Steffan

Worth reading this New Yorker piece, interviewing Michael Walzer over the course of Gaza. Nice line here too archive.ph/zpq4q

Can't wait for them to apply the Badenoch rule of five generation ancestry and then start playing exclusively Welsh folk music.

If we in Wales want a vibrant cultural scene, the best thing we could do is have cheap rents, by building lots of new housing.

This cost £1.75 in 1977 which works out at about £14 in today's money. Love the dedication as well.

It also ducked all the actually difficult decisions while sounding like it was making them. The fun of muesli and teetotalism with the health benefits of a booze, fags and coke binge.

This is a poor take that suggests Owen Jones doesn't know much about Russia in the 1990s, including Russia-US or wider Russia-West relations in the 1990s. By giving only one part of the story, he is repeating the Russian political elite's self-serving line that it was all the West's fault. Long 🧵

Lots of talk of growth ahead of the Budget, as if it were a baroque puzzle. Our problem is basic. It's that we no longer support the things which facilitate growth: Europe, immigration, higher education, tax simplification, policy stability. These are all choices and could stop making them anytime.

Up next: why the New Model Army is Nasebymaxxing the Royalist cucks

Worth a read. I think my eyebrows actually did shoot up

Pretty weird article in the Economist on (and against) free public transport. Immediately after saying it has no effect on increasing usage, it blames it for causing major increase in delays due to... increased usage. It goes on to say it doesn't help poor people because rich bankers could benefit

The gaps in reading scores between England and Wales are incredibly stark Average reading scores in Wales are lower than for disadvantaged pupils in England The least disadvantaged group in Wales scores below the average for England @theifs.bsky.social @tom-richmond.com @samfr.bsky.social

They'll be a lot of chatter about England's PISA results this morning, but we need to talk just as much about Wales. They rejected phonics and knowledge-rich curricula in favour of 'areas of learning', 'skills suites' and barely any testing. Wales is now 40 points below England in every domain.

*When unions increase wages, who pays?* It's normally hard to answer this Q: unions don't behave randomly, they respond to firm conditions, & firm data is hard to get. Our setting in Norway tackles both... 🧵on our paper (@microsamonomics.bsky.social Alex Willen) academic.oup.com/qje/advance-...

"The study was the first to show that misogyny was not an isolated prejudice, but a robust, cross-cutting predictor of violent extremism. "The number one thing predicting whether or not somebody is going to hold extremist attitudes is whether they think violence against women is acceptable,"

This really does look like the Minister had sadly died, rather than... opened a cycle path

Cofnas is obviously a racist, to the extent that if he isn't one then the term has no meaning. Sacking academics for their views - as opposed to research fraud or personal behaviour - isn't a great move though. It's not akin to being a newspaper columnist or party representative.

Another South Wales valley on fire

"I never thought leopards would eat MY face" pleads voter of 'Leopards Eating People's Faces Party', and lifelong winner of 'Tasiest Face!' competition, as chosen by every breed of leopard and big cat in the history of the planet.

It's quite ironic that this "quote" by Darwin is fabricated, and obviously so to anyone who knows anything about Darwin.

It's funny how no-one ever asks where the money is coming from when you announce a cut in immigration.

This is quite a fascinating map, from the perspective of national identity

Pretty much the best indicator of whether someone will be a terrorist isn't religiosity, ethnicity or ideological fervour. It's whether he has a history of domestic violence.

Netanyahu and the pro-Israel right are fine with coddling right-wing antisemites, so long as they are sufficiently pro-Israel. (See: Orbán or Le Pen.) Now, apparently the Jewish left is fine with coddling white nationalists, if they are sufficiently anti-Israel. jewishcurrents.org/curt-mills-a...

I will admit… I probably got this one wrong… then again I didn’t see him being stupid enough to put the most divisive politician possible into an unsackable second most powerful position in the country where she has limited experience… Feels like we’ve been sold the same lies as Starmer…

I'm guilty as charged, your honour.

I have never forgiven Serena Williams for stabbing her older sister in the back and not just conceding every match she played against Venus, as Natural Law must demand.

The only way Britain is ungovernable is that none of the qualities parties - and ultimately voters - look for in leaders relate to actually governing.

In the 1980s, Levi's had an ad campaign where a silent hunk stripped to his boxers in a launderette. The adolescent lust spread across the land. So much so, he released a single. However, the moment he opened his mouth, the vast horniness appeal vanished in an instant. Al Carns is the Levi's guy.

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This reminds me of Golda Meir's response to a proposal for a late night curfew for women to prevent sexual violence. "But it’s the men who are attacking the women. If there’s to be a curfew, let the men stay at home, not the women." www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Please don't make me want Streeting.

They raise money like Stalin, but spend it like Milton Friedman. I'm not certain this is a good combination.

I really don't understand* why the BBC chooses to go for these diminishing headlines that makes the victim look crazy. There was another one about a young woman getting £150k compensation 'after boss misses a meeting'. *(Ok. It's sexism, but still.)

🧵/ How Wales voted at the 2026 Senedd election: our new study based on reanalysing the data behind our successful pre-election MRP identifies the key demographic and political divides behind the new Welsh party system yougov.com/en-gb/articl...

I wonder how far away are we from Farage coming out and saying Mossad stole his shoe.

Asking business to sell their products at a loss makes as much sense as your boss asking you to pay *him* for your work instead of vice-versa.

There are many reasons to criticise Starmer's party, and it was certainly an incoherent project. But to describe the economic policy of a government that has increased borrowing by £100bn and passed the Employment + Renters Rights Acts in this way is risible. www.newstatesman.com/politics/lab...

Social Democrat, Libertarian globalist, unsurprisingly. Pretty sure I'm more Left-wing economically, as I'm basically a Nordic model fan, yet it says Sweden is 'Far Left' - a country that has no minimum wage, and low corporate taxes.

this is why I'm really annoyed by the rayner reporting, it's really easy to read "trusts" and "tax" and assume there's something dodgy at play when this is the absolute bare minimum you need to do if you have a child with a severe disability and any expectation of an inheritance at all

Spare a thought for the future children of Boris's children. Always to be denied high office

There should be a convention that if the party is in government, new leaders should only be chosen by MPs, not party members.

Inside you there are two wolves: