My relationship with the Alien franchise since 1992.

I am burning with fury.

Same vibe

If you call autism a "crisis" you automatically lose the right to talk about autism. Those are the rules.

Fucking moron(s)

Retrospectively removing indefinite leave to remain would be immoral and economically damaging. It would tear families apart. Attacking it as ‘potentially illegal’ is completely beside the point. Argue with the (awful) idea. Don’t try ’well, actually you can’t do that’.

Genuinely heartbreaking. It‘s not an over exaggeration to say that Optimo changed my life. Planet Peach, Mas, the Subbie, Plastic People: some of the best nights of my life had an Optimo soundtrack.

This Week's Onion Magazine:

Used to quote "That does me good!" from There Will Be Blood whenever my daughter hugged me so often that she started doing it herself. A Daniel Plainveiw impression by a three-year old is quite something.

Whispers: a lot of the UK’s problems would probably get a bit easier if we put up income tax.

Popped onto BBC News Channel to discuss fiscal rules, taxes and why Jeremy Hunt was irresponsible to cut National Insurance twice before the election. youtu.be/F5H3ssYd7KI?... @ljmuofficial.bsky.social @ljmu-ris.bsky.social @ljmuimpact.bsky.social

This is amongst the most impactful two minutes of broadcasting I’ve ever seen. By Emma Murphy, International Editor, ITV News. #Gaza

Firing the BLS Commissioner because you don't like the data is a dark day.

Beyond argument

The UK must find better ways to assess value for money when it comes to culture – otherwise valuable projects could miss out on funding.

Simultaneously dealing this morning with the discovery that there is an artist that goes by the name of Sombr, that I have try and get tickets for his live show, and that if successful I will be attending said live show.

“What are you working on?” “Trying to measure the value of a museum to someone who never goes.” “...” “...” “…Why?” Thanks to @uk.theconversation.com for letting me, Rafaela Ganga, and Tamara West explain non-use value in a bit more depth than I usually manage down the pub. tinyurl.com/nonuse1

The Ballad of Wallis Island is a wonderful, wonderful film.

Didn’t know what this was and just assumed people were ranking seasons of The Wire again.

I see that inflation “fell” by 0.1% from a figure that was off by 0.1%. Hope that is clear.

Basically saying: "You know nothing, John Snow!"

Happy “monthly GDP figures are mostly noise” day everyone.

Ooooft!

It doesn’t get better than this. Bye Sly. youtu.be/gZFabOuF4Ps

Have realised that whenever I’m reading some form of Cold War history (this time its the highly enjoyable Zbig by @edwardluce.bsky.social) when its Berlin Wall fall time my internal jukebox subconsciously cues up Looking For Freedom by David Hasselhoff.

Me: obviously, I understand the Sunk Cost Fallacy. Also me: still watching The Handmaid’s Tale.

Had a quick bank holiday chat about the 2-child benefit limit rumours on BBC Wales.

A lot people are calling this a good call.

Nope. Not engaging - going on holiday.

NORM!!!

Saying DEI instead of EDI is like spelling colour color.

Their fundamental strategic error from which so much else flows was their 2024 tax pledge. They've trapped themselves for no good reason.

Well, there goes the neighbourhood.

This is a really important point — when we point out that governments are crippling HE by attacking visas, we also need to a) talk about international students as people not £££ and also b) point out *why* overseas tuition fees have become an apparent panacea for UK universities

So it comes down to ‘our domestic political economy isn’t capable of taxing winners and compensating losers, so we have no option but to blow up the global trading system. Sorry lads’.

Well - looking forward to listening to this tomorrow.

Finished The Residence. Last episode is 90 minutes long. To be fair this information was in the public domain and so I only have myself to blame.

Wonder what they’ve got planned for next Wednesday.

Amazing new comedy show on BBC News right now.

I see we’re back in “taking a deep breath” before opening the phone territory.

The markets right now

This is basically the Marshall McLuhan bit from Annie Hall. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/o...

Looking forward to student presentations for my Contemporary Economic Policy course. Or as I now call it - Economic History.

This is completely right. Investments require stability. Stability requires trust. Trust is gone and unrecoverable. GWB was lame duck from Katrina onwards. Cleveland from the Panic of 1893. Trump’s turn now.

Think this is key. When asked about worst case scenarios in an interview a couple of weeks ago I leaned on the first part rather than the second. Which was... slightly unwise.

Current vibe www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiMX...