 10 operations and base them somewhere in an appropriate building close to the PM.

The apps cannot conceive of a British train arriving early.

I was at a watch party. Sunderland came in strongly Leave: "Okay that's really bad but maybe North East leave places are worse than expected and balanced elsewhere." Newcastle came in barely Remain: "We're doomed."

Today's newsletter: why I think it is unlikely in the extreme that the disparate minority of Labour MPs who want a contest will get one:

This government didn't have much time to turn things around as it was, so a contest for a contest's sake when the result is obvious to any casual observer seems to be the more self-indulgent choice to me.

How has a thunderstorm of biblical proportions made it hotter?

What might Burnham mean for internal Labour Party governance? I would expect the NEC to shift comfortably to Burnham backers given number of leadership spots, and CLPs and unions to follow. However, will likely give wider Labour movement a greater sway on those bodies and at conference.

British PM: Vacant James Bond: Vacant Doctor Who: Vacant If the King disappears in the next couple of weeks I think we may sink into the ocean.

If you are going to track Burnham's journey overhead when he's not even going to the Palace today, they better be prepared to do this until he does. I want helicopter tracking when he nips out to the pass office to having a cheeky victory pint at the Red Lion.

That black cab driver tomorrow to every single one of his passengers: "You'll never guess who I had in the back there yesterday!"

Has the Avanti comms department ever had a more stressful day?

Lots of commentary about the number of PMs we've had in X time frame. But is our system bad for cycling through failing PMs at a fast rate, or good as systems that keep failing leaders in place, either through rewarding deal makers over competence or coalition building that leaves no other choices?

It's the West Coast mainline, so it could be as early as next week.

Streeting backing Burnham ends it before it starts.

My appeal to Labour MPs and wider candidate camps. The foundation of Labour's trouble recently came when Number 10 decided not to include their MPs, and acted in unnecessarily unpleasant, factional ways. If we descend into tribes and recriminations we'll only fall further.

Can someone tell Steve Bray to pack it in.

It's really not too late for tweeting Labour MPs to log off and take a beach day.

I've met enough of them to know that replacement level democrats are surprisingly slick in the exact way that would make each and every one instantly despised in blighty.

Given how often I was asked on doors if I beat Rishi do I become Prime Minister, there are going to be some very confused people watching the (genuinely global) coverage of this by election win seeing this photo.

Reform is winning local elections due to older higher turnout voter base paired with very low turnout overall. It's always been a problem that most voters don't think who manages local services is important enough to bother voting, but that dynamic makes the problem a lot more acute.

Hello assembled news media, waking up to the concept of block voter dynamics that absolutely nobody has been banging on about in overly long threads on Bluesky for the last year.

This is so so shoddy.

Poor Geoff.

Can Labour potentially stop naval-gazing for a minute and address the fact in the last 48 hours we found out Russia was behind an arson attack on the PM's house and fired on a British ship in the channel?

Healey's remarks today looking scarily prescient, and if anything, under-egging the urgency.

A lot of political psychodrama is just the natural logic of demographic change. 'Working people' does not mean what it used to. Instability now rife in white collar jobs, that are younger and more progressive, while blue collar workers are wealthier, older, and more socially conservative.

Do they not hear how stupid this all is when they give the definition of what it is being banned?

World leaders BBQ.

This gets what is exciting about football entirely backwards. The fact goals are so uncommon is the point! Every single one matters. econ.st/4aFf0xg

Japan!!!!!

If young people want to watch porn they submit a pic of a random face and get it. If they want to watch a 4 hour video essay on youtube about the subtext of the Avatar Last Airbender Series, they have to fully fake their identity and use a VPN. Why is Youtube more harshly treated than Redtube?

Nah sorry this is mental.

Fair to say the vibe in the Labour Makerfield campaign is quite different to Gorton.

Half way through my 5 hour trip to Makerfield this morning. Staying in central Manchester tonight, do send food recs.

In a fight between the MoD and HMT, the weak point that snaps first is No 10.

This is me but with scotch whiskey. If anyone likes scotch whiskey, please come to my house and help me drink some of my many many bottles of scotch whiskey.

John Healey is an incredibly honourable man and was a capable Defence Secretary. His resignation should send a huge alarm bell that we are sleep walking into a crisis that leaves the country vulnerable if nothing changes.

I hope PM goes up to Belfast to speak with Stephen Ogilvie, his family and those who have had their homes burned down and their lives destroyed by the riots at the earliest opportunity. The best fight back against Musk, Reform and Tommy Robinson is to give the victims their voices back from the mob.

Sadiq seems to be the one of very few prominent politicians who understands the having the confidence to stand your ground on common sense rather than pandering to every unreasonable interest group is not just the right thing to do but good politics too.

Oh dear god the mad fools did it

Practically you'd probably do it under the guise of beefing up publishing laws, and include coverage to social media sites, in which the owners are legally liable for anything posted and not removed with a ban sanction threat for those that do not acquiesce. The bad ones would filter themselves out.

Honestly think BBC should reach into the Too Difficult Box and do what they probably haven't considered and just commission a new original Sci-Fi IP that's better suited to modern television habits.