Reposted
When you are the incumbent government, your re-election strategy is downstream of your governing record, which is what you should be preoccupied with now.
January 9, 2026 at 4:06 PM
When you are the incumbent government, your re-election strategy is downstream of your governing record, which is what you should be preoccupied with now.
Reposted
ladies, it's ok because only paying subscribers can make/distribute deepfake porn of you and your children now www.ft.com/content/c24d...
Elon Musk’s xAI restricts Grok after outcry over sexualised images
Start-up limits use of image generation system to paid users following spread of deepfakes and child sex abuse material
www.ft.com
January 9, 2026 at 11:36 AM
ladies, it's ok because only paying subscribers can make/distribute deepfake porn of you and your children now www.ft.com/content/c24d...
Reposted
If you missed this question to Nigel Farage from The Critic's Rob Hutton – and it was over an hour into the press conference – then it was a particularly good one. The answer was... vague.
January 7, 2026 at 11:50 AM
If you missed this question to Nigel Farage from The Critic's Rob Hutton – and it was over an hour into the press conference – then it was a particularly good one. The answer was... vague.
Reposted
Five RTs. Six Likes. It would be more cost effective for Defra comms officials to dial random phone numbers and launch into a spiel about otters or whatever.
January 2, 2026 at 11:18 PM
Five RTs. Six Likes. It would be more cost effective for Defra comms officials to dial random phone numbers and launch into a spiel about otters or whatever.
Reposted
We have so much good evidence for cash transfers but so many just refuse to accept that those in poverty can make good decisions.
Spoiler: They used the money just as wisely as anyone else would, and it's so frustrating that this still isn't a common sense assumption to make.
December 30, 2025 at 5:21 PM
We have so much good evidence for cash transfers but so many just refuse to accept that those in poverty can make good decisions.
Reposted
Interested in how you square the circle of “British people who post ‘burn down a migrant hotel’ during race riots shouldn’t be arrested” with “someone who posted pretty objectionable and racist things 8 years before they became a British citizen should be deported” and am sure someone will ask Nigel
December 29, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Interested in how you square the circle of “British people who post ‘burn down a migrant hotel’ during race riots shouldn’t be arrested” with “someone who posted pretty objectionable and racist things 8 years before they became a British citizen should be deported” and am sure someone will ask Nigel
Reposted
This is one of the clearest influences of actual Blue Labour (rather than just vibes Blue Labour) on McSweeney that I have seen.
I do not agree with the analysis.
I do not agree with the analysis.
One interesting nugget in this piece could explain the (otherwise baffling) appearance of Ramsay MacDonald in a 2024 Labour Party Election Broadcast
December 18, 2025 at 12:06 PM
This is one of the clearest influences of actual Blue Labour (rather than just vibes Blue Labour) on McSweeney that I have seen.
I do not agree with the analysis.
I do not agree with the analysis.
Reposted
Tominey's classic 'Whisper it'
December 15, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Tominey's classic 'Whisper it'
Reposted
WHY ARE YOU ANNOYED THIS IS WHAT YOU WANTED TO HAPPEN
December 13, 2025 at 6:41 PM
WHY ARE YOU ANNOYED THIS IS WHAT YOU WANTED TO HAPPEN
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This article shows how feckless the policymaking elite has become, because it bigs up a leadership team who talk 100% drivel most of the time. And it contains the words 'Neil O’Brien' and 'credibility' in the same sentence. I mean, come off it.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
‘There’s been a Badenoch bounce’: is the Tory leader finally cutting through?
Conservative insiders say the party and the public are warming to Kemi Badenoch after a difficult first year
www.theguardian.com
December 12, 2025 at 6:34 PM
This article shows how feckless the policymaking elite has become, because it bigs up a leadership team who talk 100% drivel most of the time. And it contains the words 'Neil O’Brien' and 'credibility' in the same sentence. I mean, come off it.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
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No surprise that Ed West thinks you have to be white for London to be "your city", but still shocking that the *London* Standard prints this stuff.
[NB 1/2 of Londoners born in 2000 were not "white British"]
www.standard.co.uk/comment/gen-...
[NB 1/2 of Londoners born in 2000 were not "white British"]
www.standard.co.uk/comment/gen-...
December 6, 2025 at 4:46 PM
No surprise that Ed West thinks you have to be white for London to be "your city", but still shocking that the *London* Standard prints this stuff.
[NB 1/2 of Londoners born in 2000 were not "white British"]
www.standard.co.uk/comment/gen-...
[NB 1/2 of Londoners born in 2000 were not "white British"]
www.standard.co.uk/comment/gen-...
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GB News now broadcasting calls to remove the ethnic minority MPs from parliament
December 3, 2025 at 7:07 PM
GB News now broadcasting calls to remove the ethnic minority MPs from parliament
Reposted
Unelected Lords are blocking assisted dying – this is a democratic outrage | Simon Jenkins
Unelected Lords are blocking assisted dying – this is a democratic outrage | Simon Jenkins
Second chambers are a good idea, but they should not be able to overturn clear decisions reached by an elected body, says Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins
www.theguardian.com
November 20, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Unelected Lords are blocking assisted dying – this is a democratic outrage | Simon Jenkins
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I feel like I could live with the brass neck - it is the seemingly successful way that he and others have brainwashed themselves into thinking “our crumbling justice system” has an explanation beyond “we didn’t spend enough money on it” that I can’t stand.
November 7, 2025 at 4:10 PM
I feel like I could live with the brass neck - it is the seemingly successful way that he and others have brainwashed themselves into thinking “our crumbling justice system” has an explanation beyond “we didn’t spend enough money on it” that I can’t stand.
Reposted
Excellent podcast from the FT in which Martin Wolf patiently explains that populism causes fundamental damage to economies even if they continue to grow (aka the counterfactual) and that such damage is difficult and painful to reverse when it finally becomes apparent open.spotify.com/episode/679f...
Martin Wolf on the economics of populism
open.spotify.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Excellent podcast from the FT in which Martin Wolf patiently explains that populism causes fundamental damage to economies even if they continue to grow (aka the counterfactual) and that such damage is difficult and painful to reverse when it finally becomes apparent open.spotify.com/episode/679f...
Reposted
Reeves must get whatever growth she can on.ft.com/49ov1I8
Reeves must get whatever growth she can
Improved standards of living are the foundation of modern democracy
on.ft.com
October 28, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Reeves must get whatever growth she can on.ft.com/49ov1I8
Reposted
It shows the value of “get a better communicator” in that Katie Lam is a better communicator than Kemi Badenoch. But it is also a problem if what you are communicating is bonkers.
Hadn’t, in truth, really absorbed the scale of what the Conservatives are proposing on ILR and immigration more broadly until this week’s Sunday Times interviews. Some thoughts on that in today’s note:
Tory deportation plan would upend Britain
Proposing such a radical bill with little public support is a gift to Nigel Farage
www.ft.com
October 23, 2025 at 10:16 AM
It shows the value of “get a better communicator” in that Katie Lam is a better communicator than Kemi Badenoch. But it is also a problem if what you are communicating is bonkers.
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A policy this expansive would certainly mean mass stripping of permanent residence status from people with ILR (including pensioners and parents of British children) on a scale far beyond anything any democracy has ever done before. There is no public support for such an extreme policy.
Via @sundersays.bsky.social the Conservatives' draft legislation - absolutely clear that it applies to (and is intended to apply to) legal permanent residents claiming state pension (on the basis of their contributions) or child benefit for British kids.
publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbi...
publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbi...
October 22, 2025 at 7:22 AM
A policy this expansive would certainly mean mass stripping of permanent residence status from people with ILR (including pensioners and parents of British children) on a scale far beyond anything any democracy has ever done before. There is no public support for such an extreme policy.
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This is excellent - the kind of forensic principles based analysis of Lam’s mad idea that Peston so signally failed to provide yesterday. Respecting rules and obligations is a duty on states as well as citizens.
October 21, 2025 at 7:43 AM
This is excellent - the kind of forensic principles based analysis of Lam’s mad idea that Peston so signally failed to provide yesterday. Respecting rules and obligations is a duty on states as well as citizens.
Reposted
Great blog dissecting a badly conducted, badly presented and badly reported poll. Stuff like this damages the credibility of polling (and of poll reporting).
My latest Substack examines how flawed polling and flawed journalism are distorting the debate over assisted dying
kellnerp.substack.com/p/peers-beware
kellnerp.substack.com/p/peers-beware
Peers beware
Flawed polling and flawed journalism are distorting the debate over assisted dying
kellnerp.substack.com
October 15, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Great blog dissecting a badly conducted, badly presented and badly reported poll. Stuff like this damages the credibility of polling (and of poll reporting).
Reposted
FT mag piece from me: Spent a long time looking into the Britannia hotel chain, beneficiaries of a vast amount of taxpayer money via the asylum system
on.ft.com/47HEE46
on.ft.com/47HEE46
The crumbling seaside palaces at the centre of Britain’s asylum crisis
[FREE TO READ] How one hotelier built an empire from beloved community assets — and a government struggling to cope with a surge in migration
on.ft.com
September 13, 2025 at 8:27 AM
FT mag piece from me: Spent a long time looking into the Britannia hotel chain, beneficiaries of a vast amount of taxpayer money via the asylum system
on.ft.com/47HEE46
on.ft.com/47HEE46
Reposted
The House of Lords debated the assisted dying bill for 6.5 hours today - 90 peers spoke, with 180 expected to speak in total over the two days of debate. It’s shaping up to break a record for a private members bill.
September 12, 2025 at 3:46 PM
The House of Lords debated the assisted dying bill for 6.5 hours today - 90 peers spoke, with 180 expected to speak in total over the two days of debate. It’s shaping up to break a record for a private members bill.
Reposted
genuinely classy hand-written letter from Starmer to Rayner with the sign-off “best wishes and very real sadness”
September 5, 2025 at 11:25 AM
genuinely classy hand-written letter from Starmer to Rayner with the sign-off “best wishes and very real sadness”
Reposted
‘Bad deaths scar families for ever’: what terminally ill people want you to know about assisted dying
‘Bad deaths scar families for ever’: what terminally ill people want you to know about assisted dying
For patients like Maddie Cowey, who was 18 when she was diagnosed with incurable cancer, the stakes of the debate couldn’t be higher. Photographer Alicia Canter spent four months capturing people facing the end, and bereaved relatives desperate to see the law change – even if it will be too late for some
www.theguardian.com
July 26, 2025 at 1:51 PM
‘Bad deaths scar families for ever’: what terminally ill people want you to know about assisted dying