Farage's proposals are a moving target. & that's why poor old Starmer will never be able to Out-Reform Farage.
Farage's proposals are a moving target. & that's why poor old Starmer will never be able to Out-Reform Farage.
Gimme a break. Who does that? Who says to their solicitor "no, I'd like to pay triple, just in case"? We need to reject the ridiculous double standard imposed on working class Labour women by right wing tabloids. Instead of embracing it and saying she should have bent backwards a bit further.
So delighted to have brought this excellent addition to your next nightmare.
Sorrywhatpardon?
Meanwhile... at the Reform Conference
I consider Jess Phillips in the centre not the soft left (haigh , thronberry or powell) . agree on the far left nobody (e.g. rebeccca long bailey) will get enough votes but soft left would get enough
probs a good thing tho tbf, didnt work out so well last time did it?
tbf 2 her, she probably represents 'little england' quite well
periphery? he has total control of the lab party & calling all the shots
Why chase reform lovers, i come across loads of them, they're never ever going to vote for starmer no matter how many get tough tweets he puts out, i was never a big fan of blair but at least he stood up to farage.
Yep they’ve turned me off big style. There are some good things they have been doing but their negative narrative on immigration is ugly and has enhanced the seeds of division, racism and growing violence that Farage and his ilk have been laying. It doesn’t end well, Blue Labour is dangerous
Really good explainor. I hadn’t perceived yesterday as doubling down on McSweeneyism, but that appears to be what it is. They are going to have a terrible year if true.
very good piece but quite depressing. plus ca change. McSweeney, so called 'genius' has even more power & will continue with this poor strategy of simultaneously 'nuking the left' (his so called words according 2 Steve Richards) & ceding ground 2 Reform
Don’t forget Dominic Raab was Deputy PM too!
Those criticising the credentials of David Lammy to be Deputy Prime Minister seem to have forgotten the office was recently held by such well known luminaries as Oliver ‘the privet hedges of Hertfordshire’ Dowden and Therese Coffey, seen here relaxing after a long day at work.
…welfare reform and being able to pull the “growth lever” (good luck with that one). The loss of Rayner gives Starmer a major problem of party management (not one of his strengths) and raises the intriguing possibility of Lucy Powell (what did she do to get sacked while Nandy remains in post?) …..
This is an excellent analysis of the Cabinet reshuffle, which was effectively Starmer and McSweeney (or should that be the other way around?) doubling down on the existing agenda of closing asylum hotels and being tough on small boats (presumably we’ll see detention camps being established?)…
I've always found Starmer's focus on "delivery" as a tactic 2 win next GE super naive & potentially fatal. Brown was relatively good on "delivery" yet voters kicked him out coz he was a poor communicator. Ofc u need 2 delivery something but it's not everything is it? Voters aren't rational
Fab piece, as usual but Spain suggests that changing reality for the better isn't necessarily a great comms weapon. The govt has changed reality greatly for the better but is underwater in the polls bc the oppo and media have decided reality doesn't matter anymore. ppl believe what they want to
tbf McSweeney has been so uncompromising re any1 slightly left wing, them having full control was probably inevitable & at least buck stops fully with them if they lose next GE
Excellent analysis by @samfr.bsky.social. It is now unquestionably a Starmer/McSweeney Cabinet. As such, it is not reflective of the PLP or the Labour membership, let alone the broader left in the country. That comes with huge risks - for Starmer, Labour and the country.
they're interlinked tho. without a strong economy public health is worse, less money 2 go around (fairness) etc
I'm not convinced those other things are improving either though
This attitude and this chart is why Reform is gaining. I genuinely can't blame the vast bulk of the population who have seen basically no improvements in their living standard for twenty years for wanting radical change. They might want the wrong change, but that is the fault of the centre too.
Power corrupts.
Yeah – maximising the left bloc by being the socially conservative element of it is a good strategy for a social democratic party under PR; throwing in your lot with parties from the other bloc is not
It's not just that the government doesn't recognise that we functionally have bloc politics, it's also that they don't give a signal that they are clearly committed to the bloc. See also the travails of the Danish Soc Dems because they picked a grand coalition rather than a narrow left coalition.
And it's worth noting that this also helps from a party management perspective. You can get away with shifting a lot of policy to the right economically or socially if left-leaning voters notice that you hate the Tories as much as they do.
Basically, the Labour Party are Spursy.
I am parti pris, here, in that I think the country would be better off if the voters who Labour are trying to buy with bad economic policies and by ladling social obligations on business instead got some social liberalism instead.
Absolutely. Successful governments spend their money and their words on different parts of their coalitions.
Labour’s winning campaigns in 2001 and 2005 - the only times they have won full terms in power successfully- rested on the fact the economy was strong and public services were improving or good. But they also claimed that Michael Howard would cause “economic armageddon” and put Hague in a wig.
Reform are an eminently beatable prospect, but you know, as David Cameron once said: “lads, it’s the Labour Party“.
Tom Watson says the Labour deputy leadership should be abolished tomwatsonofficial.substack.com/p/angela-ray...
It was in early spring when I first asked a close ally if Starmer still believed it was better for ministers to spend longer and become expert in their departments and they basically said it was the biggest thing he'd changed his mind about now having seen how Whitehall operates.
Are you…suggesting that all teachers are equally qualified to teach any subject?
Explaining the day’s developments to a non-British friend:
Genuine frustration from civil servants over the reshuffle - not about anyone in particular, just the time spent training a minister on a new remit, getting them properly briefed on complex topics, only to have to disappear to another department and have to start all over again
Almost exactly ten years ago, David Lammy finished fourth in the race to be Labour candidate for mayor of London. He is now deputy prime minister.
What a 24 hours for David Lammy, who not only becomes deputy prime minister, but more importantly, can celebrate Daniel Levy finally leaving Spurs
I’m gutted for Angela Rayner. She’s taken so much shit from the right wing press and it feels like they’ve won. But I do like David Lammy, he was my MP when I lived in Tottenham and he’s a great communicator. Hopefully Rayner can take some time to protect her family and then come back fighting.
I HAVE EXCITING NEWS There's an emergency Midnight Mass episode on Rayner's resignation and the reshuffle that followed that will be appearing on your app in a few hours. AND Sunday School as normal in two days. A xx
Ukraine takes a historic step towards EU integration. With EU & EIB support under the Ukraine Facility, the new 22 km Uzhhorod–Chop line is the country’s first built to the EU standard gauge, boosting passenger connectivity with EU countries. ➡️ bit.ly/Ukraine-First-EU-Railway
Liverpool law student Mia O'Brien, 23, jailed for life in Dubai but no one seems to know the nature of her crime.
Angela Rayner accidentally pays less tax than she should have, resigns, and the media gives her hell. Nigel Farage deliberately pays less tax than he should have, and the media gives him a free pass. That, right there, is the problem.
More deep insight from the hospital radio DJ who is somehow politics editor at the BBC.
Fixed it
On the same day in the Telegraph:
![The Telegraph Rayner tax scandal - £40k tax dodge - Statement Angela Rayner dodges £40,000 stamp duty Deputy Prime Minister reduces tax bill for Hove flat by declaring it as her main residence [Photo: Angela Rayner pictured at the weekend in Hove, where she has just bought a flat Credit: Dan Charity/The Sun on Sunday] Robert Mendick Chief Reporter. Amy Gibbons Political Correspondent 29 August 2025 8:57am BST](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2kf2qj56o2vq7jfaq4x4ogp6/bafkreihe5mm7nwmwvzhtgadmsafyvsaxhrufuai2d2j2rju5zt6g2lytea@jpeg "Click to view full size")
![The Telegraph Money > Property > Second homes How to avoid tax on your second home From stamp duty to council tax, shield your wealth from Labour's tightening net [Photo of houses around a bay - Areas such as Cornwall have added a premium to council tax bills for second homes Credit: iStockphoto] Fran Ivens Senior Money Writer 29 August 2025 1:21pm BST](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2kf2qj56o2vq7jfaq4x4ogp6/bafkreieuwgc2vsmyfcctmf4cnpcqckij2pqdk2gmzajpnihrsqyqmzyr5e@jpeg "Click to view full size")
I have never felt more strongly supportive of Angela Rayner in my life. Fuck these people.
What a mess of a pair of speeches by Farage and Dorries. An awful lot of counting hatched chickens.
"It was shite, but I love him."
And now claiming he’s going to move to Dubai (to avoid tax)
Jeremy Clarkson, here, who built his career on license fee payers.
Death comes to us all in the end.
Though there's a difference of degree, Farage and Trump have at least one thing in common: the cult of personality around them has attracted more voters than their respective parties have any right to expect based on actual policies. In other words, Reform under ANYONE else would be weaker.
Nothing is going to keep me here if these morons gain power in 2029.
*sound on* This is Andrea Jenkyns's ACTUAL singing entrance to the Reform UK conference. Utter crackpots. And anyone who thinks this kind of idiotic look-at-me amateurs are how this country will "rediscover its pride" needs to have a lie-down.
Trying to be positive but can’t help but feel the chronic issues with the government’s direction will look the same in 6 months time.
Has to be said, the Rayner situation and the related huge reshuffle are completely eclipsing Reform's big conference day. There's no way that was Labour's intention even 48H ago, but it is now perhaps at least giving the party a few scraps of comfort on an empirically terrible day.
I think she's probably got that tattoo about 20yrs ago tbh lol she's always been a right wing xenophobe
Yvette getting that St George's Cross tattoo was a bit of a waste then?
A total reorganisation of government then, and replacing Cooper might finally be a signal of recognition that the government is heading in the wrong direction. Whether that changes the fundamental issue of a No10 flailing in its attempt to put forward a unified message, who knows.
These were the words of Tony Blair in 2002. Can you imagine what a different place the UK & EU would be in if people had listened to him and he had not been discredited by the Iraq War? Instead, the next 🇬🇧PMs were either apathetic (Brown) or hostile (Cameron) toward🇪🇺 www.trreid.net/the_united_s...
The soft left has most to gain from a deputy leadership contest. I can see one of Anneliese Dodds, Rosena Allin-Khan, Emily Thornberry, even Louise Haigh doing well Which, if you're Keir Starmer, is not great reading. All have had run-ins with the leadership
Back in the day, getting a job as a journalist at the BBC was basically the pinnacle. You could not go higher. That is clearly no longer the case. Editorial standards have not so much dropped as been entirely obliterated, to the extent that it looks deliberate.
If the objective of being tough on immigration was for Labour to be perceived as more right-wing & nativist, the strategy worked. ❌ Labour was seen as more anti-immigration & more right-wing ❌Immigration became more salient as an issue ❌ But Labour’s perceived competence on immigration fell.
She's not left enough to get enough votes
The interesting question is ‘who is the most left leaning Labour MP capable of getting 80 nominations from members of the PLP’? Because that’s the next deputy leader.
Angela Rayner has helped Keir Starmer defuse left-wing discontent. What if she were replaced as deputy leader by someone whose express mandate was to represent left-wing discontent? www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c0...
It's probably an assumption that they'll just "fall in line" come an actual general election. A rather misjudged assumption in my opinion,
This is quite telling. Curtice thinks Labour could do OK if they could squeeze the other progressives. Yet Starmer is doing his level best to fully alienate those very same people...
The Sun, here.
Richard Tice was torn to shreds by Nick Robinson on #R4Today. Good questions on Reform UK’s Truss-ian fiscal fever dream, the party’s adoration of Trump, Farage’s “obscene” comparison of Britain to North Korea, and Tice’s second home in Dubai . ”We serve at the boss’s pleasure,” said Tice
alright, who do we think would be the worst Labour MP/peer to pick as DPM reckon Glasman would make me move back to France
This tweet sums it up. Know your place woman we own you. 🤮
I will never understand how gullible dimwits can believe Nigel Farage represents them more than Angela Rayner does.
She showed that a single mum from a council estate can become deputy prime minister, while vaping and going clubbing. She's a threat to their narrow-minded buttoned-up classist bullshit.
Rayner is absolute class. She's been a bit silly in organising her taxes, but that's not why they hate her. They hate her because she did not know her place.
Especially when the treatment of Raynor proves that Farage and his establishment mates are not and will never be on the side of people from a less privileged background.
it's comforting 2 know my handwriting is as bad as the prime minister's.
It feels deeply unfair, but at the same time, we want government to be free from the taint of corruption, so it's the right course. I do, however, feel very sorry for Rayner. NOW let's watch the press hold other politicians to these standards.
Nigel Farage, whose party recently put a teenager with zero work experience of any kind in charge of an entire English county, accuses the government of appointing people "with no knowledge" or experience in charge of Government departments
Quite. She seemed pretty ok for a member of Sir Keir's crew.
get why she had to go but irksome she lost her job to something quite complex and, let's be honest, reasonably minor in the grand scheme of things, when shadow cabinet members get to merrily hang out with Eddie Swastika without any repercussions
Or that Hove is actually quite a nice place 2 live?
I get that she had to go once the ministerial code was broken, but that's the context of it, for all those elsewhere hoiking up bile while trying to exploit every tax wheeze going
Anyway, point is that for several days the vibe has been "it looks bad", "the sniff test", etc. When conversation moves to Farage, vibe switches to "technically"... How about we air the facts of his constituency home purchase as thoroughly and widely as Rayner's and test how they look and smell?
The UK is just Springfield at the moment.
A true working class hero as always
The biggest stall in the centre of the Reform conference exhibition hall… is Nigel Farage flogging gold bullion
Remind you of anyone?
This analysis, suggesting that 1993 was the best time to buy property in London, could also map onto a political analysis that the 'Four Weddings' and cocaine generation - Cameron, Osborne and Johnson - were the most wantonly reckless since 1945 www.ft.com/content/0000...
Just seen that someone apparently thought this was a suggestion to bring back teenage pregnancy.
Gotta remember that a big part of the decline in total fertility rates is the disappearance of teenage pregnancy
But that hypothetical situation could definitely come true, anything is possible with these start up parties I guess
Ah right interesting theory, could be a possibility. I can't see Farage leaving unless he loses badly at next GE. He has total control & wants 2 keep it that way.
Back then they thought that they can control Farage and English nationalism. Evidently not the case. ... Handing a win to them *surprise* made them stronger.
It’s official - “Nigel Farage is right, don’t vote for him” is a demonstrably awful strategy for Labour. Boosts salience of immigration, costs votes on the left, doesn’t persuade any voters on right (why would they accept a crap knock-off when they can have the original?)
