Why are the American president's claims about autism the first item on British news bulletins? He's not our president, the advice doesn't apply here and he's not presented any evidence to support his assertions. So why spread these claims? What make this the biggest story in the UK?

It just straightforwardly *insane* how much political chatter in the United Kingdom is about the next general election, an event that is a long way in the future, and how basically none of it is about 'uh, this policy agenda doesn't look adequate to the scale of the inherited problem'.

For an English audience. This is paracetemol. Totally and completely nuts.

Is there a good primer on the SCOTUS' attitude to its own precedents, both formally and in practice? Would be interesting to see in raw data terms how often it departs from its own earlier decisions compared to other common law ultimate appellate courts. /1

Philistine Le Conte is Good Le Conte.

I love this party. Adding to the gaiety of nations. This and the Greens electing hypnotits. If only the far right were this incompetent (they are generally, but that seems to be on hold).

There is so much to admire and celebrate about the USA. I’ve always enjoyed being there and have so many wonderful memories. It’s a tragedy that the recent political turn has glorified the worst side and hidden - or rather set out to destroy - the joy and beauty.

What or who counts as a state is interesting as it is a question that can't be settled by international law because of the nature of its sources (agreements between states, conventions between states). /1

"Migrants try to move from Germany and other European countries to Britain partly because of Brexit. After Britain left the eu in 2020, it lost access to the Eurodac fingerprint database that shows whether an asylum-seeker has previously applied in another country" Oh my goodness

One of the great ironies of the immigration problem is that the people trying to come here think Britain is brilliant, the people most furious about them trying to come here pretend they think it's a crime ridden dump www.economist.com/britain/2025... From The Economist

Very good explainer by @dsmitheconomics.bsky.social on the UK's productivity underperformance vs the US - exaggerated but real. www.thetimes.com/article/54cd...

I pick up a book, looking for a quote. Opening line "As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me." He could write that man.

Which movie do you consider "perfect"?

Trump criticizes Pam Bondi for not charging his adversaries quickly enough, in a Truth Social post that looks a lot like a DM. truthsocial.com/@realDonaldT...

Nah. It says something about Your Party, and unfortunately lots of the rest of the "left" that they're there on X.

Presumably Oxford got this for little or near nothing so that the developer can now say "Oxford uses it so it is great." /1

Alasdair MacIntyre lived to see the opening to After Virtue come true.

Because you've been good, and should stop doomscrolling Trump related stuff, here is John Fahey playing When the Catfish is in Bloom. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4emR...

I do love a good apple. That is it. That is the post.

This is so deeply unserious. Throughout the entire 14 years of the Conservative government oil and gas licenses were routinely issued and for much of the period there was a policy of maximising extraction. Production still fell, the economy flatlined, and energy security got worse.

PS It's deeply depressing and scary that the far right can get 100K+ racists and idiots to central London. But it *is* a (smallish) minority. Frankly this sort of catastrophism (common here) is both factually wrong and counterproductive to actually doing anything useful. bsky.app/profile/agir...

This is clearly irrational. How did things get this far? Bloody hell, I am going to have to start going on demoes aren't I? And actually campaign for a political party? I want to work. Thanks a bunch loonies.

Why is this clown saluting with his left hand? Is it some kind of cry for help? A secret signal to his handlers?

Just a statement of the bleeding obvious. For a country that was supposed to fetishise this, a bizarre state of affairs.

Heart of stone etc

I'm not usually keen on the author of this piece, but this interview is excellent. Partly because everything the interviewee says is true. www.theguardian.com/law/2025/sep...

This isn't really the argument. No country anywhere has either a wholly unwritten or a wholly written constitution. The model the US has, which has proven worse, is a Presidential system. A Parliamentary system has proven better. /1

Times births column today

The UK’s indefinite gamble in dealing with Trump on tariffs on.ft.com/4puLiB6 | opinion

BBC News captures Doctor Who himself Sylvester McCoy at the Trump protest seemingly unaware of who they're interviewing.

All journalists should bend the knee to the work of the obituarist, the one discipline which enables the practitioner to get a byline from beyond the grave. Ronald Bergen predeceased his subject Robert Redford by 5 years, but left behind a truly masterful obit. www.theguardian.com/film/2025/se...

Aligning crypto regulation with Trump. FFS

What do we think the plausible offence is here? (It is a nice question what the tort is.Nuisance I suppose following Fearn v Tate, although I dislike that decision and think it wrong.)

I think it was this. The acting was amazing, and either he was lucky, or good at directing actors.

Badenoch makes me sad It is bad for the UK, especially in our FPTP system, if the Tories get replaced I don't really "get" the rise of racism. Do these people not have friends from school, family by marriage, colleagues at work, in the way the rest of us do? Do they not talk to people? /1

The Economist graph looks terrible at first glance and indeed it is bad, but it's also worth pointing out that even in this poll Trump still has 39% saying they approve, and his national polling average is relatively steady at 46% approval (per RCP www.realclearpolling.com/polls/approv...)

Any other fans of James Blackshaw? He plays a 12 string acoustic, and is, IMO, the successor to Bert Jansch, Robbie Basho and John Fahey. His latest, first for 9 years, is lovely. He is only playing one London gig, so off to Balham, gateway to the south, to hear. www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qmE...

This is important. Judicial review, for example, is not a kind of judge created set of rules for striking down bad administrative decisions. If it were, it could just be abolished by legislation. Public law(yers) needs a dose of Hohfeld. IMO.

As I take a different view, fair to repost. The important analysis is at pp 3-4, where the, brief, discussion of the text of the GFA occurs. I don't for example, find counting the number of times the ECHR is mentioned an aid to analysis. /1

"We'll jump." "Like hell we will." "No, it'll be ok. The water's deep enough, and we don't get squished to death. They'll never follow us." "How do you know?" "Would you make a jump like that?" ... "What's the matter with you?" "I can't swim" Laughs "Why, you crazy. The fall'll probably kill ya."

"Charlie Kirk called Britain a “totalitarian third world hellhole”. Among Maga influencers it's common to talk of the UK's coming civil war. By all means Britain should deliver fruits to the Trumpian volcano. But it would be wise not to live in its shadow." My column. www.ft.com/content/37b4...

My most centrist dad take is that most governing politicians deserve sympathy because almost every policy that's actually any good for the country is unpopular, and almost every popular policy is probably bad. Johnson's Brexit approach was far worse than Chequers IMHO but 20ppts more popular 1/

Fantastic column by @stephenkb.bsky.social "Racism in the UK remains the preserve of an extreme minority — but one that is emboldened and growing louder. It is the result of a year in which neither the government nor the opposition have been willing to draw red lines." www.ft.com/content/fbbd...

Good. Build these quickly please. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

For ill or, imo, good Match of the Day is surely no longer a thing. You can watch all the highlights of the matches you're interested in on iplayer, witout the chit chat or waiting. If you want analysis, go on one of the thousands of streams.

It is a bit odd that the FT is so far to the left of the UK government, the BBC and most other political outlets (eg the Graun) The FT writers moved, en masse, to bluesky, which is where you'll see them engage with people. See also the writers for the Economist. /1

Fort Sumter. I love Americans, so much of their culture is mine, but my God.

United only beginning to play after the game is definitively lost. If I were the coach, I would tell them not to do that.

My Charlemagne this week is on Europe's alarming urgency deficit. Even as Russian lobs drones into Poland and its economy is in the doldrums, where is the urgency mindset? (Reader warning: column comes with bonus cheese puns) www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

Want to be clear that the predictable violence against the police wasn't the only problem with yesterday's march It's that 100,000 angry racists gathered in London for the biggest racist march in 50 years, and anyone not white had to steer clear The govt can't see that because they are inadequate.