im not a lawyer but i think this means if you drive during new years you get to keep the car

it's advent you know what that means

the processology of the budget leak really isn't anything more than a footnote but nonetheless I want to note that it appears a reporter (who I assume is @bruceandy.bsky.social) was just spending the morning hitting refresh on a hunch they *might* at some point upload it early and I respect that

I feel like we're moving closer to the inevitable day when Liz Truss announces she's defected to Reform, and Reform frantically spins that she absolutely has not

“but if you stage a takeover surely Your Party will collapse” “lol” said the SWP, “lmao”

Here are US military lawyers stating clearly that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's "kill everybody" orders are either (1) war crimes or (2) murder. Either way, expect prosecutions in the future. www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/u...

Finally getting some theological clarity on the ethics of reclining in one’s plane seat

We need to understand the 21st century as a window of atrocity. The right vastly expands what is permissible, and the centrists lock it in and legitimise it so that the right can expand the window ever further. I don’t see how any reasonable person can deny this is what has happened.

where the FUCK did Tennessee Whiskey come from???? I swear I had NEVER heard this song in my life until about a year ago and now I hear it everywhere. was it in a film??? who did this??? is it T-Pain? (whose version is great tbf)

How much money must you have earned to have paid “millions” in taxes? Follow up question, how have you earned enough to pay millions in taxes, but somehow a few grand extra has ruined your retirement plans?

There was no state. Who does she think crucified him, an anarchist collective?

Hooray! The only thing apparently worth saying about comedy - that it’s being gagged - is being said once again by someone who’s done absolutely fucking fine by being allowed to do whatever comedy he wanted in an extremely friendly environment that no longer exists, for purely economic reasons.

she is actually Britain's Trump in that she's actually really really funny until you remember what position she's in

Sorry but anyone who gives an interview slandering a family member in front line politics is what we used to call a rum cove, if not a blackguard or a knave. Doesn’t deserve attention, deserves a horsewhipping.

The version of the Gospels where the Samaritan crossed the road to kick the robbery victim in the head and go through his pockets for loose change was suppressed by the woke fathers of the early church.

Welcome Shabana Mahmood to your next four years of headlines!!!

There are hundreds around me but I sort of knew that already. How odd though, prices around here have gone up 600% since the 90's. Wages? Just over 60% I believe.

Wow, £350 for the reform blackshirts.

British politics is now just about making up a guy and assuming he will vote for you

Never let it be said that the British press is out of touch

i’m on a train out of Liverpool Street listening to two bankers talk about the Jake Paul fight like it’s not rigged, and that photo of Musk and RFK jr eating a meal on Trump’s plane like it’s not an AI edit, and i’m expected to believe these guys know what’s good for the country’s economy.

Was not expecting this blatant xenophobia on my tv first thing in the morning...

All of this “woe is me my house is now really expensive and so a tax is unfair” stuff completely negates to acknowledge the implicit fact that the house owner has made an insane profit by doing absolutely nothing

This BBC kids tv advert from 1998 is still very impressive and very lovely

Today we’ll get latest net immigration figures - They’ll show immigration for work is plummeting. Why is this not part of the discussion on Rachel Reeves balancing her books & stalled growth? For every 100,000 drop in net immigration, the OBR adds £7bn to the deficit. #r4today

Today's migration stats illustrate the migration doom loop in action... (from my presentation at the IMF last week)

That oughta finish the job if they start again

If you want some good news this morning, I showed my three boys the PM doing the six/seven thing and now they have all stopped doing it.

It is good to see cross-party challenge to overt racism in British political and media discourse: Labour MP Sarah Owen, who chairs the women & equalities select committee, challenges the racist claim from GB News contributor Lucy White that Deputy Speaker Nus Ghani should be barred from parliament

If you're wondering how relations are between the govt and the OBR after this morning's budget leak, a govt source has just sent this out about the EV tax.

This is bizarre. Lots about changes to how SEND is funded in the OBR document that was published early by mistake, but Reeves doesn't mention it in speech and it appears absent from Treasury's main budget document

Badenoch's attempt at a rebuttal is being substantially undermined by all UK assets moving up on the day. the reality is they were cheap vs. peers and there hasn't been a disaster vs. very low expectations:

Glaringly obvious Badenoch’s response to the budget was written before the actual budget, and that they didn’t do much to take advantage of the extra prep time the OBR gave them.

Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷

I think at this point if you're including Diane Abbott - a woman who has never held government office, has been a backbencher since 2020, and is scarcely a government ally - on your list of political wrongdoers, we all know exactly what your real concerns are

Carve it into the shape of a turkey and we'll put it in an overfilled deep fryer.

Relatable content from The Times

I wonder if the leaked OBR doc publishing an hour early, likely due to a time zone mismatch on the server, will finally see the end of the time changing daylight savings nonsense, that would be nice

Regret to announce the tech bros have accidentally reinvented the Listowel and Ballybunion Railway.

Excited to say that’s it my very first day as Head of Publishing Administration for the Office of Budget Responsibility. Exciting things to come!

The most famous quote on government fuckups comes from former DfT permanent secretary Sir Richard Mottram: “We're all fucked. I'm fucked. You're fucked. The whole department's fucked. It's been the biggest cock-up ever and we're all completely fucked.” That was *much* smaller than this fuckup.

Well, the 4D chess version of events here would be someone leaked the OBR forecast as part of an effort to get it abolished. The cockup version (usually the accurate one) would be this is the mother of all fuckups, and could be existential. This is the most market sensitive budget stuff imaginable.

Someone at the OBR about to get one of the bollockings of all time.

Happy to discuss the many faults in the media, but I'm begging people who post this stuff to actually engage with the reality that the actual Chancellor of the exchequer held a press conference just a few weeks ago and hinted throughout that taxes were going up.

It's ridiculous to imagine people who are expected to know about politics should limit themselves to literally reporting what's just happened without any analysis of what it might mean for the future.

"Speculation" is just a pejorative word for analysis. I.e. I've been "speculating" for several years that the government would get into a fiscal mess because of its election pledge.

I prefer Budget Boxing Day where you eat Chief Secretary Of The Treasury leftovers. My dad always used to make a curry out of ours.

Just a quick reminder to be aware that everyone around you is going through some kind of struggle; and you should find out what that is and use it against them.

Siri: tell me what happened to the previous CEO of UnitedHealth.