It's weird - but now in Oslo, there's so many EVs that you notice the noise and the smell from individual ICE cars, and you realise how much we've been normalising it for ever. You can smell them half a street away. And inside parking lots are just *quiet*.

‘The collapse of newspapers and the rise of algorithmic platforms like X and YouTube is slowly dissolving the shared civic frame that once sustained a British national consciousness/culture.’ ‘Sovereignty’, they said, to the sound of distant laughter. postliberal.substack.com/p/crazy-like...

The link to Ian Bond’s important paper on Europe and Ukraine is in the replies to CER’s post. Recommended.

Farmers 10, River Cam 0. Sorry to learn this. Best not fall into the Cam.

‘Strong notes that “increasing labour market precarity means it is harder for men to fulfil social expectations of being able to ‘provide’ for families.” It used to be far easier to launch yourself into the adult world: housing and living costs were more affordable, jobs were often plentiful.’

American billionaires are trying to overturn British democracy in a far right racist coup

As an opening sentence, this I like: ‘We are living through the farcical collapse of an American empire that began in Rooseveltian grandeur. ‘ A point he makes about Canada: ’Too many veto points.’ open.substack.com/pub/michaeli...

Superb superb diagnostic of Brexitism from @chrisgrey.bsky.social which explains the trouble the UK is having moving forward. The psychology is interesting. This is the triumph of id. It the politics of feeling over fact. 1

So Germans prefab blocks are still standing: I never knew. Contrast this with the Bison system and Ronan Point, which killed prefab in the U.K.

Isoler le parc immobilier bruxellois pour la politique climatique : toujours des plans maximaliste à Bruxelles. Les subventions sont insuffisantes. Il n'existe aucun autre plan d'ingénierie financière privée… Et l'impact esthétique est impensable. #PEB www.rtbf.be/article/vers...

On Friday, all hell will break lose following a hearing in USA. cyberlaw.stanford.edu/a-primer-on-...

Oh my.

NEW One way for a civil war to begin is for a constitution to break down The job of a constitution is to regulate fundamental political conflicts - and those conflicts will still be there By me Substack: emptycity.substack.com/p/one-way-fo... Personal blog: davidallengreen.com/2025/09/one-...

For years, Nigel Farage has thrived on grievance politics. But why do his “solutions” never solve the problems – and why do voters keep feeling aggrieved? A view by Prof Ailsa Henderson and Prof Richard Wyn-Jones. From #TheConversation -- thanks!

Tempting to think this is madly over the top. It isn't. Putin's ambitions aren't limited to Ukraine. He has militarised Russian society & economy in a way that's difficult to reverse quickly. So, as Macron & Merz have recently recognised, once Ukraine is dealt with, another country will be next.

@danneidle.bsky.social Rita de la Feria posted the article below at the other place: ammo on VAT. It’s been out a while. It deserves a reboot IMO papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Concise problem statement.

Department of ‘I’m glad you asked me that’: @nialloconghaile.bsky.social Why is the follow up of the Draghi report so low key? Too politically difficult?

Good piece by Rowan Williams, pointing out that refugees are also "ordinary people" and that pride in your country should be "more than a sullen self-congratulation for just being where you are". www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The hypocrisy of claiming (to certain audiences) that leaving the EU would allow the UK to be more welcoming to immigrants from outside Europe is also easier to explain as « a lie use as a smokescreen for their racism » than « an honest belief that in nine years has become « expel them all ».

‘If boats and hotels are taken off the table, the oxygen goes from Reform, and there can be a more rational debate about immigration. Labour has got to stop believing that the painfully slow grind of the Home Office, overly cautious lawyers, and traditional diplomacy is going to do the job.’

UK online safety law in practice.

BBC4 has snagged a fresh scan of ‘The Italian Job’ (1969). Written because UK was gearing up to join the Common Market. The film looks so fresh and is pacy up to the end of the chase.

The campaign for industrial beer continues its work.

London builders….

In which the UK government discovers the existence of Compliance Departments.

UK recovers position in Horizon research programme - from @lisaocarroll.bsky.social - www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Pretend deference but practice reduction of dependency is the only sensible thing to do.

We are sad to report that longtime Blue Peter Editor Biddy Baxter has died at the age of 92. We salute a true pioneer, who navigated changing times in the television industry with instinct, tenacity and style.

10th August 1860, five people are executed by firing squad in Bronte (Sicily) following a popular uprising. Thread with special guest appearances by Horatio Nelson, Giuseppe Garibaldi and the Brontë sisters >> 1

I am the very model of a modern coast guard general I've information migratory, nautical yet mythical I know the fash in England and I invent facts hysterical From migrant boats to climate too, in manner unforgivable

I thought someone had mucked around with this. See alt for more @dzyrl.bsky.social

New YouGov polling. A monumental failure of our political class to educate, a monumental failure of our media to report fairly, for a generation

We’ve all been there: Calls dropping, video streaming crashing, browsers timing out, signal bars taunting you. 🛜 📶 If you’ve taken a train in Europe, you know the pain of unreliable Wi-Fi (or 5G, for that matter). This piece won't fix your next journey, but now, at least, you'll know why.

Thought for the day and many days beyond.

I love the CR2032 aside in this @grahamsoult.bsky.social

The nightly denial that the IDF is shooting Palestinians, from a member of the Knesset. Denial that IDF pulled trigger Always it is Hamas’s fault. Equivocation master class.

Idea of the day!

In keeping appeals to English nationalism less laden with religious symbolism, Farage has carved out a populist space that could end up appearing less extreme and more flexible then the more dogmatically theocratic vision that Kruger and Jenrick are promoting for the Conservative Party

Maxing out a green tax. Higher rate than all other EU MS; so blaming the EU won’t work.

TV nteroperability joke, retro @ebu.ch

Reform rages against the outcomes of neoliberalism while offering more neoliberalism as solutions, which, if elected, the public will soon discover. In that respect, they aren't that different from the current government.

For the benefit of the wider world: Mallet Stevens’s Villa Cavrois narrowly escaped demolition: another ´Just in time’ classement. Its furnishings had been auctioned off earlier. In Belgium, the story might have had a truly unhappy ending.

This is very good indeed. The point about reviews is well made - New Labour, David Cameron and Theresa May all used reviews to win consent and to explain why they wanted to do things. Essentially the only part of this government that does that is Shabana Mahmood at Justice:

A taster...

Many fine UK laws but weaker company compliance: overall impression, cowboys. www.theguardian.com/money/2025/j...

‘Other governments struggling with pretty much the same problems’. You’ll never read about their policies in the U.K. press.

Sevington équivalent in Wales: another Brexit folly.

Another epic Brexit fail. To be billed to Boris Johnson and his chums ideally.