Ed Davey canoeing through the Strait of Hormuz to draw attention to the Lib Dems '10p off a litre' fuel policy

h/t @worgztheowl.bsky.social

I was going to post a few days back making the Kershaw (working toward the Fuhrer) parallel but decided not to for fear of invoking Godwin's Law. So it's great to have an alternative, indeed better, term!

‘No Way To Prevent This’ Says Only Party Where This Regularly Happens

It’s a ‘sontaku’ world — we are just living in it Pre-emptive interpretation of a leader’s wishes can be dangerous and reveals a vacuum where direction should be

"[S]ontaku...not only covers the idea of self-censorship and toadying but nods to a certain level of analytical skill by the executor of the unvoiced order: they must, at some level, be satisfied that they have understood what the boss wants, and deserve some credit for that."

Zack Polanski takes a leaf out of Zohran Mamdani’s book The Green Party leader meets the team behind the New York mayor’s social media campaign in the hope of replicating his success

Mamdani adviser Morris Katz recently held a strategy meeting with UK Green Party leader Zack Polanski, per @thetimes.com.

This comes after we first reported in March on Katz's effort to bring the Mamdani playbook to the UK: www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Q. Are we delivering too many leaflets? A. No, and here’s why… (LDN#208) Welcome to Lib Dem Newswire #208, which takes a look at that favourite election season topic: are we doing too many leaflets?

Great piece (with research evidence) from @markpackuk.bsky.social - and don't forget that our Party Members Project surveys consistently show that @libdems.org.uk members are the champions when it comes to leafletting during election campaigns (see esrcpartymembersproject.org/wp-content/u...)

Wrote about the myth of “ungovernable” Britain
economist.com/britain/2026...

Reform candidate accused NHS of causing Covid 'holocaust' The party says it is examining the social media posts which include pro-Russian messages

Honestly, what are they playing at? I've seen more vetting done in an average episode of "All Creatures Great and Small".

Zack Polanski is still learning The Green leader on his journey from Lib Dem centrist to Corbyn’s heir

Good interview-based portrait of the man who would be king(maker?) by @pronouncedalva.bsky.social

J. H. Prynne wrote a guide to reading works of literature for Cambridge students. This was the postscript:

St george and the dragon by Raphael in which the dragon looks to be the size of a golden retriever and a third the size of stocky horse

Happy St George's day. Here's to all the painters out there who were clearly sick of the story and so made the dragon look as unimpressive as possible.

I'm guessing that, whatever it is, it's not good.

Letter: Delors’ adage tested by the surge of the populist right From Antonio Armellini, Former Italian Ambassador, Rome, Italy

"Brexit has been both a lesson for some and a boon for the EU, because it allowed those who remained to give a renewed, if at times controversial, impetus to the quest for a more political Europe, free of the paralysing influence of its most consistent and opinionated Anglo-Saxon saboteur." 🥹

And that is the perfect picture for your reply!

Yes - read it too quickly. Deleted.

*PSA Book Prize Winner*
🎉Congratulations to Prof. Elizabeth Evans & Prof. Stefanie Reher for their book 'Disability and Political Representation' (OUP) which is this year’s W.J.M. MacKenzie #BookPrize Winner
➡️ buff.ly/dvOF0Sa

Finally, new clause 65, tabled by the right hon. Member for Oxford East talks about national limits on campaign expenditure and essentially proposes to reduce the campaign expenditure limits, which were increased under the Elections Act 2022. Philip Rycroft mentioned the problem of an arms race between parties spending ever more. Initially, the whole idea of setting campaign expenditure limits during the regulated period was to encourage parties not to spend too much. However, if the limits are high, parties will inevitably end up spending right up to them, if they have the financial capacity. Together, these proposals for a cap on donations, lower limits on expenditure and limits applying year round—or at the very least for the Electoral Commission to do a review, as per my new clause—would be critical safeguards for our democracy. They would go some way towards recognising the reality that currently, big money has a huge, damaging, distorting and anti-democratic effect on our politics. Samantha Dixon Sharethis specific contribution New clause 30 seeks to place a cap on the amount a person can donate to registered political parties in a calendar year. The Government aim to strike the right balance in relation to political donations to protect against foreign interference and improve transparency, while also ensuring that legitimate donors can continue to fund electoral campaigning. This new clause goes a step too far in restricting legitimate donations and could significantly limit parties’ ability to raise sufficient funds to communicate their views to the electorate—an essential part of a healthy democracy and effective election process.

The Government has rejected a proposal to cap donations for (non-foreign) donors, saying it could "significantly limit parties’ ability to raise sufficient funds to communicate their views to the electorate."

Football pundits on the re-emergence of the long throw. . .

Obviously, I've been following the Wellington floods quite closely; but have we seen much in the British media on them? If so, I've obviously missed it. If not, either just shows how much else is going on in the world right now or that the whole Commonwealth thing is very much a thing of the past.

Morgan McSweeney to face foreign affairs select committee, chaired by Emily Thornberry. 🍿
www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/apr/22/mor...

Never unseen.

Superinjunctions

O no I've said too much

Close but no cigar.

Naked mudwrestles with Gyles Brandreth

The Spectator verdict on MacMillan during the Profumo affair was that he was caught in “an intolerable dilemma from which he can only escape by being proved either ludicrously naïve or incompetent or deceitful—or all three”.

Keir Starmer, in his first eighteen months, has had three. Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss had one each. Boris Johnson contrived to have nine, while Theresa May made do with just three, as did David Cameron. Gordon Brown had four, as did Tony Blair. John Major managed with only two, while Margaret Thatcher had five.

Quiz below. Solution here: psaparliaments.org/2026/04/22/e...

The sink hole where policy goes to die In today’s attention economy, the government needs to build a ‘story factory’ if it is to get cut-through.

Lots of stuff out there on the importance of narrative in politics but this short piece (from @peterhyman.bsky.social) is really worth a read, not least because it's got some great practical suggestions for how to generate it.

Is social media dying? How much did Twitter change as it became X? Which party now dominates the conversation?

Using nationally representative ANES data from 2020 & 2024, I map how the U.S. social media landscape has changed

Here are the key take-aways 🧵

Full paper out now in in JQD:DM!

A good piece on incentives and how science gets distorted. It happens in many areas. Science can and does do amazing things. But it is not free from influence from politics or money and that often has a very human cost

As seen here or in other conditions, what gets funded and who chooses matters