Brief window where I can also post this on X without being accosted by Russian bots...

There will be a lot of sound and fury until the US midterm elections before Moscow, Kyiv and everyone else realises how much Trump has lost control of events in and outside America

What a weird world we live in - Ukraine hits a data centre deep in Russia - Irish twitter users see racist posts about IPAS centres in Offaly fall off a cliff

Some typically farsighted and well-balanced analysis here. The scariest bit is that Putin seems to be turning to narratives of desperation to justify his rhetoric of escalation: a desperate Russia is more frightening even than a bullying one. Desperation leads to gambles.

100%

When I say the politics will become increasingly obvious... I mean look at this. If you want to unite the left/centre and split the Tories, without a big spending committment there's no better option.

This is M&S is a clear sign that civilisation is coming to an end. There is no dignity anymore.

Trying to figure out how many days locked in a room with no entertainment or stimulus would be required before I willingly picked up this book.

Don't study it too hard, there's a good living in pointing out obvious things that most commentators are resistant to noticing...

🎶 It's beginning to look a lot like an election 🎶

Average Labour lead now almost 5 points ahead of Reform....

But the pledge isn't to rejoin at any cost. It's to negotiate. The economic costs and benefits would be part of the referendum campaign. So it really isn't a spending commitment.

The manifesto commitment would be to negotiate a deal which would go to a referendum so there is no spending commitment that has to be costed. Rejoining would mean paying a contribution but then that would be offset with additional tax revenue from higher GDP.

Exactly.

The policy argument for the campaign is "we won't agree a deal unless the economic benefit outweighs the contribution."