@richard-d.bsky.social
Emeritus Economics Prof. World traveller. Birdwatcher. 'Cynical liberal'.
It's just possible that is the reason why she's Trump's 'spiritual advisor (sic)'?
‘This is blasphemy’: Trump’s spiritual advisor stuns with clip comparing president to God 😡
www.rawstory.com/paula-white-...
www.rawstory.com/paula-white-...
‘This is blasphemy’: Trump’s spiritual advisor stuns with clip comparing president to God
Prominent journalist Wajahat Ali fired off at President Donald Trump Friday after video resurfaced of Paula White – the White House spiritual adviser – comparing Trump to God.“To say no to President T...
www.rawstory.com
December 26, 2025 at 5:45 PM
It's just possible that is the reason why she's Trump's 'spiritual advisor (sic)'?
That's what happens when you have a lawyer as PM. In Sir Humphrey's day it was Royal Commissions. They took even longer but lawyers' fees were less.
The government’s announcement of seven new inquiries this year means a record 27 are currently underway
They're costing more too - since 2005, completed inquiries have cost over £730m. The Covid-19 Inquiry alone has spent £192m and will soon surpass the record £200m spent on the Saville Inquiry
They're costing more too - since 2005, completed inquiries have cost over £730m. The Covid-19 Inquiry alone has spent £192m and will soon surpass the record £200m spent on the Saville Inquiry
December 19, 2025 at 2:58 PM
That's what happens when you have a lawyer as PM. In Sir Humphrey's day it was Royal Commissions. They took even longer but lawyers' fees were less.
Are they really freaked out by standard Putin sabre-rattling (see also Trump). Normal playbook....
I don't think Tolkien had the EU in mind when he wrote the Ents, but he could have been...
Putin’s retaliation threat over frozen assets rattles EU capitals www.ft.com/content/616d...
Putin’s retaliation threat over frozen assets rattles EU capitals www.ft.com/content/616d...
Putin’s retaliation threat over frozen assets rattles EU capitals
Italy, Belgium and Austria worry about Russia moving against their companies
www.ft.com
December 18, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Are they really freaked out by standard Putin sabre-rattling (see also Trump). Normal playbook....
Reposted
Nothing says "smash the political establishment" quite like begging the Prime Minister to put your mates in the unelected House of Lords.
December 11, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Nothing says "smash the political establishment" quite like begging the Prime Minister to put your mates in the unelected House of Lords.
Reposted
Aston Villa’s Goal of the Month contest for August, cancelled because we scored no goals, has more footballing credibility than the FIFA peace prize for Trump.
December 5, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Aston Villa’s Goal of the Month contest for August, cancelled because we scored no goals, has more footballing credibility than the FIFA peace prize for Trump.
The speech - that we are in a difficult situation (leaving aside this partly caused by a recalcitrant Labour Party) - probably not contradicting the OBR. The briefing or leaking by HMT or No10 that the OBR was making increasingly pessimistic forecasts over the budget period was obviously misleading.
OBR board member says Reeves did not mislead public on Budget on.ft.com/3Ka0h3H
December 2, 2025 at 3:00 PM
The speech - that we are in a difficult situation (leaving aside this partly caused by a recalcitrant Labour Party) - probably not contradicting the OBR. The briefing or leaking by HMT or No10 that the OBR was making increasingly pessimistic forecasts over the budget period was obviously misleading.
Reposted
Today at Broomhill Sands there were large expanses of sand at low water. But, still the waders & gulls were constantly disturbed by just a few dogs, so efficient were they at quartering every part of the beach. How do we allow access while protecting nature?
#UKwildlife
@sussexwildlife.bsky.social
#UKwildlife
@sussexwildlife.bsky.social
November 27, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Today at Broomhill Sands there were large expanses of sand at low water. But, still the waders & gulls were constantly disturbed by just a few dogs, so efficient were they at quartering every part of the beach. How do we allow access while protecting nature?
#UKwildlife
@sussexwildlife.bsky.social
#UKwildlife
@sussexwildlife.bsky.social
Brilliant. As ever. Kamala Harris...storming the Capitol...
Auntie In The Dock: my SKETCH of Today in People Who Love The BBC And Definitely Didn't Leak Anything To The Telegraph.
Auntie in the dock | Robert Hutton | The Critic Magazine
“I have been defined by these two years at Number 10,” Robbie Gibb complained, sounding for all the world like the chap in the joke who only shagged one sheep. How dare anyone suggest that this…
thecritic.co.uk
November 25, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Brilliant. As ever. Kamala Harris...storming the Capitol...
Good thread. As ever. Reforming council tax becomes harder the longer you defer it. See also almost every major tax reform, local authority and police allocation formulae etc.
These reports the Government could revalue council tax bands F, G and H don't make sense to me. Here's what could actually be going on:
November 25, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Good thread. As ever. Reforming council tax becomes harder the longer you defer it. See also almost every major tax reform, local authority and police allocation formulae etc.
Colombia. Feel free to insert your own caption.
November 19, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Colombia. Feel free to insert your own caption.
Reposted
A reminder: Tariffs are a regressive tax. The anti-Robin Hood.
Trump's current tariff settings effectively impose a tax rate on low-income households that's roughly TRIPLE that on high-income folks. That's not the way taxes are supposed to work.
[source: budgetlab.yale.edu/research/sta...
Trump's current tariff settings effectively impose a tax rate on low-income households that's roughly TRIPLE that on high-income folks. That's not the way taxes are supposed to work.
[source: budgetlab.yale.edu/research/sta...
November 18, 2025 at 11:59 PM
A reminder: Tariffs are a regressive tax. The anti-Robin Hood.
Trump's current tariff settings effectively impose a tax rate on low-income households that's roughly TRIPLE that on high-income folks. That's not the way taxes are supposed to work.
[source: budgetlab.yale.edu/research/sta...
Trump's current tariff settings effectively impose a tax rate on low-income households that's roughly TRIPLE that on high-income folks. That's not the way taxes are supposed to work.
[source: budgetlab.yale.edu/research/sta...
More extraordinary nonsense from the narcissistic hater of a free press.
Trump suggests Khashoggi had it coming: "You're mentioning someone that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happen. But he knew nothing about it. You don't have to embarrass our guest."
November 18, 2025 at 7:50 PM
More extraordinary nonsense from the narcissistic hater of a free press.
Reposted
'They were those like Sir Oswald Mosley who were fascinated by the spectacle of brutal power. They would like to use it themselves. They grovelled to Nazi dictatorship in order that they could make people in their turn grovel to them'
Winston Churchill, 1936
Winston Churchill, 1936
Conservative Shadow Culture Secretary Nigel Huddleston tells GB News that the BBC should "grovel" to Trump.
Amazing how many British 'patriots' are spending their time telling our national broadcaster to prostrate itself before a hostile foreign leader
Amazing how many British 'patriots' are spending their time telling our national broadcaster to prostrate itself before a hostile foreign leader
November 11, 2025 at 12:23 PM
'They were those like Sir Oswald Mosley who were fascinated by the spectacle of brutal power. They would like to use it themselves. They grovelled to Nazi dictatorship in order that they could make people in their turn grovel to them'
Winston Churchill, 1936
Winston Churchill, 1936
Of course it would be interesting, relative to the pre-Brexit papers, to calculate the counterfactuals had we pursued a less stupid Brexit than the Johnson&Frost fiasco.
Headline from a serious and long working paper on the economic impact of Brexit. Possible that this has been feeding into OBR and HMT discussions?
November 10, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Of course it would be interesting, relative to the pre-Brexit papers, to calculate the counterfactuals had we pursued a less stupid Brexit than the Johnson&Frost fiasco.
Reposted
Headline from a serious and long working paper on the economic impact of Brexit. Possible that this has been feeding into OBR and HMT discussions?
November 10, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Headline from a serious and long working paper on the economic impact of Brexit. Possible that this has been feeding into OBR and HMT discussions?
Reposted
Glad that someone has finally taken responsibility for the appalling assault on democracy that was the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Slightly confused that it's the Director-General of the BBC, but what do I know?
Slightly confused that it's the Director-General of the BBC, but what do I know?
November 9, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Glad that someone has finally taken responsibility for the appalling assault on democracy that was the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Slightly confused that it's the Director-General of the BBC, but what do I know?
Slightly confused that it's the Director-General of the BBC, but what do I know?
Reposted
Poverty and death in the wealthiest of nations
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
2 studies are reminders of interplay between poverty, economic policy snd heealth outcomes
Swift
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Colvin
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
2 studies are reminders of interplay between poverty, economic policy snd heealth outcomes
Swift
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Colvin
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Poverty and death in the wealthiest of nations
The USA is a rich nation in poor health. Until about 1980, the mortality rate differed
little from other high-income nations; by 2019, it was 24% higher than peer nations.1
What happened in the interi...
www.thelancet.com
November 9, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Poverty and death in the wealthiest of nations
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
2 studies are reminders of interplay between poverty, economic policy snd heealth outcomes
Swift
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Colvin
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
2 studies are reminders of interplay between poverty, economic policy snd heealth outcomes
Swift
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Colvin
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Reposted
1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️
November 9, 2025 at 9:23 AM
1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️
Reposted
Two donors to Nigel Farage’s partner Laure Ferrari convicted of fraud, money-laundering and forgery. Belgian court rules that Daniel Pawlowiec and Marian Szolucha illegally funnelled over £100,000—largely in public funds—to the think tank she ran.
Two donors to think tank of Nigel Farage’s partner convicted of fraud
Laure Ferrari served as executive director of the organisation, which went into liquidation after a European Commission anti-fraud investigation
www.thetimes.com
November 7, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Two donors to Nigel Farage’s partner Laure Ferrari convicted of fraud, money-laundering and forgery. Belgian court rules that Daniel Pawlowiec and Marian Szolucha illegally funnelled over £100,000—largely in public funds—to the think tank she ran.
Reposted
I note that many of the most vocal who had much to say within minutes of Saturday’s appalling events are rather quieter today. But they’ll be back. I wrote about the radical right misinformation machine centred on X in @theipaper.com inews.co.uk/opinion/a-su...
Lewis Goodall on X: "Train worker hero credited with saving lives in the Huntingdon knife attack named as Samir Zitouni. https://t.co/rFIGBZjfqt" / X
Train worker hero credited with saving lives in the Huntingdon knife attack named as Samir Zitouni. https://t.co/rFIGBZjfqt
x.com
November 4, 2025 at 12:54 PM
I note that many of the most vocal who had much to say within minutes of Saturday’s appalling events are rather quieter today. But they’ll be back. I wrote about the radical right misinformation machine centred on X in @theipaper.com inews.co.uk/opinion/a-su...
Reposted
The Washington Post thinks the White House Ballroom is a splendid idea and anyone who thinks otherwise is a NIMBY. In other news Post owner Jeff Bezos is helping to pay for the Ballroom
October 27, 2025 at 8:09 AM
The Washington Post thinks the White House Ballroom is a splendid idea and anyone who thinks otherwise is a NIMBY. In other news Post owner Jeff Bezos is helping to pay for the Ballroom
Reposted
“The Russian can see us just from the other side of the river, and a minute later they hit you - and they are specifically targeting residential areas, kindergartens, hospitals.”
read this horrific report from Kherson:
open.substack.com/pub/twogrump...
read this horrific report from Kherson:
open.substack.com/pub/twogrump...
Talking to Ukrainians under the rain of Russian bombs
Far away from the futile Trump-Putin noise (will he? won’t he? why didn't he?), Ukrainians are being targeted and killed every day. I talked to friends and acquaintances in Kherson, a frontline city.
open.substack.com
October 27, 2025 at 9:12 AM
“The Russian can see us just from the other side of the river, and a minute later they hit you - and they are specifically targeting residential areas, kindergartens, hospitals.”
read this horrific report from Kherson:
open.substack.com/pub/twogrump...
read this horrific report from Kherson:
open.substack.com/pub/twogrump...
Reposted
The reshaping of the playing field is underway
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/u...
Justice Department Will Monitor Elections in California and New Jersey
www.nytimes.com
October 25, 2025 at 7:47 AM
The reshaping of the playing field is underway
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/u...
Reposted
Orr sneered at British people who support a democratic ally invaded by fascists as suffering from 'Ukraine brain'. And he did so in autocratic Hungary, whose approach to the war he praised.
www.desmog.com/2025/08/07/j...
www.desmog.com/2025/08/07/j...
October 19, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Orr sneered at British people who support a democratic ally invaded by fascists as suffering from 'Ukraine brain'. And he did so in autocratic Hungary, whose approach to the war he praised.
www.desmog.com/2025/08/07/j...
www.desmog.com/2025/08/07/j...
Reposted
Zelenskyy is taken aback by a question from a right-wing propagandist who asks him what concessions he's willing to make to Putin
October 17, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Zelenskyy is taken aback by a question from a right-wing propagandist who asks him what concessions he's willing to make to Putin