Restore on 9% got 30% of the joint Reform/Restore vote (up from 16% of their cumulative vote in Makerfield)

Owen Winter@owenwntr.bsky.social · 5d ago

Manchester mayoral results, first round Bev Craig - Labour 47% (+24 vs local elections) Reform 21% (-10) Green 12% (-7) Restore 9% (new) Conservative 8% (-3) Lib Dem 3% (-7)

Healey's fiscal buffer down to £7 bn from £25 bn (FT) due to Iran. He is also going to lose £12-13 billion when revising future immigration estimates down. (I don't think is already part of this drop to £7bn)

We're just at the end of your last ten year plan. Not gonna lie, the results ain't that great.

🔴 NEW: Palantir Co-Founder Peter Thiel and Reform UK’s Cambridge University Recruitment Pipeline Project Revealed By @nafeez.bsky.social, @peterjukes.bsky.social and @hardeepmatharu.bsky.social The world-renowned academic institution has nothing to say in response to a six-month investigation…

Palantir Co-Founder Peter Thiel and Reform UK's Cambridge University Recruitment Pipeline Project Revealed

The world-renowned academic institution has nothing to say in response to a six-month investigation by Byline Times raising serious concerns about the safeguarding of students and foreign influence at Cambridge University. Why?

bylinetimes.com

Christ. In just a few days of heat wave, Paris suffered astonishing loss of life (especially when you consider London, whose data isn’t exactly encouraging, is quite a bit bigger).

Albert Pinto@70sbachchan.bsky.social · 4w ago

NEW: @katemac.bsky.social & I: "Heat waves tend to attract less attention than the charismatic megafauna of climate disasters—floods, storms, wildfires—in part because they cause less property damage & thus less obviously financially costly" phenomenalworld.org/analysis/glo... Graphic @TheEconomist

Sobering to see in one chart how June temperature records have been broken this year in so many European countries www.ft.com/content/5f06...

The Daddy Trump strategy has run its course. I don't want to go as far as saying that it was a complete failure because there was a time when Ukrainians needed America a lot more, but whatever merit it may have had, that's over. Trump is weaker than he seems, he can't afford to fight us all

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 4w ago

Trump: "Spain is a wasted cause. We don't want to do any trade business with Spain anymore, by the way. I'd like to cut it off. Spain is a terrible partner in NATO. Cut off all trade with Spain, please. Including visits. We don't want anything to do. They're hopeless. Bad people."

I’ve written an article with Alex Sobel about what we learnt at the recent #UkraineRecoveryConference and why Ukraine’s experience at wartime governance reform and mixed state-market economy provides a useful lens on what the incoming Burnham government is calling “Manchesterism”.

Foreign Policy Centre@fpcthinktank.bsky.social · last mo.

🇺🇦 New op-ed | What can the UK learn from #Ukraine’s wartime resilience? alexsobel.co.uk MP and Luke Cooper reflect on lessons from the Ukraine Recovery Conference for devolution, public ownership and regional resilience. Read: fpc.org.uk/op-ed-devolv...

‘For all the eyewatering numbers, the defence plan actually imposes austerity on the armed forces, whilst showering defence firms with huge revenues, sacrificing soldiers’ pay and conditions to benefit our wasteful military industrial complex’ 👇

Burnham should scrap the Defence Investment Plan and start again

While champagne corks pop among shareholders in Britain’s privatised defence sector, Labour’s plan means austerity for the armed forces and soldiers’ pay and conditions.

mafiapoliticsglobaldisorder.substack.com

Luke Cooper@lukecooper100.bsky.social · last mo.

I read the Defence Investment Plan - and thought it was a bit of a disaster. It imposes austerity on the already hollowed out armed forces, while showering vast amounts of money on an unreformed UK defence sector. A rentiers’ charter that Burnham should scrap👇👇👇👇👇👇 open.substack.com/pub/mafiapol...

I read the Defence Investment Plan - and thought it was a bit of a disaster. It imposes austerity on the already hollowed out armed forces, while showering vast amounts of money on an unreformed UK defence sector. A rentiers’ charter that Burnham should scrap👇👇👇👇👇👇 open.substack.com/pub/mafiapol...

Burnham should scrap the Defence Investment Plan and start again

While champagne corks pop among shareholders in Britain’s privatised defence sector, Labour’s plan means austerity for the armed forces and soldiers’ pay and conditions.

open.substack.com

Read our 10-year Brexit retrospective virtual issue with @robfordmancs.bsky.social @olliheath.bsky.social @psurridge.bsky.social @robertsaunders.bsky.social @lukecooper100.bsky.social @christabelcoops.bsky.social @albertpweale.bsky.social and more politicalquarterly.org.uk/collections/...

Brexit at Ten: A Retrospective

Ten years after the Brexit referendum, The Political Quarterly marks this significant anniversary with a virtual issue bringing together a selection of articles that have analysed the origins, impact ...

politicalquarterly.org.uk

As well as being just, this is also clever, as North Korean troops will recognise the new route to defection, NK leadership and loyal officials will recognise the risk, and the fighting efficiency of those sent there will be reduced by the effort of trying to guard against defection.

The Kyiv Independent@kyivindependent.com · last mo.

⚡️ South Korea to accept all North Korean POWs from Ukraine at their request, ministry says. The ministry said it opposes any forced transfer of North Korean POWs to Russia or North Korea and has communicated this position to Ukrainian authorities.

A podcast post on my substack. I spoke to @stellathegreek.bsky.social who was in the Makerfield constituency last week, about the atmosphere on the ground, what went wrong for the Starmer government and what might come next. substack.com/@lukecooper/...

Will Burnham win? Is Starmer toast?

A podcast post with Substack royalty the Human Carbohydrate

substack.com

The conversation we should be having about national security and defence - paper by Mary Kaldor and @lukecooper100.bsky.social here: rethinkingsecurity.org.uk/2025/06/16/o...

Another Europe Is Possible@anothereurope.bsky.social · last yr.

The UK’s recent defence review was an exercise in organised irresponsibility, proposing ever greater integration with Trump’s 🇺🇸. In this podcast @zoesqwilliams.bsky.social and @lukecooper100.bsky.social talk to Mary Kaldor about an alternative approach. www.anothereurope.org/episode-106-...

Nine countries including the UK, France, and Australia are to announce a package of sanctions this week designed to deter companies from from becoming involved in the E1 development, a proposed West Bank illegal settlement that would split West Bank in two www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

UK readies sanctions against Israel to deter proposed illegal West Bank settlement

Move comes as 137 Labour MPs sign letter demanding ‘urgent, concrete action’ to stop settler violence

theguardian.com

I’m feeling strangely furious with the people answering “don’t know” in this poll. Faced with ultra racist definition of Englishness, “hmm yeah have to think more about that one”.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The idea English identity is confined to ethnicity & ancestry is more niche than abolishing monarchy/joining Euro But media elites skew & overcompensate to an imaginary caricature of public = weird assymetry: venerate niches on right as 'authentic' but would lecture progressives about median voter

NEW: The Trump administration signals it is backing off the creation of a $1.8 billion fund announced by the Justice Dept. that could send money to allies of President Trump deemed “victims of lawfare and weaponization.”.

Trump administration appears to back off $1.8 billion ‘anti-weaponization’ fund after rare GOP backlash

The Justice Department said Monday it will abide by a court ruling that blocked the fund as the White House seeks to restart stalled legislation to fund ICE and Border Patrol.

nbcnews.to

Yesterday Blair achieved something rather unusual: he somehow managed to unite the Labour Party.

Christabel Cooper@christabelcoops.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The reactions to this are mainly focused on the move to the right, but what's really striking in reading Blair's essay in full, is how little Labour's most electorally successful politician understands the current electorate. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

2% of LE26 Labour voters consider voting for Reform at the next election. Less than 1% of Reform voters consider Labour. Yet, Labour continues to target exactly those voters. Literally, politics for the 1%. Meanwhile, 42% of Lab voters consider the Greens. After already having lost tons to them.

YouGov's study of the 2026 local elections shows that just 46% of 2024 Labour voters who went to the polls remained loyal, with more backing the Greens (22%) than Reform (6%) two weeks ago The Conservatives retained 55% of their 2024 voters, with 33% switching to Reform yougov.com/en-gb/articl...

As we look at a rapid and extreme contraction of the university sector, lots of good advice and discussion in the quotes of - and replies to - this post. As the HE world we've known comes to an end, there will be many very painful choices ahead. So we should support each other and share wisdom. ☹️

Caroline Dodds Pennock@carolinepennock.bsky.social · 3mo ago

It says an awful lot about the university sector right now that I - a 48-year-old history professor with a child and a mortgage, who loves what she does (mostly) - am having a serious conversation with a colleague about whether I ought to consider a career change.

Thomas Massie says in his concession speech that the republican primary contest in Kentucky (a state of 4.5m people) is likely to have cost $35m - about equivalent to what the UK Labour spent in the 2024 general election. Source: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

Trump gets “forever” immunity on his past tax affairs

Podcast Episode · Americast · 20 May · 31min

podcasts.apple.com

🚨 Over 50 leading academics have sounded the alarm on the UK's voting system ⚠️ In an era of multi-party politics, First Past the Post risks “random and arbitrary” results like never before 🗳️ The experts' letter warn Ministers they must address this to stem growing instability and distrust

Over 50 Academics Warn That Voting System Is Not Fit For Multi-Party Politics

Dozens of academics have written to the government to warn that the current voting system risks producing distorted results on an 'unprecedented' s...

politicshome.com

"Labour must remember and reassert what it is we are here to do: address inequality – economic and political... political equality at the ballot box is fundamental to delivering equality everywhere else in society." ✍️ @alexsobel.co.uk in @labourlist.bsky.social labourlist.org/2026/05/labo...

' After these Local Elections there can be no doubt: Labour’s future lies in electoral reform' - LabourList

First Past the Post is the biggest example of the Status Quo in UK politics.

labourlist.org

Makes me really quite nauseous thinking about the stakes here.

Luke Cooper@lukecooper100.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Is there any precedent for a by-election explicitly designed to overthrow the sitting prime minister? This is a massive roll of the dice by Burnham in a Reform-friendly seat, setting up a what is surely the most consequential by-election ever mafiapoliticsglobaldisorder.substack.com/p/the-most-c...

Is there any precedent for a by-election explicitly designed to overthrow the sitting prime minister? This is a massive roll of the dice by Burnham in a Reform-friendly seat, setting up a what is surely the most consequential by-election ever mafiapoliticsglobaldisorder.substack.com/p/the-most-c...

Celebrating a new addition to the "Thomas L Friedman Hall of Fame" www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/o...

Do you remember how many government resignations it took to get rid of Boris Johnson? It was 62 (!) including a record of 40 in 24 hours. I wonder if Starmer is holding out to try and break BJ’s record 🤔

New article from me analysing the provisions on workplace harassment in the Employment Rights Act 2025 and their contribution to remedying gaps in protection, which have been highlighted since the #MeToo movement and the ILO's 2019 violence and harassment Convention academic.oup.com/ilj/advance-...

Increased possibility of more EU sanctions against West Bank settlers following change of Hungarian govt www.politico.eu/article/eu-e...

EU to approve sanctions on Israeli settlers, says Kallas

The breakthrough comes days after Péter Magyar replaced Viktor Orbán as Hungary’s prime minister.

politico.eu