i wonder if AOC’s early clashes with the democratic establishment PLUS the unhinged reaction to her from republicans have given her some of the “both sides hate her so she must be Independent” vibe that goes a long way with low propensity voters

Would love to read a book about TV shows, books, etc that were massive cultural phenomena of their times but left almost no lasting impact/legacy.

I doubt many could name a post-millennium ITV sitcom, sans Benidorm.

It's a shame little tried recently has stuck (Piglets and Job Lot dumped on ITV2; Vicious, Kate & Koji and Bad Move just two runs). Birds of a Feather lasted, but was chucked against EastEnders & cut down by 2020 special flopping.

The family sitcom, a mainstay of US TV, seems to fall into this category here (e.g. My Family, 2.4 Children, The Upper Hand); victim of success (running so long kids grow up)?

Though, in general, ITV sitcoms have fallen to this fate, esp. 1990s onwards (why they've basically abandoned the genre?).

A succinct description of the dangers facing both the Lib Dems and Greens by m'learned friend @cosmichope.bsky.social

Both parties are at risk of unintentional transformation. The Lib Dems have exhausted their rightward turn, and the Greens are in danger of losing their localist & ecological roots.

Urban/rural gap in Hungary's Fidesz vote. Will it grow further?

The narrative of overdiagnosis, compared to the reality of underdiagnosis, is so frustrating. E.g., I started displaying symptoms of OCD at 10yo, and never thought worth getting formally diagnosed - until recently, when started wondering just how much of what I attribute to ASD/ADHD is actually OCD.

There is an imagined working class, that largely no longer exists and a modern working class that the political class rarely interact with outside of service provision.

My favourite running joke in American politicians is when rumour spreads that Classical Republican Holden Bloodfeast could hand Trump a senate defeat and a small liberal cult forms around a genuine monster.

It can be genuinely difficult for smart, responsible people to confront the vacuity of evil. In their attempts to oppose it, they try to “steel man” its rationale, but these efforts amount to no more than ex post facto *rationalizations*. And now you’ve done some of the enemy’s work for them!

I enjoy research and I *love* writing. But the bit in between, where the research has to be turned into material that you use in the writing, is the most godforsaken activity on earth. Like extracting marrow from your bones.

"It's not fair of environmentalists to point out that in addition to being finite resources that are actively destroying the planet, fossil fuels also leave us at the mercy of fragile supply and logistics chains significantly controlled by autocrats in geopolitically chaotic parts of the world."

just insane looking back on it how much of the media got away with framing 2024 as "the right is for free speech, the left is for censorship"

Striking how normal so many of these ICE agents look. Banal, you might say.

This, plus a great deal of them became obsessed with social media, a technology that makes it impossible for them to avoid being exposed to the reality of how much people hate them.

The alliance system Trump's destroying is 80 years old AND it was always mutually beneficial defense not a one-way favor AND though the US obviously has played a major role in European and East Asian security those allies directly assisted the US after 9/11 AND Trump picked fights with them first.

Black Mirror episode where a woman discovers her boyfriend has been betting against their relationship lasting on the prediction markets and becomes determined to spoil his bet.

Inside you there are two senate wolves

The ten or so minutes I spent during a(n otherwise sparsely-attended) showing of The Zone of Interest suffering through the stench and noise of the Quavers the old couple behind me were eating luckily didn't spoil my viewing, or sully the significance, of it. Time and a place, folks...!

On the one hand, funny, on the other hand, does really speak to how even otherwise "normal" politicians like Ed Davey have pickled their brains on Twitter that he thought it was a great idea to enter this culture war on the side of the culture war bampots rather than just ignore it

The idea that only a craven fear of Muslim voters is keeping Labour out of the war is delusional - and shameful.

If there's a problem with "sectarianism" in UK politics, it's coming from those who routinely cast Muslim voters as standing outside "the national interest" & acting as a brake upon it.

the Dem party number is easily explained by the fact that bluesky is full of people who will crawl over broken glass to vote for Democrats in November and also hate Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries with every bone in their body

This thread is mostly terrible for the Tories but honestly, 37% and a clear lead on “can deal with Britain’s economic problems” for the 2026 Conservative Party is just astonishing testament to the stickiness of people’s deepest assumptions about longstanding political parties

But the problem, those same comments offering praise for her are now often followed by 'but what's the point of voting Conservative, they can't win' v. similar to the sort of thing someone might have said about the Lib Dems under Ashdown, Kennedy or pre-coalition Clegg.

That's it. A foaming-at-the-mouth Dem like me wanted Bush officials prosecuted. What has changed is how "everyone should go to jail" is now typical among wine moms and phlegmatic corporate guys who wear bowties. The question is when DC consultant types accept it.

Britain is in a deep structural economic hole thanks to austerity, Brexit and global shocks that is nearly impossible to get out of. It is rather unfair to expect government to reverse those long-term drags on national prosperity, but it needs to start explaining to voters why we are where we are.

Again, how anyone looking at the vacuum of planning within the US and the massive potential for profound economic, security and energy consequences and conclude the UK should have gone gung-ho with the US are barmy.

Polling from More in Common shows that Greens and Reform win a higher share of voters who struggle to make ends meet, while Labour and the Conservatives win those who are most financially comfortable

Reform UK and the Greens are hoovering up financially insecure voters. My piece this week looks at the return of Britain's class politics (with a twist) www.economist.com/britain/2026...

"Those with a private landlord tend to have switched to the Greens, .. those in social housing .. to Reform." Attributable to level of housing security's connection to place? Social housing engenders feeling part of local area, renting privately arguably doesn't, ergo vote 'more global, less local'?

the conventional wisdom a year ago was that trump was untouchable on immigration and indomitable with independents and democrats shouldn't even talk about the issue