Sleigh bells ring are you listening? In Hyde Park, coke is glistening A typical sight, a massive fist fight Brawling in the Winter Wonderland

Some thoughts on Bondi Beach, the sliding doors surreality of knowing my sister could have been there, and how it feels to be lighting candles tonight to celebrate our resilience www.newstatesman.com/world/2025/1...

Meta has removed or restricted dozens of accounts belonging to abortion access providers, queer groups and reproductive health organizations in the past weeks in what campaigners call one of the “biggest waves of censorship” on its platforms in years.

🎙️ NEW ep 🎙️ political lying: when is a lie a lie? I was fascinated by just how stark the difference was between the interpretations of Rachel Reeves’ pre-Bridget pitch rolling, so have done an episode on how political lies really work www.politico.eu/podcast/west...

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/w... An excellent take from @saschaosullivan.bsky.social on the Westminster habit of lies, spin and half-truths as illustrated by Rachel Reeves in the run up to the budget.

On jury trials, it's important to remember how we got to the point where victims and defendants are waiting years for their cases to be heard. As to what to do now we're here, Labour has a choice. It’s not about Magna Carta, it's about money – and trade-offs. www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Stardust. The Israeli-U.S. company with a strange and totally real plan to block out the sun and reverse global warming. Reporting this story involved a complete relearning of what I thought I knew about the climate future. w/@corbinhiar.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Why do Irish dancers only move their legs? Because their arms have been decommissioned pursuant to the Good Friday Agreement.

All the news is people shouting about a budget which has been going on for approximately 45 years and still hasn’t been delivered

🎙️NEW🎙️How to raise taxes — and get away with it w/ Jeremy Hunt @theobertram.bsky.social @joemayes.bsky.social @helenmiller.bsky.social James Nation

Fantastic from @danbloom1.bsky.social & Patrick Baker with the accompanying Westminster Insider episode @politico.eu

Glad that someone has finally taken responsibility for the appalling assault on democracy that was the Jan. 6 insurrection. Slightly confused that it's the Director-General of the BBC, but what do I know?

Shabana Mahmood looking to Denmark for solutions on migration is v interesting. Crucially, Denmark *is* a signatory to the ECHR (the thing everyone says the UK must leave in order to deport migrants). One key diff (along with re-unification rules) the v low level of appeals

"My colleague is not racist, they are insane" is a curious defence.

Zack Polanski will be (hypno) dancing around the kitchen with numbers like this

"The book contains no interviews with Jewish members." Gobsmacking.

Powell’s election is a sign of the disillusionment of Labour members - but there is a much much bigger and more worrying sign. Turn out was just 16%

I didn’t know how badly I needed to see the post-shear glow

Not really the main point for these witnesses statements but this is unbelievably low grade stuff to be passing on. Tugendhat did not in fact get a cabinet job and Jeremy Hunt endorsed Rishi Sunak. Did the Chinese realise how crap all this intelligence was?

EXCLUSIVE: Thousands of leaked messages show leaders of Young Republican groups joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape in a private Telegram chat. Inside rising GOP leaders’ racist chats — obtained by POLITICO and spanning more than 7 months👇

A level students currently don’t know how to read long books

It is autumn 2023: an embattled prime minister, a year into his tenure, who wants to change the UK’s China policy is struggling with the fallout of an alleged spying case It is autumn 2025: you’ll never guess what has happened now! Today’s newsletter:

Currently, the Green Party has roughly only 20,000 fewer members than the Conservatives

ChatGPT tells man to be intereted in women’s interests and he gets more dates 🙃

Timeline cleanse!

perfect autumn sky 🍁

Been to Manchester central complex many times for conferences and rarely has the main hall been so light on outside exhibitors. Lots of padding with empty stands put up by central party

🎙️NEW ep 🎙️ Postcard from Liverpool: is Starmerism is already over? w/ Deputy PM David Lammy Lucy Powell @alistrathern.bsky.social @stephenkb.bsky.social @peterhyman.bsky.social @morganwild.bsky.social @noahkeate.bsky.social & @ecasalicchio.bsky.social www.politico.eu/podcast/west...

Not the greatest backdrop to a make-or-break party conference ... www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/tory-c...

You don’t actually have to both sides this. The Jewish community in the UK is not the Israeli government. You can just condemn the murder of two British Jews killed in their place of worship and you don’t have to say a single other thing.

A small reminder of where original story of swans/migrants came from… a 2003 story later corrected to admit there was no evidence www.theguardian.com/media/2003/d...

Liz Truss is now dunking on Andy Burnham

My favourite variant of this is when you add in queerness: “He spend 50 years living in a remote hut with his close friend, where they preserved and catalogued the most extensive collection of ferns ever assembled in Britain”

It just straightforwardly *insane* how much political chatter in the United Kingdom is about the next general election, an event that is a long way in the future, and how basically none of it is about 'uh, this policy agenda doesn't look adequate to the scale of the inherited problem'.

Retrospectively removing indefinite leave to remain would be immoral and economically damaging. It would tear families apart. Attacking it as ‘potentially illegal’ is completely beside the point. Argue with the (awful) idea. Don’t try ’well, actually you can’t do that’.

Farage claims he can save *£230bn* by excluding foreign nationals from welfare bill Did Dr Evil come up with this number

🎙️ NEW ep🎙️ Who’s actually in control of the Channel crossings— and can Shabana Mahmood get a grip of it? @jamescleverlymp.bsky.social Andrew Harding Ex Home Office DG Glyn Williams Hannah Guerin @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social Joe Middleton KC & more www.politico.eu/podcast/west...

🎧 I'm on this week's 'Westminster Insider' @politico.eu @politico.com talking about the mess the Home Office has made of the asylum system, alongside none other than... James Cleverly. www.politico.eu/podcast/west... @saschaosullivan.bsky.social

What's going on with Your Party? @meganekenyon.bsky.social joins me on today's @newstatesman.com podcast to explain, as does Ethan Croft, making his NS debut as we try to untangle the split between Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTn4...

Actually quite a beautiful moment of Donald Trump saying he “doesn’t know” Peter Mandelson

🎙️NEW ep 🎙️Can Britain have a proper Green Party? How the party had changed from early days of campaigns on camels & dog poo💩 🌳 & Zack Polanski’s efforts to make his party serious @zackpolanski.bsky.social @elliechowns.bsky.social Natalie Bennett Jonathon Porritt www.politico.eu/podcast/west...

I don’t think any of us expected him to say that.

Former deputy labour leader Tom Watson calls for… deputy leader post to be abolished tomwatsonofficial.substack.com/p/angela-ray...

With Rayner stepping down we have hit 10 minister's who have oficially resigned from this government. Make sure you are following @paddy-mcalary.bsky.social @timdurrant.bsky.social @rebeccamckee.bsky.social meganbryer.bsky.social for what Starmer will do next with his minsiterial team.

From no reshuffle to a No10 reshuffle to losing the DPM and a potential cabinet reshuffle - what a first week back

can't believe we've lost two people's princesses in our lifetime

🎙️NEW ep 🎙️Can Britain have a proper Green Party? How the party had changed from early days of campaigns on camels & dog poo💩 🌳 & Zack Polanski’s efforts to make his party serious @zackpolanski.bsky.social @elliechowns.bsky.social Natalie Bennett Jonathon Porritt www.politico.eu/podcast/west...

Just had to correct this live on the radio too... clearly someone at the BBC has got their briefing note wrong!

Oh sure, get three men to write about a woman going through a traumatic birth and what she did with the compensation as though she is stealing from her own child. That seems totally normal and fine

Musicians can sometimes be the government's most vocal critics. Who could forget Stormzy calling out Theresa May over Grenfell or Elton John calling Keir Starmer’s government “absolute losers”? On Westminster Insider, host @saschaosullivan.bsky.social digs deeper: