In 100 seconds @clim8resistance Co-Founder of @ClimateDebateUK explains why we are in such a mess on energy:

Today it’s 50 years since I first presented Playschool wearing my blue beads and silver heart. I adore bringing joy into the lives of my #Playschool Babies during the 12 years I was on the programme. @CBeebiesHQ ❤️

RT @visegrad24: For those who never saw these videos back in January. An Iranian father enters a morgue near Tehran to look for his missin…

Not a single Reform supporter on the panel for Reform conference.

New: Lord Glasman recently praised Burnham for leading a ‘proper Labour government’. Today at party conference, however, he criticised the ‘void’ at the heart of the PM’s project. Full story for UnHerd: unherd.com/newsroom/maurice-…

When cross-community consent was suspended + the partition of the UK imposed for 4 years through a gerrymandered Stormont vote on 10 December 2024, unionists did not take to the streets but campaigned for a change in an unjust law. When one court decision goes against Republicans regarding events on one road, they mount an illegal protest and refuse to accept the rule of law. What a contrast!

This is so bonkers I can hardly believe you made it. A large part of the 2.5m were unproductive — students, dependents etc. So they had little impact on GDP. But their numbers are included in GDP/capita calculations, so quite the impact on GDP/capita. I’m amazed you don’t understand this. No wonder the three Theresa May years were three of the most miserable, shambolic, rudderless in our country’s modern history.

If you don’t rent out your property, it will be confiscated. If you do rent out your property, you are not allowed to evict your tenants, even if they fail to pay the rent. We foresee no unintended consequences.

Mary, elderly Garvaghy Road protestor: “They can’t arrest us all, there’s nowhere to put us. Sure they’re already letting out all the rapists.”

Labour conference will be suffused with the imagery of class politics. Most of the speeches will refer to “working people”, and imply that the party represents the poor and middle-income majority against the rich. It has been untrue for years. This year, it is less true than ever. Labour voters are richer, better-educated and more middle-class than Conservative and Reform supporters. Peter Kellner, the polling guru, reports a new survey from Norstat. The company interviewed 5,500 people after the 2024 election, and then again this month. The results show that 57% of Labour supporters were middle class (social grades ABC1) two years ago, which has now risen to 63%. The proportions of graduates and of those earning more than £40,000 a year have also risen sharply. The study confirms that the Great Class Inversion in British politics, after the Brexit vote 10 years ago, was no temporary blip but a long-run trend that is still happening. All the pollsters consistently report now that Labour voters are the most middle class, Reform voters the most working class (social grades C2DE), and the Conservatives somewhere in between, leaning towards the working class. Greens and Liberal Democrats, on the other hand, tend to be middle class, but not as much as Labour supporters. This is going to make Labour’s annual conference one long exercise in cognitive dissonance. When Andy Burnham promises breathing space on the cost of living, he is offering respite to people who do not intend to vote for him, on the whole. Labour supporters tend to be the ones who can afford the rent or the mortgage. When delegate after delegate comes to the lectern to talk about the class struggle, they will be talking about someone else’s class, most of whose members think that Labour does not represent them. If they urge solidarity with the workers, they may mean public sector workers in secure jobs with good pensions rather than the low-paid who feel more of an affinity with Nigel Farage. The Labour movement has always had middle-class leaders, and it has long been an alliance between intellectuals and organised labour, but this is something different. This is now a party of well-off graduates, with a tiny outhouse of the genuinely disadvantaged attached at the back. The class inversion has unexpected implications. It may explain why Labour members and supporters are more concerned about issues such as Gaza rather than immigration, which is what bothers the working class. Perhaps it is why Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer misjudged the pensioners’ winter fuel payment – if most pensioners they know give it to Greenpeace or spend it on wine. It makes Burnham’s northern working-class appeal seem like a form of historical re-enactment. When he talks about “reindustrialisation” or reversing 40 years of Thatcherism, this feels like an attempt to identify with a mythical working-class past idealised by many middle-class people with working-class origins. It may reflect the tendency of people who are objectively middle class to describe themselves as working class. The self-described working class has expanded since 1948, while the number of people in actual working-class jobs has declined. Equally, however, Burnham’s provincial working-class ham act could be the key to the electoral coalition that Labour needs. The other important finding of Norstat’s research highlighted by Kellner is that since the last election, Labour has lost more votes to the right – to Reform and the Tories – than to the left, to the Greens and the Lib Dems. This could mean that Burnham’s working-class pitch is exactly what Labour needs to win back those voters who have defected from the party of the middle class to one of the working-class parties. Especially as the battleground for the next election will overwhelmingly be seats fought between Labour on one side and either the Tories or Reform. There are not many Labour-Green or Labour-Lib Dem marginals. In Liverpool, expect a lot of middle-class people play-acting as working class. independent.co.uk/voices/lab…

La Garde éternelle de Napoléon (Nancy, 1807)

As much as Kemi has improved, the Tories are still (in the best polls for them) roughly where they were in 2024. I see no justification for the celebration and complacency among some Tory accounts. Still a hell of a lot of work to do.

GDP per Capita is a very good way ironically for a Labour MP to admit to the poor performance per person of Britain’s economy. If Stella knew anything at all about Economics she’d know that eg 2/3 of the Boris Wave of unskilled migrants are claiming benefits! All Stella is doing with this chart is showing how stupid Angela Rayner is for calling out Shabana Mahmoud on yet more visas for immigrants! @ZiaYusufUK @RobertJenrick @TiceRichard

Chart of the Day 🤓 The fact that Italy and Spain have outperformed the UK on *growth* in GDP per capita since 2016 can largely be explained by catch-up after the euro debt crisis (not Brexit, as many would have you believe!). This can best be seen by looking at the *level* of GDP...👇 (Italy's recent growth has also been flattered by a large fiscal boost and a construction boom, neither of which are sustainable)

Looking forward to an all Reform panel. I won’t hold my breath.

But she said she supported Binface. Has she suspended herself?

Not just Miliband. I want to see @EdwardJDavey held to account. Unlike in 2022, the breakdown of the cross party consensus on energy will mean he has no where to hide this coming winter.

The number of independent bookshops in Britain and Ireland is at a 14-year high. This follows a mini-resurgence in book buying, which, some research suggests, is being driven by young people. In these days of digital overload, this is a hugely encouraging development. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c95y…

Article: "... if temperatures continue to rise as a result of climate change ...". Temperature rises are not driven by climate change. Climate change is driven (here) by temperature rise. They don't even understand their own religion, yet its claims colour every story.

GDP per capita is a better measure of average output per resident, sure. But changes in population composition affect that average without existing residents becoming poorer or workers becoming less productive. And again, none of this points to Brexit. Your conclusion is flawed.

Fyi, this clown is "Brexit editor" of The Economist... 🙄 Is it really so hard to understand that Italy and Spain might have been due a period of outperformance after the euro debt crisis? Or that the UK and Germany were both hit relatively hard by the energy shock? Or that different policies on Covid, or migration, might be factors?