Right wing snowflakery is a fascinating phenomenon (which I take to mean quick to take offense, defensively believing everyone is slighting you). "Waah everyone hates us, just because we colonised them" I'm not even sure that's true?

Important point, all to easily overlooked, made by @polphilpod.bsky.social in this piece. Pandering to someone, pretending to agree with them, is not respectful. In fact, it disrespects their capacity to reason and change their mind. www.liberalcurrents.com/respecting-r...

Ed Miliband/Adrian Chiles baseball podcast when?

This is good (better than the original by far imo). And in general, I like the phenomenon of MPs having substacks, whether Jeevun or Neil O'Brien - even the Prime Minister.

This is sharp from James Meadway in his interview with Arguably on the “hard truths” that any left project must face. www.arguably.uk/p/what-do-th...

I think this is probably a good trait for someone running the country to have. The sort of decisiveness and direction that is useful and empowering if you're a civil servant.

I think my best gloss on the Blair essay is that it is an extended exercise in hippy punching (to use @duncanrobinson.bsky.social's brilliant phrase) in a moment when that is not just self-indulgent but hugely dangerous, given the rise of the far right.

"makes a lot of people very ill" = is responsible for 1 in 8 deaths worldwide, still. We should all hope there is never a new tobacco.

Interesting history of net migration - a slightly weird indicator, but one that reflected a civilising desire to represent anti-migration concerns as demographic rather than nativist. And now it's breaking down and that's worse.

PSA for anybody else who hasn't noticed that the Champions League Final is at 5pm on Saturday so you can avoid my fate of organising stuff at that time.

Score one for "politics is expressive" over "politics is materialist"

I would say this, but I genuinely think alcohol is a better analogy. Not least because tobacco is a uniquely harmful product, and a "new tobacco" is a high bar to reach. And if alcohol is your reference point, age restrictions seem more natural.

Kind of amazing we got from here to here in less than two years

FYI this is my version of "what embarrassing thing would you do if you had a bunch of money" mashable.com/article/elon...

Also the basis for a financial scam! www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfalla...

In a slightly random turn of events, I find myself the subject of a mini pile on from Aston Villa fans for saying their club has been a bit lucky this season. Beyond just the internet being the internet, two observations:

Hmm. I think wage bill is a better benchmark and as far as I can tell Villa's is higher than Spurs and Newcastle. Villa have also ridden their luck massively in the league (all those long range goals!) They've done well no doubt, but I wouldn't overstate it.

Also helps if you have a load of luck. By expected goal difference, Sunderland have been the third worst team in the league this season.

Hang on, the NEC's official position is that it doesn't favour forming coalitions to run local authorities? That's not just out of touch with multiparty politics, but the basic reality of local government, no? uk.news.yahoo.com/labour-counc...

As I was a year and a half ago, it looks like the government has prioritised quality over quantity of jobs: prioritising fewer, more productive roles. www.smf.co.uk/commentary_p...

aveekbhattacharya.substack.com/p/i-asked-my... Really enjoyed this. My guess is that Burnham's popularity will only last if he does a good job as prime minister.

Same energy

Enjoy this picture of the 1928 Olympic gold medal winning Indian hockey team. 100% native, as you can see

I know I'm arguing with a ranting racist here, but the ignorance of saying the Indian football team is "100% native" (whatever that means) when its greatest ever player is half Nepalese...

From my time in the civil service, people obviously have a sense of who is performing well and who isn't, but the scope to reward or penalise people with that information is pretty minimal.

If you genuinely believe it's not possible to assess the performance of your own staff who you can see doing the job day-to-day, I don't see how you can endorse any non-lottery hiring system as it's surely harder to assess an outsider who hasn't tried to do the job.

The weaseliness of "much of the stuff" - the rest is what makes Reform worse! I don't think Labour should get a cookie for not threatening mass deportation or scrapping human rights or retaining the net zero target, but none of those are trivial.

In my last (and most popular!) post I tried to explain how someone as ill suited to the role of PM as Keir Starmer could get there. For my latest I asked Westminster insiders if any alternatives are a better fit. The answers may shock you... (If you're not a Milifan or classist to Angela Rayner)

Politics and policy nerds of bluesky - assemble The Social Market Foundation has launched a Labour leadership policy tracker (if we're missing anything, please do pop us an email at [email protected]) @smfthinktank.bsky.social Tracker link here ➡️ docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

OK, so Keir Starmer hasn't been well suited to being Prime Minister. What about the leading alternatives, any better? I put on my recruiter hat and took some references. aveekbhattacharya.substack.com/p/i-asked-my...

On Sky Sports Cricket now!

Well

Compare: “We will inject you with a virus so you get a bit ill now rather than catastrophically ill later"

"the absence of a team responsible for long-term strategy means there is no one looking at big cross-departmental issues - like the implications of AI or the consequences of falling birth rates" One reason I left government was because I realised this was the job I wanted and it doesn't exist

This seems like perfect fodder for microeconomics papers I will never really understand www.thetransferflow.com/p/why-on-the...

We're looking for participants for some upcoming research - do you fit the bill (or know anyone who does)? - any shares much appreciated!

Honestly this is worse than the tax fraud (of which he was acquitted!)

Really lovely piece by @jonawils.bsky.social, especially this bit. The power of sport is that it doesn't owe you a happy ending www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Some incredible passive voice from the guy who made this pledge

I am so confused as to why Xabi Alonso thinks it's a good idea to take the Chelsea job, and even more confused as to what the hurry is, why he doesn't give it a couple of weeks to see if other opportunities emerge.

I did try to put the war/oil up top!

I hate the elasticity and imprecision of the concept of a "mandate", with people squinting at election results and interpreting it how they want. This isn't literally true because we don't have direct Prime Ministerial elections.

Imagine going back to a Liverpool fan in 2011, when the club was in a relegation fight and had almost gone bust, that you'd feel worse about a season in which Liverpool were defending champions, beat Arsenal, Real Madrid and Inter, reached the Champions League QF and probably qualified for CL again

2025/26 in a nutshell, that game. Both sides have plenty of quality, but also looked pretty shambolic and less than the sum of their parts. Loads of set piece chaos. Aston Villa ride their lick and double their xG. Liverpool level from behind but go on to lose the game, again.

This apparently historically atrocious Liverpool defence is third best in the league in terms of the chances it has given up (remember Man Utd have played a game fewer)

Cassandra is topical

Well. 12 of 14

Not for the reason you're thinking. I make it Liverpool have been down 1-0 13 times this season, equalised 11 times and won once, and lost most of them.

Why is Taylor Swift, twice in 2024 affected by political violence, reticent to be vocal about politics? Deeply mysterious.

New @cgdev.org paper! What can you actually do about lead poisoning? Nutritional supplements probably help a bit, are very cheap, but far from solve the problem. Paper: www.cgdev.org/publication/... Blog: www.cgdev.org/blog/can-nut...