I’ll take this guy (Miliband can have foreign, fine). Dunno yet if they’ll walk the walk but Healey’s background is right sort. If you click you’ll see he planted his flag on regional development, which is half the right econ story (plus jobs for next generations in general). Beats expectations

So much! 1) Cockroach Gen Z represent end of Nehru-Gandhi dynasty & future of democracy (not only in India) 2) Gandhis know this & so desperately try to insert themselves. Imagine an India where you can oppose Modi on national level without voting for either latest Gandhi sibling! Day will come

India police detain opposition leader Rahul Gandhi as tensions rise

Opposition leader defiant as police remove him from sit-in outside Prime Minister Modi’s residence

ft.com

I know it’s not how things are done, but why not break with tradition and put someone in as chancellor not for factional loyalties - or family dynasties - but for competence in economics? Looking to a broad-based economy for working people beyond London, to be sure. But a face of change? Anyone?

Head of UK’s biggest union backs Ed Miliband for chancellor

Endorsement of Unison chief opens up split with other big unions opposed to current energy secretary being appointed to Treasury

ft.com

Also love somehow that it is Josh Simons to step down to give Burnham a shot - if you happen to know the history. Almost certain someone in the history of political thought once wrote ‘Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.’ Josh Simons to vacate seat in boost for Andy Burnham (from FT)

OK, game on for UK Prime Minister. Assuming Starmer keeps his word & NEC doesn’t block Andy Burnham in Makerfield, by-election will be a fascinating trial run, as Reform more than doubled Labour’s score there in local elections. Msg: vote Burnham, lose Starmer today & pick a PM Mfield can vote out

And meanwhile in Denmark - same pattern, same failure from Frederiksen, icon of ‘chase the far right on immigration’. (See also BSW in Germany.) Even if F still ends up in govt it’s clear that strategy hasn’t stopped rise of the far right (and left), who made biggest gains in last election.

Mette Frederiksen Fails to Form Governing Coalition in Denmark

nytimes.com

Who could have guessed? Local elections in England - and Senedd in Wales - confirm again cross-national pattern of collapse in trust in traditional parties and shift to ‘outsider’ or ‘change’ parties on right *and left (by rural/urban). Future is more plural coalitions - among parties or in them.

So much for the genius ‘Danish model’ of the anti-immigration left! Whoever ends up making the next government, that strategy got Frederiksen’s Social Democrats their worst result since 1903 while the populist right surged back – despite Trump’s threat on Greenland, the only reason it wasn’t worse.

Danish PM's party fails to secure majority in weakest showing since 1903

The party, which has been in power since 2019, gained the most votes but faces tough talks on forming a new government.

bbc.co.uk

Unless Labour manages total break, best case scenario for left-of-centre may look like Spain: (tactical voting in UK to get) a coalition of old centre left and new left party rallying the disaffected. *Real problem is even that is 100% urban and will be eaten alive outside cities - see France, US

Who’d have guessed current Starmer Labour Strategy would lose urban voters and we’d end up with Reform and Greens top of national polls? 🤔 Historic: 1st time in a century neither Tories nor Labour in top two. (Same trend as almost all western democracies mutatis mutandis.)

Not sure about Andy Burnham, yet, but should be clear to anyone in Labour that afraid of voters is not a good look. I’d be curious to see him run a campaign with national issues and see if he’s gotten any better since losing leadership to Corbyn in 2015.

Don’t so often agree w/Kuenssberg but have been saying this for a while. Same thing in France, Sweden, elsewhere. Young giving up on traditional parties in which they feel they have no voice. Same reason rural and post-industrial voters bailing too. Expand the coalition, people!

Sigh. Not great if 3% say better off and still nearly 50% say unfair. So you lose on self-interest and on principle too. YouGov notes elsewhere only Truss mini budget had higher ‘unfair’ score since they started polling. almost as if govt doesn’t have a vision or message for most voters?

YouGov@yougov.co.uk · 8mo ago

Britons react to the 2025 Budget Fair: 21% Unfair: 48% Affordable: 22% Unaffordable: 47% Will leave country... Better off: 9% Worse off: 47% No diff: 31% Will leave self and family... Better off: 3% Worse off: 50% No diff: 37% yougov.co.uk/politics/art...

I’m afraid the BBC headline on Rachel Reeves’ Labour budget is rather apt and just about says it all. I suspect voters will feel a bold reset, finally responding to an electorate broadly convinced the country’s on the wrong track and clamouring for change, it ain’t. But why change course now?

Millions to pay more in tax as Reeves says Budget is tackling cost of living

The chancellor says she is

bbc.co.uk

Just sayin’: Danish Social Democrats lose Copenhagen for 1st time in 122 years. They could have done worse, but sign of a shift. Here’s a thought - why not do something *else for rural regions that doesn’t alienate the young, urban and diverse on principle? #Mahmood #asylum #immigration #Labour

Social Democrats in Denmark suffer sweeping election losses

PM Mette Frederiksen’s centre-left party loses control of Copenhagen for first time in more than 100 years

theguardian.com

Think anyone in Downing Street or UK Labour actually knows anyone in Denmark? Like who follows politics there? Too bad the Kinnock Thorning-Schmidts moved to Kilburn. A vote to watch! Shabana Mahmood asylum refugee immigration policy

Fun fact #2: In the 2024 US Prez election, gender gap was *smaller* than 2020. That’s right, Kamala Harris *lost more votes from women*, compared to Biden, than from men! Sure, gap still big and important in other ways, but been big on avg for decades and doesn’t explain why Biden won & Harris lost

I know it’s old news, but when I try to go on the other platform, this is literally what ‘my’ algorithm sends me! (And I assure I unfollowed/blocked as much as I could) Anyone for Orwell? 😂

Fact to remember: In 2024 Harris did worse with Black voters than *any Dem this century*. And *better with white voters* than anybody except Al Gore and - Barack Obama! Of course race & racism matter, but no good reason to think Harris lost because of her race.

Great piece – nearly 100% agree, tho I’d stress in ‘reshaping identity’ much is about groups who feel politically alienated from what they see as an ‘establishment’ that disrespects them. You know, like 1960s students critics of ‘technocracy’. So not just soulcraft from top down, also giving a say!

Samuel Bagg@samuel-bagg.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Misinformation *is* central to democratic problems today, but the solution is *not* to correct such epistemic failures directly. Instead, we must address them at their roots, in social identity. Or so I argue in a new post for @apaphilosophy.bsky.social. blog.apaonline.org/2025/11/12/t...

OK – just when news cycle was ‘Dems win’ for a few days some decided a better headline was ‘Dems give up’? I get the complexity and risks but now how do you run in 2026 on we’ll fight Trump for working people and not just give up the day after the election when he says no? How do you win back trust?

What’s striking about Mamdani, Sherrill, and Spanberger is how *similar the campaigns were: 1 Stand up to Trump + 2 Affordability for working people (=v. Fed job cuts in VA, electricity prices in NJ, health costs all over). & they won w/ mostly the same voters: young, educated, minority & left

Exit polls: Election 2025 | CNN Politics

See exit polls data for the 2025 US elections. For more information on voting and election results, visit cnn.com/election.

edition.cnn.com

Lucy Powell’s win sends a message: 1) even die-hard Labour supporters want a course correction, 2) but most weren’t too excited about Powell either - turnout was 16.6%! Imagine if instead of talking about rotating personnel someone ran on a programme that spoke to voters?

& Caerphilly is *not a failure for Farage’s Reform - from 1.7% to 36%, & there’s no Welsh nationalist party to compete in most of UK. Solution isn’t to copy their programme - but it does start with seeing we’re on a cliff edge and need to stop talking only to the same limited circle of voters

Afraid this was predictable: in a seat Labour held for a century they pulled 11% - almost exactly approval rating of the current government. Same exact trend in nearly all OECD democracies! What was that one about a river in Egypt? www.theguardian.com/politics/202... yougov.co.uk/topics/polit...

Sure economics matters in politics, but not just ‘the economy’. Distrustful - & non-university - voters see policy as showing ‘which side are you on?’ Thus Trump’s tariffs, Mamdani’s rent freeze. Both register where Biden-Bernie soft-pedalled investment did not. It’s about trust, not ‘abundance’

So sure, people on here know today at Quantico weakens institutions & rule of law, but isn’t the headline ‘Hegseth & Trump Insult the US Military?’ As in, 1st they came for immigrants, then for universities, Kimmel & Comey - but if you don’t care about any of them, at least respect our armed forces?

Chart #4 UK elections: But here’s the kicker - it’s not ONLY non-metro & non-uni voters flocking to the far right. It’s now also the YOUNGEST voters fleeing traditional parties. And if many go left (or Lib), Reform is now SECOND behind Labour! Let that sink in www.economist.com/interactive/...

Chart #3, making sense of UK elections. 2nd big change is geographic: Reform now leads all regions outside urban centres like London (or Bristol), & Scotland – even historic left strongholds in the North or Wales. & confirmed in local elections. (see "by region") www.economist.com/interactive/...

Chart #2 to explain UK elections: You might know, Reform's lead is mostly because they dominate among blue-collar voters w/o university degrees. Reversing 100 yrs of workers leaning left 'til 2016 & shows Brexit was no blip (not just about the EU after all!) www.economist.com/interactive/...