Dr. Matt Loten

Person listening to Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" broadcast in 1938: Phew. Thank god this is fake. For a second, it almost felt like the entire world was at war

I think it matters simply because governments should aim to be truthful, to themselves and other people, and that yesterday was part of a broader pattern of not being particularly truthful.

I think that's absolutely fair, and I completely agree with both of you on that.

Totally agree in the sense that it's emblematic of a wider government problem where none of the major figures seem capable of responding nimbly to quick-moving events. I guess I'm just not sure that there would be any wider repercussions for this speech whether she caveated it or not.

I'm just not sure that Reeves' choosing to highlight that the last 18 months have been stabilising for the economy is necessarily the wrong strategy, insofar as a speech only the very politically engaged are even going to have registered really matters in any way.

If the government as a whole now buries its head in the sand and pretends that this conflict isn't going to have to have negative knock-on effects for the UK economy, then that is a very silly move indeed.

I don't disagree with anything James has written here (and Stephen Bush made a similar point in his newsletter), but ultimately if Trump's war in the ME ends up materially affecting the British economy, not one voter is going to look back and say 'where was the warning in the Spring Statement?'

At least we know the answer to 'will Kemi Badenoch ever be Prime Minister?', so it's all academic in the end...

That reminds me, whatever happened to that great panic of a couple of years ago when a great swarm of bed bugs was apparently en route to the UK from France via the Channel Tunnel?

Thanks Bob for the handy freeze frame, I foresee a lot of use from this one

Some very short memories I fear; I recommend anyone insufficiently stimulated by this game go back and watch any Mourinho v Benitez title ding-dong circa 2005!

Baffled by the suggestion that this game has been in any way boring. Okay it's not going down in history as an all-time classic, but it's been plenty of fun! My watching the football : scrolling my phone ratio has been very much in the game's favour.

'inside the red-faced hawk is a dove, with an almost physical horror of violence'

'Trump is as close as a pacifist as we've seen in the White House'

Pure pundit brain from Ian Leslie in March 2025

Starmer said: 'many people are talking about the size of the Green victory, but the truth is that Labour and Reform captured more than 50% of the vote in this by-election'

Having deeply reflected on the Gorton and Denton by-election result, Keir Starmer is delighted to announce his new Chief of Staff and election strategist: Maurice Glasman

So the Telegraph is taking this well

Finally, a sensible Allister Heath column

The one I probably continue to get the most use out of is

I was not surprised to discover that the only polls listed in the appendix of Restore Britain's immigration policy paper were conducted by Find Out Now.

My 'we shouldn't arrest people who spent time on Paedophile Island' article is raising a lot of questions already answered in the article

Basically the next election is going to come down to whether or not "generalised, non-specific anger at the system" outweighs "realisation that the alternative is a bunch of weird freaks with deeply eccentric policy views".

Or alternatively, 'what is a viable governing strategy in the economic and political milieu of the mid-2020s' but let's start with baby steps!

One day, in the far, distant future (maybe the day after their crushing election defeat of 2029), someone at Labour HQ will realise that instead of studying 'how did Blair win his first landslide' so hard, they should perhaps have been studying 'how did Blair stay in power for a decade'!

Bella taking advantage and supervising us from her sunny office-within-the-office

I'd fully forgotten what the sky looks like

2029 is going to be a really interesting case study in 'how much do voters care about anything beyond vibes if the economy is still in the shitter?'

Why does our new CFO look like the lovechild of Wes Streeting and Zach Braff?

I'm sorry Stephen but you're talking nonsense; there isn't a single room with a light-up disco floor and dance cages *or* a ladder-less pool in sight.

They may well have lobbed 'Rosebud' into the console a few times though.

She so nearly gets there! If she'd just called it quits after a minute and ten seconds she'd have come off as completely reasonable and open to Lewis's points, but can't help launching into her 'why is everyone so mean about my policies all the time' diatribe. Political instincts of a rock.

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