I totally get why people dislike his politics but I find the personal animosity towards him quite extraordinary.

Excellent news. I just feel sorry for the generation of kids that had their time at university affected by covid, were misled about student loans and missed out on living / working in Europe / Erasmus.

Absolutely staggering that it remains this high.

Based on these numbers it looks to me as if the “left” is losing support to the “right”. Tactical voting will be crucial but the emergence of the Greens over the last year will make it extremely difficult for keep-out-Reform-at-all- cost voters to know where to cast their votes.

Is there not also also a discussion to be had about what we mean by “quality of life” and how this changes over time? There are many things that people spend money on today, which we consider to be necessities, but which would have been considered luxuries 20-30 years ago.

Sorry to hear that Matt. So many of us owe the love of our team to our father. I too am an Eagle thanks to my Dad and I think of him always when I go to SE25.

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“Money could come from higher taxes. Or cuts elsewhere”. Where might elsewhere be if it is not welfare?

Absolutely right. Political debate in this country has been made into a sport. Who’s up, who’s down, what’s wrong with my side, does my manager need replacing etc.

Sunlit uplands

There should be a permanent cap and that cap should be the Bank of England base rate.

The cost of car ownership has come down in recent years while the cost, for example, of using the train, has risen. Was this mentioned or discussed in the interview?

It’s a tricky one. Should centre / centre left journalists provide a counter balance to our right wing media which has no interest in being fair or balanced or should they remain impartial and dish out criticism to whoever deserves to be criticised?

And the question that I regularly ask myself is whether its readers a) understand the paper’s politics and agenda (and support them) or b) are largely uninterested / uninformed in politics and read the paper for its other sections / coverage. I really hope it’s the latter.

So, we took a gamble on the evening and bought ticket returns on the door. You were fantastic. Still buzzing and my listening at home today is wall to wall EBTG. And many congrats to your son. He is so talented. Thanks to you and Ben on behalf of everyone at the Moth Club last night.

Good luck with the show tonight. I didn’t manage to get tickets but fingers crossed you’ll be doing some more shows.

Even when we were in the EU this vision of Europe was never articulated, or aspired to, by our political parties, our media or our educational establishment. Political and social integration was only ever cast in a negative light.

Is he recording this in his toilet?

love how we killed the old, frail anti-nuke ayatollah just to have him replaced with his young, healthy son who wants nukes and who just had his father, mother, wife, and child murdered on the same day by his mortal enemy. surely this will bring peace to the region

SHOULD THE U.S BLOT OUT THE SUN AND USHER IN AN AGE OF ETERNAL DARKNESS? - Gallup 2/20/26-3/5/26

NO - 41%
YES - 38%
UNSURE - 21%

The last Conservative government industrialised sleaze. You don’t have a leg to stand on.

A penny for the thoughts of Morgan McSweeney this morning.

Is that right? In countries with proportional representation you often see alliances between parties that have very different politics - look at Spain right now. At least when you vote tactically you have a choice about who you are putting into power.

Still absolutely staggering that his approval ratings are this high.

Totally agree. Furthermore Martin Lewis seems to be arguing that student loans should have the same “progressive” principles as any other form of tax. There is a risk that we lose sight of the fact that this is a loan that every student should be repaying based on fair, reasonable terms.

A desperate Tory MP will say anything to cling on to the claim that Brexit was anything other than an act of colossal self harm.

The Labour Party demonstrating once again why it is so bad at politics. I just don’t see how of the leading candidates would make a better fist of government than Starmer.

This is a ticking time bomb. An ageing population, young people being taxed disproportionately, immigration slowing and maybe even reversing. This is calamitous for the economy.

Thanks, and good luck with the shows.

@traceythorn.bsky.social Sorry to trouble you. Huge fan. You were born on the same day as me, A Distant Shore was my first term at uni album but have never managed to see you live. Have now failed twice to get tickets for your London shows. Any way I can still get hold of tickets? Thanks Mark

A lot of our brightest young graduates are going to move abroad to avoid paying a 69% marginal tax rate. They will never pay back their loans leaving those left behind to pay for their education.