Mark Thompson
@markreckons
Politics (mainly UK and a bit of US), comedy and popular culture more generally. Hear me on a radio near you blathering about Burnham or Farage. Probably. Substack Political Sandbox here:
New from me on my Political Sandbox Substack: The last Healey to run the Treasury ended up at the IMF. Here's why this one won't. https://politicalsandbox.substack.com/p/the-other-healey
New from me on my Political Sandbox Substack: The case for a snap election is overwhelming. Burnham should call it. He probably won't. https://politicalsandbox.substack.com/p/thirty-six-months-of-borrowed-time
So hands up who thinks Burnham is actually going to do anything about electoral reform once he's in office
The Democratic Cliff Edge Here's a big reason why Keir Starmer's government is so unpopular and why it's about to get a lot worse From Political Sandbox open.substack.com/pub/politica...
Makerfield is not an ultra safe seat by any stretch. Simons only had a majority of around 5,400 in 2024 and the polls are much worse for Labour now. There's no guarantee Burnham can win it even if he's allowed to stand.
So Wes has jumped. Will he now go for it? I look at his chances in my latest on Political Sandbox. open.substack.com/pub/politica...
Latest from me on Political Sandbox. "The Portillo Paradox - A History Lesson for Andy Burnham" open.substack.com/pub/politica...
Rumours that three canine skeletons were found nearby are unconfirmed
At least Trump was gracious when he found out that Robert Mueller had died. Oh.
I thought he didn't need our ships? Starmer should tell him to fuck off.
Thanks to @waltydunlop.bsky.social I've been able to find something that I mentioned on @looksunfamiliar.bsky.social years back. I watched an episode of Ghost Story (NBC 1972) in Holland in 1988 called Alter Ego and I wanted to know if it had ever been broadcast in the UK. Well turns out it was.
I've just read the article here and it's "Oh noes teh taxman is potentially going to take £80,000 from our £1.2 million estate" i.e. about 7% of their estate and they're desperately thrashing around trying to find ways to dodge this claiming it's "penalising" them for living in Hertfordshire. FFS
Well at least Trump didn't make his eulogy for Jesse Jackson all about himself. Oh.
It's funny how the totally independent DoJ press releases these days sound exactly like Donald J Trump.
I've only just noticed these socks are labelled for which way round they should be on and now I realise I've gone full Jimmy Cricket
I mean obviously he shouldn't have shared it but is anyone else wondering why on earth here he had access to Treasury documents in the first place?
It's such a relief that Trump has been able to reverse climate change. And so quickly too. He's the bestest.
I remember people saying this sort of thing about Gordon Brown. "He's great in private" "He's really charismatic one-on-one". But it's no use when the skill set required is to come across well to millions of people at once.
Yeah today. But fuck knows what he'll think and say tomorrow. His support on anything is worth far, far less than that of previous presidents for that reason. And the whole world now understands that. As a result the USA's soft power has plummeted and will probably never fully recover.