It's a bit like saying someone must be feeling much healthier and more energetic having lost weight because they've had a leg amputated.

Sympathise with Treasury on one point Everyone pointing to “spare cash” from a higher VAT take on costly fuel that can be handed back to motorists Such claims ignore the dwindling overall tax take in an economy that will tank as oil soars

Gorton & Denton What Fleet Street said Vs What the police found Not great for democracy if a chunk of the public is misled into thinking it’s failing

Better numbers, stubbornly grim realities Read this thread and @alexclegg.bsky.social's new blog for @resolutionfoundation.org's take on yesterday's poverty stats www.resolutionfoundation.org/comment/a-cl...

40 months is a long time in politics Unlike many other forgotten pledges, this one has nothing to do with public spending & was expressly about trust

Here’s someone who knows their stuff drawing on the writing (& spirit) of Wittgenstein to expose the shortcomings of chatbots as substitute humans Where i recently stopped at tentative Qs, @alexwstern.bsky.social drives through to apocalyptic conclusions www.commonwealmagazine.org/wittgenstein...

Poverty figures out Not rushing to précis, as measures changing this year Looks a mixed picture, with good news on hunger/foodbanks But - see chart - core relative poverty count edging up www.gov.uk/government/s...

Substack link to my English local election net seat gains/losses projections for May 2026: Con -1010 Lab -1900 LD +200 Green +450 Reform +2260 open.substack.com/pub/election...

Good god. If this happens, one possible comparator might be John Major’s locals in 1995 - lost about 2,000. But he also managed to hold on to about 2,000, which could be a big difference with this time ..

Follow @alexclegg.bsky.social & @resolutionfoundation.org for more on the imminent poverty statistics — expert guide needed this time as the way incomes measured is changing

Check out your chance to write the big research cheques!

Any Mancunians under the misapprehension that their city was the world’s first cradle of capitalism should head to this talk tomorrow — to hear how venerable & far-flung the real roots of the system are

Move to restart executions after 65 years is bad enough, but some of the details in this draft law are just astonishing www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Coming soon -- more crisp @resolutionfoundation.org takes on Substack. Don't miss them! Sign up here resolutionfoundation.substack.com?r=2e2bkx&utm...

How capitalism made our world Great to chat to the author of the definitive guide @svenbeckert.bsky.social on the @prospectmagazine.co.uk podcast Tune in! www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/podcasts/pro...

Important report out today. Child poverty isn't just bad, it causes a lasting earnings penalty. Perhaps some gap is not so surprising. But I was shocked by the scale of the penalty persisting even for children who go to university, get the same degree and work for the same firm.

Calling all young UK writers aged 11-14. Great prizes, and a chance to have your writing published. www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

3 small but concrete steps to ease the cost of living crisis — and, fittingly, in a free-to-read post!

I wrote about James Orr, Reform UK's head of policy, and whether Britain might start to see a US-style Christian right as.ft.com/r/9fbbf6c8-9...

Wittgenstein ticks every box for genius… … so what would he say about ChatGPT? www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/7273...

The more outrage the Israeli state earns, the more it is worth pausing on the dangers of the blowback for blameless people far away

A method in Trump’s madness? As ever Helen Thompson is reading things differently from the pack open.spotify.com/episode/4dch...

Just found a reminder of the perils of political journalism — a copy pf @newstatesman1913.bsky.social dated 30 July 2007

What does Wittgenstein have to do with chatbots? Tom Clark explains...

The chances of HMG having to “do something” on energy bills are soaring Wouldn’t it be nice if it could be “something” that protects vulnerable families in an efficient, effective & affordable way Grateful my colleagues are thinking it all through early

So much in here the Q shifts from: - how do GB News get away with it? To: - how much longer can @ofcom.bsky.social get away with this dereliction of duty?

Interview with expert behind a weighty global democracy study - Trump aiming for dictatorship & doubt he’ll accept electoral setbacks - Unwinding democracy far faster than Orban or Modi - Global authoritarian trend - felt in UK as free expression compromised www.theguardian.com/world/commen...

1. Can Wittgenstein help you decide if chatbots are thinking? The grouchy old Austrian would have contempt for that question But I'll stick my neck out... www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/7273...

New PIP (disability benefits) data is out and it will be welcome news to the government who have expressed a desire to slow the rise in PIP claims. The number of new PIP claims each month has fallen again and is now considerably below its peak although still well above pre-pandemic levels.

Meanwhile in Afghanistan: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

What makes a great speech? Lovely to chat with Radio 4's Ben Wright -- starts 40 minutes into Westminster Hour here Striking that MPs on the panel independently arrived at similar criteria & sometimes the same examples www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Discussing what makes a great Parliamentary speech on Radio 4 Westminster hour in a bit — tune in! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

May all your days be Slow News Days.

Rereading Nye Bevan’s greatest Commons speech On Suez, 5 Dec 1956 The war where, as he put it, “the reasons change all the time” Just replace “the canal” with “straits of hormuz” — and weep www.theguardian.com/theguardian/...

On 26th March, new poverty stats are out. They'll look different though, with one of the biggest ever changes in methodology. Read why this is short-term pain for long-term gain, and why the changes are a bit like this Formula 1 season: linkedin.com/pulse/next-g...

“No more Ms Nice Guy” has been the posture for a while. But still striking to read the rejection of “Nice” made explicit. (Someone should ask the opposite of the usual Q: what is your LEAST favourite biscuit?)

Good col -- there's something important & real going on with falling birth rates, and something v weird about some of the responses

1. Great political speeches = a dying art But this week’s Commons debate on jury trials saw 2 The magic ingredient? What the Greeks called “Ethos” — aka the character thing www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/727...

Coming soon…

Good idea — just need someone to point us to (or build) a nice chart

“$100 a barrel for first time since X” discussions rarely adjust for inflation Which is odd Site here lets you do so, with mildly soothing results www.macrotrends.net/1369/crude-o...

majestic

Struggling to see relevance of employment tribunals to the payout question — understand payouts for unfair dismissal are capped, linked to period of service & mostly modest. Could there have been another basis for challenge? Discrimination? Something else?

Good day to catch up on this “Only familiarity dulls the outrage that [he] sat for so long in the House of Lords for the party of labour”

It's @prospectmagazine.co.uk pod day and this week @ellenhalliday.bsky.social and I speak with @renadmansour.bsky.social about the Iran war, which is now in its 12th day and not looking exactly like it's "very complete" yet www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/podcasts/pro...

Culture war latest: the Bank of England has announced that after a public consultation, to which it received 44,000 responses, the next new banknotes will feature native wildlife. Tories: "It is deeply depressing that under Lab our national heroes are considered too 'divisive' to be on bank notes."

Jury & courts rebellions figures — lots of abstains, few outright 2nd R Noes

Astonishingly brave speech

Look forward to this…

One would hope @ofcom.bsky.social would have a think about this 🧵— particularly the established power of these sort of narratives as rationalisation for violence But not optimistic it will