Stourhead Christmas lights. Mulled wine warming people on a cold winter’s night.

"One Word Describes Trump" www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv... I missed this on its first trip around, then saw it on the "most popular with readers" list for 2025. Recommended, despite the cheesy headline. Especially valuable if you have ever compared him to a mob boss. [Gift link]

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This is a crucial opportunity for the U.K. to defend our shared values and show solidarity with the EU. Our future as a trusted, integral part of Europe depends on doing the right thing at moments like this.

Our top 3 Substack posts of 2025. 1. Are we living in a stupidogenic society? 2. Why education can never be fun 3. So, can AI assess writing? substack.nomoremarking.com/p/are-we-liv... substack.nomoremarking.com/p/why-educat... substack.nomoremarking.com/p/so-can-ai-...

Despite air pollution stealing more years from our lives than HIV/AIDS and malaria combined, it receives less than 0.1% of global philanthropy. In early 2025 Trump shut down the USA's overseas air-quality monitoring program, removing 97% of high-precision air monitors from high-need countries.

Air pollution erases roughly 6% of global GDP every year. That’s 3 to 6 times the economic growth expected from AI. In Africa, the crisis is even more acute: sub-Saharan Africa has just one high-grade air quality monitor for every 16 million people, compared to one per 500,000 in the US & Europe.

There seems to be a Starc difference between England and Australia in the #Ashescricket

How investors plunder the care system: the owners of the children’s homes company Your Chapter have paid themselves £11 million in dividends this year.

NEW: Labour just announced the biggest change in planning policy in 80 years. My breakdown of the key measures and whether they will succeed. www.samdumitriu.com/p/labour-are...

In 2024, the UK had the lowest taxes on an average employee of any G7 country. UK taxes for lower earners were also the lowest in the G7. But the UK's position might change in 2025.

Woah. Argentina's 1990s preschool expansion program appears to have been a smashing success. The program increased high school completion by a whole 11.9 percentage points. The authors estimate that for every $1 spent, the preschool expansion generated about $11 in benefits.

I avoid travelling to any country which bans entry for people who use social media to call its leader a dangerous, vane, incompetent, plump, fascist.

Turns out Trump is less like a king and more like Elizabeth 1st sending privateers to capture treasure laden boats in the Caribbean.

I argue in this piece that the nonprofit sector should be thinking more about the counterfactual when assessing fundraising success: winning a $2M competitive bid over capable peers advances the cause less than convincing someone to donate $1M they'd have spent on a yacht.

🆕 Ten key insights from development economics in 2025 The world is changing rapidly. Can research inform what comes next? I spent a long time trying to condense everything I read this year at @voxdev.bsky.social into ten key insights, you can read the full blog here: voxdev.org/topic/ten-ke...

This moment calls for radical centrism in Europe. Europe (including the U.K.) needs a group of radical centrist, founding fathers/mothers to push towards full federation, under an inspiring and truly democratic constitution.

He who binds to himself a joy, Does the winged life destroy, But he who kisses the joy as it flies, Lives in eternity’s sunrise. William Blake

Would anyone else vote for a centre left party led by @lewisgoodall.com?

Rooooooot!!!!!!!

Profoundly depressing, openly racist policy from the heart of the most important government on earth.

Fine, but can they add one row of extra leg room seats reserved for lanky folk in economy class at the same time?

Long thread, but he makes a strong case for the government strategy. It remains frustrating that the government rarely if ever mentions investment in education as part of its growth strategy. Education -> human capital -> rising productivity -> long term growth.

Exciting news on @malengo.org, the NGO that helps East African students move to Europe for education: Our research team has given us a glimpse of their early findings! Here is the full writeup, joint with @richardnerland.bsky.social: forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/CpZYHk... Thread follows!

[blind date] WOMAN: When I saw your photo I assumed you would be the man *holding* the fish. FISH: [flipping and flopping about on the table] Can we talk about this later.

Faisal Islam is spot on when he suspects a ‘hidden’ strategy: 1) commit to tax rises in the future 2) await growth above the 1.5% pa OBR projection over the next two years, then 3) reverse the tax rises before they’ve happened or use the gains for pre-election spending or a bit of both

Bond market credibility AND nearly 1/2 million fewer kids in poverty. Not a bad day’s work by the chancellor. Not bad at all.

This is great news. Place-based budgeting could help to substantially reduce duplicative spending by different public bodies, allowing a greater focus on prevention and delivering much better outcomes These (and other) pilots are really positive. Govt must use SR27 to make this way of working BAU

💥 Govt says fuel duty to *go up* from next September. In the past the OBR has assumed that fuel duty would start to rise after a one-year freeze. This time, the govt has said explicitly that it will only be frozen for five months, and will start increasing it after that.

Today, I have an article in @SSIR.org on lessons from our first decade, including: (1) The importance of choosing causes (2) Field-building pays off hugely (3) Great philanthropy is possible anywhere on the risk spectrum (4) Balancing maximization and moderation is hard 🧵 ssir.org/articles/en...

Beyond it being a moral abomination, one reason the UK’s productivity growth is poor is that child poverty is terrible for learning, human capital accumulation and future growth.

The EU has a very clear two-point plan: first, weaken Russia; second, support Ukraine. Sanctions are hitting Russia hard. The export of Russian crude oil is at its lowest. And tax revenues from oil are the lowest since the war started. My press remarks following today's FAC link.europa.eu/VDdpDw

Minimum per-pupil funding will not keep up with schools’ rising costs next year, an expert has warned. By @jabedahmed.bsky.social www.tes.com/magazine/new...

There has never been a clearer example of the fact that we do not have a legislature in the United States right now. Trump tells them to vote no, so they all vote no. Then Trump changes his mind and they all change their votes. That is autocracy. Vote them out!

Donate today to protect the BBC! The BBC has been forced onto the frontline of the fight to protect democratic freedoms everywhere. You should never negotiate with terrorists or toddlers, or those who share characteristics with both.

The BBC should remember the wise old line: ‘never negotiate with terrorists or toddlers’ or in this case, both.

This kid is surely on his way to becoming a white ball batsmen GOAT. 14 years old.

Two things seem to be true this morning - 1/ That the politics of breaking the manifesto pledge was too difficult 2/ Reeves has received much more optimistic forecasts, likely to he wage growth and inflation related The combination means they can reverse their plans

NEW: The biggest union in the BBC, Bectu, has written to culture secretary Lisa Nandy and BBC chair Samir Shah, demanding the removal of Robbie Gibb from the BBC Board. They say Gibb, a political appointee, is a “direct block to the BBC maintaining its chartered objective of independence”.

Now’s the perfect time for the BBC to splice the various Trump-Epstein emails together, creating a false narrative no more damning than the truth.

I wonder if the United States can learn anything from the last time a major industrialized country decided to isolate itself from the rest of the world? Almost a decade after the Brexit vote, GDP in the UK is around 6-8% lower relative to peer countries. (Source: www.nber.org/papers/w34459)

if you’re wondering what TV & radio would look like without the bbc if the right had its way, picture the state of our privatised rivers & seas, but instead it’s raw sewage pumped into your telly & speakers

Quick thread on the BBC and the political and societal significance of recent developments: One of the main reasons the UK has historically been so much less polarised than the US, is that Britain has a shared source of information, consumed and trusted by most people regardless of their politics.

I feel so angry about Trump threatening to sue the BBC. The juxta-position between the two symbolises the wider fight we’re in. It’s made me feel even more protective of every single, dull institution protecting our freedom.

This looks rather meaningful.

Which future are you planning for?

Very ‘subtle’ visual association from the LDs …

I’m calling it! 6th November 2025 The day Trumpism died.

Facts are essential, but this cannot be fought primarily on facts. Such spooky tales take root in deeper recesses. Progressives must find an emotionally astute response; one that tells a different tale, promises a better future, soothes the same triggered instincts and returns people to reason. 7/7