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Aaron H. Ellis @aaronhughellis.bsky.social · 11h

Like, ID cards. Definitely a case for them. Yet Starmer just announces the policy out of nowhere, without any comms campaign preparing the ground, no substantial policy follow-up, now conveying doubts about it, etc

Aaron H. Ellis @aaronhughellis.bsky.social · 11h

It’s a variation on the George Costanza (quitting your job, regretting it, walking into the office the next day pretending nothing happened)

Aaron H. Ellis @aaronhughellis.bsky.social · 11h

ICYMI: Last week, the BBC’s Will Grant and I talked about why the Trump admin is so fixated on Latin America

youtu.be/fPFRr3lXpxE?...

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Aaron H. Ellis @aaronhughellis.bsky.social · 11h

I feel a real problem for this government is that they’re not necessarily wrong on big strategic moves - they just don’t seem to do the preparatory work before they try to pull them off

Anand Menon @anandmenon.bsky.social · 11h

If they do this, they’ll need a convincing answer to the obvious question some will ask: ‘why don’t we rejoin?’ Keir Starmer’s plan to blame Nigel Farage for budget tax rises

www.thetimes.com/article/8875...

Keir Starmer’s plan to blame Nigel Farage for budget tax rises

With Reform UK threatening the end of two-party politics, both Labour and the Tories are fighting to stay relevant as conference season comes to an end

www.thetimes.com

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Aaron H. Ellis @aaronhughellis.bsky.social · 11h

Macron as the little girl smiling as a house burns down meme

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Aaron H. Ellis @aaronhughellis.bsky.social · 12h

My dads 🫶🏻❤️

Picture of Gary Mehigan, Matt Preston, and George Colombaris. But George’s face is scribbled out

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Aaron H. Ellis @aaronhughellis.bsky.social · 12h

Perennial time of the year where I rewatch MasterChef Australia

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Aaron H. Ellis @aaronhughellis.bsky.social · 16h

I actually, literally gasped

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Aaron H. Ellis @aaronhughellis.bsky.social · 17h

The theme of the very first ep of my podcast with @ptklein.com

open.spotify.com/episode/6gHD...

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Aaron H. Ellis @aaronhughellis.bsky.social · 17h

Graham’s memoirs are one of the best books I’ve read

Jill Lawrence @jilldlawrence.bsky.social · 18h

Watching this film at this moment in history was a gut punch. New from me at @thebulwark.com www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-nixo...

Trump’s Abuses of Power Show We Didn’t Learn Much From the Nixon Era

That failure is implicit in nearly every frame of a new documentary about Katharine Graham.

www.thebulwark.com

Aaron H. Ellis @aaronhughellis.bsky.social · 17h

This speaks to a point @timothysnyder.bsky.social makes in The Road to Unfreedom: That a key part of Putin’s success was making Russians believe that there wasn’t some optimistic future for them

Simon Kuper @simonkuper.bsky.social · 17h

Yes, Starmer is an uncharismatic lawyer with no vision, but he also embodies a broader problem: mainstream parties across the west no longer have a vision of utopia. Nativists do - one set in a white past. Me @financialtimes.com on how, despite climate, we can reclaim the future on.ft.com/3KHJViB

A utopian future is still possible (just)

Mainstream parties have stopped promising voters better lives

on.ft.com

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Aaron H. Ellis @aaronhughellis.bsky.social · 20h

He’s like Freddy Krueger*. We need to get him out of our dreams.

* In more ways than one…

Aaron H. Ellis @aaronhughellis.bsky.social · 20h

I feel like we all need to make a conscious effort to *not* talk about Trump.

Like, to a large extent, we need to. But otherwise, when we’re about to post something, we should go: “Do I really need to bring him up? Can I talk about this without referencing him?”

Ben Stanley @benstanley.eu · 22h

Truly we live in the most Trump-brained timeline. Maybe, just maybe the Nobel Prize committee gave María Corina Machado the peace prize on her own merits, rather than so as not to give Trump the award while making it impossible for him to criticise their choice.

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Reposted by Aaron H. Ellis

Katie Phang @katiephang.bsky.social · 20h

“This is a movement…This is an achievement of a whole society…I am just one person.”

The beautiful humility of Venezuelan pro-democracy leader, Maria Corina Machado, the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize recipient.

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Reposted by Aaron H. Ellis

simi @simisoma.bsky.social · 1d

Alan's highlight reel after just 2 episodes. A LEGEND ✨ #traitors #celebritytraitors

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Reposted by Aaron H. Ellis

General Boles @generalboles.bsky.social · 1d

He's got a point #CelebrityTraitors

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Aaron H. Ellis @aaronhughellis.bsky.social · 21h

About 60-70% of the memes we all use come from Real Housewives

Journey Through Time Pod @throughtimepod.bsky.social · 21h

How did reality TV become the phenomenon we can’t stop watching? 📺

Explore our new series 'The History of Reality TV' wherever you get your podcasts 🎙️

@sarahchurchwell.bsky.social @davidolusoga.bsky.social
#celebritytraitors #thetraitors #history

Aaron H. Ellis @aaronhughellis.bsky.social · 21h

ICYMI: @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk and I talk about the art of knife-fighting in local associations, why the Tories don’t seem to care about the middle class anymore, and how they might take on Reform

linktr.ee/strategyaaron

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Reposted by Aaron H. Ellis

Jonathan Birch @birchlse.bsky.social · 1d

The Nobel committee is always playing 3D chess. Giving the prize to Obama in 2009 looked idiotic but 16 years later it's caused a US president to think about peace for almost an entire week.

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Aaron H. Ellis @aaronhughellis.bsky.social · 22h

The candidate wasn’t sure, though. He ummed and ahhed.

I said, well, you don’t need to adopt this vision. But do you have a better one?

He ummed and ahhed more. Said he’d have a think. But never did come up with something justifying his campaign.

He lost.

Aaron H. Ellis @aaronhughellis.bsky.social · 22h

It’d also give him something to talk about with Leave voters. “Look, we mightn’t agree about Brexit, but surely we can agree that we need to clean up our air? We’ll ease the pressure on the hospital, attract more tourists.”

This was before Sadiq Khan took up clean air and the was wide open terror

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Aaron H. Ellis @aaronhughellis.bsky.social · 22h

Clean air would be an umbrella for him talking about business, the environment, tourism, health.

The constituency was a seaside tourist town with a big middle class who really cared about the environment.

He would position himself as a sort of “Stella Creasey of clean air”

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Aaron H. Ellis @aaronhughellis.bsky.social · 22h

I was once advising a parliamentary candidate.

Despite being the party’s candidate for a year, he had no real idea why he wanted to become an MP or what he’d do if he won, no overarching vision - so he outsourced it to me.

I wrote a memo suggesting he make clean air his “thing”.

Adam Bell @adambell.bsky.social · 23h

There is a peculiar archetype of politician who exists in every party - yes, even the Lib Dems - who wants to be a politician purely to be a politician and for no other reason. They judge their actions through what will accrue more power given the incentives of their particular party...

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 23h

It's never the comms. Labour's comms is grey because in the absence of a clear strategy for what the government wants to achieve, no-one can defend or articulate what the government says in an interesting or exciting way.

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Aaron H. Ellis @aaronhughellis.bsky.social · 1d

And if you must look something up, only via Encarta ‘95

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Reposted by Aaron H. Ellis

Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 2d

“the girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa”

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