DW

I read his stuff Denis and it’s very good but in talking about everything that has gone bad it ignores the key point that people actually voted to do this and the political class have had to cope with that. My work has primarily been to show how they failed in that regard. But all the “let’s show again how terrible it all is” school wants to divorce economics and objective analysis from political reality. I’m sure it’s possible for a good political leader to guide the populace to the conclusions they have drawn throughout but the fact that no one has yet done that (and Starmer is only tentatively dancing around the rim of this so far) might suggest that politically it is difficult, even though public opinion has clearly shifted. Yes it’s easy to dismiss the coverage of “the game” but there is a game and it does involve personalities and if you and Chris want to win that game and end up where you would prefer you need to find players in that game to want to put some political capital on the line to win the game in the way you would like. So far that has not happened. Too often the “whole thing is obviously stupid and damaging” school just thinks stating this should be enough. It’s the same misreading of political success that Sunak has just shown us, the belief that that working hard and demonstrating how clever you are is enough to “win” at politics. It isn’t. Arguments have to be won, people have to be taken with you. So far they haven’t been. I do think that those who think Brexit is just unmitigated disaster fail to appreciate that stopping it or revoking it or having another referendum would have put us in a different path to a different set of terrible problems - but these would have been to do with legitimacy and trust and the democratic process instead of trade and economics etc. It still fails to acknowledge that for a lot of people sovereignty and that “control” we heard so much about has a value for them in a way that you and me don’t get. Instead of moaning about the coverage, you should probably be moaning about the lack of a coherent and concerted political campaign to make the case you believe in so passionately. If objective fact is so clearly on your side this ought to be doable but the fact that it is yet to be done ought to suggest that there are political impediments to this. I would gently suggest that there were political downsides to your approach which we have (I think) been fortunate to avoid. Maybe Starmer will make this a centrepiece of the next five years, but he has a lot of things to deal with and it may be that he sees others as priorities. Whatever he does I will be there covering it in the same way as I have the last eight years. I do find it a little ironic that when I write a piece drawing attention to the omertà I am then condemned as a peddler of omertà. I’m not an economist or a social scientist, I’m a political reporter, so I am somewhat inevitably going to cover the political contest. In my books I do try to step back as well as dive deep into what it all means. I’m currently writing my conclusion to the whole of this period and I’m happy to say that I reference the thoughts of both Chris Grey and Andrew Neil. But if you feel like politics and consequently the political media has not got to grips with this issue, I would say we will do so more when politicians get to grips with it, since my concerns are to focus on and explain what they are doing. I will be fascinated to see if you and Chris get your way or whether mainstream political debate continues to glide over this issue. Have a good weekend

Could social media feeds affect how you vote? I’ve been investigating with BBC’s Undercover Voters, holding social media companies to account and resulting in real impact. Misinfo pushed to voters, doctored AI clips & false comments & bot accusations. bbc.com/news/videos/cjrrgkpy…

An article published on April 7 mistakenly claimed that the Clapham chemical attacker Abdul Ezedi had been supported by the Church of England, and that this enabled him to 'beat the system'. We accept that Mr Ezedi is not known to have had any connections with the Church of England and apologise for the error.

So Lee. As you’ve chosen to expose this poor young lady to public scrutiny to make a political point. Is poor Katy, actually Katy Colthop daughter of Brigadier David Colthup CBE? Did she attend the £20k a term St Peter's School in York and is presumably financially independent

If @trussliz follows through on her statement that she is uninterested in distributing from rich to poor, then migrants coming to the UK will soon have to take a pay cut if they want to work in UK, according to compelling analysis by @jburnmurdoch ft.com/content/ef265420-45e8…

An astonishingly good piece of writing by @EdwardDocx newstatesman.com/politics/uk…