I mean look, a Labour government *cannot* cut welfare spending to increase defence spending. It’s just silly to pretend it can. And more generally: “cut social spending to rearm” is just awful advice across the EU. Is Europe more or less secure if populists win elections?

This open letter to students at Georgetown university is extremely good medium.com/center-on-pr...

You might have formed the impression that Paul Johnson, former director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, knows what he's talking about. The media treats him like the voice of God. But here he is - and not for the first time - talking out of his hat. Let's break it down in a short thread. 🧵

As usual, amazing things are happening at the big-4.

I wrote about everything happening too much in 2026 and the rise of ‘monitoring the situation. How total bombardment is partly a surrender to the internet and its logic and algorithms—a kind of attentional death

‘British expats, he claimed, were refusing to fill out evacuation forms provided by the British government “just in case it somehow turns into a tax form instead”.’ No notes. as.ft.com/r/65cf2b43-6...

It would rightly be regarded as insane to use a forecast like this to plan for your imminent retirement. And yet the office for budget responsibility is directly influencing fiscal policy on exactly this basis.

Dodge this! :3

Every day I am filled with hate because my heart overflows with my love of the computer. aftermath.site/ram-prices-h...

Utterly chilling insight into how Keir Starmer's team has been operating from the beginning. As others have been pointing out for years, the Labour Party and the country have been taken for a ride. There was a coup within the party, using a host of dirty tricks. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I wouldn’t put it past our political class to draw the conclusion that, in the absence of an economy that creates graduate jobs, we will just have to cut back on graduates.

Clive Lewis MP: This deal with Palantir stinks. It stank before Peter Mandelson was involved, and it stank when those now on the Opposition Benches initiated the NHS and defence contracts. Peter Thiel is an oligarch who despises democracy... Even the Swiss army has rejected Palantir... #R4Today

"Switzerland’s military has terminated its contract with Palantir… following a security audit… concluded that U.S. intelligence agencies could potentially access sensitive Swiss defense data… significant reputational warning for the data analytics firm" www.newscase.com/palantirs-sw... #R4Today

I have been a little surprised that this shoe hadn't dropped already. The more that businesses become seen as extensions of a particular government's interests, the less that many other governments will want to have any relationship to them. See also the CapGemini brouhaha.

Bluesky in a nutshell. Some context: BLS released its jobs numbers today, which were better than expected, and resistance libs would rather stay mad/conspiratorial than listen to actual on-the-ground experts that the data is still reliable.

This is an extraordinary interview in which the former FCDO perm sec basically tells No 10 not to appoint Antonia Romeo to be cab sec, and that they should talk to him about her record.

a society losing the plot in real time

There's no reason to accept this as normal, though. Much of Starmer and Labour's unpopularity is not misfortune but his own doing. Mandelson was a choice. Consistently pursuing policy positions designed to appeal to people who will not vote for you - and alienating core supporters - is a choice.

Per @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk: 'Reform has gobbled up a large chunk of the right-leaning youth, this is reallocation within an already shrinking bloc [...] rather than a far-right surge, the youth vote in the UK shows a remarkable opposite trend: a surge of progressive voting, including among young men'

This is the report I spoke of on #bbcaq just now - ministers tried to suppress it, were finally forced to release it after an FoI, but shamefully only published a redacted version. The first duty of Govt is to protect its citizens - that starts with being honest with us about scale of threat we face

🚨 This evening, a notice was circulated from representatives of Peter Mandelson, via press regulator IPSO and the Press Association news wire, to all media across the UK We believe it is strongly in the public interest to publish this memo. This is it in full 👇

today’s Times v today’s FT

“Staffer declared military invasion in error.” “Staffer fired cabinet member in error.” This is the government they created — and it highlights why the government they created is so exceptionally dangerous to national security. The systems and bureaucracy, it turns out, exist for a reason.

So, first of all, of course it was Trump. But even if they were telling the truth, "We give staffers who post videos of the Obamas as apes access to the agenda-setting, decree-sending, market-moving account of the president of the United States" is not the exculpatory statement they think it is.

This operation can do two things: lie, sometimes to itself, sometimes to other people (2020, 2024) or lose (2015). Perhaps it is now learning a third: both!

‘Novice workers who rely heavily on AI to complete unfamiliar tasks may compromise their own skill acquisition… We find that AI use impairs conceptual understanding, code reading, and debugging abilities, without delivering significant efficiency gains on average.’ arxiv.org/pdf/2601.20245

New research! Austerity and the labour market in the UK. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... Headline result: austerity reduced wages, increased employment rates, and contributed to weak productivity. 1/n

Epstein to Thiel: “as I said in your office…finding things on their way to collapse was much easier than finding the next bargain.” Primitive accumulation smoking gun open.substack.com/pub/undiplom...

I’m sorry but what did libertarians think that the anonymous money laundering racism coin that you could only functionally use for illicit activity was doing other than this, exactly

on january 7, 2015, a shitcoin sleezebag named austin hill wrote to jeffrey epstein asking for a meeting. in a PS, he explains that me might be bringing an anarchist he calls 'bitcoin belle' who camped out in occupy wall street www.justice.gov/epstein/file...

“a party that confuses access with virtue launders power for money” - @theguardian.com view www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

We set out to determine how many images of women and girls Grok created during its nudifying spree. What we found was “industrial-scale abuse,” experts said. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/t...

While there is so much that is disturbing about this case study in the destruction of academic freedom, one high point is the refusal of the targeted professor to submit

As flagged by @fullfact.org, there's an ENTIRELY AI-GENERATED video of a fake UK politician in the House of Commons doing the rounds on TikTok It has more than 5 million views While the original video is flagged as AI, it has been reposted by many other accounts (where it is not labelled as AI)

There are people who don't know, who didn't know. Moments like these are when they learn, and a window opens for people who want to turn their hunger for justice into action, for our numbers to increase. Stay mad and don't get jaded, in my opinion, get the newly passionate on board. 2/2

in these moments, in my view, it is a political and spiritual DUTY for my outrage and anger to be as fresh as if I'd never heard how they shot Fred Hampton in his bed. As fresh as if I didn't know Bobby Hutton was surrendering when they shot him. 1/2

this year, i am becoming more evil than ever

next year i will become more evil than ever

If I could change one thing about DIE RPG it would be to add a page which is just a checklist in a large font giving a HOW TO READ THIS instructions.

If immigration is high, the government has lost control of our borders. If it's low, it's because the country is in such a mess that nobody wants to be here. Labour is never going to win these people over, and it should stop trying.

We got all the hits: - purchased by private equity firm - hid a bunch of layoffs - invested a bunch of money in AI - tried to make that money back by ruining the best product it now owned

Hi #Econsky! I’ve got a new working paper on central bank lending facilities in crises and their transmission to broader credit supply. 🚨A summary thread🚨

oh that’s good. not enough of every aspect of our lives were financialized quite yet

Milei’s austerity brought Argentina’s inflation down to its lowest levels in 7 years, but the fallout is destruction of purchasing power and productive paralysis which causes recession, depressed wages and transfer of resources from labor to financial income. www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/the...

Rightly lots of debates about growth this weekend - rightly because it was low productivity growth that saw wages entirely flatline during the 2010s.

You could even get the impression that the black holes discourse wasn’t actually driven by concerns about fiscal sustainability in the first place, at least for some of the protagonists.

Opinion from Alphaville: OpenAI is a money pit with a website on top. That much we know already, but since OpenAI is a private company, there’s a lot of guesswork required when estimating the depth of the pit. on.ft.com/44xy39L

Are bubbles good, actually? on.ft.com/495uSte

I am currently out of the philosophy department on parental leave. if this inquiry is about classes for next semester, please email the chair of the department. if your inquiry is about the nature or existence of the external world, please consult René Descartes' work