This is advocating for unlawful discrimination & harassment or it's advocating for changing the law to permit discrimination & harassment on the basis of gender reassignment or gender identity belief. This isn't legitimate gender critical/sex realist speech. It's discriminatory.

Killer Q from Mishal Husain to Keir Starmer just now: Does Natalie Elphicke represent the values of today’s Labour Party better than Diane Abbott? (The answer is burbling.)

Starmer’s general script is: I came to politics late, I’m here to serve, here to fix the chaos.

Yesterday I decided to allow myself to have twitter back on my phone for the duration of the election campaign and that decision is already SO vindicated.

It's hard to find anyone who thinks calling the election for July 4 is a good idea. My working theory is that Sunak simply decided nothing was going to turn up between now and the end of the year.
theatlantic.com/international/…

''Outsider' is a slippery term, and I am aware there is a certain off-putting, self-regarding twinkle in the eye of someone who declares themselves to be one.'

Love this Jesse Armstrong essay on writing about America.
newstatesman.com/culture/2024/0…

I'm watching PMQs and I'm unconvinced that Sunak's 'we've got inflation back to normal' line is the killer slam-dunk he thinks it is.
a) Well done for undoing the legacy of . . . Liz Truss?
b) Great that prices aren't rising so fast, but they still feel bloody high.

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!
For the final episode in our series on bad ideas, we welcome back Helen Lewis to discuss Mesmerism. What can it tell us about twenty-first century phenomena from online social contagion to hypnotherapy?
Listen here...🎧 linktr.ee/ppfideas

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!
In episode 6 of our series on the lingering hold of bad ideas David talks to the writer and broadcaster Helen Lewis about the arguments made at the turn of the last century against giving the vote to women. 
Listen here...🎧 linktr.ee/ppfideas

I really thought light pollution in south London would mean I didn’t see the aurora, but wow! If you’re still awake and in the UK, get outside!

Brand new episode hosted by Bill Bailey with Helen Lewis and Daliso Chaponda tonight at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer

I don’t like to nitpick, but—the crab metaphor is that Starmer is pretending not to be leftwing, and then the radish metaphor is that he’s only leftwing on the surface.

Is he some hideous crab-radish hybrid, condemned to walk the earth sideways, adding crunch to a salad?

From City scandals to the crisis in mental health care, the Paul Foot Award longlist shows the strength and range of journalism in 2024.
private-eye.co.uk/paul-foot-award

And that’s a wrap! The final episode of Helen Lewis Has Left The Chat just went out on BBC Radio 4.

Thanks to everyone who got in touch (particularly those who shared their own group chat nightmares). And the anonymous friend who confessed that one of the Fessholes was him.