So glad @pollymackenzie.bsky.social made this point because I was biting my tongue quite hard over the weekend

I never noticed this either.

When you go from winning all the time to losing all the time you want to find someone to blame, but man, sometimes shit just happens.

Liverpool hitting new levels of "sometimes it is just not your year." Feel bad for Slot. Still think he's pretty good. Not sure what he's supposed to do about his best player becoming his worst player + a beloved locker room glue guy dying in an accident + losing every single dice roll.

Guys, your beef isn't with VAR. It's with the rules that clearly aren't made for a situation where ruling out a goal is to the benefit of the team that concedes. Maybe the only thing I can think of to that's similar is the Liverpool v Chelsea 'ghost goal' in 2005?

Thanks Rob for your support.

Been saying for ages, the possibility of someone from the 2024 intake being next is underrated - though more plausible if the contest comes later in the parliament bsky.app/profile/avee...

Could get far worse PMs through far worse processes

Seems bad to me that many voters engage so shallowly with politics that they don't notice their ideological inconsistency. People should take the responsibility of democratic citizenship more seriously imo

Another bump for this, I'm in it if that helps (though you should be reading Ros' work anyway)

I'm excited to read this book, though pedantically I don't think meat can be humanity's favourite food when so many people are vegetarian or near vegetarian. What is humanity's favourite (at that level of generality)? Maybe sugar?

I am temperamentally disposed to be in favour of queueing in pubs, out of the same instinct that means I prefer traffic lights to roundabouts and favour a written constitutions. This probably means I somewhat underrate the spontaneous order of custom and free markets.

You'll never sing that

I wrote about why the left usually winces when it hears the word pronatalism. But a world without aunts or uncles, empty schools and a crazy worker:retiree ratio isn’t much to look forward to. www.thenewworld.co.uk/ros-tylor-br...

This phenomenon is a major challenge for "deliverism" I think. If you're a politician, you can't just improve people's lives and hope they'll thank you for it - you need to convince them that wider society is getting better too, something they're disinclined to believe

I don't think politicians have ever loved confronting trade offs, but I agree it's a particularly bad habit of this government. I don't think it's bad faith either - they have a tendency to convince themselves that min wage/employment rights/migration restrictions are actually good for growth

I tried to think through whether the animal welfare strategy could make any electoral difference. As much as anything it's an interesting case study in trying to reason through whether *any* policy matters. aveekbhattacharya.substack.com/p/the-animal...

I tried to think through whether the animal welfare strategy could make any electoral difference. As much as anything it's an interesting case study in trying to reason through whether *any* policy matters. aveekbhattacharya.substack.com/p/the-animal...

Here's part 2 of my series on the Animal Welfare Strategy for England, asking whether there are any votes in it for Labour open.substack.com/pub/aveekbha...

I think this dynamic would be helpful for Labour in 2028, but not in 2026. Which is part of why I think they'd be smarter to hold off on a leadership election for as long as possible

If I've decoded @rwohan.bsky.social's table correctly, Bournemouth are about as good as Athletic Bilbao (picked because that was Iraola's team as a player?) But the point is that they, like most of the Premier League, are Champions League quality. They're allowed to play well, this is parity.

This. Although I think it undersells the level of chaos India, the most powerful cricketing nation have wrought on almost every major tournament in recent years. They didn't confirm they wouldn't play in Pakistan until a couple of months before last year's Champions Trophy.

The worst bit of analysis in that game was when Alan Smith talked about what a physical test the game was for Bournemouth having to play after five days, even though Liverpool had played in the Champions League two days later. Thought the main issue with Liverpool that second half was fatigue

The team that came back from 2-0 down to 2-2 never got back into the game and is mentally weak. The convenient thing about psychological analysis of sport is that it is utterly unfalsifiable

Football in 2026. Hurl the ball in the box, have a scrum on the line like an under 12s game. The game will be in serious trouble as a spectacle if this doesn't get sorted out soon

Here's part 2 of my series on the Animal Welfare Strategy for England, asking whether there are any votes in it for Labour open.substack.com/pub/aveekbha...

Over 10% of a game of Premier League football is waiting for someone to take a throw in theanalyst.com/articles/pre...

Shocked, shocked! to read of (alleged) immoral behaviour from an estate agent. Always the ones you least expect

It's a great book, heartily recommend if you want an entry level guide to Marx's thought.

This is appalling, and though Jess has borne it with dignity and resolve, there's no way she should have had to put up with it at all.

How can you spend so much time looking at the polls, and not see the self-indulgence of virility tests and petty grudges? At this point, the number one heuristic for just about every decision should be: "does this make PM Farage more or less likely?" (Arguments both ways on that re Burnham!)

I think there's something here but I mostly don't buy it. I agree with it to the extent it overlaps with @dandrezner.bsky.social's argument in the Ideas Industry that there are growing economic pressure for people to be "thought leaders", wild optimists with one neat trick to solve politics...

My sense is that the best way forward is to "Ardern it" and this is clarifying as to the premises of that argument: 1. Starmer/Reeves are not that bad, there aren't many easy improvements, and I certainly wouldn't trust any of the current candidates to grab them

👇 Agree with this. There’s a somewhat pernicious “we haven’t presented the British public with this trade-off in plain language but we are going to act as if we have and they have Decided To Be Irresolute”.

The fun thing about working in policy is you notice how every sector and group thinks it's uniquely misunderstood and maltreated by the government: university people, trust me when I say farmers, small businesses, big businesses, finance, utility companies all feel similarly conspiratorial

This sort of analysis is not just banal, it's so shallow. Find me anybody in real politics who actual argues for strict impartiality, or acts that way. Of course loyalties radiate out from the particular, the great moral challenge is getting people to care about the universal.

I wrote about the animal welfare strategy for England released by government just before Christmas. If you heard about it, it was probably in rows about hunting or boiling lobsters alive. I'm most interested in the measures for farmed animals which could improve the lives and deaths of millions

I wrote about the animal welfare strategy for England released by government just before Christmas. If you heard about it, it was probably in rows about hunting or boiling lobsters alive. I'm most interested in the measures for farmed animals which could improve the lives and deaths of millions

I think aggregate xG across those three games is 6.0-1.5? Sometimes the ball just doesn't go in the goal, shit happens

'Slot should go because even when he does his job well he can't magically ensure that translates to a win"

This was really fun to read as someone who bought a house in early 2022

What I read/watched/listened/ate in week 2 of 2026 ft @whippletom.bsky.social @naomialderman.bsky.social aveekbhattacharya.substack.com/p/readwatche...

Maybe Darren Jones should tell this to some of his colleagues (I'm team Darren on this one)

Flattered to be asked. There is much I agree with in Henry’s piece. I’ve been pondering writing a ‘what I learnt as a civil servant’ piece, but haven’t come close to getting my thoughts into any sort of shape yet. So here are a few quick reflections.

Szoboszlai 🤝 Traore Regrettable backheels in their six yard boxes in the FA Cup 3rd round

Even if it comes off, every chance it catches Mamardashvili by surprise and puts him under unnecessary pressure.

Some sympathy, but evidence suggests firms in low-income areas do manage to access finance The UK has well-developed credit markets - pushing excessive lending risks distortions The priority should be demand: poorly managed firms submit weak applications www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Good analysis (as ever from @dkernohan.bsky.social) of the Trinity Hall story that got loads of people mad last week. TLDR: seems to be mostly about competing with other colleges for students already going to Cambridge, not encouraging private school students at the expense of state school kids

Some of you who followed me on the other place may remember I used to do long threads discussing books I read and food I ate. I'm rebooting that on Substack, but let me post the top line here. My first Read/Watched/Listened/Ate of 2026 aveekbhattacharya.substack.com/p/readwatche...