Robert Shrimsley
@robertshrimsley.bsky.social
Chief political commentator and executive
editor, Financial Times
https://www.ft.com/robert-shrimsley
https://www.chartwellspeakers.com/speaker/robert-shrimsley/
editor, Financial Times
https://www.ft.com/robert-shrimsley
https://www.chartwellspeakers.com/speaker/robert-shrimsley/
Am pretty sceptical of this but it would be an epic by-election
Left-wing Labour MP offers Burnham his seat to replace Starmer on.ft.com/4801Vg4
Left-wing Labour MP offers Burnham his seat to replace Starmer
Move by Clive Lewis reflects increasing discontent with prime minister’s leadership
on.ft.com
November 19, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Am pretty sceptical of this but it would be an epic by-election
Well you can't say he hasn't done his time.
November 10, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Well you can't say he hasn't done his time.
The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.
November 10, 2025 at 1:08 PM
The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.
Thank you. It's always a joy to be there. The most engaged, passionate but still delightful audiences around
November 10, 2025 at 9:34 AM
Thank you. It's always a joy to be there. The most engaged, passionate but still delightful audiences around
Reposted by Robert Shrimsley
Another superb piece by @robertshrimsley.bsky.social "One of the reasons why the Starmer government looks so uncomfortable in its skin is because it is trying to seem more frugal than it either is or wants to be"
The inescapable logic of Labour’s choices - on.ft.com/3XeDTc5
The inescapable logic of Labour’s choices - on.ft.com/3XeDTc5
The inescapable logic of Labour’s choices
Starmer and Reeves should lean in to what the Budget reveals about this tax-and-spend government
on.ft.com
November 6, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Another superb piece by @robertshrimsley.bsky.social "One of the reasons why the Starmer government looks so uncomfortable in its skin is because it is trying to seem more frugal than it either is or wants to be"
The inescapable logic of Labour’s choices - on.ft.com/3XeDTc5
The inescapable logic of Labour’s choices - on.ft.com/3XeDTc5
Labour needs to stop fooling itself and lean in to the political logic of its choices. It is a high taxing, high spending government. www.ft.com/content/00a5...
November 6, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Labour needs to stop fooling itself and lean in to the political logic of its choices. It is a high taxing, high spending government. www.ft.com/content/00a5...
You don't have to be on team Ben Shapiro, or agree with everything he says here, to understand the importance of Conservatives drawing a line against the far right, and those like Tucker Carlson, who promote them. This is important
x.com/i/status/198...
x.com/i/status/198...
Ben Shapiro on X: "No to the groypers. No to cowards like Tucker Carlson, who normalize their trash. No to those who champion them. No to demoralization. No to bigotry and anti-meritocratic horseshit. No to anti-Americanism. No. https://t.co/71TModtGWq" / X
No to the groypers. No to cowards like Tucker Carlson, who normalize their trash. No to those who champion them. No to demoralization. No to bigotry and anti-meritocratic horseshit. No to anti-Americanism. No. https://t.co/71TModtGWq
x.com
November 4, 2025 at 2:50 PM
You don't have to be on team Ben Shapiro, or agree with everything he says here, to understand the importance of Conservatives drawing a line against the far right, and those like Tucker Carlson, who promote them. This is important
x.com/i/status/198...
x.com/i/status/198...
Reposted by Robert Shrimsley
This is typically excellent from @robertshrimsley.bsky.social. Merely pushing back on Reform's extremism on race and migration won't be enough alone.
www.ft.com/content/c54d...
www.ft.com/content/c54d...
Why Starmer can’t rely on a ‘stop Farage’ campaign
For all Labour’s belated muscularity on race and migration, it is not the winning card
www.ft.com
October 30, 2025 at 6:47 PM
This is typically excellent from @robertshrimsley.bsky.social. Merely pushing back on Reform's extremism on race and migration won't be enough alone.
www.ft.com/content/c54d...
www.ft.com/content/c54d...
“Or members are not our weakness” - thwack
October 25, 2025 at 9:25 AM
“Or members are not our weakness” - thwack
This:
www.ft.com/content/9a1d... excellent by @stephenkb.bsky.social
The Katie Lam gambit is not merely unpleasant and unfair. It's unworkable. And all it will do is bolster Farage
www.ft.com/content/9a1d... excellent by @stephenkb.bsky.social
The Katie Lam gambit is not merely unpleasant and unfair. It's unworkable. And all it will do is bolster Farage
Tory deportation plan would upend Britain
Proposing such a radical bill with little public support is a gift to Nigel Farage
www.ft.com
October 23, 2025 at 1:29 PM
This:
www.ft.com/content/9a1d... excellent by @stephenkb.bsky.social
The Katie Lam gambit is not merely unpleasant and unfair. It's unworkable. And all it will do is bolster Farage
www.ft.com/content/9a1d... excellent by @stephenkb.bsky.social
The Katie Lam gambit is not merely unpleasant and unfair. It's unworkable. And all it will do is bolster Farage
Reposted by Robert Shrimsley
This week's FT column: why I've stopped worrying about birthrates:
Demographic doom-mongering isn’t helping
Frankly, I doubt that the human race is going to become the first species in recorded history that chooses to go extinct
www.ft.com
October 21, 2025 at 12:49 PM
This week's FT column: why I've stopped worrying about birthrates:
Reposted by Robert Shrimsley
![1
Nurse:
It’s become a real problem in this area
2
Nurse:
We’ve seen the whole community lost to addiction
3
Show a building sign posted:
Westminster ‘X’ Addiction Clinic
With various Westminster people or looking at their phones outside it
Nurse:
Ministers, Spads, Researchers…
4
Nurse:
Most mornings we’ll get a call about someone acting strangely
[Nurse on phone taking a call]
Ok - we’ll be right over
5
Nurse:
We just have a gentle chat
[Nurses approach a minister –Robert Jenrick? - standing in the Palace of Westminster
Minister:
I understand your concerns…
6
Nurse:
Are you OK love?
Minister:
Yes I’m just hearing legitimate concerns from real voters
7
Nurse:
That’s a robot, a Nazi and a poorly-disguised Russian
[Show that the people he is talking to are precisely these characters]
Nurse 2:
Give us your phone, love
8
Nurse:
At the clinic we put them in a Grass-Touching Pod, with a real voter to talk to
[We see them back at the clinic, holding the minister's head and pushing him into a glass isolation booth with a grass floor. And it is a baffled looking woman, on a chair, ready to talk to him.]
9
Minister:
YOU MUST BE WORRIED ABOUT THE COMING CIVIL WAR
[woman looks baffled]
10
woman:
I just want a bus service
Minister:
LOOK AT MY FLAG
[produces a St George's flag]
[ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreicahofq6s4xow7vowj7dx6odw6ejdwr4kwcmzta7qwi4hg2nvywji@jpeg)
"They want the truth that no one else dares tell them, even if the reason is because that it isn’t actually true".
www.ft.com/content/ffdd...
www.ft.com/content/ffdd...
Is there an OnlyFans model for politics?
Willing to hold increasingly outrageous opinions for clicks? There’s an online audience out there for you
www.ft.com
October 17, 2025 at 11:33 AM
"They want the truth that no one else dares tell them, even if the reason is because that it isn’t actually true".
www.ft.com/content/ffdd...
www.ft.com/content/ffdd...
The revolution will not be televised. It will be monetised.
How the outrage economy is commercialising politics
www.ft.com/content/ffdd...
How the outrage economy is commercialising politics
www.ft.com/content/ffdd...
Is there an OnlyFans model for politics?
Willing to hold increasingly outrageous opinions for clicks? There’s an online audience out there for you
www.ft.com
October 17, 2025 at 11:06 AM
The revolution will not be televised. It will be monetised.
How the outrage economy is commercialising politics
www.ft.com/content/ffdd...
How the outrage economy is commercialising politics
www.ft.com/content/ffdd...
Reposted by Robert Shrimsley
From Robert Jenrick's video - in which he did not see a single other white face on a brief trip to Birmingham, despite his video showing that he did.
"He must have been walking around Handsworth with his eyes closed" writes Dan Cave
www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/a-notorious-...
"He must have been walking around Handsworth with his eyes closed" writes Dan Cave
www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/a-notorious-...
October 13, 2025 at 10:53 AM
From Robert Jenrick's video - in which he did not see a single other white face on a brief trip to Birmingham, despite his video showing that he did.
"He must have been walking around Handsworth with his eyes closed" writes Dan Cave
www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/a-notorious-...
"He must have been walking around Handsworth with his eyes closed" writes Dan Cave
www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/a-notorious-...
Assuming No 10/ Powell/ FO action intentionally or unintentionally scuppered the China spy trial, they might be better off just owning it and defending their reasoning rather than tying themselves in knots pretending otherwise and leaving hostages to fortune in their evasive answers
October 12, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Assuming No 10/ Powell/ FO action intentionally or unintentionally scuppered the China spy trial, they might be better off just owning it and defending their reasoning rather than tying themselves in knots pretending otherwise and leaving hostages to fortune in their evasive answers
Reposted by Robert Shrimsley
Thatcher once said her greatest achievement was Tony Blair and New Labour, because she forced her opponents onto her agenda. Today's new right begs to differ.
www.ft.com/content/49ec...
www.ft.com/content/49ec...
The battle to dismantle Blair’s Britain
Conservatives’ biggest mistake was the adoption of the liberal agenda, the new right believes
www.ft.com
October 9, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Thatcher once said her greatest achievement was Tony Blair and New Labour, because she forced her opponents onto her agenda. Today's new right begs to differ.
www.ft.com/content/49ec...
www.ft.com/content/49ec...
Thatcher once said her greatest achievement was Tony Blair and New Labour, because she forced her opponents onto her agenda. Today's new right begs to differ.
www.ft.com/content/49ec...
www.ft.com/content/49ec...
The battle to dismantle Blair’s Britain
Conservatives’ biggest mistake was the adoption of the liberal agenda, the new right believes
www.ft.com
October 9, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Thatcher once said her greatest achievement was Tony Blair and New Labour, because she forced her opponents onto her agenda. Today's new right begs to differ.
www.ft.com/content/49ec...
www.ft.com/content/49ec...
Reposted by Robert Shrimsley
The UAE is an authoritarian autocracy, a petro-state with no income tax for citizens, to bribe them for the lack of democratic voice or free speech
It is 85% migrant, a segregated society with a ban on integration in principle and practice, few rights, equal opportunities, nor voice for incomers
It is 85% migrant, a segregated society with a ban on integration in principle and practice, few rights, equal opportunities, nor voice for incomers
October 7, 2025 at 6:26 PM
The UAE is an authoritarian autocracy, a petro-state with no income tax for citizens, to bribe them for the lack of democratic voice or free speech
It is 85% migrant, a segregated society with a ban on integration in principle and practice, few rights, equal opportunities, nor voice for incomers
It is 85% migrant, a segregated society with a ban on integration in principle and practice, few rights, equal opportunities, nor voice for incomers
"Of course, like around two-thirds of British Jews, I am a Zionist. What about the history of Jews in Europe would make me not see the case for a Jewish lifeboat outside of it?"
100 per cent agree with this excellent piece by @stephenkb.bsky.social
www.ft.com/content/14d4...
100 per cent agree with this excellent piece by @stephenkb.bsky.social
www.ft.com/content/14d4...
Israel seems more important — and less desirable — than ever for British Jews
Amid rising antisemitism at home, our lifeboat abroad seems less attractive
www.ft.com
October 7, 2025 at 9:25 AM
"Of course, like around two-thirds of British Jews, I am a Zionist. What about the history of Jews in Europe would make me not see the case for a Jewish lifeboat outside of it?"
100 per cent agree with this excellent piece by @stephenkb.bsky.social
www.ft.com/content/14d4...
100 per cent agree with this excellent piece by @stephenkb.bsky.social
www.ft.com/content/14d4...
When someone tells you who there are, believe them.
Tommy Robinson blames "the elitist Jews" "the woke liberal elitist Jews like the Board of Deputies who are pro-Open Borders" & who are responsible for all of the problems Jews face, with their hugging up to Islam + open borders, not "like the real Zionist Jews"
x.com/HeidiBachram...
x.com/HeidiBachram...
Heidi Bachram 🎗️ on X: "Jews were just murdered in an attack on a synagogue and Tommy Robinson is raving about the Board of Deputies and “elitist Jews” who are to blame for open borders. My husband works for the Board and fights for the community every moment at great risk. This man is not our friend. https://t.co/HR99sciFe0" / X
Jews were just murdered in an attack on a synagogue and Tommy Robinson is raving about the Board of Deputies and “elitist Jews” who are to blame for open borders. My husband works for the Board and fights for the community every moment at great risk. This man is not our friend. https://t.co/HR99sciFe0
x.com
October 5, 2025 at 5:42 PM
When someone tells you who there are, believe them.
It should be obvious that this is not a tiger Jews want to ride.
Tommy Robinson blames "the elitist Jews" "the woke liberal elitist Jews like the Board of Deputies who are pro-Open Borders" & who are responsible for all of the problems Jews face, with their hugging up to Islam + open borders, not "like the real Zionist Jews"
x.com/HeidiBachram...
x.com/HeidiBachram...
Heidi Bachram 🎗️ on X: "Jews were just murdered in an attack on a synagogue and Tommy Robinson is raving about the Board of Deputies and “elitist Jews” who are to blame for open borders. My husband works for the Board and fights for the community every moment at great risk. This man is not our friend. https://t.co/HR99sciFe0" / X
Jews were just murdered in an attack on a synagogue and Tommy Robinson is raving about the Board of Deputies and “elitist Jews” who are to blame for open borders. My husband works for the Board and fights for the community every moment at great risk. This man is not our friend. https://t.co/HR99sciFe0
x.com
October 5, 2025 at 5:22 PM
It should be obvious that this is not a tiger Jews want to ride.
If you feel the need to do something in the wake of the Manchester attack why not donate to the Community Security Trust, the organisation that works to keep jews in Britain safe
cst.org.uk/donate-now
cst.org.uk/donate-now
Donate Online Now – CST – Protecting Our Jewish Community
cst.org.uk
October 2, 2025 at 4:03 PM
If you feel the need to do something in the wake of the Manchester attack why not donate to the Community Security Trust, the organisation that works to keep jews in Britain safe
cst.org.uk/donate-now
cst.org.uk/donate-now
Really good piece this from @stephenkb.bsky.social. Hilariously brutal on the “What did we learn on our summer holidays?”memo. "The title sounds like it was written by an eight-year-old, which would surely have been preferable to the actual content."
I don't think Labour's policy agenda is a winning one, but combining some quite traditional leftwing economics with, essentially, not being willing to talk about how you are leftwing feels like the worst *possible* way to govern and campaign:
Memo for Labour: globalisation is good, actually
This government is in many ways the party returned to its factory settings. But the product was faulty in the first place
www.ft.com
September 30, 2025 at 10:26 AM
Really good piece this from @stephenkb.bsky.social. Hilariously brutal on the “What did we learn on our summer holidays?”memo. "The title sounds like it was written by an eight-year-old, which would surely have been preferable to the actual content."
