Bit of architectural awesomeness for Sunday. Clifton (Catholic) Cathedral in Bristol, by Ronald Weeks, who really liked hexagons. Recently restored and looks great.

The latest USoc wave lets us split out the Covid years from what came after. So striking that they look the same! Average mental ill health (based on a general screening instrument) is no better now than during the lockdown years, at any age. @alexbryson.bsky.social @dannyblanchy.bsky.social

"Reform offers a nostalgia that harks back not to Winston Churchill or Margaret Thatcher, but to the half-baked policy papers and whingeing that marked the final years of Conservative rule" www.economist.com/britain/2026...

This isn't the worst academic paper I have ever read, but I think it might be the most annoying. Important question, pioneering research, great data, incomprehensible conclusion. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

On my way to Florence, where I will be presenting at the EUI's PBC @behaviour-eui.bsky.social a project co-authored w/ @leonardocarella.bsky.social We show that (anti-immigration) 🇬🇧🇮🇹 people 'update' their social identity when primed with narratives pitting immigrants against other social groups

If anyone is involved in monitoring the Iranian communications blackout or in helping Iranians access technology to communicate with each other and the outside works, then please get in touch.

Also: the proportion of Londoners who say they feel safe on the streets at night is the same as elsewhere in England. (Yes, yes, the proportion should be higher, etc.)

I was worried about what this says about British people until it occurred to me that treasure is implicitly old. A doubloon is treasure, a Bitcoin is not treasure.

The “weather bomb” is not very impressive in Hertfordshire. More of a weather squelch.

Happy new year to all, but especially to cat owners. Last night I walked into the living room to find a bird's head, lots of feathers and an innocent-looking feline--but no wings or feet anywhere. This morning I was miaowed awake at six.

I’m sticking to my unfashionable theory that if Britain’s economy was consistently growing by 3% a year, the government would be decently popular and Nigel Farage would be a gadfly rather than a prime minister in waiting. www.ft.com/content/1995...

This is a great piece, with the Indian officer class living up to its brandy-sipping reputation.

Saw so many people in LA who I vaguely recognised but couldn't place that I conceived the idea of an app for recognising celebrities, a bit like Shazam is for music. Anyone who makes one, cut me in please.

Many of these scan terribly! The correct version, which ends “Kojak lost his lollipop on the M1 motorway”, simply sounds better.

The Australianisation of Britain’s suburbs looms! I would guess that people will be keen to build in their gardens. Britons think of themselves as keen gardeners but most aren’t. My suburban neighbours think I’m an expert because I can name a dozen or so common plants. www.ft.com/content/3f73...

1/ Thetford Guildhall - designed by Herbert John Green in neoclassical style and completed in 1901; the former home of Thetford Borough Council. Inside, there is a small display commemorating Britain's first black mayor, Allan Glaisyer Minns.

You hear sometimes - including from senior figures in government - that Reform has hit a "ceiling" as its polling plateaus. That seems unlikely. Bit on fascinating new research from @profjanegreen.bsky.social and Marta Miori www.economist.com/briefing/202...

Good reporting on far-right activism in Kent here. Check out the responses to the council's Facebook post, in which people excuse aggression and vandalism if it makes a point about immigrants.

I’m never quite sure whether New York is especially good at creating characters like this or especially good at creating journalism like this. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/s...

Two findings here, which apply to other cultural changes too. 1. Some things just don’t change much, sorry. 2. The biggest changes are among women. Please stop going on about men all the time. www.pewresearch.org/religion/202...

In this week's Economist I've written about how, contrary to the breathless hot-takes last week, the emigration of British citizens from the UK is actually falling. (A thread 1/17) www.economist.com/britain/2025...

Enjoying this

My favourite genre turns out to be alternative country, sometimes known as “y’allternative”, per Wikipedia. Very pleased with that.

The first British political party to promise to cut the price of a first-class stamp to below one pound will win 600 seats in Parliament. If only for December, 550 seats.

Forecast for the politics of migration in Britain: 2025: numbers fall, polls static 2026: numbers fall, businesses complain, polls move slightly 2027: rows between Treasury and Home Office 2028: slight policy loosening 2029: numbers rise; "Labour loses control of migration"; general election

A government led by an admirer of Harold Wilson could be on course for Wilson-era levels of net migration.

Yesterday, while I was raiding the Business and Finance food cupboard, someone mentioned this column. They suggested I should reflect on my behaviour. I replied that I would eat first and reflect later, possibly. www.economist.com/business/202...

Here I attempt to answer a simple question: which country is most like Britain? www.economist.com/britain/2025...

Ooh, yes please. Suggestion to newspaper editors: run a picture of Sonny Sharrock in every other issue. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...

A total of 2 out of 75 policy decisions in yesterday's #Budget were what I would call 'material'. Were all of the 73 others really necessary? Politically, possibly yes, but economically, they add to the complexity costs of the UK's fiscal regime. #dataisbeautiful

Starmer and Reeves run probably the most economically left-wing government of past five decades and yet bleeding support to its left thanks to dumb strategy www.economist.com/britain/2025...

For those wanting a break from Britain's budget www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/n...

As a resident, I endorse a four-part split: 1: The Future (all the new towns and garden cities). 2: The Past (St Albans, Harpenden, Hitchin). 3: Basically London. 4: Basically Essex. Some heroic gerrymandering required but it would be worth it. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

'Will Britain copy asylum policy from a place with poor integration?' - @economist.com talks to our @sundersays.bsky.social about the differences between Britain and Denmark, inspiration for Labour's new asylum proposals. www.economist.com/britain/2025...

At once amazingly irresponsible and oddly carefully placed www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/...

This piece seems to conflate two things: businesses involved in crime, and businesses run by immigrants. The author describes Housam’s, a homewares shop on Linthorpe Road in Middlesbrough, as “the only original store I could find”. Across the road… www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

A good account of how and why a leading academic can go bad. I can think of a few parallels.

I have tried and failed to persuade the FT website to drop its obnoxious "this paragraph has been highlighted x times by other subscribers" feature. Will now engage in a campaign of highlighting the dullest paragraphs I can find until it desists. Who's with me?

Here’s my net migration model projected forwards two years (plus past figures). Net migration actually looks like hovering at about 300,000 in 2025 before coming crashing down in 2026. The government must avoid the temptation to cut immigration even further when they see these figures. (1/2)

Jordan Bardella is France’s most popular politician. His ideas would set 🇫🇷 on a collision path with not only EU institutions but with France’s main partner, Germany. For the RN leader, this seems to be the point In @economist.com this week economist.com/europe/2025/...

The electoral outcome most strongly linked to deprivation is not any party’s vote share, but turnout. Across almost all indicators, turnout is markedly lower in more deprived areas, with only barriers to housing & services and quality in the living environment showing weaker correlations.

‘Tis the season for Britons to complain about Halloween practices imported from America. There were no trick-or-treating when I were a lad, etc. But Americans think trick-or-treating is a British / Irish import: www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/t...

My rule for political scandals is that they have to be explicable in one sentence, without commas, e.g. “Boris Johnson partied during lockdown”, “Bill Clinton had sex with an intern in the White House”. I’m struggling with the Rachel Reeves rental story, though it’s simpler than the Rayner story.

Enid Blyton is the clear leader in this series (the first book that literary folk remember loving). Nobody else is even close. www.thetimes.com/uk/get-brita...

Column on the government’s Buckaroo! strategy - keep piling obligations and charges on certain sectors and hope they don’t kick you in the head. Housing, energy, pharma, immigrants… economist.com/britain/2025...

I don't know how the British state would cope without Louise Casey. Like Reform UK without Nigel Farage, or the BBC natural history unit without David Attenborough.

An opportunity to join the staff of The Economist

Brian Bell, chair of the migration Advisory Committee, says "the government would be in breach, very clear breach, of its manifesto commitment to reduce net migration" if it signed up to an uncapped EU youth mobility scheme. I don't think that's true. 1/n www.politico.eu/article/brus...