Pinned
If there are not more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy then it is our duty to create them
David Algonquin
24K posts
- There is a Nobel Prize on offer for the economist who can crack the conundrum of why adding huge numbers of low-wage migrant workers from low-skill, low-trust countries does not result in higher aggregate productivityCanada’s recent population boom has not come with productivity gains
- I am watching Rings of Power with a kind of macabre fascination, trying work out how Amazon ended up allowing a clearly 3rd rate creative team to set fire to over a billion dollars, and how after failing spectacularly the same team were then allowed to make a second seasonThe Rings of Power really is an amazing achievement. A mega budget Tolkien adaptation so bad that even lifetime Tolkien obsessives can’t stand to watch it, I’m not sure I thought it possible
- "Interesting" vox pop yesterday on Radio 4 re Farage's asylum reforms "I'm horrified, he seems to forget the fact we are all human beings and whether I was born in Birkenhead or Mogadishu is irrelevant, doesn't matter" Interviewer: "And you used to work for the Home Office?"
- If Labour do actually follow through on "lol just legalise building stuff" you're going to be out of power for 15+ yearsToday, Rachel Reeves announced Labour’s changes to planning and housing - and name-checked a proposed site at Worcestershire Parkway within my Droitwich and Evesham constituency. During the election campaign I expressed grave concerns about Labour's instincts to make top-down
00:00 - The US CDC is going to recommend that 'essential workers' are vaccinated before the over-65s, despite their *own modelling* showing this will result in more deaths. Why? They say it is unethical to prioritise the elderly because they are not racially diverse enough. THREAD.
- In defending their new sentencing guidelines, judges seem to be suggesting that immigration has rendered British society so culturally and morally illegible that dispensing justice now involves the commissioning of bespoke ethnographic research
- If you've enjoyed the political effects of having an outsized generation of old people, you're gonna love having an outsized generation of *childless* old people
- This must be one of the worst pieces of tax policy design ever. I know people who have dropped down to a 4-day week or, if self-employed, take on less work to avoid this trapReplying to @DanNeidleThe 20,000% spike at £100,000 is absolutely not a joke - someone earning £99,999.99 with two children under three in London will lose an immediate £20k if they earn a penny more. The practical effect is clearer if we plot gross vs net income:
- There is a certain pleasure in a really grim English day. Ideally 7 or 8 degrees, unbroken crypt-like gloom and hammering it down all day.
- The deputy director of DBT's Heavy Industry Engagement Team arrives at Scunthorpe steelworks (2025, colourised)
NEW - hearing that British Government officials are now at Scunthorpe to take control of the steel plant - The 26,715 Nigerians given health and social care visas in the last year (mostly carers) brought 45,203 dependents with them
- Jonathan Ashworth believed in multiculturalism, but did multiculturalism believe in him?
01:53“She crossed the Atlantic, and she made a speech about multiculturalism as a failure” Jonathan Ashworth expresses his anger at Suella Braverman’s comments about “failed” multiculturalism in Leicester, and that he’s proud to represent the city #bbcqt bbc.in/46i5fks
