Simon Parker

Fiscal devolution is good. It means councils have control of their finances. Austerity becomes a local choice. And it's associated with both higher growth and lower regional inequality. Lovely. Now can we do it pls? www.oecd.org/en/publicati...

There's a certain genre of skeet which is just an X breakup guy drunkenly reading his former girlfriend's socials. Look what they're saying on X now! Can you see what she said? That's outrageous. No I'm not going to say anything - I'm dunking on her here.

I've always wondered why we still use imperial measures for a handful of very specific things - drinks and height being the obvious ones. I don't really understand feet and inches but they're the only units I can use for height.

Loads and loads. I grew up in the 80s and 90s. Our food today is better, there is vastly less homophobia and sexism, school buildings aren't crumbling, we have a cleaner energy grid, all the music in the world is on my phone for £16 a month.

Horace Goes Skiing.

Yep this. Wise, sensible moderates love dead radicals but deplore the living.

See this is really interesting. We keep being told the rich will flee a wealth tax. Zuckerberg considered it, but did not do it. I'd say that's more evidence that people will stay and pay. No one gets mega wealthy so they can show off their mansion in Mississipi.

I've had all the Xboxs. Looks like it might be time for a change.

I found this quite compelling. I've been involved in a few local government property deals, and you do the best you can with the assets you have in the conditions you find yourself in, which are usually suboptimal.

Create a lager and lime membership tier and we'll talk.

There is too much polling.

No no no. This isn't a TV show but a prime comic strip idea for @vizcomic.bsky.social.

I don't think Russian interference swung the vote. I think we probably do want to ask why Russia was so keen on us leaving. It isn't because they wanted us to take back control.

I think this actually matters. To my mind faith precedes politics. God doesn't endorse manifestos. We're instructed to love one another. This isn't an identity, nation or platform. It's a point to reason from. And I humbly suggest that actually practising your faith will help.

You don't say... www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

Rum.

What is the movie that came out before you were born that you’ve watched the most times?

REBEL CHEESEMAKERS www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Local news at its finest. www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/2660102...

Devolution! No autonomy! Only devolution!

Right lads. Downloaded the new China Mieville. See you in January.

People earning at this level pay a shedload of tax. So they should. But there's no reason to structure it so stupidly, in a way that discourages women in particular from returning to work. Why does someone on £100k pay a higher marginal rate than someone on £500k? It all makes no sense.

Your regular reminder that Cambridge University has been investigating James Orr for about a month, and it’s all gone a bit quiet. www.varsity.co.uk/news/32175

Whether it's Ed Miliband or Zac Polanski, the media goes to great lengths to try and prove that the Jewish politicians of the left aren't really Jewish.

Co‑operatives deliver good growth – and we can prove it. Our Co‑operative and Mutual Economy 2026 report is out. Co‑ops are: 📈 more than 2x as likely to survive five years 💷 4x more likely to pay the real Living Wage 📍 more likely to be based outside London and the South East 👉 www.uk.coop/economy

A POLITICIAN JUST MADE AN ACTUAL CHOICE.

Yeah but did it have to be The Farm? Among the crapper Madchester acts IMHO.

Burnham wants a new generation of council housing. But what are local authorities building already? Are they anything like ready to step up to that job? The answers can be found in my latest survey of every council in Britain: www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/bigg...

Well I've just discovered a small tax liability that has been following me around since 2022 because HMRC's amazing system hadn't managed to issue a bill. I've filled in at least two self-assessments over this period. Sigh.

Over the summer, I re-ran a few of the questions that we ran previously in 2022, '24 and '25 about how people perceive their local area (polling by @yougov.co.uk).

We need to raise more tax, not less, and you can't get it all from people on £100k.

We starve councils of funding and power for 16 years then say the answer to their problems is even more central government. Really, think tanks, we can be a bit more creative. If Westminster has £9.2bn to nationalise social care, then it also has £9.2bn that could just fund councils properly.

I come from a thousand years of West Country peasantry. If you want to talk about blut and erde I am your absolute boy. And if Englishness was an ethnicity I think I would know about it.

Ok I've just read yet another report saying UK pension funds should be heavily incentivised to invest in domestic business and infrastructure. My question is why they don't do this already? The obvious answer is that British business doesn't deliver good enough returns?

The British invented slavery so they could have the pleasure of abolishing it.

I think we know who the real patriots are here.

Politics atm is either cakeism (you don't have to choose) or scapegoating (a group you don't like - the rich/disabled/immigrants - will pay). They're both dead ends. I'm no fan of fiscal discipline for its own sake, but we really do need to prioritise, and that means choices.

Also as someone who lives in a market town in an otherwise very rural part of Essex... I am confused to learn that the main issue affecting us is regulating blood sports.

The fair funding review penalised places that have kept their council tax low, but stops the losers from raising their tax to compensate. I think that's a mistake. Time to scrap the 5% referendum limit.

The latest on that plan to make kids take GCSEs that reflect the local economy... www.theguardian.com/society/2026...