"It's a ridiculous statement." In an interview with Sky's @BethRigby, safeguarding minister @jessphillips responds to @elonmusk accusing her of being a "rape genocide apologist" over a row on grooming gangs. trib.al/0k47vMU

Here’s what the Independent Inquiry said:

It was the first interview Starmer gave after quitting as DPP. Tories refused to implement recommendation of the child abuse inquiry that Mandatory Reporting essential - both to deal with child rape scandals like Rotherham and with the Saviles of this world

Recognition of thrice-elected Mayor of London attacked by our sour right-wing press. Andrea Jenkyns, Charlotte Owen, Toby Young et al given free passes - naturally.

West Ham United can confirm Jarrod Bowen sustained a fractured foot injury in Sunday’s Premier League fixture against Liverpool.

🦋: sparksofficial.bsky.social

If we win tonight I’m going to swim in the River Thames tomorrow morning just like the old days Quick dip Go on you beauty Brave as a Dog ! 🐕

Still open, great line up, hope to see you there.

Aren’t you an unelected Lord with ‘literally’ no mandate?

Reminder Xmas IRDG meeting is open for general registration, great line up of speakers

To the Metropolitan Police, I’d like to report a hate crime committed by Laurence Fox. “You are not welcome in my country” is a racist trope. I am British. @metpoliceuk @MetCC Evidence below:

Listening to @jonstewart is more worthwhile than listening to any political pundit in America (including me!)

People - including top US journalists, perhaps especially top US journalists - don’t quite get how bad it’s going to be. How beyond term one it’ll be. How bad the Musks and RFKs will be. I don’t think even I fully accept how bad it’s going to be and I have been shouting how bad it’s going to be for years.

The September issue of Applied Spectroscopy Practica is now out, featuring research on topics like trace detection of carbon nanotube mixtures and innovative approaches to pollen grain identification. Explore the latest OPEN-ACCESS issue here! buff.ly/4brJnGj

Richard Hughes(OBR): "There was about £9.5b worth of net pressure on department budgets, which they(Tories) did not disclose to us as part of our usual budget preparation... which under the law & under the act they should have done.."

director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies @PJTheEconomist tells Times Radio: "I’m afraid I have absolutely no sympathy with their arguments on inheritance tax and the impact on family farms and agriculture. This is special pleading by some extremely wealthy people. Very few farmers will be affected by this, for example.... there's no other country in Europe or hardly any others that completely exempt business assets and agricultural assets from inheritance tax. We never used to, didn't destroy family farms. I'm disappointed actually to see such special pleading given such prominence"

Must have run out of space before they could mention Dyson bought 36k acres of farmland to avoid inheritance tax.

One view: ‘The partygate scandal was overblown’ - Kemi Badenoch Another view:

Sunak rightly condemned being labelled a “P*ki”. That he didn’t use his time as PM to condemn other instances of racism, against other minorities, who don’t have his privileges, for politically expedient reasons, is one of his biggest failings in office.

Terrific reporting by @C4Dispatches and the Sunday Times on the sources of the immense wealth Charles and William trouser. I wouldn’t change a word of what I wrote in fortnight ago