Someone has to say it. The amount of racism directed at World Cup players - including in the England squad - online is out of control.

The ultra wealthy should have no say in who runs our country, applies to this guy as much as anyone.

I have been wanging on about cost of living for years now. As have the likes of @isabellamweber.bsky.social and others. It's a complete no brainer for Labour. It really is.

There are risks to the 2031 Census because of challenges the ONS is still grappling with, the interim chair of the UK Stats Authority is to warn today, according to FT reporting www.ft.com/content/e99c...

For many, the 'Bank of Mum and Dad' has become a necessity for getting on the housing ladder. But not everyone has equal access to this 'bank'. Among those in their twenties, inheritances and gifts appear skewed to those on higher incomes.

33/33 We need to find our way of criticism. Not Adorno's way. Not Habermas's. –– Though we can learn from both their strengths and weaknesses. –– But ours. That’s the authentic legacy of critical theory. #Habermas #Adorno #Democracy #CriticalTheory

31/33 He reaches that conclusion in part because he’s asking the wrong questions: whose theory is better, which more relevant? Critical Theory isn't a reading list, or a competition between works of critical theory — it's a critical practice aimed at society incorporating self-reflection.

26/33 For both Adorno and Habermas knew, however bad things are, they can always get worse. So as social critics we need to know what in our damaged existence is worth defending, and why. That's not something Adorno can do — blocked by its austere negativism and critique of reason.

(1/33) Alex Ross has a new piece on Habermas's legacy in The New Yorker. (tinyurl.com/5btnwmup) I love his writing on Adorno's aesthetics. But the account of Habermas's legacy is unconvincing — and suffers from misconceptions, common among Adorno aficionados, particularly Geuss’s epigones.

You know Burnham could keep Reeves in office to explain that £5 billion gap in defence spending. Alternatively he could ruin hers & Keir's prospects by re-running precisely the playbook they tried in the summer of 2024 when they claimed £20 billion was missing from an incompetent former regime.

We're never going to hear the last of it if this doesn't stop soon.

The black hole-public finances metaphor is like a black hole, sucking into itself all understanding so that no insight can escape...

You cannot hope to bribe or twist / thank God! / the British journalist. / But, seeing what / the man will do / unbribed, there's no occasion to.

Er... Are they doing it by saying "not bothered" beneath the line on social media posts? Like why would anyone other than Americans care?

When think tanks like the IFS give credance to conspiracy theories about "fiscal black holes" they legitimise an elite trope into credibility. The media and opinion pollsters follow up & wilfully political understanding of the economy becomes common sense. The IFS is not politically neutral.

Spent years building up a big following on Twitter, essential for publicising my aviation blog, which I live from. Desperate to leave it & publicise on nicer platforms, but I have too few follows. If you want to help me escape, do give this a share. Much obliged. My blog here: hushkit.substack.com

If e.g. Seumas Milne had been caught passing privileged info to Jeffrey Epstein, do we not think that might have sparked a bit of speculation about how loose-lipped he is? I think it might have done. But: tumbleweeds. Strange, eh.

I’d doubt the Telegraph’s rigour in reporting but yes, it is striking that nobody is asking who else Peter may have been talking to, in addition to a notorious sex offender.

The country is literally being held to ransom by bully boy fossil fuel billionaires. The UK needs root and branch media reform, or else investment in platforms that can supersede media power.

The Merlin bird watching app is the new open water swimming for people in their 50s.

well goshie, isn't this the thing that everyone said couldn't possibly be happening? www.wsj.com/business/ret...

I see we're melting down over something a crank racist said on another website again.

They could have spent this segment explaining the energy system to viewers so they could understand that the biggest reason we have such high bills is because gas - the most expensive form of energy - sets the price almost all of the time in the UK. Not plugging things in at the wall.

UK Culture Secretary suddenly gets active, now? @stephenkb.bsky.social

Lord Alan West yesterday: "Things like welfare.. are unimportant when you lose a war & you have Russian Chechen stormtroopers coming down the street raping women & killing people" Reintroducing the workhouse or Russians raping your mum. They're the only choices, ok.

Re upping this to bate our.American frens.

Cricket, warm beer and excess mortality are the markers of national character. This week's column is about the ignorance, snobbery and cruelty in the billionaire press, triggered by last week's heatwave. And about the grim condtions children now face in schools. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Another IFS trope, based on a wonk's version of a conspiracy theory about government spending has been set for another UK Prime Minster. Can we not see how this works? If politicians can be blamed for failures on defense, then surely organisations like the IFS can be blamed too?

I'd love to know how people think you get to an "all society approach" to defence after spending decades literally destroying, smearing and at every step seeking to undermine any conception of society outside market pricing mechanisms.

Thank you so much for all of your happy birthday wishes. Honestly, I don’t really feel 100. I feel pretty good. I feel like I’m only 98!

This is it lads. I can feel it. *This* is the little piece of ostentatious cruelty that finally kills off Reform. They're done for now, practically no point in them even running. More good work by the political geniuses of Blue Labour!

Checking back in on the News Agents, the lads hear an Indian listener say he & his friends won’t apply to UK universities because of Mahmood’s policies. Jon explains that yeah decimating higher education isn’t ideal but it’s essential to avoid a reform government which would be worse 🧐

Yet more reason to have AI grounding around reliable, sourced data on health

Interesting and informative piece here by Harry. open.substack.com/pub/harryqui...

How to stop AI from making stuff up. www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-st...

I too believe asylum seekers and refugees should be allowed to work. But I do think too many liberals ignore that immigration had a largely negative impact on wages and employment prospects for unskilled UK workers. And it's this that in particular drives the policies of people like Mahmood.

On tomorrow! Go register if you want to talk about the real nature of money with co-author @jwmason.bsky.social + me and @70sbotchan.bsky.social and other readers

The UK endured 3,000 excess deaths during the summer of 2022. That summer was hot, July and August in particular when hundreds of people a day were dying over two distinct heat health moments. We are not even onto July yet. But if things continue as they are into August (days with temps above 30c) >

Like if you actually visit Europe (as I have, more or less every summer since I was 15) you'll find that it's fricking full of AC anyway. Americans seem to think the UK equals Europe and it really, really doesn't. What a stupid take.

Devolution isn't a complete growth strategy, but: 1. Greater regional variety creates more chance of evolution/learning; we'll find out better what works & doesn't. 2. Local people should know better than Whitehall how to spend money - eg what type of transport links etc need to be improved.

NEW. The £ impact on UK families from conflict in the Middle East modelled for first time. On avg. families to see disposable income (after housing costs) fall by 1.7% (~£740/yr), 2024-2029. Worst outlook at any point since general election, and would be the worst parliament on modern record. 1/

You do not have to reach for cultural explanations for the lack of AC in Europe. It didn't used to be hot and now it is hot!

Another brainpan-tumbleweeds banger from the least essential columnist in America www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Burnham needs a strategy to aggressively counter the "There is no alternative" TINAs exemplified by cost middle class spaces like Bluesky.

The deluge of content about fuel shortages in Russia feels significant. Throughout this war we've seen v little coming from Russians about the war or Putin. Part of the regime's strategy (eg of limiting conscription to outside of Moscow) was about this . I wonder if this is the moment that changes?

KARL: Rs are gonna make you the poster child for the D Party MAMDANI: Let them. We don't have to ask ourselves what life looks like if a socialist wins. I won last year & over the course of the last 6 months what we've delivered for working people are the very things we were told were impossible.

Someone needs to write a comment piece for the right wing press about wet bulb globe temperature, and the common sense of generals who recognised that extreme climate heat affects productivity and needs to be adapted to and mitigated.

The alarmist "what if Putin escalates?" hand wringing every time Ukraine gains momentum is tiresome. Putin can't escalate w anything but full mobilization, which is risky for his political grip and might not be as useful in the new drone war. He's increasingly in a no-win situation. That's good

Jude Bellingham is so much better as an 8. But playing him as an 8 when Rice is fit basically creates a modern day Gerrard/Lampard problem doesn't it.

I don't want to hear another word about how much white European visitors are enjoying ranch dressing while team officials, Africa's top referee, and now one of the world's most celebrated fans are turned away from the World Cup. The USA is an utterly unfit host — it's as simple as that