I knew that townhouses were a big part of the Auckland YIMBY success story, but I didn't realize that they're basically the entire story.

A consistent Truss trait, for a self-styled radical, is just how stale and derivative her content is; from the minibudget to the vlogging career. Americans were doing "the MSM/deep state tried to silence me" over a decade ago. Where's the new material?

american reporters, you've got to call bullshit on this. vance, purveyor of hate/propaganda, wants the public to believe rules on, for instance, transparency in advertising and forms of deception on X are censorship. don't fall for it.

As a journalist you’re always looking for ways to sum up the now, but the story is really often more incremental. This is from a Derbyshire county council paper. I was, inevitably, looking for “library to close” or “doge identified £Xm”, but the starting point is at least as important

I'll take no interest in American Football for free!

I don’t think I’m over interpreting but Polanski seems to hint quite strongly in his Rest is Politics podcast that he’s thinking of running against Stella Creasy in Walthamstow. Think that would be a pretty brave move (in the Sir Humphrey sense). One of the v few Labour with a genuine personal vote

It is perfectly possible to believe that the economic costs of the UK leaving the EU and the economic benefits of rejoining are asymmetric.

it's advent you know what that means

Muscular Christianity. “Wear some headphones, kid. And put your shoes back on”

Taiwanese ambassador to Finland performs with his metal band at Taiwan-Finland cultural event! 🤘✊️ That's what I call great ambassador

Wealth tax is the new MMT right?

Is welfare spending ''out of control''? It's estimated to be 10.8 per cent of GDP this financial year. That's just 0.8 per cent of GDP higher than in 2007-08, and total welfare spending has actually fallen fallen by 1.2 per cent of GDP since 2012-13⤵️ buff.ly/s5mz97u

New net migration figures at 930am. Net migration fell half a million to 344,000 in 2024 from 848k in 2023 56% of people think it went up last year 17% think stayed the same 14% think it went down 2025 figure to be lower again 16% expect that 38% think it will be up 31% about the same

Some sympathy for this potentially made up woman but I wonder how the poster feels about the numerous people who would love to be able to call a house their own and form relationships with their neighbours but can't because of the housing market. Does their emotional plea count for anything?

the next couple of days are going to see a hell of a lot of "the rich declare themselves poor"

Precisely because of this dynamic, the bond market is still going to be sitting on Reeves’ shoulder for the remainder of her time in office watching for the slip on tax implementation like

"a zero-sum mindset is associated with stronger support for government redistribution, race- and gender-based affirmative action, and more restrictive immigration policies. We also find that zero-sum thinking is predicted by the experiences of respondents and their ancestors"

You could make practically every bus route in England free for the cost of extending the fuel duty cut.

The OBR says the rise in claims was linked to the cost of living crisis The way disabled people have been vilified over PIP, as if they were trying to play the system, was disgusting & shameful Hacks & commentators that engaged in the grotesque demonisation of disabled people should be ashamed.

From now on, when discussing the budget, please use “is this measure bigger than the cost to the exchequer of gen Z drinking less” as your metric for assessing whether something actually raises or costs a significant sum

Yeah, exactly this. It's really notable how it's acted like a virus. Formally pretty progressive people suddenly Very Concerned about asylum

Ultimately the minimum wage is a brilliant tool, but it can’t compensate for “we haven’t built any housing”, “we have cut cash transfers to the bone” and “all the third spaces have been cut to pay for social care”.

Much to agree with here, notably on Labour's bewildering lack of interest in what 2010-24 governments actually did in policy terms. But this - something we have known for well over a century! - just cannot be repeated too often.

lol

Businesses convincing affluent progressive customers that paying extra for a premium product is "anti-capitalist" must, ironically, be the best example of false consciousness there is www.instagram.com/reel/DQ81pwC...

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

Brilliant thecritic.co.uk/auntie-in-th...

need-a-penny, take-a-penny

I'd like to see the response to this if the question added "if that that means universities have less money to spend on UK students".

A child poverty strategy with the 2-child limit in place would *not* be a credible child poverty strategy. *All* of the growth in child poverty since the 2011/12 low point is for children in scope of this policy.

Things are really patchy in GP land, and many people struggle with access, but overall, primary care has innovated more, and become much more productive than the rest of the NHS.

Just seen another 'but you don't get it! Raising income tax would be unpopular!' It certainly would. I just am asking anyone who posts that to look at the currently planning departmental spending allocations going into 2028-9 and to explain why they think the *current* plans will be popular:

This government's relentless focus on growth has got out of hand.

Amen!

Just as a basic point of fact, Nick Clegg, the most globalist centrist you could possibly meet, knew full well that the referendum was not winnable and had privately resolved that he therefore had to make it a veto to continuing the coalition years before Brexit and the 2015 election.

Aren't foreign student fees pretty much the only thing keeping universities solvent?

It's also vastly easier and cheaper for media outlets to produce culture war content than policy stuff. With policy, you have to find actual experts that are available and willing, then pray they're good entertaining communicators. On culture shit, you start with a talking head and work backwards.

This chart (which applies even more to social media than it did to TV) lives in my head rent free. Social media enveloping traditional media means everything and everyone is now competing in the entertainment market. Boring stuff like policy that affects millions of lives doesn’t stand a chance.

"These findings highlight the divergence between what the candidate emphasized and what the media reported" hmmmmm www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

I just enjoy pretending I'm in an Imperial base every time I get the tube from Canary Wharf

Having been a lib dem in coalition the vibes are just exactly the same. Total public contempt for the leader. Trust gone. Big picture approach wrong. Activists desperately shouting about the few policy wins to a public that has made its mind up.

In 2010 I first spent an extended period of time in the US on research. And my main takesway from that time was how deluded Europeans in general are if we think of the US as little more than a very powerful extension of Europe on the other side of the Atlantic. This is not an anti-american point.

Same. Very do not try this at home Any Other Dem moment

I could’ve sworn the Telegraph led accusations of the BBC skewing its news output but that can’t be right

Everything you need to know about the government's approach to devolution in England

Half a century of low-trust leftist messaging about how capitalism is akshully just fascism with a gilded veneer hasn't turned the public into socialists but it has convinced an awful lot of ppl that it's actually just normal and expected for powerful ppl to rig markets for their friends.

So much of our infrastructure, planning, environmental, and road safety measures seem to be based around politicians' fear of slightly inconveniencing easily-angered motorists. Pedestrians, cyclists, and public transport users are barely considered in their calculations.

So any rise affecting top council tax bands would be a very progressive tax rise. And, boy could Council Tax do with being more progressive! As the red line shows, regardless of what band they’re in, the poorest pay much more as a proportion of income on CT than the richest.