Jonn Elledge
banner
jonnelledge.bsky.social
Jonn Elledge
@jonnelledge.bsky.social
#1 Sunday Times bestselling author, because apparently that matters. New Statesman, New World, Oh God What Now, The Newsletter of (Not Quite) Everything, Paper Cuts (RIP). Londoner. *Not* an American.
Pinned
Last night at a fashionable media party (tm) someone introduced me to their dad, for whom she'd bought a copy of 47 Borders and got me to sign it. Happy smiles all round! Aww.

If a dad YOU know would like a signed book this Christmas, then the lovely people at Backstory Balham can help:
A History of the World in 47 Borders by Jonn Elledge signed & dedicated edition. DISPATCHES PRE-CHRISTMAS
Only available to order until 5 December. Jonn will sign and dedicate all the books at Backstory and they will be dispatched to arrive by Christmas. People have been drawing lines on maps for as long ...
backstory.london
Reposted by Jonn Elledge
I think this is a very important point in yimby discourse: people say they don’t like densification but in London at least the densification is happening anyway. It happens via house shares, kids living in parents houses forever etc. you get the densification with or without more housing!
A long time ago Ian Mulherin made this chart and this is densification. That part is already happening! Look at the line for London!
November 22, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Reposted by Jonn Elledge
Budget day at last.
November 26, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Reposted by Jonn Elledge
There's an advert on his website for a 'Depot Supervisor' that pays £12.75 an hour for shift work.
If he wants to reduce welfare spending maybe he should pay staff enough that they don't need in-work benefits.
November 25, 2025 at 12:46 PM
okay but why are we meant to care why this guy thinks exactly
November 26, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Reposted by Jonn Elledge
Utterly surreal that a key part of the pre Budget narrative from the government hasn’t been ‘Russian planes keep buzzing the Essex coast, US support for NATO is looking shaky, and thanks to the Tories our army fits in Old Trafford - that’s why we need to raise taxes’.
November 26, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by Jonn Elledge
Novel but thought-provoking budget commentary
I reckon the evolutionary mechanisms that generate intelligent life also make it highly likely it destroys itself upsettingly soon after achieving industrialisation. hope everyone's having a good tuesday
November 25, 2025 at 10:42 PM
Reposted by Jonn Elledge
one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.
November 25, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by Jonn Elledge
Why the two-child limit has to go, in a chart.
November 25, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Reposted by Jonn Elledge
This is another thing I had to cut from my piece - the minimum wage is best understood as an anti-poverty measure *for single or childless couples at the start of their working lives*. But it's not a lever that helps most people struggling to make ends meet. Only cash transfers do that.
Why the two-child limit has to go, in a chart.
November 25, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Reposted by Jonn Elledge
You’d never see Keir Starmer being caught out like that

Fascinated by Reeves's approach to the upcoming budget of giving interviews where she comes off as brittle, thin-skinned and dishonest
November 25, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Reposted by Jonn Elledge
Here’s my CHRISTMAS GIFT TIP. You can buy all Michael Palin’s books and DVDs and suchlike off his website, and he signs and dedicates the item for no extra charge. Don’t say I don’t give you nowt. (I did this for my dad, and he didn’t notice the autograph on his Ripping Yarns.) themichaelpalin.com
November 25, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by Jonn Elledge
"Scientists"
November 25, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Reposted by Jonn Elledge
Amazing to learn that Isaac Chotiner can apparently just come for you in your replies. Like suddenly realizing you're swimming in open ocean
November 25, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Reposted by Jonn Elledge
I miss when Twitter was truly great like the time a guy got upset at someone calling out a cricket team and started explaining how bowling worked and at the end OP was like "thanks for explaining btw I hold the world record for most career outs in cricket history"
November 25, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by Jonn Elledge
yes I don't really see how you can go "oh yikes these people have changed their political views incredibly quickly, mostly because of what Very Online people talk about on social media" and also think that people who went from never talking about gender to calling trans women predators are....normal
I don’t like subtweeting people I consider online friends, but there is a subset of people who are very worried about the ongoing radicalisation of our political elite but won’t ever acknowledge the echoes with the radicalisation of their colleagues on trans rights
And few who are sympathetic to us, some who are friendly with me on here, will ever stick their head above the parapet
November 25, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Reposted by Jonn Elledge
I actually think it's bad that the law thinks that calling a 17 year old a "sissy porn-watching scumbag", a "groomer" and a "disgusting incel" in public is not a crime, and indeed I do not think criticising this would constitute "[picking] sides in the debate about sex and gender identity".
November 25, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Reposted by Jonn Elledge
Founders on LinkedIn still seem to be struggling with the difference between telling people about their humble beginnings and admitting to straight up committing fraud.
November 24, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Reposted by Jonn Elledge
Guys I have terrible news - this post has gone viral on Facebook, promoting hundreds of rage-filled comments from people who have taken it very seriously indeed. And, most annoyingly, the Autism Parents have found it!!
Mary Walker, 9, who has always displayed autistic traits, was miraculously fixed by her parents insisting that she stop it at once. 

Read this and other exclusive articles on Patreon: www.patreon.com/posts/119410...
November 25, 2025 at 10:40 AM
brb moving to spain
So oddly my bro (who is a Spanish national) was telling me that the Andalusian tax system now bizarrely gives you a tax break if you own a dog.
November 25, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Reposted by Jonn Elledge
no the new york times does not make money off of my once-a-year post about rogue one
The whole business model is just rage bait at this point. Just don’t engage with these people.
November 24, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Reposted by Jonn Elledge
Yes, but the average Briton doesn't understand anything.
With Rachel Reeves reportedly set to apply a new tax on tuition fees paid by overseas students, most Britons support such a move at the previously mooted level of 6%

Support: 57%
Oppose: 18%

yougov.co.uk/topics/socie...
November 24, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Jon Stone was very wise here
November 24, 2025 at 11:06 PM
Reposted by Jonn Elledge
November 24, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Reposted by Jonn Elledge
Brutal
Robbie Gibb describes the BBC's Political Editor Chris Mason as the "unsung hero of covering politics" and "absolutely first rate"
November 24, 2025 at 9:12 PM
okay fair play this one made me laugh
November 24, 2025 at 6:58 PM