I can excuse @iaindale.bsky.social's ignorance here. Just because anyone with a very basic economics education should recognise the lump of labour fallacy doesn't mean he should. But the arrogance combined with the absolutely deliberate refusal to think is quite remarkable.

The stairwell of Mousa Broch on the western shore of the Island of Mousa in the Shetland Isles. The broch was constructed in the Iron Age in around 100 BC. 📸 My own. #StairwellSaturday #Mousa #Shetland #Archaeology

Pope Leo XIV previews his encyclical by attacking Silicon Valley’s “unbridled promotion and implementation of technology at the expense of human dignity.”

'Solar farms have a surprising silver lining: they're turning into accidental wildlife sanctuaries, especially for rare and declining bird life species. Certain nature friendly practices are the key. Renewable energy and nature can thrive side by side.'

Yes. By not facing up to this, the leadership is saying "we're ok with antisemitism". Or at least, that's what antisemites would hear. There will be a price to pay for dealing with it. Some angry people would leave and call the Greens "Zionists". But there's a higher price for not dealing with it.

Passing this oak, 150m from some tower blocks, in Sheffield's Gleadless Valley, I thought I could hear a distant car-alarm. At least one of the holes has greater spotted woodpecker chicks, who are in "FFS feed me. Now." mode.

Nobody knows more about GM than @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social

Stunned, appalled, shocked etc to see actual tax reform from a politician. This from Wes Streeting today. A thread on why capital gains tax is broken. It's too low AND too high. & why this is a good proposal.

OpenAI's claim that this is a central conjecture in discrete geometry is not an exaggeration. This will I think be looked back on as the first time that AI solved a major mathematics problem (defined as a problem that all experts in some subfield had thought about). openai.com/index/model-...

Specifically:

HISTORY IS COMING: 40c IN EUROPE This will arguably be the harshest spring heat wave in European history We can see up to 40C in Spain,35C in Central Europe for days. Thousands of records will be pulverized in Spain,Portugal,France,Benelux,UK;SCandinavia,Germany,Alps,Czechia,..

- Subsidising consumption in the face of a supply shock - reducing incentives to drive less/switch to EVs - using up limited fiscal space to help better-off drivers rather than the most vulnerable. Hard to think of a worse policy right now.

The longer you look at this, the worse it gets

The easing of sanctions is turning quite into a public image disaster for the UK government. Others will have to judge the technicalities, but this looks like the FCDO is already trying to row back.

And, politically, it will make not a shred of difference. Any of the minimal benefits will be ignored and the government will still be blamed for absolutely everything that is wrong.

The era of supply shocks cries out for a politician willing to be straight with people: these shocks make us poorer, we have to divide out the pain while sticking up our values. None of these measures pass that test

🚨Rimmer reposted an item from the "Traditional Britain Group – Lifeboat". The group's post said: "We are importing low IQ people and when they commit heinous crimes they are given more lenient sentences by the Judges as they are 'Low IQ and don't understand our way of life'." Disgraceful.

No notes.

Today feels a good day to repost my most popular blog of last year www.freewheeling.info/blog/swiss-hs2

All the evidence from the pandemic is that if you give people open, clear information they are responsive and change behaviour. Instead, the Government seems to assume we are a nation of vaccine, deep state, globalist conspiracists incapable of rational engagement. X brained.

This would mean shoppers buying other items would subsidise essentials, because supermarkets would raise prices to protect margins. Which is not terrible but it's more efficient to raise Universal Credit www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Fuel duty moves, Russian sanction tweaking and talk of voluntary supermarket price caps are just a total mess of a response to an energy price surge.

The IEA published 10 quite easy things to do, two months ago. www.iea.org/news/new-iea...

It would be great if the government could spend some time trying to solve the many, many real problems facing the UK – instead of imaginary ones. UK retail operates on *tiny* margins – averaging around 4p in the £1. Supermarkets are cheap and efficient: food is expensive because inputs cost more.

Lol. A few weeks ago I was giving feedback on some polling that involved a hypothetical where the govt did this and I said it wasn't realistic. Ffs.

May I recommend Kagi? An incredible search engine that works every time kagi.com

Very informative Ebola explainer by @apsmunro.bsky.social with an update on the current outbreak in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo: open.substack.com/pub/alasdair...

Very informative Ebola explainer by @apsmunro.bsky.social with an update on the current outbreak in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo: open.substack.com/pub/alasdair...

A very depressing thread on Burnham's reality lite speech. If all Burnham offers is more of the same refusal to face reality mixed with nostalgia for t'mills then it's a complete waste of time.

I really wanted this Burnham speech to leave me hopeful and was actively rooting for it. I found it deflating - to put it mildly. Where it needed to be brave and expansive, it was small and meek. Let me give one example that I found quite instructive, since Andy used it as a framing device. 1/

This remains true.

"This illustrates the barrier-lowering effect: a mid-tier criminal possessing limited technical skills executing a campaign that would previously have required a capable team." On the impact of AI on the security of software systems. By @profserious.bsky.social: open.substack.com/pub/profseri...

We need know-how not nostalgia. Andy Burnham should tread carefully in how he calls for reindustrialisation. (An implication of this piece by @dsmitheconomics.bsky.social: www.thetimes.com/business/eco...)

Hawthorn blossom after light rain. Lower level of the capped municipal tip between Cat Lane Woods and Sheffield's Gleadless Valley Estate. Siskin, Bullfinch, Jackdaw, Crow, Robin, Wood Pigeon, Blackbird, Blackcap, Great Tit, Wren, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler all audible.

Hay meadow near Milnthorpe, looking towards Unthank in North Derbyshire close to Sheffield today. Two unforgettably loud cuckoos close by in the woods above Unthank.

!! "Farage says the company is worth $500 billion. If he's right, then Harborne could afford to give away £5 million a day, each day, for the next two years and barely eat into 1 per cent of his fortune."

Osprey at #YoloBypass this AM

Four things to read the next few months may unfold. Some overlap. Some contrasts. @iandunt.bsky.social: substack.com/@iandunt/not... @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social: www.ft.com/content/bd5e... @rentouljohn.bsky.social: www.independent.co.uk/voices/what-... @samfr.bsky.social: substack.com/@samf/note/p...

Hay meadow near Milnthorpe, looking towards Unthank in North Derbyshire close to Sheffield today. Two unforgettably loud cuckoos close by in the woods above Unthank.

We need know-how not nostalgia. Andy Burnham should tread carefully in how he calls for reindustrialisation. (An implication of this piece by @dsmitheconomics.bsky.social: www.thetimes.com/business/eco...)

"This illustrates the barrier-lowering effect: a mid-tier criminal possessing limited technical skills executing a campaign that would previously have required a capable team." On the impact of AI on the security of software systems. By @profserious.bsky.social: open.substack.com/pub/profseri...

Sobering stuff from David Blunkett in the @financialtimes.com

"Heat pumps just shift gas burning to the power station." Wrong. Even if 100% of electricity came from gas, a heat pump at SCOP 3.8 uses 51% less gas than a boiler. At a terrible SCOP 2.5, still 25% less. David MacKay made this point in 2008. The maths hasn't changed.

Four things to read the next few months may unfold. Some overlap. Some contrasts. @iandunt.bsky.social: substack.com/@iandunt/not... @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social: www.ft.com/content/bd5e... @rentouljohn.bsky.social: www.independent.co.uk/voices/what-... @samfr.bsky.social: substack.com/@samf/note/p...

The people behind this are openly neo-Nazi. Reminder that the Conservatives argued this march was fine as it did not directly target any particular groups, beyond “criticism of religion”.

People march for all kinds of reasons - but those leading today’s march hate Britain. Hate our diverse country. Hate even more the fact that far right, bot fuelled clicks on social media are not enough to overcome the reality of a decent tolerant country that knows a racist grifter when they see one

Taiwan now getting the Ukraine treatment.

I will say, when your leader was a Liberal Democrat until comparatively recently, this isn't a very convincing line

New blog post: UK Government Kicks Out Palantir https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/05/uk-government-kicks-out-palantir/ The UK Government, for all its faults, is pretty good at publishing contracts it has awarded. That's why I get depressed when I see rage-bait nonsense about how companies have been …