I love the idea there's a debate about whether we/UK should rejoin the EU Customs Union; its the same old entitled nonsense.
Sure we can express an interest or even desire to rejoin, but expressing that in the face of the EU's pretty obvious position that it treats the UK with suspicion & would only welcome the UK back with very serious conditions, is just political stupidity.
If we want to rejoin step one is building back trust & goodwill, something we've not really been doing!
#EU #Brexit
Meanwhile at The Nation.Cymru Nigel Farage Barrister friend has been trying to shut down a story with some legal threats... the response from N.C - just go away!
(oh yes & they also detailed why the threat had no legal basis).
Sometimes the way to deal with bullies is just to tell them to F*ck Off!
#ReformUK #Wales
https://www.thenerve.news/p/reform-nation-cymru-adam-richardson-farage-wales-lawyer
There are many reasons the (formally) middle class might not regard themselves as rich, but the media's obsession with celebrity & the 'rich & famous' likely plays a role:
having moved the public benchmark of richness far rom normal levels of being 'comfortably' well-off, the media have convinced vast numbers of the relatively rich to consider themselves not rich at all... with all sorts of impact on their view of tax & other policies!
#wealth #politics #inequality
h/t Sam Salama/LinkedIn
Another ReformUK council has found policy pronouncements often do not survive contact with reality.
North Northamptonshire are about to take advantage of the allowance that council tax on second homes & homes empty for other reasons can be doubled... a move Nigel Farage has called extortionate & madness.
Looks like Central Office will need to have with NNC & two more councils making similar moves.
As many hoped, actually governing is causing ReformUK all sorts of problems
#politics
h/t FT
The rise in the gold price continues.... draw your own conclusions:
but, in the past a shift of central bankers & investors into gold (either direct purchases or via financial instruments) has been a key indicator of the growth of negative assessment & sentiments about the future of the (global) political economy.
#gold #politics #economics
Gold is well on its way to $4,000 per Troy ounce, with a 50% rise in the last year alone.
As its always treated as a safe haven (although as discussed in my time line a couple of weeks ago that looks like a chimera in a world of Gold certificates rather than actual gold transfers) & as such could well indicate to many that institutional investors (whose demand is driving the price rises) might be getting the jitters.... so should we?
#gold #economics #politics
h/t FT
While no surprise, Rachel Reeves' comment to a meeting of Private Equity bosses, that 'I want to take out more regulators; we have still got too many', give us a clear indication of who's side she's on;
she's labouring (pun intended) under the presumption that regulations have just appeared for no apparent reason;
actually for the most part, regulations exist due to past malfeasance by corporate entities - and that's what they want rid!
She's dangerously naive!
#economics #regulation
h/t FT
Fair comment - but even then, still instructive
nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpq53tfep0e60kzh4wjwhs5xncdscrg6na2sd8wjllnxxns2nkkvreqdcm3jm nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqkpzrnysdqppzuhah8htgtdapw5svrxzxz5s4yeqt06fw9yyfaecs5mlm25 nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqdg36nmxp88c5fntkckz8q6el3576vtl6e30u4rht8zkzk20u7jhs29dwh5
But then again, rationality itself is a sort of narrative about humanity & its/our motivations.....
I know, its almost like they want to keep prices high....
I agree the BBC is not the only problem, but it retains some 'authority' absent from other channels and as such has done much to legitimise there far right through its drooling attention to Farage which is then compounded by the more partisan outlets (which sadly now also included a partisan BBC news operation)
Myth-busting migration with nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqdg36nmxp88c5fntkckz8q6el3576vtl6e30u4rht8zkzk20u7jhs29dwh5
the optimist in me like SWL thinks we can divert the toxic narrative on migration by appealing to actual facts & their wider dissemination (hence the link to his post below);
the pessimist in me thinks the degradation of 'authority' & trust in the media (the rise of partisanship & falsehoods presented as reportage) means that the far right & its supporters will present these 'facts' as more liberal lies.
#migration #politics
https://mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2025/09/key-myths-on-asylum-immigration-and-how.html
yes, I agree; my post was not intended to minimise the historical point you make
Yes I think that's a fair point; what was so interesting about this case was th CEO explicitly focussed on better working practices as instrumental to that result, leading one to wonder whether other successful projects might also be so managed?
Yup, rubbish management is all about control & making workers lives painful, not actually delivering improved performance
Reminds me of the story of the London Underground - when someone actually looked at the timings on the trains about to arrive board it transpired that one minute on the sign equated to 90seconds in real time.... when rankings are driven by data its easier t game the data than improve performance
We look to be a lot nearer commodity level industrial long-term battery storage for energy time-shifting than pessimistic might have thought - we all know the green transition has to include a ramping up of time-shifting storage to deal with the variances in renewable energy generation, and now here is a green technology where the UK is doing well - lets hope, like previous technological advances, British innovation isn't just sold on....
#batteries #renewables #energy
Yes, only on the TV, in a range of police procedurals do the police actually seem to be doing the hard work of detecting & solving actual crimes....
Hospital league tables are back, identifying hospital 'performance' against fixed criteria; the idea being that this will inspire competition between Trusts to get better.
The problem with league tables is that however good absolute performance, relatively there are always going to be performances in the bottom half.
Does completion help incentives staff?
No, it just encourages gaming of the metrics & cynicism about 'performance'... both mysteries to the economic mind-set.
#politics #health
What can we learn from successful policies - Tim Thorlby suggests:
1. Free markets are a fiction; government is a partner for the common good;
2. Long-term change requires cross-party support;
3. Institutions are vital for success;
4. Big changes follow big visions;
5. Big changes start with small changes;
6. Local government *can* deliver transformation.
His argument boils on three cases: the minimum wage; Sure Start; and social investing.
#politics
https://www.beautifulenterprise.co.uk/insight/successfulpolicies