Matthew Whitfield

feels like a new phenomenon that those dissapinted in a government they ostensibly support can, in addition to blaming the 'mess left behind by the last lot', can project their blame into the future and an imagined Reform administration that is somehow causing problems now

Russell T Davies blames Reform and Trump for decline in UK gay rights Screenwriter known for reviving Doctor Who and writing Queer As Folk says LGBT community needs to fight back

and the people who actually hold electoral power in Britain? Might they have something to do with the demonisation of queer and trans people? www.theguardian.com/media/2025/a...

Jim, you’ve cheered me right up! First time I’ve seen the momentum thugs trope dusted down for the Your Party era. Well done! I doubt you’re the first but you did it so effortlessly. First mention of many I hope. Good for you.

a good enough guess, comms are happy to approve this message!

the typo isn’t at all the worst thing, it just underlines a completely bullshit approach - nobody involved actually understands what a university is

if I worked at UoW I would consider changing my name and emigrating rather than be even obliquely associated with what’s been permitted to happen here

Lucky she didn't vote against child poverty or cutting disability benefits or she'd be bringing the party into disrepute.

brass-neckery as art

Sir, that’s David Miliband

Can't fault the clarity of Labour's message on protest. There are BAD protesters who must be punished (Irish musicians, anti-genocide vicars) and there are GOOD protesters whose views deserve respect (masked thugs with petrol bombs trying to start a pogrom)

the right wing press should be used only for the promotion of right wing talking points and policies, like every time a Labour cabinet minister writes for them. That’s just sensible politics!

The debate goes back to the English Civil War, when the King wanted to secure control of the land he had gained, while Cromwell claimed to speak for the farmers. In truth, it was the Diggers who were the real revolutionaries. They wanted land to be in common ownership. Despite the restoration of the monarchy, huge areas of land were known as the Commons and survived for almost another two centuries. That is, until the greed of big landowners won out once again. The Enclosure Acts, one of the most grotesque abuses of power by Parliament, took away the growing and grazing rights of the rural poor. A monstrous attack on working- class life, the enclosures represented the widespread theft of public land, sanctioned by a parliament that was dominated by landowners.

Corbyn, getting some political mileage out of this by writing in the Telegraph (!) and comparing it to the Enclosures is exquisite archive.is/TpNSu

Angela Rayner gives councils green light to sell off allotments Labour's Angela Rayner has approved the sale of eight allotment sites in England since the party came to power, according to a report in the Telegraph. The move has been branded a "kick in the teeth" ...

you may think it would be the easiest thing in the world to simply not do this, to retain a little life-affirming municipal socialism on principle. But no. www.nottinghampost.com/news/uk-worl...

Jeremy Corbyn with very visible bifocal spectacles

can any opticians in the house explain why Jeremy is the last remaining person to have (very) visible bifocals?

I don’t buy this, simply because management consultants already exist in defiance of all the evidence that they’re deleterious to business and society more broadly. Rudimentary software in 1985 could have said ‘cut costs everywhere and outsource everything’, yet they’ve thrived

Ash, do you know the video of Deirdre in the back of a taxi on NYE talking to cabbie about saying goodbye to a rotten year? Used to see it lots on Twitter but it’s been memory holed :/

the utter joy of a grassroots funding model that gives you complete freedom to ignore the worst people

yes people believe any old conspiratorial shit these days, but at least it’s a bubbling, vigorous ecosystem of claim and counterclaim. Before the internet, people quietly invested in myths for decades

Imagine if he had 20 minutes of material on Quinlan Terry just ready to go

‘I once saw Donald Trump in a 12th century church in Herefordshire. A shaft of low, dust-speckled sunlight crossed his face in the falling dusk as he looked intently at the Romanesque carved capitals above him, imbued with an ancient, subtle beauty: a snake, an angel, a hare. Quietly, he wept’

He may talk rubbish but Trump has an eye for beauty, and that is a breath of fresh air | Simon Jenkins The US president promotes classical architecture and loathes ‘ugly’ wind turbines. Keir Starmer would dismiss him as a nimby, but on this Trump has a point, says Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins

is the trolling fun for Simon? I hope so. It’s just tiresome for everyone else www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

More than anything this play just drives home how weird it is that seemingly nobody in "mainstream" politics is actually trying to make anything better. The best we ask for is for the Worse to be smaller and more incremental.

you could save Loose Women with content like this

‘Lambeth council don’t derive 92% of their funding from an anti-car lobby’ is one response to that

‘92% of funding for Reform comes from fossil fuel interests seeking to destroy human life for profit’ is a line the Labour Party should have for free, let alone expecting the BBC to mention it

That is ONE QUARTER. I’m running for the hills.

pretty universally, the lesson to draw from all of these successes is that a thin-lipped vox pop person (the outward expression of a deeply fucked media ecosystem) will disapprove, but you absolutely do it anyway

🎉 The Bernat Klein Studio has been saved!

A coalition of Scottish heritage orgs secured it at auction for £279,000.
This modernist gem by Peter Womersley will now be restored for public + creative use.

👏 Huge congratulations to all involved!

9 whole years?! I think the solution is usually to think about language education from KS1, plasticity and youth of the brain seems crucial in this area of education above any other