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)

Great bit of reporting from Barrow-in-Furness - perhaps the last true manufacturing town in Britain, where a third of the population works in industry: www.economist.com/britain/2025...

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 news that fans of the late Zambian president Edgar Lungu are singing David Baddiel/Frank Skinner's "Three Lions" because they want his body to come home from South Africa to Zambia is the funniest story I've read today: www.wsj.com/world/africa...

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...

Fearless forecast: all the Louvre robbers will be caught. The reason this crime is receiving so much attention (apart from the fame of the location and the historical value of the jewels) is that it's an old-school craft crime. The reason craft crime declined, to be replaced by deskilled...

Seen in Barrow. The country urgently needs to develop a more inclusive Eglish identity.

Latest evidence of state incompetence. The report lacks detail but is still pretty damning.

As James has observed before, EU migrants to Britain are also ethnically diverse—especially in the younger age groups.

This is nuts. Do read while eating. www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

This Briton scores 16/25. Any New Yorker who scores lower needs to leave immediately. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

What’s notable about Tory don’t knows is how they’re just Tories. They look like loyal Tories, think like them, and don’t like any other party. The only point of distinction is liking Badenoch a lot less, but otherwise basically 1m easily win-backable votes for the party.

The 10 year wait for Indefinite Leave to Remain will make the UK very unattractive for high skilled workers who often have alternatives. 2019 data (excluding the NHS and universities) shows that high skilled workers on visas are heavily concentrated in multinationals who can move jobs abroad (5/x)

No more hippy punching. Starmer decides to stop punching its own voters in the face www.economist.com/britain/2025...

Aux armes, citoyens! On Starmer's headspinning change of strategy, and a rather Macron-like attempt to force a showdown between liberal Britain and Farageism. www.economist.com/britain/2025...

Good piece. The UK line that smugglers are using bigger boats because it has become harder to get boats and engines to France seems a little unlikely. The bigger the boat, the bigger the profit margin. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Yes, it’s a daft idea. But it did give us a spectacular city centre, recently restored to its modernist glory and now one of Britain’s finest. Get rid of the e-bikes though.

So much of the discourse is just people expressing views that are entirely typical for their age group, and insisting they are being terribly original.

Farewell to the road warriors

Donald Trump is trying to silence his critics. He will fail econ.st/3Kl4pNZ

Absolutely not. Britain came up with the migrants-eating-beloved-animals meme ("Swan bake", The Sun, 2003). And which country pioneered irresponsible speculation about medicines and autism? America is a re-exporter.

Wrote this yesterday. To be clear: the "foolish mistake" referred to here is an immigration policy (I argue that Nigel Farage doesn't understand how Britons think about migrants). Not today's stuff about painkillers, which is also a foolish mistake. www.economist.com/britain/2025...

Labour says chill out, probs can’t happen

MHCLG estimating that "196,500 net additional homes have been delivered in England between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025". The numbers are heading in the wrong direction for the government to get anywhere near their 1.5m target and they'll be lucky to hit 1m at this rate.

Unhappy findings here. 28% of ethnic minority Britons feel less safe than they did a year ago (14% feel more safe). Many, especially Bangladeshis and Pakistanis, see the lamppost flags and graffiti as a sign of rising far-right nationalism. OK, small sample.

Why tough measures intended to deter asylum-seekers from reaching Britain have failed, and why the new scheme might have a greater effect www.economist.com/britain/2025...

Latest ITV BarnCymru 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 poll confirms trend seen over last 6 months - neck and neck race between Plaid Cymru and Reform UK for largest party, with Labour falling to even more distant third. Evidence growing of distinct realignment in Wales 🧵

I've been wrangling some data on UK All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) recently, and I feel compelled to share my highly scientific ranking of APPG Vibes... 🧵

Not sure about some of the premises in this study, about Milton Keynes. But it's got some good details, e.g. the huge amount spent on taxis by some poor residents of new suburban housing estates. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Fun fact, if true, that the England men’s football team has just fielded its first Muslim player.

Going to try using some of these www.theguardian.com/media/2025/s...

The lovely people @britishelectionstudy.com released the random probaility data which means we can begin to unravel some unanswered questions about turnout in 2024. A substack to follow but a starter of social class and vote/non-vote. Which party represents the working class? None of the above.

I'm so glad someone wrote this. @henrymance.ft.com on the stalled vegan revolution: www.ft.com/content/866a...

Nigel Farage's successful summer suggests he's learned from American cable TV. Whereas the established broadcasters (and the established political parties) take the summer off, the upstarts make as much noise as they can, knowing that they have the airwaves to themselves. The "Mad Men" strategy.

Excellent satirical piece, well worth a read www.thetimes.com/travel/inspi...

It is often said that farming is a tiny part of the British economy. It’s also a tiny part of the rural economy. www.economist.com/britain/2025...

I’m still liking my hunch that the public defines “immigration” as it pleases. If a particular kind of immigration is increasing / visibly uncontrolled, people are quite capable of defining immigration to mean that particular phenomenon. So a general fall in immigration makes no difference.

🚨 New from @ipsosintheuk.bsky.social Our issues index shows immigration the number one issue for the public - with importance growing 🚨 48% say immigration number one issue - up 8 pts from last month There’s more (short 🧵)

Superb column. What it means when Britain talks about “Bosh” economist.com/britain/2025... from The Economist