Can anyone explain to me what the Blue Labour justification for this is? Who out there will vote Labour because Mahmood prevented a Sudanese Chevening Scholar? And to be honest, why won’t the PM simply overrule her?
I couldn't resist buying the Spectator for these two columns. Pure comedy gold. View it as a public service.
As George Orwell once said, "This, my sweet, is a letter from my solicitor telling you that your husband has filed a petition for divorce. Happy Christmas, Ange."
Your regular reminder than a large majority of voters - and overwhelming majority of Labour voters - favour giving settled migrants access to the welfare state after five years or less. The Home Secretary is not reforming rules in line with public opinion. She is doing the opposite.
It’s a little-known fact about Kemi Badenoch that years ago she must have suffered a traumatic brain injury that has left her completely unable to recall any event after 2002. That may sound ridiculous, but once you know it, it explains an awful lot about British politics. Take, for instance, Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions. The Tory leader demanded to know why Britain wasn’t joining the Americans in attacking Iran. That’s a brilliant question if, like Badenoch — and apparently her entire team — you have absolutely no knowledge of “UK Involvement With Events in the Middle East: 2003 to Present Day”. Otherwise, even the most slow-witted MP would get a pretty handy clue from the first three letters of the target country’s name.
The best explanation for the British right's enthusiasm for war with Iran: brain damage. thecritic.co.uk/the-...
Whatever else this is from Paul Ovenden, demanding Labour MPs back Mahmood’s immigration crackdown, it is the most over-written, pretentious thing I’ve seen for some time.
Giant face mask of the poet Carol Ann Duffy
Giant face mask of the philosopher Slavoj Zizek
Giant face mask of the broadcaster Frank Bough
Giant face mask of the former Tory MP Michael Fabricant
The Celebrity Cutouts website offers a colossal range of giant face masks. All but a handful of the names and faces are completely unknown to me (and, I suspect you). There are some surprises all the same. www.ebay.co.uk/str/celebrit...
Exibit a) Paul Ovenden - the PMs former Director of Political Strategy in The Times today.
You'd think, having collapsed your poll lead during a GE and then further halved your support in office you might reflect on your approach.
But no, full steam ahead.
Mystery why were in this place
This is important - Ref got almost exactly what you'd expect a Conservative replacement party to get, in a seat they would never need or expect to win.
Putting aside that Mahmood is confusing two different things here (asylum and broader net migration)...
... this proposals are incredibly ill thought out and will not get through the PLP. She is picking a very painful fight here that she will lose.
So far I've come up with one rational explanation for Labour's response, which is that maybe Reeves has placed a significant amount of Treasury funds on a very specific accumulator about this May's elections, including Labour losing all their London councils and finishing fifth on projected vote.
Me too
Doing so while its voter base demonstrably breaks to the left while wining over a negligible amount of voters is certainly a bold strategy.
I have literally nothing to add to the thousands of takes, except that I suddenly remembered that me and @whyoutloud.bsky.social had previously described Gorton and Denton as sounding like the Building Society your nan used.
www.politicshome.com/thehouse/art...
obviously today is a huge embarrassment for Matt Goodwin and for Reform, which is something that we absolutely ought to celebrate, but we must also remember it's a huge embarrassment for Morgan McSweeney and Maurice Glasman and all the Blue Labour weirdos, and that's important to celebrate too :)
On which, I see @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social had a G&D query from a reader yesterday and mentioned "wonderful collection" of political articles.
"Wonderful" - the Guardian
That this only occurred to me after the election is yet further proof I am going downhill fast.
The actress Valerie Hobson in her drawing room at 3 Chester Terrace, Regent’s Park - her home was featured in House & Garden magazine in February 1961 - 5 months before her husband John Profumo embarked on an affair with Christine Keeler. Photo by Ray Williams.
The question now is how much does Labour have the capacity to learn, or do they do what the Tories spent the three years before the last GE doing and respond to every "you're fucked" warning light with mainlining tired clichés about "polls always swing back" or "govts always get hit hard in locals".
Latest piece for the @thehousemag.bsky.social - on the Potemkin consultations run by local government. (And others...).
www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...
@philipjcowley.bsky.social finding the head of the nail
I had the privilege of visiting the MERL today and getting a closer look at the board
The good old days when shops didn't have doors, windows had flags mounted in them, the local bakers sold baguettes and we used decimal currency?
I have, inevitably, written about this. "Fascist capture of the English countryside has never been complete, never even been close to complete, for all the best efforts of the rural Blackshirts and all the strange bucolic dreams of the Fascists in the market towns." richarddsmyth.com/2026/01/12/t...
Side point: it is literally Andrew Windsor’s birthday!
Another nail in the parlous state of UK higher education in February 2026. More nails very sadly likely coming to an HEI near you....
Since the government is about to introduce a social media ban for under-16s based largely on vibes – and Jonathan Haidt's shitty book – in the hopes it boosts its popularity (it won't), I'll re-up this.
If we're banning under-16s, why not over-60s?
not that it's not a complex issue but it drives me *insane* that we've been watching the world set itself on fire over the past decade or so partly because of people quite suddenly going from Not Very Online to Way Too Online and governments now want to recreate that experience with teens everywhere
Check out the post below by @philipjcowley.bsky.social, who’s written a great summary of ongoing work by me, @hannahbunting.bsky.social, @cerifowler.bsky.social, @jess-smith.bsky.social, and @annasanders.bsky.social on gender gaps in “don’t know” responses👇
I don't think Starmer has any conception of the "teaching" role of the premiership: the responsibility (& opportunity) to talk to the public, to shape how they understand the world & the choices before them.
All the most impactful PMs have been teachers. Starmer seems actively to repudiate the role
