First Budget surprise: former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Commons gallery watching on
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Ethan Croft retweeted
BIN THE BUDGET by @willydunn
Budgets are an inherently dishonest way to run a country. What if we just stopped doing them?
Cover art by Carl Godfrey
Budgets are an inherently dishonest way to run a country. What if we just stopped doing them?
Cover art by Carl Godfrey
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A few years ago the coolest thing you could be on the British right was a “classical liberal” and “free speech fundamentalist”. Now there are barely any left. This is indicative of some general truths: we are basically quite weak-minded creatures, hypocrisy is actually very appealing, maintaining reason is hard and boring whereas indulging the urge to fuck up “the people over there” is exciting and fun
@TheEconomist You can also read the newsletter on our website: economist.com/britain/2026/1…
The free-speech warriors on the political right are refusing to stand up against this ludicrous situation
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Ethan Croft retweeted
This week the @NewStatesman takes a stand. Some of our most important writers and artists join with us in calling for Sally Rooney's books to be available.
In my view, this is indirect censorship. Here's my essay exploring the free speech issues involved:
newstatesman.com/comment/2026/1…
In my view, this is indirect censorship. Here's my essay exploring the free speech issues involved:
newstatesman.com/comment/2026/1…
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Ethan Croft retweeted
OPEN LETTER: Sally Rooney is a writer, not a terrorist. Her books must be available to the public. Their withdrawal from sale, on the basis of ill-conceived and draconian anti terror legislation, is an affront to basic principles of free speech and expression so long taken for . We categorically reject censorship - whether direct or indirect - and urge the government to change course, amending the legislation which has led us to this point of repressive absurdity.
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Labour has accidentally-on-purpose started its biggest stand off yet with the Greens over the “Zionism is Racism” motion.
Following the Andy Burnham’s pledge of no partnerships with the Greens while the motion stands, Labour has now issued an ultimatum effectively saying to Green councillors: break from your own party or we will collapse our power sharing agreements with you in more than a dozen authorities across the country
Me and Megan on the details and what it all means… 👇
Following the Andy Burnham’s pledge of no partnerships with the Greens while the motion stands, Labour has now issued an ultimatum effectively saying to Green councillors: break from your own party or we will collapse our power sharing agreements with you in more than a dozen authorities across the country
Me and Megan on the details and what it all means… 👇
🟢 New w @EthanCroft98 - what does Andy Burnham’s moratorium on deals with the Green Party mean for the local authorities across the country that are made up of Labour-Green coalitions/agreements?
The NS understands that Green councillors in power-sharing areas have received letters from their Labour colleagues setting out the consequences of the Prime Minister’s position. Green councillors must publicly reject the “Zionism is racism” motion within seven days or power sharing will end.
One such letter, seen by the NS, reads: “If we are to continue working together on behalf of local residents, we require a clear and unambiguous public statement that you reject the ‘Zionism is racism’ policy and that it does not reflect the policy of your Group within seven days. Without this public confirmation, the Labour Group will not be able to continue any coalition or power sharing agreement. We also require you to publicly call on the Green Party leadership to reject this policy in its entirety, and to make clear that ‘Zionism is racism’ will not be the Green Party’s national position.”
Full story @NewStatesman below
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PM says Labour will have ‘nothing to do with’ the Green Party after the “Zionism is Racism” motion - but on how many councils across the country is Labour working with the Greens and is that now going to change?
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Ethan Croft retweeted
WATCH: Britain’s ITN has released ~4 hours of previously sealed 1989 Tiananmen footage — filmed by the team that smuggled the tapes out of China.
The material, archived for ~35 years, includes a 2-hour crackdown compilation and 90 minutes of secretly filmed raw rushes from the days after, showing military trucks on Beijing streets, crowds, and the aftermath.
x.com/Chvm247376/sta…
The material, archived for ~35 years, includes a 2-hour crackdown compilation and 90 minutes of secretly filmed raw rushes from the days after, showing military trucks on Beijing streets, crowds, and the aftermath.
x.com/Chvm247376/sta…
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Labour appears to have deleted its 1964 election manifesto from the party website. What are they trying to hide?
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Ethan Croft retweeted
If you’re curious about what it’s like when British and Maga officials speak, then read this vignette. They fundamentally disagree on why Britain is the way it is:
“Earlier this year, a senior administration official was listening to a British counterpart complain about the rise the UK. The Brit blamed disinformation. The American suggested that they take the public on tours of Birmingham and Blackburn to show that the disinformation was wrong and, in fact, those places were ethnically the same as they were in the 1950s. The Brit seemed to miss the irony in the American’s voice.”
From this week’s NS cover story. Link below 👇
“Earlier this year, a senior administration official was listening to a British counterpart complain about the rise the UK. The Brit blamed disinformation. The American suggested that they take the public on tours of Birmingham and Blackburn to show that the disinformation was wrong and, in fact, those places were ethnically the same as they were in the 1950s. The Brit seemed to miss the irony in the American’s voice.”
From this week’s NS cover story. Link below 👇
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Pleased to get letters from readers responding to my article on the Prime Minister’s relationship with Everton FC
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Good news. The Labour Party conference galleria Waterstones stall now recognises the validity of the Waterstones loyalty card, following last year’s unfortunate incident.
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So far three Conservative former Cabinet ministers spotted at Labour conference: Ranil Jayawardena, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Michael Gove
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Quite a good gag from new Welsh Secretary Stephen Kinnock as he addresses Labour conference: “After a thousand generations waiting for the first one, it is now time for another Kinnock to speak to you from this platform”
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Ethan Croft retweeted
And by the way I would please like attention levels like this on my latest interview x
Exc: Darren Jones on the "coup", the secret deals that got Andy Burnham into Number 10, and what Labour needs to do now.
Interview with Starmer's former right-hand man in this week's New Statesman: our Labour conference special
newstatesman.com/politics/polit…
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Interesting intervention from Keir Starmer’s long-serving speechwriter Alan Lockey, who has written a short essay for the Future of the Left substack on the eve of conference.
Some of his analysis of Labour’s political situation, having seen the Starmer project's rise and fall from the inside:
“there are an underestimated number of Labour voters that are deeply unhappy about the recent change in leadership, a dynamic the new administration ignores at its peril”
“the ‘Burnham bounce’ comes almost entirely from 2024 Labour voters returning from both the Greens and the couch. That is not enough to even think about calling an early election, let alone win one. But it is a start and, in full candour, it is hard to see how Keir Starmer could have achieved likewise”
Says being blind to the rise “expressive politics” of the Left and Right was “an unheralded strategic misstep of the Keir Starmer project”
“For Andy Burnham and his strategists, I believe there are two immediate lessons that can help avoid our path… First, do not assume that improving the economy will lower the salience of cultural issues… Second, the Prime Minister’s approach to populism might need some recalibration” (because he is following similar approach to Starmer)
“Whatever final form the right-wing bloc takes at the next election, everything that seems necessary to defeat it looks likely to run against the grain of everything I want from a Labour Labour Party. Namely, a party committed to material politics and a social democracy that serves the interests of the British working class.” - i.e. he seems to think everything points toward a more explicitly middle-class and “woke” Labour party emerging over the next few years
Some of his analysis of Labour’s political situation, having seen the Starmer project's rise and fall from the inside:
“there are an underestimated number of Labour voters that are deeply unhappy about the recent change in leadership, a dynamic the new administration ignores at its peril”
“the ‘Burnham bounce’ comes almost entirely from 2024 Labour voters returning from both the Greens and the couch. That is not enough to even think about calling an early election, let alone win one. But it is a start and, in full candour, it is hard to see how Keir Starmer could have achieved likewise”
Says being blind to the rise “expressive politics” of the Left and Right was “an unheralded strategic misstep of the Keir Starmer project”
“For Andy Burnham and his strategists, I believe there are two immediate lessons that can help avoid our path… First, do not assume that improving the economy will lower the salience of cultural issues… Second, the Prime Minister’s approach to populism might need some recalibration” (because he is following similar approach to Starmer)
“Whatever final form the right-wing bloc takes at the next election, everything that seems necessary to defeat it looks likely to run against the grain of everything I want from a Labour Labour Party. Namely, a party committed to material politics and a social democracy that serves the interests of the British working class.” - i.e. he seems to think everything points toward a more explicitly middle-class and “woke” Labour party emerging over the next few years
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Ethan Croft retweeted
I watched Rupert Lowe's face for two hours
RUPERT LOWE CONFRONTS, DISSECTS AND DESTROYS
Since his election to Public Accounts (achieved with the curious support of Conservative Party MPs last October), Lowe has become a rare social media crossover event for the committee. “Rupert Lowe DISSECTS civil servant over FAILED plans to drive economic growth”; “Rupert Lowe CONFRONTS ‘WOKE’ NHS boss for hiring ‘foreign doctors’”; “Rupert Lowe UNLEASHES on ‘UNFIT’ civil servant: ‘I WANT YOU FIRED!’” – these are just three of the highest-viewed YouTube adaptations from the otherwise humdrum activities of the committee, once only observed by hare-eyed clerks and Hansard reporters. Lowe’s exploitation of the committee’s camera set-up is a useful reminder of just how right-wing parts of the English public are – loathing state overreach, civil servants and public waste with a fervour you’d normally expect to find in rural New Hampshire.
Read @nickpaulharris on the new political style of Rupert Lowe: newstatesman.com/politics/the-s…
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