Rachel Cunliffe

It's okay! We reconnected 15 years later for a coffee and a giggle about how ridiculous we'd been. And I feel cheered up every time I hear the opening chords of Defying Gravity

No obviously it didn't work, but for over a year it was not just my life's purpose, but my entire identity.

You can have Wicked when you prise it from my cold dead fingers.

(On a serious note, writing tens of thousands of words of fanfic probably helped with the whole professional writer thing)

I maintain that I have the best Wicked origin story: obsessed with the book then the musical as bi teenager, wrote epic-length fanfic with my at-the-time-ex-girlfriend age 17 in the desperate hope she'd realise she was still in love with me, as a result know every damn word and will never tire of it

Think we could find a significant proportion of Rachel Reeves’s fiscal gap by launching a crowdfunder for Sam to sing this in Parliament Square

If you want the inside track on what’s been going on with Your Party, there is no one better than @meganekenyon.bsky.social

And as their inaugural conference looms this weekend, here she is getting to the bottom of what Jeremy Corbyn thinks about it all

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

The Pringles feeling is SPOT ON

She has, however, discovered the bathroom has underfloor heating

The Week in Westminster - 22/11/2025 - BBC Sounds George Parker assesses the latest developments at Westminster

…and if you’d like more penguins this weekend, I was on The Week In Westminster with Lib Dem MP Danny Chambers today discussing just that

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

The Distracted Boyfriend meme, but their heads are now: Guy - a wide-eyed cat Girlfriend - a cat tree Red dress woman - a Christmas tree

It's that time of year

My husband went to Norfolk and came back with a freezer full of deer

How the Covid Inquiry forgot the children Political point-scoring is obscuring the real lessons

"Experts in education, psychology and disaster response stressed the need not just to confront the crisis in the short term but consider the situation three, five, ten years into the future. The government didn’t want to listen."

Thoughts on the Covid Inquiry

www.newstatesman.com/comment/2025...

Complete and utter tangent for a Friday afternoon: we have a cargo cult cat*, who remembers that the radiators USED to be on, so will sit mournfully beside them in the hope that repeating the behaviour will make them switch on again

*or, as my husband puts it, a "cargo cat"

I still have an X account (necessary for work, sorry), and sometimes I check in just to see what's going on over there. And it's like a parallel universe. Levels of overt racism, antisemitism and misogyny that we'd all have agreed was despicable just 3 years ago - under people's real names

How London's penguins got political Some 75 MPs have signed a letter condemning the Sea Life London Aquarium's treatment of its penguins

ICYMI: my report on how these penguins became the centre of a political storm

Featuring Gilbert

www.newstatesman.com/culture/natu...

When It Hits the Fan - The Secrets of the List: Putting Yourself in the Frame for a Top Job. - BBC Sounds David Yelland and Simon Lewis reveal how to PR yourself onto the list for a top job.

Delighted for the shout-out here re the London Aquarium penguins!

I was not expected to be radicalised by seeing 15 sad Gentoo penguins shuffling around a tiny basement enclosure. It might not be the most important issue in politics right now, but it does matter

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

How much does immigration actually matter to the public? Shabana Mahmood was back in the Commons today outlining her controversial immigration plans.

We keeping hearing that polls show immigration is a top priority for voters - but how are such polls designed, and does tweaking the way we ask the question affect the answer?

Fascinating chat with Calum Weir of @labourtogether.bsky.social on just that

www.newstatesman.com/podcasts/pol...

The Kirstie Allsopp theory of housing It’s completely warping our view of home ownership

"Kirstie Allsopp’s tales of housing market woes may sound unrelatable, but they are the bedtime stories we tell ourselves each evening in front of the TV set."

@anooshc.bsky.social is once again spot-on when it comes to our housing psychological complex

www.newstatesman.com/politics/soc...

Shush stop giving away our secret master plan!

PMQs: Starmer muddles through as Budget danger looms Kemi Badenoch attacked Labour over U-turns and "government by guesswork"

PMQs review!

Kemi Badenoch fluffs her lines - but on tax thresholds she has a point...

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Includes this titbit -

IVF is eroding what it means to be human? What a message for the many wonderful joyous and fully human children (and, indeed, adults) to came into existence that way

How London's penguins got political Some 75 MPs have signed a letter condemning the Sea Life London Aquarium's treatment of its penguins

"I have made a new friend. Her name is Gilbert, and she has recently found herself at the centre of a political row she has no control over. She is also a penguin."

I went to see the Sea Life penguins in their windowless basement on the banks of the Thames

www.newstatesman.com/culture/natu...

A list of all the Labour MPs to criticise Shabana Mahmood's immigration proposals Opposition to the government's asylum reforms is spreading beyond the usual suspects

For those wanting to keep track of all the Labour MPs who have publicly expressed *doubts* about Shabana Mahmood's immigration proposals

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

How London's penguins got political Some 75 MPs have signed a letter condemning the Sea Life London Aquarium's treatment of its penguins

Starring the Sea Life penguins, of course - and also featuring 75 MPs, March Of The Penguins, and the Lubetkin Penguin Pool at London Zoo, which actually injured the penguins it was meant to house, but has found a new destiny as a film set for Harry Styles

www.newstatesman.com/culture/natu...

How London's penguins got political Some 75 MPs have signed a letter condemning the Sea Life London Aquarium's treatment of its penguins

"I have made a new friend. Her name is Gilbert, and she has recently found herself at the centre of a political row she has no control over. She is also a penguin."

I went to see the Sea Life penguins in their windowless basement on the banks of the Thames

www.newstatesman.com/culture/natu...

Lost the cat

🚨ICYMI🚨 Will Trump destroy the BBC? @jonnelledge.bsky.social, @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com & @rmcunliffe.bsky.social join @seththevoz.bsky.social to discuss 👉 linktr.ee/ohgodwhatnow...
#BBCUK #TheBBC #Trump #DonaldTrump #TrumpTheBBC

Why is Russia targeting Africans to fight its war in Ukraine? - Monocle Kenya says more than 200 of its nationals have joined Russian forces. We ask why Russia has its eyes on...

Latest Daily on Monocle Radio. @rmcunliffe.bsky.social and @ashbhardwaj.bsky.social on Russia's reluctant foreign legion, the latest Epstein-related developments and the day's other stuff, and a report from the Tourise tourism summit in Riyadh. monocle.com/radio/shows/...

Yes, but Odysseus instructed the crew to do it.

I guess if you were following the example of Odysseus himself, you'd allow them to contact you but sellotape your fingers together so you couldn't reply?

In entirely non-politics news, my husband has just coined the term "to Odysseus yourself", in the context of moving on from a breakup by blocking your ex on all communication and social media channels so they can no longer tempt or torment you