Bluesky is good for links and chatting but if you’re urging your constituents onto it, three days later half of them will be going “I was added to a list called WHAT by WHAT?”

Call it house price 'growth', call it 'inflation' — either way, it's capital fleeing the productive economy for a two-bed in Zone 5. ✍️ www.linestotake.com/p/house-pric...

NEW REPORT: How to deliver digital transformation in public services. Successive governments have looked to digital solutions for problems facing public services – with varying success. We’ve looked at past examples and drawn out 7 lessons for people working on future programmes:

Call it house price 'growth', call it 'inflation' — either way, it's capital fleeing the productive economy for a two-bed in Zone 5. ✍️ www.linestotake.com/p/house-pric...

If a picture is worth a thousand words (of alt text) it's this one. The UK's lack of Brexit preparation was pretty wild. But I also think prep isn't all that decisive when you're the junior partner, asking for things the bigger one isn't minded to give you. ✍️ www.linestotake.com/p/preparatio...

A majority of GB (not UK) adults always say this in surveys, but like many things a majority of GB adults say, whether it happens or not will have no bearing on what they think of Burnham or the government, nor on how they vote next time (either soon or late). So its not very useful info on its own

In 👏 this 👏country 👏 we 👏 call 👏 it 👏 house 👏 price 👏 growth 👏

There's some irony in Reeves and Starmer leaving behind a £1.2bn unfunded spending commitment, but it's not that big a sum to find at the Budget, in the grand scheme of things. The bigger issue is the £25bn funding gap relative to the 3.5% of GDP target. Absolutely no realism about that.

If a picture is worth a thousand words (of alt text) it's this one. The UK's lack of Brexit preparation was pretty wild. But I also think prep isn't all that decisive when you're the junior partner, asking for things the bigger one isn't minded to give you. ✍️ www.linestotake.com/p/preparatio...

What is the point of the Liberal Democrats? Andy Burnham may have just answered the question for them. ✍️ www.linestotake.com/p/what-is-th...

Has a man ever exuded more obvious discomfort around scatter cushions?

a joint @instituteforgovernment.org.uk @ukandeu.bsky.social production - @anandmenon.bsky.social BBC's Adam Fleming and I came together to reflect on 10+ years of Brexit - nerd heaven www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/podcast/brex...

Been thinking about which is Sam's "genuinely excited face".

Pretty sure this show, which is brilliant, btw, is not "the future of entertainment". It's one very clever and engaging show, but it's also wildly expensive to create and relies on the band in question being utterly iconic. There are very few bands that could replicate this. The Stones, maybe.

What is the point of the Liberal Democrats? Andy Burnham may have just answered the question for them. ✍️ www.linestotake.com/p/what-is-th...

Is Burnham too northern? Too left-wing? Too much of a flip-flopper? Badenoch, Farage and Polanski — none naturally given to rhetorical restraint — will have to keep their attack lines plausible. ✍️ www.linestotake.com/p/framing-an...

The fact Luke Pollard, one of the Labour MP's most attuned to his constituency, has felt the need to come out and reassure voters that Burnham will not just be for the North/Manchester shows the real risks here

Is Burnham too northern? Too left-wing? Too much of a flip-flopper? Badenoch, Farage and Polanski — none naturally given to rhetorical restraint — will have to keep their attack lines plausible. ✍️ www.linestotake.com/p/framing-an...

Love (and miss) the Ray Wilkins adjective one-upmanship: Martin Tyler: "It's a nice day, Ray." Ray Wilkins: "It's a gorgeous day, Martin." Martin Tyler: "That was a neat pass, Ray." Ray Wilkins: "That was a phenomenal pass, Martin."

Reading a book which mentions in passing a Mike Riley who worked for FDR at the Little White House and very difficult not to 1. laugh and then immediately 2. get very annoyed about his refereeing at Old Trafford in 2005.

Each time I'm tempted to write about Project Sunrise (Qantas' Sydney–London direct flights) I 1. down a shot and 2. remember this piece by @analyticflying.com already exists.

Even for the 1990s, a papier-mâché background is a bit odd.

City Airport is getting its first lounge. But if you're getting to City early enough to use a lounge, you're doing it completely wrong imho.

Going to start explaining heated rivalry to Australians by saying imagine if Shane Warne and Mike Gatting had also somehow been in a secret relationship when the ball of the century happened

The SpaceX IPO has been hugely revealing for people who ought to know better but still confuse stocks and flows. Market cap does not and has never = a mid-sized nation's GDP!

I think this chart from @andrewgoodwin.bsky.social at Oxford Economics cuts to the heart of UK fiscal policy - whatever the chat about market vibes, who's gonna be chancellor etc Basically the UK economy is not expected to grow quickly enough to outrun its debt costs (with only Italy in same boat).

People in the future may wonder whether the post-Cold War peace dividend was really all that but Martin Tyler just referred to the Soviet Union as a "bigger catchment area".

Someone — I think @jarrodkimber.bsky.social — described a young Steve Waugh as basically Dwayne Bravo and I think about it most days.

We need a national conversation about the rise of "I'm an [occupation] — contrarian post-dash clause" headlines.

Hot Lectern Dude 1,000% knows what he's doing and you're all falling for it.

Was enjoying Marc Overmars disembowel Man Utd's reserve fullback until — in a moment of weakness — I did the maths and realised that watching a 28-year-old match in 1998 would make it 1970.

Maybe Andrew Bailey inadvertently told Jonathan Agnew something market moving, all I could think about was how much he sounds like a cross between Tim Shipman and Oliver Letwin.

Burnham smashes it, Reform hits a wall, the Tories really ought to come home to being a normie-centre right party but probably won't. Some quick and dirty reflections on Makerfield. ✍️ www.linestotake.com/p/makerfield...

just to piggyback on this a little, a trend that is starting to emerge a little is that written-by-humans stuff is being treated and consumed like a premium product. that could be good news or bad news. or both people are willing to pay for snooty coffee but starbucks does numbers

Burnham smashes it, Reform hits a wall, the Tories really ought to come home to being a normie-centre right party but probably won't. Some quick and dirty reflections on Makerfield. ✍️ www.linestotake.com/p/makerfield...

Wrote about the good news on inflation, the sort of B-plot to Makerfield's A that may end up colliding with the other by episode's end — with *hilarious* consequences.

Anyway, please enjoy this video of fractious starlings squabbling like tired toddlers who could do with a time out

The implication of this "New York Times" headline is that "goy" is simply a slang term used by Generation Z now, no longer attached to antisemitic implications. I think this is not only wrong, but rather dangerous for the newspaper to be printing.

The youths were (rightly!) taught not to call things gay in a derogatory sense, so now they're going with a similarly spelled-and-pronounced term, a similarly tiny minority to harangue.

Surreal that this stuff gets published in the Times

I lol'd at the SCMP's misapprehension that London has "geopolitical ends". Is China a strategic competitor or an adversary? What red lines are we prepared to cross for closer EU integration? America — the indispensable security partner or predatory hegemon? Who knows!

Appreciate the NEC is a political and not a legal body but was there ever a justification given for blocking Burnham from standing in Gorton but not Makerfield?

Wrote about the good news on inflation, the sort of B-plot to Makerfield's A that may end up colliding with the other by episode's end — with *hilarious* consequences.

Over the last decade there are 398,000 fewer people working in retail in the UK. Down to 2.79m. (via @britishretail.bsky.social). Obvs some of this is because of online shopping. But with the hospitality industry in crisis too, where do people go to get their first job?

This is so awesome. 😍

New research out today with @johnspringford.bsky.social. Ten years after the referendum, we estimated the costs of Brexit to UK trade – and identified how much of the damage comes from leaving the single market versus the customs union. Not an easy exercise, but we’ve had some striking results 👇

As any child raised on 1990s sitcoms knows, the A- and B-plots have a habit of colliding before the end credits roll. Makerfield meets the good news on UK inflation. ✍️ www.linestotake.com/p/inflation-...

Do tpyos matter? ✍️ www.linestotake.com/p/do-typos-m...

Not negotiated international agreements but as someone who has signed tenancy agreements I can concur (it turned out I was responsible for some gardening thing).

This afternoon, a nation of Americans tuning in for the England-Croatia match will discover with puzzlement that the Brits adopted My Country 'Tis of Thee as their national anthem.