Neil Hudson

“There is no better synonym for "rational" than "critical". (Belief, of course, is never rational: it is rational to suspend belief.)” Karl Popper, Unended Quest

@Discoplomacy + “we will ban under 16s from social media”

The British Government has published a Digital Standards Strategy 2026 -2030. "UK action will focus on technologies and standards development organisations that are strategically important, present the highest risk, offer high economic growth potential, and attract high-value jobs and skills. These include AI, cybersecurity, advanced connectivity technologies, quantum technologies, semiconductors and the internet."

AI headline or human creativity?

When You Can't Beat Reform, Change The Rules. Labour Just Did. There is a line in a democracy that, once crossed, changes everything. When those in power begin adjusting the rules of the game to determine its outcome, the game is no longer democracy. It is managed succession. That line was crossed again on Tuesday night. Two days before the Makerfield by-election, Labour rushed a change to the mayoral voting system through the House of Lords. Regional mayors will now be elected using the supplementary vote system rather than first past the post. The change applies immediately. It will govern whoever replaces Andy Burnham as Mayor of Greater Manchester if he wins on Thursday and stands down. The government's defence is that it is simply restoring the system used before Boris Johnson changed it in 2021. That argument requires the public to believe that a change Labour could have introduced at any point in two years of government became urgent on Tuesday evening, forty eight hours before the vote that triggers the election it is designed to affect. Lord Hayward, a Conservative peer and experienced pollster, was precise in the Lords. There is no other justification for the haste, he said, other than that it solves the Labour Party's problems and prevents Reform winning a mayoralty. Not clumsy. Not rushed. Designed. The mechanics explain why. Under first past the post, Reform could win the Greater Manchester mayoralty on a plurality of votes in a fragmented field, precisely as it won all eight council wards in May's local elections with around fifty percent of the vote. Under the supplementary vote system, voters express a first and second preference. Lib Dem and Green voters, given a second preference, will direct those votes to Labour overwhelmingly. The change does not affect Thursday's by-election. It affects the mayoral contest that follows it, constructing an anti-Reform coalition from the second preferences of smaller parties that Reform itself cannot access. Lord Jackson identified the wider implication. This is potentially a strategy for a progressive alliance being rolled out ahead of a general election, he said, with the aim of locking out the Conservatives and Reform from power. Burnham's allies have already confirmed he would scrap first past the post nationally in favour of proportional representation. The supplementary vote is the local pilot for a national project. Pool second preferences, lock out the right, govern indefinitely on a minority of first preference votes. This is not the first time. Earlier this year Labour delayed local elections after the Electoral Commission stated explicitly that the justification was not legitimate, that extending mandates damages public confidence and creates a conflict of interest by allowing those in power to decide how long they may remain there without consent. The Commission's objection was noted and ignored. Reform demolished Labour anyway. Now the same instinct has been applied to a different mechanism. Not cancellation this time. Electoral system change, deployed with surgical precision forty eight hours before the vote that triggers the election it is designed to affect. Governments confident in their mandate do not need to change the rules two days before the ballot. They face the electorate and take their chances. The timing of Tuesday night's Lords motion is not a coincidence. It is a confession. The voters of Makerfield vote on Thursday. The question of who governs Greater Manchester after that, and under what rules, was settled in the Lords on Tuesday. Nobody voted for that. "Burnham's allies have already confirmed he would scrap first past the post nationally in favour of proportional representation."

Steve Harmison Most Fiery First Over Vs Justin Langer youtu.be/2HjeKVpTYpE?is… via @YouTube

And here's your first look at the 1st @Qantas Airbus A350-1000ULR that'll operate Project Sunrise flights in the QF livery. First route: London to Sydney, launching in October 2027.

'Those who bend the knee to Moscow are traitors.' Tom Tugendhat independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…

The people of Iran feature nowhere on Trump’s Memo of Understanding with Tehran.

Anyone who still downplays Russia’s attacks is one of two things: wilfully ignorant or complicit. There is no third category. The Kremlin is not ambiguous about its intent. Nor should we be. Those who bend the knee to Moscow are traitors. independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…

Increíble, @DavidDeutschOxf me ha explicado muchas cosas y con ellas yo había deducido que el diseño constitucional español era una porquería. Lo que no vi venir es que ya lo hubiese explicado con detalle hace ya 15 años. i.e., por qué en España desde hace 40 años: - Los partidos nacionalistas Catalanes y Vascos gobiernan de facto en España haciendo lo que les da la gana - Por que ningún partido tiene incentivo alguno a mejorar nada youtube.com/watch?v=c0pZ9L…

I find it odd how human rights lawyers, despite building their entire career around civil liberties laws turned out to be some of the most extreme authoritarians we've ever been governed by.

📱There's no such thing as a social media ban for under-16s It means we will ALL face a “papers, please” demand to get online. Holding platforms to account and giving parents the tools they need are the answer for child safety - not government-issued bans and digital ID checks for all.

A historic milestone for India-UK relations. Delighted to note that the India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement will enter into force on 15th July 2026. This agreement will significantly boost our bilateral trade and investment. It will also unlock numerous opportunities for Indian farmers, workers, MSMEs, startups and innovators and contribute meaningfully to the realisation of Viksit Bharat 2047. Both PM Starmer and I, who are in Evian for the G7 Summit, are naturally very happy with the significant momentum being added to our economic ties. @Keir_Starmer

Great work @lorintbc Seen this all before in the 1980s in fringe activist groups. Spare Rib, the women’s liberation organ, eventually got into trouble for the antisemitic policy of demanding Jewish women disavow the right of the Jewish homeland to exist before being considered for publication.

It isn’t often that as the JC’s political editor my jaw is left wide open and I’m aghast by what I’m reading. But such was my astoundment at reading the lengthy exchange of emails between Greens for Palestine and Jewish Greens. In the papers we’re publishing today, we detail the animosity the party’s Jewish group had to face for their objections to a motion that equated Zionism with racism. The Jewish group asked for mediation with Greens for Palestine to find an acceptable solution to both; they were snubbed and a series of ridiculous, almost comical, demands were made of them. Only there is nothing funny about the situation. These included that they liberate their minds from Zionism; •     “apologise” for the actions of the Israeli Embassy; •      “retract” press stories critical of the party with which they had no connection; •     “unequivocally condemn” the referral of members to counter-terror police. The controversial “Zionism is Racism” motion could still be adopted by the party’s annual conference in October this year, re-opening many of these rows. Zack Polanski’s party is facing calls to drop the motion. The @JLC_uk is now urging the party to intervene. A spokesperson told me: “Demanding that Jewish members ‘liberate’ themselves from Zionism before engaging in mediation demonstrates an ideological purity demanded of Jews by Greens for Palestine. “If the Green Party really cares about antisemitism, their leadership should step in to stop the farce of this ‘Zionism is racism’ motion.” One former Labour MP has even suggested that Britain’s equalities watchdog investigate the party. “This angry diatribe from the Greens for Palestine group lays bare the way Jewish people who dare to stand their ground in so-called progressive movements are being aggressively intimidated by self-righteous pro Gaza activists.” @LordWalney added: “The Green Party seems as badly infected by prejudice as the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn - it is surely time for a formal investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.”

Passed away yesterday at 100 years old. Answered the call from Britain to fight and travelled from Jamaica to join the RAF in WW2. Gilbert Clarke.

@tszzl + simply having access to good ideas

being physically or socially near the right people is a practical augmentation to your own intelligence the way people think about having frontier model access today

It’s basically a surrender document. Suck it up. And, take this from a ‘lesser journalist’, the IRGC is a massive corrupt enterprise. The people will never see the revenues. The generals will snaffle them. As they always have.

Two powerful resignation speeches from John Healey and Al Carns on the Commons this afternoon, confirming that they represent the best of the Labour Party.

A year ago Guido reported Labour would go after VPNs. The government's breezy dismissal was written up by the press. Eleven months later Liz Kendall says she will come back with new restrictions on VPNs as British policy to ban half of the internet falls apart. #carcrash