Martin Cullen

Labour is stubborn in defeat because it knows this: we face the belated end of the political 20th century | John Harris In Gorton and Denton, I heard again and again that people wanted seismic political change – Labour and the Tories are no longer part of that conversation, says Guardian columnist John Harris

Latest from me: By dint of its relationship with the trade unions alone, Labour still plays a vital role in our democracy – but it also looks dangerously like an archaic legacy party. Its old majoritarian dreams are over
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I also think it’s wrong to dismiss Muslim voters as just motivated solely by single issues as well as agency denying . As I said on @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social last night voters we spoke to shred affordability and cost of living in common as reasons to turning to the Greens.

Hard agree.

I love my weird little wins.

🚨 BREAKING 🚨
The UK Govt has quietly published - without announcement - the Joint Intelligence Committee/DEFRA report it suppressed last October. They tried to sneak it out in the midst of crisis. Read and share:

“Global Biodiversity Loss, Ecosystem Collapse & National Security.”
(link below)

Zack Polanski gets under the skin of exactly the right people The Green leader has yet to advance workable, deeply thought through solutions to Britain’s biggest problems—but nor has Reform

The wailing, gnashing of teeth and sheer catastrophising over the Greens’ by election victory! Maybe it had something to do with their policies, most (not all) of which resonate with many people. And a rather good candidate. app.prospectmagazine.co.uk/story/72550/...

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

I would like to know *precisely* who came up with this line / response because it really is extremely ill advised and almost farcically resonant of everything Labour has done badly. Ofc at the end of the day the responsibility lies with Starmer.

🧵 Quick thoughts on the result. First it really is a seismic result for the Greens, they've never got more than 10.2% in a by-election, today they won with 4x that. Two big takeaways: Electoral fragmentation has eaten two party politics and the Polanski poll bounce is very real

Far from the first to say it, but this result should not be that surprising. In the last few months, Greens have emerged as Labour's largest source of partisan loss, and as our recent tactical voting study showed, are the more attractive tactical voting choice for red bloc voters.

I've been militant on people doing this with other parties, so I'll just remind that aggregate vote change charts cannot be "clear" about voter movement, you need individual-level data to be able to be draw conclusions. Words like "suggest" or "likely" would be better, but still aren't 100%.

Again, why "deliverism" can't deliver for a government, if there is a widespread view that life in the past was houses and holidays on tap whenever you wanted them, oh but we also have to look after the environment, the elderly etc.

Not an easy job being government.

The Green victory in Denton is the result which will have the biggest effect on Labour, far more so than a Reform win.

The blithe assumption progressives have nowhere else to go has been proved catastrophically wrong.

Can’t help thinking of this quote from a Labour minister, a year ago…

‘A devastating force’: how recent Mediterranean storms turned to tragedies Atmospheric machine-gun has fired storm after deadly storm at the region this year, leaving a trail of widespread destruction

‘A devastating force’: how recent Mediterranean storms turned to tragedies

- Atmospheric machine-gun has fired storm after deadly storm at the region this year, leaving a trail of widespread destruction

#climatecrisis
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...

Maps of the rainfall associated with two of the nine storms hitting the Mediterranean in January and February 2026.

The Mediterranean is a hotspot of climate change, not only due to more heat, droughts and wildfires, but increasingly severe rainstorms led to catastrophic flooding this winter, highlighting again the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels. www.worldweatherattribution.org/increasingly...

New

Six proposals for improving public procurement

Yesterday we saw what was wrong - here are suggestions for what could be put right

By me

‘The bathrooms were rank, but we didn’t care’: how the grimy-but-great CBGB changed rock for ever Half a century ago, the famed New York venue run by a former marine and folk singer was ground zero for the punk and new wave scenes. Now the bands who played there are being celebrated on a 101-track...

Superb article. A photo of Television I've never seen before and..those toilets! 😁

www.theguardian.com/music/2026/f...

This Green use of Starmer-Modi resembles a leaflet that Labour put out in Batley in 2021 about Boris Johnson + Modi. The party was heavily criticised for that. I think the lesson is not to pitch to voters from one background with messages you can't show + defend to voters of every background.

How rightwing rhetoric has risen sharply in the UK parliament – an exclusive visual analysis In the past five years, MPs’ attitudes in the House of Commons towards immigration have swung harder to the right than at almost any other time in the last century

This is a truly exceptional analysis of British parliamentary speeches on immigration by @theguardian.com showing we are living in a uniquely nativist era.

You know how it feels like some places are just special? Wold Newton is one. Marked by a very large chalk spring feeding the ever mysterious Gypsy Race, which runs on flanked by an incredible abundance of ancient monuments.

Reform mayor courted US oil and gas executive about fracking in UK Exclusive: Documents show Andrea Jenkyns asked how she could help firm after major gas find in Lincolnshire

Farage wants to frack Britain - like Liz Truss did - and his acolytes are cosying up to the fracking companies:

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Rapid UK coastal erosion throws spotlight on £40bn nuclear plant More than 27 metres of cliff lost over a year in area just 2km from Sizewell C

Rapid UK coastal erosion throws spotlight on £40bn #nuclear plant

Story by @attractamooney.bsky.social and Rachel Millard

HT @carbonbrief.org
www.ft.com/content/7f09...

Under water, in denial: is Europe drowning out the climate crisis? Even as weather extremes worsen, the voices calling for the rolling back of environmental rules have grown louder and more influential

Severe storms and flooding have been pounding southern Europe and the UK this year. This is the reality of the climate crisis. But even as its impacts become more frequent and severe, climate action is increasingly under threat globally.
www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...

Fintan O'Toole: Britain’s King Charles should heed the lesson of the crumbling Irish Catholic Church Abusers did not bring down the hierarchy here, it was down to the repeated cover-ups by bishops

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...

Channel 4’s Dirty Business is a clarion call to nationalise the water industry As the drama shows, private firms no longer able to pollute the coast of England of Wales just switched to rivers instead

Excellent piece by @sandralaville who did so much of the early work to unocver this stinking scandal
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Oil giants record $467bn in profits since Russia's invasion of Ukraine Shell, BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and TotalEnergies saw collective profits jump by 125 per cent following Russia's invasion, according to a new investigation from Global Witness

As calls grow for oil and gas companies to be spared windfall taxes, a timely report from Global Witness provides a reminder that just five listed energy giants have recorded profits of nearly half a trillion dollars in the four years since Russia's invasion. www.businessgreen.com/news/4526031...

This election is an appeal for trust, a battle against fear and a straight fight between Greens and Reform | Hannah Spencer Thursday’s stakes could not be higher. We know Labour has failed and Farage’s Reform is poisonous. I want to win Gorton and Denton as a fresh start, says Hannah Spencer, the Green party candidate in t...

Reform have nothing to offer but divisive hate. Blaming migrants and communities struggling to get by.

Hannah Spencer understands Manchester, she knows the value of work and will actually get things done.

Thursday - it's Greens Vs Reform. Hope Vs Hate.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Study: Climatic 'tipping points' possible well before 2C warming threshold reached New paper details how up to eight irreversible environmental tipping points could be reached below 2C of warming

Meanwhile... www.businessgreen.com/news/4525941...

This is entirely correct.

It is *also* true of Labour's earned settlement proposals -which while not as extreme/overtly racist as Reform's, would still have precisely this effect for hundreds of thousands of people

Not too late for government to change course

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Feral goats in Killarney NP. A highly invasive species, goats are (per head) worse destroyers of nature than even sheep, sika deer, or any other herbivore.

That they are tolerated *at all* in any national park is a sign of gross ecological ineptitude.