Mark Thompson

New from me on Political Sandbox: Too Big to Rig In 2017 I said Trump would prepare the ground to call a defeat rigged before a vote was cast. He did. He's doing it again before the midterms. The question is who around him goes along. https://politicalsandbox.substack.com/p/too-big-to-rig

We used to have internet speeds where we live of around 4Mb/s the first 7 years we lived in this house in the countryside. Since then we've had full fibre at 900Mb/s. But for 2 days now due to lines being down we've had to go back to 4 and OMG. It's very difficult to do stuff in 2026 at those speeds

Seriously, if this is the best Burnham can do after months of going on about how he's going to be The Cost Of Living Prime Minister he might as well not bother. It's actually insulting to fly flags like this saving us a pittance against economic headwinds that are costing us thousands and thousands.

I've just renewed our mortgage with our fixed rate from early 2022 expiring and it's costing several hundred pounds more every month now. Our weekly shop has gone up by £200 a month too. So thank God the Chancellor is bringing in a raft of measures that will save... *checks notes* £2 per month.

I think it was Bruce Schneier who said that the purpose of elections isn't just to determine who wins, but to convince the losers that they lost. That last part might be the most important bit, and Trump's undermining of that is going to take a long, long time to fix. Add it to the pile I guess 😑

"There’s not enough room in my chest for all this joy". What incredible news to wake up to. First Serbia, now this www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

SOUP!

This

This is an excellent example. A loose small can or bottle of coke from a garage used to be less than a quid 5 years ago. Now they're often £2 or even more.

My wife's just mentioned another one after we discussed this briefly just now that I hadn't noticed. 2 years ago cucumbers cost around 45p from the supermarket. Now they're 90p or more. I'm not imagining this am I?

m.youtube.com/watch?v=biUv...

New from me on Political Sandbox: The Bluesky First Cinema Film Awards 1,438 of you told me your first film at the cinema. I've counted them, crowned a winner and handed out awards. The hardest fought: What Were Your Parents Thinking? https://politicalsandbox.substack.com/p/the-first-film-awards

Superman - spent half an hour staring at the light coming out the projection booth and nearly missed Clark getting shot

Come for the fillum, stay for the popcorn, go home for the lack of popcorn.

We've finally found one! A serial Star Wars-er!

Ha! Great stuff!

"Who won?" - Somnambulist Award!

Rolf and Huey Award Alert

Skellingtons FTW

Now *that's* dedication to the cause right there!

Running top 5 so far, from 293 of you: 1 - Bambi - 18 2 - Star Wars - 17 3 - The Jungle Book - 15 4 - E.T. - 12 5 - Snow White - 11 146 different films. Disney is clearly the gateway drug, but Star Wars is one behind Bambi, so keep them coming!

Running top 5 so far, from 293 of you: 1 - Bambi - 18 2 - Star Wars - 17 3 - The Jungle Book - 15 4 - E.T. - 12 5 - now White - 11 146 different films. Disney is clearly the gateway drug, but Star Wars is one behind Bambi, so keep them coming!

Condorman is surprisingly popular! I always think of it as a forgotten gem but maybe not so forgotten.

That's two for TI now!

It's a close run thing as there are a lot of totally inappropriate first ever cinema films in these responses but I think this one has to be the winner so far! Any advance on The Towering Inferno?!

First film you saw at the cinema. The real first one, not the pretend one you tell people! Mine: The Empire Strikes Back, 1980, Wigan. We were near the front and I can still remember how massive the AT-ATs looked, looming over us out of the snow :) Film, year, where, and whatever stuck with you.

New from me on Politics UK: The People's Front of Judea Reform is furious that Restore is splitting the vote on the right. That's pretty rich from a party whose entire existence is to split the vote on the right. https://politicsuk.substack.com/p/the-peoples-front-of-judea

New from me on Political Sandbox: Licence to Hate 2007: say Powell was right and you’re out as a Tory candidate. 2026: the Spectator: “It’s time to uncancel Enoch Powell”. The hate crime figures show when it changed. I investigate why. https://politicalsandbox.substack.com/p/licence-to-hate

That's me telt

Just finished the final Colin From Accounts episode. What a wonderful comedy. I'm sure it will go down in years to come as a modern classic. It's no coincidence that the iPlayer algorithm immediately recommended Schitt's Creek straight afterwards. That's in a similar vein.

This story about the Australian MP is very upsetting. The only time as an adult I have ever cried at the news was when Jo Cox was murdered. It felt like an attack on all of us. On our very democratic core. This feels similar.

New from me on Political Sandbox: What Exactly Are They Restoring? Nick Robinson asked Rupert Lowe whether, by the definition he was using, King Charles is a white Briton. Lowe wouldn't answer. There's a reason he wouldn't. https://politicalsandbox.substack.com/p/what-exactly-are-they-restoring

This is what normalisation of race hatred looks like

The BBC spent years sanewashing Trump. Then he sued it for $10bn. Now the BBC has subpoenaed Jack Smith to testify about January 6th so they can show what really happened. Turns out the way to get proper journalism on Trump is to sue the BBC. www.newsweek.com/bbc-wants-ja...

The colossal misjudgement that Trump would back Ukraine, not Putin, was obvious at the time. Johnson is paid a fortune for this inane piffle.

The contrast with what happened to the woman at Trump's rally is stark. And indeed what happened to the woman at Reform's conference a few weeks ago.

Jim Waterson is such a great journalist. He has a knack of finding just the right hook for a story. This one is an absolute corker. I found myself thinking about the poo tomatoes as I was driving somewhere yesterday. They have clearly dug themselves into my subconscious. That's special.

One of them had a several minute racist rant that was seemingly straight out of Mein Kampf and then declared he wasn't racist. It's just a reflex with them at this point. Like a punctuation mark.

True story

It’s frustrating that Reform says it’s taking political journalists for fools yet most of them will continue to give party the benefit of the doubt, indulge its demagogues and help launder what the party represents.

New from me on Political Sandbox: The Racism Firehose I've been around politics for over 20 years and heard my share of off-colour remarks. Nothing prepared me for ITV's film on Reform. It was like being blasted with a racism firehose. https://politicalsandbox.substack.com/p/the-racism-firehose

Never apologise, never explain. He's the Seinfeld of UK politics.

Has everyone got their popcorn ready for Exposure on ITV at 10:20pm?

I'm not normally one for conspiracy theories but the billionaires are so closely and publicly aligned with Trump now that acts like this really do seem like they're doing his bidding or at least what they guess he'd want them to do to curry favour. This looks like a plausible case of that.

Abdul absolutely destroys Tommy here with facts and logic. The pointedly racist nature of his question is dealt with and Abdul then turns it around on Tommy and proves that he's the one who wants to subvert the US constitution. No wonder Tommy walked out. He had nothing. Deeply impressive from Abdul