James Harvey
@keepof4worlds.bsky.social
Liberal. Gay. Green. Countryman. Living in Ebernoe, Sussex and Kennington, London. he/him
Pinned
James Harvey
@keepof4worlds.bsky.social
· Jul 29
Rachel Reeves’ ‘save less to invest’ policy could be brilliant for ordinary Britons – or a disaster | Hilary Osborne
People know about savings. But investing in stocks and shares? Not so much. Ministers have a duty to be clear about the benefits and risks, says Hilary Osborne, the Guardian’s money and consumer edito...
www.theguardian.com
I am aware that, as an investment management co CFO and COO, I’m perhaps the worst, or the best, person to opine on this. But here goes anyway 🧵https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/29/rachel-reeves-save-less-to-invest-policy-brilliant-or-disaster
Reposted by James Harvey
To mark ten years, here’s Bowie (rather inexplicably looking like Sean Bean as Sharpe) doing Twentieth Century Boy with Placebo at the Brit awards.
youtu.be/G2MAFVgxlEQ
youtu.be/G2MAFVgxlEQ
Placebo - 20th Century Boy Feat. David Bowie [The Brit Awards 1999] HD
YouTube video by SuckerLoveHD
youtu.be
January 10, 2026 at 11:42 AM
To mark ten years, here’s Bowie (rather inexplicably looking like Sean Bean as Sharpe) doing Twentieth Century Boy with Placebo at the Brit awards.
youtu.be/G2MAFVgxlEQ
youtu.be/G2MAFVgxlEQ
Reposted by James Harvey
I will fire a gun at the sky every hour on the hour until the sun is released
January 8, 2026 at 2:37 PM
I will fire a gun at the sky every hour on the hour until the sun is released
Reposted by James Harvey
I think Bob (as per, you should follow him if you don't already) is completely right here. Think weakening local government has both directly harmed the effectiveness of the government by creating an overburdened and flabby centre, but also has had a negative consequence on MP candidate quality.
I keep trying to work out when the period of "lost central state capacity" existed. It always seems to coincide with powerful local government delivering almost everything important to the country.
Starmer, Farage, Badenoch et al share a strange consensus: that state capacity is broken, and the answer is a stronger prime minister in a faster, more centralised system - pulling levers like the Fat Controller and grabbing power back from agencies. Is it smart?
www.economist.com/britain/2026...
www.economist.com/britain/2026...
January 8, 2026 at 6:40 PM
I think Bob (as per, you should follow him if you don't already) is completely right here. Think weakening local government has both directly harmed the effectiveness of the government by creating an overburdened and flabby centre, but also has had a negative consequence on MP candidate quality.
We visited Venezuela in Nov 2012, in the last gasps of Chavez, before it really crashed. Even then the socialist dream was turning to ashes. It is an intensely beautiful country, with some of the most spectacular scenery on earth. And has truly kind and welcoming people.
January 4, 2026 at 10:42 AM
We visited Venezuela in Nov 2012, in the last gasps of Chavez, before it really crashed. Even then the socialist dream was turning to ashes. It is an intensely beautiful country, with some of the most spectacular scenery on earth. And has truly kind and welcoming people.
Fun fact: Hedingham Castle is still inhabitable (and inhabited) and, via roundabout routes, is still owned by descendants of the family that built it, 900 years ago. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedingh...
December 28, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Fun fact: Hedingham Castle is still inhabitable (and inhabited) and, via roundabout routes, is still owned by descendants of the family that built it, 900 years ago. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedingh...
What is it about people making phone calls on the train that is *so* annoying? Anyway, problem will now be solved south of Guildford, as there’s no mobile signal in the Weald…
December 24, 2025 at 12:31 PM
What is it about people making phone calls on the train that is *so* annoying? Anyway, problem will now be solved south of Guildford, as there’s no mobile signal in the Weald…
Hopeless. Anyone who had bothered to actually understand the rural economy for a microsecond could see that this would blow up, lead to protests, suicides etc. So all that political capital burned for nothing. Government waters down inheritance tax plan for farms www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Government waters down farm inheritance tax plan
The government has now said it will lift the intended threshold from £1m to £2.5m.
www.bbc.co.uk
December 23, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Hopeless. Anyone who had bothered to actually understand the rural economy for a microsecond could see that this would blow up, lead to protests, suicides etc. So all that political capital burned for nothing. Government waters down inheritance tax plan for farms www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
I have just discovered that Ultravox did a German version of Mr. X (Herr X) and this is the BEST Christmas present… tidal.com/track/466083...
Ultravox - Herr X
Listen to Herr X on TIDAL
tidal.com
December 22, 2025 at 8:24 PM
I have just discovered that Ultravox did a German version of Mr. X (Herr X) and this is the BEST Christmas present… tidal.com/track/466083...
Reposted by James Harvey
New from Gnomemart: Wrist Bike Bell.
Fed up with other pedestrians dawdling along, looking at their phones? Just one ring on the Wrist Bike Bell and hey presto! The pavement is yours as they dive out of the way thinking a Lime bike is about to run them over!
From the new Private Eye, out now.
Fed up with other pedestrians dawdling along, looking at their phones? Just one ring on the Wrist Bike Bell and hey presto! The pavement is yours as they dive out of the way thinking a Lime bike is about to run them over!
From the new Private Eye, out now.
December 22, 2025 at 12:33 PM
New from Gnomemart: Wrist Bike Bell.
Fed up with other pedestrians dawdling along, looking at their phones? Just one ring on the Wrist Bike Bell and hey presto! The pavement is yours as they dive out of the way thinking a Lime bike is about to run them over!
From the new Private Eye, out now.
Fed up with other pedestrians dawdling along, looking at their phones? Just one ring on the Wrist Bike Bell and hey presto! The pavement is yours as they dive out of the way thinking a Lime bike is about to run them over!
From the new Private Eye, out now.
So, may have overdone the Xmas tree…
December 20, 2025 at 6:30 PM
So, may have overdone the Xmas tree…
Really, really don’t think we have a water shortage in England. We may have a *storage* shortage. But there’s *plenty* of water…
December 20, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Really, really don’t think we have a water shortage in England. We may have a *storage* shortage. But there’s *plenty* of water…
Reposted by James Harvey
An odd feature of Victorian political history is that we have great written records in the recess - because politicians are scattered about the country, writing letters - and howling voids during the Session, when MPs are scrawling notes to each other that get thrown away. The Whatsapp of their day.
December 17, 2025 at 4:37 PM
An odd feature of Victorian political history is that we have great written records in the recess - because politicians are scattered about the country, writing letters - and howling voids during the Session, when MPs are scrawling notes to each other that get thrown away. The Whatsapp of their day.
What these people will never understand is that making partisan excuses for Corbyn is no different to making partisan excuses for Farage. (And vice versa). It’s all just “ends justify the means” ideology…
December 15, 2025 at 10:36 PM
What these people will never understand is that making partisan excuses for Corbyn is no different to making partisan excuses for Farage. (And vice versa). It’s all just “ends justify the means” ideology…
Unfortunately the “lots of people” in this skeet also includes “The Labour Party for the last 80 years”, which has shown precious little interest in ensuring power remains accountable to the people.
💯, agree. I think for lots of people who have grown up in relatively safe and supportive environments, they can be fooled into thinking that these are the natural conditions of the human species. They may not understand how much work it takes to preserve those conditions where people can thrive.
December 15, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Unfortunately the “lots of people” in this skeet also includes “The Labour Party for the last 80 years”, which has shown precious little interest in ensuring power remains accountable to the people.
Reposted by James Harvey
We don’t do court reports, especially when it comes to violent crime, but there’s always an exception.
December 9, 2025 at 2:30 PM
We don’t do court reports, especially when it comes to violent crime, but there’s always an exception.
I love this for the insight into the personal financial risk that entrepreneurs take on: and perhaps (now that he has built a successful business) why we might want to cut him some slack on taxing the wealth he has got from the years of sleepless nights of debt at 27%
youtu.be/zNaOUz8vVaA?...
youtu.be/zNaOUz8vVaA?...
Land Rover Tried to Stop Him: The Crazy Story of 239 Final Defenders
YouTube video by Resto Revival ~ Car Stories
youtu.be
December 9, 2025 at 8:03 PM
I love this for the insight into the personal financial risk that entrepreneurs take on: and perhaps (now that he has built a successful business) why we might want to cut him some slack on taxing the wealth he has got from the years of sleepless nights of debt at 27%
youtu.be/zNaOUz8vVaA?...
youtu.be/zNaOUz8vVaA?...
Reposted by James Harvey
New Home Office impact assessment finds that cutting skilled and social care visas will cost the UK up to £10 billion with a central estimate of -£5.4 billion.
It would be good if this got even a fraction of the coverage devoted to the endless debate about boats, flags and Turkish barber shops
It would be good if this got even a fraction of the coverage devoted to the endless debate about boats, flags and Turkish barber shops
December 9, 2025 at 2:36 PM
New Home Office impact assessment finds that cutting skilled and social care visas will cost the UK up to £10 billion with a central estimate of -£5.4 billion.
It would be good if this got even a fraction of the coverage devoted to the endless debate about boats, flags and Turkish barber shops
It would be good if this got even a fraction of the coverage devoted to the endless debate about boats, flags and Turkish barber shops
Yeah. General Galtieri invading the Falklands was definitely a neoliberal plot. Deranged.
Neoliberalism was political in two ways: firstly, it was a choice. Secondly, it had a liking for muscle-power | Dr Daniel Gay
Zombie neoliberalism – an alliance with violence – part 3
Neoliberalism was political in two ways: firstly, it was a choice. Secondly, it had a liking for muscle-power
bylines.scot
December 9, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Yeah. General Galtieri invading the Falklands was definitely a neoliberal plot. Deranged.
But - hear me out - could there be an alternative to supine and ineffectual managerial tinkering on one hand, and barking incompetent fiscal ineptitude on the other? It would require intellectual application to reality, political courage and hard work.
Labour are attacking Greens. Fine. I have yet to see any party that has entirely affordable aspirations.
But at least the Greens HAVE aspirations.
Labour have seemingly decided the status quo cannot be touched, even when it doesn't work for 90% of people, or the viability of life on the planet.
But at least the Greens HAVE aspirations.
Labour have seemingly decided the status quo cannot be touched, even when it doesn't work for 90% of people, or the viability of life on the planet.
December 8, 2025 at 9:53 PM
But - hear me out - could there be an alternative to supine and ineffectual managerial tinkering on one hand, and barking incompetent fiscal ineptitude on the other? It would require intellectual application to reality, political courage and hard work.
Anither giant has left the building. Looking back at those who claimed his work exploited the poor, it’s easy to just compare his work with the many people who have tried, and failed, to imitate him. His eye was profoundly sympathetic and human.
www.thetimes.com/article/e643...
www.thetimes.com/article/e643...
Martin Parr obituary: photographer who revealed British life
Documentarian who sardonically depicted the essence of this country and the class system in full saturated colour dies aged 73
www.thetimes.com
December 8, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Anither giant has left the building. Looking back at those who claimed his work exploited the poor, it’s easy to just compare his work with the many people who have tried, and failed, to imitate him. His eye was profoundly sympathetic and human.
www.thetimes.com/article/e643...
www.thetimes.com/article/e643...
Reposted by James Harvey
Nigel Farage was a racist bully at school but Rachel Reeves won the wrong chess championship so who can say who is worse?
December 2, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Nigel Farage was a racist bully at school but Rachel Reeves won the wrong chess championship so who can say who is worse?
This is an extraordinarily beautiful letter
December 2, 2025 at 8:57 AM
This is an extraordinarily beautiful letter
Reposted by James Harvey
A validation of this marvellous piece from @igmansfield.bsky.social about what Reeves should have done:
November 30, 2025 at 9:04 PM
A validation of this marvellous piece from @igmansfield.bsky.social about what Reeves should have done:
Excellent as always from @danneidle.bsky.social
We are taxing all the wrong people
www.thetimes.com/article/9403...
We are taxing all the wrong people
www.thetimes.com/article/9403...
We are taxing all the wrong people
The ultra-rich and middle earners have had it easy, while the almost-rich cannot take anymore
www.thetimes.com
November 30, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Excellent as always from @danneidle.bsky.social
We are taxing all the wrong people
www.thetimes.com/article/9403...
We are taxing all the wrong people
www.thetimes.com/article/9403...