Not much. Panic bought a whole lil pig, wbu?

Just mad

Not super famous but this is a good one in terms of 'media coverage and big fandoms'. Only about 4x the plays of @duncanrobinson.bsky.social's university band.

I’m a high-minded intellectual mum Northern cities can’t thrive when London keeps throttling them www.thetimes.com/article/7bbd...

It only took a year but we did it, thanks Bluesky people! www.yorkmix.com/pictures-yor... I now know more about the UK artificial tree market than I'd ever expected.

Completely right from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com that we are increasingly in an age of zero-sum politics. In the latest edition of @renewaljournal.bsky.social, @paulmason.bsky.social wrote about what this means for social democrats: renewal.org.uk/articles/soc...

Give the people a bigger pie!!!!! Everyone loves pie!!!!!

Read the paper version of this book and it's very convincing

www.ft.com/content/30a4... Very good frame from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com

Really good piece

Also, as with the 'amazing' performance in Barking, this is a bit of a mirage. The 2006 Lambeth result (which still saw Lab lose share) is only 'better than average' compared to 2002, when Labour had a worse than average result in the borough. Against 1998, the change is about average.

Some pieces are easy to write as the imagery is so stark. www.economist.com/britain/2025...

rightly highlighting the betrayal that everyone is obviously most keenly devastated that the prime minister has made: his betrayal against the city of his (and my) alma mater

@anandmenon.bsky.social every Saturday at 3pm…

question to which the answer is: yes www.economist.com/britain/2025...

I agree with the article though - total disasters plus street politics, the latter worrying politicians more. (Many people remember the protests, most people are still surprised to learn the UK actually lost the war in Basra)

Britain has run a fairly cautious and limited foreign policy (despite its blustering) for 20+ years because of the Iraq protests imo

maybe shouldn't have cut the concept from the column. oh well

in general you need discourse monsters, like Just Stop Oil to actually be heard

I get the feeling that @duncanrobinson.bsky.social was really weary when he wrote this para, but also really enjoyed it. From his excellent col this week: www.economist.com/britain/2025...

It seems like this guy has decided to dedicate his life to career fields where it used to be the case that all the 50/50 balls would bounce his way. Kind of like laments for coal mining - I sort of feel sympathy but really we couldn't have carried on going on like that

Fabulous

Another good Janan

Great stuff

NEW: Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook has just announced the BIGGEST EVER reforms to national policy to deliver more homes! Here are the five biggest: 🧵

There’s only two ways out of Barnsley. You can teach yourself out, or you can fight yourself out. There is a third way, which is to take the A61 towards Wakefield, but very few people choose to do that.

giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... “The other kind of migrant.” Janan will soon be assailed by 10,000 Yorkshire media men

❤️❤️❤️ (It's the being right that's most delicious)

All the photography in this week's Economist Britain section is by Martin Parr

I understand what marginal tax rates and how they work, but (with apologies for naive point) the fact that someone on a median income only pays this much tax - given the general state of the discourse on this - is surprising to me

Google should float like 1% of GDM as an independent company for the vibes

Kinda dumb counterfactual but the vibes around British business would be sooo much better if Deepmind and Arm were both listed companies on FTSE

New - Bonnie Blue nails her colours to the mast, writing in The Spectator: “Reform has sensible positions on immigration and inheritance tax, so I stand with Nigel Farage.”

Quite the character reference: "Within the IRA, Scappaticci was known as a “bully” about whom “no one had a good word to say”." www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

[old frail man voice] Is there an easy way to rip/copy transcripts from Apple Podcasts into a doc?

www.economist.com/britain/2025... plug!

Chimp politics. Simply pick the strongest MP and then challenge rivals to a fight

www.ft.com/content/555d... Great stuff all round!

A note of caution on MRPs, which cannot hope to capture election day dynamics at this point in the Parliament: www.economist.com/britain/2025...

I've been up at 5am every Monday for the last three weeks to try and book a driving test for May. There are often 20k people in the queue ahead of me. Really cannot overstate how bad it is.

Can the British state stop this obvious and easily solved scam? Let’s find out!

Worth watching this Economist podcast with @duncanrobinson.bsky.social on the UK's relationship with the EU and the UK's ongoing PTSD www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn-G...

Reliant on a now three decade old approach to political comms. Equivalent to Blair copying Harold Wilson’s approach

www.economist.com/britain/2025... new guy just dropped

I love Tim

Labour is hitting people who support the party with exorbitant marginal rates, and giving distorting perks to people who will never vote for them and who, often, have little need. Is it politically astute? No. But is it the right thing to do? Also no. www.economist.com/britain/2025...

Incidentally the @economist.com word of the year is ‘slop’ economist.com/culture/2025...