Wrote about the ascent of the "chippy southerner" www.economist.com/britain/2026...

Want to run a fake London estate agency and repeatedly scam people out of thousands of pounds through rental scams? The good news is that for £250 you can join all the official renters' protection schemes and do it with a UK government badge of approval! www.londoncentric.media/p/london-ren...

Prime ministers like doing foreign policy because everyone is far nicer to you than they are domestically. For obvious reasons never put it in the magazine, but one diplomat described European Council meetings as “27 politicians violently fellating each other”

Whenever David Miliband's not on screen, all the other characters should be asking "Where's David Miliband"?

Chicken and chips: @duncanrobinson.bsky.social assesses Andy Burnham.

me using the prestige of the Foreign office as a get out of jail free card for difficult reshuffle decisions: haha fuck yeah. yessss me having to run foreign policy myself: well this fucking sucks. what the fuck?

Starmer saying it’s impossible for a prime minister to spend less time on foreign affairs has got me thinking that we need a cabinet position dedicated to foreign policy. Ideally they’d have their own department.

Alongside the Makerfield Test there should be the Bakerloo Test. If Burnham wants to truly demonstrate he does not have "anti-London bias", he must approve the Bakerloo line extension

No lands are mid.

chippiness is the quickest path to power www.economist.com/britain/2026...

They’ve heard of Leeds. There are posters of the city all over DFT emblazoned “do NOT serve this man”

Chippy? wait til they see the new front door

these debates about what the north is, where it starts, etc etc, always remind me of how geographically dinky England is, if you tried to argue with a French person about whether some north/south line is here or 40 miles down they'd look at you like you were an alien I think

Increasingly, the two cities’ strengths and weaknesses seem to complement one another. The British Cambridge wants to learn from its American counterpart—and join up with it

This is a great read, and after 8 years living in the UK I learned a new meaning of “chippy”.

But going back to the UK context. this was a massive part of Ken Livingstone’s public posture as mayor. he very explicitly and repeatedly tried to channel grievance about london “subsidising” rest of country.

The paranoia at the heart of chippy southerner worldview www.economist.com/britain/2026...

The revolt of Mercian Man is coming, I can smell it

Slaps the top of the UK. You can fit so many regional resentments into this bad boy.

Britons know too well that their National Health Service often provides poor care. It’s the lies that shock. Death and dishonesty in British maternity hospitals economist.com/britain/2026...

of course I know him, he's me

”’Manchesterism’ will have been a success only once the name Manchester conjures as much bile as the mention of London“ 😆

Wrote about the ascent of the "chippy southerner" www.economist.com/britain/2026...

Tbf finding a billion a year in a £1,400bn budget is light work

This feels relatively minor compared to the departmental cuts Starmer and Reeves stored up for the final years of this Parliament

sin pooping

What’s the opposite of sin-eating?

Have fun sorting this out, politicos

this, to me, is productivity growth

Huh Burnham didn’t pledge to harvest and sell the organs of Lononders

I blame Aston Villa and UB40

Superb

mad number

What did Keir Starmer’s Government do on tax and spend? Lots of the focus has been on welfare, but in reality, Starmer and Reeves taxed for the NHS & borrowed for defence. The Chancellor raised nearly £70bn in tax & spent 70% of it on higher day-to-day departmental spending. ➡️ buff.ly/vTEZMib

There are respectable arguments for breaking up HM Treasury. Other countries separate the finance and economic ministry roles; others separate the finance/economic role from the budget ministry. But now is not the time. Let me explain why. 1/

Therapist: "You need to stop focusing on the MilibandSun, it's not real and it can't hurt you." The Economist:

Forgive me, I giggled at: 'Even phrenologists approve: he has “the biggest economics brain”, claimed one ally, presumably snapping a pair of callipers together.' Nice one @duncanrobinson.bsky.social

Ooooooo remembers Steve Reed

Ed Miliband is, and has always been, the prime minister www.economist.com/britain/2026...

Ed Miliband is, and has always been, the prime minister www.economist.com/britain/2026...

There are two candidates for Chancellor: Ed Miliband and Not Ed Miliband. All defined by how unMilibandish they are www.economist.com/britain/2026...

A Copernican revolution in British politics, after the discovery that literally everything revolves around Ed Miliband www.economist.com/britain/2026...

@duncanrobinson.bsky.social did at event I saw. It was also bloody obvious with the agenda they had i.e. delusions wishful thinking on everything plus some giveaways to the base.

The Ruffian has LANDED. www.ian-leslie.com/p/andy-burnh...

Fabulous piece

WHAT KIND OF IRISH IS YOUR PREMIER?! WHAT KIND OF IRISH IS YOUR PM?!

I feel like this is something we should remember. People may feel silly about treating Farage as inevitable

Lot of narrative built on six voters in Runcorn, huh

The U.K. by-elections are discussed at length in @lastweektonight.com . Congrats to @duncanrobinson.bsky.social for now being globally known as stone cold. youtu.be/FsUNze_X-QA?...

Yeah I was taking piss but kids tv has radicalised me on this stuff. Newsround is amazing as a teaching tool. @duncanrobinson.bsky.social did this on it www.economist.com/britain/2026...