⚡️Latest Political Fix episode has just dropped!⚡️

This week we’re talking prime ministers’ legacies: Sunak, Truss & Brown

Plus, is it right to allow MPs a free vote on public health measures?

Stellar Financial Times pod line-up: Stephen Bush Miranda Green Henry Mance & @georgewparker 📻🎧

Terrific Lunch with the FT by George Parker this week: ft.com/content/8e0046…

This is really rather good from Stephen Bush on incompetence.

ft.com/content/12ef8c…

Some brief thoughts on what this means for the policy effectiveness and political durability of Sunak’s phased smoking ban: ft.com/content/bf31dd…

Now not all that much difference between the proportion of adults who tell the ONS they smoke (12.9 per cent) and the proportion who admit they take some form of illegal substance (9.5 per cent). More on this in tomorrow's newsletter, try free at ft.com/tryinsidepolit…

Eye-popping story from Billy Kenber this: thetimes.co.uk/article/tory-m…

Dividing Lines by Tom Hamilton is always worth your time: dividinglines.substack.com/p/agent-truss

Really enjoying Ian Acheson 🇬🇧🇮🇪’s “Screwed” - a great account of UK prisons - out 25 April from Biteback Publishing and really worth your time.

Terrific piece on the BJP’s election machine by Benjamin Parkin, John Reed जॉन रीड and jyotsna singh: ft.com/content/d5a1df…

Think the stuff about the scale of the rebellion against Rishi Sunak is overstated (not least as it was a free vote) and misses how much the Conservative party has shifted towards anti-smoking positions: ft.com/content/38abc3…

Think some of the coverage of tonight’s vote is a bit too mired in the (IMO correct) “Rishi Sunak, limited prime minister who is heading to defeat” meta-take. Tonight’s rebellion isn’t that large, comparatively speaking. More tomorrow: ft.com/tryinsidepolit…

This is really good by ⁦Stephen Bush⁩
See also NHS poor communication. Not a bug but a feature of rationing in some cases at least. on.ft.com/4cQFThk

This is true and it strikes me far too close to home

Typically thought-provoking piece by Stephen Bush on governmental incompetence as 'a backdoor mechanism for cost control' ft.com/content/12ef8c… via @ft

Incompetence is understudied. My column in today’s FT on why that’s a problem: ft.com/content/12ef8c…

The growing sense of horror that there is no real alternative but to write about the UK's Rwanda policy again in today's newsletter. Sign up now to try me at my most irritable and jaundiced, for free: ft.com/tryinsidepolit…

Terrific piece on Iran's attack and what Tehran is thinking: ft.com/content/0f2a35…