Watto is the epitome of labour machine politics so expecting him to recognise it's a problem is like asking a river to flow backwards
01.03.2026 07:55 β π 4 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Watto is the epitome of labour machine politics so expecting him to recognise it's a problem is like asking a river to flow backwards
01.03.2026 07:55 β π 4 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0I'm enjoying all the finger-wagging geopolitical instaboffin posts about the difference between Khomeini and Khamenei which nonetheless manage to misspell the latter.
01.03.2026 07:48 β π 11 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Fwiw Simons's statement is a disgusting repetition of smears against Paul Holden. But if I were a junior minister tethered to a clearly doomed PM I would consider a forced resignation to have a significant silver lining. Frees you up factionally come May...
28.02.2026 19:59 β π 10 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0'Josh'.
28.02.2026 19:02 β π 40 π 4 π¬ 2 π 0
βIt is still common to hear people in Westminster talk of the governmentβs seriousness and focus on delivery. It is hard to square this with its apparent willingness to embroil itself in scandal.β
James Butler (@piercepenniless.bsky.social) on Peter Mandelsonβs fall.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
I know I keep pointing this out but: if you want immigrants to contribute to British society, integrate across community lines, become engaged civic actors, you actually *want* them to get citizenship, and as soon as possible in fact!
28.02.2026 15:40 β π 462 π 112 π¬ 9 π 7
βThe hairβs breadth that appeared to separate the two progressive options β a split vote that might have enabled a Reform victory β turned out to be a chasm.β
@piercepenniless.bsky.social on the Greensβ by-election victory.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/fe...
Do they have secret parallel universe polling which suggests there is any support they can afford to lose?
28.02.2026 11:05 β π 5 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
On the podcast: Sam Jones, European security correspondent at the Financial Times, and Anna Stavrianakis, professor of international relations at the University of Sussex, join @piercepenniless.bsky.social to explore βhard powerβ and Europe's militarisation:
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
It's certainly an interesting choice for a party polling around 18% to decide it wants to *shed* support.
28.02.2026 10:36 β π 120 π 28 π¬ 4 π 1Neither Baldwin, nor his son, nor I have claimed that. That's your fantasy. It's entirely legitimate to suggest that a government can exert diplomatic pressure on a delinquent state by restricting or cancelling training or supply contracts, and impose/tighten end user standards.
28.02.2026 10:33 β π 4 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0My experience of the upper echelons of the Labour Party involved being condescended to by the incredibly thick & unpleasant, & thinking that in any other walk of life you would get punched in the mouth for treating people like that. Impossible to overstate how high on their own fumes they are.
28.02.2026 10:24 β π 196 π 60 π¬ 7 π 6
A good overview. Also includes sound advice for Labour should it wish to revive its fortunes.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/fe...
Cool and clear from @piercepenniless.bsky.social
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/fe...
Thanks Anthony!
28.02.2026 09:29 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Thank you! (Irresistible...)
27.02.2026 19:18 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
βAll traditional parties were beaten by two insurgents taking 70 per cent of the vote. A wide field of plausible competitors under first past the post will make the next general election difficult to predict. β
@piercepenniless.bsky.social on the Greensβ victory.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/fe...
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/fe...
27.02.2026 16:26 β π 15 π 2 π¬ 2 π 0Yes that's perfectly right of course!
27.02.2026 16:25 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Wow, 'consequences', obviously. I shouldn't be allowed to type on a phone.
27.02.2026 16:13 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0Wrote up the by-election, the Green victory and the conferences for Labour at the @lrb.co.uk www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/fe...
27.02.2026 15:55 β π 149 π 50 π¬ 6 π 1No, that he might not even last till then!
27.02.2026 15:14 β π 4 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0This is a startlingly mad missive. Like a total failure to grasp what's gone wrong. Above all, it's a series of completely implausible and self-flattering excuses. I was convinced they'd leave him to carry the can in May, but on the back of this I'm not so sure.
27.02.2026 15:10 β π 66 π 11 π¬ 4 π 1Even more insane - and a sign of how small-time and insular Labour politicians are - is blaming it all, somehow, on George Galloway. Never mind Green drugs policy, they should check the cabinet office for crack.
27.02.2026 14:11 β π 63 π 5 π¬ 0 π 2I don't think calling the people who voted for the nice woman who thinks working hard should grant you a decent life unhinged extremists is going to work out brilliantly for Labour.
27.02.2026 14:09 β π 424 π 81 π¬ 8 π 0For all their wretchedness at a national level, sometimes Labour in local government seem to have perfected a very nasty kind of cruelty.
27.02.2026 13:13 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0For my entire adult life the Greens have continually drawn links between poverty, exploitation and ecological destruction. Every time they're explicit about it, and critical of the government, Labour (and political journalists trained on the duopoly) react like a scalded cat.
27.02.2026 13:00 β π 111 π 29 π¬ 1 π 0
After the uprising of the 26 February
The Leader of the Labour Party
had leaflets distributed in the lobby corridor
which stated that the people
had squandered the confidence of the government ...
Swift by Charles Jervas (1710, NPG); quotation from Swift's 'Argument Against Abolishing Christianity'.
'my discourse [is] intended only in defence of nominal Christianity, the other having been for some time wholly laid aside by general consent, as utterly inconsistent with all our present schemes of wealth and power'
Jonathan Swift anticipating (1708) what Reform means by a 'Christian country'.
A number of political correspondents should be reflecting on having been so easily led by the nose by Labour in the last few days.
27.02.2026 08:52 β π 39 π 8 π¬ 1 π 0