🚨 OUT NOW 🚨 Is this Andy Burnham's moment?
👑 MP Karl Turner and @profjanegreen.bsky.social join @alaintolhurst.bsky.social, @siennarodgers.bsky.social and @tomscotson.bsky.social to discuss whether the so-called ‘king of the north’ will make it back down to Westminster
🎧 Listen: pod.fo/e/400299
This interview with Edelman about The Book of Prince is really interesting (and incredibly frustrating)
If only there was a definitive long-form documentary series exploring his life and legacy like never before, directed by an Oscar-winning filmmaker, that we could watch….
I remember watching this when the Mandelson appointment was first mooted, if only there had been clues as to how this might end…
With the Peter Mandelson appointment as UK ambassador to the US back in the headlines, it's worth understanding how the UK government's national security vetting system actually works.
Our explainer sets out the process:
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/go...
fascinated that the PM found out on Tuesday but told neither Cooper nor Jones, who both only found out yesterday it seems? what were no10 doing with the information, if not discussing it with the ministers who oversee the vetting process and the department in question?
Olly Robbins is leaving his role as the most senior civil servant in the Foreign Office over the Lord Mandelson vetting row
Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper have lost confidence in Robbins, PolHome understands
I mean - by now (and for many years) they must be acutely aware they don’t actually have to watch hours and hours of footage, and it’s just a way of saying ‘go away we don’t really want to look into this’ without saying so, but yes, incredibly infuriating!
Ugh - the Royal Marsden helped to save my wife’s life, and they’re trying to do so for many, many more people. And NIMBYs are trying to stop it because the lifesaving building is taller than they’d like?? Give me strength. (Via Looking For Growth)
I remember very patiently trying to explain the concept of ‘binary search’ to a BTP officer after my bike was nicked outside the station and they were refusing to review 12hrs of CCTV. Unsurprisingly I didn’t get very far
The meanest girl I ever fancied (but pretty sure I never actually talked to) is how I got into The Distillers, Pretty Girls Make Graves and Sleater-Kinney
(at the router conference pulling my cloak to the side to reveal the belkin insignia on my tunic) i represent belkin. let me pass.
EXC w/ @adampayne26.bsky.social
The government is carrying out a consultation on whether to implement tougher laws on the public sale of fireworks
MPs, including @sarahowen.org.uk and Simon Hoare, have welcomed the news, with Owen calling it a "huge step forward"
🚨 OUT NOW 🚨 The big May elections preview
Holyrood Mag's Louise Wilson, journalist Will Hayward, politics lecturer Dr Stephanie Luke and Liberal Democrat MP Will Forster join host @alaintolhurst.bsky.social to discuss next month's local elections
🎧 Listen now: podfollow.com/politicshome
To be fair, he was only told about this by the Wallet Inspector who stopped him in Leicester Square
🚨 OUT NOW 🚨 New towns on the horizon
🏘️ Housing minister @matthewpennycookmp.bsky.social, MP @seanlwoodcock.bsky.social, @susanparham.bsky.social, Rico Wojtulewicz, and @vickyspratt.bsky.social join @alaintolhurst.bsky.social to discuss the plan for new towns in England
🎧 Listen: pod.fo/e/3c3869
Speaking to PolHome's @alaintolhurst.bsky.social on the latest episode of The Rundown podcast, housing minister Matthew Pennycook says building "exemplary" new towns will help reduce nimby sentiment
“We have a chance here to show that we can do really good development in a different way"
The words ‘third places’ are absolute catnip to me, no way I’m scrolling past
lmao
Here we argue that predictions of local ‘chaos’ as a result of fragmentation may be misleading - given the current incentives of FPTP under bloc politics … We may instead be in the middle of a restructuring towards national fragmentation, local two-partyism.
“Worst she can say is no” Bro, she said I look like someone tried to draw President Taft from memory
Division is on the rise in the UK, former cabinet minister Sajid Javid has warned
Speaking on PolHome podcast The Rundown, the former Conservative MP said recent debates about whether non-white politicians like him and ex-PM Rishi Sunak are British were not happening "even a decade ago"
🚨 OUT NOW🚨
Former Conservative MP and minister Sajid Javid joins @alaintolhurst.bsky.social to discuss what he learned writing his memoir, the state of race relations and social cohesion in 2026, and the travails of the Tory party now it’s out of office
🎧 Listen now: pod.fo/e/3b3c77
“I’m a big believer in pride from excellence, pride from high performance": Exclusive interview with cab sec Antonia Romeo
www.civilserviceworld.com/in-depth/art...
I had this thought when I heard Theroux talk about trying to get the Tates for his doc - like what do you gain by putting those guys on TV; literally everybody knows who they are already, and there is a separate Wikipedia page dedicated to their crimes
My wallet is in so much danger
A copy of the latest London Review of Books, featuring Andrew O’Hagan’s article about the former Prince Andrew
The Anthony Adams yellow suit rubbing hands meme
Have been holding back reading this until it arrived in print, going in now…
🚨 OUT NOW 🚨 Can ministers prevent an energy bill crisis?
⚡ MP @billesterson.bsky.social, @pjtheeconomist.bsky.social, @smfthinktank.bsky.social's Niamh O Regan and Dr Simon Cran-McGreehin join @alaintolhurst.bsky.social to discuss the impact of the Middle East conflict on the UK
🎧: pod.fo/e/3a7fb5
