Ailbhe Rea
@PronouncedAlva
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Associate Editor, Bloomberg UK. Covering politics in Westminster. Sign up for my 5pm newsletter, the Readout 👇🏻
London via Belfast
Joined June 2012
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Stanley Johnson also groped me at a party at Conservative conference in 2019.
I am grateful to Caroline Nokes for calling out something that none of us should have to put up with, not least from the Prime Minister's father.
Stanley Johnson accused of inappropriately touching senior Conservative MP
Caroline Nokes, chair of the Women & Equalities Select Committee, says the PM's father behaved inappropriately towards her at the Conservative Party Conference in 2003.
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I do feel like this conversation around blood clot risk and the AZ jab doesn't sufficiently register quite how many women are on contraceptive pills with v high blood clot risk already
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I am struck by BBC reporters' continued use of household budget metaphors to describe the UK economy re. the spending review. That is a deeply political and contested framing that comes hand-in-hand with a pro-austerity argument. I don't think it is good analysis or "impartial".
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“What makes you think your name is pronounced alva? It certainly is not.” I woke up to this email, certainly the weirdest I have yet received in a crowded field. 🤪
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I have written about my experience with Stanley Johnson for this week's
@NewStatesman
.
Thank you so much to everyone who has been in touch in recent days. It has really meant a lot to me.
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Tory MP Leo Docherty has just called David Davis a traitor in the tea room, after Davis' PMQ calling on Boris Johnson to go 🔥
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If you can bear it, I think you should read this quick blog by me about the actual detail of the torture Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was subjected to in Iran, and why it's beyond awful that corners of the internet are telling how to feel about her release.
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making a joke about Diane Abbott
what’s a simple red flag that has never failed you? something small like a person quoting 48 laws of power.
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NEW: Keir Starmer's plan for his first 100 days in government
- Diplomatic push at Nato and EPC meeting
- Planning reform blitz
- Push for private investment
- Lifting ban on onshore wind
- Sue Gray has "20 bills" for King's Speech
w/
@EllenAMilligan
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I mean if were the Palace and going to investigate allegations against members of the Royal family, Meghan wouldn't exactly be where I'd start
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Keir Starmer made a joke today and you all ruined it and now he isn’t going to make another joke ever again
Keir Starmer challenges Boris Johnson to do 50 push ups at next PMQs
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This is so bleakly, absurdly funny: Neil Parish, who has now been named as the MP accused of watching porn in the Commons, went on GB News to discuss the then-anonymous MP accused of watching porn in the Commons.
'You are going to get people that step over the line.'
Neil Parish, who has had the whip removed following accusations he watched pornography in the Commons, spoke to Darren McCaffrey earlier this week and denied there was a cultural problem in Parliament.
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NEW: Amnesty International issues a statement that it has never reported that "neck kneeling" is a technique taught by Israel to the US police, after a 2016 report was widely used to support allegations made by Maxine Peake/ shared by Rebecca Long-Bailey
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Trans people exist. Their right to be respected as their preferred gender is literally enshrined in law. It is just pointless prejudice to spot an instance where language includes them and to insist on excluding them again.
I know it’s sometimes difficult to find that word that’s on the tip of your tongue, so let me help you.
Women.
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On an almost daily basis I see journalism about (never by) trans people repeating and spreading inaccurate information or responding to a partially imagined reality. It goes without saying that any discussion about trans rights needs to begin with facts!
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The public is being asked to reasonably believe that Dominic Cummings drove ≈40 miles to a popular tourist destination on Easter Sunday (his wife's birthday) to... *checks notes*... test his eyesight for a longer drive, with his wife (who can herself drive) and child in the car.
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SCOOP Angela Rayner is planning a powerful Blair-style unit to tackle homelessness if Labour wins power
- based on the Rough Sleeping Unit based in Number 10 under Tony Blair
- will sit within the new Office of the Deputy Prime Minister at heart of govt
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I can't believe we are having a full-blown public debate about lockdown compliance with *no* evidence to show that this is anything other than compliant behaviour under less stringent lockdown rules. Yea you see more people out and about... because more people are allowed to be?
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Thank you to the person who just sent me this suggesting it should be my new cover image
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There is a lone protester outside parliament right now while the cladding debate goes on, holding an advertisement asking for a "Tory donor to pay to replace my flammable cladding".
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I'm so thrilled to announce that I have joined Politico as host of the Westminster Insider podcast!
Stepping into very big illustrious shoes left by
@Jack_Blanchard_
. I'm so excited to work with him and the team and to get started. New season starts next week! 👀
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Speaker of the Lords: “Lord Kilclooney should retract and apologise. This is an offensive way to refer to anyone, let alone a woman who has just made history. The comment is entirely unacceptable and has no place in British politics. I could not be clearer.”
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Well, folks, what do we make of this deftly-tuned dog whistle from a BBC presenter?
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The Twickenham dream was short-lived! We just arrived and were told if we join the queue now we won't get it because there are already 15,000 people in the queue... But beautiful people, beautiful vibes
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I wrote a bit about the public health case for "individuals with a cervix" and messaging that includes trans people. I am quite nervous about sharing it which shouldn't really be the case! Please do read before commenting
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Diane Abbott was trying to ask a question from the beginning of PMQs. Why didn't Lindsay Hoyle call her?
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🚨Work news🚨This is my last week at the New Statesman before I move to an exciting new role (more details v soon...).
It has been a privilege working for the NS, and I'm so happy I'll be staying within the NS family as a contributing writer, writing monthly in the magazine.
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I find the media interest in what Oxford and Cambridge students do in their student societies or how they decorate their living space (which is what that vote on the Queen's portrait was about) really bizarre. It is just not important or interesting!
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NEW Hugh Grant endorsing Greens' Carla Denyer in Bristol Central, where Labour's would-be culture secretary Thangam Debbonaire is trying to cling on to her seat.
He tweeted his support last month. Now this is the Greens' latest leaflet with
@HackedOffHugh
, king of rom coms...
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It's World Suicide Prevention Day, and not a day goes by that I don't think about my trans friend from school who took their own life. Someone close to me recently came out as trans and all I hope is that the world won't be as cruel to them as it was to that person from school.
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I tested positive for covid this morning, like seemingly half of Westminster...
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I am increasingly annoyed that we spent so much time discussing a hypothetical land border and its risks during the Brexit negotiations - and we're spending so little time now discussing the real border and violence in the wake of the *actual* Brexit deal.
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I have ~weird feelings~ about football being so prominent in the news. I hate the boys' club football creates in workplaces, I hate the amount of money that flows into and out of it primarily for men, I hate that we accord it a respect we don't give industries like fashion.
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Guys I don't think it counts as "copying" if you're both quoting a famous passage from Saint Francis of Assisi
WATCH: Biden Copies Margaret Thatcher in Confirmation Speech
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The feminine urge to leave your job in the civil service to open a pub in Newry at the height of the Troubles
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NEW: Andy Burnham tells the
@NewStatesman
that “the problem now is, to a large degree, the Chancellor” in his battle against the government over coronavirus restrictions in Greater Manchester.
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It is astonishing to me that a Prime Minister making an urgent speech like this allowed himself to be filmed 24 hours ago mixing indoors with people from other households with no mask and not at a social distance
Prime Minister Boris Johnson creates 'beautiful shavings' and demonstrates his skills with an electric drill.
Get the latest news:
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This honestly feels like the EU is having its mid-lockdown breakdown on the international stage
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SCOOP: The Race Commission omitted "inconvenient evidence", claims an insider
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I am not in the club of people who think this is unfair (it's clearly the right decision) but it is also striking that the only person to have resigned over the party so far is the person who actually "went home".
@BBCPolitics
"I will regret those remarks for the rest of my days"
Allegra Stratton gives a tearful statement as she resigns as government adviser, after she was seen in video joking about lockdown Christmas party at No 10
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I thought Lisa Nandy was... brilliant on Andrew Neil? Agree or disagree with her positions she was unflappable, warm and totally on top of detailed policy. Underneath his scathing tone Neil must have been a bit pleased to have a good sparring partner.
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So THIS is what Samantha Jones has been doing in London
Breaking:
Samantha Jones, the PM's health adviser, has been appointed as interim perm sec and COO of the Office of the Prime Minister
Staff in No 10 have just been told
She's an NHS veteran who started out as a nurse, has run hospitals & has experience in private healthcare
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Between Chesham and Amersham and the DUP meltdown this honestly feels like Christmas for a political journalist with an outsized interest in the Lib Dems and Northern Irish politics.
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I've done millions of tweets and deleted them all. Solidarity with the women in Clapham tonight. I can't imagine how awful it would feel to be manhandled and restrained by police in Clapham after this week.
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I think it has been a bit lost in some of the coverage that Greater Manchester leaders have been clear since negotiations began that they wanted enough money from govt to cover 80% of wages (inc for self-employed). It wasn't just a random chat about how much money they could get
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The Downing Street press briefing room is finally delivering value for the taxpayer...
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It was a privilege to interview Richard Ratcliffe for this week's
@NewStatesman
.
He is now on day 17 of his hunger strike on the steps of the Foreign Office.
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Trans men are roughly half as likely to access cervical screening as women and are at an increased risk of cervical cancer as a result. Cervical screening campaigns mostly address women. This is one little tweet that doesn't and people have lost their minds over it.
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It's impossible to do justice in a tweet to what a smart boss, fun colleague and kind friend
@stephenkb
has been to me for the past two and a half years.
I hope you enjoy our chaotic and weepy final New Statesman podcast with him.
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I think there is a bigger point in the "cleaner discourse" that so many of women's successes and advances have come on the backs of other, poorer women, and until we genuinely change the gendered associations of domestic work we won't have equality.
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Thank you to the brave women out there who have come forward to share their experiences with Russell Brand.
What a brave and painful thing to do, especially when your most intimate, traumatic experiences are picked over and disbelieved.
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*taps mic* I'm thrilled to be joining Bloomberg as an Associate Editor.
I'll be writing The Readout, Bloomberg UK's evening newsletter bringing you the top finance, business and politics stories of the day, alongside the ace Allegra Stratton.
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Why don't we do a CABLE CAR from Northern Ireland to Scotland?!
It's a mystery why don't we have more faith in the PM's infrastructure schemes
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I regret to inform you that your hot take on the situation in Northern Ireland is Not Good unless you consider all three overlapping causes: the Irish Sea border, the decision on the Bobby Storey funeral *and* the role of loyalist paramilitaries.
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Ok real talk: it is just the teeniest bit cringe that a former Conservative parliamentary candidate has been elected President of the Oxford Union (primarily a debating society for undergrads) and lots of people involved in real-world Westminster politics canvassed for him online
BREAKING: James Price, who graduated Oxford in 2013, has been elected as Oxford Union President for Hilary Term 2021.
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NEW I'm hearing Labour officials are worried about a smattering of unexpected losses on polling day, even if they win big overall.
Key vulnerabilities include Thangam Debbonaire, Shabana Mahmood, ex-Reeves aide Heather Iqbal, ex-Starmer aide Chris Ward.
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I'm just writing up my report on the lay of the land in North Shropshire ahead of the by-election tomorrow, and I have so much time for Robert, in his 90s, who informed me that Boris Johnson's time will soon be up because "he looks to be getting old".
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🚨After six brilliant seasons on Westminster Insider, I'm leaving POLITICO at the end of the month.
Lovely to leave with two AIBs nominations and being on the MHP 30 Under 30 and Grazia Power List (!).
For now, I'm going travelling but more from me soon.
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Fondly remembering everyone disagreeing with me on
#PoliticsLive
months ago when I described Rishi Sunak as "less green" than Boris Johnson
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@EllenAMilligan
Labour's plan for the first 100 days
- Employment rights bill
- Investment summit
- Bring back Michael Gove's renters' bill
- GB energy bill to secure private investment quickly
- Crime and policing bill, border security bill
- Ban conversion therapy
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I can already tell the Alba Party is going to cause me problems - I have already had to remind myself about 10 times that Alex Salmond isn't saying my name
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@daraobriain
Don't worry Dara I'll check back with the big man how yours is pronounced too 👍
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I just got ID'd, at the ripe old age of 26, for a four-pack of 0.0% beers
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I hear Jo Swinson was in Chesham and Amersham last weekend, and someone on the doorstep told her "the Lib Dems are total losers, even their leader lost her seat". She was, I gather, very much amused.
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SCOOP: Lord Alli, the man in charge of election fundraising for the Labour party, has also been making recommendations for public appointments.
Labour staff raised conflict of interest concerns with senior party figures but he remained involved.
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My name is Ailbhe
I'm a survibhe
I'm afraid I can't be
Your designated dribhe.
- a poem (sorry)
My name is Sadhbh
My brain is fradhed
Some days it's hard
To be aladhbh
- a poem
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@EllenAMilligan
Labour's plan for its first 100 days in government
- Bring back Rishi Sunak's smoking ban
- Reform the Mental Health Act
- Law requiring an OBR assessment w/ every fiscal event
- Law to bring rail franchises into public ownership when contracts end
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If I were Labour, I would make a point of referring to a Brexit deal as "a trade deal with the EU". I think the government sounds incompetent if it "fails to strike a trade deal", whereas "deal/no deal" on its own just harps back to cavalier attitudes from last year.
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💃It’s a personal news klaxon!!💃
I’m so excited to say I’ll be joining the
@NewStatesman
as Politicial Correspondent later this month, working with two of the best in the business,
@stephenkb
and
@patrickkmaguire
. If you’re a person in politics, drop me a dm and say hi! xx
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It's worth noting that that line from Lisa Nandy is *exactly* the same one she used at Jewish Labour Movement hustings, to applause and praise for understanding the precise way in which antisemitism differs from other forms of racism, right before securing the JLM nomination
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It just will never cease to be weird to me that Boris Johnson can slate the record of the past decade of Conservative government like this with no negative political consequences and actually a lot of political gain.
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Can't believe a politician who used to be an academic in comparative public policy owns a book called Comparative Health Policy
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Matt Hancock: "Hi, can you let me in? It's Matt. The health secretary? I'm doing the press conference."
Number 10:
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People talk about trans people accessing spaces based on their gender identity as a big scary dangerous change coming down the tracks. Trans people *already* live their lives and access spaces on the basis of self-ID. No one produces a birth certificate to go to the loo!
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When I was about 9 years old my teacher asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I said "Andrew Marr"... So I am very excited by this news!
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I am a closet fangirl for the Boris Johnson tunnel under the Irish Sea. I don't care how unreasonable it is, I want my tunnel home
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What's going on in the Lib Dems? A long read!
🔸MPs slam "hubristic" and "stupid" campaign decisions
🔸Annoyance that "shiny new best friend" Chuka Umunna had the ear of Jo Swinson at the expense of other LDs
🔸5 MPs seriously considering leadership bid
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I wrote a column for this week's
@newstatesman
about being single, again. (Be gentle, internet.)
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Sorry to be a broken record but if you have been impressed by Andy Burnham recently and haven't read it yet, I humbly suggest you read my long interview with him from Saturday.
@NewStatesman
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The idea that Yvette Cooper is vying for the shadow chancellor job by sharing Ed Balls' video about making gravy is incredibly funny to me
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I'm on the train back to London from Hartlepool and only when I got half-way through Edwin Poots' leadership candidacy launch video did I realise I had been playing it out loud to the whole train carriage like some sort of radio propaganda.
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Rest in peace dear Sarah Everard. Every time I have seen her name trending this week it has broken my heart. No one who knew her or loved her would have thought her name would suddenly be known by everyone for a reason like this.
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We won 'Best Political Podcast' at the Publisher Podcast Awards!
In a year which has seen the most extraordinary political shifts around the world, podcasts have emerged to help audiences make sense of politics. Congratulations to The
@NewStatesman
Podcast for winning this category!
#pubpodawards
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NEW A special episode for the Good Friday Agreement anniversary
We tell the gripping story of how the deal was reached with guests including Tony Blair, Bertie Ahern, Jonathan Powell, and the key politicians from NI
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Why am I imagining starring in a rom com opposite a young Keir Starmer? Help
Not the first time
@Keir_starmer
has stood up to
#McDonalds
. Here’s his 23-years-younger self in our film about the epic McLibel trial
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Don't know when British political parties adopted the time-honoured Irish and Norn Irish tradition of bringing all your mates with you for statements, but I'm here for it.
"Women can be political leaders and prime ministers too"
Lib dem leader Jo Swinson calls for her party to be represented in the ITV leaders' debate, saying, "The voice of the millions of people who voted Remain… must be heard"
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Maybe Richard Desmond didn't want to give the Marxists/ Tower Hamlets council doe because the tax was too... deer? (Yes this is a comment I would normally say to pained smiles in the office, but wfh means Twitter gets it instead!!)
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The Liberal Democrats ("who?") have a challenge ahead, but if new leader Ed Davey plays his cards right, the party is in a strong strategic position to deny the Conservatives a majority at the next election. (My first ever Guardian byline!!)
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I just went for an eye test and the lady measuring my head for new frames genuinely took a sharp intake of breath and said: "The blue of your mask matches the blue of your eyes! Can you imagine. How BEAUTIFUL." She is now my best friend
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Fascinating intervention from Thangam Debbonaire, who lost her seat last week, blaming Labour's line on Gaza for her loss in Bristol Central to the Greens.
She's not the only one - underneath the big win there is a lot of upset among Labour MPs and candidates about Gaza.
"The party's got a problem."
Former Labour MP Thangam Debbonaire, who lost her Bristol seat to the Greens, exclusively tells
@cathynewman
that her party's "lack of a strong narrative" around Gaza during the election "had consequences".
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Within the first few days, expect Angela Rayner to write to developers to kickstart planning, change the low pay commission's remit, and Wes Streeting to begin negotiations with junior doctors
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