Mr Pecksniff's Diary

Added to Glasman’s unique way with words and the ‘what we did over the summer’ memo, the defining feature of Blue Labour appears to have been acting like macho, ‘deeds not words’ guys while writing flowery sixth form poetry in the guise of campaign strategy.

I'm interested. So how would you encapsulate the views you mention? Are they all dedicated to voting for Reform, as upholding their beliefs? Or are they just lurching to them as the 'none of the above' candidates?

UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves just previewed a three point growth strategy - with 'Stronger post Brexit trade relations with the EU' as No.1 goal.

Though for that to be meaningful, a much broader discussion on changing the UK's stance towards getting closer to the EU will be necessary.

End the sewage pollution scandal We're sick of it. Sick of the lies, sick of the greed, and sick of a system rigged against us. This is a scandal and this dirty business must end. For more than 30 years water companies have put corpo...

Did you watch Dirty Business? I can't believe how much water companies have gotten away with. They're putting profit before public health - it’s a scandal and the Government MUST take action! Sick of sewage? Add your name to the petition today: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/pr...

On the money as usual Peckers 👍

The weekly insight into politics from @pecksniffsdiary.bsky.social
Labour suffering the consequences of lurching to the right chasing voters that would never vote for them anyway.
Tories & Tories 2.0 imploding in far right outrage
Greens surging as a result

Time for Proportional Representation?

Mr Pecksniff is rivalling Mr @chrisgrey.bsky.social for coming up with comically appropriate descriptions of Starmer and his inadequacies

We can talk, you and I, till we're blue in the face...

Pecksniff has always insisted that predictions of a Reform government are nonsense.

A question I have just put to my colleagues. How are the national media to explain their certainties over a Reform majority, as they sink further in the polls? Oeuf sur le visage, I imagine.

Greens now in second place ahead of Labour for the first time in a new YouGov poll, and just two points behind Reform.

Lowest ever rating for Keir Starmer's party

REF: 23% (-1)
GRN 21% (+4)
LAB 16%(-2)
CON 16%(-2)
LDEM 14%(nc)

Greens overtake Labour in sensational poll The Greens have polled higher than Labour in the latest poll by YouGov, which puts them only two points off Reform UK and five ahead of the governing party.

🎵I feel good - I knew that I would🎵
Greens second in latest YouGov poll, just 2 pts behind Reform and 3pts ahead of Labour.

Integration Commission Enforcement has quite the acronym.

Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey:

"Tax exiles like Isabel Oakeshott and washed up old footballers who mock ordinary people who stay in the UK and pay our taxes... As we protect them, it's only right for tax exiles to start paying taxes to fund our armed forces, just like the rest of us".

Labour council accuses minister of ‘moral bankruptcy’ over social care dispute Hartlepool leaders ‘furious and appalled’ after meeting with Steve Reed about growing cost of social care

Hartlepool Labour councillors threaten to quit party after meeting Steve Reed

Guardian reports: Reed said the government would not “reward councils for having high numbers of children in care” and then “dismissed” the discussion by saying: “That’s life.”

www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Six years ago, his principles were entirely different.

No, Shabana Mahmood, people seeing failing state support and crumbing infrastructure don't have either legitimate concerns or a legitimate grievance against immigrants, refugees or asylum seekers.

They have a legitimate grievance against governments.

Punch, a baby Japanese macaque, cuddling with a plushy orangutan toy.

Punch’s story touched Amaya Edwards, a young environmental campaigner. But at just 11, she’s already asking serious questions about zoo welfare.

eastangliabylines.co.uk/environment/...

Want to understand how the G&D by-election in the country of Lancashire is a confirmed hinge moment for the Empire?

Read @pecksniffsdiary.bsky.social this week over your morning kidneys and ale.

(*may contain satire)

@eastangliabylines.co.uk

Nigel Farage 'trying to rig' election rules in Trumpian 'sore loser' move Nigel Farage is accused of trying to 'rig the rules' in elections with Trumpian plans to restrict who can vote and ban postal votes after defeat at the Gorton and Denton by-election

Nigel Farage accused of 'trying to rig' election rules in Trumpian 'sore loser' move.

Who would have guessed

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

Labour will have some difficulty in portraying as left wing extremists a party which is clearly going to promote having 'a nice life'.

I spent 45 years in the party, and these are exactly my views.

They’ll never learn. And it wasn’t just McSweeney then.

Hard to argue

Sewage discharge pipe

Yes, Thatcher’s privatisation. Yes, Blair’s deregulation. Yes, the 2010s “bonfire of red tape”. But does Channel 4’s Dirty Business ignore what’s happened since 2024? Stephen McNair looks at what’s changed.

eastangliabylines.co.uk/environment/...

Spy with briefcase in Washington DC

Is Europe facing an “enemy within” — or an ally without? When “freedom” means bypassing another country’s laws, who decides where sovereignty ends?  One nation’s free speech is another’s foreign interference. Stephen McNair reports

eastangliabylines.co.uk/foreign-poli...

Labour must stop channelling Reform and unite with progressives. That’s the lesson from Gorton and Denton | Sadiq Khan The threat to the party in some parts of our country is now existential. But we can progress, as we have in London, by being bold and strong in our core beliefs, says London mayor Sadiq Khan

"Trying to compete with Reform not only feels inauthentic... but a betrayal of what Labour is supposed to represent. We must address the concerns and fears of voters, not play on them."

Damning stuff from Sadiq Khan

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

From the seaside to peat moors: Our leap of faith From the Isle of Wight to the Isle of Lewis, where the song of the lark and the clack of the corncrake became the sound of the summer months

From the seaside to peat moors: Our leap of faith

From the Isle of Wight to the Isle of Lewis, where the song of the lark and the clack of the corncrake became the sound of the summer months | Judith Challender
@sussexbylines.co.uk

Not for the first time, I suspect Labour is chary about making claims which undermine Reform's position, for fear it would draw fire and be dismissed. They are much happier pretending there is still a major problem,so they can comfortably slipstream Reform and avoid confrontation.

My dear Ratty, you are too kind. Please pass on my regards to the riverbank.