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Cory Hazlehurst

@coryhazlehurst.bsky.social
87 followers 292 following 77 posts
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Reposted by Cory Hazlehurst
Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 7h
This was a lot of fun to do and I could claim to be watching TV "for work".
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
Oh blimey. Well there's no mention of dead babies, at any rate. Love the idea that AV is some magical system nobody could possibly understand.
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
An extract from an article is not a headline. I’ve never denied writing it.
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
I’m not denying that the extract you quote is an extract. Far from it. But it’s not a headline.
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
I don’t know what to say other than post this:
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
That’s a quote from the article. The headline is “Making waves or treading water?”
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
What do you mean by that?
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Pretty sure that’s what the article says.
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
"especially given that the role of Britain in Europe has proven a uniquely intractable problem which all modern British governments have tried to deal with, with varying degrees of success."
coryhazlehurst.substack.com
Making waves or treading water?
Burnham faces the same dilemma on Europe as all of his predecessors
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
"Burnham said that he wanted to draw a line under the last decade of discussions about Europe. Good luck, as they say, with that..." coryhazlehurst.substack.com/p/making-wav...
coryhazlehurst.substack.com
Making waves or treading water?
Burnham faces the same dilemma on Europe as all of his predecessors
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I was your one listener who hadn't heard the stories of Alec Guinness in London, so thank you for including those.
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Having spent two weeks avoiding political news on holiday in Vienna, I've written instead about war memorials, Nazi bunkers, and how to deal with statues of antisemites. coryhazlehurst.substack.com/p/dealing-wi...
coryhazlehurst.substack.com
Dealing with the twentieth century
What strolling through historic Vienna can tell us about the power of remembering, and forgetting.
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Can definitely see the logic given what you say about FPTP. Davey seems obviously shifting the Lib Dems into potential coalition partner territory but there’s a space for the Greens there too in some circumstance.
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Thanks for reading and also for the feedback. It’s a really interesting point of view that I hadn’t considered: much appreciated.
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Hahaha!
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Ed Davey, Zack Polanksi and Nigel Farage are all facing the same issue this Party Conference season: how to cope with “jam lust”. coryhazlehurst.substack.com/p/the-perils...
coryhazlehurst.substack.com
The perils of “jam lust”
Ed Davey, Zack Polanski and Nigel Farage all face the same dilemma this party conference season.
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Latest instalment of Political Fictions sees @markpackuk.bsky.social and I talk about The West Wing episode 'Let Bartlet Be Bartlet'. Really enjoyed discussing this, and in particular thinking about whether its central message has been misunderstood. politicalfictions.substack.com/p/is-let-bar...
politicalfictions.substack.com
Is “Let Bartlet Be Bartlet” good advice or not?
Mark and Cory talk about a giant of American political drama for the first time this week, as they tackle The West Wing.
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
One of my favourite political maxims is that of Steve Richards: that the seeds of a leader’s fall is sown in how they rise. I've written about that in this post: coryhazlehurst.substack.com/p/andy-burnh...
coryhazlehurst.substack.com
Andy Burnham’s in-tray of doom
“I foresee lots of unforeseen problems”: Sir Humphrey Appleby
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Really enjoyed The Candidate’s Husband - you’re very welcome Wendy :)
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I've written about the latest election results for Labour's National Exectutive Committee and what they tell us about the current state of the party. coryhazlehurst.substack.com/p/labours-va...
coryhazlehurst.substack.com
Some thoughts on the recent NEC election results
Labour’s vanishing membership and the surprising resilience of the party’s left
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Feels odd writing this on a blustery Bank Holiday Monday, but here are some thoughts on the politics of heatwaves and where we go from here. coryhazlehurst.substack.com/p/the-politi...
coryhazlehurst.substack.com
The politics of the climate crisis
Perhaps people do, in fact, notice things in front of their nose
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
I’ve written about why more spy novelists feature real world leaders as characters in their books. coryhazlehurst.substack.com/p/the-growin...
coryhazlehurst.substack.com
The growing trend for world leaders to appear as characters in spy novels
It’s down to geopolitics, social media and the new trend in espionage fiction
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
I've written about how it would make far more sense for the conservative movement to be celebrating The Odyssey as a celebration of their values, rather than complaining about how morally bankrupt it is. coryhazlehurst.substack.com/p/the-odysse...
coryhazlehurst.substack.com
The Odyssey is the least woke blockbuster you'll watch this year
Which makes the objections to it on the Very Online Right even more mystifying.
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
One for the list @markpackuk.bsky.social
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Reposted by Cory Hazlehurst
Mark Pack @markpackuk.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
I have a VERY Lib Dem take on Mr Smith Goes To Washington. More here: politicalfictions.substack.com/p/mr-smith-g...
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
It's a really interesting question which I tried to answer here: substack.com/@coryhazlehu... TLDR: in the absence of a proper narrative to define his Premiership, Starmer's approval ratings suffered from Pasokification as every section of the electorate found a reason to dislike him.
substack.com
Why have Keir Starmer's approval ratings fallen so far, so quickly?
The Pasokification of the Prime Minister's personal ratings tells us a lot about British Politics today.
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
We could do a joint episode with plumbers on Watergate maybe?
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
I’ve tried to make sense of people trying to make sense about the cabinet reshuffle. open.substack.com/pub/coryhazl...
open.substack.com
Interpreting Burnham's cabinet reshuffle
A purge, or a lurch, or neither?
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
It’s all a bit like courtiers of Henry VIII criticising the King of France for marrying too many wives.
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
I’ve never seen Evita. Should I add it to the list?
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
I also love that the title of the episode sounds like you're going to Washington along with Jimmy Stewart, in some unspecified goon/confidant/bag carrier capacity.
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Am slightly trepidatious that people who know more political history than me will find reasons to disagree with these two paragraphs.
What’s the justification for a snap election?

Here, 2019 is a classic example of a Prime Minister calling a snap election for a clear mandate to get a majority to break a Parliamentary deadlock for a specific policy.

Yet this is about the only example I can think of this strategy working. When Asquith called a snap election in 1910 for a mandate to resolve the constitutional crisis over the People’s Budget, the Liberals lost their majority. I’ve already mentioned Stanley Baldwin’s failed bid for a mandate for a change in trade policy in 1923. In February 1974, infamously, Ted Heath’s snap election on the question of “Who Governs?” was answered by the electorate as “Not you”. Then in 2017 Theresa May ostensibly called an early election to get a mandate for her Brexit deal, only for that not to go according to plan.
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
There are two stories which a political journalist in need of a story can always pull out of their hat. One is speculating about a snap election. Coincidentally, that’s what I’ve written about this week. coryhazlehurst.substack.com/p/is-andy-bu...
coryhazlehurst.substack.com
Is Andy Burnham really going to call a snap election?
You're joking, aren't you?
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
While we wait for the World Cup Final, it's a good time to take a wander in the sunshine and listen to our latest chat about the Iranian football film Offside. politicalfictions.substack.com/p/offside-po...
politicalfictions.substack.com
Offside
To coincide with the men’s football World Cup, Mark and Cory talk about the 2006 Iranian film Offside
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
I should take a moment to repost this before England’s semi final on Wednesday too.
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
I've written about how Labour's electoral crisis has been caused by the collapse of its moral authority. coryhazlehurst.substack.com/p/labours-el...
coryhazlehurst.substack.com
Labour's electoral crisis is really a moral crisis
We should think about moral authority more when explaining how political parties rise and fall.
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Don't want to feel like a massive party pooper, but surely the rise of Count Binface is very stoppable?
'He goes a bit funny if you use his real name': the unstoppable rise of Count Binface.
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
It’s all about the liminal spaces!
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Reposted by Cory Hazlehurst
Duncan Robinson @duncanrobinson.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Starmer saying it’s impossible for a prime minister to spend less time on foreign affairs has got me thinking that we need a cabinet position dedicated to foreign policy. Ideally they’d have their own department.
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
This seems a good excuse to repost this. Whatever happened to Starmer's constant evocation that Labour in government would put “country-first, party second"? coryhazlehurst.substack.com/p/keir-today...
coryhazlehurst.substack.com
Keir today, gone in a few weeks
Starmer's resignation speech was like so much of his premiership: weirdly odd and incoherent, without a strong central message.
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Reposted by Cory Hazlehurst
Adam Chapman @adamchapman.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
I gather the football’s moved. Fear not, it still doesn’t clash with the World Cup Final that England are actually playing in. Lord’s 15:30 BST, England v. Australia. 🏏
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
It sounds like it could be political though.
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
I've written about the weird arguments Starmer made in his resignation speech. open.substack.com/pub/coryhazl...
open.substack.com
Keir today, gone in a few weeks
Starmer's resignation speech was like so much of his premiership: weirdly odd and incoherent, without a strong central message.
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Just recorded an episode of Political Fictions with @markpackuk.bsky.social and @plashingvole.bsky.social about “Mr Smith Goes To Washington”. We talk about the scene in which Jimmy Stewart’s character goes round punching journalists. I wish I’d known about this story then!
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
The Keir Starmer hot takes can wait. I've written about something that brings me joy instead. coryhazlehurst.substack.com/p/the-joy-of...
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
It reminds me a bit of their by-election win in Uxbridge during the last Parliament - a freak result in the context of the political climate that was one of those by-elections where the lesson was over-learned. By both Tories and Labour, particularly around climate issues.
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
I've written this on Andy Burnham, jumping the gun slightly. coryhazlehurst.substack.com/p/burnham-be...
coryhazlehurst.substack.com
Burnham before Reading
Andy Burnham isn't going to save the Labour Party. Perhaps nobody can.
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Cory Hazlehurst @coryhazlehurst.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Recording this episode was a lot of fun. Watching Yes, Minister for the first time in years made me realise just *how good* the acting is.
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Reposted by Cory Hazlehurst
Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Every poll, on every issue, shows the folly of the Starmer-McSweeney “treat Reform voters as your lodestone and Tory voters like lepers” strategy.
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