John McTernan
@johnmct.bsky.social
Reposted by John McTernan
this is a promising development in Sky's production of SNL UK - Lisa Clark has been named Commissioning Exec for the series. Her lengthy credits include Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing/Top Gear/Shooting Stars/League of Gentlemen Live Again/Vic & Bob’s Big Night Out
January 23, 2026 at 1:08 PM
this is a promising development in Sky's production of SNL UK - Lisa Clark has been named Commissioning Exec for the series. Her lengthy credits include Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing/Top Gear/Shooting Stars/League of Gentlemen Live Again/Vic & Bob’s Big Night Out
Reposted by John McTernan
"Slavery was real"
Tiny sign at the base of a brick wall that, until yesterday, held panels about the people enslaved by George Washington.
Presidents House, Philadelphia.
Tiny sign at the base of a brick wall that, until yesterday, held panels about the people enslaved by George Washington.
Presidents House, Philadelphia.
January 23, 2026 at 3:22 PM
"Slavery was real"
Tiny sign at the base of a brick wall that, until yesterday, held panels about the people enslaved by George Washington.
Presidents House, Philadelphia.
Tiny sign at the base of a brick wall that, until yesterday, held panels about the people enslaved by George Washington.
Presidents House, Philadelphia.
Reposted by John McTernan
Reposted by John McTernan
I’ve never been entirely convinced that core inflation is that useful of a concept.
Much prefer to look at the simpler services vs goods split.
And I can’t really relax about UK inflation with services running at 4.5%.
www.ons.gov.uk/economy/infl...
Much prefer to look at the simpler services vs goods split.
And I can’t really relax about UK inflation with services running at 4.5%.
www.ons.gov.uk/economy/infl...
January 23, 2026 at 10:11 AM
I’ve never been entirely convinced that core inflation is that useful of a concept.
Much prefer to look at the simpler services vs goods split.
And I can’t really relax about UK inflation with services running at 4.5%.
www.ons.gov.uk/economy/infl...
Much prefer to look at the simpler services vs goods split.
And I can’t really relax about UK inflation with services running at 4.5%.
www.ons.gov.uk/economy/infl...
Reposted by John McTernan
Very useful thread.
Megan Greene wraps up by assessing the risk to the monetary policy outlook. Upside risks from the labour market have diminished but the stickiness of UK inflation remains a concern, particularly given the momentum in wages.
January 23, 2026 at 10:09 AM
Very useful thread.
Reposted by John McTernan
Here's the @labourtogether.bsky.social collab, in which I argue that adversarial-judicial structures aren't "planning" in any normal sense, and we could have more output from the same people doing the same job for the same money
www.labourtogether.uk/all-reports/...
www.labourtogether.uk/all-reports/...
Build the rail! Save the snails! — Labour Together
Why does British infrastructure cost so much? This paper, by economist Dan Davies, argues that Britain’s adversarial planning system forces developers to gold-plate solutions to hypothetical problems....
www.labourtogether.uk
January 23, 2026 at 12:56 PM
Here's the @labourtogether.bsky.social collab, in which I argue that adversarial-judicial structures aren't "planning" in any normal sense, and we could have more output from the same people doing the same job for the same money
www.labourtogether.uk/all-reports/...
www.labourtogether.uk/all-reports/...
Reposted by John McTernan
Only a couple of weeks left to tell ONS what data you want them to collect in the 2031 Census
consultations.ons.gov.uk/census/censu...
consultations.ons.gov.uk/census/censu...
Census 2031 topic consultation
- Office for National Statistics
- Citizen Space
Find and participate in consultations run by the Office for National Statistics
consultations.ons.gov.uk
January 22, 2026 at 10:27 PM
Only a couple of weeks left to tell ONS what data you want them to collect in the 2031 Census
consultations.ons.gov.uk/census/censu...
consultations.ons.gov.uk/census/censu...
Reposted by John McTernan
The best way to make it harder to review is to do the consultation properly in the first place! (I don't disagree with you entirely but this is just a bad case study; whatever barriers you put in place, they're not going to protect straight up failure to do the work)
January 23, 2026 at 12:31 AM
The best way to make it harder to review is to do the consultation properly in the first place! (I don't disagree with you entirely but this is just a bad case study; whatever barriers you put in place, they're not going to protect straight up failure to do the work)
Reposted by John McTernan
The thing to remind yourself is that the triple lock is only a small transfer from today's young to today's old; it is a much bigger transfer *to* today's young (in their capacity as tomorrow's old) from tomorrow's young.
www.ft.com/content/9bae...
www.ft.com/content/9bae...
How the pensions triple lock will end
State pension indexation is very important to retirees — but almost certainly too expensive to survive
www.ft.com
January 22, 2026 at 12:30 PM
The thing to remind yourself is that the triple lock is only a small transfer from today's young to today's old; it is a much bigger transfer *to* today's young (in their capacity as tomorrow's old) from tomorrow's young.
www.ft.com/content/9bae...
www.ft.com/content/9bae...
Reposted by John McTernan
This is the kind of thing I am always on about. By trying to be gung ho and saying "you don't need an environmental impact assessment" when you clearly did, MHCLG seem to have created grounds for successful judicial review where none needed to exist.
www.ft.com/content/888c...
www.ft.com/content/888c...
Data centre suffers setback after UK government admits planning error
Legal challenge to proceed against contentious £1bn project due to be built on former landfill site near London
www.ft.com
January 23, 2026 at 12:11 AM
This is the kind of thing I am always on about. By trying to be gung ho and saying "you don't need an environmental impact assessment" when you clearly did, MHCLG seem to have created grounds for successful judicial review where none needed to exist.
www.ft.com/content/888c...
www.ft.com/content/888c...
Reposted by John McTernan
Danish PM in Chequers today
January 22, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Danish PM in Chequers today
Very good thread
Yes. I think replies like this show the effectiveness of Blair and Corbyn both in defining “Old Labour” as something it wasn’t. But the actual reality and failure mode of “the governments run by the Labour right before 1994” were, well, like what we have now.
Starmer is running on Old Labour government apparently?
January 22, 2026 at 10:46 PM
Very good thread
Reposted by John McTernan
Michael B. Jordan's phone got a workout after he received his first Oscar nomination for "Sinners." He calls it "the best thing to wake up to."
Michael Jordan is 'feeling good' after record 16 Oscar nominations for 'Sinners'
Michael B. Jordan's phone got a workout after he received his first Oscar nomination for "Sinners." He calls it "the best thing to wake up to."
bit.ly
January 22, 2026 at 10:30 PM
Michael B. Jordan's phone got a workout after he received his first Oscar nomination for "Sinners." He calls it "the best thing to wake up to."
Reposted by John McTernan
On a day when the president is threatening "big retaliation" against Europe if it sells dollar assets, you might be interested in this paper from @himself.bsky.social and me on the general themes of why people want to get less dependent on the US dollar
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/60...
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/60...
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk
January 22, 2026 at 1:57 PM
On a day when the president is threatening "big retaliation" against Europe if it sells dollar assets, you might be interested in this paper from @himself.bsky.social and me on the general themes of why people want to get less dependent on the US dollar
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/60...
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/60...
Reposted by John McTernan
‘The fragmentation of British politics began in a single family’
Gem of an aside from @samfr.bsky.social in this piece on the Green Party
samf.substack.com/p/whats-the-...
Gem of an aside from @samfr.bsky.social in this piece on the Green Party
samf.substack.com/p/whats-the-...
January 22, 2026 at 2:06 PM
‘The fragmentation of British politics began in a single family’
Gem of an aside from @samfr.bsky.social in this piece on the Green Party
samf.substack.com/p/whats-the-...
Gem of an aside from @samfr.bsky.social in this piece on the Green Party
samf.substack.com/p/whats-the-...
Reposted by John McTernan
The centre-left's determination to thwart anyone with charisma is a real superpower. bsky.app/profile/jess...
Have asked a number of NEC members to tell me the chances Andy Burnham has of being selected to fight a by-election.
Every single one says zero.
Every single one says zero.
January 22, 2026 at 3:03 PM
The centre-left's determination to thwart anyone with charisma is a real superpower. bsky.app/profile/jess...
Reposted by John McTernan
There’s no reforming this
January 22, 2026 at 6:17 PM
There’s no reforming this
Reposted by John McTernan
guys minneapolis is a living hell today. they've tear-gassed so many people, tear-gassed a park, beaten people up in front of me. greg bovino is rolling around to gas stations and posing in front of them, trying to cause a riot.
January 21, 2026 at 9:33 PM
guys minneapolis is a living hell today. they've tear-gassed so many people, tear-gassed a park, beaten people up in front of me. greg bovino is rolling around to gas stations and posing in front of them, trying to cause a riot.
Reposted by John McTernan
It absolutely does. The people going “Reform are just the Tories rebadged!” and Kemi going “they’re just a leftwing party” - these people are Reform’s useful idiots, they’re aiding in Farage’s project to de-demonise his party.
Does comparing Reform to the Tories not also reduce the toxicity around Farage?
January 21, 2026 at 5:57 PM
It absolutely does. The people going “Reform are just the Tories rebadged!” and Kemi going “they’re just a leftwing party” - these people are Reform’s useful idiots, they’re aiding in Farage’s project to de-demonise his party.
Reposted by John McTernan
Think this is absolutely right. "The Conservatives have changed" is one of the most successful election messages in British politics. It has won at least half the elections since 1945 (1951, 1970, 1979, 1992, 2010, 2017, 2019) Why would 'Reform are just the Tories, but changed' be any different?
This is, again, why I think "They are just the Tories with a new name" isn't necessarily damaging for them. Lots of people like(d) voting for the Tories.
www.joxleywrites.jmoxley.co.uk/p/voters-lik...
www.joxleywrites.jmoxley.co.uk/p/voters-lik...
Voters like Us
Identity, belonging, and the normalisation of Reform
www.joxleywrites.jmoxley.co.uk
January 21, 2026 at 5:45 PM
Think this is absolutely right. "The Conservatives have changed" is one of the most successful election messages in British politics. It has won at least half the elections since 1945 (1951, 1970, 1979, 1992, 2010, 2017, 2019) Why would 'Reform are just the Tories, but changed' be any different?
Reposted by John McTernan
Lab to DK is a group twice as large as Lab to Ref (and losses to DK are often easiest to win back)
Lab to Grn/LD is a group three times as large as Lab to Ref (and on multiple metrics this group looks more open to returning to Labour)
Lab to Grn/LD is a group three times as large as Lab to Ref (and on multiple metrics this group looks more open to returning to Labour)
🧵/ How would Britain vote at the start of 2026: Our new study of 17,000 Britons breaks down current voting intention by factors such as age, socio-economic classification, past vote, and more...
yougov.co.uk/politics/art...
yougov.co.uk/politics/art...
January 21, 2026 at 3:12 PM
Lab to DK is a group twice as large as Lab to Ref (and losses to DK are often easiest to win back)
Lab to Grn/LD is a group three times as large as Lab to Ref (and on multiple metrics this group looks more open to returning to Labour)
Lab to Grn/LD is a group three times as large as Lab to Ref (and on multiple metrics this group looks more open to returning to Labour)
Reposted by John McTernan
I could have written 10k words on this game. It's remarkable. It's everything you want and need from a city-builder, but also there's transport tycoon and sid meier's colonization stuff in there as well, and even in EA it's almost perfect
Whiskerwood is already one of the finest city-builders Luke has ever played:
aftermath.site/whiskerwood-re...
aftermath.site/whiskerwood-re...
January 20, 2026 at 10:33 PM
I could have written 10k words on this game. It's remarkable. It's everything you want and need from a city-builder, but also there's transport tycoon and sid meier's colonization stuff in there as well, and even in EA it's almost perfect
Reposted by John McTernan
As SpinningHugo knows, the scenario John Kerr envisaged when he drafted the Article 50
Process was that it would be used by a country that was drifting towards autocracy, quitting in high dudgeon after being sanctioned by the rest of the bloc.
Process was that it would be used by a country that was drifting towards autocracy, quitting in high dudgeon after being sanctioned by the rest of the bloc.
One of the awful aspects of Brexit (that the British ignore) is that it weakened the EU. A rational reorganisation would be to reincorporate the British, and throw Hungary out.
/1
/1
💥Viktor Orbán’s foreign minister Péter Szijjártó says Hungary is BLOCKING a joint EU statement on Greenland.
After years acting as a Trojan horse for Russia and China, Budapest now does the same for Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, Orbán ally Andrej Babiš’s Czech government also refuses to back Denmark...
After years acting as a Trojan horse for Russia and China, Budapest now does the same for Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, Orbán ally Andrej Babiš’s Czech government also refuses to back Denmark...
January 20, 2026 at 9:24 PM
As SpinningHugo knows, the scenario John Kerr envisaged when he drafted the Article 50
Process was that it would be used by a country that was drifting towards autocracy, quitting in high dudgeon after being sanctioned by the rest of the bloc.
Process was that it would be used by a country that was drifting towards autocracy, quitting in high dudgeon after being sanctioned by the rest of the bloc.
Reposted by John McTernan
An estimated 100,000 rideshare drivers in Illinois could win the right to join a union under new legislation expected to be filed in Springfield this month.
Uber and Lyft drivers could win union rights if state law changes
An estimated 100,000 rideshare drivers in Illinois could win the right to join a union under new legislation expected to be filed in Springfield this month.
trib.al
January 20, 2026 at 9:26 PM
An estimated 100,000 rideshare drivers in Illinois could win the right to join a union under new legislation expected to be filed in Springfield this month.
Reposted by John McTernan
Wait, sorry, Shabana Mahmood called for WHAT?
January 20, 2026 at 9:38 AM
Wait, sorry, Shabana Mahmood called for WHAT?