Christopher Silver

Much good stuff in here but this is the heart of it

I don’t think it applies to local government. You need a recognised sub state office to be able to leverage opposition to central government - First Ministers, Mayors, Governors can take on a bigger representative role in a way that a council leader can’t.

"Our credible plan is also an acrostic."

(This is, genuinely, the actual Conservative press release.)

"We're going to create superintelligence" How about making outlook search work first. How about that

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BREAKING: Our client Mario Guevara, an Emmy-winning journalist detained by ICE in retaliation for livestreaming law enforcement activity, will be deported tomorrow to El Salvador.

Mario and his family are being punished for his reporting. This cruelty is meant to stifle our free press.

On their holiest day, Manchester’s Jews face their ‘darkest of moments’ Amid fasting and prayer, terror comes to Crumpsall

On their holiest day, Manchester’s Jews face their ‘darkest of moments’.

This is a superb and moving piece of reporting by my @manchestermill.bsky.social colleagues.

manchestermill.co.uk/on-their-hol...

Glasgow student took his own life after 'tragic' university error Ethan Brown, 23, of Coatbridge, was told he didn't have the grades to graduate in December 2024.

As a module leader and course director, I struggle to see how this can happen. Except that the RG over-recruit and there are so many students on courses nobody can monitor them.

share.google/a0rqaLfYUnCn...

It’s the same again this morning!! What the hell is going on at 6 Music!!? Why is immigration the first item on almost every news bulletin?! 🤯

“We studied more than 70 different elections that took place in 12 western European countries over several decades, and found that when mainstream parties take more anti-immigration positions, it leads to more support for the radical right, not less.”

I do wonder if some elements of the leadership would rather face electoral oblivion than admit to the experience of the 2010s. You can’t project a coherent narrative while systematically revising even the most mundane connections with the recent past - a kind of centrist Stalinism in that respect!

STV to cut 60 jobs and axe north news programme The Scottish broadcaster is seeking £2.5m of savings by next year after announcing a £0.2m loss.

How endangered a species do journalists in Scotland have to become before civil society and the state step in to conserve what’s left?

STV to cut 60 jobs and axe north news programme www.bbc.com/news/article...

An update on that insane lease term where the landlord owns everything you create during the tenancy:

A photo of a TV screen showing a list of TV channels, with prominent logos. At #1 is GB News, at #2 is The News Hour, and at #3 is CNN.

Malignant normality around us: when my mum switches on her Samsung TV, this is the default screen. Far-right propaganda channel GB News perpetually appears at #1 on the presented list of channels.

It still is/does - you just don’t get a decent salary, expense account, or a relatively stable and cosy political consensus to operate within.

bsky.app/profile/chad...

How does the inclusion of this (speculative) detail about the suspect’s partner serve the public interest?

Another thing I love about the present moment - Musk regularly goes 'don't worry, we are going to change THAT' whenever Grok produces an answer that doesn't align with his priors, yet the British Labour government thinks that they are going to be able to land an argument on there in 2029.

Starmer as it happens hasn't made a public speech outside chamber since mid-July. Hard to think of a PM who has made so little use of the normative power of his office. Unlike eg Cameron who really did think No 10 had the capacity and obligation to attempt to frame debate on all manner of issues

The UK government occupies a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, and controls enough nuclear weapons to obliterate a continent. But it's afraid of these people. People its own population despises.

Elon Musk addresses the ‘unite the kingdom’ march crowd via video link – UK politics live Met Police believe 110,000 people attending rally, with one group in Whitehall throwing projectiles at officers

The owner of and absolute unquestionable algorithm controller of a preferred communications channel of the UK Government calling for violence and the overthrow of the Government. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

He’s very good at channeling a creeping sense of “nothing works & nobody cares.” Tougher sell is moving beyond basic 40 year premise of UK politics - that you mitigate collapsing systems via individual escape routes (rent > ownership, buses > cars, social > private etc).
bsky.app/profile/zack...

Unprecedented collapse in Higher Education and yet I don’t know of a single manager who has overseen it get shitcanned - just academics.

Spike in the use of “I rise to speak…” is shown via Hansard in the Commons and Lords in the past year

Read the full story here: www.politicshome.com/news/article...

"Money buys influence in British democracy"

My evidence from Parliament yesterday on threats from foreign influence in British politics.

Full video on the Democracy for Sale YouTube channel (Do subscribe!!)

www.youtube.com/@Democracy_f...

This is the official spokesperson for the White House, stating that the President hopes to deploy the United States military to occupy every city controlled by the political party that opposes him. Explicitly.

We're hiring a reporter And we want your help finding them

If I was starting again I'd *definitely* go for this. The Mill and its other group of newspapers are really exciting. manchestermill.co.uk/email/d78b2b...

Liberal democracy collapsed on 9/11 - and our politics is descending into conflict over who gets to shelter in the comfier corners of the ruins.

bsky.app/profile/shoa...

In a just universe he’d be saying these exact words from a golf club bar stool and the staff would wear vacant expressions of weary indulgence, just like those on show here.
bsky.app/profile/atru...

When flags are used to bring people together rather than tear them apart. #BargaScottishweekend - a celebration of emigration/immigration.

Just gonna put it out there - an organisation whose primary driver is to pretend the past decade of its history didn’t happen will never alight on effective forms of leadership!