Well don't I feel like a schmuck with my 99,592 word thesis

James Chalmers@jameschalmers.bsky.social · yesterday

Oh I can easily imagine that there was no process bar actually holding the viva! (The word limit issue doesn't strike me as odd - that rule can normally be waived and I am aware of cases where the view has been taken 'look, at least we *have* a thesis to examine; let's not jeopardise that...')

I know supply side progressivism is passe, but this is a good list of proposals because it is a) supply side and b) progressive, as any good economic strategy for Burnham ought to be.

Sanjush Dalmia@sanjushdalmia.bsky.social · 2d ago

A GOOD GROWTH ACTION PLAN 🧵 How could reports from Westminster think tanks be adapted into an "authentically Labour" economic strategy, rooted in Andy Burnham's political economy of good growth and reindustrialisation?

I think this totally fair, but in exchange I want a personal thank you letter from Clarkson for the £250,000 that his farm got from government subsidies that come from my tax money. I don't want a form letter, I want him to write it like he means it.

Politics UK@politicsuk.com · 3d ago

🚨 NEW: Jeremy Clarkson says benefits claimants should be forced to write a genuine thank you email to a random worker every week “It is SO kind of you to go to work every day so that I don’t have to. Thanks to you I was able to buy an even bigger television this week”

Yeah, exchange rate management is one of the biggest and least obvious noticed gaps between what I was taught in macro and actual econ policymaking. My recollection is that it was obvious that exchange rate was the bit you let go in the monetary trilemma, when reality seems more of a fudge

Duncan Weldon@duncanweldon.bsky.social · 2d ago

Something that has also slightly puzzled me. When I was being first being taught macro, the consensus of my tutors seemed to be (i) freely floating exchange rate regimes are always preferable. And (ii) the Euro (already virtually trading, coins & notes not yet issued) was a good development.

I am the 1%! (Cherry/amarena, ideally paired with almond or hazelnut)

YouGov@yougov.co.uk · 5d ago

YouGov's latest scoop: vanilla is Britain's favourite ice cream flavour Vanilla: 18% Mint choc chip: 14% Chocolate: 13% Strawberry: 5% Salted caramel: 5% Rum and raisin: 5% Pistachio: 4% Coffee: 3% Raspberry ripple: 3% yougov.com/en-gb/articl...

Having seen the Odyssey, I now recognise that nobody who loves their dog can be too bad.

Maybe this is working from home privilege, but my main thought on this is am I weird for spending £0 around half of the days of the week?

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 4d ago

‘£5,800 on a watch?!’ What happened when five couples kept separate money diaries – then revealed all to their partners?

One way to sharpen this: should we be more or less confident in the ability of societies to make the substantial sacrifices of pandemic lockdowns today compared to 2019? On the one hand, we gave the existence proof of what happened. On the other, we have the legacy of exhaustion and mistrust.

David Henig@davidheniguk.bsky.social · 3d ago

Since some folk are back on covid lessons, here's what I find most interesting - that the vast majority of people and countries reacted and adapted magnificently, but that this has broadly been forgotten in our modern day grumpy online culture.

You know what, I think I back the media to create some psychodrama from having three childhood friends leading three of the big clubs in the Premier League

Sachin Nakrani@sachinnakrani.bsky.social · 3d ago

The new Premier League season will be the first without any of the era’s five big beasts: Ferguson, Wenger, Mourinho, Klopp, Guardiola. Who dares roar in their absence? @jonawils.bsky.social asks for @sport.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Even more general take: people notice anything the government does less than politicians assume.

Duncan Robinson@duncanrobinson.bsky.social · last wk.

General take is that people notice tax rises and cuts far less - note I'm being relative! - than politicians assume

I'm unsure what to make of this. On the one hand, it's evidently correct. On the other, VAT is basically the most unpopular tax, can you really just increase it without consequence? Cos that implies you can basically do anything. And places like Japan have struggled to raise consumption taxes.

Duncan Robinson@duncanrobinson.bsky.social · last wk.

Lesson from Osborne VAT tax rise is that you can stick 2.5% on it, raise bajillions and no one will care in a year

People think the population of America is 170%

Joel S.@joelhs.bsky.social · last wk.

This actually explains something about how people talk about the Jewish community.

Great to be featured in today’s First Edition talking about care reform. Andy’s committed to change - the good news is that while we’ve delayed reform other countries have figured out what to do & how to pay for it. Japan, Australia, New Zealand have all made the system more generous (1/

Hettie O’Brien@hettieobrien.bsky.social · last wk.

This morning’s First Edition is about the most exasperating, decades long debate in British politics - and what Burnham might do differently this time www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

5/ We see compulsory voting as a response to that. Because voting is a duty - if we expect people to pay taxes or do jury service, why don't we expect them to take part in our democratic system? And because many more of us are less well represented because of low and unequal turnout.

I don't think silly sausage Britain is the high point of the progressive British experience. In fact, I think it is in tension with the character of many progressives (including this one). It's inconsistent with earnestness, wants everything to be a joke..

Ciaran@ciaranmcgurdy.bsky.social · last wk.

After a three year hiatus something has annoyed me enough to write about politics again. That thing is "Silly Sausage Britain"

Interested in a board level opportunity at one of Britain's leading think tanks? We're looking to appoint up to two trustees with fundraising/philanthropy experience at the @smfthinktank.bsky.social Do share in your networks/happy to answer any Qs 🙂 www.smf.co.uk/new-opportun...

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More than this, it seems like a failure of sense checking? When I encounter a number that seems outrageous or shocking, my first assumption is that someone (probably me) has made a mistake or misinterpreted something. Good citizens should do the same, let alone decent journalists.

Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · last wk.

It's not just that they got it wrong it's that believing the original shows such a fundamental misunderstanding of the immigration system.

The Times corrects its splash story headlined "Migrant care workers bring dozens of family members." The Times got this totally wrong. It then used its own error as the basis for an editorial calling explicitly for forced expulsions of people living here legally. www.thetimes.com/comment/regi...

Can anybody beat this for randomness of relatives listed on a Wikipedia page?

Slightly adjacent point to @will-davies.bsky.social in this piece, but I've spent most of my policy career discussing marginal changes that raise growth by a fraction of a percent or deaths by a couple of points. Telling people to attend to invisible counterfactuals

The aesthetics of ginormous numbers

MrBeast, Adam Tooze and the global sublime

willd10.substack.com

"I did, though, manage to put a positive spin on Sutch’s unsuccessful pop career: ‘He has never sold out to the forces of commercialism and sought the easy path of popularity.’" 😂

Alwyn Turner@alwynturner.bsky.social · last wk.

"His finest moment, though, came in the Bootle by-election of May 1990, when he polled higher than the SDP candidate – a result so humiliating for David Owen that he closed the party down." I wrote about Screaming Lord Sutch. thelionandunicorn.com/2026/07/25/s...

This shouldn't be surprising, but in the context of rising political violence in the UK and peer countries, it's utterly chilling.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · last wk.

Here is a call for the murder of Home Office ministers + officials by the X user endorsed by the site owner Elon Musk.

Interesting piece on gerontocracy, but once again I wonder why - of all the things people want to nationalise - pensions never seem to make the list. More certainty and security for more redistribution seems like a good trade for many people. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

This is excellent, and more people should take note that the most plausible scenario involves managed decline

David Kernohan@dkernohan.bsky.social · 2w ago

What does our population, and our sector, look like in 2070? Here's four demographically-grounded scenarios.

I'm surprised how few people in politics and policy haven't noticed the extent to which the civil service is already out of Whitehall and working across locations. I had some apprehensions but zero problems working for Treasury from Darlington (or indeed home in York)

I don't think it's emphasised enough how remarkable it is that the most popular politician in the country is someone who has been around for 20 years. The normal thing is that the more the public sees of someone, the more they grow to dislike them.

Chris Dillow@chrisdillow.bsky.social · 2w ago

I don't remember Burnham having this relaxed communication manner in his 2010 or 2015 Labour leadership contests. Which shows he can learn - & if he can learn this he can learn other things too. This alone elevates him above his recent predecessors.

"Thinking about the future of AI has a tendency to make me think that Marx was right, just premature" - me, yesterday aveekbhattacharya.substack.com/p/readwatche...

Read/Watched/Listened/Ate: Alienation

29: July 2026

aveekbhattacharya.substack.com

Jo Wolff@jowolff.bsky.social · 2w ago

Musk thinks that the future will be one of abundance because of technological development. There will be no need for work and money will disappear. Reminds me of something.

Except they give small businesses all manner of reliefs and subsidies from the VAT threshold to business rates to NICs to apprenticeship levy. Rhetorically they are the "backbone of the economy" where big business is vaguely sinister.

David Henig@davidheniguk.bsky.social · 2w ago

The government (of whichever party) really doesn't like freelancers or small businesses, who they regard as against the correct order of being, which is unfortunate when increasing numbers work in exactly these places.

So you're saying they're going to...PiSes?

I don’t disagree with any of this as an account of why politicians’ perceptions of reality are skewed. But politicians have other objectives beyond trying to get an accurate picture of what’s going on. I think an underrated dynamic in politics is that politicians don’t like getting shouted at

Chris Dillow@chrisdillow.bsky.social · 2w ago

New substack: how politicians are misled by sampling bias chrisdillow.substack.com/p/on-samplin...