I think it depends where in Italy. I find that in Florence / Milan people generally speak back to me in English, in Rome they seem relieved to be able to speak to me in Italian, and in more rural areas often it's just more practical for me to speak in my broken Italian as English isn't guaranteed.

Some fantastic people on this list - very exciting!

I mean, it's clearly not a vulgar word, but it *sounds* vulgar - I wonder if that's part of the reason why?

It's not like public affairs professionals and journalists throughout the land immediately mashed Ctrl + P and saved the PDF...

This sounds like a dystopian remake of cult 1990s kids' show Knightmare. A large horned helm and some terrible CGI might be welcome additions to jazz up the Budget.

I was thinking that! I was a huge fan of the Dark is Rising books as a kid, but Greenwitch isn't where I'd start...

This looks great - fantastic list of contributors! Pre-ordering now.

I saw One Battle After Another this week and enjoyed it quite a bit, but the first third was… not good? The mother character was a Manic Pixie Dream Freedom Fighter and her story made no sense.

I’m standing in the conference pass pickup queue. You made the right call.

Also, I was amazed when I was in India in August at how normal and well-used their digital ID system is. In a country of 1.4bn people, everyone has their own physical and digital ID card.

As a non-UK-national living here, having an ID card would be brilliant. I had to apply for a provisional driving license (in itself a massive faff) mostly because I didn't want to carry my passport everywhere and lots of places didn't recognise my Irish passport card as valid ID.

This has blown my mind. It all makes sense now.

Sorry to see this - you were the potential candidate I was most excited about! But as you say, you've already got a big role as chair of Women and Equalities, which is more important than ever right now.

You're absolutely right, apologies! Clearly too much reshuffle excitement...

Hate to be the rulebook person, but iirc the deputy leader has to be an elected member of the Commons. So rules out anyone in the upper house, and also the metro mayors, a couple of whom might command a bit of support!

I hope so! I think she's a fantastic asset for Labour - part of the reason why she's been so consistently targeted by right-wing news outlets.