If you say so, mate

I have not been impressed so far, but I will admit that it feels hot today. Those who cannot believe how poorly British people cope with heat should look up the sunrise and sunset times.

Excellent piece about smartphones and AI in Indian villages. I especially like the appearance of a young man’s mother at the end. www.economist.com/asia/2026/06...

A favourite Brexit research paper, on the 10th anniversary. Nice first-person account by the man himself: casereports.bmj.com/content/12/1...

Today's Belfast Telegraph front page: The Prime Minister's resignation doesn't even get a mention. We've 15 pages of reports, analysis and background which we couldn't report during Donaldson's trial - with much more to come over the coming days.

Thing Person Saying Seems To Call For Sad Face

I suppose it was a rush job but I can't believe how bad Starmer's resignation speech was (stylistically)

Aberdeen South has been overshadowed by Makerfield drama but it is a remarkable result for Cons: First Con by-election gain in Scotland since 1967. I think it may be first Con by-election gain from SNP ever too. Huge vote share, huge vote gain, huge majority. Despite terrible national polling.

On Farage's decision to turn to 'anti-white discrimination' I looked at this in a post last year. Here's what I found "every single group of Reform voters not only thinks white Brits are more discriminated against than ethnic minorities but they do so by over two points on the ten point scale."

Sunday interior design special: Frank Lloyd Wright at the V&A Storehouse

Note to Americans, who may be a little confused. Folarin Balogun’s accent is Multicultural London English, or MLE. It is the dominant accent among people who grew up in London. Taz Skylar from “One Piece” speaks an intriguing variant form, with strongly MLE vowel sounds but some non-MLE consonants.

British politicians are racing to the hard right economist.com/britain/2026...

You Be the Judge is always good, but this one is a masterpiece. An extraordinary love story is threatened by a dishcloth. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

I stood in this week to write our Bagehot column on Britain's Build-A-PM, Keir Starmer. He's everything voters asked for (yet they hate him!) www.economist.com/britain/2026...

Foreign-born players make up the majority of footballers in eight of the World Cup's 48 squads. At the top of that list is Curaçao, where almost all of the squad were born in the Netherlands (96%). theconversation.com/how-migratio...

Nice piece. But does Australian English really sound like British English to American ears? www.nytimes.com/2026/06/04/o...

Is some kind of competition afoot among sports journalists? The Athletic just ranked all 189 Premier League transfers. www.theguardian.com/football/ng-...

My parents both joined the police in the late 1970s. The stories they tell about how policing worked then are nuts. From the 1980s through to 2010 British policing was transformed massively for the better, and turned into a true professional career. We have undone far too much of that

Since 2024, the earnings of new non-EU employees (relative to the median) have fallen back significantly, despite the fact that restrictions introduced in 2024/2025 made the work visa system more selective. Why?

I wrote about immigration policy in Britain this week. Britain has shut the door on the most economically desirable kind of migrant. www.economist.com/britain/2026...

It's been a great year for roses in Southern England. Everything else is struggling.

I always love these. Special credit to the person or persons who said “muppet” for Keir Starmer.

Theft person recorded by the Met is now down 1/4 from its peak

First official data evidence to back up what international students have been telling us. It’s now much harder to get a work visa as an international student than it was a couple of years ago.

I half agree with the argument that Andy Burnham isn’t as impressive as he might seem because Greater Manchester was working well before he became mayor. It’s right to be alert for halo effects. Andy Street was an impressive mayor of the West Midlands, not recognised as such because

Ugh, what is it with Chelsea? We couldn’t beat them even when they were rubbish. Happy for Arsenal though, as I have a (non-financial) bet on them.

Ada Palmer fans: does Too Like the Lightning get more entertaining? After 150 pages it is just people going to other people’s houses and chatting. I could have picked up a Jane Austen novel if I wanted that.

I have to confess that this had not occurred to me. By Shirakawa Masaaki, ex Bank of Japan governor. (Mind you, society has quite a few years before a person born in 2000 retires.) www.economist.com/by-invitatio...

*** NEW RESEARCH *** Images of ICE targeting US cities have been commonplace in since January 2025. What's the economic effect of this new immigration enforcement regime on businesses, both workplaces and retailers, in targeted areas? Thread... 🧵

I'm currently on my way to Tommy Robinson's latest rally. He's a convicted criminal, too extreme even for Nigel Farage & liked by only 14% of Brits. Yet last September he got 150,000 people onto the streets. He's helped shift the Overton window on immigration. How? I try to explain in this article 👇

Somehow the individual lists are better than the collective list www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int...

The really important British news today is that my book appears in paperback! It argues against the lazy assumption that white working-class Britons are all backward-looking and grumpy.

Good question. A possible answer is railways. Hertfordshire is better connected to London by rail than any other county in south-east England (using a normal person's definition of south-east England, i.e. the bit in the bottom right corner, not the formal region). www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The best resignation statement yet. Refers to West Ham as a Labour heartland, then refers to the need to rebuild "our historic support" outside London. It's funny because it is true.

Excellent piece by a colleague on white children in American cities www.economist.com/united-state...

I had grand plans for mega-previews of this week' English locals but ran out of time to write them. In lieu of sweeping profiles of each council, here's a look at some of the big picture questions I think are worth considering as the results roll in on Friday: open.substack.com/pub/swingome...

I need to follow some people who follow snooker, clearly

have that you Bavarian slugs www.economist.com/britain/2026...

All hail the Temu Range Rover www.economist.com/britain/2026...

From a colleague, who is cheerful about the City www.economist.com/britain/2026...

My piece on Wales becoming politically normal, and what it was like when it wasn't www.economist.com/britain/2026...

What do 35,000 likes look like? Like this. Fantastic forensic analysis by @owenwntr.bsky.social of the Bluesky habits of Zack Polanski, "a politician who could be described as Britain’s first digital-native party leader". (Sorry, Kemi.) www.economist.com/britain/2026...

Big change today with the ONS's new population forecast. Rather than expecting the UK population to keep growing until 2095, the current projections have it start to decline from 2055 onwards.

If you have been fed, but then you throw up all over the floor, have you really been fed? Asking for a friend.

The national fuel protest on Monday will be a lot of fun if the van drivers and the hauliers happen to ask the farmers how much they are paying for a litre of diesel. www.thetimes.com/uk/transport...

NIMBYism is bad in general, but www.nytimes.com/2026/04/24/n...

My favourite bit from the Sky News interview with Donald Trump:

Found while looking for something else @dlknowles.bsky.social

Reform manage to lose a county council seat on the coast. The Green Party victor is a recent winner of the Mr Margate Beard and Moustache competition.