Boris was objectively very funny to watch destroying himself. This is like watching a middle aged dad justify his gambling debts it's depressing

Congratulations, Virginia! Republicans are trying to tilt the midterm elections in their favor, but they haven’t done it yet. Thanks for showing us what it looks like to stand up for our democracy and fight back.

YouGov's second MRP of the 2026 Senedd election shows a tightened race, with Reform UK and Plaid Cymru neck-and-neck

Ref: 37 (+7 from 9-18 Mar)
PC: 36 (-6)
Lab: 12 (=)
Grn: 7 (-3)
Con: 3 (+2)
LD: 1 (+1)

yougov.com/en-gb/articl...

Brexiteers should be praying to every deity available that KS does not resign.

UK pension funds face ‘huge’ costs to sell private assets Industry regulator has written to 58 schemes to warn about their exposure to hard-to-sell investments

UK pension funds face ‘huge’ costs to sell private assets ft.trib.al/nok8pje

My view on the Briefing Room 5 weeks ago was:
If the Strait reopens in the next week, we have economic disruption but it’s manageable.
Closed for another 4-8 weeks & we have high energy prices throughout the year.
Closed for few months & all bets are off and we’re in a really grim economic world.

Trump latest.

Timed for the US financial markets.

#BREAKING: Trump extends ceasefire to give Iran more time to negotiate

Elections 2026: London There are local elections in the UK every May, and every year I do a preview.

New post:

"Elections 2026: London"

In my final preview I've split London into ten different battlegrounds to show how the capital's politics is evolving. With predictions for each borough.

In collaboration with the brilliant @londoncentric.media

(£/free trial)

samf.substack.com/p/elections-...

Multiple oil spills are visible from space after Iranian and US-Israeli strikes hit oil facilities and ships in the region, with experts warning of an impending environmental catastrophe. https://cnn.it/3Ovxzwk

Chris de Burgh (left) and Che Guevara were both born in Argentina.

Do say "rise up and seize control of the state"
Don't say "pay the ferryman"

Speaker Johnson's beginning of the end Trump's elfish toady is quickly losing control of the House.

New in PN: Speaker Johnson's beginning of the end

"Johnson has such a small majority he can’t afford to alienate anybody, & he has nonetheless managed to alienate everybody. The coming months will be brutal for him & are likely to end w/his speakership destroyed in a humiliating, titanic blue wave"

I wonder who’s going to be sacked for sacking Robbins?

The 'Starmer appointed Mandelson because he needed someone to manage Trump' - not true. What happened was:

1) From the general election there was a desire in Downing Street for a political appointee
2) There was no question that the US embassy had good Trumpworld links as it was

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.

A consequence of Starmer dragging this out is that I think a lot of people who just saw him as useless and out of his depth will now see him as actively malicious

Resolution has applied my model to data up to 2025. As the chart shows, we can be less confident as time goes on. But firm-level evidence from Bloom et al shows a 6% loss. I think it's time to retire the OBR's 4%, which was a simple average of pre-Brexit forecasts.

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...

Jon Stewart Dissects Trump’s “Art of the Deal” Iran Strategy... That Isn't Working | The Daily Show YouTube video by The Daily Show

Jon Stewart Dissects Trump’s “Art of the Deal” Iran Strategy... That Isn't Working

youtu.be/Jc_zlInukSA

🚨 NEW: Olly Robbins will tomorrow accuse Keir Starmer of pressuring the Foreign Office into approving Peter Mandelson's appointment

A Whitehall source says he "won’t hold back" and that his appearance will be "box office"

The value bet here is Ed Miliband.
A competent minister, has an agenda, possesses politics.

Who might succeed Sir Keir Starmer as Britain’s prime minister?
economist.com/britain/2026...
from The Economist

Kash Lego figure with big eyes

I can’t look at him and not see his Lego image now.

Meme seen in Facebook REFORM UK CANDIDATE ANNOUNCEMENT PAULINE CAMPBELL-JONES Royston Vasey BRITAIN NEEDS REFORM Promoted by Reform UK Royston Vasey. Not affiliated with The BBC. A fictional character from The League of Gentlemen.

Pens for everyone (to use on their ballot papers)

A majority would bin him tomorrow if they could agree on a replacement. But they can't so this all drags on...

By far the most impressive I’ve seen from Badenoch. I’d be very surprised if she doesn’t lead the Tories into the next election - they will love this.

The problem with Starmer's argument (well one of them) is that it depends on an assertion that he wouldn't have appointment Mandelson if he'd known he'd failed vetting.

But he appointed him before vetting was complete.

Party leaders are so last century.

Nowadays, they have the attention, duration and staying power of a short form video.

Gonna become a party leader so Lord Ashcroft has to write a book about me...

Nigel Farage being healed by Putin while Tice and Anderson look on.

Outrageous! Looks nothing like Richard or Lee.