Rose Runswick

Bluesky breaking today right as I was about to read @acmcgregor.bsky.social's brilliant bit about understanding the budget was truly tragic.

This ⬇️⬇️⬇️🐛🏳️‍⚧️

Exactly right. It's why the idea of "UK PLC" was so grotesque - as if a nation was just a limited company, that could be wound up, taken over, merged or dissolved, with no roots in the past and no responsibility to the future.

While the election result in #Brazil is obviously good news, we should remember that countless American wannabe-fascists poured $billions into achieving the opposite result and now have nothing to show for it, so it's not just good news, but also objectively hilarious.

Extraordinary @lrb.co.uk piece on prediction markets - just one place where the unbridled corruption of the #Trump administration is making fortunes for his cronies (and losing a lot of little people money)

He really is the leader of the West these days, head and shoulders above all the others.

Update: there's four of them now.

THE PRIME MINISTER IS ON GOGGLEBOX??

Finally, relevant information!

Muslim community members in Bradford, England, helped save the city’s historic Reform Synagogue from possible closure by raising funds for essential repairs and supporting efforts to secure additional financial assistance. The synagogue, established in 1880, was facing serious financial difficulties

The Guardian's homepage right now... 1. "UK approves Jackdaw gasfield in North Sea" 2. World must cut emissions by 18% in four years ‘to find our way back’, UN says

I am distrustful of a government to do right by people for the same reason I distrust big business, both the power to significantly affect people's lives without their consent. But, in a democracy, dislodging a bad government is much easier than dislodging a bad big business.

When I was young I made the presumption Horrid Henry's Purple Hand Gang was somehow descended from the Black Hand Gang responsible for Franz Ferdinand's assassination. I genuinely presumed they'd just changed colours to save face. 😬

Anti trans ideology is no different from any other bigotry. There is no "debate" to be had here. Yes, yes, people go "oh you have to understand...." Yet that ignores you are trying to "debate" whether trans and non-binary individuals have a right to exist. You don't debate people's right to exist.

Feel like my bus service has gotten worse since the Reform Council was elected but maybe it's just placebo.

Here's the longer version of this argument today. #LettheLibDemsVote

Andy Burnham says there was Russian interference in the Brexit vote, but Nigel Farage has called him a liar, so now, gosh, I don't know who to believe.

Liberal England: The Lib Dem leadership should to listen to our MPs "For me, Ron, he's lost the dressing room."

Like all colonial perspectives, this one ignores the opinions of the people who matter the most in this conversation. You know, the people who live on the Falkland Islands.

If you ever need an example of radicalisation I beg you read the Tweets of some of the Lib Dem Members who still use Twitter, genuinely just saw an unironic argument for repealing the Great Reform Act 1832.

If Ed believes in his vision for the Liberal Democrats he should be unafraid to call a leadership race and run against whoever wants to challenge him, this would be far more productive for the Party than a coup. #LettheLibDemsVote I say!

Anonymous sources are bad, says an anonymous source.

This challenge to Ed Davey's leadership is timely and necessary. Lib Dem support is flatlining, and Davey's only response has been increasingly desperate attempts to appeal to Tory voters, most recently with unfunded tax cuts, which is both amoral and looks ridiculous.

Always bet on the liberal with “Maynard” in his name (or not, I don’t actually know this dude and this push should have started in May).

Anthropic banning “abusive or cruel behavior” toward Claude in its new usage policies is proof to me that tech companies are going to moderate violence against AI before they ever moderate violence against women and minorities

This is also part of the reason I'm so against the Metro Mayors here too, political culture is an underappreciated form of soft power and strongman Executives I think will affect ours for the worse. So by all means work together, but don't lose your identity either.

The palpable antagonism between Liberals and Socialists I see in America is something both sides are going to have to learn to get over, and is an unfortunate side-effect of their antagonistic political culture. It can be possible to be sceptical of the State and want the best for workers too.

Unironically cannot think of a better political development than this portion of the left breaking from Mamdani

My friend J.L Pichelski (she's also a very good playwright) wrote this short story which I was very happy to read an early draft of. Check it out here: jlpichelski.co.uk/2026/10/05/s...

Compulsory voting will solve none of the reasons why people don't vote, and high turnout is an essential indicator of discontent that would be lost if voting were forced on people. I just don't see why it would be better than addressing the actual root causes.

the tech industry is about to invent books

Amazing how many people here will accuse you of being a Labour supporter if you don't like the Greens, it's not like Socialism is the only movement on the Left.

Presumably the answer is to build more hospi….. oh wait. Because 20mph zones save lives. That’s why road casualties are down in Lib Dem Oxfordshire and up in Tory Buckinghamshire.

D'ya think the fraction of GPEW members that pushed this through will ever think that when basically everyone outside their bubble is calling them out, including the European greens, maybe they're the problem? (And I do mean fraction, the vast majority of green members I know are lovely people.)

If we want peace in Palestine we must start from that position, we cannot expect to resolve every historic injustice and all social strife in one go, that will come after Ireland's issues weren't solved by Good Friday, but peace gave people a chance to put differences aside and make a start on them

Been thinking about this speech since yesterday, really frames Polanski's cowardice in not speaking against (or for) Zionism is Racism. Politics is not fought through neutrality, it is fought through debate, and believing no-one is unconvinceable no matter how unpopular what you say is.

Appreciate some of these are quite recent but I listen to them a lot :)

Kemi Badenoch takes a rather different view. For her, being the Nasty party is a badge of honour. An aspiration. People had had it far too good with austerity, Brexit, Covid and the Liz Truss mini-budget. The country needed a reality check; a return to old-fashioned unpleasantness.

Fight for Palestine yes but this motion no. Zack was MIA instead of showing leadership. I preferred the pervious leadership. My party is clear we welcome Greens who want more constructive and inclusive ways of fighting for change. This is road to oblivion stuff. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Although it feels like I am shouting into the void about this sometimes, I want to share some further thoughts on the “Zionism is Racism” motion which the Green Party is due to debate in the next 16 hours. Just to address various points which I think people in general should know. A thread:

I listened to Ed Davey on the Today programme this morning, and frankly, I think he missed the point. The idea that we're keeping the triple lock to help millennials is at best for the birds, and at worst downright insulting. I say that as a millennial.

"If he really is going to sit the full mandate Labour were elected on in 2024 then these policy announcements for what will be almost three years in the future ring like hollow attempts to keep his polling in place." My view on the policy end of Burnham's speech.

All My Demons FINALLY released and nobody told me?? I have longed to hear the final version and it's soo good!

Have been sitting in utter horror at what I'm hearing coming from Edinburgh, it is a shame British Liberalism is being gutted by Tories from within.

Perhaps I'm missing a trick here, but I don't see what is so wrong about the addition of new vocational GCSEs. My experience at that time - and granted this was three years ago - was that a lot of kids wanted an option like that and couldn't get it.