I'll admit this has been my attitude to politics generally for 18 months or so. I've even taken to just reading sports pages (because apparently it's easier to be hopeful about Nottm Forest). If nothing else, this election has reminded me that is stupid: it's the lack of hope that really kills you.

One for all those newly-minted Hungarian politics 'experts' 😂

"In the UK, Keir Starmer has few fans. I learned that in China it’s a very different story" - Martin Rowson" www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Yessssssssssss!

One of my cartoons in Monday's Metro

For all that I'm chuffed at a really useful away win for the Albion, if you want an illustration of just how absurdly precise offside decisions have become these days, just watch how both Burnley efforts were disallowed. It really is getting ridiculous.

'On Friday Nigel Farage sought to minimise his personal relationship with Trump. “I happen to know him, but that’s by the by,” said the Reform UK leader.' #BigHenryIVpart2Energy

The fart of the deal.

The deputy leader of Reform UK, Richard Tice, owns a property company - Quidnet REIT. From 2020 to 2022 it paid Tice and his trust £600k in dividends. Quidnet should have paid £120k of tax on those dividends. It didn't. A 🧵 with evidence from the company's own filings:

Master of shadows: Caravaggio, influential Italian Baroque artist, (1571-1610), used chiaroscuro to heighten dramatic tension. Supper at Emmaus, 1601, National Gallery London

However incompetent you think the Home Office are, there is always another level that they can reach.

fascinated by the weirdly many people going full DIDN'T HAPPEN at this, surely any Londoner who takes the tube regularly has noticed that there are quite a lot more people jumping the barriers these days, and that they're never stopped by staff? you can choose not to care but it obviously is A Thing

They make EVERYTHING worse. Ban, tax, whatever, but acknowledge it already

Learned societies and academies, and their journals, need to take a stand. We need to make it clear that we expect our authors to be able to read (the references they cite) and write (the articles they claim to have authored).

Thought provoking piece in the FT on the manosphere, why it exists and how to provide an alternative to it. I watched that Louis Theroux documentary. What a wretched world it revealed. Too many young men have been failed by older men. It's a familiar story.

Reform manage to lose a county council seat on the coast. The Green Party victor is a recent winner of the Mr Margate Beard and Moustache competition.

For more RN slang have a look at this. The author, Surgeon Commander Rick Jolly, ran the field hospital during the Falklands War.

In most of the hospitals I worked in, the mortuary was known as ‘Rose Cottage’. A codeword to avoid upsetting public overhearing you.

Do they make *anything* better?

Who knew?

The Telegraph just gave a convicted criminal a two-page spread to explain why he's pumping £4 million into Reform UK. They tucked his criminal record away in the small print. So as a former financial crime specialist I’ll do their job for them👇

Glad to see Reform helping those in desperate need

Albert Speer says hello.

With over 95% of England's council seats analysed by @electionmaps.uk, Reform UK are standing in the most wards at 2,876 (99.2%), narrowly ahead of the Tories on 2,819 (97.2%) & Labour on 2,783 (96.0%). Lib Dems are standing in 2,474 wards (85.3%), with the Greens close behind on 2,756 (95.1%)

I mean I suppose that was in the plan

So many great replies - and so many songs. Mrs Tim's contribution: Rasputin. 😂

Viz 355

The first episode of @uofgpolicy.bsky.social's Spotlight elections series is now available, previewing the elections and covering key issues and battlegrounds. Listen here: open.spotify.com/episode/3Tfy...

Fair play - top pun

Nice piece of on-the-ground reportage from Essex from @noahkeate.bsky.social www.politico.eu/article/tori...

"To put it bluntly, an X post today receives less than 3% of the views a single tweet delivered seven years ago." If you think it is necessary to be on Twitter to communicate your fact-based worldview, the reality is that worldview is being smothered.

Two observations on the statement by Melania Trump, which are in tension with each other. 1. It is hard to see what professional advice led to her making it. 2. The statement was well drafted but she seemed unfamiliar with it, which indicates it was drafted at least in part by someone else. Odd.

Gotta love the book plug!

"115 of 195 American ambassadorial posts worldwide currently sit vacant. Fewer than 20 even have a nominee in the pipeline. That is diplomatic malpractice on a global scale — but the consequences are sharpest where the stakes are highest." www.ft.com/content/5ed0...

Gotta love the book plug!

📢 Are women MPs better at estimating their party voters’ preferences on women’s issues? In our new paper (with @stefaniebailer.bsky.social and @breunig.eurosky.social), we analyze whether and under which conditions women MPs assess these preferences more accurately. doi.org/10.1017/S147...

First @libdems.org.uk orange diamonds spotted in the wild today down in Eastbourne.

Zack Polanski has admitted that the Greens may face issues when it comes to candidate vetting due to the speed of the party's growth Polanski said that Greens were dealing with an "immense amount of people very quickly" to field candidates nationwide next month www.politicshome.com/news/article...

First thing they should do is reform the electoral system that made that majority possible, then pass a constitutional amendment that stipulates all subsequent changes to the electoral law must have a supermajority or must take effect only at the second general election after they come into force.

Who among us has never taken a Fabergé egg worth £2m to the pub after a work event?

Mark Rutte's time as head of NATO is not dissimilar to his time as PM in that he seems to think it is extremely sensible to keep playing footsy with far right leaders and that this will lead to no negative consequences whatsoever.

I mean, is he King of NATO now? What on earth is going on? bsky.app/profile/fint...

Who knew? (Although the only people who ever called me that were my parents - and only when they were telling me off).

Doh: reposting this after realising I'd accidentally cut three rather crucial words! There are plenty of (pop) songs named after a girl/woman (below is one of the absolute weirdest imho). But apart from "Hey Jude", I can't really think of any NAMED AFTER BOYS. Help! www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKtZ...

My Marxist approach to concrete mix design goes down a treat with those impressionable students.

QMUL is advertising an exciting opportunity: a fully funded PhD studentship, working on European politics, ideology, and political 'myths' with @karlpike.bsky.social and @timbale.bsky.social. Details below. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRB421/p...

“Of course, Mr President, we can now re-name it the North American Treaty Organisation. We can even change the T to Trump as well.”

Below-the-line on ConHome is still a reliable source of 'is this real or someone expertly taking the p*ss?' laughs - for me anyway.

Fascinating.

Note the reference to a “real agreement“ that was “reached”. The problem is that unless each party agrees, then there is not an agreement. It is not for one party to unilaterally assert what was in some “real” agreement. There is never a “real” agreement separate to what each party agreed.