Joel Budd
@joelbudd.bsky.social
Journalist at the Economist, writing about life in Britain. Author of "Underdogs".
Here I attempt to answer a simple question: which country is most like Britain?
www.economist.com/britain/2025...
www.economist.com/britain/2025...
Which country is most similar to Britain?
Clue: none of the ones its politicians obsess over
www.economist.com
November 28, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Here I attempt to answer a simple question: which country is most like Britain?
www.economist.com/britain/2025...
www.economist.com/britain/2025...
Ooh, yes please.
Suggestion to newspaper editors: run a picture of Sonny Sharrock in every other issue.
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...
Suggestion to newspaper editors: run a picture of Sonny Sharrock in every other issue.
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...
‘I almost always play it in hiding, alone’: can anyone get into free jazz, history’s most maligned music?
Even though he’s partial to hideous noise, free jazz is mostly unknown to the Guardian’s pop critic. A new guidebook from Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore may change his mind
www.theguardian.com
November 28, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Ooh, yes please.
Suggestion to newspaper editors: run a picture of Sonny Sharrock in every other issue.
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...
Suggestion to newspaper editors: run a picture of Sonny Sharrock in every other issue.
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...
Reposted by Joel Budd
A total of 2 out of 75 policy decisions in yesterday's #Budget were what I would call 'material'. Were all of the 73 others really necessary? Politically, possibly yes, but economically, they add to the complexity costs of the UK's fiscal regime. #dataisbeautiful
November 27, 2025 at 9:45 AM
A total of 2 out of 75 policy decisions in yesterday's #Budget were what I would call 'material'. Were all of the 73 others really necessary? Politically, possibly yes, but economically, they add to the complexity costs of the UK's fiscal regime. #dataisbeautiful
Reposted by Joel Budd
Starmer and Reeves run probably the most economically left-wing government of past five decades and yet bleeding support to its left thanks to dumb strategy www.economist.com/britain/2025...
November 27, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Starmer and Reeves run probably the most economically left-wing government of past five decades and yet bleeding support to its left thanks to dumb strategy www.economist.com/britain/2025...
For those wanting a break from Britain's budget
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/n...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/n...
‘She’s Clearly Playing Us’: Influencer Dined and Dashed Through Williamsburg
www.nytimes.com
November 26, 2025 at 8:32 PM
For those wanting a break from Britain's budget
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/n...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/n...
As a resident, I endorse a four-part split: 1: The Future (all the new towns and garden cities). 2: The Past (St Albans, Harpenden, Hitchin). 3: Basically London. 4: Basically Essex. Some heroic gerrymandering required but it would be worth it.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Hertfordshire's councils split over shake-up plans
Most of the 11 existing authorities want four new councils, but others go for two or three.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 5:21 PM
As a resident, I endorse a four-part split: 1: The Future (all the new towns and garden cities). 2: The Past (St Albans, Harpenden, Hitchin). 3: Basically London. 4: Basically Essex. Some heroic gerrymandering required but it would be worth it.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Joel Budd
'Will Britain copy asylum policy from a place with poor integration?' - @economist.com talks to our @sundersays.bsky.social about the differences between Britain and Denmark, inspiration for Labour's new asylum proposals.
www.economist.com/britain/2025...
www.economist.com/britain/2025...
Will Britain copy asylum policy from a place with poor integration?
Everything sounds better in Danish
www.economist.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:27 PM
'Will Britain copy asylum policy from a place with poor integration?' - @economist.com talks to our @sundersays.bsky.social about the differences between Britain and Denmark, inspiration for Labour's new asylum proposals.
www.economist.com/britain/2025...
www.economist.com/britain/2025...
At once amazingly irresponsible and oddly carefully placed
www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/...
Drone video shows mountain of fly-tipped waste in Oxfordshire
It is hard to distinguish the waste as it appears to have been shredded with earth mixed in.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 16, 2025 at 8:31 AM
At once amazingly irresponsible and oddly carefully placed
www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/...
This piece seems to conflate two things: businesses involved in crime, and businesses run by immigrants. The author describes Housam’s, a homewares shop on Linthorpe Road in Middlesbrough, as “the only original store I could find”. Across the road…
www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
Why the next election will be fought on our corrupted high streets
Nigel Farage has spent years channelling anger about the rise of vape shops and barbers that suck the life out of town centres. Can his rivals catch up?
www.thetimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:41 AM
This piece seems to conflate two things: businesses involved in crime, and businesses run by immigrants. The author describes Housam’s, a homewares shop on Linthorpe Road in Middlesbrough, as “the only original store I could find”. Across the road…
www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
A good account of how and why a leading academic can go bad. I can think of a few parallels.
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
November 9, 2025 at 7:56 AM
A good account of how and why a leading academic can go bad. I can think of a few parallels.
I have tried and failed to persuade the FT website to drop its obnoxious "this paragraph has been highlighted x times by other subscribers" feature. Will now engage in a campaign of highlighting the dullest paragraphs I can find until it desists. Who's with me?
November 7, 2025 at 4:07 PM
I have tried and failed to persuade the FT website to drop its obnoxious "this paragraph has been highlighted x times by other subscribers" feature. Will now engage in a campaign of highlighting the dullest paragraphs I can find until it desists. Who's with me?
Reposted by Joel Budd
Here’s my net migration model projected forwards two years (plus past figures). Net migration actually looks like hovering at about 300,000 in 2025 before coming crashing down in 2026. The government must avoid the temptation to cut immigration even further when they see these figures. (1/2)
November 7, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Here’s my net migration model projected forwards two years (plus past figures). Net migration actually looks like hovering at about 300,000 in 2025 before coming crashing down in 2026. The government must avoid the temptation to cut immigration even further when they see these figures. (1/2)
Reposted by Joel Budd
Great bit of reporting from Barrow-in-Furness - perhaps the last true manufacturing town in Britain, where a third of the population works in industry: www.economist.com/britain/2025...
Boom times in a British manufacturing town
But submarines are not enough
www.economist.com
November 6, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Great bit of reporting from Barrow-in-Furness - perhaps the last true manufacturing town in Britain, where a third of the population works in industry: www.economist.com/britain/2025...
Reposted by Joel Budd
Jordan Bardella is France’s most popular politician. His ideas would set 🇫🇷 on a collision path with not only EU institutions but with France’s main partner, Germany. For the RN leader, this seems to be the point
In @economist.com this week
economist.com/europe/2025/...
In @economist.com this week
economist.com/europe/2025/...
Jordan Bardella starts to lay out his plans
The 30-year-old French populist who is preparing for power
economist.com
November 6, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Jordan Bardella is France’s most popular politician. His ideas would set 🇫🇷 on a collision path with not only EU institutions but with France’s main partner, Germany. For the RN leader, this seems to be the point
In @economist.com this week
economist.com/europe/2025/...
In @economist.com this week
economist.com/europe/2025/...
Reposted by Joel Budd
The news that fans of the late Zambian president Edgar Lungu are singing David Baddiel/Frank Skinner's "Three Lions" because they want his body to come home from South Africa to Zambia is the funniest story I've read today: www.wsj.com/world/africa...
Why a Song for Sad English Soccer Fans Is at the Center of a Fight Gripping Africa
Supporters of a deceased Zambian president have appropriated “Three Lions” in their campaign to bring his body home.
www.wsj.com
November 5, 2025 at 2:01 PM
The news that fans of the late Zambian president Edgar Lungu are singing David Baddiel/Frank Skinner's "Three Lions" because they want his body to come home from South Africa to Zambia is the funniest story I've read today: www.wsj.com/world/africa...
Reposted by Joel Budd
The electoral outcome most strongly linked to deprivation is not any party’s vote share, but turnout. Across almost all indicators, turnout is markedly lower in more deprived areas, with only barriers to housing & services and quality in the living environment showing weaker correlations.
November 3, 2025 at 8:41 AM
The electoral outcome most strongly linked to deprivation is not any party’s vote share, but turnout. Across almost all indicators, turnout is markedly lower in more deprived areas, with only barriers to housing & services and quality in the living environment showing weaker correlations.
‘Tis the season for Britons to complain about Halloween practices imported from America. There were no trick-or-treating when I were a lad, etc. But Americans think trick-or-treating is a British / Irish import:
www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/t...
www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/t...
The History of Trick-or-Treating Goes Back Centuries
From the ancient Celts to medieval English, the Halloween tradition precedes the costumed children who will soon swarm your block
www.smithsonianmag.com
October 31, 2025 at 10:19 AM
‘Tis the season for Britons to complain about Halloween practices imported from America. There were no trick-or-treating when I were a lad, etc. But Americans think trick-or-treating is a British / Irish import:
www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/t...
www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/t...
My rule for political scandals is that they have to be explicable in one sentence, without commas, e.g. “Boris Johnson partied during lockdown”, “Bill Clinton had sex with an intern in the White House”. I’m struggling with the Rachel Reeves rental story, though it’s simpler than the Rayner story.
October 30, 2025 at 8:16 AM
My rule for political scandals is that they have to be explicable in one sentence, without commas, e.g. “Boris Johnson partied during lockdown”, “Bill Clinton had sex with an intern in the White House”. I’m struggling with the Rachel Reeves rental story, though it’s simpler than the Rayner story.
Enid Blyton is the clear leader in this series (the first book that literary folk remember loving). Nobody else is even close.
www.thetimes.com/uk/get-brita...
www.thetimes.com/uk/get-brita...
The books that turned us into readers
From Nick Cave to Jacqueline Wilson, famous names reveal the book that turned them into a bibliophile
www.thetimes.com
October 26, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Enid Blyton is the clear leader in this series (the first book that literary folk remember loving). Nobody else is even close.
www.thetimes.com/uk/get-brita...
www.thetimes.com/uk/get-brita...
Reposted by Joel Budd
Column on the government’s Buckaroo! strategy - keep piling obligations and charges on certain sectors and hope they don’t kick you in the head. Housing, energy, pharma, immigrants…
economist.com/britain/2025...
economist.com/britain/2025...
Buckaroo! The British government’s favourite game
Heaping burdens on business works. Until business begins to buck
economist.com
October 23, 2025 at 6:23 AM
Column on the government’s Buckaroo! strategy - keep piling obligations and charges on certain sectors and hope they don’t kick you in the head. Housing, energy, pharma, immigrants…
economist.com/britain/2025...
economist.com/britain/2025...
I don't know how the British state would cope without Louise Casey. Like Reform UK without Nigel Farage, or the BBC natural history unit without David Attenborough.
October 22, 2025 at 1:18 PM
I don't know how the British state would cope without Louise Casey. Like Reform UK without Nigel Farage, or the BBC natural history unit without David Attenborough.
Reposted by Joel Budd
An opportunity to join the staff of The Economist
Wanted: a new finance writer
An opportunity to join the staff of The Economist
econ.st
October 22, 2025 at 12:10 PM
An opportunity to join the staff of The Economist
Reposted by Joel Budd
Brian Bell, chair of the migration Advisory Committee, says "the government would be in breach, very clear breach, of its manifesto commitment to reduce net migration" if it signed up to an uncapped EU youth mobility scheme. I don't think that's true. 1/n
www.politico.eu/article/brus...
www.politico.eu/article/brus...
Brussels’ Brexit reset demands put Keir Starmer in a migration bind
The European Union’s pitch for youth mobility is asking Keir Starmer to break his manifesto pledges on migration.
www.politico.eu
October 22, 2025 at 7:50 AM
Brian Bell, chair of the migration Advisory Committee, says "the government would be in breach, very clear breach, of its manifesto commitment to reduce net migration" if it signed up to an uncapped EU youth mobility scheme. I don't think that's true. 1/n
www.politico.eu/article/brus...
www.politico.eu/article/brus...
Fearless forecast: all the Louvre robbers will be caught. The reason this crime is receiving so much attention (apart from the fame of the location and the historical value of the jewels) is that it's an old-school craft crime. The reason craft crime declined, to be replaced by deskilled...
October 21, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Fearless forecast: all the Louvre robbers will be caught. The reason this crime is receiving so much attention (apart from the fame of the location and the historical value of the jewels) is that it's an old-school craft crime. The reason craft crime declined, to be replaced by deskilled...
Seen in Barrow. The country urgently needs to develop a more inclusive Eglish identity.
October 16, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Seen in Barrow. The country urgently needs to develop a more inclusive Eglish identity.