Barbara Pilgrim

Just think how long her budget speech is going to be. It's like a Radio 4 panel game show. "You've got 120 minutes to raise £30 billion pounds and you can't mention income tax. And you're time starts....."

There has never been a more frightened government than this one. They are absolutely terrified. It's extraordinary.

Why seek political office if you have a stonking majority and you use it to…endlessly fret about losing your majority rather than running a country? It’s no good. There is no theory for how to make things better. It’s not even well managed decline.

The clever thing about going for stuff like the cycle for work scheme is it’s really noticeable, affects people with lots of media access and platforms, annoys green groups, and raises almost no revenue at the same time. Real win/win/win there.

In 2015 Cameron won an overall majority, and it was thrown away by May in 2017 because of Brexit.

In 2019 Johnson won a thumping majority, and yet he was out of office less than three years later.

In 2024 Starmer won a thumping majority and seems to have no idea what to do with it.

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Watching Wes Streeting on Sky News successfully skewer the overnight Downing Street briefings against him, you almost have to admire the ineptitude of those around Keir Starmer in turning his own leadership problems into a major story while boosting the very politician they sought to kneecap

This is where you land when there's little sign of strategy, comms, fighting spirit... any oomph at all.

I was someone who wanted a dose of 'boring' after the May/Johnson/Truss/Sunak years, but I expected boring-but-effective.

The BBC isn't perfect. But it remains an institution defending British values against a populist, Trump-style takeover.

Party leaders must unite to defend it.

Glad that someone has finally taken responsibility for the appalling assault on democracy that was the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Slightly confused that it's the Director-General of the BBC, but what do I know?

This is the most abysmal, pathetic thing. The BBC head resigning because the corporation is not supine *enough* to the far-right.

Question. Answer.
Question. Answer.
Question. Answer.
Question. Answer.
Question. Answer.
Question. Answer.
Question. Answer.

You might not agree with the answers, but he’s light years away from every other leader that is media trained to appear like they’re answering, when they’re saying nowt.

Zack Polanski wears a white poppy as he overlooks remembrance ceremony at the cenotaph

If they only knew how to zoom in, they might just be able to make out the red poppy too....

England facing drastic measures due to extreme drought next year Government and water companies are devising emergency plans for worst water shortage in decades

I've been talking about this on here for a while. We just assume it will always rain enough, so the management of water in the UK is totally disastrous. Now, after a relatively few dry months, we are approaching a calamity. We have done it to ourselves. Yet again. We are a deeply unserious country.

The 'Great Noticing' Era Ever since Labour came to power, the British media has started to notice a whole series of problems they spent the previous 14 years completely ignoring

How ever since Labour came to power, the British media has started to notice a whole series of problems they spent the previous 14 years completely ignoring
www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/the-great-...

JUST RAISE TAXES. MAKE AN ARGUMENT FOR SOLIDARITY AND SHARED SACRIFICE FOR ONCE

Oh how terrible, I can see why renewables are so unpopular...

My wealth has increased by 25% since June. I have done absolutely nothing to earn this. I just put it in a tracker fund. I will be taxed on that gain at a lower rate than during the Thatcher government.
I’d pay more tax to make this country better and stop Putin in his tracks.

Just nice to see an American progressive leader who is unafraid and victorious. Really no more to it than that. What a beautiful fucking sight.

I wish those weather people on the radio would announce the currently unusual warm weather in a slightly less enthusiastic way.
18 degrees in November is not normal.

Mamdani: "New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and as of tonight, led by an immigrant."

This is yet another example of how you beat the far right. By beating them, not trying to be them. By having your own agenda, not aping theirs. With courage and conviction - and humour - not fear and timidity.

I can't afford to turn on my Aga this winter Our writer's once cosy Norfolk home is feeling the chill as energy bills rise - how will she and her family cope?

The Telegraph with its finger on the pulse of the nation once more.

The buses bill also became law this week, allowing councils in England to finally take control of local services used by millions of people.

Almost nothing from No 10 or Govt Comms as a whole. It's beyond woeful.

Meanwhile Reform are holding multiple press conferences a week.

Halloween is no ungodly American import – just ask the medieval monks and nuns who marketed it | Michael Carter During the feast of All Hallows’ Eve, supernatural tales were a way of promoting prayer for the salvation of suffering souls, says Dr Michael Carter, an English Heritage curator

Halloween is no ungodly American import – just ask the medieval monks and nuns who marketed it | Michael Carter

Insurers calling for trees to be felled as cheap fix for subsidence, say critics Campaigners say problem so common that some of the UK’s most irreplaceable ancient trees in danger of being lost When Linda Taylor Cantrill finally found her dream family home in Exmouth, Devon, it wasn’t the location, the square footage or the local amenities that finally made up her mind – it was the 200-year-old oak tree in the garden. “The way we felt about just standing in the shade of the tree was: ‘We need this house, because look how beautiful it is,’” she told the Guardian. Continue reading...

Insurers calling for trees to be felled as cheap fix for subsidence, say critics

My hot take on this its great that the journalist acknowledges that the Green Party is at record membership, record polling and has huge momentum.

But why say "dentally challenged?"

Who or what is that serving?

The state of journalism.

"I DON'T NEED YOU TO FUCKING REWRITE WHAT I'VE JUST WRITTEN!"

All the Big Government Reforms the Media Hasn't Been Telling You About You probably won’t have read much about these announcements over the past few weeks

Away from the newspaper front pages, the Government has been busy with some pretty major reforms, as well as some smaller initiatives that will affect people’s lives.

It's your call whether it's down to our media, or a failure of comms by the Government that these aren't well-reported...

There is such a thing as 'settled science' — anyone who says otherwise is trying to manipulate you How bad-faith arguments sow doubt by weaponizing scientific humility.

“Science is never settled” sounds reasonable—but it’s often a rhetorical trick to undermine consensus on issues like vaccines or climate change.
Science evolves, but some things are overwhelmingly supported by evidence.
My latest for Live Science
www.livescience.com/...
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Buxton: Why one small town with very little immigration turned to Reform UK How national concerns affected a local election in the heart of the Peak District.

This is an interesting piece but I just read it going “the missing bit is the section on how the internet has fried everyone’s brains”.

www.bbc.com/news/article...