UK unemployment rate drops unexpectedly Most analysts had predicted the rate would remain unchanged at 5.2%.

The Labour Government delivering on jobs, unemployment & real wages, despite the extremely challenging global headwinds.

BBC reports "more than 600 people crossed the Channel on small boats on Saturday, making it second busiest day so far this year".

BBC reports "Over the past three years, crossings have increased" while omitting 33% year on year fall this year
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Reeves looking to break link between gas cost and electricity prices Chancellor wants to reduce impact of gas on market prices, as it almost always sets price of electricity in UK

Two important positive developments this week. Rachel Reeves looking to break link between gas prices & energy bills to benefit consumers & rearmament bonds to help boost increases in defence spending.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/04...

When Angela Rayner underpaid £40,000 in stamp duty, Richard Tice said it was "morally completely indefensible” and she should resign if she had “any moral decency”.

Now we learn he set up four shell companies that let him avoid paying £100,000 he owed in tax and to then transfer the cash to Reform

Gov. Bill Lee signed a resolution defining family as a man, a woman, and their children, a move critics say targets LGBTQ+ households.

I am a gay dad and this is FUCKED UP

Extraordinary interview with Ciaran Martin, friend of Olly Robbins, on the World at One, saying, unchallenged, that Ministers would not normally be told details of security vetting outcome for appointments. Details, no, but the result, surely, otherwise what is the point of them?

When the numbers were going up, the Channel boat crossings dominated BBC news & much of the media daily. They have fallen 34% in the first three months of this year, but you wouldn’t know it from the media coverage.

Darren Jones did a such a brilliant job laying out the facts on FCO/Mandelson stuff on Today this morning, that even the BBC’s breathless political editor had to acknowledge what he said was true, despite the whole of the rest of the programme implying that it couldn’t be.

Badenoch is a ridiculous figure. If nobody at the Foreign Office told the PM or any other minister that Mandelson failed security getting, which in itself is pretty extraordinary, how were they supposed to know?

EHRC updates guidance on how to apply supreme court ruling on gender Changes follow concern that original code created a legal minefield for organisations implementing it

Encouraging from the @equalityhumanright.bsky.social, implying earlier guidance under its previous Chair was illegal, unworkable for businesses & public bodies & would have made transgender people’s lives impossible.

£200,000 funding boost for libraries in Devon from this Labour Government’s Libraries Improvement Fund 📚

This will allow for upgrades to library buildings as well as investment in new tech, making local services easier to access

Leaflet published by occupying German forces in Crete encouraging allied soldiers in hiding to give themselves up - spotted in a military museum in Crete. Does the style & language remind you of anyone???

Britain could adopt single market rules without MPs’ vote as part of UK-EU reset Exclusive: Ministers planning new legislation for alignment without full parliamentary scrutiny if in national interest

And more good news!

Orbán era swept away by Péter Magyar's Hungary election landslide Viktor Orbán's 16-year rule is over, defeated by a 45-year-old ex-party insider who convinced a majority of Hungarians to oust him.

Yes!!! The result we’d all been hoping & praying for. Well done Hungary!

When forced to choose Britons prefer a Labour government led by Keir Starmer to a Reform UK government led by Nigel Farage New data from our Political Pulse survey, taken 20th-24th March, explores attitudes to GB political parties and leading politicians and whether the public prefer a Labour led government under Keir Starmer or a Reform UK led government under Nigel Farage.

👍 and there are are three more years for the the Government to deliver.

i think this is right & wonder if the nervousness about askng people to save fuel is partly a hangover from lockdown; some people are really, really neuralgic now about being told they can't do anything (eg the nutters convinced 15 minute neighbourhoods are a plot to lock them up again)

You’d be better to do Venice to Rome or Naples in a day, an overnight, & take a day train to Catania the next day - much nicer in the daylight too.

Amid the unremittingly gloomy news I did chuckle to read Patrick Maguire in today’s Times, who, along with the BBC’s political editor & many other journalists, has been confidently predicting Keir’s demise for months, now eating his words.😊

Trump 'absolutely' considering withdrawing from NATO

Since Dugin laid out the plan in 1998, the main foreign policy aim of the Kremlin has been to sever Britain from Europe (achieved in 2016) and break up the Transatlantic Alliance (2026?)

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

Keir Starmer: UK will seek closer ties with EU in light of Iran war It comes as UK-US relations have been strained by the PM's refusal to be dragged further into the Iran war.

Keir seizes the moment 👏👏👏

"I found hope in politics as a means to make this world kinder and more just and more inclusive"
- Congresswoman Sarah McBride on how her experiences growing up shaped her path into politics.

Full interview out now.

Kremlin hotline: Hungary colluded with Russia to delist sanctioned oligarchs, companies and banks A hotline between Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gave Moscow strategic information on critical EU…

"All this time Putin had, and still has, a mole in all European and NATO official meetings. If the integrity of these meetings is to be maintained, it would be appropriate to ban Hungary from all of them. Every generation has a Kim Philby”
theins.press/en/inv/29091...

Pete Hegseth’s broker looked to buy defence fund before Iran attack [FREE TO READ] Morgan Stanley wealth manager approached BlackRock about multimillion-dollar investment for US defence secretary

Pete Hegseth’s broker looked to buy defence fund before Iran attack - as.ft.com/r/dcda930b-6...

It is absolutely stupid that a major focus of policy response to the Iran War is on the planned 1p rise in fuel duty in September (watching Trevor Phillips interview Bridget Phillipson). Of no help now to anyone to abandon it. Shows how trivial our political debate has become.

The case for keeping Keir Starmer a little longer Panic-buying a slightly less unpopular rival will not help Labour face its real challenges

On the button, as usual, from @robertshrimsley.bsky.social & the @financialtimes.com

war seems to be going to plan!

Excellent in depth analysis of the close #Russia #Iran relationship on today’s World at One. Still the best BBC news programme by far. 🙌🏼🙌🏼

Good for Merz. “Now is not the time to relax sanctions against Russia, whatever the reason.”

Merz’ reaction to Trumps latest move on Russia is unequivocal:
„Jetzt Sanktionen zu lockern, aus welchen Gründen auch immer, das halten wir für falsch“
(Whatever the reasons, relaxing sanctions now we consider a mistake.)

La petroliera russa alla deriva nel Canale spinta dalle correnti verso Lampedusa A bordo ha 61.000 tonnellate di gas naturale liquefatto, è senza equipaggio a causa delle esplosioni dovute a un possibile attacco di droni

The wreck of the Russian shadow fleet LNG carrier “Arctic Metagaz”, abandoned by its crew after being hit by unidentified drones in the central Mediterranean on 3-4 March, is currently drifting towards the Italian island of Lampedusa.