Andy Burnham's comments on Brexit have reopened a question Britain hasn’t really settled: What happens when Europe stops being something around you and becomes something you’ve left? A piece I wrote on identity, belonging and becoming a Czech citizen: robjcameron.substack.com/p/the-brexit...

- Subsidising consumption in the face of a supply shock - reducing incentives to drive less/switch to EVs - using up limited fiscal space to help better-off drivers rather than the most vulnerable. Hard to think of a worse policy right now.

Not sure this is a huge surprise, but would be good to be accurate about what’s being backed. It’s not just that they “double the length of time it takes for some people to achieve settled status from five years to 10” - for most people it will start at 15 years. For most refugees, it’s 20 years.

Another great article on Venezuela by Tom Phillips, showing the (essentially) colonisation by the US, with the connivance of the Vzlan government. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Fuel duty moves, Russian sanction tweaking and talk of voluntary supermarket price caps are just a total mess of a response to an energy price surge.

To save you a click, Ludwig series 2 will be shown in the autumn. Can't wait! Update on when Ludwig season 2 will be shown on the BBC | Oxford Mail share.google/gTa3KPsYcgCf...

Brilliant!

Such an awful debate in every respect. We don't want young people with aspirations. University might be bad for you. Was good for us the successful ones but you don't deserve the same. Mostly because governments have made a mess of financing.

Or should VCs and the academic members of their senior teams instead be required to lead and teach 1 undergraduate module per term/semester, including all module admin and marking? Non-academic members of SMTs could all annually take a module, completing all assessments. Serious counterproposal. 3/3

“The reviewer’s job is to assess whether a piece of work makes a genuine contribution to the field and has been conducted ethically and rigorously. Checking whether the references exist is arguably quality control which ought to sit with the organisation that profits from the work.”

I did the new findmypolitcs.com test thingy, and I’m happy with the company I’m keeping. I thought the test not too dissimilar to political compass. Surprised at the few environment questions.

Basically, Burnham has become - regardless of its accuracy - the image of "what you think Labour should be". Put into practice, that can obviously go quite wrong, but prior to that, it makes him uniquely attractive to people who should like Labour, but currently feel alienated from it.

You’ll not read a better piece on Andy Burnham than this by @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/9dd4... Can Andy Burnham, Labour’s charismatic chameleon, reinvent himself again?

Economic geographer? Come work with us. @lsegeography.bsky.social is hiring a Fellow in Economic #Geography: 2-year post, starts Sept 2026. Recent or soon-to-be PhDs in econ geography, #economics or related fields. £43,277–£55,497 inc. London allowance. Closes 31 May. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRM347/l...

I keep telling everyone that with our excellent craft beer, variety of ethnic restaurants and temperate summers that never go above 40°C we are like Italy with better food and weather.

👀 Excellent, funded PhD ... someone's going to be busy! "...combining archaeological excavation of targeted heritage features, palaeoecological studies to establish long-term ecological heritage & investigating intangible heritage of folk customs & traditions [+] Advanced digital visualisation..."

I’d hypothesise this happened here too: hospitals, magistrates courts, police stations etc concentrated in bigger centres, so solid jobs go, local services then fold, shops close - a downward spiral 1/2

One nice thing about living in Cambridge today is that the only outstanding question re: Reform UK here is whether they will finish above or below the Communists.

A poisoned information environment, over decades, a series of body blows to state capacity and economic shocks, a useless Labour government sitting on a big majority and doing nothing, a cheeky little fascist turned into the bloke next door by a slavering press.

Fantastic image of the 1845 Cambridge by-election - note in particular the presence of women.

Look at this good boy having his picture taken for #DogsAtPollingStations

And you can see one of very few surviving Notari films this Saturday @wshed.bsky.social:

Bengal cat researching vintage furniture online while there's a pan in the kitchen.... oh no

Got up early in hopes of catching this photo before work this morning. There's only a few days each year where it's cool enough in the morning to make this shot possible. Thankfully, today was one of those days! #wildlife #birds

For some in Oxford, spring is signalled not by May Morning, or the swifts returning, but a very different phenomenon - the arrival of mangoes to the Cowley Road. This is the primer you never knew you needed, on Oxford's (not so) hidden seasonal fruit.

The University of Oxford is advertising a Professorship of Economic History, which will be held in the Department of Economics in association with Nuffield College. Closing date 25 May 2026, interviews 26 June. my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru....

Simple but hugely impactful Banksy installation in Regent's Street. Make it permanent.

Since ChatGPT came online in late 2022, grant application numbers across 12 UK and EU funding bodies have increased by *57%*. For MSCA fellowships the number is *+142%*. I do believe that what we’re doing is insane and that we need to stop doing it IMMEDIATELY. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The FT @financialtimes.com is hiring a new data journalist to join our US data and visuals team in New York. Great job, great team, great place to work. Apply here 👉 job-boards.eu.greenhouse.io/financialtim...

Grim but useful read. Global energy markets are on the verge of a disaster economist.com/finance-and-...

Suspending funds is the EU’s strongest tool to safeguard rule of law. In Hungary, release of frozen EU funds was a key factor in Péter Magyar’s campaign. The Commission wants to enshrine RoL conditionality in the next MFF. In a new paper, I take a closer look: www.delorscentre.eu/en/publicati...

This is a good article explaining the arguments over a temporary transfer of Guernica to Bilbao. But it also contains a wonderful snippet of a story about the return of Guernica from New York after the death of Franco, in the hold of a regular Iberia flight. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

'At the end of each module, students will engage in a “Socratic dialogue” with their AI tutor about the content to answer questions and reflect on their learning.' On the one hand, studying Classics is passée, on the other hand, 'Socratic dialogue' is how you market AI tuition models. Hmmm. 3/3

Incredible life hack here for manuscript central

Collapsing remittances will compound Asia’s energy shock economist.com/asia/2026/04...

Rare sighting of a column chart taking a dip at Hove Beach. #dataviz

I’m very happy to share that my first paper has been accepted for publication 🎉 Together with my great co-author Nayeon Lim we look at early public childcare in Germany. More details and the paper link below 👇 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

"She tutored the activists on immunology and virology and schooled them in the intricacies of the Food and Drug Administration’s approval process and pharmaceutical research protocols." [Gift article] www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/h...

A stylish leather sandal worn by a Roman Londoner some 2,000 years ago! This well-preserved ‘carabatina’ sandal was found under the City of London during excavations by MOLA for Bloomberg’s European Headquarters in 2010–2014. London Mithraeum 📷 by me #FindsFriday #Archaeology

New paper! The UK plans to restrict visa access for ‘mid-skill’ occupations- except for those on the Temporary Shortage List of exemptions. We ask: What effects would loss of visa access have for labour supply? Which occupations should be on that list?

Here are the projected vote shares for the Cambridge city council elections from the recent JL Partners MRP. The Greens are fractionally ahead of the Lib Dems, with Labour third on 22%. www.jlpartners.co.uk/polling-resu...

For the second day, the person engaging in the unlawful practice is not a lawyer or an immigration advisor. Yet this nuance is totally absent from the framing. For the second day, the specific example on which the article is based makes un-evidencrd links to rising claims. It's deplorable.

The 21st century will be won by the states that, in a developed world where skilled young people are increasingly in short supply, are able to overcome their own xenophobia to welcome the future

I’m a lapsed Catholic, but this is so incredibly disrespectful: “I think it's very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology."

New from me: No increase in global coal power generation after Hormuz closure - solar and wind growth covered the fall in gas-fired generation. The record buildout of clean energy in 2025 helped mitigate the impact of the Hormuz closure.

Lamppost 📷 Contax RTS w/Zeiss Planar 50mm f/1.7 🎞️ Ilford FP4+ 🧪 Caffenol 📷📲 Epson V600 #FridayFavourites #FP4Party

This is Sadie. She was finally reunited with her human, astronaut Christina Koch, after her mom’s voyage around the moon took her the furthest any human has ever been from their dog. She can't wait to hear all about the universe. 14/10 (IG: astro_christina)

I did appreciate the Russian doll with Orbán on the outside and Putin inside at the Tisza party 😀

I need to see more joyful videos of Hungarians celebrating! Please post more.