The Mandelson affair is about the government’s judgment, not process Discussion of vetting and procedure is part of the excuse but not the core of the difficulty

Ultimately none of the process chatter about the Mandelson appointment really matters, it is all just fluff around 'the PM made a bad decision that became politically untenable':

I feel like the next 24 hours in parliament are going to be really trying for those of us who dislike the passive voice

BREAKING: Pope Leo XIV declares the Iran War is “unjust” and “is not resolving anything.”

After suggesting Trump is committing war crimes by targeting civilian infrastructure, he called on Americans to contact Congress to help end the war.

i don’t think “relax, the most powerful person in the world is just a reckless liar” is in any way reassuring if i’m being quite honest

What I learned from my first few weeks as a Green MP? Most politicians have no clue how tough things are out there | Hannah Spencer With this escalating cost of living crisis, so many are really suffering – yet Labour lacks the imagination, boldness and will to do anything about it, says Green party MP Hannah Spencer

This sort of facile populism is really damaging to trust in politics. Most British MPs are highly attuned to the cost of living crisis and challenges faced by their constituents.

So many issues in this piece...

...but the fact it tries to argue for measures to reduce migration *while acknowledging migration may fall to unsustainable lows* is properly mad.

They're not even pretending there is a policy case any more. Its just prejudice and appeasement all the way down

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It must be awful for politicians, their staff and civil service to see this stuff day in, day out

Who do they think they are speaking to on that platform? What does it achieve? Has that even been seriously assessed?

Having lived there for 6 years it breaks my heart to see Glasgow burning yet again. So much of the city's heritage has already been lost to fire, but to lose the central station would be unimaginable.

Real questions need to be asked on why Glasgow repeatedly experiences so many devastating fires.

Feels like we’re still doing it. We lose so many historic buildings in Glasgow despite the best efforts of Heritage & Charities like Glasgow City Heritage Trust. The most intact Victorian city the UK has, and it’s being rapidly lost. This fire is going to radically alter the city centre.

How to Measure Public Support for Political Violence Abstract. With low but rising levels of violent political threats and violent acts by civilians in the United States, researchers increasingly want to meas

After nearly a decade measuring American public support for political violence, @nathankalmoe.bsky.social and I have published a somewhat comprehensive guide to measuring these attitudes. This includes historical comparisons and responses to common critiques. doi.org/10.1093/poq/...

This map is so rich. Really feels like it taps into something about identity, cultural distinctiveness, "authenticity'. The blandness of the home counties, the difficulty of placing East Midlands.

Your regular reminder than a large majority of voters - and overwhelming majority of Labour voters - favour giving settled migrants access to the welfare state after five years or less. The Home Secretary is not reforming rules in line with public opinion. She is doing the opposite.

I've been militant on people doing this with other parties, so I'll just remind that aggregate vote change charts cannot be "clear" about voter movement, you need individual-level data to be able to be draw conclusions. Words like "suggest" or "likely" would be better, but still aren't 100%.

It's true that what Reform are proposing is worse - far worse, in a genuinely scary way - than what Labour are proposing. That's important to acknowledge.

It's also true that what Labour is proposing is drastically worse than the current system and will materially impact many people's lives.

"The only way we can defeat ethno-nationalism is by deporting all the black and brown people" suffers from one small logical flaw...

do you know what would help!!!!!!!! living in a society that lets people experiment with their gender without treating it like the most important thing in the world!!!!!!! letting people get it right or wrong without politicising their decisions!!!!!!! just being chilled about gender!!!!!! aaahhhhhh

Yes great, but the last time he said this he followed it up with asylum policies which divided people and played on their sense of grievance. Hopefully the departure of McSweeney means things will be different this time, but I'm sceptical.

‘Pulling up the drawbridge’: Alf Dubs criticises Shabana Mahmood’s plans for child refugees Exclusive: Labour peer, who came to UK as a refugee, says some ministers try to show they won’t ‘just do things because of their background’

Children need their families. Refugee children are no different.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Just plotted the "difference" lines from this table to show how big the swings are over time. Wild.

public.flourish.studio/visualisatio...

Immigration falling but public still thinks it is going up – new research - British Future Findings from the British Future/Ipsos Immigration Attitudes Tracker into what the public thinks about immigration for work, study and asylum

Bad news for the government that net migration is down 70% yet only 1/6 people know it started to fall at all.

A big part of that is the visible lack of control of boats + hotels

Part is government voice almostly always saying "too high/out of control" itself

www.britishfuture.org/immigration-...

The political problem for the Labour Party is it keeps saying any number is too high/unsustainable with no account of what is sustainable.

Was rightly saying too high for 900k, 600k, 400k.
(Was quietly targeting < net 250k)

Now says 200k much too high. Mahmood may well say 100k sounds too high too

The Home Secretary has several times said she thinks levels of net migration remain quite high + are comparatively high

This is mainly a vibe.

There are a few factual mistakes/over-spins in her explanation of why she thinks this but many journalists + MPs may not quite notice those.

The Home Office now describes asylum seekers as "illegal immigrants [living in hotels]" with no reference to the reason that these people are in government-funded accommodation is that this government has taken & will process the asylum claim from them in 98-99% of cases of unauthorised entry.

Young men are the second most liberal group in the country after young women.

Democracy for Sale's scoop about Labour Together paying a firm to investigate journalists has now been picked up in FT, Politico and the Guardian

Huge questions to answer - for Morgan McSweeney, Josh Simons, and Keir Starmer

Oh, and do support D4S 😀 democracyforsale.substack.com/subscribe

BREAKING: McSweeney’s think tank paid PR firm to investigate journalists Labour Together put private investigators onto journalists writing about its funding. Starmer's right-hand man knew.

“This is dark shit.”

An astonishing scoop from Democracy for Sale:
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/exclusive-morgan-mcswe...

Am increasingly of the feeling these bans will mainly have the effect of isolating kids who rely on social media to build social connection, and push some children to un(der)regulated parts of the online world where they are at more risk of harm.

Yes I think so.

all the bad is true. And so are all the reasons that we like coming here and don’t call it a hellsite

There is something so (sorry) culturally Christian I think about the assumption ”everything people like is bad for them probs”