Mark Pack

a clock in the middle of a forest with the hands on the numbers 7 and 6 Alt: a clock running in the middle of a forest

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The blocking of Andy Burnham from being Labour’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election has certainly been a big talking point among those interested in politics. But YouGov’s newstracker data shows only 2% picking this story as the one they heard most about in the news. The usual reminder applies to such data: just because a story was not the one you heard most about does not mean you didn’t hear about it at all. For example, on this tracker just 9% on 25-26 January said to YouGov the ICE shooting in the US was the story they noticed most in the last week but on 27 January YouGov found that as many as 50% of people were very or fairly closely following stories about recent shootings by ICE.

A reminder of the limitations of data about which news story people have paid the most attention to: plenty of attention gets paid to other stories too.

From the paid-for bonus section of the latest The Week in Polls: buff.ly/2qeegDu

The House by James Graham

Both watched this play online and read parts of the script ahead of recording an episode of my new podcast - Political Fictions. Will have lots to say in that episode! www.politicalfictionspodcast.com

Cost of UK’s drug price with US will come out of NHS budget Department of health, not Treasury, will foot the bill – with costs forecast to reach £9bn

Cost of UK’s drug price with US will come out of NHS budget

Breaking: the head of DOGE in Kent has resigned.

My impression of Matthew was that he was a decent man leading a fundamentally ill-conceived project.

Tbf, you did come up with a better sounding answer than the govt has!

Two things on that: (a) I've read quite a few cattle-grid inquiry reports now, and such concerns have never come up, and (b) the govt hasn't used an MoD argument either to maintain the status quo. Plus the MoD could object under a localised decision making process. (OK, that's three things!)

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New logo application with the Electoral Commission.

Being ideologically consistent also risks being a fast track to shallowness as it can save you from ever having to think much about anything. Not when I'm being consistent, obvs 😀

I would worry about tanks that can't cross a cattle-grid!

Fresh call for national inquiry into Epstein’s links with Mandelson Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Lib Dems call for national inquiry into Epstein’s links with Mandelson

Reform UK admits Kent council’s Musk-inspired cost-cutting drive found little waste County councillors say former Conservative administration ‘weren’t crazy, they were business people’

Reality 1 - 0 Reform UK

But in the general election we'll have MRPs to guide voters too [insert emoji of choice here]

Great titbit exposing the latest in non-devolution:

bsky.app/profile/mark...

Especially as they got it right in the White Paper!

Big Cow has clearly scared off Whitehall...

Other options include the ability to influence behaviour by setting cues - something that mattered for smoking (e.g. it mostly disappearing as a glamorous prop in Hollywood movies) and yet on social media, the government seems oddly unwilling to embrace its own power to set cues too.

Labour u-turns on devolving powers over cattle-grids Welcome

Labour u-turns on devolving powers over cattle-grids: even on such a small issue, the grip of Whitehall is intense lordseyeview.substack.com/p/labour-u-t...

The steady slip in his rating with most pollsters has gone largely unnoticed so far.

Britain Doesn’t Need Trump's Politics | Ed Davey Kemi Badenoch says she doesn’t want centrists in her party.Instead of focusing on what people actually want, like an NHS that works, she’s choosing to imitat...

Britain Doesn’t Need Trump's Politics | Ed Davey

Typical New Elite. Us genuine proles got knocked back from jobs in Nottingham and Hull.

Bookmarking for future reference when people are asking, 'So when exactly do you think Will started going down the same road as Matt?.

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey: 'I ain't going to surrender to Elon Musk' Ed Davey talks battling Elon Musk, why polls consider him a popular prime minister and his stunts show why the left is too serious.

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey: 'I ain't going to surrender to Elon Musk'

It's time now for the Government to put forward legislation to strip Peter Mandelson of his peerage.

It's the very least they can do for the victims and survivors of his friend Jeffrey Epstein. If Mandelson has any shame left, he'll retire from the House of Lords today.

In my case, a batch of WhatsApp messages appeared in bundles of court evidence. Wise advice indeed... and let's hope neither of us have this thread quoted back at us!

Lord Wallace of Tankerness obituary Influential Liberal and Lib Dem politician who served as Scotland’s deputy first minister from the outset of devolution

Lord Wallace of Tankerness obituary

Hear hear.

The latest Scottish and Welsh election polling Welcome to the 197th edition of The Week in Polls (TWIP), and a particularly warm hello to a double wave of new readers driven by last week’s edition about Andy Burnham and by a kind passing mention…

The latest Scottish and Welsh election polling buff.ly/2qeegDu

Look forward to an authoritarian Home Secretary arguing that habeas corpus is archaic too and therefore ok to set aside.

Oh and if you are a journalist who has got into the details and I've unfairly overlooked please put me right and point me at your pieces!