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David Rischel @davidrischel.bsky.social · 17d

Excellent piece, this.

Will Cooling @willcooling.bsky.social · 17d

itcouldbesaid.substack.com/p/it-could-b... Did you know we ran a public sector deficit of 5% of GDP last year, a figure which adds up to £150billion? The public finances are in a far worse state than anyone admits to even before you consider public works backlog, gaps in defence & public services

It Could Be Said #73 Why Britain Needs £250billion In Tax Increases

Will explains why public finances are in far worse shape than people realise

itcouldbesaid.substack.com

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Reposted by David Rischel

profserious @profserious.bsky.social · Aug 10

Very few people seem to understand university finances and, distressingly, this includes many academics and most policymakers. This is an attempt to condense the key points you need to know. open.substack.com/pub/profseri...

Understanding University Finances

... a very short guide

open.substack.com

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Reposted by David Rischel

Prospect Magazine @prospectmagazine.co.uk · Aug 7

“If you aim directly at election victory you will never get there”—@benansell.bsky.social on Labour’s lost first year in government.
www.prospectmagazine...

Labour has squandered its first year in government

Number 10 needs to remember that getting elected is a byproduct of doing a good job governing

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk

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David Rischel @davidrischel.bsky.social · Jul 27

what's that, another unworkable internet censorship law with stupid unintended consequences? the mind struggles to comprehend it

Clord TC, Comics Guy @clordtc.bsky.social · Jul 26

OSA is gonna make us lose access to fucking wikipedia

write to your MPs.

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Reposted by David Rischel

Simon Nixon @nixonsimon.bsky.social · Jul 2

Flagging my most recent column for @bylinetimes.bsky.social in which I expressed unfashionable sympathy for Rachel Reeves, whose "misfortune is to be the teller of hard truths in a country only interested in easy answers." If only her party listened to what the markets are saying about Britain

Political Economy - Between a Rock and a Hard Place – Byline Times Digital / Print Edition

It’s not a fashionable thing to say, but I have quite a lot of sympathy for Rachel Reeves. The Chancellor has endured a torrid first 11 months in office.

subscribe.bylinetimes.com

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Reposted by David Rischel

Kieran Setiya @ksetiya.bsky.social · Jun 10

I wrote about the social history of analytic philosophy @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...

The Politics of Apoliticism | Los Angeles Review of Books

Kieran Setiya reviews Christoph Schuringa’s “A Social History of Analytic Philosophy.”

lareviewofbooks.org

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Reposted by David Rischel

lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · Jun 11

I genuinely think this particular aesthetic trend (Good Art Is Didactic And Also Assumes You Are Very Stupid) is a non-trivial source of anti-woke backlash, like unironically. It is really really annoying, and I think it has provided wedges by which anti-wokes can radicalise nerds.

Annie Kelly @annieknk.bsky.social · Jun 11

Reading a fiction book rn which is *so* obnoxiously didactic bc the author is *so* anxious you might draw the wrong political conclusion that it's making me anti-woke. Catch me on the Tim pool podcast

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David Rischel @davidrischel.bsky.social · Jun 6

Fair enough, apologies if I misunderstood!

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David Rischel @davidrischel.bsky.social · Jun 6

Should say I'm not convinced it can reason, just not sure I got how we could conclude that from the fact that it couldn't perform the task you asked it to.

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David Rischel @davidrischel.bsky.social · Jun 6

Not sure I see why that follows (that it can't reason)? I also can't do the things you asked it to do, but that doesn't mean I can't reason at all. Why couldn't it be the case that it's not a very good reasoner in some domains but quite a decent reasoner in other domains?

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Reposted by David Rischel

Hadas Weiss @hadas.bsky.social · May 24

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David Rischel @davidrischel.bsky.social · May 16

Jeg mente netop, at det fremmedgørende består i, at et spørgsmål de går meget op i ikke må diskuteres.

David Rischel @davidrischel.bsky.social · May 16

Sorry, jeg må have været utydelig - jeg er enig med dig!

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David Rischel @davidrischel.bsky.social · May 16

Man kan også forestille sig, at det kan virke ret fremmedgørende for de skoleelever, som går meget op i Palæstina-spørgsmålet. Ikke den bedste første introduktion til demokratiet!

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lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · May 5

Here's a very clever trick that German Romanticism pulled off. At about the time a bunch of people decided they wanted to decolonise the humanities, a bunch of intellectual movements that were successors to German Romanticism had become the popular way of speaking/thinking among lefty humanists....

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Reposted by David Rischel

Marc Sabatier Hvidkjær @marchvidkjaer.bsky.social · Apr 3

I disagree with most of this thread, and I see that one of the failures of the discipline is the one-sided reading of the evidence and overly confident policy recommendations to european politicians.

Addressing some points:

Cas Ⓜ️udde @casmudde.bsky.social · Apr 3

Exceptionally long, but familiarly pompous and uniformed, puff piece on the “good” nativism of Mette Frederiksen in Denmark.

Completely ignores most basic data and, of course, any academic research. Some quick points 🧵

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David Rischel @davidrischel.bsky.social · Mar 26

Yeah, that is probably my read of it too. They seem to be risk averse in the extreme. Irrationally so, as they fail to see the potential upside of 'risking' higher taxes now so that public services are better by the next GE. Also, there are risks no matter what you do. So I think they're mistaken.

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David Rischel @davidrischel.bsky.social · Mar 26

What I still don't understand is *why* they are making this strategic error. I struggle believing that they are ideologically motivated to cut welfare spending rather than raise taxes, but maybe I'm being naive? Are they risk averse? If so, don't they see the risk of their current strategy

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Reposted by David Rischel

Simon Wren-Lewis @sjwrenlewis.bsky.social · Mar 26

Y'days post: Labour’s strategic error on tax mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2025/03/labo...
The failure to raise taxes further reflects the absence of any serious analysis of what will be required to allow a noticeable (to voters) improvement in public services before the next election.

Labour’s strategic error on tax

Two things have become clear to many people since Labour came to government. The first is that the party had done less preparation work fo...

mainlymacro.blogspot.com

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David Rischel @davidrischel.bsky.social · Mar 26

Inevitably, they're gonna go through parliament insisting they won't have to raise taxes, won't make anything better as a result, and then finally be forced to raise personal taxes late in the parliament dooming them for the next election.

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David Rischel @davidrischel.bsky.social · Mar 19

That is absurd. What is going on? Why haven't they realised that they'll have to raise taxes?

Reposted by David Rischel

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · Mar 11

*slaps roof of Downing Street* This bad boy can fit SO much magical thinking about how you can avoid broadbased tax rises.

SpinningHugo @spinninghugo.bsky.social · Mar 11

Lads, I am sorry, but you really are going to have to put taxes up.

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Reposted by David Rischel

Ross Carroll @rosscarroll.bsky.social · Feb 25

When I worked in UK academia I recall hearing of a Japanese man who was baffled at how Britain had decided to run its universities like firms. “Why? Your universities are excellent and your firms are terrible.”

Chris Brooke @chrisbrooke.bsky.social · Feb 25

To repeat: "A country so stupid it actively trashes one of things it's good at and famous for."

Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · Feb 25

Today's university slashing and burning is Edinburgh, where about 10% of the budget will be cut. There'll be another case every single day until UK govts actually do something. A country so stupid it actively trashes one of things it's good at and famous for.
www.bbc.com/news/article...

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David Rischel @davidrischel.bsky.social · Feb 25

It's also obvs morally bankrupt to take the money from the aid budget

David Rischel @davidrischel.bsky.social · Feb 25

Such a mystery to me why they won't just raise taxes. It's constraining everything they want to do, defence spending seems like the perfect excuse, and they can't possibly believe that they'll be able to win the next election hobbling along like this.

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · Feb 25

I slightly disagree in that basically, I look at those numbers and go 'wow, the opposition is royally fucked if the government does things half-right', then I turn on the TV or sit in the Commons chamber and see government saying 'persistent inflation, public realm fraying, no tax rises needed'.

Dan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · Feb 25

for all that Badenoch appears to be a complete fiasco as leader of the opposition, she is actually only a couple of percentage points behind Labour. I'm not saying the tactical voting assumptions are wrong, but they are becoming very load bearing

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