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Stephen Bush

@stephenkb.bsky.social

73K followers 4.5K following 57K posts

Associate editor and columnist @financialtimes.com. Post too often about culture, public policy, management, politics, nerd stuff, Arsenal, wosoc. Try my UK politics newsletter for free here: www.ft.com/tryinsidepolitics

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · Feb 22

I sat through that so when my column gets factchecked I can say “yes, that line is accurate”. Such is the FT’s commitment to bringing you our best understanding of the truth. Subscribe here: subs.ft.com/products

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 55m

And you’d be (and he is) wrong! Because there is nothing about the job that gets easier after getting shellacked next year.

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Reposted by Stephen Bush

Techpriest @techpriest.bsky.social · 1h

This is why the accepted Tory consensus of "we'll overthrow the Badenoch leadership after the May elections" is *unhinged*

You KNOW you have a manifestly unfit leader and you want to wait until AFTER the far right challenger party has eaten your lunch in two parliaments and hundreds of councils

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 1h

It is utterly bonkers.

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 1h

It’s not the case now and they should be fussed. (I mean really they actually just need to ban the word “voters“ from Downing Street discussions for a bit IMO)

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 1h

They wouldn’t, and they wouldn’t.

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 1h

Would make no difference to the dynamic though.

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 1h

Reform - I think “the Tories are dead” is just more widely accepted/known.

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 1h

I have many objections to Labour's governing agenda but it does at least *exist* in a way that makes it hard to see how the Liberal Democrats can go into the next election not having to battle off the old two-party squeeze.

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 1h

An underrated part of why the Conservatives are in trouble is just that Kemi Badenoch and most of her frontbench simply don't do their jobs properly, they barely oppose things and as a result they've completely conceded mindspace and coverage to Reform.

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 1h

Me, approaching the person in this picture 'So, is there a Mister D'Globalisation?'

Alistair King @alistairking.bsky.social · 1h

Does the picture they’ve used for this leaflet really capture the mood that either the sender or receiver would feel in light of this shittyTrump-induced move?

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 1h

On the one hand, would be the final proof of Tony Blair's 'the divide is open vs closed'. On the other, I just do think that Duverger's Law is gonna give Labour a massive helping hand in a general election - there will be a flight to safety at an election among people in the open block IMO.

Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 1h

Among the many possibilities for the next few years, the scenario of swapping one pair of dominant parties (Lab and Con) for another (Reform and LD) is intriguing, under-discussed and, in English elections, not entirely implausible either (several county councils made this leap in May)

Election Maps UK @electionmaps.uk · 3h

Aggregate Result of the 122 Council By-Elections (for 125 Seats) since the 2025 Local Elections:

RFM: 47 (+40)
LDM: 32 (+10)
CON: 13 (-15)
LAB: 12 (-30)
GRN: 11 (+3)
Ind: 5 (-4)
Local: 3 (-3)
SNP: 1 (-1)
PLC: 1 (=)

Explore: electionmaps.uk/byelections-...

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 1h

Oh god, this is so apt, right down to that inch to the right I am being shown in how I thought Ellen was badly treated but also I'm afraid I had *no patience whatsoever* for how she responded to being accused.

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 1h

Eventually there was so much meta-gaming (e.g. 'Stephen has spoken this round. He's probably a werewolf') that it stopped working as a pastime.

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 1h

Update: New Labour no longer Conservativism's greatest achievement. Terrific column by @robertshrimsley.bsky.social on the changing mood of the British right, this: www.ft.com/content/49ec...

The battle to dismantle Blair’s Britain

Conservatives’ biggest mistake was the adoption of the liberal agenda, the new right believes

www.ft.com

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Reposted by Stephen Bush

Tom Hunter @onelifestand87.bsky.social · 2h

The best gameshow strategy I’ve ever seen was from Goldenballs where they had on a heavily pregnant woman & every clip she did was just “No one wants to steal from a very pregnant woman so I’m going to steal every time” and she walked it. A strategy that takes some investment admittedly

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 1h

The Traitors murdering the clever is what they ought to do tho, the dynamic I'm talking about is when someone on the British show does anything resembling deduction and the other faithfuls go 'inductive reasoning! KILL HIM!'

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 1h

Yeah - this was something writing it really brought home to me, the extent to which immigration has eaten the government - no focus on crime, huge problems being stored up in social care, etc etc

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Reposted by Stephen Bush

Ian King @twoht.bsky.social · 6h

I know this marks me out as a certain type to the point of being a cliché, but I really do recommend Libero as probably the best football podcast out there at the moment.

Libero @liberopodcast.bsky.social · 7h

New Libero

Is the Premier League Margaret Thatcher’s greatest legacy?

@rorysmith.bsky.social
@brewin.bsky.social
@jackpittbrooke.bsky.social

pod.fo/e/33ad00

Libero: Libero 060: The Premier League: Thatcher’s Greatest Triumph

Hated, adored, never ignored, Margaret Thatcher is one of the most important figures in the history of the country that is home to the world's wealthiest domestic league – this cannot be a coinci...

pod.fo

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 2h

The Americans they kill the normies and split on race lines. The Australian one is so badly edited it is hard to tell. In the NZ ones they don’t murder the clever.

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M @captainmeg.bsky.social · 2h

Traitors is a good demonstration of how the worst strategy in the game is to try and apply logic. Just leads to people saying “well a Traitor would say that!! I’m going to keep in the nice grandma because a nice grandma could never be a Traitor!”

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 2h

You should watch more TV from other countries - including reality TV!

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Reposted by Stephen Bush

Karl @karlusss.bsky.social · 2h

This was really stark watching the Irish Traitors a few weeks ago - it's sort of standard that they weed out by class and intelligence in the UK one for some reason so it was slightly disorienting when they didn't do that immediately in Ireland. We had more interpersonal bitterness though.