Gaby Hinsliff
@gabyhinsliff
Guardian columnist & writer, author of Half a Wife, sometimes on telly/Guardian Politics Weekly podcast. No, I didn't write the headline. Event host & speaker
nobel peace prize latest (also FYI if you were thinking of ordering heating oil at any point in the near future)
the ideas aren't perfect or complete but feel 2026 not 2006 - meets people where they are, ie feeling that you work hard & still can't have nice things, & offers an explanation for that which isn't 'blame immigrants' or 'blame global elite' (tho plan involves serious capital gains tax reform)
finding it hard to care all that much about local elections right now tbh
disappointingly not BUT there's this helpful advice on what to do if you are, definitely cut out and keep
probably should not have read this from Ilan Goldenberg, former ME adviser in Obama & Biden administrations, on what happened when they wargamed conflict with Iran leading to the straits closing for >a month: oil hitting $175-200 a barrel, years to recover production, zero amusing memes
On the one hand, good that Keir Starmer is saying upfront: ‘this is bad, it will probably get worse the longer the war goes on & the end of the war is not in our control so we’re doing what we can’. On the other hand, there’s the whole bad/worse part of it.
Please enjoy these dogs made, for no obvious reason, entirely out of welly boots (i’m in France, if that explains anything)
Walking back from a mildly terrifying Institute for Govt panel on Trump & WW3-or-not, to find a massive billboard at Piccadilly Circus promoting the Melania documentary/puff piece, was a slightly out of body experience. Who on earth wants to see this?
It’s a long story so don’t ask but…Tank Museum wrapping paper, featuring festive tanks, actually exists and I feel the need to share this
This quote (from an interesting @politicshome piece on immigration policy) does feel like it sums up govt at the moment: we can see stuff going wrong but we’re not really sure what to do about it
Off to interview @tommctague.bsky.social and @jeremyhuntmp.bsky.social at Wimbledon Book Festival, and wondering if we’ll ever really stop re-litigating Brexit (on the day Rachel Reeves is blaming it for putting up taxes)
This is the line I’ve been waiting for Labour to articulate clearly on flags - yes as a symbol of unity, no as an attempt to exclude & divide; yes to inclusive patriotism, no to nationalism (it’s Shabana Mahmood to the Sun)
We’ve just moved into an old house where the carpet underlay seems to consist entirely of copies of the Times 1965-1970, and it’s kind of reassuring to find the headlines (arms sales to Israel, teachers’ strike, rows about some MP calling another MP a drunken buffoon) are so utterly relatable
Is it very bad that my main thought (after wtf) is about where she got those trousers
‘Other people probably like you more than you think’ is possibly the single most helpful message you can get across to a self conscious teenager, so this piece from Women’s Health mag is worth shoving under the nose of any teens you have around the house (sorry, no link, but current print issue)
This time 18 years ago I was giving birth to a baby boy, who we have somehow managed to keep alive all these years with only a few trips to Minor Injuries. If you’re in the trenches with small (or even big) children, hang on in there, you’ll be amazed and delighted by the adults they become
Reform in Runcorn quote on their target voter which is basically…anyone, but made to sound fancy? Yeah, leave the people who don’t either work or not work to the other parties
From a Sunday Telegraph story about people who have inherited houses while already owning one, complaining that having to pay double council tax on this second home (if they keep it) is ‘extortion’ and I just…cannot
Emotional launch party tonight for colleague @johnharris1969.bsky.social’s lovely book about how he and his son James, who is autistic, bonded through music. Joy and tears and everything in between. (Buy now, stash for Father’s Day, congratulate yourself later for getting organised ahead of time)
Offspring’s 17 year streak of religiously avoiding reading anything I’ve ever written finally broken and it was of course by accident
Don’t want to sound like anyone’s mother but the sky is blue again, the sun is warm, dogs don’t walk themselves and you are going to feel considerably better for getting outside than for doomscrolling.
Honestly? The angry Halloween pineapple (forgot to buy my kid a pumpkin, this was cack-handed emergency substitute)
Went swimming in the rain in Pembrokeshire & as we ran shivering up the path afterwards, a German tourist asked my son & me if she could take a photo because ‘people don’t do this in Germany, in this weather.’ If you were wondering what British seaside holidays are like.
Unsure what I’m loving more; peaceful counter protestors vastly outnumbering far right in Brighton & Walthamstow (see below) or Times reporting a woman in a nightie marching up to the half-arsed Blackpool wannabe protest & demanding that her kids get home to bed