Martin Lewis

Wallsend, Tyneside, 1963, photo by Colin Jones.

Inspired by a post I just saw in which someone admitted they hadn’t seen a single episode of Friends nor the film Love Actually… what cultural hole do you have that’s a bit weird for your generation?

I’ll go first: I haven’t seen Dirty Dancing.

Same here. I have, however, sat on the Friends sofa, which makes it even worse/better.

This morning, the Trump Administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will. It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.

I think a lot of this is primarily about what many of us in the media now rewards. I chaired quite a few fringes at Labour conference, and at all of them I walked away impressed by the quality of all the MPs and their contributions.

Can't access the original study, but surely the combination of worsening staff-student ratios and government and media hostility to the HE sector are among the root causes (nice picture of Sheffield's Western Bank Library, though)

Kemi must be hugely popular in Stanley.

Why is Starmer becoming more confident criticising Brexit? Because quietly, without any great drama, a consensus has been reached. It's a disaster inews.co.uk/opinion/brex...

Welsh Government steps up calls for Crown Estate devolution Chris Haines, ICNN Senedd reporter Deputy first minister Huw Irranca-Davies has pledged to continue to press the case for powers over the Crown Estate amid a growing chorus of calls for devolution to ...

Deputy first minister Huw Irranca-Davies has pledged to continue to press the case for powers over the Crown Estate amid a growing chorus of calls for devolution to Wales

Beginning to form the extraordinary thought that maybe the way to beat Reform is to attack Reform.

British Politics' Midlife Crisis Why British Parties Can't Make Peace with Their Actual Voters

On the morning of Keir Starmer's conference speech here's a new post on an odd psychopathology in British politics - our main parties don't like the people who vote for them - the dreaded Professional Managerial Class. And so they are acting out like a divorced dad seeking cooler voters. 1/n

Recently installed the Substack app, mainly to read posts by Ian Dunt & a few others. However, its X/Bluesky-like home page, which you see when you first open the app, is stuffed with far-right bile. Is it like this for others, & is there something about Substack's bakground that I need to know?

This may become a very important paper. While the detail of the orbital mechanics is pretty dense, it's also reassuring that this work is still taking place, given the possibility that something more dangerous than 2024YR4 might be identified in the future (h/t @unlikelyworlds.bsky.social)

Speaking at an event at the Labour conference, Sadiq Khan says: “I think it is a badge of pride that bad people hate London.”

Burnham at fringe #Lab25 event: "Look at the last decade we've had. Shouldn't we start calling out the disaster that #Brexit has been, more directly? They are the people who took us down this path. That's their doing. And we've got to absolutely hold them accountable for that." ~AA

Stella Creasy MP, Chair of the Labour Movement for Euro Europe, makes the case for a much more ambitious reset of Britain’s relationship with the EU to a packed meeting at
#LabourPartyConference

Burnham attacks ‘climate of fear’ and calls for ‘debate around direction’ – LabourList Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has hit out at a "climate of fear" within the Labour Party and said he wants to "open debate" arond…

Andy Burnham hits out at "climate of fear" within Labour Party and urges "debate about direction" ahead of elections next year

I wonder whether, if the polls don't move in the next year, the government will have to consider electoral reform to end FPTP, in the interests of defending democracy. I also wonder whether, if a rainbow anti-Reform coalition becomes necessary, whether what's left of the Tories would join it.

Together for Wales Why progressives in Wales must unite behind Plaid Cymru to stop Reform

Why progressives in Wales must unite behind Plaid Cymru to stop Reform | Liz Saville Roberts

I just checked the BBC news website. Eventually, at the bottom of the politics section after the negative Labour stories...

No Reform in Scotland's central belt. Welsh valleys, you should be ashamed of yourselves, when you have a real alternative in @plaidcymru.bsky.social

A sweeping assertion that can be safely discounted. And polling regularly showed a whopping majority of Brits were in favour of FoM when it was framed (correctly) as a reciprocal right instead of being conflated with immigration.

This same asymmetry of passion characterised the pre-referendum brexit debate, to the intense frustration of many pro-EU people. If only we'd marched nearly a million strong *before* the vote.

There's a persistent impression about the migration debate in the UK that one side - that of migration sceptics - cares a lot more.

I've got a nagging feeling that's not only untrue but having a disastrous effect.

⬇️ My latest post on Substack ⬇️

georginasturge.substack.com/p/a-monopoly...

While there's much to agree with here, the statement "with the rise of Reform accounted for mainly by Labour voter defection" is surely debatable. Most polling has shown Labour losing much more support to other progressive parties than to Reform, some of whose growth has come from didn't vote.

Seems like a pretty good attack line to me

Thanks to BBC news, we've learned a new adjective today: "blistering" which means rambling, incoherent, insulting, and ineffectual.

I remember it like it was yesterday.

It's outrageous from the US President, but I'm proud of @london.gov.uk that he's got inside Trump's head so easily.

I've read a fair bit of SF and future history, but none of it featured moments like this.