Alan Goodwin

European, musician, parent, with mainly happy memories of New Labour.

[Jorge Liboreiro @JorgeLiboreiro]

Ireland is battling a PR nightmare over its continued sales of alumina to Russia.

The scandal comes as Dublin prepares to take the reins of the EU Council presidency.

Here's what's happening.
https://t.co/vNYJBlwq27

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

Here's the full chain of events that led to Trump storming out of his interview with Kristin Welker, beginning with her pressing him on the weaponization fund, continuing with her pointing out the baselessness of his "rigged election" lies, and concluding with him calling her "crooked or stupid" and leaving

[Aasmah Mir @AasmahMir]

Can I ask that you watch this? Will take only two minutes. Thank you.

[Nicole Lampert @nicolelampert]

The report into NHS antisemitism by @LordJohnMann begins with the words:

‘The levels of anti-Jewish racism in the UK constitute a national emergency. The Heaton
Park Synagogue attack of 2 October 2025, the abhorrent terrorist, arson and other attacks
on members of the Jewish community that took place in April 2026 in Golders Green, and
across London all point to a worsening of the situation. No sector is untouched by it. The
criminal cases, taken together with the data drawn from the Home Office, from the NHS
and from various community organisations, and the cases reported to the General Medical
Council and other health and care professional regulators, have highlighted allegations of
antisemitic behaviour perpetrated by UK doctors and other healthcare professionals. It is
within this context that I was asked to undertake a review into tackling antisemitism in the
NHS.’

[Miss Chief 🤨 @Midge1415]

I find it kind of astonishing that people who were enraged about police officers being attacked at Manchester Airport went to Southampton last night to erm….attack police officers 🤔

[Keir Starmer @Keir_Starmer]

Tony Blair might not like my plan, but he's wrong: it's changing Britain for the better.

https://t.co/jbDwObZZFr

[Heidi Bachram @HeidiBachram]

Pro-Pal accosts national treasure Helen Mirren on the streets of London last night and calls her an “evil Zionist b*tch” just because she thinks Israel should exist. Well done to her companion who told him to “f*ck off”.

[Gareth Dennis @GarethDennis]

this will make Scandinavian trips from the UK viable by rail in a reasonable timing

[Emma 💛💙🇩🇰🇬🇧🇪🇺 @MonkEmma]

OK, so Helen Whately and the Express are doubling down and going all out hysterical at this point...🙄

They've actually "calculated" the state benefits a man with ELEVEN WIVES could claim!!

And this time, they've done it behind a paywalled article🤷‍♀️

But don't worry, I got behind it!🤓

🧵1/20

[Alan Goodwin @AlanGoodwin3]

@PJTheEconomist Do the social housing figures include privately-owned properties where the local authority or the government is paying the (often inflated) rent to house homeless families, migrants, challenging tenants, etc?

[Paul Johnson @PJTheEconomist]

Spending on working age welfare has barely shifted as a fraction of national income in decades. True that spending on some incapacity and disability benefits is rising but others are being squeezed. Torsten is right. That is not what is pushing up total spending and taxes.

[Nicole Lampert @nicolelampert]

It’s is a really dark day when a talk about the history of ancient Israel and Judah is cancelled by the British Museum because of ‘security concerns’.
Is this what we do now? We cave in?

[Matthew Stadlen @MatthewStadlen]

So just to sum up. Labour win a 174 seat majority under Keir Starmer and return to power after almost a decade and a half. They find governing challenging against the backdrop of struggling public services and low growth, and make unforced errors (winter fuel, Mandelson etc). Social media conspiracies, led by Elon Musk, contribute to a toxic political climate. Nigel Farage, the architect-in-chief of Brexit (which made things harder than they needed to be) pops up with his divisive rhetoric and poorly thought through policies and… Labour MPs, egged on by the media, panic. If Andy Burnham, a man without a plan, wins a staged by-election, he likely becomes Prime Minister. He then either calls a general election and loses Labour its hard fought majority, or struggles through for a couple of years before Farage is better “prepared” to move into Number 10. Stupid doesn’t cover it.

[Dan Senor @dansenor]

Please read this. It’s where we are now.

[Gordon Fielden @GordonFielden]

Andy Burnham may advance his case, yet the same simple question persists, and it is one that has, as yet, gone unanswered. What, in truth, does Andy Burnham represent? Which policies does he propose to alter in response to what he perceives as failure within the party? Where is the clear, substantive departure from the course already set?

For many who supported the Labour Party at the last general election, and who have remained steadfast through the inevitable moments of difficulty that accompany government, there is no evident distinction. There is nothing that he has set out that is not already being undertaken, and in many respects undertaken with greater discipline and effect than before under Keir Starmer.

Much of the present discontent appears to rest not upon policy, but upon grievance. It is worth recalling that one of the principal sources of that frustration lies in the simple fact that the party was returned to government at all. Under the previous trajectory associated with Jeremy Corbyn, such an outcome appeared, to many, increasingly remote. It was through difficult, and at times unpopular, decisions that the party was restored to electoral credibility.

There has, of course, been internal manoeuvring. That is neither new nor unexpected in any political movement of consequence. Yet beyond the noise, one fact stands out with particular clarity: there has been no compelling case made that Burnham offers a distinct or superior alternative. The impression given is not of a figure presenting a coherent national vision, but of one whose self perception exceeds the substance presently on display.

He may find favour within certain quarters of the party’s left, but the country at large is another matter entirely. Without a clear and convincing programme, the prospect of broader electoral acceptance appears doubtful, and any attempt to shift the party in that direction would carry the risk of alienating a substantial portion of those who have only recently returned to it.

[𝙋𝙝𝙞𝙡 𝙈𝙮𝙚𝙧𝙨 @PhilMyers53]

There’s no problem with the way we are being governed

There IS a problem with the way our government are being portrayed by the media

Once we have established this simple fact @Keir_Starmer will get the support and recognition that he deserves

#TenYearKeir

[David Aaronovitch @DAaronovitch]

This is nonsense. The famous 'defence dividend' was overwhelmingly based on three things: Britain's withdrawal from its former colonies, the end of the Cold War and the dismantling of the Soviet Union, and the nuclear deterrent. And it would be interesting to see what Glasman's Blue Labour was saying about it in 2010.

[Bad Spit @BadSpit]

In September 1963, a 21-year-old John Cale—then a budding avant-garde musician and future founding member of The Velvet Underground—appeared as a guest on the CBS game show I've Got a Secret.

The "secret" shared by Cale and his fellow guest, actor Karl Schenzer, was their participation in a grueling 18-hour and 40-minute piano marathon organized by John Cage.

Cale was one of 11 pianists who performed the first-ever full-length recital of Erik Satie’s Vexations.

Vexations is a short, 80-second piano piece that Satie’s manuscript suggested should be played 840 times in a row.

While Cale was one of the relay team of performers, Karl Schenzer was the only audience member who stayed for the entire 18-hour duration.

During the broadcast, Cale performed the piece through just once for the panel and viewers.

[Gordon Fielden @GordonFielden]

I do not accept that narrative, and I think it rests upon a serious misreading of the present mood inside the Labour Party.

Over the past month or so, Keir Starmer appears to have recognised something that many political journalists have plainly failed to grasp: among grassroots members, and among many of those who voted Labour into office, he is far more resilient than the Westminster commentary class allows. There are hundreds of thousands of people, Labour members and Labour voters alike, who are incandescent with anger at the internal manoeuvring now being played out inside the Parliamentary Labour Party.

They did not vote Labour into government so that personal ambition, factional grievance, and media driven speculation could overturn the mandate they helped deliver. They voted for a government to get on with the work, and this week has shown that the hard work is beginning to bear fruit. Manifesto commitments are being advanced, practical measures are being put into place, and progress is being made without the need for constant theatre.

Of course, the wider global position has become more difficult. Geopolitics has shifted in ways no responsible government could fully have anticipated, not least because of Donald Trump’s erratic interventions and the instability they have generated across the world. That context matters. It cannot simply be ignored in order to manufacture a domestic crisis.

For that reason, I do not believe Keir Starmer is as politically vulnerable as some would like to imagine. Nor do I believe he would simply fall without a fight. He knows there is still a strong case to be made, and a very real possibility that, if forced to defend his leadership before the party and the country, he could win that argument.

[Barbara @Barbara82415150]

@GordonFielden @cazjwheeler I'm not a labour member. I don't always vote.
GE I voted for Starmer. His team has achieved so much in 2yrs.
Labour infighting from poor local elections (hyped up by media), with 3yrs left, is stupidity.
Change leader when in opposition if you like but never when in gov.