Far Side 1993 - the inspiration for Monsters Inc.?

Where is Wes Streeting in all this?

This is such a terrific documentary:

Portillo on Thatcher The Lady's Not For Spurning

YouTube video by NogginHilcote

youtube.com

Change is the most important promise. In a vacuum, voters tend to feel a new PM needs to honour their party’s last manifesto. But if the ability to deliver change is at stake, more voters choose change over sticking with old promises. www.thinksinsight.com/reports/mood...

65 per cent of Britons are owner-occupiers. General elections are won in the Midlands. Most people have a middle class occupation. The United Kingdom's comparative advantage is in services. These aren't facts that Philip Gould invented in order to make Labour feel sad.

We asked the public why we've had 7 PMs in a decade. #1 selected reason: Britain has become a more divided & polarised in the last decade.

What will historians give the PM credit for? Here’s @politicshome.bsky.social’s Maddy Richards by on @thinksinsight.bsky.social research in public views of Starmer’s likely legacy: www.politicshome.com/news/article...

Is Nigel Farage losing his appeal? In recent focus groups with 2024 Labour voters considering Reform UK, for the first time since the general election, people were equivocal about him, writes @benshimshon.bsky.social

Is Nigel Farage losing his appeal?

There are signs that the party leader's shine is fading with potential Reform UK voters.

politicshome.com

“Few had believed that Farage was really ‘like them,’ but this [the £5m] made it harder than ever to believe he could truly understand their lives.” Quick write up of our recent focus groups with 2024 Labour voters now considering Reform UK: www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...

Here's a taste of our @thinksinsight.bsky.social #MoodoftheNation update. Sign up here for the full finsings webinar on Thursday: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mood-of-th... Coverage in @politicshome.bsky.social here: www.politicshome.com/news/article...

Burnham opens a window for Labour - especially with Green considerers. But time is not on his side. Great to talk to @politicshome.bsky.social for @adampayne26.bsky.social article covering our newest @thinksinsight.bsky.social Mood of the Nation survey. www.politicshome.com/news/article...

🚨 OUT NOW 🚨 What's the nation's mood as Burnham takes over? 🌹 MPs @tonia-antoniazzi.bsky.social & @sarahhall-labour.bsky.social & Thinks Insight's @benshimshon.bsky.social join @alaintolhurst.bsky.social & @adampayne26.bsky.social to discuss how Brits feel about their country 🎧: pod.fo/e/44053d

Quite fun to talk about hope, not (just) gloom!* Great to join @adampayne26.bsky.social Sarah Hall MP and Tonia Anotoniazzi MP on the @politicshome.bsky.social podcast to discuss @thinksinsight.bsky.social Mood of the Nation. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t... *lots of gloom too though, obvs

What's the mood of the nation as Burnham takes over?

Podcast Episode · The Rundown by PoliticsHome · 3 July · 38min

podcasts.apple.com

The most insidious shrinkflation. More hole than bagel

findagarden.ngs.org.uk/garden/48577... still a few tickets for tomorrow’s open garden.

These articles, and the previous Substack post about the two deprivations are just so valuable.

Chris Clarke@warringfictions.bsky.social · 2mo ago

1/ I have written a series of articles this week, ‘Notes on Trust’, about where cynicism towards politicians comes from. The below chart, which I shared last year, was the thing which initially prompted me to write the piece. I just want to set out some of the key arguments here…

This map is absolutely fascinating

Simon Kuestenmacher@simongerman600.bsky.social · 2mo ago

What’s the most common non-English main language in your London borough? HT @mapsporn

"We hear little of these other incidents because their white perpetrators do not fit the narrative — or the political business model — of the populist right." - terrific column by @robertshrimsley.bsky.social:

The business model of white victimhood

Rage on the right and a narrative of disadvantage changing sides is rewarded by social media

ft.com

DfE pupil data is out today and shows that the number of private school pupils has dropped 5.6% since VAT was introduced. Not 25% like the independent schools council predicted. Or the 50% we saw in some right-wing papers. 5.6%.

This piece about Andy Burnham is really worth reading: https://manchestermill.co.uk/stop-looking-for-burnhamism-in-six-years-ive-never-found-it/ (Apologies I can’t credit who posted it - I saw it this morning and only now had time to read it)

Stop looking for Burnhamism - in six years, I’ve never found it

Watching the mayor up close in Manchester, I’ve seen his unusual gifts and glaring weaknesses. Would he make a good prime minister?

manchestermill.co.uk

@mattyglesias.bsky.social we found your "Big Ass Truck Abundance" constituency:

benshimshon.bsky.social@benshimshon.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Southern Californians are not NIMBYs, but neither are they YIMBYs. The majority are MIMBYs - Maybe in my back yard (h/t Labour Together). Our segmentation shows 70% fall into 3 MIMBY segments:

Presented the result of our mega-study of Southern Californian's attitudes to infrastructure at the @politico.com California Agenda event at LA's Union Station yesterday. Charts incoming:

Abundance has been at the heart of the effort to get stuff built across the US, but particularly in California. Our survey of 5000 Southern Californians, suggests there's a big obstacle to the agenda: Voter trust. Brilliant coverage from @liamjdillon.com: www.politico.com/news/2026/05...

A threat to the Abundance movement? Trust.

A sweeping poll finds that Southern Californians want housing and infrastructure built faster, but don't trust their elected officials to weaken regulations.

politico.com

Great coverage of our mammoth survey of Southern Californians’ attitudes to infrastructure development. The Abundance agenda chimes with what voters want, right up until you ask them to just trust politicians and developers to get on with it…

Liam Dillon@liamjdillon.com · 3mo ago

Voters: We want infrastructure faster and cheaper. Abundance Politicians: Us too. Let's strip away regulations to make it happen. Voters: No. Because you can't build infrastructure we don't trust what you'll do with weakened regulations. www.politico.com/news/2026/05...

Sneaking a giant screen into the flagshagger march is one of the funniest things @ledbydonkeys.org have ever done. "STAY HYDRATED" 😂🤣😂

we only know about the £5m Harborne donation thanks to journalists at the Guardian, but sure trash the MSM for clicks

Reform is now running a digital ad for each and every rival for this week's elections. British political fragmentation writ large on the nation's social media feeds.

This time next week there's going to be a lot of hot takes and spin knocking around, especially re: Reform. I've written a short primer for @politicshome.bsky.social on how to stay sane and navigate the immediate post-election chaos. Thread here too. 🧵 www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...

Misunderstood, over interpreted, unrepresentative: How to read the local election results

The internet will be teeming with hot takes as soon as the first declarations come in on Friday morning. To help you navigate a weekend of noise, h...

politicshome.com

To help navigate a weekend of misunderstanding, over interpretation and misrepresentation, here are some tips for making sense of the 7 May local elections, writes @steveakehurst.bsky.social including, Labour losing council seats to Reform does not necessarily mean Labour losing votes to Reform

Misunderstood, over interpreted, unrepresentative: How to read the local election results

The internet will be teeming with hot takes as soon as the first declarations come in on Friday morning. To help you navigate a weekend of noise, h...

politicshome.com

Social media is no longer social. Most of it is passive viewing of videos and pictures from people we've never met. But we're still studying social media like it's 2010. We've entered the post-social media era — and research needs to catch up. osf.io/preprints/so... preprint w/ Richard Rogers