Discouraging an activity with a benefit-to-cost ratio of nearly 10:1. A triumph of policymaking.

Y'days post: The UK’s falling debt to GDP fiscal rule is a rule to suppress public investment mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2026/07/the-... Using schemes like PFI to get around the constraint on public investment imposed by the falling debt to GDP rule is just absurd.

Perhaps ironically it's nagging at me that this rash of piece is put together by writers and critics who seem to have skimmed, but not engaged critically with the pieces of the 80s and 90s from people like Ong and Postman. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Of course, in this post I'm expecting Binface to do something the BBC, Labour and the Conservatives have never managed to do in a decade, so it might be more of an ask than I think.

Helping my 87 year old Dad with broadband and BT's "you've been with us for years so we can only offer you a bit off your current price, even though that was part of an old package that had other things in and that's more than 2x the offer on our website" attitude is really just abuse of the elderly

Once again I am reminded that the biggest drag on British productivity gains is Openreach and the YIMBY think tank crowd seem to have nothing to say about it.

The sheer failure of the British Establishment to face up to the historical moment is not Starmer's alone, but as PM he has to take some responsibility.

This is why the thing where people are like "Starmer was good on foreign policy!" is just so blatantly and dangerously untrue

A handful of universities are determined to destroy all the others. It's that simple. That would end the Burnham regionalism agenda before it'd even got going. Unfortunately, no-one even seems to know this and our governance structures are so pitifully weak there's not even anyone to tell.

Even the Tory government thought it unduly cruel to deport this man who was settled in the UK with family, had no connections to Jamaica, and whose only criminal record was a non-violent cannabis charge. Apparently not for Labour. Shabana Mahmood is a disgrace. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Oh no, this seems awful. Undergrad fees don’t cover costs as things were, with most universities facing fierce redundancies. This is will be terrible for performing and creative arts, and for archaeology, geography, nursing, computing and history.

Just as May broke the politics of addressing social elder care for a decade, so Reeves/Starmer (via bad handling of WFP) broke the politics of addressing the triple lock at least for this Parliament and likely for a decade.

Always weird when you feel so neutral about the teams that the penalty shootout contains no nerves for you.

For all our sins, there will be 15 minutes more of extra time.

The many fine aspects of Columbia's game are somewhat undermined by their absolute "press the red button" inability to turn down giving stupid free kicks away.

He sliced that shot so bad it didn't even go out of play.

Columbian players having good ideas, but a bit too hyped up?

They're also slashing funding for....nursing??

‘Polarization’ has become the master concept for diagnosing our current democratic crisis. But this is not polarization. It is the radicalization of the political right. By misdiagnosing it, we risk becoming complicit in the crisis. 🧵 Just out in Perspectives on Politics doi.org/10.1017/S153...

I remember saying at the time that this was the kind of thing that only a government could get away with. For a commercial lender it would be misselling that was bound to end in tears.

80s: Japan is the future 90s, 00s: Japan in dying country typified by stagnant incomes, xenophobia and toxic, sexless nerd culture Now: oh, that WAS the future

Newcastle. “Dear Colin Jones, I feel I must tell you how delighted I am with your feature in yesterday’s Sunday Times. I think they are the strongest photographs I have seen for a long time. Congratulations and best wishes.” Letter to Colin Jones from Bill Brandt.

I'd love to see a similar study for the UK. @paulhebden.bsky.social

It seems reports of the Culture Secretary waking up may have been exaggerated.

For a brief moment in the 1990s, the Telecottage and Televillage offered new pathways for home-based work & rural regeneration, powered by cutting-edge technology. Read Rose Dryzek's new article on what the failure of that vision reveals about late 20thC Britain. academic.oup.com/tcbh/article...

And this is the challenge lurking around “reindustrialisation” - it’s largely a product of automation/increased productivity/consolidation.

Pausa de Suspensión

Someone needs to remind Rabiot that unlike Aussie Rules, you don't get points for over the bar.

It's not particularly better in other parties, but the glaring point about Starmer's failings (and Burnham's ascent) is how weak the field of candidates for leader is.

British public crying out for a shift away from Starmerism in the direction of effectiveness. But if you’re not effective the permission will be withdrawn.

Has anyone got a room in London (50 cap max) that I can do an Edinburgh preview show in this month? My only requirement is a screen that I can either project images on or connect a laptop via HDMI. Thanks.

Doing my head in a bit that the hottest part of the day at the moment is 5 to 6pm.

'“I couldn’t believe it when I heard the news,” said Richard J. Roberts, who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1993, on recently announced proposals to cut about 20 per cent of posts at Sheffield’s renowned chemistry department where he took his undergraduate degree and PhD'.

how utterly reliant they are, we all are, because I don't think we can revert to a simpler nostalgic past, 8 billion of us, growing our own food, living in medieval villages that's a weirdly Western desire, but it's a pipe dream, and environmentally unsustainable and nor will most people want to…

One more for “The Culture Secretary Awakes” file @stephenkb.bsky.social

Andy Burnham has talked about moving away from the whip system - what might that mean in practice? www.mysociety.org/2026/07/01/r...

The Lukaku-Ronaldo conjecture: If your oil tanker has enough of a poacher's instinct, sometimes it can work out.

Looks like it's extra time time.

‘Reform UK’s biggest donor owns a company contracted to supply fuel to aircraft from refineries that make extensive use of Russian oil, The Times can reveal.’

Labour can threaten a £10k charge on migrants and still it’s never enough for the hard right. Perhaps there’s a lesson here? 🤔

Y'days post: Sowing the Seeds of UK Revival mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2026/06/sowi... Given past failures, Burnham doesn’t have the luxury of championing major policies that are unpopular in the short term. But he can initiate longer term projects to arrest the UK's economic and political decline.

My dissertation tests the downward mobility -> populism claim using methods than can be interpreted causally under a set of plausible assumptions. I find downward mobility may cause psychological discontent (e.g., status threat), but no evidence it causes populist support or attitudes. 3/4

Summary of the Home Office Impact Assessment for Asylum Bill is hilarious (if it weren't so depressing). HO analysts say "basically no evidence to suggest *any* of these policies will work *even on their own terms*" (but will probably cost money). assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a43e1...

One for @zatapatique.bsky.social

UK Culture Secretary suddenly gets active, now? @stephenkb.bsky.social

“Too many foreign students taking places at top universities” -> “Too many people are going to university undermining the graduate premium” -> “Can’t kids just teach themselves?” I mean, just say you don’t want other people’s kids to get access to professional opportunities already.

Behind almost every research study is a collections specialist, data manager, technician or bit of code that never makes the paper. The Hidden REF 2026 is open & recognises exactly those outputs & roles, the ones traditional assessment leaves out. hidden-ref.org/hidden-ref-c...

It wasn’t just Starmer. Most of our political class is riddled with a desire for stupid policies on asylum.

Labour could expand right to work for all those seeking asylum, so that they can support themselves. They could be investing in community support schemes to provide more suitable accommodation, which also helps develop infrastructure for everyone. Instead they opted for state mandated debt bondage.

The Tufton St push for oil dependence is a push for further dependence on the USA.