Michael

as far as I can see he’s going on Piker’s show

(sometimes if I want to say “that’s just wrong” or “that’s just not true” I will say it in Ed Miliband’s voice from when he went on Russell Brand’s show in 2015)

politicians should believe in their own dignity and that should impose constraints on how they behave. going on Hasan Piker’s stream as the serving governor of California is not in accordance with a belief in your own dignity

I sort of buy the idea that politicians should go on all these shows in the immediate run-up to an election. it’s something else entirely to be like “hi please vote for me in the primary, I’ve spent the last two years doing nothing but talking to all the most annoying people on the internet”

it was a BBC interview that the Telegraph have written a story on the back of

I think you can be righteously angry and strategically misguided at the same time

it’s not like she’s been instrumental in it, she’s been on the backbenches since they came into government. but again I’m not here to weigh her soul or tell you to vote for her, I’m just saying, I don’t think it’s productive when someone starts saying the right things to shout at them

I think if we see a wholesale change of view then that will be the case for many - I think Thornberry in particular I’m more inclined to think is being sincere. But - who cares why they do it, as long as they do?

anyway, to take my own lesson and focus on what matters most:

it is very good that Emily Thornberry has said this and I hope her voice and others who agree will be heard more going forwards.

there is pretty large component of pro-trans rights Bluesky that always wants to put the most pessimistic spin on everything, and can be quite aggressive in doing so.

and like, the news has been very bad over the last few years, so I get it! but I don’t think it’s productive

I’ve said before that I really don’t like the use of “trans” as a sort of abstract noun in this way, but I think people focusing on attacking her for this rather than being glad a senior Labour MP is taking their side so clearly are misguided

I don’t think she’s disagreeing with you in the slightest? we need Labour MPs to speak out on this, all the better if they’re as senior as she is, and as clear about what they’re saying as she is

"I dread even saying this... but I think that we've ended up in the wrong place on trans, and we've done that by treading very self-consciously and not actually following our hearts, which is that trans people are on the margins, they are vulnerable. "If the Labour Party doesn't look after trans people, what are we about? "They're most likely to get beaten up. They're the ones who are most likely to have prejudice against them. We should not be indulging in anything that marginalises them even more."

Emily Thornberry’s words on Radio 4 in response to the Green win in Gorton and Denton.

This is why wins like this are so important, whatever you may think of the Greens (much like the immigration rebellion brewing).

'Starmerism' is being unbothered by such trivial concerns as 'is that even true, though?' or even follow-up questions like 'is this lie even a useful one for us to tell?'

At least Liz Truss's failure was "not anticipating that a tax-cutting budget might increase long-dated gilt yields and require pension funds employing liability-driven investment strategies to rapidly increase collateral", not "not anticipating that a war in the Middle East might make oil pricier".

Dear Shabana, I notice today that you referred to me in your speech on immigration at the IPPR think tank. You said: “A party leader should not be on the beaches of France encouraging people to make a perilous crossing on small boats.” I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised especially after the hateful Labour campaign in Gorton and Denton, but this is just the latest in a string of lies peddled by a discredited Government who intentionally fan the flames of racism and division. When I went to Calais, I was not there to encourage people to travel to the UK. I was there to see at first hand the suffering your Government and successive Governments have done in demonising migrants in a pathetic bid to pander to the base instincts of Reform and the flawed strategy of Morgan McSweeney. As you will know, if you even bothered to research my visit instead of taking Reform talking points, I was there to witness the brutality of families living in tents in freezing temperatures. I filled water tanks and picked up litter. What that visit did do is confirm my belief that if we are to smash the boat gangs and stop the boats, we need to offer safer and managed routes for migrants to come to this country. Showing compassion as a politician is not a crime. In fact, we need to see much more of it. It reminded me of a young MP who in October 2015 spent three days in Lesbos helping migrants fleeing war-torn Syria. She posted videos on X, talked about handing out water and croissants to refugees and food parcels. When she returned to the UK, she wrote a very moving piece in the New Statesman. She said “we have to work with our European partners and create new, safe, and legal routes for refugees to get to Europe. We cannot abandon them to their fate, left as prey for smugglers whilst risking death on the seas.” She said “maybe we can make ourselves feel better by saying no-one is making them get on the boats. And again, the Home Secretary is not entirely wrong when …

Dear Shabana,

Let's clear some things up around migration and remember we're talking about people's lives.

Even if you’re generally a controls on immigration type then consider what Mahmood implies about her stance on Ukraine and Hong Kong by describing immigration from 2021-24 as an open border experiment.

must be a bit radicalising to be a Labour MP who was here before Starmer and to gradually realise that there’s nothing hidden beneath the surface: his operation is exactly as shallow and dishonest as it seems

love Stella Creasy just locking in and deciding she’s not accepting shite platitudes in a private WhatsApp chat

Side note, but it is still striking how little Reform actually look like the rest of Britain in basically any polling and yet their base is treated as quintessentially authentic.

Greens deputy leader calls for apology from Starmer over false claims that led to death threats Mothin Ali fears for his life after anti-war protest was wrongly described as being in support of Iranian regime

Starmer backing the false claim at PMQs that the Deputy Leader of the Greens protested in support of the Ayatollah should really be a bigger deal imo

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I see the Olivier nominations committee agrees with the first point here

you’re so right about this

what do we want?

more headroom!

how do we want it?

tax rises and spending restraint in the year before the election!

I think this is right and might have the useful side effect of requiring Labour to get more serious about their own plans on fiscal policy and defence!

They are comfortably more serious than the Greens there, but still a bit “we’re going to tighten fiscal policy and raise defence spending… soon”.

“Restoring order at the border speaks to Labour values” is an offensively clunky sentence apart from anything else.

uhhh

she is only posting about this because she saw Westminster bubble people posting about it on X. all these politicians think “oh I’m different though, I won’t have my brain turned to soup by scrolling X all day” and none of them are different

what about the optics of your Bluesky posts just being screenshots of the same post on X?