"While Labour's minds have spent the last 5 years mastering 4d-chess, unfortunately circumstances beyond their control have turned the world into a game of Twister| My latest for

Didn’t expect “you know who else was shit? Gordon Brown” in the fallout from Rayner announcing a podcast tbh

RIP Wes, Labour’s greatest story teller, washed away by a tsunami of trends & forces before ever having the chance to tell a compelling story to anyone who isn’t a weirdly eager lobby hack

I'm going on Krugman's substack in a few to talk energy, so I've been trying to wrap my head around a 30K view of the domestic energy landscape. It has brought to mind one of my favorite rants, which I will rant at you once again here. Let's talk about a contrast. 🧵

Erm.... Are these people ok? I don't think they're ok. Join.greenparty.org.uk

Give Moby Dick a whirl idk. Have you read any Austen? It's all good stuff. You used to have to be good to get published.

Literally anything? There's more literature out there than anyone could ever read in a lifetime, some of which is similar to Harry Potter, but you should probably not confine yourself to the relatively narrow subgenre of "wizards go to boarding school".

Can’t see any downsides in an island nation going after commercial shipping while most of its own navy is elsewhere. Poke that bear, sir Keir

Scarcely believable scenes this week. Iain explains government is going to have to “rediscover the language of sacrifice” for the coming shock, and Britain must “toughen up as a culture”. Miranda muses that we’ll need to give up “the incredible lifestyle that we’ve all become so used to”.

Proper wrong'un Rob Henderson with one of the worst arguments I've ever read

This article might be one of the most damning, of humanity as a species, that I have ever read. Not just the horror of the genocidal RSF in Sudan, but the blatant and obvious turning away of the US and the UK from their obligations in order to keep the UAE happy.

🔴 Labour has announced a moratorium on political donations in cryptocurrency and a cap on donations from Britons living abroad. But if we don't think foreign oligarchs should buy our politics, shouldn't stop the domestic super rich too? New by me: democracyforsale.substack.com/p/has-labour...

If the press is being maximally hostile despite Starmer refusing to regulate even “its wilder practices”, I think I’ve spotted a tactical option that’s better for everyone than hand-waving about “telling better stories” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Yes, I’m sure that had Morgan explained he was the prime minister’s chief of staff and his work phone containing his chats with senior government figures and their phone numbers had just been nicked, then the cops would’ve yawned

Gotta be the worker’s struggle against capital for me tbh

"I'm pleased to have this opportunity to update you" is good shit

The relevant questions here are “would it be really stupid for Iran to strike London” and “does the Iranian military seem really stupid right now”; any remaining questions sort of take care of themselves after that.

leslie_neilsen_fireworks.gif

pollster when the polls get too exciting: shut up. stop looking at the polls. they're boring. stop it.

Psalm Sunday, Monday Thursday, God Friday: Holly Week is fundamental to our national culture. Yet our so-called “government” is too frightened to even say the words.

Is it not even partisan on behalf of cows that move in unpredictable ways

A few years ago Goodwin would’ve published with Biteback, picked up £20k from advance + serialisation in a sympathetic newspaper & moved on. The fact he’s self-publishing is probably significant - and not because there aren’t any publishers greedy & immoral enough to work with him.

NATO members in range of Iran must be pretty keen for this guy to start shutting the fuck up

The UK example where the Tories spent 8 years *bullying themselves* into repeatedly ditching PMs then insisting the replacement was very legitimate actually, while the media agreed, then using snap elections to crush their opponents (50% success rate), needs to be better understood overseas IMO

On Political Thinking, Nick explains that this isn’t the time to talk about leaving NATO because we’re at war with Russia. Big exclusive for the podcast there. Is somebody going to tell the government and/or NATO about this

What’s going on here? Who knows? Who cares. Nothing is real, except whatever we have to say tomorrow morning, which is also fantastical.

Nations being prepared to defend themselves their territory from invasion by foreign powers is how it usually works. “Don’t worry lads, let the bigger boys take over Greenland, it’s fine.” would have been a historically unusual response

Trying not to be too much of a fanboy, but this is the most fluent longform interview I’ve seen in a very long time. Cutting straight through the Newsnight guy temporarily pretending to be a reform voter for some reason is class.

This week, Steve reminds the panelists to check in on whether everything’s still going great or not. Iain explains that yes, people who were repressing civilians are now dead. Steve wonders whether they’ll now be replaced by nice people, but that’s not really the point so the conversation moves on

A flag on every building, mandatory departments of advanced cryptocurrency studies and applied multi-level marketing. Onward to the brightest of futures for learning

Was not prepared for just how goofy a promo for the “Road Rage Terror Tour” would be. Lads doing a “racism!” team cheer like they’re on a corporate away day 🙃

Regrettably, the questions being asked in news rooms are more likely to be “did you know you can get £140, just for endorsing neo-Nazis?” and “how do I set up a Cameo account?”

Thing is, the UK’s had half a dozen de facto Tory newspapers that refuse to be regulated, for decades. I’m afraid there’s no way through here without acknowledging that

It’s certainly an improvement. I guess if the Westminster gossip was more upfront about which advisors past and present are prepared to say “having a problem with Muslims is bad” and which aren’t, that would be even more enlightening.

The UK press should’ve given Crick an award for that interview, but he didn’t manage to ask the same question 15 times so it wasn’t quite stupid enough to qualify.

Hmmm do you think this will happen more or less often after the company lays off 20 percent of its workforce

At first I was skeptical, but learning the $300k robot dogs can “detect puddles” really changes things

“Our research indicates people want reading PDFs to be more annoying” “Done and done. Waiter, more cocaine please.”

This is not wrong and for eg true of the Indian community too - but the question that follows is more important: are we happy with this being How It Is Now? Or can we take some action to change it? Is it worth it? What happens when X gets worse, in unimaginably more severe ways?

Polanski’s speech getting a thumbs up from Reeves’s number 1 fan 👀 www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Avoid later embarrassment with one weird trick: in situations like this, ask yourself, Is it remotely plausible that *ChatGPT* *solved dog cancer*

A billionaire provide an infinite slush fund for endless propaganda against you: "Well, that's his view and we have freedom of speech here". Group of Neo-Nazi skinheads protest outside a hotel: "I'd be frustrated too". A granny holds up a sign supporting Palestine Action: "THIS IS TERRORISM"

Would never have guessed meth as the class A tbh

“Prime minister there’s people on telly saying you’re doing white genocide” “Well look that’s their firmly held opinion so who knows if it’s true or not”

I often think about a 2017 C4 News interview which consisted of Michael Crick yelling at Tim Farron for wanting to turn the UK government into a drug dealer by legalising cannabis, and I guess the rest of the press saw that and thought “this seems like very dignified and rational scrutiny”.

If election law was fit for purpose you’d just need one lawyer to say “no obviously running a prize draw to get voter intention is illegal”, rather than 5 lawyers saying “idk seems dodge, why are they doing this” www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Idk, perhaps the organisers at the Oxford *Literary Festival* could reflect that neither of these guys have a book out. They’re just talking about civil war for no reason

“Providing propaganda for Canadian Nazis AND ALSO not as nice as you might assume” is very Newspapers Reporting on the Far Right, isn’t it

There is absolutely no need for Reasonable Libs to continuously "debate" with the most insane Canadian they can find, but they keep doing it.

Just a normal guy here, with normal concerns and most importantly a sense of perspective, simply asking questions at the Oxford Literary festival sponsored by the Daily Telegraph