Dr Catherine Preston

I'm sad to say that since leaving Twitter/X my sales for live shows have dropped quite a lot - it turns out that even though it's a dreadful place it was still useful for getting the word out about events. So any shares / RTs of my posts about live shows are hugely appreciated!

Petition: Ensure plurality of political coverage across UK broadcast media at all times We want to ensure that a plurality of views from all political parties in Westminster are represented and the nations parliaments are heard all year round, not just election times. The rules for cover...

We need 100 people a day to sign this petition. Thanks all of you for getting word out. Sept13th is the deadline. Please urge anyone you know to sign. We need to send a message we’re not happy with broadcast over-platforming of one party over the rest. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/71...

The Telegraph today carries a news story about someone paying £7.4 million for a handbag (Hello, Lady Bracknell!). And an opinion piece describing a wealth tax as a ‘moral abomination’. What a time to be alive.

Putting my strategy professor hat on to comment about complaints the UK Government has either a rubbish strategy or no strategy.

Nightingale's law: most organisations lack the ability to create a strategy & can't

1. Diagnose problems and their causes,

...

Front cover of study

Q: What do HS2, nuclear power stations and nuclear submarines all have in common?

A: they are 3 current examples of what the government are calling megaprojects.

At the Spending Review, they published a report on why these megaprojects go so badly and what should change.

Thread below.

Oh….

There is lots to be said about the problem of distrust in politics, but the obvious reason that Reform have been able to exploit the opportunities of anti-politics is that they - and Farage in particular - have met no meaningful challenge on the legacy of Brexit.

11 More Government Reforms the Media Hasn't Wanted to Tell You About You probably won’t have read much about these announcements over the past few weeks

🔴11 More Government Reforms the Media Hasn’t Wanted to Tell You About

You probably won’t have read much about these announcements over the past few weeks

bylinetimes.com/2025/07/01/1...

Or that her absence wouldn’t have still led to load of speculation, whatever Starmer said.

The whole McSweeney chat seems like a way to avoid enumerating Labour's strategic mistakes. I think it's important to name them:

• reactionary policies harming trans people and immigrants to appease social-media-addled arseholes

• spinning increased spending as cuts to appease the right-wing press

It's a mark of what's gone wrong with British politics that it's regarded as some kind of career-ending humiliation when a govt has to make concessions to Members of Parliament.

We'd be much better governed if MPs found their backbones more often, & govts routinely had to respond to their concerns.

It’s stupid the way Starmer listening to back benches over welfare reform is automatically categorised as weakness.

U-turns are often necessary, as any driver navigating complex terrain can tell you

One of the big problems Labour face is that people have forgotten how these things are meant to work. Every ‘rebellion’ in the previous Gov was generally driven by a leadership challenge. Too few commentators understand that MPs might have other concerns, such as actual policy.

'Whatever malicious thing can be found anywhere in the world can be found [in London]… actors, jesters, smooth-skinned lads, Moors, flatterers, pretty boys... quacks, belly dancers [and] sorcerers'.

A visitor to London, 1180.

Reform UK is proposing a "Britannia card" that would let wealthy foreigners pay a £250k fee to move to the UK, and live here exempt from all tax on their foreign assets

What they don't say: it would cost the UK £34bn

Report here, and thread below: buff.ly/gpe2Dpf

Nine years ago the godfather of Brexit, Lord Daniel Hannan, predicted life in Brexit Britain in June 2025. Roll the tape…
(VO by @gavinesler.bsky.social. Part 2 below👇)

Keir Starmer’s statement is an exercise in saying as little as humanly possible. It’s three uncontentious general statements followed by a restatement of the existing UK position.

Yes, it’s not a condemnation of the USA’s actions, sure. But it’s not the endorsement some are claiming it is, either.

He’s calling for talks that neither the US nor Israel want, and every diplomat on the planet will know what that means…but he’s not breaking with his traditional allies either - which would be counterproductive.

A war brought to us by people teaching the Democrats a lesson.

Honestly I still can’t stop laughing 😂😅🤣

Women. Know your value and role in their world.

There were so many possible quotes- and one simple way next week your MP can take a stand against this agenda. 1/4

I'M TELLING YOU THAT ENGLAND is the only place where a man stands a chance these days. All you got to do to get away with nearly anything is say you were provoked, or that homosexuality is fun, or that you really didn't know it was arsenic you shoved into the tea, and they practically decorate you for what they used to hang you for. --Grand Forks Herald, 13 Oct 1957

1957

Why do so many people on BlueSky sound like toddlers complaining they’ve been given a ham and cheese sandwich instead of a cheese and ham sandwich?

So you want the PM to spend his time policing social media? If anyone should do it, it should be the Home Sec. And the response to the violence last year should be warning enough.

And has still to be fully implemented. So what more are you expecting Starmer to do? As I said, he doesn’t have executive power so we have to wait for the legislation.

I’m still struggling with the ones who can’t distinguish between the ‘Government haven’t done’ & ‘I haven’t seen’. Do they expect a personal weekly update about progress on their pet projects? Or Starmer to make sure they know by DMing them?

It might be worth reading explainers on the link. Lot of power invested in Ofcom who are still drawing up thresholds & regs so will be Summer before we will even see those. Legislation takes time & authorised bodies to implement. PM doesn’t have executive powers like US president (thank goodness).

Welcome to the archives.

Political volatility has been taking us by surprise for a while now. Here’s little exercise to illustrate. Rewind two years and take a look at where the polls were, what people expected, and what they failed to anticipate. You have to go back a while before politics is predictable even 2 yrs out 1/

The 'Millionaire Exodus' the UK Media Told You About Never Actually Happened The equivalent of 30 stories a day were published about an exodus of wealthy people that a new study finds was "non existent"

🔴 The ‘Millionaire Exodus’ the UK Media Told You About Never Actually Happened

The equivalent of 30 stories a day were published about an exodus of wealthy people that a new study finds was “non existent”
bylinetimes.com/2025/06/10/t...