This year - one of both mat leave and reporting travels around the country - I've found an alternative story to the "Broken Britain" narrative.

My column for the @newstatesman1913.bsky.social Christmas issue:

Does hope lie in people's love of their local place, even if national pride has taken a hit?

My Christmas issue column reflecting on what I've got wrong about Broken Britain:

bsky.app/profile/anoo...

Where the separate divisions of ANTIFA landed on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944:

No-one is paying attention. No-one gives a damn. But one man is valiantly trying to make Labour stick by its manifesto commitment on constitutional reform. Tomorrow, we find out if he's succeeded.

iandunt.substack.com/p/this-wedne...

Senator Alex Padilla is one of the most decent people I know.

This is outrageous, dictatorial, and shameful.

Trump and his shock troops are out of control.

This must end now.

THIS A UNITED STATES SENATOR ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE OF CALIFORNIA BEING PHYSICALLY SHOVED OUT OF A MEETING ABOUT WHAT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS DOING TO THE BIGGEST CITY IN OUR STATE.

observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

'This isn’t chaos—it’s a deliberate war on science and academic freedom. In just six weeks, the Trump administration has slashed research budgets, purged health and scientific agencies, censored research, and threatened universities' open.substack.com/pub/christin...

This is the MOST DELICIOUSLY EMBARRASSING THING you will see all week, if not all month.

Richard Tice car crash in Scotland. He doesn't know the full names of the two Reform UK defectors or which council they are from.

It truly deserves to go viral.

New research by Dr Michael Shapland is questioning Sussex’s formative history. Michael argues that the supposed Kingdom of Sussex was not one kingdom but at least three, roughly equivalent to modern-day East Sussex, West Sussex and Hastings.
www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology-...

... which is of course money. Musk drives traffic and therefore ad revenue/subs.

BBC News doesn't have ads and subscriptions (£3.7bn a year in license fees) are basically compulsory. So why is it playing Musk's attention game?

Explored in more detail here: www.newstatesman.com/politics/bus...

Syria: There is hope and this is what it looks like iandunt.substack.com/p/syria-ther...

Maybe because middle class women of a certain age are in a position to call out this shit without fear of losing a salary they need. And can do it on behalf of young women starting out in their careers who are just as sick of this shit but can’t say anything because they need to earn a living.

Matt Gaetz: the first person to last negative Scaramuccis.

My old boss taught me that there was only one indispensable figure in the Blair govt besides Blair, and it was John Prescott. He pulled off that trick of being fiercely loyal while still very much having his own mind: if he pushed back against something, it mattered. A total force of nature.

Emotional this morning about the loss of Prescott. He hugely inspired my dad, who became a Labour councillor at the age of 50, after years as a bus driver. He gave permission to be in politics, while being your imperfect self, whatever your accent or background.