Yeah, well, trolling Labour voters who object to Home Office immigration policies as expendable “bourgeoise” on front page of The Times yesterday was both bad timing and bad politics.
Hi Guy, agree the letter got tone wrong but he didn’t say “fuck off” to anyone, even though in too many cases “off” they have “fucked”.
Several canvassers say the *settlement* reforms (make over a million voters wait 10-15 years for settlement, not 5, is a top of mind concern for those affected & friends, family
A basic fallacy in Home Office citing more in common polling on asylum reform - a different issue - and net migration
My column for The Guardian this morning where I suggest that tne PM, having tried quite a few ither incarnations,would serve the country better by being himself. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Just got this timely tome by James Macintyre. Look forward to reading.
The BBC was not the most over-excited media outlet during this week’s frenzied spasm about the PM. But with right wing commentators like Harry Cole (all the way from MAGAland) who usually foams and froths at mere mention of the BBC now pouring rare praise on its coverage, something must be wrong.
Those saying Mandelson is the “greatest scandal ever” presumably refer to what happened under the last Labour govt in 09/10. For it to a scandal about this one, they must show No10 knew more about Epstein links than was in public domain when so many of them hailed his appointment as a “masterstroke”
My column in the Guardian today on the incoherence, so far, of Labour’s effort to tackle Reform. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Andy Burnham is a far better human being than Boris Johnson but the precedent of letting a big city mayor return to parliament before his term is over - amid a media frenzy of leadership speculation - isn’t a great one. x.com/david_camero...
Much of the media will be very disappointed by this decision to deny Andy Burnham special dispensation to fight a by-election. Those parts of the media are bored and restless unless we’re changing PM every couple of years. But it looks nuts to the rest of the world.
I’ve always liked Andy Burnham but the prospect of him returning to Westminster has already added to inward-looking psychodrama that does no one any good. And an unnecessary by-election for Mayor of Manchester might well have resulted in long term damage to his reputation too.
Strange that the strategic “justification” for the US annexing Greenland - the security threat posed by Russia gaining more access to Arctic waters - is predicated on melting ice caps from climate change, the existence of which is disputed by so many Trumpy Reformy types.
It will not surprise you to learn that Toby Youngs 'Free Speech Union' has obtained a High Court injunction banning the publication of a list of its donors open.substack.com/pub/democrac...
Westminster journalists are having a tantrum over No 10 briefings. But the real problems are their right wing bias and focus on gossip over policy
✏️ @tombaldwin66.bsky.social
My article for @thenewworldmag.bsky.social on why today’s political journalism is at least part of what’s wrong with Britain’s politics. www.thenewworld.co.uk/tom-baldwin-...
This week Keir Starmer biographer @tombaldwin66.bsky.social joins the herd and lays out why it's time for the centre-left to get over its timidity on Brexit and offer something to a huge portion of Labour's vote currently looking elsewhere. It’s a big conversation. open.substack.com/pub/nocows/p...
"The thump of Trump’s footsteps across the global stage have once more ensured it’s impossible to hear the government’s efforts to reconnect with the British electorate."
✍️ @tombaldwin66.bsky.social
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Keir Starmer’s stated preference in today’s big BBC interview for greater EU single market alignment - and access - rather than a customs union deal is a significant choice which, in terms of economic growth, would probably do more good. ukandeu.ac.uk/thinking-swi...
For those who prefer seriousness and substance to three word slogans and sound bites, that long-form interview of Keir Starmer by Laura Kuenssberg was a whole lot more interesting than watching politicians defend themselves against the “gotcha” nonsense we often get from broadcasters.
Keir Starmer’s stated preference in today’s big BBC interview for greater EU single market alignment - and access - rather than a customs union deal is a significant choice which, in terms of economic growth, would probably do more good. ukandeu.ac.uk/thinking-swi...
Your regular dose of hypocrisy from Farage who, unlike apparently Abd El Fattah, has made neither a full nor a sincere apology for all the hateful racism he spewed out as a young man.
There are quotes from a “well-placed government source” in this piece of Daily Mail “journalism”’ which read like they were written by, well, a Daily Mail “journalist”. I’m sure that’s merely a coincidence in an article which must’ve taken its author fully 5 mins to research.
A bit weird that FT tags this piece, repeating the lame excuses Brexiters make for the abject failure of their project, as being by the “chair of Marshall Wace”. Surely it would be more accurate to say “by the owner of the Spectator, Unherd and v right wing GB News channel”?
My piece for The Guardian today on why it mignt be a good idea for Keir Starmer to recall his own history on Europe. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The big, big self-delusion at the heart of almost everything Labour is doing wrong is that through some old-time Labour economics you can avoid having an electoral coalition that looks a lot like 'Labour in 2024, Australian Labor in 2025, the Canadian Liberals in 2025' or indeed 'Harris in 2024'.
Plus self-regard - the 2024 campaign was all about targeting a group of voters who in the end did not actually come back and there is a huge amount of 'must not admit that it did not work' motivated reasoning going on.
Right now, even as the latest rows smoulder away, Starmer is still better placed than anyone else to take some of the heat out of our politics
✏️ @tombaldwin66.bsky.social
Maybe it’s pure coincidence that Nigel Farage recently promised to “bring crypto in from the cold” after being handed a £9m donation from Christopher Harborne, a Thai-based investor in, er, crypto. Maybe…https://www.globalgovernmentfintech.com/nigel-farage-crypto-in-from-cold/
