Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Alan Beattie

@alanbeattie.bsky.social

33K followers 1.4K following 7.8K posts

Opiner for Financial Times in London. Globalisation, econ, snark. RT≠👍. Views own. [email protected]. Sign up to my FT Trade Secrets newsletter https://subs.ft.com/spa3_tradesecrets?segmentId=357afa03-959c-93ed-0842-58e2115025d4.

subs.ft.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · Jan 7

OK, it's well past time to start a thread.

Welcome to Donald Trump's trade policy. Nobody. Knows. Anything.

1/n

85 390 1.7K

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 25m

The King’s Head on Lower Bridge Street in Chester, with some of the cool kids getting served in the weird “wine bar” Claverton (“Clavs”) across the road.

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 8h

I’d also like to bring back the grand old tradition of having one quasi-official police-designated under-age pub in every town, where the drinkers had a strong incentive to behave and the bar staff not to let them get too lairy.

2 1 34

Reposted by Alan Beattie

Will Cooling @willcooling.bsky.social · 9h

Worth remembering that Labour MPs sat on their hands as the British Government basically did the same to our international development ministry at around the same time - what little money is still in the "international aid" budget is overwhelmingly spent in the UK

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 15h

i desperately want everyone involved in the destruction of USAID to have to, st the very least, answer to the american people for the suffering and misery they have caused apnews.com/article/myan...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

1 7 28

Reposted by Alan Beattie

dan sinker @dansinker.com · 10h

The direct address straight to the camera at the end of this is 100% right out of professional wrestling. Finally.

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 12h

If you come for my people, you come through me.

14 90 550

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 16h

Yep, as do WTO rules. Standard element of trade.

2 1

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 16h

They aren’t normal tariffs - they’re for supposed emergencies, in this case a massive surge in imports or threat of it.

1 2

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 16h

Not all assumptions wear capes.

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 17h

I took the "blue and gold" position, which I think was the equivalent of EFTA membership in being a middle ground that annoyed everyone.

3 18

Reposted by Alan Beattie

Omar Khan @omaromalleykhan.bsky.social · 1d

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter

Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

34 580 1.7K

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 17h

2015. COINCIDENCE? I think not.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dress

The dress - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

2 1 37

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 18h

Yes - actually "denial" wasn't the right word for me to use there but as you say, some sense of relativism regarding the Clearances etc which the leadership does a good job of not letting spread.

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 19h

Indeed. TBF I believe the SNP leadership itself are actually perfectly sensible on the matter and clamp down on slavery denial in the party.

1 1

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 20h

Yeah IIRC Tom Devine to his credit did a big pivot and emphasised its importance to Scotland, but IIRC there's a nationalist fringe who insist Scotland was a colony, not a colonialist).

1 1

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 20h

I'd say it's had a reasonable shot though probably not as much as Bristol. There was a debate about renaming Penny Lane of Beatles fame, some thought it was named after a slaveowner called William Penny but apparently it wasn't so the issue was dropped.

www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/internationa...

2 1 2

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 20h

In a sense that's actually true, it's an international city which straddles the Irish Sea and the Atlantic, biggest single religion Catholicism. Strong pro-Remain vote in the Brexit ref also.

BTW I should clarify I love Liverpool and I'm sure would much rather have grown up there than Chester.

2 6

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 20h

Same same except a sort of plasticised canvas and foam for the mats. Still amazed no one castrated themselves on the vault. The number of Olympic-level gymnasts produced by my school has stuck consistently at nil AFAIK.

1 3

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 21h

Tonty Blair abolished it because woke

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 21h

We used it! Ours was wooden for authenticity though.

3 33

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 21h

Given the number of Scouse emigrants who turned up in Chester from the 1960s onwards I’d say the choice is pretty clear.

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 1d

England’s second city is London, surely, after Chester.

5 1 17

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 1d

a cartoon of a green snake with potato-yi written on the bottom

ALT: a cartoon of a green snake with potato-yi written on the bottom

media.tenor.com

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 1d

Can you imagine? When the first spate of heart attacks and people breaking frail ankles from nasty falls while they're out on community service starts to happen?

1 1

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 1d

TBF what with being local councillors, community gardening, volunteering at food banks and working in Oxfam shops most retirees probably do de facto national service anyway.

3 14

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 1d

a man in a suit and tie is standing in front of a television screen that says yes .

ALT: a man in a suit and tie is standing in front of a television screen that says yes .

media.tenor.com

1 1 13

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 1d

a group of people sitting around a table with a green duck in the middle

ALT: a group of people sitting around a table with a green duck in the middle

media.tenor.com

1 3