Mark Bassett
@markbassett.bsky.social
Reposted by Mark Bassett
Mark Carney's speech really is terrific: full text is here and very much worth your time.
The Carney doctrine
Open comment thread on the PM's Davos speech
paulwells.substack.com
January 20, 2026 at 5:52 PM
Mark Carney's speech really is terrific: full text is here and very much worth your time.
Reposted by Mark Bassett
Maybe Greenland could invade us instead?
January 20, 2026 at 11:16 AM
Maybe Greenland could invade us instead?
Reposted by Mark Bassett
This is how Chris Mason, like a child filled with wonder, described "the choreography and theatre that surrounds a Budget" in Feb 2024, when a male Tory Chancellor was in post.
"Plans, or even just options, can be floated... Reaction to them can be tested. Opponents can be teased or wrongfooted." 👀
"Plans, or even just options, can be floated... Reaction to them can be tested. Opponents can be teased or wrongfooted." 👀
December 2, 2025 at 9:29 PM
This is how Chris Mason, like a child filled with wonder, described "the choreography and theatre that surrounds a Budget" in Feb 2024, when a male Tory Chancellor was in post.
"Plans, or even just options, can be floated... Reaction to them can be tested. Opponents can be teased or wrongfooted." 👀
"Plans, or even just options, can be floated... Reaction to them can be tested. Opponents can be teased or wrongfooted." 👀
Reposted by Mark Bassett
So much for all that bleating about being misled by the Treasury from the BBC's political editor Chris Mason .....
www.ft.com/content/48c2...
www.ft.com/content/48c2...
UK Politics: OBR says Reeves did not mislead public over Budget forecasts
Fiscal watchdog faces Treasury committee after accidental publication of key report prompted chair to resign
www.ft.com
December 2, 2025 at 12:19 PM
So much for all that bleating about being misled by the Treasury from the BBC's political editor Chris Mason .....
www.ft.com/content/48c2...
www.ft.com/content/48c2...
Reposted by Mark Bassett
Think this is exactly right - political journalism that is completely abstracted from policy, which was not the norm before 2017, has become the default. Impossible to have a serious attempt to either shrink what the state does or widen the tax base (have to do at least one) on that basis.
All this budget news, claims, counter claims is confusing, but two things of consequence.
1. We're all talking about that, not any financial benefits (or losses) of the budget.
2. Yet more focus on the very weird few weeks and politics of it all. Starting to feel dangerously like a norm.
1. We're all talking about that, not any financial benefits (or losses) of the budget.
2. Yet more focus on the very weird few weeks and politics of it all. Starting to feel dangerously like a norm.
December 1, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Think this is exactly right - political journalism that is completely abstracted from policy, which was not the norm before 2017, has become the default. Impossible to have a serious attempt to either shrink what the state does or widen the tax base (have to do at least one) on that basis.
Reposted by Mark Bassett
Watched BBC 6 o clock news. Just a completely unserious broadcast. Chris Mason, acting like a children's entertainer, giving a prolonged impenetrable editorial. Not a whiff of informative content about the Budget or what it means for the country. Just playschool blah blah bollocks.
December 1, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Watched BBC 6 o clock news. Just a completely unserious broadcast. Chris Mason, acting like a children's entertainer, giving a prolonged impenetrable editorial. Not a whiff of informative content about the Budget or what it means for the country. Just playschool blah blah bollocks.
Reposted by Mark Bassett
Chloe Kelly’s goal celebration face is the exact look my sister used to give me behind our mum’s back when I was being told off
July 23, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Chloe Kelly’s goal celebration face is the exact look my sister used to give me behind our mum’s back when I was being told off
Wolf Hall. What a final episode. And it did justice to the book which was also magnificent. BBC should do A Place of Greater Safety. The equal of Wolf Hall. A younger Rylance would have been a great Robespierre.
December 15, 2024 at 10:30 PM
Wolf Hall. What a final episode. And it did justice to the book which was also magnificent. BBC should do A Place of Greater Safety. The equal of Wolf Hall. A younger Rylance would have been a great Robespierre.