Michael Sparkes

How robust is support for EU membership when voters are confronted with the harder choices it could involve? Working with @persuasionuk.bsky.social, we tested a range of potential deal scenarios to see which elements strengthened or weakened support. On average, a majority still backed joining. 👇

NEW: How robust is opinion change on Brexit/Brexit @persuasionuk.bsky.social research properly stress tested it. We find a fair bit of softness. We think headline Rejoin support is more like 52 v 48% (!) rather than ~64-36% you see in polls. Not fatal for Rejoin but worth paying attention to🧵

Labour is clawing back its 2024 vote from the Greens. In March, Labour was losing 1 in 5 voters to the Greens, now it is 1 in 10. Labour's Holborn by-election strategy – a positive campaign about Labour values, built around a popular local candidate, rather than sniping at opponents – worked well.

One striking thing about our focus groups on Burnham's first 100 days is how much participants bought into Andy Burnham as an ordinary bloke from a working class background, whereas our polling in June found only 1 in 7 thought Keir Starmer had been born working class.

Someone lock this useless prick up! #crime

80% of the Reform UK political donations came from individuals or companies based abroad. Some might not be legal. People not permanently resident in the UK or paying taxes subverting UK politics. What have they been promised in return? Political donations are bribes, must be banned.

Ukrainian Defenders evacuated 8 civilians from Lyman, shielding them from a Russian drone with their own bodies. Among the rescued civilians were an elderly woman, three wheelchair-bound individuals with disabilities, and a man with a severe leg wound. Everyone was successfully brought to safety.

@mwehowski.bsky.social #Lavrov comments on the talks with Finland and Norway: “Nothing new came of it”.The Europeans are “sucking up” in order to take part in the“negotiation process”. #Russia continues to insist on its worldview and the “objectives” of the special military operation. No progress.

“At every turn, they have ignored us, misled us and shielded Alex’s killers,” Mr. Pretti’s father, Michael, said at a news conference in Minneapolis, alongside his wife, Susan. It was the first time Mr. Pretti’s parents have spoken in such a public forum. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/27/u...

Long after the first hit, the depot near Khrustalnyi kept going off. Ukrainian drones hit a Russian ammo depot near the occupied city in eastern Ukraine, monitors say. A Russian supply base there burned two weeks ago. Russia is silent on both. 🔗 euromaidanpress.com/2026/10/27/t...

"They naively think they just have to wait it out,someone new will replace Putin -some new Gorbachev.You just don't get it.Putin reflects the hopes of our people.&what is happening now is not "Putin's war,"as you’re trying to portray it -it’s the Russian people's war for their place in this world"

We must end all government contracts with Musk owned businesses.

Zelenskyy opens door to security guarantees for Russia

A peace settlement is only fair if you give me everything I failed to achieve in my illegal attack on Ukraine, said Putin. "A fair long-term peace settlement is possible only if Russia's legal interests are taken into account fully and unconditionally", Putin said."

NO 👇 LIES DETECTED.......

Ousted dictators used to flee to Moscow. Now, apparently, they flee to the United States. www.cnn.com/2026/10/27/a...

Pro-Ukraine protests took place in more than 10 cities across the world condemning US sanctions relief for Russia and pressure on Kyiv to make concessions. Demonstrators called on Washington to maintain pressure on Moscow as Russian forces continue attacking Ukrainian cities. buff.ly/loRYm7v

⚡️️ Netherlands confirms $1.3 billion in non-military aid for Ukraine through 2029.

Trump on solar panels: "They kill all the animals. The animals jump on them and they fry."

“I'm not sure we've processed the trauma of the pandemic as a society; the ripple effect of the terror and paranoia that we all felt the first few months; how frightened we were for our loved ones. I don't think we have reckoned with it at all. People just don't want to talk about it - or hear it.”

. Had to Google Minaj Had no idea who she was Perfect for his administration .

BRAZIL'S LULA: THIS IS WHAT THE BOLSONARO FAMILY IS LIKE, BRAZIL IS THEIR SECOND NATION, THE US IS THE FIRST

Fararge has just seen a poor person he wishes to eat

FOX news will finish October with a dramatic ratings decline, marking its lowest-rated month since December 2023. According to early Nielsen data, there has been a sharp drop in the days before the upcoming midterm elections. Menawhile, MS NOW and CNN both logged audience gains over the same period.

And all this time they've been losing their minds about criminal immigrants.

The problem with Justin Webb’s position at the BBC is not just his flagrant bias, or his writing for the Mail, or his audible prejudices, it’s that all those things make him embarrassingly bad at analysing politics. “Left = firebrand = too woke = trouble for Dems” is about his level

El-Sayed on Trump's cognitive tests: "I went to medical school...In my neurology unit, I would have to give that MoCA exam...The only people that you give a MoCA test to are people who you worry may have cognitive deficits. By definition, if you're taking one of those tests, something's wrong."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpW_...

The Fuckoffening has certainly commenced

When Trump says he doesn't "give a damn" about high gas prices because "we're making a fortune" -- he means it literally: www.jec.senate.gov/public/index...

Dog days are over. Time to vote by November 3rd. Time to win.

I remember the night they bombed Boston, took out that girls school. It was gruesome. No wonder we fought back.

We’re all trying to find the guy who did this…

Nothing says you were lying about your devotion to your country quite like leaving it at the first opportunity you get.

The White House has denied the new rape allegations. Will be interesting to hear what Trump says himself. www.ibtimes.co.uk/white-house-...

Glad some world leaders see the obliteration of Gaza for what it is, instead of side stepping out.

Headlines around the world, basically unreported in US corporate media. What is this all about?

Nigel Farage has given Reform UK candidates permission to publicly support the serial criminally convicted fraudster, thug, stalker and far-right activist who founded the English Defence League. This is who they are. Never forget it.

Truth

Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport has felt like a campaign rally as flight after flight brings expat Israelis returning to vote. Some 67,000 internationally based Israelis were estimated to have arrived, according to a U.S.-based get-out-the-vote program.

The WSJ Editorial Board is unserious. As the US barrels toward one of the most consequential midterms in its history, it has chosen to fixate on a former politician's talk of cheesecake. This isn’t commentary; it’s editorial malpractice. www.wsj.com/opinion/bara...

We found the source of the foreign interference. "Trump wades into Canadian politics with kudos for Parti Québécois, B.C. Conservative wins." www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

🔥🔥🔥A Damning Account Alleges Jared Kushner Conducted Diplomacy for Profit www.nytimes.com/2026/10/26/b...

More rape allegations against Donald Trump in the Epstein files. When is this man going to be charged? www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

UN investigators say the genocide in Gaza continues while extermination, torture and rape form part of a widespread and systematic attack on Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank