'It is a childish fantasy to pretend that you can raise serious money only from the few rather than the many.' Me for @thetimes.com on the many reasons why a wealth tax won't work www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

The London collapse in new housebuilding shown here is stark. The reason is largely the disaster that is the building safety regulator - which has processed about 20% of the applications it's been given in the last year.

@rcolvile.bsky.social sums up the issue nicely here. He's definitely right about housing not coming forward at all - I regularly hear about housebuilders and housing associations moving activity away from London. Or keeping buildings below 6 storeys, even when there's potential to go much higher.

In the part of the country that most needs homes, we are building by far the least.

The big problem isn't that Reeves is raising taxes. It's that the fiscal crunch means we'll have to do it again and again and again - and the endless scrabbling around for cash is making things even worse. Me, depressingly, for @thetimes.com www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

'It is a lot easier to list the excitable articles about prime ministerial relaunches, revamps and resets than examples of such resets actually working.' Me for @thetimes.com on a year of Starmer - and why the real problem is never the advisers, and always the king.

Bit late to this, but the @newstatesman.com cover story arguing for tax rises on the middle classes makes a pretty big error, which completely invalidates its argument that they are under-taxed - it ignores pension contributions.

Glad that I could draw more people's attention (via @jonnelledge.bsky.social) to the public information films of the Attlee government. Honestly, it's fascinating, esp if you're into housing policy www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta_n...

The Government says London needs to build 88,000 homes a year. Last year, it started 3,990. My column today is on the urgent national crisis no one is talking about - the collapse of housebuilding in London www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

The Government says London needs to build 88,000 homes a year. Last year, it started 3,990. My column today is on the urgent national crisis no one is talking about - the collapse of housebuilding in the capital (1/?)

Fun fact: before becoming a well-known historian, Edward Gibbon was part of a successful double act with Griff Rhys Jones

Politicians treated HS2 as a symbol of their virility. No wonder it's been such a flop. Me for @thetimes.com on how high-speed rail went so wrong. www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

Much as it pains me to admit it, @jdportes.bsky.social is right. I got it wrong. Posts deleted. Will amend article.

A tax on people's work is a tax on working people.

Main conclusion from Spending Review: an absolutely massive squeeze on spending (both capital and day-to-day) pencilled in for second half of Parliament. Absolutely no way those numbers don’t go higher (and take taxes with them).

Depressing and disgraceful that the Tory Party voted en masse for Amendment 69 to the Planning Bill, which handed Natural England a pre-emptive veto on housing and infra development. Thankfully it was killed, but Opposition does not mean mindlessly supporting awful ideas.

So 31% of 2024 Lib Dem voters and 29% of Greens now trust Farage more than Starmer to run the economy 😳 H/T Caroline Wheeler and @moreincommonuk.bsky.social

Labour thinks votes at 16 will help it clean up. But the politics of young people is much more interesting - and much alarming - than its strategists think. Me for @thetimes.com on the polarisation within our youth, and the 'relationship recession' www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

Line of the day from @zonal-marking.bsky.social

Well if it’s a *progressive* ID card, then I’m sold. Maybe we could have progressive parking wardens next?

This is such a perfect illustration of my database state theory - database management is both the most important task of modern govt and its most intractable limitation...

This is an extraordinary chart via @noahpinion.blogsky.venki.dev - US healthcare costs have basically stopped growing as a % of GDP. Obviously it helps when you actually grow the economy, but is it just possible that making people pay for their own health care means better cost control?

To whoever decided to rebrand the Victoria area as ‘London Heritage Quarter’: eff off. Yours sincerely, Robert

Not sure people on this site will need much convincing that Trump's tariffs are bad, but @benchu.bsky.social does a very good job of it. My review of his new book here www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

This on the Bidens is worth reading in full. Damnatio memoriae... www.politico.com/news/magazin...

So much of running a modern state is just database management in disguise. Dictates pretty much all your options and limitations.

Something deeply alarming is happening in London: it's the only region of the country that's building less, not more. And while I'd love to blame Sadiq, there's another culprit that urgently needs addressing. (1/?)

Another triumph for Skynet

The only certainty on assisted dying is that this is an awful way to introduce it. Me for @thetimes.com on last week's debate www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

Another triumph for Skynet

The only certainty on assisted dying is that this is an awful way to introduce it. Me for @thetimes.com on last week's debate www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

Are men the victims of the modern economy? @frasernelson.bsky.social on his @cps.org.uk debate with @richardreeves.bsky.social & Nicholas Everstadt frasernelson.substack.com/p/men-and-bo...

Robert Colvile's @rcolvile.bsky.social on wind dilemmas t.co/jLTJyg2igO

Realised I hadn't plugged this on here - event at 1.30pm today with two of the Western world's most prominent experts on why men/boys are increasingly in trouble. Will now be hosted by the extremely kind Fraser Nelson as I'm home on the Lemsip... cps.org.uk/events/post/...

As the clock ticks towards 2030, Miliband is going to have to make a simple choice: drop his clean power target, or pay through the nose. Me for @thetimes.com www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

As the clock ticks towards 2030, Miliband is going to have to make a simple choice: drop his clean power target, or pay through the nose. Me for @thetimes.com www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

It is important to point out that a 10% US tariff on UK goods is still new and awful and economically damaging.

Confused as to why Trump cared so much about ethanol? Read the @cps.org.uk report 'Drop the Crops' - and learn what those weird numbers next to your petrol/diesel actually mean. cps.org.uk/research/dro...

It is important to point out that a 10% US tariff on UK goods is still new and awful and economically damaging.

Wonder what odds you'd have got six years ago on a Keir Starmer-led government signing Brexit-enabled trade deals with Modi's India and Trump's America while the Tories and Reform complain (at least about the former).

Life comes at you fast, eh Keir?

I may be one of the only 44-year-olds in the country with a father who served in the Second World War. Wrote this a couple of years ago on how he and his generation sacrificed not just their lives, but their youth. www.thetimes.com/world/russia...

Orsted pulling the plug on the Hornsea Four wind farm is a huge problem for Labour's Clean Power 2030 plan. But it also illustrates a huge problem *with* that plan. (1/?)

God, the trouble we cause ourselves by pretending National Insurance is anything other than income tax with a false moustache.

Parenting tip: to enthrall your children at a rock-bottom price, use an automatic car wash.

1) Trump tariffs us at 10% because that's what the algorithm said 2) Keir et al pretend it was because of their intense diplomatic efforts 3) Trump tariffs all the Hollywood movies that are shot here 4) ...anyone?

Welcome to Farage’s Britain

[email protected] has drawn my attention to what seems to be a pretty dumb mistake in a column of mine last week, on regulatory reviews. Have deleted relevant posts while I look into it.

Farage is triumphant. So what the hell do the Tories do now? Me for @thetimes.com www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

I go into this in my column today - Tories still reach voters Reform can’t, and vice versa. There is a potential parallel with Brexit, where having two competing Leave movements actually pushed up the total…