Is there an option not to award the World Cup this year?

English FA president, Debbie Hewitt, paid a quarter of a million USD per year for saying "yes, great idea" in Gianni Infantino's Fifa Council, pictured with some friends in NYC last night. It's not just Infantino who is the problem.

👎 Abandoning the Blair-Brown commitment to overseas aid is high on my list of the Starmer government's failings

Interesting piece by @econromesh.bsky.social. I always thought the right frame was the trade-off between (formal) sovereignty and living standards, and we emphasised that from the start. But the Leave campaign was effective with 'wrong then, wrong now' and so forth 1/ blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci...

Despite a near total academic consensus on the negative consequences of Brexit, voters were not swayed. In a new LSE Impact blog, @econromesh.bsky.social (Economics Observatory, CEP) argues economists must communicate findings as carefully as they produce them. blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci...

Brilliant news about a brilliant economist. You always learn something from a conversation with Silvana. And usually have a lovely time doing so www.imf.org/en/news/arti...

To be clear, three people can be absolute legends tonight. 1. Pochettino benches Balogun 2. Balogun goes down with "serious leg injury" early doors, stretchered off 3. Ref sends off Balogun in first minute, straight red for "looking at me in a funny way". None will happen, but 3 would be funniest.

Pretty disappointed by Pochettino in all this

I am sure Infantino has done worse but he really must go. There should be an attempt to create various ways to normalise, amplify disrespect for him everwhere he goes

Researchers at two Russell Group universities published scientific research funded by an "anonymous donation". But the money really came from an industry group with a clear conflict of interest 🥸 After 10 months of "investigation", Wiley has done... nothing. No retraction, no EOC, no correction.

I for one am proud that @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social's student body reflects the diversity of our city - something that was not remotely the case when I was an undergraduate.

Tariff Confusion New working paper with Manova, Novy & Tang #EconSky Study how US trade policy changes in 2025 affected US imports Key finding is chaotic policy making generated confusion, which amplified fall in imports from higher tariffs 1/ cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/downloa...

Changes in US tariff policy in 2025 reduced US imports – and the effect was amplified by confusion created by frequent and complex policy announcements, our new discussion paper, Tariff Confusion, shows. Read the full paper here: https://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp2195.pdf UCL

Tariff Confusion New working paper with Manova, Novy & Tang #EconSky Study how US trade policy changes in 2025 affected US imports Key finding is chaotic policy making generated confusion, which amplified fall in imports from higher tariffs 1/ cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/downloa...

4️⃣ The evidence is conclusive: Brexit has been an economic failure, shows @thomsampson.bsky.social @cep-lse.bsky.social on @lsepoliticsblog.bsky.social

Brexit has been an economic failure, argues @thomsampson.bsky.social. open.substack.com/pub/lsebriti...

How has Brexit affected the UK economy? Badly Higher prices, lower investment, less trade, lower growth. I wrote a blog for @lsepoliticsblog.bsky.social summarising evidence on the economic effects of Brexit blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...

I'd just add that key issue with care workers now is not visas, but Mahmood's "earned settlement" proposals whose main impact will be to expel care workers and their families who have been here for several years. Both Streeting and Burnham should make their positions on this clear.

This is no more about the details of immigration policy than the progroms my great great grandparents fled were about Jews committing crimes. It's straightforward racist violence and it needs the strongest possible response.

Shocking and offensive, also for the fact that FIFA doesn't protest www.politico.com/news/2026/06...

The UK government and the EU need to do something together about X. Now. It is pushing racist nonsense that is now bleeding into the mainstream media.

The economics of Brexit, 10 years on. My summary. ukandeu.ac.uk/brexit-ten-y...

Once again: German universities were the envy of the world before the Nazis rose to power and took an ideological wrecking ball to the entire enterprise. If you want to know how long it took for German universities to recover… they haven’t.

The EHRC is meant to protect our human rights. Instead, they have drafted a manual for exclusion and harassment -one that explicitly admits it will have profoundly negative impacts on many trans people's lives at every level. Stripping Away the Power of the Law 6/17

Revealing confusion here. Social care is a lottery - you might need a lot, you might keel over. People don't self-insure because you might keel over. People want to pass on wealth to their children, but the current model punishes inheritance for the children of parents who need a lot. 1/

It is hard to overstate the egregiousness of this failure. The body whose statutory duty is to protect the human rights of, and prevent discrimination against, trans people has published exclusionary rules for trans people under the aegis of a government run by the party which created those duties.

This government’s defining quality is cowardice and now it has wobbled its way to a policy that 10 years ago was confined to the most extreme Republicans. Shameful

🧵 I’m extremely concerned by reports the government is exploring an “unofficial” supermarket price capping policy. Supermarkets already operate on razor thin margins. The CMA found average grocery margins were just 1.8% in 2022/23. 1/7

Too long; didn't read? 👇 Come hear it in person instead at LSE on Wed 20 May at 6:30pm. Full details here: www.lse.ac.uk/events/trade-2

Maybe the government should do something about corrupt foreign influence in British politics?

‪Trade is under strain. Understanding why demands more than one lens. To move beyond the headlines, check out our new special issue in LSE Public Policy: ppr.lse.ac.uk/16/volume/4/... Academically rigorous. Accessible to all. Huge thanks to my fellow editor and co-author @thomsampson.bsky.social

Good data is essential for policy. Today it’s been a year since we had a permanent National Statistician. No news on what is happening with the current recruitment which began Oct 2025. This is an under the bonnet issue that points to state failure 🧵 uksa.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/news/stateme...

Breaking: it turns out that a strategy that literally every political scientist went 'No, don't do that. That's nuts!' is, in fact, nuts.

relentless poll chasing + contempt for your political base + a total absence of principle or vision = political disaster www.nytimes.com/2026/05/05/o...

Yet another example of the cruelty and incompetence of the UK immigration authorities, and the callous and unfeeling ministers responsible for them. Now blocking (and doing nothing to help) an 11-month-old baby born in the UK to a British mother from returning. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

A Harvard study just published estimates Elon Musk's destruction of USAID has already caused 600,000 deaths 2/3 of them children. That is his legacy in this world.

Our aid cuts have been just as severe. It won't kill as many people because we spent less to start with, and focused a bit less on health/food programmes. But we've got nothing to be proud of here.

The biggest, deepest, most in-depth guide to the London borough elections you will find. @lewisbaston.bsky.social and I have gone ward-by-ward. It is a journey through the whole of the city: londondecides.lowickhedry.com #london

New UK steel tariffs ‘threaten’ British manufacturing, steel importers warn ministers. Letter from Confederation of British Metalforming to the U.K. trade department warns that protections meant to boost homegrown steelworks risk “severely disrupting supply chains.” www.politico.eu/article/new-...

Reform donor Ben Delo, who has given £4 million to the party, is making legal threats to those who reference his 2022 US conviction for failing to implement anti-money laundering laws, prior to a pardon by President Trump. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

"Mentally unstable President given huge powers by cowardly party threatens to blow up the world" is the headline you're looking for.

Had several very sobering conversations with many able, intelligent and interested potential @cam.ac.uk applicants today in Yaounde. This UK visa ban is the most absurd measure and everyone in higher education should contact their MPs now. This is Home Office under Labour gone absolutely mad. 😡

Wondering what leverage in negotiations looks like? Australia's new FTA with the EU provides 16,830 tonnes of tariff free access for beef. Australia's FTA with the UK, completed with a desperate Johnson administration, provided 35,000 tonnes tariff free, rising to unlimited over 15 years.

The evidence is overwhelming: Brexit has been a disaster for London and the UK. Rejoining the EU is now clearly in our national interest. The option to rejoin should be on the ballot at the next General Election. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

This is cruel to the young people concerned, self-destructive for the UK and will not win over a single Reform voter.

Applications open for our @cep-lse.bsky.social summer internship programme.

Iran’s people were facing a horrible shortage of water before the war began. If we are destroying desalination plants and setting fire to Teheran we are committing unfathomable crimes.

VAR really takes any joy out of football. Just scrap it

Two stories here - the failure of the Starmer/McSweeney political strategy and Reform's toxicity to social liberals. The latter is important and seems underdiscussed. bsky.app/profile/samf...

🚨New report from us BCG CfG today🚨 we take a sector & firm view of UK productivity growth over past 3 decades, including benchmarking against peers. UK is falling back from global frontier but for quite different reasons in different sectors 1/