The Office for Budget Responsibility has undermined claims made by government officials that they decided to U-turn on plans to raise income tax because they received an improved fiscal forecast from the watchdog via our FT Budget live blog: www.ft.com/content/d0a5...

UK Budget 2025: Reeves raises taxes by £26bn

Investors taken by surprise as fiscal watchdog publishes data prematurely

ft.com

Minor point. But this is the OBR saying that the briefing about income tax being dropped because of improved forecasts is bollocks.

What do Lady Gaga, billionaire Facebook investor Sean Parker, cigar-smoking rogue financier Florian Homm and #pharma fraudster Martin Shkreli all have in common? My deep dive into an unusual biopharma firm working on a potentially blockbuster product www.ft.com/content/9272... via @alphaville.ft.com

Skin in the game: one biotech’s quest to invent the sunless tan cream

‘Fantasy captivates investors’

ft.com

'The government’s “policies that were meant to help working people risk hurting the people they want to help”' Yet more evidence that increasing tax on firms to take on workers surprisingly isn't encouraging firms to take on workers #NICs #jobs #uk via @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/6f92...

Retail and hospitality chains air concern over UK jobs market

Vacancies are falling while number of applicants rise as sector bears brunt of tax and minimum wage changes

ft.com

I see your "chaos with Miliband" and raise you a "Man Utd would never collapse like Liverpool". www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footba...

Bitcoin Jesus, Hope, Bitcoin Salvation... Why are some crypto advocates so keen to draw on religious language? My latest article for website Seen & Unseen -'Do you believe in a coin called hope? From fiat to faith: the rise of crypto evangelism' www.seenandunseen.com/do-you-belie... #bitcoin #crypto

Do you believe in a coin called hope? | Seen & Unseen

seenandunseen.com

“Why would a government which has almost certainly lost revenue on its non-dom reforms open up a new front on footloose billionaires?" www.ft.com/content/3357... via @financialtimes.com #nondoms #tax

Labour declines to rule out wealth tax

Downing Street says ‘those with the broadest shoulders should carry the largest burden’

ft.com

🚨Delighted to be named Institutional Investment Journalist of the Year at this year's WTW Media Awards this week! Also picking up an award for @financialtimes.com were the talented Claer Barrett and freelancer Moira O'Neill. www.wtwco.com/en-gb/news/2... #journalism

WTW celebrates 20th anniversary of its annual Media Awards

WTW celebrated the 20th anniversary of its annual WTW Media Awards last night, announcing the winners at London’s Hispania restaurant.

wtwco.com

Great piece by Jonathan: "The #NHS doesn’t prescribe, let alone pay for, alternative therapies such as acupuncture, and Nice hasn’t approved some drugs used effectively (often off-label) in other countries. That leaves sufferers with Dr Google, their families and a collection of Facebook groups"

Stephen Bush@stephenkb.bsky.social · last yr.

Jonathan Eley has written today’s Inside Politics and it is very good indeed:

Good note in @stephenkb.bsky.social’s daily email (from Jonathan Eley) on what the NHS does and what it doesn’t do. This absolutely matches my experience of having a bad knee.

The ancient epigram (penned by Polybius in his "Histories", Book 10, Ch. 31) that kicks off my "The Conservative Party after Brexit" book applies equally to Labour - namely: "Those who know how to win are much more numerous than those who know how to make proper use of their victories."

Labour had a theory for acquiring power, but none for how to wield it

A lack of interest in the real meat of policy helps to explain why Starmer’s first year in government has gone so badly

ft.com

SCOOP! Sachin Duggal, founder and "chief wizard" of the now defunct tech unicorn Builder.ai, made $20mn from selling shares in the company Builder.ai collapsed last month, after raising half a billion dollars, when revenues had to be dramatically restated With @bondhack.ft.com on.ft.com/4k8t44A

Builder.ai ‘Chief Wizard’ Sachin Dev Duggal made $20mn in share sales

[FREE TO READ] Former chief executive of collapsed Microsoft-backed start-up also borrowed against holdings

on.ft.com

The winners of Wimbledon this year will walk away with £3mn each. But down the pecking order, for players outside the top 100, just breaking even each week can be a challenge. https://on.ft.com/4kU185J

After months of reporting (and even my own attempt at a jiu jitsu class), my FT Magazine cover story on Mark Zuckerberg’s metamorphosis to red-blooded “Maga Mark” is out! Is this political expediency, a midlife crisis or who Zuck has been all along? on.ft.com/4nsoktx

How Mark Zuckerberg unleashed his inner brawler

[FREE TO READ] The boss’s transformation shocked liberals at Meta, but his closest allies say this is who he was all along

on.ft.com

Lars Windhorst’s Tennor Holding, which borrowed billions from investors and was once at the heart of the German financier’s business empire, has been declared bankrupt at the request of Dutch tax authorities Full story w/ longtime fellow Lars chronicler @cynthiao.bsky.social here: on.ft.com/3HLyjcY

Lars Windhorst’s Tennor Holding declared bankrupt

[FREE TO READ] Company that borrowed billions from investors collapses into insolvency over unpaid Dutch tax

on.ft.com

Why has it taken so long to realise this and did the government not think this was bound to happen? #nondoms #tax #rachelreeves www.ft.com/content/ba78... via @financialtimes.com

Rachel Reeves considers changes to non-dom inheritance tax amid UK ‘exodus’

Chancellor is being lobbied by the City following a spate of departures by wealthy people

ft.com

'"Hope you get cancer," said one message. Another - laced with expletives - referenced damaging her "grandmother's grave if she's not dead by tomorrow" and "candles and a coffin for your entire family".' www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis...

Katie Boulter: British tennis player reveals social media abuse she has received

Britain's Katie Boulter speaks exclusively to BBC Sport about the levels of social media abuse she receives.

bbc.co.uk

V sad news news.sky.com/story/beach-...

The Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson dies

Brian Wilson - the co-founder of The Beach Boys - has died at the age of 82.

news.sky.com

Re: the £22bn #blackhole - 'This “black hole” — as Alphaville also reported in July — was in fact in large part the product of public sector pay decisions taken by Reeves herself, which represented £9.4bn of the pressures' (from @alphaville.ft.com in Nov) www.ft.com/content/2e32... #spendingreview

Peering inside a (fiscal) black hole

Come for the snark, stay for the Soundgarden puns

ft.com

'One reason for the emergence of a slightly naive account of what drives #economicgrowth is that a generation of policy wonks grew up playing games in which, if you simply push the button marked “invest”, you are rewarded at every turn' via @stephenkb.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/e4e8...

If you don’t understand Nintendo Switch 2, you won’t understand the modern world

No savvy politician can get away with treating gaming as if it were a passing fad

ft.com

"We exposed fraud at Enron and WorldCom. Don’t let history repeat itself" - NYTimes oped by Sherron Watkins and Cynthia Cooper arguing against Republican proposals to eliminate the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/o...

I've met some incredible people during my 25 year+ career, but these four top the lot. A butcher, a machinist, a tour guide, a botany lecturer...oh, and all WW2 veterans alive today and each with an amazing story. With @lucyfisher.ft.com via @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/f7e8... #WW2 #VEDay

‘I don’t think anybody went to bed that night’: VE veterans share their stories

Eighty years after Victory in Europe, servicemen and women look back on the conflict

ft.com