Stephen Bush
@stephenkb.bsky.social
Associate editor and columnist @financialtimes.com. Post too often about culture, public policy, management, politics, nerd stuff, Arsenal, wosoc. Try my UK politics newsletter for free here: www.ft.com/tryinsidepolitics
Pinned
Stephen Bush
@stephenkb.bsky.social
· Feb 22
I sat through that so when my column gets factchecked I can say “yes, that line is accurate”. Such is the FT’s commitment to bringing you our best understanding of the truth. Subscribe here: subs.ft.com/products
Reposted by Stephen Bush
FT exclusive
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor discussed ways round restrictions on his making investments while an official UK trade representative and shared official documents from the role with Jeffrey Epstein, files released by the US Department of Justice show
www.ft.com/content/6b2f...
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor discussed ways round restrictions on his making investments while an official UK trade representative and shared official documents from the role with Jeffrey Epstein, files released by the US Department of Justice show
www.ft.com/content/6b2f...
Former prince discussed with Jeffrey Epstein ways to get round investment rules
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor shared official documents while serving as a UK trade envoy
www.ft.com
February 3, 2026 at 6:30 PM
FT exclusive
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor discussed ways round restrictions on his making investments while an official UK trade representative and shared official documents from the role with Jeffrey Epstein, files released by the US Department of Justice show
www.ft.com/content/6b2f...
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor discussed ways round restrictions on his making investments while an official UK trade representative and shared official documents from the role with Jeffrey Epstein, files released by the US Department of Justice show
www.ft.com/content/6b2f...
Reposted by Stephen Bush
It's Elmo's birthday
February 3, 2026 at 5:58 PM
It's Elmo's birthday
Reposted by Stephen Bush
search.savills.com/property-det... scroll through the pictures and admire the photographer's valiant effort to downplay the most noticeable feature of the back garden not mentioned in the property description.
Durford Wood, Petersfield, Hampshire, GU31 5AW | Property for sale | Savills
Property details for Durford Wood. One of many properties for sale in Petersfield, Hampshire, GU31 5AW from Savills, world leading estate agents.
search.savills.com
February 3, 2026 at 5:54 PM
search.savills.com/property-det... scroll through the pictures and admire the photographer's valiant effort to downplay the most noticeable feature of the back garden not mentioned in the property description.
Sorry, that illustrative example was a really unhelpful one, in that I really don't believe anyone is ever going to go 'watch AI on stage'. It's IMO the job with the biggest moat against AI.
February 3, 2026 at 6:21 PM
Sorry, that illustrative example was a really unhelpful one, in that I really don't believe anyone is ever going to go 'watch AI on stage'. It's IMO the job with the biggest moat against AI.
Yeah, but my point re: a world with zero employment is one in which those hobbies are also gone. Almost everything that anyone would do voluntarily is currently also a job. (For instance, I was not a v good actor and I am not good at giving critical feedback to be a good director - I'd do amdram)
February 3, 2026 at 6:14 PM
Yeah, but my point re: a world with zero employment is one in which those hobbies are also gone. Almost everything that anyone would do voluntarily is currently also a job. (For instance, I was not a v good actor and I am not good at giving critical feedback to be a good director - I'd do amdram)
Yeah, I've been quite struck by the people going 'in a world without work I would do [x]' and 'x' is in fact, just a job, but what they mean is 'a corporate job whose holder is miserable'.
February 3, 2026 at 6:09 PM
Yeah, I've been quite struck by the people going 'in a world without work I would do [x]' and 'x' is in fact, just a job, but what they mean is 'a corporate job whose holder is miserable'.
Reposted by Stephen Bush
You might be interested in this experiment which gave some people cash and others work and found people prefer work to extent they would sacrifice income to do it (very different context!)
www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...
www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...
The Psychosocial Value of Employment: Evidence from a Refugee Camp
(November 2022) - Employment may be important to well-being for reasons beyond its role as an income source. This paper presents a causal estimate of the psychosocial value of employment in refugee ca...
www.aeaweb.org
February 3, 2026 at 6:03 PM
You might be interested in this experiment which gave some people cash and others work and found people prefer work to extent they would sacrifice income to do it (very different context!)
www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...
www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...
The hobbies you are describing are *also* jobs!
February 3, 2026 at 6:02 PM
The hobbies you are describing are *also* jobs!
Indeed. One thing I've found striking about the 'but the UBI pilots show most people on them don't just sit around'. Yes, I know. That's why I think that in a world where they had no choice but to do so, things would get very unstable and unpleasant very quickly.
February 3, 2026 at 5:59 PM
Indeed. One thing I've found striking about the 'but the UBI pilots show most people on them don't just sit around'. Yes, I know. That's why I think that in a world where they had no choice but to do so, things would get very unstable and unpleasant very quickly.
It's only been three years, in my direct experience of the voluntary organisations I work with or cover the 'average' retired person seems to want to dip into some form of 'work' five years in, but equally of course it's not something that is true for every retired person, just most of them.
February 3, 2026 at 5:52 PM
It's only been three years, in my direct experience of the voluntary organisations I work with or cover the 'average' retired person seems to want to dip into some form of 'work' five years in, but equally of course it's not something that is true for every retired person, just most of them.
No, what I am saying is that UBI is not a job replacement benefit, and states' solution to 'what if this actually just destroys jobs and does not create them' should not be 'don't worry, here's a UBI'.
February 3, 2026 at 5:50 PM
No, what I am saying is that UBI is not a job replacement benefit, and states' solution to 'what if this actually just destroys jobs and does not create them' should not be 'don't worry, here's a UBI'.
I mean, in the politest possible way, no, and at the point the writer is explicitly saying to you 'no, you have read an implication that is not intended', why are you quibbling with it?
February 3, 2026 at 5:47 PM
I mean, in the politest possible way, no, and at the point the writer is explicitly saying to you 'no, you have read an implication that is not intended', why are you quibbling with it?
It's why in some ways my 'if I am forced to choose, I choose no-AI and lower innovation, over AI, zero jobs and UBI' is a cheat, in that I think in practice the society with zero jobs is not gonna be ahead on innovation for very long.
UBI fans must remember a job is about more than the money
The value of work often gets left out of discussions about AI
www.ft.com
February 3, 2026 at 5:45 PM
It's why in some ways my 'if I am forced to choose, I choose no-AI and lower innovation, over AI, zero jobs and UBI' is a cheat, in that I think in practice the society with zero jobs is not gonna be ahead on innovation for very long.
In the world of 'there's zero jobs, but don't worry, there's UBI for that' - almost by definition we have eliminated most of the stuff that current UBI recipients (pensioners) *choose* to do, and would IMO be hugely increasing the number of people who would have as their retirement job 'go crazy'.
UBI fans must remember a job is about more than the money
The value of work often gets left out of discussions about AI
www.ft.com
February 3, 2026 at 5:42 PM
In the world of 'there's zero jobs, but don't worry, there's UBI for that' - almost by definition we have eliminated most of the stuff that current UBI recipients (pensioners) *choose* to do, and would IMO be hugely increasing the number of people who would have as their retirement job 'go crazy'.
I mean, to return to my 'pensioners are the actually useful real-world UBI experiment', what it tells us is that there is a dangerous minority of people whose reaction to 'ending up on UBI with nothing to do' is to 'go insane'.
i did my own unplanned ubi experiment last year where for the first month with a new employer i didn't have anything to actually do
it drove me crackers
it genuinely felt almost as stressfu to do fuck all on full payl as my preceding unemployment
idk if we can extrapolate from that
it drove me crackers
it genuinely felt almost as stressfu to do fuck all on full payl as my preceding unemployment
idk if we can extrapolate from that
February 3, 2026 at 5:40 PM
I mean, to return to my 'pensioners are the actually useful real-world UBI experiment', what it tells us is that there is a dangerous minority of people whose reaction to 'ending up on UBI with nothing to do' is to 'go insane'.
As Iain sets out, I do think it is worth thinking, a *bit* about a world with genuine AI and what that would mean.
Keep saying it but: what we have isn’t AI. So scaling that won’t ever lead to 100% unemployment. But we do have lots of money trying to get AI and it’s worth thinking about what that means. We’re also closer than ever. Just like in 2016 we didn’t have self driving cars, but we might soon.
February 3, 2026 at 5:38 PM
As Iain sets out, I do think it is worth thinking, a *bit* about a world with genuine AI and what that would mean.
Reposted by Stephen Bush
It’s hard work when you’re trying to diversify your board because everyone under 60 is working full time.
February 3, 2026 at 5:37 PM
It’s hard work when you’re trying to diversify your board because everyone under 60 is working full time.
All of the above are jobs, yes. Loads of people in UBI pilots and state pensions (a form of UBI) choose to be employed by another person or organisation.
February 3, 2026 at 5:33 PM
All of the above are jobs, yes. Loads of people in UBI pilots and state pensions (a form of UBI) choose to be employed by another person or organisation.
'Social infrastructure', i.e. everything from volunteering for political parties, being a magistrate, running tenant's associations for apartments - almost all of these are things that if pensioners did not do them, we would need to pay someone to do them for us.
February 3, 2026 at 5:30 PM
'Social infrastructure', i.e. everything from volunteering for political parties, being a magistrate, running tenant's associations for apartments - almost all of these are things that if pensioners did not do them, we would need to pay someone to do them for us.
Childcare obviously the clearest example - parents with older relatives living near spend less money on childcare, for reasons that go without saying. But almost all the volunteer work and huge amounts of what I think of as 'social infrastructure' is done by pensioners i.e. UBI recipients.
February 3, 2026 at 5:28 PM
Childcare obviously the clearest example - parents with older relatives living near spend less money on childcare, for reasons that go without saying. But almost all the volunteer work and huge amounts of what I think of as 'social infrastructure' is done by pensioners i.e. UBI recipients.
Some more interesting replies to my column - a lot in this vein. I agree. If we return to pensioners (as I say, they are the actually useful 'real world' UBI pilot), almost all pensioners 'work', though only one in ten are in paid work. But most unpaid work pensioners do *someone* would need to do.
I think there may be a current bundling of the concepts of “job”, “work”, “employment”, “fulfilling activity”, etc that would need to be unwound in your scenario.
February 3, 2026 at 5:24 PM
Some more interesting replies to my column - a lot in this vein. I agree. If we return to pensioners (as I say, they are the actually useful 'real world' UBI pilot), almost all pensioners 'work', though only one in ten are in paid work. But most unpaid work pensioners do *someone* would need to do.
I mean, it's not what I wrote, and if you didn't bother to read the article, as a basic courtesy, you should keep your opinions about how 'limited' other people's views are to yourself.
February 3, 2026 at 5:15 PM
I mean, it's not what I wrote, and if you didn't bother to read the article, as a basic courtesy, you should keep your opinions about how 'limited' other people's views are to yourself.
All UBI evidence shows that people choose to...do jobs. Which in a world without jobs they would not be able to do.
February 3, 2026 at 5:14 PM
All UBI evidence shows that people choose to...do jobs. Which in a world without jobs they would not be able to do.
Sure - but I think there are already plenty of successful uses of AI and there would be of AGI. Just not to the 'zero employment' level.
February 3, 2026 at 5:10 PM
Sure - but I think there are already plenty of successful uses of AI and there would be of AGI. Just not to the 'zero employment' level.
Right down to their lack of interest in the closest thing we have to a real world UBI (state pensions)
February 3, 2026 at 4:50 PM
Right down to their lack of interest in the closest thing we have to a real world UBI (state pensions)