Best Of

John Harris visits Gorton and Denton.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/01/labour-gorton-and-denton-byelection-reform-fury

Okay. So everyone's angry. Very angry. They don't know precisely why they're angry nor what precisely to do about it, but angry they are. Very angry in fact. Yes, for sure. They are angry.

If you believe what you read in the media (both mass and social), you end up thinking that our city centres are post-apocalyptic hellholes into which only the most brave or foolhardy would venture. That's certainly the case with a few of my suburban and rural relatives. But when you actually go into the city, as we did yesterday for a cheese and wine tasting session (a Christmas present from my step-daughter), you find streets filled with busy but largely peaceful and friendly people going about their business: elderly shoppers, vivacious students, council workmen and police on bicycles. The disconnect between reality and perception seems to have grown beyond all proportion.

Yes, last year I spent a weekend around several London boroughs - Enfield, Hackney, Haringey. I was amazed to discover they were nowhere near as bad as the American Trump supporters on social media are constantly asserting.

Genuinely amazed that the reality of parts of the U.K. is not the same as apocryphal non U.K. based posters claim. Uncanny.

I was being a bit ironic. But there's a serious point to this. If you're on the American Right and you want to triumph against your Leftist opponent in, say, New York, what better way of spooking the voters than portraying his Leftist counterpart in London as being a Marxist Islamist autocrat? It's not just people being obtuse; there are cynical political calculations behind all of this disinformation.

I'd take Khan over the kind of council leadership you get in rest of the country. Looking at you, South Ayrshire Council, which has just scrapped a town centre transformation project because a few duffers got upset about losing six car parking spots. Hopefully the £20 million will be withdrawn and allocated to a community that isn't stuck in the mid-1970s.

We were in a potentially affected shop in Ayr last week. The shop owner was delighted it had been scrapped. Ayr town centre wouldn’t have been transformed by the scheme. I’m delighted that South Ayrshire Council have stood up to the cyclist bullies.

Keiran Pedley
@keiranpedley

Unpopular opinion: if Labour are ~10 points behind at this very obvious low ebb then the next General Election 3 years from now is very winnable.

https://x.com/keiranpedley/status/2017969317770399744

It's very winnable for everyone though. Whatever the result, people will be able to look back and say it was, if not obvious, predictable

Reform win - the polls all told us so
Labour win - A govt making unpopular decisions, an untested party leading the polls was always going to be a bubble that burst
Tories - Reform's Vi was fuelled by ex Tory voters who were always going to come back to nurse

The most seats market tells us it is an open race - Reform 11/10, Labour 11/4, Tory 9/2, Green Party 20/1, 66/1 BAR.

If that were a horse race, any of the front three winning would be considered run of the mill

Greens look a bit short at 20/1 don't they?

John Harris visits Gorton and Denton.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/01/labour-gorton-and-denton-byelection-reform-fury

Okay. So everyone's angry. Very angry. They don't know precisely why they're angry nor what precisely to do about it, but angry they are. Very angry in fact. Yes, for sure. They are angry.

If you believe what you read in the media (both mass and social), you end up thinking that our city centres are post-apocalyptic hellholes into which only the most brave or foolhardy would venture. That's certainly the case with a few of my suburban and rural relatives. But when you actually go into the city, as we did yesterday for a cheese and wine tasting session (a Christmas present from my step-daughter), you find streets filled with busy but largely peaceful and friendly people going about their business: elderly shoppers, vivacious students, council workmen and police on bicycles. The disconnect between reality and perception seems to have grown beyond all proportion.

Yes, last year I spent a weekend around several London boroughs - Enfield, Hackney, Haringey. I was amazed to discover they were nowhere near as bad as the American Trump supporters on social media are constantly asserting.

Genuinely amazed that the reality of parts of the U.K. is not the same as apocryphal non U.K. based posters claim. Uncanny.

I was being a bit ironic. But there's a serious point to this. If you're on the American Right and you want to triumph against your Leftist opponent in, say, New York, what better way of spooking the voters than portraying his Leftist counterpart in London as being a Marxist Islamist autocrat? It's not just people being obtuse; there are cynical political calculations behind all of this disinformation.

I'd take Khan over the kind of council leadership you get in rest of the country. Looking at you, South Ayrshire Council, which has just scrapped a town centre transformation project because a few duffers got upset about losing six car parking spots. Hopefully the £20 million will be withdrawn and allocated to a community that isn't stuck in the mid-1970s.

Your arse , they have fecked Ayr centre already , spending a fortune by making the high street a cycle lane is only for nutters

£20 million would be better spent on a campaign to stop cyclists running red lights and endangering everyone else.

John Harris visits Gorton and Denton.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/01/labour-gorton-and-denton-byelection-reform-fury

Okay. So everyone's angry. Very angry. They don't know precisely why they're angry nor what precisely to do about it, but angry they are. Very angry in fact. Yes, for sure. They are angry.

If you believe what you read in the media (both mass and social), you end up thinking that our city centres are post-apocalyptic hellholes into which only the most brave or foolhardy would venture. That's certainly the case with a few of my suburban and rural relatives. But when you actually go into the city, as we did yesterday for a cheese and wine tasting session (a Christmas present from my step-daughter), you find streets filled with busy but largely peaceful and friendly people going about their business: elderly shoppers, vivacious students, council workmen and police on bicycles. The disconnect between reality and perception seems to have grown beyond all proportion.

Yes, last year I spent a weekend around several London boroughs - Enfield, Hackney, Haringey. I was amazed to discover they were nowhere near as bad as the American Trump supporters on social media are constantly asserting.

Genuinely amazed that the reality of parts of the U.K. is not the same as apocryphal non U.K. based posters claim. Uncanny.

I was being a bit ironic. But there's a serious point to this. If you're on the American Right and you want to triumph against your Leftist opponent in, say, New York, what better way of spooking the voters than portraying his Leftist counterpart in London as being a Marxist Islamist autocrat? It's not just people being obtuse; there are cynical political calculations behind all of this disinformation.

I'd take Khan over the kind of council leadership you get in rest of the country. Looking at you, South Ayrshire Council, which has just scrapped a town centre transformation project because a few duffers got upset about losing six car parking spots. Hopefully the £20 million will be withdrawn and allocated to a community that isn't stuck in the mid-1970s.

We were in a potentially affected shop in Ayr last week. The shop owner was delighted it had been scrapped. Ayr town centre wouldn’t have been transformed by the scheme. I’m delighted that South Ayrshire Council have stood up to the cyclist bullies.

Yeah, exactly. We'll take that £20 million and you can keep your car park.

What are the details of the "transformation"?

Some can absolutely be positive and some can be counter-productive?

And why was removing a useful service, like parking, required for the "transformation"? Could it not be more carefully designed to not do that.

The best transformations add facilities, not take them away.

It was an abomination that was to run down the middle of the high street which si already restricted to buses , taxis and disabled etc. Some quinoa munching sandal wearing nutters came up with it.