Running Dog

@runningdog.bsky.social

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In the early days of our movement, it was mandatory that all members smoke cigarettes and refrain from speaking, but we realized those traditions were stupid. He/him/his/bark

Guardian infographic showing a cautious cabinet
Guardian infographic: “a bold radical cabinet”
One board member at a large UK bank said: "No one knows anything about her economic, fiscal or financial positions other than in the generality that she is right-of-centre which would point to a [Rachel] Reeves continuity, which is the best we could hope for.”
To some, Nigel Farage appears to be in a trap of his own making, fighting for re-election in single combat with a giant bin before potentially having to do it all again against the other political parties. But inside Reform UK, the mood is upbeat. As one insider said of the prospect of a double byelection: "Bring it on."
Black greyhound lying on a leather sofa
Right, so the classic thing is you go to say a Gaza protest and you say something like, you know, how do you define sexually? And they go, I'm gay. And they go, how do you think that would go on in Gaza? And they go like, ooh, because they haven't really thought of it. And it's an amazing gotcha clip. Rack up the views. Everybody goes home for tea and money from TikTok.
Keir Starmer didn't meet those defence targets that they wanted. All the other parties are arguing for it. It's a fairly unarguable one, isn't it? We got to put up income tax to stop being invaded by Russia. So both politically and nationally, he's got the opportunity if that's what he wanted to do.
Can we have his list of achievements, though? Because my other feeling, apart from pleasure at the timing, sadness at the going, was just if any other prime minister had had his current crop of good news to boast about, he'd still be in. Keir's going, oh, well, yes, the boats, they really are, they are down. Net migration figures are down. Fifty percent cut since last year. I mean, yeah, which reflects two things, doesn't it? It reflects the Ukrainian scheme and the Hong Kong scheme working their way through and the kind of what's so called Boris wave, where Boris Johnson's government just lost control of visa allocation, like they lost control of everything else.
Can we get back to how annoying Steve Bray is? Yes. It's sort of irony, right? Which is that his right to do that is probably protected by some human rights legislation of the kind in which Keir Starmer is in favour very strongly and the right to kind of peaceful protest.
You have to cajole, persuade, convince and inspire. That, ultimately, is what Labour MPs have judged him unable to do. Starmer treated politics as a science- (work + competence=success) when it is, in reality, the deepest of the arts.
Tim Shipman @ShippersUnbound X.com The thing I hate about these moments most, that good, loyal, talented people take a fall for the failures of their bosses. If you want to understand the govt give them a job. They are older and much wiser than when you last interviewed them... Jimmy McLoughlin @jimmym•1d A number of SpAds will lose their jobs today. One minute, you are among the busiest and best-informed people in Britain.... 12:37 • 22/06/2026 • 68K Views 9 L7 13 146 21
Matthew Syed • @matthewsy... •22h X Starmer was hated. Says far more about the electorate than the man. Impossible to govern when people want welfare, triple lock, tax loopholes, NIMBYist vetoes, while also hating the low growth, high debt economy this entails. Starmer was a good man leading an ungovernable country
He carries the magic shield of not being from Westminster - though that won't last, obviously - plus the easy warmth with people that Keir Starmer lacks, and the rare ability to generate excitement in politics. Reform is beatable, and the sun shines brighter for knowing that. A third successive defeat for Nigel Farage in a winnable byelection, after losing Caerphilly to Plaid Cymru and Gorton and Denton to the Greens, suggests a trend, not a fluke. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/20/andy-burnham-britain-makerfield-mp?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
"A Makerfield test at the heart of British politics will make sure that the places Westminster has neglected will now get fairness."
Ben Dunnell @bendunnell.bsky.social • 2m Increasingly, how do you pitch to anything, given how thick an awful lot of voters are? Pete Fraser @petefrasermu... • 40m Just heard a vox pop from makerfield and a guy said "I want less money going to welfare and more money going into the pockets of people who want to work' and if I want a demonstration of how confused people are about reality, that seems to sum it up for me. How do you pitch to that?
On Monday, No 10 finally told Healey how much more money it was prepared to give the Ministry of Defence to fund major projects as part of the defence investment plan (Dip). Its programmes include the £41bn Dreadnought submarine replacement for Trident - and a mooted investment in drones, ready for a future Ukraine-style war.
In his resignation letter, Al Carns called for a change in government. 11 If my resignation accelerates the transition towards resolution, then the impact will far outweigh the act. We need a new way of governing and we need it now.
Helene von Bismarck @helenebisma... • 8h Since John Healey mentioned the Strategic Review: It is worth repeating that this study warned that the post-war order was desintegrating, &that Britain needed a "whole-of-society approach to defence" In a normal world this would have triggered a national debate led by the PM. But Starmer didn't. Gaby Hinsliff @gabyhinsliff.bsky... • 36m More than that, the review soe finally asked for a two year national conversation about resilience and readiness for war. Which didn't happen. Without it how can you make a public case for money?
Powell made her comments in an article for Babelfish, as well as an interview with the comedian Matt Forde. Her intervention comes as MPs are pushing for tighter regulation of misinformation in the forthcoming elections legislation, known as the representation of the people bill.
Resisting Gen-Z socialism is therefore an urgent task. The first step is for free-market liberals to stop apologising. A series of popular criticisms of capitalism, each containing a grain of truth, has in aggregate obscured the fundamental wisdom that private enterprise is at the root of human prosperity. Yes, people aren't always rational, as behavioural economics shows. True, inequality matters and growth is better when broad-based. Free trade and globalisation create losers as well as winners. But this is the best time in human history to be born, given record real incomes, high life expectancy and low rates of extreme poverty. A punchier defence of capitalism would work better in the social-media age than hand-wringing by uncharismatic centrists like Sir Keir Starmer.
Forget weighty collectivist ideals or seizing the means of production. Gen-Z socialism is a me-first doctrine. Climate change and race, preoccupations of the 2010s and early 2020S, are now much more peripheral concerns. So are social issues, barring Gaza. Angst about inflation, housing and artificial intelligence have replaced all that with something cruder. "This country is awash in wealth," says Avi Lewis, freshly elected leader of the New Democratic Party in Canada, a country where productivity has been all but flat for a decade. "We can have nice things." Saying that prices should be capped to keep your bills down while someone else pays for your public services is a seductive, shareable message.
Rigby said she had not been able to start properly researching the king's speech - the government's official agenda - until the night before it took place, because of the "rolling leadership crisis" "We're not confecting the news; we're not making it up," she said. "It's what is happening and we report it. If there wasn't a rolling crisis, we wouldn't be reporting a crisis. "It's not my desire to create drama ... I spent a couple of weekends in a row phoning dozens of people just to make sure that in a really uncertain environment, at least I understand to the best of my ability, to inform the viewer in a way that's not hyperventilating, it's not highly speculative."
One veteran political journalist said structural factors were also at play. While social media had sped up the news cycle, he said the sheer volume of outlets - as well as the ease with which MPs could now be reached via WhatsApp - had made it impossible for parties to control the narrative. "Hacks have always liked drama," he said. "That's not a new trait and I don't think we caused it ... Given the huge reader bias in favour of process stories, I think we do OK at bringing stuff back to policy where possible."
What's more, the text is clear, accessible and analytically useful. There are memorable images, including the depiction of heads of government as bus drivers. When conventional leaders reach a brick wall, they stop and debate for a few hours how to get around it. The likes of Donald Trump accelerate and slam right through it: "Yes, there are bits flying off the bus ... the passengers feel mildly nauseous," writes Blair, but the US president has shown "efficacy" - and voters like it.
Give the triple election-winner further credit. This is a political professional who still knows how to command the news cycle. Cannily timing the release of his nearly 6,000-word essay on the future of Britain, and the failings of Labour, to coincide with the parliamentary recess, he secured for himself massive coverage across all platforms over several days.
Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.b... • 3h I hadn't realised Andy Burnham had done a Tik Tok about not building on fields. He is mayor of Makerfield and his own policy prescribes building on fields, because it isn't possible to hit housing targets any other way 8 ¿ 65 › 148 Jennifer Williams • @jenwilliamsft.b... • 3h Clearly, if he was PM he could try to change housing targets. But that would then conflict with all the messages from literally a week ago about housing costs being the key example of broken Britain
The evidence fits the theory. Lambert and Schindler analysed hundreds of millions of new hires and job postings and found that although both occupational exposure to AI and remote working rates line up with the outsized pullback in junior hiring, the link with AI evaporates once you account for whether a role is remote. In other words, it only looks like Al is behind the hiring crunch for junior software developers because coding jobs are also disproportionately done remotely. Jobs less exposed to AI but amenable to remote work (eg lawyers) have also seen weak junior hiring; roles with high AI exposure but an emphasis on in-person work (eg receptionists) have held up better.
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What on earth was going on in the S... 27 May • 55 min Whether they're disqualifying, I don't know. I don't know, perhaps they should matter. I don't think they will matter a huge deal. I think people are generally of the view now that politicians say lots of stupid things. If you went through the labor of MPs who've said stuff on transgender or whatever, and you'd probably find most people were more offended by those views that may be acceptable in the Westminster village than the sort of things that reform candidates say.
The party should have ditched promises like the workers rights reforms and commitments on oil and gas licenses in the early days of government, blaming the fiscal situation, Blair said, arguing that it would have won the goodwill of business. He also attacked the ending of the two child limit, saying it was clear that welfare was in need of major reform. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/26/tony-blair-labour-abandon-net-zero-support-donald-trump?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Peck: "I do a bit of it, I don't do too much - and I'm loath to pull the wizard's curtain too far back on my colleagues, but I will say... there's two phases to it: one, you get given the quote and then you debate over how you can be attributed. "Sometimes you will have a conversation with someone, and if they are a real pro, they will give you three different ways you can quote them, and then you can make it look as though you have spoken to three different people when you haven't." lannucci: "Whaaat?!" Peck: "If you are a good journalist, you will say no to that. But they all try it: all the spin doctors say 'you can quote me as a Cabinet member, you can quote me as a senior Labour source, you can quote me as a Starmer acolyte', ', or what have you. It is all the same person."
Query: what were you previously regarding before you disregarded this Google ai response: I don't have personal memories or previous conversational states. I treat every question as a standalone prompt and do not retain past context. [Reddit link] You can check out Google to search your own previous queries if you'd like to find the exact phrasing! What would you like to discuss today?
Burnham's fingers must be aching. Between pitching to become the MP for Makerfield, continuing in his day job as the mayor of Greater Manchester and going for his regular runs, Keir Starmer's would-be challenger has also found enough time to reply to dozens of posts on social media. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/22/natural-andy-burnham-allies-social-media-thumbs-up?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
It might have been easier if he could have convinced Afzal Khan in Rusholme or Jeff Smith in Withington to stand down - both hold seats where the main challengers are the Greens. But in Burnham's discussions with Josh Simons, who gave up his seat to trigger the byelection, the pair agreed that would not prove what they needed to show. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/18/makerfield-byelection-andy-burnham-labour-electoral-problems-analysis
A spokesperson for Replika said its chatbot was not designed for factchecking or search, and that its users were told that, but it would support "thoughtful regulation" of AI, particularly during elections. "Replika is presented as a companion for reflection and self-expression, not as a source of factual or real-world information," they said. OpenAI did not comment on the policy issues raised by Demos but argued that Demos's approach was not typically how ChatGPT used its services and seemed to be using an out-of-date version of it. Users were also able to instruct ChatGPT to search the web for answers.
He described his leadership bid as an attempt to "change Labour" and return it to "the party people perhaps once knew when they were younger, solidly on the side of working-class people and working-class communities"
supportive of the home secretary's attempts to limit legal and illegal migration, which have been criticised by some senior Labour MPs as un-British and mimicking Trump. Burnham faces a tough fight to return to Westminster against Reform UK, which has already called him "open-borders Andy". But those close to his campaign say he will not seek to dilute the government's curbs on migration, which include ending the right to permanent refugee status.
First Dog on the Moon cartoon about Mamdani’s achievements in New York
A black greyhound with a pink collar lying down next to a rubber duck toy
Robert Shrimsley • @robertshrimsley.bsky.social Not actually sure Burnham should want the Greens to stand aside. He'd squeeze their vote to nothing anyway and if they back him, Reform can tar him with their policies by association. 4:53 PM • May 15, 2026 C Everybody can reply 2 reposts 2 quotes 24 likes
Financial Times @financialtimes.com Voters expect a prosperity our politicians cannot deliver ft.trib.al/iumgTOx | opinion
While he is not a Blairite (he left the party during the Iraq war), he can be sceptical about the state. At health he placed himself firmly on the side of patients against vested interests, and has made real progress. England has seen the biggest monthly fall in hospital waiting lists for 17 years.
Streeting is not out of the game despite Burnham's popularity with Labour's rank and file: freed from cabinet responsibility, he will use the coming weeks to set out a range of policy ideas, including on the economy. But some supporters fear he has reduced his leverage. This is worrying, given that there is no other candidate of his stature on Labour's "sensible" wing.
«The markets hate uncertainty, but they hate a political vacuum even more," said Nigel Green, the chief executive of deVere Group.
Ian Birrell @ianbirrell.bsky.social • 1d Very serious allegations - Farage (& Johnson) need to be questioned at every opportunity and by anyone claiming to be a journalist over Harborne's cash. Narinder Kaur ~ @narindertweets X.com Extraordinary allegations from @benhabib6!! Ben Habib alleges that Nigel Farage & Boris Johnson were paid £1m each by Christopher Harborne to essentially rig the election in favour of Johnson. He also claims the undeclared £5m "gift" Farage received in 2024 from Harborne was payment for Farage to take over as party leader of Reform UK and stand in Clacton.
Starmer's looming challenger Streeting has shown political nous as health secretary and, as someone from Labour's Blairite wing, would offer some reassurance to companies and investors. Challengers from the left will now be assembling the backing to enter the race. Whether we end up with a better prime minister is far from certain.
The business community, whose support is vital if Labour is to achieve the overwhelming priority of rekindling growth, will be looking first for stability but also a commitment to fiscal responsibility and the unleashing of animal spirits in the economy. A Starmer refrain before the last election was "Country first, party second". As Labour heads into its own convulsions, it would do well to remember this principle.
Should Starmer decide to run against Streeting - and an alternative candidate from the left - the prime minister would have a major advantage because of Labour's voting system, which is preferential. MPs say they are deeply concerned that because Starmer would be likely to collect most second preferences, in a three-way contest he could even come second and still remain leader and prime minister.
Politics live with Andrew Sparrow Starmer has 'full confidence' in Streeting despite allies saying he is planning to resign - UK politics live
A masterpiece new entry for the dictionary of political quotes, as a Labour MP told the Guardian yesterday of the party's leadership options: "We have to face up to the fact that every single one of them is fucking useless." Anyway, come on in and experience chaosmaxxing with the governing party! Let's take a look at the runners, riders, loose horses and horse traders who just want Keir Starmer to go and live on a farm.
A masterpiece new entry for the dictionary of political quotes, as a Labour MP told the Guardian yesterday of the party's leadership options: "We have to face up to the fact that every single one of them is fucking useless." Anyway, come on in and experience chaosmaxxing with the governing party! Let's take a look at the runners, riders, loose horses and horse traders who just want Keir Starmer to go and live on a farm.
A senior official who was also involved in the partygate investigation added: "It's hard to see how they wouldn't investigate and impose a sanction. "[Farage] is saying it's about security. Well, if that is true, it's in part because he's an MP... But setting aside his own rationale, such a donation for any MP should be disclosed. "In my view, it is impossible to say there isn't at least a perception of a conflict or obligation created."
Another source added: "If Farage received this in the year before he was elected, then it should have been declared, no doubt about it. "My forecast would be that Farage will receive a lengthy suspension, which could trigger a byelection, but that he would relish this and storm back to victory because the good burghers of Clacton would think that he was being clobbered by the establishment."
Krishnan Guru-Murthy @krishgm X.com Avoiding interviews in the week before polling day but after the £5 million "gift" had been exposed worked well for Reform as a media handling strategy, but the questions will now keep coming. news Sky News # @SkyNews • 1d Nigel Farage told Sky's @BethRigby that he took a £5 million gift from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne in early 2024, before he announced he would stand for parliament, for 'protection'
"But my preferred option is for the Cabinet to do a reshuffle within itself, where there's plenty of talent and for Keir to be given a different role, which he might enjoy, perhaps an international role, and then for others to come to the fore, who can communicate the message, who are very able, so we can have minimum fuss."
'The country has gone from blue and red to a rainbow coalition,' says Sky's Beth Rigby.
"We all know, Farage has been around the block in many incarnations, many iterations, many name-changes in politics," Emily says. "But he's managed to convince people, with the streak of an evangelist, that he is the newcomer." If Reform voters ever do see him for what he is, she adds, that may be the moment it is "all over" for him.
"We all know, Farage has been around the block in many incarnations, many iterations, many name-changes in politics," Emily says. "But he's managed to convince people, with the streak of an evangelist, that he is the newcomer." If Reform voters ever do see him for what he is, she adds, that may be the moment it is "all over" for him.
Speaking in Portsmouth, Davey said people were fed up with the Conservatives and Labour and wanted change. "Some are going to the extreme populist change, the sort of 'burn it all down' type change from Reform and the Greens," he told the BBC. "We offer a different form of change, which is 'build it up', which is far more in tune with British values of tolerance, decency, respect for the rule of law, individual freedom, with a real plan to turn round our economy, our defence."