alina
@ramshackle78.bsky.social
530 followers 2.1K following 3.9K posts
EM doc. Politics nerd 🇷🇴🇬🇧🇫🇷 European at core
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ramshackle78.bsky.social
Oh absolutely. One of the strongest arguments for NHS is how you can deliver at a fraction of the cost because of it being NHS in a country of 70mil. The weak and nostalgic obsession with 'world-beating' is so unseemly from British pov. But maybe this is old fashioned way of thinking on my part
ramshackle78.bsky.social
I played a few times with the IFS Be a Chancellor tool and every time I decreased the NHS budget but could put a precise figure on it.
Is there any literature on how £/QALY interacts with NHS budget?
ramshackle78.bsky.social
I think the fancy term is true opportunity cost.
Now it would be revolutionary if Vallance & co wd sort out the things that scramble the implementation. Just saying 'give me more money' is not even thinking, let alone driving change
ramshackle78.bsky.social
Are you thinking that there are plenty of interventions (below a lower threshold) that are not fully implemented but if they would be they wd improve population outcomes & NHS productivity?
Kind like when you don't have silly money you're more efficiently spending it?
Reposted by alina
tobyn.bsky.social
Real wealth per adult around the same as it was 15yrs ago — unless you're a 55yo or older.

Chart suggests the bulk of passive wealth gains have accrued to the old.
The closer you get to being aged 60, the greater your wealth, on average.
Reposted by alina
tobyn.bsky.social
After 80yrs of declining wealth inequality, top 1% and top 10% wealth share in the UK has flatlined for the past 40yrs.

via @resfoundation.bsky.social www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications...
Blue line shows share of household wealth held by top 1%; red by top 10%.

The chart shows declining wealth inequality from 1900-1980 and a flatlining since then.
Reposted by alina
jamessmithrf.bsky.social
This is the quintessential read on household wealth inequality Britain - is well worth your time.
resfoundation.bsky.social
🚨 New research published today

'Before the fall' looks at what has happened to the distribution of household wealth in Britain and the impact on families.

Read it here 👉 buff.ly/Ya8kInK
Senior Economist Molly Broome: 
"Wealth gaps in Britain are now so large that a typical full-time employee saving all their earnings across their entire working life would still not be able to reach the top of the wealth ladder. These gaps are doubly concerning as wealth mobility in Britain is low – people that start life wealthy tend to stay wealthy, and vice versa.
Rising house prices and changes in the value of pension promises account for most of the growth in wealth gaps since the early 2010s, rather than any active behaviour on the part of individuals, such as buying homes or acquiring new assets.
Soaring wealth and an acute need for more revenue has prompted fresh talk of wealth taxes ahead of the Budget next month. But with property and pensions now representing 80 per cent of the growing bulk of household wealth, we need to be honest that higher wealth taxes are likely to fall on pensioners, Southern homeowners or their families, rather than just being paid by the super-rich."
ramshackle78.bsky.social
This is true. Bloomberg on the other hand has been talking up gold for at least 2y
notayesmansecon.bsky.social
The Financial Times has been claiminng for more than a decade that Gold is a bad investment.
It also supported the Gordon Brown Gold sale which has cost the UK a fortune.
financialtimes.com
Prices have doubled in less than two years as central banks stockpile bullion and investors pour in to gold funds on.ft.com/4o9cCTN
ramshackle78.bsky.social
Oh no, now Trump is going to see this and we’ll get another massively cringe imitation.
wmarybeard.bsky.social
Tomorrow on Instant Classics (tinyurl.com/4s6vr4vp) we're looking at the long and complicated history of the toga. You'll never look on a toga party in thesame way again. That's FDR having a toga birthday party.
Reposted by alina
joeyheroin.bsky.social
whenever i visit private schools they are awash with the arts. from theatre to painting to music to poetry. it's weighted the same as maths, english or science. poor people dig roads.
ramshackle78.bsky.social
2 words: vice/virtue signalling for the lucrative future career on the international maga circuit. She’s been doing this for ages now.
Maybe even from the beginning.
ramshackle78.bsky.social
I thought it was obvious that’s why Trump was talking about giving them. And not because he cares about helping, just he wants everybody to buy US fossil fuels so needs Russia’s supply to go down.

And I think Ukraine knows this
mtsavill.bsky.social
This is different from the impact the current deep strike campaign is having on Russian energy production, where the increasing volume and rate of Ukrainian attacks is beginning to bite.
Reposted by alina
chadbourn.bsky.social
Tanks on lawn metaphor: the Lib Dems have parked a truck with a video screen outside the Conservative Party conference, with LD leader Ed Davey urging those members who reject the divisive politics of Badenoch and Farage to defect.
ramshackle78.bsky.social
So what? What matters is the second round and on that RN will always lose on the presidential
europeelects.bsky.social
France, Toluna-Harris poll:

Scenario: Attal (RE-RE) and Bardella (RN-PfE) run

Presidential election

Bardella (RN-PfE): 35% (+4)
Mélenchon (LFI-LEFT): 14%
Glucksmann (PS/PP-S&D): 14% (+3)
...

+/- vs. 19 May 2025

Fieldwork: 07 September 2025
Sample size: 1,124

➤ europeelects.eu/france
ramshackle78.bsky.social
I can’t believe that minister are falling for this. Drug companies have, since forever, tried to get more money & threatened to leave NHS which they never do because the NHS tit never dries up
stevensenior.bsky.social
"Lord Vallance, the science minister, is leading efforts in government to increase medicines spending, which has fallen to 9 per cent of the health budget from 12 per cent a decade ago"

Bonus hot take: the amount we spend on medicine is not a good indication of how much we invest in health.
Reposted by alina
mehdirhasan.bsky.social
"Pentagon Leakers Practice Beating Polygraphs Amid Trump's 'Idiotic' Leak Crackdown"

Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are waging a war on leakers – but ‘this stuff only works if you let it get to you,’ one Pentagon official tells Zeteo.

Absolute must-read from @swin24.bsky.social:
Pentagon Leakers Practice Beating Polygraphs Amid Trump's 'Idiotic' Leak Crackdown
The president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are waging a war on leakers – but ‘this stuff only works if you let it get to you,’ says one Pentagon official.
zeteo.com
Reposted by alina
dhnexon.bsky.social
"The same was true of interwar fascists. They disagreed about a great deal, including the ideological centrality of economic corporatism and racism (fascism appealed to audiences outside of the "white world, including, famously, some Indian opponents of British imperial rule)."
Reposted by alina
justinscasey.bsky.social
Debates over typical labels (radical or extreme right esp.) gloss over the fluidity, overlap, and cross-pollination between them. Eco's concept of Eternal Fascism - emphasizing how certain ideas can clump together and snowball into fascism - allows us to imagine how these barriers are dissolving
dhnexon.bsky.social
🧵 Fascism is an ideology. The government is fascist. But it's an unconsolidated competitive authoritarian regime, not a totalitarian one.

@justinscasey.bsky.social and I discuss this, and the heterogeneity of interwar fascism, here 👇
Reposted by alina
professorstas.bsky.social
Knowing that they have the full support of the federal government, the Proud Boys are going to try invading Portland again.

Since Portland residents won’t passively accept it, this attack will only serve to reinforce the fascist narrative that the city is a war zone.
alkapdc.bsky.social
On Friday, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio announced on his podcast that because "it seems like [the] Portland Police Bureau is not doing their job," "the Proud Boys will be coming back to Portland" in "one capacity or another."
ramshackle78.bsky.social
Another bonkers 'made in USA' story
newsguy.bsky.social
Court documents say 200+ "fully functional" handmade grenades were found inside a tent on the steps of St. Matthew's Cathedral in Washington, DC, before hundreds gathered for the annual Red Mass signaling the start of the new SCOTUS session. wjla.com/news/local/dc-destru...
More than 200 'grenades' found in tent outside DC cathedral after man's arrest
At least 200 destructive devices were found inside the tent of a New Jersey man arrested after he set up a tent on the steps of the St. Matthew's Cathedral in N
wjla.com
Reposted by alina
hetanshah.bsky.social
Great column from @sarahoconnorft.ft.com where she casts her forensic eye over the introduction of collective bargaining in the social care sector. TL:DR it could work given adult care is a weird market largely paid for by local authorities; but as usual will there be enough cash? on.ft.com/4mSfeVm
The most radical Labour plan you haven’t heard about
Collective bargaining in social care could save an ailing sector — but only if it’s done properly
on.ft.com
ramshackle78.bsky.social
Yeah, I hope good people are encourage to come forward and help other campaigns.

This should be a campaign that gets studied & taught. So many 'innovations' and things done right.
Lots of people blinded to how good campaign is because they don't agree with Mamdani on this or that. More fool them
ramshackle78.bsky.social
But there's plenty that are not young. They are certainly more diverse.
And I don't even think it's just that Mamdani is progressive. I think himself and/or whoever is running his campaign is good at recognising talent and deploying it.
And I still think 'consultants' screwed other campaigns
ramshackle78.bsky.social
It's not just about MAGA crowd (about which obvs you're correct). Trump wouldn't have won or been close to winning if only MAGA voted for him.
All the efforts about for the non-MAGA who voted for him or GOP or those who just absteined or still do