tweeting about: politics, pop culture, general nonsense
I recall we had a period of time where the response of Starmer and Cooper to concerns about these groups was ‘I like flags’
Oxford ClarionLeaders of flag-raising group Raise the Colours Oxfordshire placed trackers on highway workers’ cars to find out their home addresses, the High Court has heard. RTC then attempted to intimidate the highway staff into no longer removing flags by repeating their addresses to them.
Jeremy Hunt fought like a lion, a great expense, to hold his seat. Wakes up, sees Grant Shapps and Gavin Barwell are persona non grata in the party, but this guy is not. Presumably goes straight back to sleep. Wild.
This is, imo, absolutely the consequence of politicians, media figures and others being actively unwilling to condemn this behaviour
Charles EP Murphynews.sky.com/story/nhs-st... stereotypically this has been seen as Old People, but not only would the old people of now have often been born post-Windrush, lot of this will be younger people who've always lived in a diverse Britain. The guy with a pregnant wife likely millennial at oldest
saying this not as a dig to Paul but as a general point, but it does worry me that we've ended up in a world where the two options are seemingly "leftist bubble" or "oh hey the nazis are here" - surely we should be able to have a politically heterogenous platform with tight rules on hate speech etc?
Paul BernalThe new CEO of Bluesky wants to change Bluesky from being a leftist bubble. The thing is, there’s nothing wrong with being a leftist bubble: the idea that everything has to be all-encompassing and suitable for everyone is a trap. 🧵 1/4
Its quite hard to know what, exactly, will actually lose someone their licence if 59 points, driving while disqualified and no insurance doesn't. Its not juat dangerous - its clear contempt for the law. We should treat car crime like any other crime
Jon Owen"I'm getting fed up with getting pulled by you guys, so this one will result in a complaint," says the driver with 59 points on his licence. 59 points, and still driving, and he didn't go to prison. The system is broken. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
One of my lessons from the last few years is that maintaining a firewall against the absolute crank loons is far more important than ever, and it’s so depressing to see so many prominent politicians with the exact opposite takeaway
One reason I'm so opposed to early selection is it means the sorting process is essentially done in advance by teachers/parents and so kids aren't even given a chance on the route that leads to the high status and well paid jobs.
*to the tune of Born in the USA* High on their own supply
Who Targets MeHere's the spending share for the final week before the Mayoral by-election. Feels like a big miss from the Greens to spend so much for just 12% (and elimination) in the first round. They're usually more conservative in deploying resources when they're not going to win.
Deeply embarassing for editorial standards at The Times to not just have to correct such an error, but then to not even spot their own columnist produce such a mad sentence repeating it
Roused myself from my post-election summer lethargy to actually pull together a summary page for the Scottish Labour leadership election: ballotbox.scot/scottish-lab...
Scottish Labour Leadership Election 2026Background Fresh from their sixth Holyrood election on the trot of losing seats, Scottish Labour are headed into a brutal leadership election that simultaneously everyone expected but no one knew …ballotbox.scot(I get that Bluesky is very obviously the Wow We Loved Lockdowns website but I think it's absolutely fine, five years after the fact, to wonder if we got the balance right between "protecting older people" and "making sure younger people weren't getting entirely shafted", arguments are allowed)
A smaller thing that irritated me about COVID was seeing all the screens and table wiping in buildings with no ventilation, from otherwise smart people, a good 12 months after we knew airflow was key.
New post just out: "Burnham's first mistake" Splitting 14 year olds into academic and vocational paths seems intuitive. But it's a terrible idea that risks increasing inequality, and closing down options for the young people that need them most. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/b...
Burnham's first mistakeThe problem with his education planopen.substack.comSorry I just don’t buy this. They were polling better during the Sunak interim than they are now. Is the argument that Kemi’s approval ratings *travelled back in time*?
Luke TrylAs I say in this thread from our groups and polling I think Badenoch leadership critics ignore the counterfactual of not badenoch when the party could have collapsed entirely. In other words I think she might be inlynthing holding them at ~20%. bsky.app/profile/luke...
I think it's simply human nature to have a certain degree of "well *I* think this politician is good, and so do the circles I move in, so that must be representative" in political media, but simultaneously I think Scottish political media is worse for it than average because the bubble is so small
Michael“you don’t come across many people that don’t think [Anas Sarwar] was a good leader” Andy have you seen his poll ratings?! the Holyrood bubble is *insane* for this, these people are stealing a living
it is so funny how personally devastating this must be for starmer and his supporters and their entire theory of politics
John RentoulBMG poll for the i paper 28-30 Jul Lab 28% +5 Reform 23% -4 Con 20% ±0 Lib Dem 10% -1 Green 10% -3 Change since 23-24 Jun inews.co.uk/news/politic...
I saw a post saying that any critic would get a backlash after trashing a popular film. And I'm just not sure that should be normal. It's fun when a critic hates something! We should want reviewers with high standards and weird/obtuse opinions. A film isn't a sports team you support!
EMILY WILSONI wrote about the Nolan Odyssey for the LRB. I'll summarize some of my main points below, in case you don't feel like reading all that. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
This sums up the uselessness of a lot of Conservative ginger groups. Half of all MPs are signed up members yet they keep in place a leader whose environmental policy is “you can’t be a parliamentary candidate if you have Boris Johnson’s climate policy”. Great work guys!
James HealeEXC: Sam Hall, the longest serving director of the Conservative Environment Network, is stepping down shortly after seven years. Nearly half of all Tory MPs now belong to the CEN caucus with 12% councillors belonging to its local gov network.