Badger, badger, badger... MUSHROOM, MUSHROOM 🍄
Jonti Picking's flash animation - and earworm - set the world alight in 2003, becoming one of the internet's most iconic memes. Now preserved in the BFI National Archive.
I can confirm that I will be requesting the permission of the NEC to stand in the Makerfield by-election.
I grew up in this area and have lived here for 25 years. I care deeply about it and its people. I know they have been let down by national politics.
Ten years ago, I decided to leave Westminster. Why? Because, after 16 years, I came to the conclusion that our national political system does not work for areas like ours. I learnt this fighting its failure to invest in the Wigan borough, for justice for the Hillsborough families and against its treatment of Greater Manchester during the pandemic.
Over the last decade, I have been challenging this failure from the outside and building a new and better way of doing politics. We have built Greater Manchester into the fastest-growing city-region in the UK and put buses back under public control, introducing a £2 fare cap to help people with cost-of-living pressures.
However, there is only so much that can be done from Greater Manchester. Much bigger change is needed at a national level if everyday life is to be made more affordable again. This is why I now seek people’s support to return to Parliament: to bring the change we have brought to Greater Manchester to the whole of the UK and make politics work properly for people.
Millions are struggling and they need the Labour Government to succeed. It has already made changes to make life better for them in its first two years. After this week, we owe it to people to come back together as a Labour movement, giving the Prime Minister and the Government the space and stability they need as the by-election takes place.
I want to recognise the difficult decision taken by Josh Simons and the sacrifice he and his family are making. I have worked closely with him as Mayor on issues like flooding and illegal waste dumping and have seen first-hand how effective he has been. He has put the communities of Makerfield first, made a real difference for them and should take great pride in that.
Finally, I truly do not take a single vote for granted and will work hard to regain the trust of people in the Makerfield constituency, many of whom have long supported our party but lost faith in recent times. We will change Labour for the better and make it a party you can believe in again.
ENDS
A restaurant in Kosovo is offering free coffee and tea to Turkish fans ahead of tonight's historic World Cup qualifier final, as a gesture of gratitude for Turkey's role in the 1999 NATO intervention.
First look at Martin Scorsese's next film ‘WHAT HAPPENS AT NIGHT’, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence.
The film follows a married couple who travel to a small European town to adopt a baby but nothing is quite as it seems.
A remarkable repetition of history: HS Kimon, Hellenic Navy's new frigate now sent to Cyprus to protect it from Iranian drones with its missiles, is named after the Athenian general Kimon, son of Miltiades, who sailed to Cyprus in 450 b.C. with 200 triremes to fight the Persians.
Another day, another unspeakable act of cruelty.
There will be no consequences. Instead, our government will keep providing military and economic support, granting endless impunity for Israel's crimes.
What utter inhumanity. We will not rest until Palestine is free.
Thugs like this and that cunt who elbowed that lad the other week are the reason I don’t play football as a hobby anymore
I just wanna have a kick about an a laugh but you’ve got people like this taking their anger out on people because they have shit lives
This man will receive harsher punishment for a decision that didn't harm a single person than any member of the South Yorkshire constabulary received for the unlawful killing of 97 innocent people
Carney: "American hegemony in particular helped provide public goods, open sea lanes, a stable financial system, collective security ... this bargain no longer works. Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition ... recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as a weapon. Tariffs as leverage ... "
President Zelenskyy on Maduro:
What can I say here? If this can be done to dictators, like that, then the United States of America know what they should do next.