Jo Kibble (Political Animal)
@politicanimal.bsky.social
politic_animal from the Musk shop.
Local government policy adviser by day. Timetable wrangler/travel challenge story-teller by day and night. Once branded ‘Twitter’s answer to Phileas Fogg’
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@travelling_turtle?si=WGsuH_ffy0bqKr2
Local government policy adviser by day. Timetable wrangler/travel challenge story-teller by day and night. Once branded ‘Twitter’s answer to Phileas Fogg’
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@travelling_turtle?si=WGsuH_ffy0bqKr2
Pinned
Where to find the Travelling Turtle Adventures:
🕵️♂️ #FinalProblem2024 bsky.app/profile/poli...
🌍 #ContinentHop24 bsky.app/profile/poli...
🚞 #NarrowWay bsky.app/profile/poli...
🇪🇺 #Schengen200 bsky.app/profile/poli...
🦤 Old Twitter journeys x.com/politic_anim...
🎞️ YouTube youtube.com/@travelling_...
🕵️♂️ #FinalProblem2024 bsky.app/profile/poli...
🌍 #ContinentHop24 bsky.app/profile/poli...
🚞 #NarrowWay bsky.app/profile/poli...
🇪🇺 #Schengen200 bsky.app/profile/poli...
🦤 Old Twitter journeys x.com/politic_anim...
🎞️ YouTube youtube.com/@travelling_...
Remarkable how the gambling industry and its allied MPs always yell that if you tax gambling you’re out of touch with the ordinary, salt-of-the-earth working class chap who loves a flutter.
Actual ordinary, salt-of-the-earth working class chap: Tax it! Tax it more! Keep on taxing it, you bastards!
Actual ordinary, salt-of-the-earth working class chap: Tax it! Tax it more! Keep on taxing it, you bastards!
Fascinating that the cash ISA limit is the most unpopular item in the budget. I would have thought it would be unpopular but not more so than e.g. freezing tax thresholds.
November 27, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Remarkable how the gambling industry and its allied MPs always yell that if you tax gambling you’re out of touch with the ordinary, salt-of-the-earth working class chap who loves a flutter.
Actual ordinary, salt-of-the-earth working class chap: Tax it! Tax it more! Keep on taxing it, you bastards!
Actual ordinary, salt-of-the-earth working class chap: Tax it! Tax it more! Keep on taxing it, you bastards!
Shockingly, our local greengrocer doesn’t label his trees as ‘Christmas’. Which maybe because he is a woke Tibetan intent on destroying our sacred traditions, or possibly because no-one needs it explaining to them why there’s suddenly a pile of fir trees outside his shop at the end of November.
Social media posts have claimed that Tesco is not celebrating Christmas, because it has described one of its trees as an “evergreen” tree.
This is misleading—the retailer sells other artificial trees labelled as Christmas trees.
This is misleading—the retailer sells other artificial trees labelled as Christmas trees.
Tesco hasn’t rebranded all its Christmas trees to ‘evergreen trees’ – Full Fact
Claims that Tesco is not celebrating Christmas because it is selling an “evergreen” tree are missing context.
fullfact.org
November 27, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Shockingly, our local greengrocer doesn’t label his trees as ‘Christmas’. Which maybe because he is a woke Tibetan intent on destroying our sacred traditions, or possibly because no-one needs it explaining to them why there’s suddenly a pile of fir trees outside his shop at the end of November.
Reposted by Jo Kibble (Political Animal)
an underestimated threat AI poses is not convincing you that fake things are real, it’s convincing you that real things are fake
November 27, 2025 at 7:38 PM
an underestimated threat AI poses is not convincing you that fake things are real, it’s convincing you that real things are fake
Getting increasingly concerned I may have dropped a fudge wrapper when I was at the Ness a few months ago. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
'Extraordinary discovery' at Orkney's Ness of Brodgar Neolithic site
Archaeologists are to resume digging at the site after 3D radar technology uncovered a mystery find.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Getting increasingly concerned I may have dropped a fudge wrapper when I was at the Ness a few months ago. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Talk about burying the lede.
In tonight’s London Playbook PM:
💰 Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves fought over their high tax and low growth budget.
🛏️ Net migration decreased, but housing asylum seekers in hotels is up.
☀️ The government is not interested in dimming the sun.
Dig in 👇
💰 Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves fought over their high tax and low growth budget.
🛏️ Net migration decreased, but housing asylum seekers in hotels is up.
☀️ The government is not interested in dimming the sun.
Dig in 👇
London Playbook PM: Second gear Starmer
Presented by The London P&I Club By EMILIO CASALICCHIO with NOAH KEATE PRESENTED BY Send tips here | Subscribe for free | Listen to Playbook and view in your browser Good afternoon. This is Em…
www.politico.eu
November 27, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Talk about burying the lede.
Deeply worrying sight in the corner of the office. Wondering if I can report it as an unattended item and get it blown up?
November 27, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Deeply worrying sight in the corner of the office. Wondering if I can report it as an unattended item and get it blown up?
On the other hand, you know whose forthcoming house move may well end up meaning they are not hit by the mansion tax? Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
plugging mansion tax criteria into Oxfordshire Rightmove just reminded me that Boris Johnson's going to be paying it, so i guess we know what this week's column is going to be about
November 27, 2025 at 4:26 PM
On the other hand, you know whose forthcoming house move may well end up meaning they are not hit by the mansion tax? Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
Don't spoil everyone's misery-fun over the possibly tens of people who might be in this situation.
THE POLICY ADDRESSES THIS ALREADY.
"Homeowners will be able to roll up the annual payments and defer them until they move house or die." www.ft.com/content/5b07...
"Homeowners will be able to roll up the annual payments and defer them until they move house or die." www.ft.com/content/5b07...
Mumsnet is already on the case.
November 27, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Don't spoil everyone's misery-fun over the possibly tens of people who might be in this situation.
The "we're going to end the Cycle To Work scheme" briefing doing its job,
November 27, 2025 at 11:41 AM
The "we're going to end the Cycle To Work scheme" briefing doing its job,
Is there a Butterball Hotline joke in here somewhere?
Good morning. In the past 24 hours, more Americans have Googled “felching” than have searched for “turkey recipes”
November 27, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Is there a Butterball Hotline joke in here somewhere?
I'm pretty sold on need to phase in EV taxation, but not entirely sure why gvmnt hasn't adopted the simple Norwegian approach - which clearly hasn't stopped world-leading conversion rates - of a daily levy added to insurance bills (currently 66p per day for an EV, so comparable to planned UK rate).
November 27, 2025 at 9:41 AM
I'm pretty sold on need to phase in EV taxation, but not entirely sure why gvmnt hasn't adopted the simple Norwegian approach - which clearly hasn't stopped world-leading conversion rates - of a daily levy added to insurance bills (currently 66p per day for an EV, so comparable to planned UK rate).
How overnight Budget analysis works: 15 minutes of putting data into Excel and cranking out some graphs. Eight hours of brainstorming the title and creating life-long enemies in the process over cold pizza.
(Love you all really, policy wonks. I’ll give you a nice write up in our internal bulletin.)
(Love you all really, policy wonks. I’ll give you a nice write up in our internal bulletin.)
🚨 Overnight Budget analysis now live 📢
Read 'Stairway to headroom' to put the Autumn Budget decisions on tax, spending and borrowing into context.
The Chancellor has raced ahead with cost of living support but tax rises and spending cuts loom ⤵️ buff.ly/U9ZeozU
Read 'Stairway to headroom' to put the Autumn Budget decisions on tax, spending and borrowing into context.
The Chancellor has raced ahead with cost of living support but tax rises and spending cuts loom ⤵️ buff.ly/U9ZeozU
November 27, 2025 at 8:46 AM
How overnight Budget analysis works: 15 minutes of putting data into Excel and cranking out some graphs. Eight hours of brainstorming the title and creating life-long enemies in the process over cold pizza.
(Love you all really, policy wonks. I’ll give you a nice write up in our internal bulletin.)
(Love you all really, policy wonks. I’ll give you a nice write up in our internal bulletin.)
Hardly the main point here, but apparently I am now so old and out of touch that I am learning slang (‘serving lewks’) from MPs’ BlueSky accounts.
I know who Nus Ghani MP is - not because we always agree - but because she’s been serving her constituency (as well as lewks) since 2015.
Who the hell is Lucy White?!
Ah, a quick google search reveals her as a rentagob for GB ‘news.’
I know which one is qualified to chair the budget debate.
Who the hell is Lucy White?!
Ah, a quick google search reveals her as a rentagob for GB ‘news.’
I know which one is qualified to chair the budget debate.
November 26, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Hardly the main point here, but apparently I am now so old and out of touch that I am learning slang (‘serving lewks’) from MPs’ BlueSky accounts.
Always the ones you least expect.
November 26, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Always the ones you least expect.
Stick it in the Louvre.
genuinely not photoshopped before you ask www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-...
November 26, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Stick it in the Louvre.
I have chosen to primarily link this chain of events to the fact that in May 2015, I stopped working for an MP whose constituency had a major urban seagull issue and who I did lots of campaigning on the issue for.
why does my brain remember this stuff and not, say, the names of people I meet
November 26, 2025 at 4:35 PM
I have chosen to primarily link this chain of events to the fact that in May 2015, I stopped working for an MP whose constituency had a major urban seagull issue and who I did lots of campaigning on the issue for.
It’s quite straightforward in Goodwin world:
- white people have children because they lie back and think of England, and they need to do it more.
- non-white people have children for the sweet, sweet cash, and they need to do it less.
- white people have children because they lie back and think of England, and they need to do it more.
- non-white people have children for the sweet, sweet cash, and they need to do it less.
Reflections on the budget from the head of Students4Reform
November 26, 2025 at 3:57 PM
It’s quite straightforward in Goodwin world:
- white people have children because they lie back and think of England, and they need to do it more.
- non-white people have children for the sweet, sweet cash, and they need to do it less.
- white people have children because they lie back and think of England, and they need to do it more.
- non-white people have children for the sweet, sweet cash, and they need to do it less.
You’re all trying to make this about race and conveniently forgetting Abbott’s infamous ‘Crush the kulaks and give their money to Hackney social services’ speech on the steps of the town hall that time.
I think at this point if you're including Diane Abbott - a woman who has never held government office, has been a backbencher since 2020, and is scarcely a government ally - on your list of political wrongdoers, we all know exactly what your real concerns are
November 26, 2025 at 3:02 PM
You’re all trying to make this about race and conveniently forgetting Abbott’s infamous ‘Crush the kulaks and give their money to Hackney social services’ speech on the steps of the town hall that time.
Absolutely correct re two child benefit. But that said, the government is also in the fortunate position that abolishing the cap is also the policy position of every party it is losing any substantial quantity of votes to (Greens, Lib Dems, Reform, SNP, Plaid), rather muting any attack.
And honestly I don't give a fuck if it's popular or not. It's going to make a lot of kids' lives better. That's the point of government. Not an opinion poll.
November 26, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Absolutely correct re two child benefit. But that said, the government is also in the fortunate position that abolishing the cap is also the policy position of every party it is losing any substantial quantity of votes to (Greens, Lib Dems, Reform, SNP, Plaid), rather muting any attack.
Are you a Trublican, or a Trublican't?
November 26, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Are you a Trublican, or a Trublican't?
My ancestors didn't die at Waterloo for this.
(Horrific stampede when they finally announced the platform for the Hounslow loop train.)
(Horrific stampede when they finally announced the platform for the Hounslow loop train.)
Big news, income tax is being charged this year.
(It has to be renewed each year or it ceases to apply. Because it's a temporary tax, introduced to fund the Napoleonic wars)
(It has to be renewed each year or it ceases to apply. Because it's a temporary tax, introduced to fund the Napoleonic wars)
November 26, 2025 at 2:08 PM
My ancestors didn't die at Waterloo for this.
(Horrific stampede when they finally announced the platform for the Hounslow loop train.)
(Horrific stampede when they finally announced the platform for the Hounslow loop train.)
Phew, that's the Christmas 2026 shopping list sorted. 'Journal of a Prisoner' is going to get a sequel!
🔴 URGENT - Affaire Bygmalion : Nicolas Sarkozy définitivement condamné à un an de prison dont six mois ferme
Nicolas Sarkozy bientôt condamné définitivement dans l'affaire Bygmalion ?
La Cour de cassation rend mercredi sa décision sur le pourvoi de Nicolas Sarkozy dans l'affaire Bygmalion. Un rejet, comme préconisé le 8 octobre par l'avocate générale, entérinerait une deuxième condamnation…
f24.my
November 26, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Phew, that's the Christmas 2026 shopping list sorted. 'Journal of a Prisoner' is going to get a sequel!
Reposted by Jo Kibble (Political Animal)
Yeah - frankly what I don't understand is how the Deputy Speaker, a literal member of the opposition party, is wibbling about how it doesn't treat the House with respect. I mean, yes, it's a cock-up, but it's a cock-up that makes it easier for MPs to do their *actual job*!
Presumably pre-publication would allow more robust scrutiny in Parliament as MPs would be able to read it and prepare questions beforeha- oh, I see why British governments don't like the idea
November 26, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Yeah - frankly what I don't understand is how the Deputy Speaker, a literal member of the opposition party, is wibbling about how it doesn't treat the House with respect. I mean, yes, it's a cock-up, but it's a cock-up that makes it easier for MPs to do their *actual job*!
Reposted by Jo Kibble (Political Animal)
The thing I hate about actually-existing hotel taxes is that because they're so micro-level, booking websites can't account for them, so you turn up at your prepaid hotel in bumfuck nowhere with credit cards and a EUR100 bill and they get mad at you for paying them EUR2.10 with those
November 26, 2025 at 12:26 PM
The thing I hate about actually-existing hotel taxes is that because they're so micro-level, booking websites can't account for them, so you turn up at your prepaid hotel in bumfuck nowhere with credit cards and a EUR100 bill and they get mad at you for paying them EUR2.10 with those
Reposted by Jo Kibble (Political Animal)
Having a great first day as the OBR's website manager. Got all of the content queued up as a scheduled post, ready for a big day, but all of the work is done now.
Now before I put my feet up, time to take a big gulp of water and check the latest news.
Now before I put my feet up, time to take a big gulp of water and check the latest news.
November 26, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Having a great first day as the OBR's website manager. Got all of the content queued up as a scheduled post, ready for a big day, but all of the work is done now.
Now before I put my feet up, time to take a big gulp of water and check the latest news.
Now before I put my feet up, time to take a big gulp of water and check the latest news.