Some photos from 6 years ago

The buffoons who run our county council in Kent have miserably failed at their core election pledge - rather than lower taxes, they will raise them. I hope people elsewhere are paying some attention. (Warning: Video contains foul language) youtu.be/Q3l65xc7_Ks?...

The buffoons who run our county council in Kent have miserably failed at their core election pledge - rather than lower taxes, they will raise them. I hope people elsewhere are paying some attention. (Warning: Video contains foul language) youtu.be/Q3l65xc7_Ks?...

The UK should ask itself how Germany can plan all this 👇 without needing to leave the EU or ECHR.... 🤔 www.politico.eu/article/germ...

Why Labour got fighty again on Brexit www.politico.eu/article/labo...

Thai Commerce Minister is upbeat on securing agreement for a comprehensive FTA with South Korea after 20 years of negotiations www.bangkokpost.com/business/gen...

People need to understand that the costs of moving bouse, incl. Stamp Duty, prevent people from moving out of the more affordable end of the market, so families with teenagers stay in small starter homes, leaving little supply for new market entrants, making what was affordable unafforable

So if I read this right, the purpose of the US Justice Department's "Weaponization Working Group" is to investgate alleged weaponisation of the Justice Department by weaponising the Justice Department against anyone the president holds a grudge against? www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/c...

"Can [a] treaty concluded with [Austria] that has already been declared “superseded” by primary law in the past be declared retroactively applicable again between those states after Brexit?" 🤔

“In principle, export applications to overseas military users will not be approved"

Top EU weapons firm warns of drone threat to production lines www.politico.eu/article/top-...

"There have been 29 cases involving deportations from the UK heard by the Strasbourg court since 1980 and the UK has won 16 of them. None of the 13 defeats has been in the past five years" - @davidgauke.bsky.social in @thetimes.com 👇 www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

Reform pushes for 85% migrant population certainly is a new direction for the party.

Good idea. Few have heard of the OECD, let alone know what it does. This would drag it into the national conversation and give it the higher profile it deserves.

One of my favourite fun facts is that other parts of the world jealously look at how the UK has been so successful at attracting international migration

I don't really think people grasp the extent of the demographic crisis. A fertility rate is 1.5 as the UK, France etc, each generation is 25% smaller without immigration. If it's 1, as it is in several countries in Asia, South America and Europe each generation is less than half the size

Lots of mushrooms on our lunchtime walk today, some of which are edible

You can't tariff everything. But you sure can try. And while it's very entertaining for us trade wonks, it leads to anxiety and uncertainty for the industry. As in even more anxiety and uncertainty.

Whoever is on The Times picture + social media account is reinforcing public misunderstanding of immigration, by using pictures of asylum seekers in boats to discuss the big rise in visa immigration of 2021-24

Appreciating the sun when it's there

Appreciating the sun when it's there

I hear the most important news coming out of the USA is about golf ⛳️? 🤷‍♂️

"This story deserves more attention" - say lots of people who refuse to use any platforms that the general public use

What a surprise... www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater...

Weird that this is being touted as a new Labour initiative as this plan has been around longer than the last four Prime Minister www.politico.eu/article/keir...

The impression of the EU being "so inwardly focussed" isn't new and by no means just in the context of climate... It's just that it's been so inwardly focussed for so long that no one noticed before

This is big news. Could it unlock at least some of the stalemate at try WTO? 🤞

Governments' interventions in rice markets do tend to result in "suboptimal rice management", to quote the article.

It really feels like the US is going to start watering its crops with Gatorade soon

Should we expect a defection or a divorce?

This is correct. It applies to 🇬🇧 as much as the 🇺🇸. Aside from undervaluing their own agency in being able to influence public debate, the left doesn’t understand how the right views culture war - as resistance against a leftwing conspiracy that controls the media - and Musk is their Anti-Gramsci

Completely and utterly "mad as a box of frogs" as one of her cabinet members once told me

The formal review process for the USMCA has started ahead of next year's renegotiation. Check out everything you need to know about the future of the USMCA, from critical minerals to dairy to lumber to, of course, tariffs, & more: https://www.piie.com/microsites/2025/future-usmca

ICE's huge raid on a Hyundai battery plant under construction in Georgia has outraged and alienated key U.S. ally South Korea, while setting back prospects of getting successful foreign companies to manufacture in America. My colleague @scottlincicome.bsky.social has a wrap-up.

Arron Banks of Reform is recurringly determined to turn racism into a joke, and bring back the "banter" defence of the 1990s Well done Kevin Hollinrake, the Cons MP, for his attempt to maintain the most basic foundations of decency and against racism in public life. Which Banks finds hilarious

The last political column I was allowed to write in the @washingtonpost.com was a criticism of Obama. His people took issue with my piece, but we were respectful. Now he is tweeting in support of me. This is how free political speech and respect for debate *actually works*. Or used to work.

The state of our oceans concerns me a lot, but for some reason most news editors don't share this concern, so I'm going to make a thread of reports that don't get the attention they deserve 👇 1/?)

No, that's not a loaf of bread 🍞, but a mushroom twice the size of a loaf bread #puffball #funghifriends

The state of our oceans concerns me a lot, but for some reason most news editors don't share this concern, so I'm going to make a thread of reports that don't get the attention they deserve 👇 1/?)

on.ft.com/4nhvSyM NEW: Trump tariffs on EU medical devices will drive up US patient bills, industry claims …with a very testy White House response, which usually means they’re worried about it. Me and @judewebber.bsky.social for @financialtimes.com

From Ningbo to Felixstowe, the new Northern Passage is opening up to trade www.politico.eu/article/chin...

Britain to pay Palantir £750m in defence contract as Trump visits www.thetimes.com/uk/defence/a...

Beijing-Novosibirsk. When the stewardess refused to serve more vodka to the Russian gangsters seated behind me, they knocked out with the empty bottle

Love these 10 points on the benefit of global trade 👌

The short and the long of the WTO Fish Subsidies Agreement entering into force for two thirds of members today. The good, the bad and the time-bomb: Members have 4 years to conclude the deadlocked Phase 2 talks, or the 2022 agreement will be terminated tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2025/09/15/w...

Unprecedented suppression of Panama’s Pacific upwelling in 2025 | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Yup. It's really weird

Community note on X

Anyone who thinks the UK-EU reset lacks ambitions doesn't really understand politics. There are numerous obstacles to anything much deeper on both sides