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jamesomalley.co.uk
@Psythor on Twitter. Freelance writer covering politics/tech/nerd stuff. Read my content: takes.jamesomalley.co.uk #FREETHEPAF
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I've mentioned this before, but he talked about reading Jilly Cooper – who writes books for mums – when surely young Rishi was playing Goldeneye and Sim City 2000!

"I think I was surprised when I entered Parliament to find just how many MPs seem to regard it as their fundamental duty in life to say 'no' to everything." – Sir Simon Clarke on this week's episode of The Abundance Agenda. Listen to our full chat: www.abundancepod.com/p/the-nimbys...

It's just infuriating how Greens become big spending hawks on nuclear when *what they want* requires an absolutely massive increase in spending. (As well as a fantasy never-going-to-happen complete transformation of the built environment and voters' political preferences.)

ICYMI:

I know it is spending review week, but it is strange the government is seemingly piling every conceivable announcement related to my interests into this one week. Sizewell, driverless cars, I believe something on buses is imminent? The only thing missing is the Postcode Address File.

Good to see Ed Miliband preaching the gospel of energy abundance! ☢️☢️☢️☢️☢️

Tourist tax is a good idea that won't affect visitors numbers as no one ever remembers it. It's just a thing you discover exists when you check in at your hotel and by that point it's too late.

YES!

Parliament is currently voting on an amendment by a bunch of Tory MPs to... block solar development.

Evening crew! This week’s pod!

Just let us dual boot MacOS on iPad! #AppleEvent

Now the working day is done you can listen to this week’s pod!

This week's pod is a good one, if I do say so myself!

New episode of THE ABUNDANCE AGENDA podcast! This week: 🤬 The NIMBYs are striking back 📰 The Guardian's weird assault on the Planning Bill 🌳 And former Tory cabinet minister Sir Simon Clarke tells us why he fears his party is "pointless" And more! Listen: www.abundancepod.com/p/the-nimbys...

New episode of THE ABUNDANCE AGENDA podcast! This week: 🤬 The NIMBYs are striking back 📰 The Guardian's weird assault on the Planning Bill 🌳 And former Tory cabinet minister Sir Simon Clarke tells us why he fears his party is "pointless" And more! Listen: www.abundancepod.com/p/the-nimbys...

She's going to... reduce the number of products Britain sells, put Britain's core software on a competing platform, and orchestrate the creation of the single most successful consumer product of all time?

This has taken up full-time residence in my brain since I saw it. In the 2018 Taron Egerton Robin Hood, he gets a literal “Draft Notice”… to fight in the Third Crusade. The filmmakers genuinely think it was called “the Third Crusade” at the time (and they had "Draft Notices").

I am very sceptical that this will turn out to be a massive conspiracy / deliberate attempt to steal data. I know we all hate Musk, but I'd still bet this is more just about bypassing annoying security stuff.

Matt Goodwin's ideas are a dead end (and Neil O'Brien's too I guess). takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/matt-goodw...

Premise here is that there is no majority British culture which Kemi Badenoch or Rishi Sunak can ever be part of, ie majority culture is defined in essentialist ethnic terms, so that British-born minorities, even once they are 2nd/3rd British-born generation are by definition inherently less British

Catch up on the pod before a new episode drops tomorrow!

Quite apart from anything else, these guys are EXACTLY CORRECT about the definition of staycation.

Resharing cos I think it's a pretty good discussion, and because it's worth thinking about housing investment and industrial strategy ahead of the spending review

💥 BREAKING: Ukrainian drones flew out of grain train car hatches and destroyed 13 Russian tanks and more than a 100 armored vehicles and other equipment being transported by the Russian train in occupied southern Ukraine. The hatches appear to have been opened by remote control, again.

Mountainhead (2025): The Perfect Dark to Succession’s Goldeneye 64. Very enjoyable watch, and absolutely nails the language of the accelerationist tech right. Jesse Armstrong has been listening to a lot of podcasts.

Here's the nightmare scenario for anyone who uses a password manager, 2FA, and other modern online security tools. https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2022/06/ive-locked-myself-out-of-my-digital-life/

This is fun on the madness of modern press tours www.vulture.com/article/new-...

Fascinates me how at some point a large portion of the progressive left decided that the answer to racial stereotyping was to lean into them and make bizarre bullshit explanations up

Do I have any comment on the Parthenon Marbles? Well, it's a big relief!

The NIMBYs have learned to use AI 😩 (Odds and Ends #68) takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/the-nimbys...

Really, really want to wade in on the digital ID discourse but I have too much to do. You will have to wait until next week for me to officially decree the proposals Good or Bad.

"[T]he cost of living crisis is the result of a chronic lack of abundance. If we prioritise achieving other goals over boosting our productive capacity, households will continue to feel squeezed in their everyday spending" 100%, @britishprogress.bsky.social! britishprogress.org/articles/the...

Matt Goodwin's ideas are a dead end takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/matt-goodw...

ICYMI:

Post of the day.

> @dkthomp.bsky.social