Omg this

Oooh how about labeling the tables after all your cats and putting a photo on each one?

Okay okay, I'll stop now

I think that will be amazing and incredibly meaningful. But just want to float the option of Smol Paul escorting you... he already has the tuxedo after all!

How the old became invincible No politician can be honest about spending

'How the old became invincible'

'Beyond caring', our paper on new ways to fund later life social care, featured in @rmcunliffe.bsky.social's column this week on the adult social care crisis.

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

bsky.app/profile/did:...

Also, spare me the "actually Jews really love how anti-Israel I am" bullshit.

There is a huge spectrum of opinion about Israel and the Israeli government (the two are not the same) within the UK Jewish community. But a clear majority strongly support the need for a Jewish state. Polanski knows that

Imagine a "progressive" politician saying it's really important to push back against false allegations of racism, and have nothing to say about his candidates defending attacking a mosque or Muslim abulance service. Just try. You can't.

And again from Polanski (in @pronouncedalva.bsky.social's @newstatesman1913.bsky.social profile) balancing dealing with antisemitism - like Green candidates defending attacking synagogues - with the need to "push back against false allegations of antisemitism".

These two things are not the same

It’s so good isn’t it!

The fertility rituals of the Blackheath Morris Men “You’re never more than 20 feet from a Morris dancer in London!”

From bus stops in Brixton to dancing across the Olympic stadium threatening Eric Idle with sticks.

“This is the mix of tradition and invention from which cultural identity is built.”

Just in case you need an alternative dose of whimsy on this particular day

www.newstatesman.com/this-england...

The fertility rituals of the Blackheath Morris Men “You’re never more than 20 feet from a Morris dancer in London!”

Technically, the start of the season is St George’s Day. But if the reactionary “English identity” league – the types who paint flags on roundabouts – want to claim this pastime for their political ends, they’ll have a fight on their hands.

On Morris dancing!

www.newstatesman.com/this-england...

There was a cat near our old flat called Sammy. We know this, because he used to sit on a pillar, underneath which was taped a sign WITH A PHOTO OF HIM reading “Sammy has been fed, please do not listen when he tells you he us hungry, HE IS LYING”.

What are the other rules?

Always vaguely thought of teaching as a possible career. Then I did 6 months at a Korean boarding school…

This is a brilliant idea!

Late to this, but just to reassure you, my now-husband helped me choose my wedding dress. It was mid Covid and the shop would only let people in my household come with. Best thing ever, I knew he loved the dress and it made him seeing me wearing it on the day even more special

Ah yes. The REAL risk to Jews in Britain is that people might be less inclined to take antisemitism seriously if we, for example, draw attention to candidates blaming Israel for an arson attack on a Jewish ambulance service

The real friends were the money we laundered along the way

SNAKE SNAKE

This week’s cover of the New Statesman. Out now.

YouGov's London council election MRP forecasts breakthrough for the Greens and Reform UK in the capital, but with close races in many boroughs

# of boroughs where party has highest vote share, central projection
Lab: 15 (-6 from 2022)
Con: 5 (-1)
Grn: 4 (+4)
LD: 4 (+1)
Ref: 3 (+3)
Oth: 1 (-1)

And (more) waves of global migration driven by raw desperation

Yep, that’s definitely a cat

Turns out the internet has given me a false sense of optimism.

(About the trains, I mean. Although this is also relevant more generally too…)

It’s a big deal, realising you are a cat

Had she suddenly had an epiphany and realised that she was a cat and she needed to tell you about it?

We’re in the truly weird position where McSweeney had to go for giving the PM the advice to appoint Mandelson and Robbins had to go for not stopping him.

The fertility rituals of the Blackheath Morris Men “You’re never more than 20 feet from a Morris dancer in London!”

“You’re never more than 20 feet from a Morris dancer in London!” interrupts a man.

He is wearing a canary-yellow pinstriped suit and has brought his own pewter tankard from which to drink his beer.

But then, “You can’t listen to me, I just make things up.”

www.newstatesman.com/this-england...

Smoking ban for people born after 2008 in the UK agreed The

Raging insanity.

If you were born in 2009, there will now be things it's illegal for you to do that it remains perfectly legal for someone born in 2008 to do. Forever, apparently.

Textbook second-class citizenship.

EVEN IF it's "in a good cause".

You're never too old to be the youngest person at the Seder!