Charlie Matthews

This looks a) incredible and b) like a nervous breakdown waiting to happen

I’m sorry but these things should just not be legal!

Inexcusable and unforgivable. We should not be supporting this in any way

Still the only joke I can ever actually remember, I once had to reel it out in a JOB INTERVIEW when they asked me to tell them a joke (a sadistic thing to do, imo)

Tomorrow in the Commons: debate on cuts to FCDO – it faces the largest cuts of any department, especially in overseas development; Foreign Affairs Committee chair Dame Emily Thornberry warns staff cuts of 15–25% without a clear strategy are 'alarming' (h/t Hansard Society)

A reminder: Matt Goodwin lost heavily in spite of an almost total lack of tactical voting, not because of it.

The combined Green/Labour vote was 66%, versus 28.7% for Reform.

If Labour and the Greens split the vote 50/50 – a total coordination fail – he'd have finished third, not second.

absolutely. As well as all the NHS ones I paid for chicken pox jabs for my kids - not as dangerous as measles obvs but just generally unpleasant and painful, why would I not want to protect them from that if I can?

We’ve been repeatedly told that climate change will remain a priority for U.K. aid - along with global health and humanitarian. If this is what happens to a priority issue what are we going to see elsewhere?

evergreen post

Useful definition of “sectarianism”, the word of the moment

I do find it really weird that Starmer has used the same framing for the result as the Tories and Reform

I mean I have just witnessed a strained-looking Boots security guard attempting to explain Isreal / Palestine to a confused elderly Eastern European man, so maybe that’s what they were aiming for

As ever: WHAT IS YOUR THEORY OF CHANGE

I will never understand what people think they are going to achieve protesting in *Brighton*. The seat of government is one hour away, if you feel so passionately about your issue then get on a train and go somewhere you might actually be noticed

Just take a second to think how Labour would talk about being beaten by a plumber from a working class background in Bolton if they were a man.

I can’t quite believe this is real. From the leader of the party whose candidate lost their deposit, no less

At the time my job meant I was in and around Parliament almost every day and the atmosphere was so weird. Talking about literally anything else felt like playing pretend when there was this huge thing unfolding in the background and absorbing everyone’s thoughts

A sensitive request: I'm looking to speak *anonymously* to parents or trusted adults who have supported teenage children/relatives through early relationships that showed signs of coercive control or other forms of abuse.

[Please do share this post]

DM me or email hannahfearn.journalist@gmail.com

I can’t do audiobooks because I also need to be doing something with my eyes and so inevitably end up reading something else at the same time and not listening to the audiobook

How African Governments Responded to the 2025 Aid Shock We examine what African governments actually did or said in response to announcements of aid cuts in 2025; mapping the type, scope, and intensity of government responses, using the previous year as a ...

This is an interesting an informative study on who/how African countries responded to aid cuts. Unfortunately, the countries most dependent on aid, were least able to effectively respond. www.cgdev.org/blog/how-afr...

The Towner gallery is great

Norman Conquest is one of my favourite history books ever, and I read a lot of them. Not only fascinating in its own right but really eye-opening on how much the U.K. is still shaped by it today

Very 2026 that you can now pay for a premium delivery service, which means that they promise to deliver it to the location it is actually intended for

A state so small, that it will fit neatly in your bedroom closet, from where Danny Kruger will be counting your sexual partners, and Matt Goodwin will check you are using each ovulation wisely and sending you a tax surcharge if not.

I spent a very pleasant couple of hours waiting for a flight out of Monrovia a few years ago, sat in a tiny little bar tucked away in a corner drinking cheap cold beers and watching a baseball match

Exactly - the “right number” of c-sections is the number of women who want one + the number who need one

as someone with a) small children and b) a period house covered in lead paint, this is terrifying but important. (We are in the process of addressing it but it is neither cheap nor straightforward!)

We have just ripped up the grey landlord-issue carpet on our stairs and even though the wood underneath is in a right state it immediately looks SO MUCH better

Sharing a tip I came across on Substack, an extremely satisfying way to spend 5 minutes:
Open Gmail in a web browser.
Replace /mail/ in the URL with /mail/#sub
This will open a list of all the companies you are subscribed to for emails, with an unsubscribe button for each one.

Give me Crazy Mayonaissey or give me death

They were unable to come to a conclusion