Emma Hardy

How Keir Starmer’s ‘insurgent government’ could outpace its opponents Keir Starmer has governed in defiance of expectations. From the seat of 10 Downing Street, every policy announcement eschews some past version of the prime minister: the liberal human rights lawyer, t...

How Keir Starmer’s ‘insurgent government’ could outpace its opponents

Harnessing the momentum of events, the PM's premiership-defining gamble also serves as a trap for Farage and Badenoch

Latest long-read for @politics-co-uk.bsky.social 👇
www.politics.co.uk/week-in-revi...

We are providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school.

Under Labour, every young person will have access to early support to address problems before they escalate.

🇪🇺🇬🇧 Through my first set of meetings in Brussels. The praise for Starmer is overwhelming: “What he has managed to do is not just good for him. It's good for all of us. Absolutely top notch. This is the UK at its best. The UK we have always admired.

MIRROR: 700,000 reasons to smile #TomorrowsPapersToday

Hundreds of thousands of parents can now access 15 hours funded childcare for 9-month-olds – how to apply Hundreds of thousands of eligible working parents can now access 15 hours government-funded early education for children aged 9-months-old and older after new rules kicked in from 1 September 2024. Th...

Labour is making childcare more accessible and affordable through our Plan for Change.

✅ Protecting parents from hidden costs
✅ Investing in the system ahead of expansion
✅ Spreading good practice👇🏻
educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2025/02/how-...

Why is there a witch hunt against Rachel Reeves?

Rishi Sunak who was also Chancellor literally made his fortune in the financial crash at everyone's expense 🤷‍♂️

Inflating small indiscretions beyond all measure of proportion, that's toxic

Is this really the type of society we want to live in?

Government to spend extra £200mn on flood defences in England Environment secretary Steve Reed tells FT previous Tory administration committed a ‘dereliction of duty’

The first duty of any government is to protect its citizens.

The Tories failed to maintain our flood defences putting lives and livelihoods at risk.

Labour is investing a record £2.65bn to upgrade and build defences to protect communities.

www.ft.com/content/4d8a...

For example, in her speech, Ms Braverman talks about there being a “fifth column” in British society. A few years ago there would have been talk about her losing the whip. Now such conspiracy is welcomed as telling hard truths. The whole discourse has shifted very rapidly.

We need to talk about Suella Braverman Podcast Episode · The News Agents · 30/01/2025 · 35m

NEW: Latest @newsagents.bsky.social.

We need to talk about Suella Braverman.

She made a speech in DC this week which barely caused a murmer. But it was a speech which had echoes of Tommy Robinson. We need to talk about the radicalisaton of the mainstream right.

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

MIRROR: Reeves Revolution #TomorrowsPapersToday

Keir Starmer responds to Kemi Badenoch attacks that he’s a “lawyer, not a leader”.

PM says: “She’s not a lawyer, she’s not a leader, if she keeps going like this, she’s going to be the next lettuce”.

#PMQs 🥬

Asked Wes Streeting at the Fabians New Year conference how Labour deals with Trump and the rise of the right across the world

Streeting says: “It’s our responsibility to be the light on the hill for the progressive world.”

Over 4,000 nurseries, schools and colleges have joined the #EducationNaturePark to improve biodiversity and tackle climate change. Great to join the Nature Park Schools Forum at Natural History Museum to see how children are shaping the future of this brilliant programme

YouTube video by Met Office - UK Weather 23/01/2025 – Dangerous winds from Storm Éowyn – Met Office weather forecast UK

Storm Éowyn will hit the UK on Friday morning and is set to bring damaging gusts. Red and amber warnings have been issued⚠️

Watch our latest update on Storm Éowyn 👉 www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYVc...

A chart showing headline and core CPI inflation - core inflation has fallen.

We had really good news this month is on underlying inflation.

Core inflation (excluding energy and food) fell by 0.3ppts, to 3.2% in December.

This is a chunky and important fall.

Since announcing my diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer a few weeks ago I’ve become increasingly aware of how misunderstood the condition is.

So I want to debunk a few misconceptions:

1/7 (short posts!)

‘I doorknocked for Labour then racist deepfake ruined my life’ Cheryl Bennett thought she was doing a friend a favour when she agreed to post party leaflets around Dudley. Instead, it nearly got her arrested

this is a genuinely alarming story via Gabriel Pogrund in Sunday Times:

deepfake video seen by two million people online falsely made it look as if a teacher - delivering election leaflets - had made a racist tirade

www.thetimes.com/uk/law/artic...

Remember all these headlines describing a brief rise in government borrowing costs as being "market mayhem", followed by a week of demands for Rachel Reeves to quit?

Well one week later and it turns out UK gilts are now outperforming every other G7 country this year, aside from the US

Index of gilt market general news coverage down 80% today.

Looking at the 'economic commentators still active on X' components, it's down almost 100%

Believe it or not, gilts have now outperformed all G7 bonds this year apart from U.S. Treasuries.

(h/t @chriswhittall.bsky.social for setting me on this path)

The reporting of this stuff has been an absolute clowncar

Chris Bryant, "We have a backlog of 7 million people on the NHS.. Before covid there was a 4.8 million backlog"

"We've had 14 years of not caring for the NHS and now we have got to put it right"

"It is our historic duty to do that because we owe it to the British people" #BBCQT

UK national debt increased from about £1 trillion to about £2.5trillion under Badenoch's Conservative party - discuss

Ryan Wellings has been sentenced to six years for his abuse of Kiena Dawes.

He beat her when she was pregnant, threatened to drill out her teeth, told her she may as well kill herself.

Kiena wrote in her suicide note he was a "monster" who "killed me"

t.co/MSJHf36qiJ

@ liz truss' legal team #pmqs

BREAKING 🚨

A ceasefire agreement between the Israeli government and Hamas has been reached.

The deal secures the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, the release of Palestinian detainees held by Israel, and the withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza.

It’s the dress rehearsal for the Not the BBC Panto tonight before we open on Friday.
Tickets are going well, with a good crowd expected in Brid and 900+ tickets sold for our 2 Hull shows but we’d love some more of you to come - Saturday evening’s show has good seats - details:

Twelve Reform UK councillors to resign over Nigel Farage’s leadership Exclusive: Departures will add to pressure on party leader after Elon Musk said he was ‘not up to the job’

EXCL: A dozen Reform UK councillors have given notice of their intention to resign en masse in protest at Nigel Farage’s leadership @benquinn75.bsky.social reports www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Nazir Afzal, "When Keir Starmer and I left the CPS we had the highest rate of child sexual abuse prosecutions in our history.. That is Keir Starmer's legacy"

"Boris Johnson said that investigating child sexual abuse was money spaffed up a wall"

Art trail of 50 giant rats to honour Hull musician Mick Ronson - BBC News The trail will pay tribute to 1960's band The Rats, whose musicians included the late Mick Ronson.

#Hull has had toads, #PhilipLarkin, and moths, #AmyJohnson, but now it will have a rats art project this time in memory of local bloke #MickRonson

#TheRats #SpidersFromMars

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...