Final sentence of this post is an entire fucking thesis

What you've got here is the reflex of people who assume that having the "right" politics means they are "good" people

So anyone accusing them of, say, selecting anti-Semitic candidates is challenging their self-image as good people. And thus you get this reflex - "the accusers are to blame"

The replies to this are genuinely so interesting because it shows there are so many people who would love to love the Labour party if only they were nice to them

I think a great set of rules for moving about the world is

1. Don’t be afraid to ask
2. Don’t be afraid to say yes
3. Look like you will say yes

Novel approach needed for UK’s sick and unemployed A shift to local initiatives may help more people back into work

London is the only region not to have rising numbers of people who are economically inactive because of sickness: that’s not because Londoners are physically superior, it’s because we have a stronger, more dynamic and more varied economy:

Predicting every London election result Plus: What's the tube strike ACTUALLY about?

It’s the most Bluesky thing that’s ever happened: Comment is Freed x London Centric local elections prediction collab just dropped. www.londoncentric.media/p/london-loc...

Also they have social media in Canada and Carney's doing fine.

They have it in Spain and Sanchez has been PM since 2018.

And in France where Macron's been President since 2017.

I don't think saying, broadly, that I'd like a Government which is:

a) Social democratic
b) Socially liberal
c) Not horrible to migrants
d) Pragmatic about trade offs

particularly incoherent or impossible. Frankly those views are basically where most core left wing people are!

The Ed Stone with the pledges replaced by the rules from Dua Lipa's 2017 song New Rules

Since we’re all revisiting our Ed memes…

Brutal, but devastatingly true.

Please don't use speaker phone while in library. Ask for headphones at the front desk.

Only a fallen society needs this sign

Thank you letters suspended in red thread, from the Shiota exhibition.

A white dress in a box escaping from intricate black thread. From the Shiota exhibition at the Hayward.

Many keys hang from red thread around a wooden open door. From the Shiota exhibition.

A white bed is slightly creepily surrounded by black thread. From the Shiota exhibition.

The Shiota at the Hayward is the definition of instagrammable, so here I am putting the pics on Bluesky. Intricate, beautiful, slightly discomforting.

The Starmer-shaped hole where a prime minister should be Mandelson scandal shows he has never successfully made the transition from an opposition mindset to a governing one

You're going to be talking about Starmer this weekend even to the teens, based on my Friday night, so read @stephenkb.bsky.social so you have something intelligent to say as.ft.com/r/18df925a-e...

Good article on the newest Punchdrunk show. I did go, early in the run and it was pretty basic, even if fun to run around the old Burnt City set. But, despite what the article says, they didn't ask for feedback. And we had a lot of it! Wait for the next phase is my suggestion.

Mamdani hasn't had time to really think about all that space he now has, because he spends most of his time at City Hall and around New York City. He tries to keep a semblance of his old life by getting around the city on foot, by bike or train. "If you spend every single day driving around in a tinted window security detail, you will have a very specific view of the city," he said. "You actually meet other New Yorkers and you break out of the bubble that so many have come to expect of politics, where politicians only seem to be spending time with other politicians or the people who donated to make them politicians."

I'd say that this applies to anyone traveling in a car in any city. Being in a car versus walking, riding, or taking transit fundamentally changes how you view a place and your relationship to it. I wish more leaders set this kind of example.

www.npr.org/2026/04/16/n...

The significant year on year fall on boat arrivals is broadly unreported by BBC or other media. It has less to do with imminent government changes currently going through than a fall in "push factors" that is Europe-wide

"It baffles me why women might struggle to feel comfortable around someone who supports a politician subject to a number of credible claims of sexual assault, including some already proven to the civil standard of proof".

What I wouldn't give to take a look at the counter-factual machine where Labour didn't spend their first year+ in government trying to do loud public "to be clear Reform are correct about immigration, their key issue" signals.

I mean look, a Labour government *cannot* cut welfare spending to increase defence spending. It’s just silly to pretend it can.
And more generally: “cut social spending to rearm” is just awful advice across the EU. Is Europe more or less secure if populists win elections?

Cosmopolitanism is hardly new. In late Ottoman Constantinople, large populations of Greeks, Turks, Armenians, Sephardic Jews, Arabs, and Balkan Christians lived together. But Stuart Hall nailed it in the 90s when he said "The capacity to live with difference is the coming question of the 21st cent."

It me: I went into a doctor’s surgery to ask for a non-emergency doctor’s appointment for my kid. They immediately offered me multiple same day in-person appointments or a phone consultation, to the point it’s almost annoyingly quick. Is that NHS money actually working or something?

🚀Thrilled to launch Arguably with @georgeeaton.bsky.social
and a top-tier roster of columnists.

The battle for clicks means ideas and debate too often struggle for airtime.

Arguably is built on the belief there's a real appetite for something different and we want to meet it.

www.arguably.uk

Arguably | George Eaton | Substack The new home of progressive ideas and debate. Click to read Arguably, a Substack publication. Launched 3 days ago.

🚨I’m delighted to announce the launch of Arguably – a new publication for progressive ideas and debate – alongside @camvargas.bsky.social.

Columnists include @benjudah.bsky.social, @davidlawrenceuk.bsky.social and @ZoeGrunewald.bsky.social.

Subscribe now to receive our launch piece: Arguably.uk

She reportedly parted ways with Bezos with a jaw-dropping $38.3 billion in Amazon stock. Their divorce settlement included a 4 % stake in the online retail giant or 19.7 million shares. Under the agreement, Bezos kept 75% of the couple's Amazon stock, along with voting control of her shares. Jan 11, 2023

MacKenzie Scott has given away over $19 billion in the last 5 years and experts say she's 'changed entire fie... MacKenzie Scott acknowledged another $2 billion in donations as 2024 comes to a close.

MacKenzie Scott, worth $41.1 billion, is on a philanthropic tear and has donated an estimated 46% of her net worth.

Just to give a sense of the insane scale of billions of dollars…MacKenzie Scott got about $38 billion after divorcing Bezos in 2019. She has become the world’s most generous philanthropist, giving away over $19 billion…and she’s currently wealthier than she started.

Just. Tax. Them.

I actively want to pay tax, like a good progressive, but this just seems like such a waste of my time and resources.

After a frustrating afternoon getting everything set up for Making Tax Digital, I would like to throw all of HMRC in the bin please.

How is it right that I have to pay £200 a year for the privilege of telling them things quarterly, that I'll have to tell them again at the end of the year anyway?

Quite a flex to turn up at the presidential palace, get him to confirm you as prime minister, call him unfit to serve with no moral authority, tell him to resign, and then pose for a picture

As I noted yesterday, if Labour had not lost so many votes to the Greens and Lib Dems they would be AHEAD of Reform in the polling and the narrative would look extremely different. I also suspect May will be Reform's ultimate peak in electoral success. But will Labour now be the beneficiaries?

It's perfectly reasonable to challenge ministers on N Sea oil & gas as a response to the energy shock.

But this is the exclusive framing for EVERY interview on this topic.

No minister or opposition leader is ever asked if they'll "max out" wind/solar.

It's always framed as fossil fuels v inaction

I have seen a lot of NIMBY selfishness in my time, but "my convenience matters more than cancer care" is a new low. Quite seriously tempted to email them and tell them as much.