The UK has already moved down the path of using competition policy as an arm of industrial policy with the replacement of its Chair and the strategic steer issued last May. Showdown in Brussels over competition policy is nearing - www.ft.com/content/2c9c... via @FT

I have a hunch that if you or I were running a website doing this the "urgent contact" would involve door rams and handcuffs so I struggle to see why it can't be slightly more pugnacious than this.

Another example of the fact that there are very few technically difficult questions of economics; "difficult questions" are just difficult because you don't like the obvious answer

Top 10 fave guitarists Greg Allman Robert Cray Peter Green Rory Gallagher Jimi Hendrix Jimmy Page Richard Thompson Dave Gilmore Nils Lofgren BB King

If you follow this argument through to its logical conclusion there should be a UK Government channel on pornhub.

NEW: Teesworks Ltd has published its latest accounts. Despite plummeting revenues, the businessmen at the centre of the controversial redevelopment project continue to increase their dividends each year. This year they paid themselves more than £32m against revenue of £6m.

It certainly is.

Perfectly normal media channel. Nothing odd about it at all. "Regime change" 🤔 Anyone would think that we don't live in a parliamentary democracy

Amen to that by the Leader of the LGA.

#OnThisDay 1066 Edward the Confessor died, reportedly after a vision warning that 'devils shall come through this land with fire, sword and war'.

From a year ago on the relationship between Greenland and Denmark. Wonder how a desire for a “free association” with the US would work out and it’s striking how much they appear to value their access to Danish healthcare? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

It's certainly one take (from the comments section of the FT)

Taps sign.... Anyone surprised by Trump and the Rubio/Miller administration's lunge towards hemispheric imperialism wasn't paying attention

Why not? Expert at saving clubs from relegation.

In these dark times Man Utd offer some important light relief to us all....

I've said it before and I will say it again: it is the clearest example of 'they have no plan and don't really know what they are doing' that this government has *both* gone (correctly) 'Sadiq, the fare freeze is bad policy and has to end' and also gone 'fare freeze for national rail? Sounds good'.

If you’re wondering why this government is ‘spineless’ on *that* issue, a reminder from Stephen Bush at the FT:

Vote Reform get MAGA

I would quite simply die of shame.

One for @t0nyyates.bsky.social When anyone starts quoting Hannan it's evidence that they've lost the plot.

Convinced the best prism for understanding this admin is if you've worked for a real narcissist boss where you have to chart a course between doing enough insane things to satisfy their ego and not doing too many insane things.

Good morning

Tell me that I'm hallucinating.

We're giving people like this unprecedented power. Heaven help us.

No one can say that they weren't warned. Time for some contingency plans

Otherwise known as general elections.

Reminding myself that this is the best solo album by an ex Beatle.

Starmer could be weaponizing this by pointing out that it was a lovely idea to be a sole independent nation state once upon a time, but then trade wars, then Russian invasion, and then the US became an aggressive, out of control adversary. For which needed European togetherness and solidarity.

Reform are a threat to national security.

Kudos for the headline. Depressing, but, I fear, accurate content. Trump is coming for Greenland next and is unlikely to stop there. open.substack.com/pub/nixons/p...

I’ve been reading about influential new “conservative intellectuals” or “post-liberals” for at least a decade now and every time it’s just racism with a different hat on. Whatever the spin, it’s always fundamentally the same idea

Keir starmer should bomb and kidnap people in Leeds until the tram is built

Got back over the tops before it got any worse but it wasn't an entirely pleasant experience.

Possibly reading too much into the photo but he’s dropped the glasses and tie which always made him look like the teacher saying “you’ve let me down, you’ve let the school down but, most of all, you’ve let yourself down. I’m not angry, just disappointed”

Trump is probably focused on the money he wrongly thinks he'll make from Venezuelan oil. But he's not a details guy and nobody has thought through the details. Essentially, the US has taken over Venezuela by mistake. Stranger things have happened, but not many. open.substack.com/pub/arthursn...

As you were saying @jamesdaustin.bsky.social

These freaks want territorial expansion and they know Trump will do everything he can to deliver. This isn’t just a tweet from some random asshole either. This is Stephen Miller’s wife. Miller was in the room with Trump during the kidnapping of Maduro.

Darren is 32 years old, a member of Reform and Deputy Leader of Durham County Council, but still thinks he's in the playground.

The French far right as always been, in part, motivated by anti-Americanism. Le Pen and Bardella have had notably cooler relations with MAGA than, say, Farage or the AfD. (Despite the US alt-right being v influence by French far right thinkers).

Amazing record for the FIFA

Reminder: The US has refused to join the International Criminal Court because it argues extraterritorial justice is incompatible with national sovereignty and citizen's rights.

I’ve long maintained that it was a mistake for Congress to have abolished itself.

If this is true then they must have done a deal with others inside the government. It’s going to get very messy.

Has Starmer condemned this comment yet as part of the campaign he pledged in his Conference Speech?

Marco Rubio is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts. Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.

Nige I think Russia and China might think: what's ok for you is also ok for me

it's impossible to overstate the risible stupidity of the sentence 'Trump's attitude to American military power is almost indistinguishable from that of, say, Jeremy Corbyn'

Come the hour, cometh the Trump Whisperer. I'm sure Starmer is already using his close relationship with Trump to emphasise the importance of respecting national sovereignty.

Days like this are a stark reminder that the UK undertook Brexit at historically the worst possible moment. Bloc politics is here to stay and fiddlearsing about with 2mm advances towards smoother customs arrangements with the EU is not the leadership Britain needs.

A defining moment for Europe. If it endorses/fails to condemn this flagrant breach of international law, it will have surrendered its core justification for opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine