alastairmeeks.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

For those arguing, correctly, that Kemi Badenoch needed to give the speech yesterday that Mel Stride gave, we can see why she didn't. She doesn't agree with it.

submitted 19 hours ago • 0 comments

ID cards shift the relationship between state and citizen towards one of further government control. But I have reluctantly come round to the idea, as a necessity to maintain social cohesion. It would most benefit those who are most on the margin.

submitted 21 hours ago • 2 comments

Few Hamilton by-election thoughts: 1. Expectations matter - this was an area where Labour won a Westminster by-election on a massive swing less than two years ago and won in a general election less than one year ago get Labour’s victory yesterday is a massive shock given poling woes.

submitted 1 day ago • 3 comments

This aged well.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

So how are the British right going to line up? Clearly Nigel Farage will be on team Trump. But which way will Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick jump? Will they both jump the same way?

submitted 1 day ago • 2 comments

Haven’t heard for a while from those people who were confidently insisting that Elon Musk wasn’t really leaving the administration. Perhaps they’re all out for the night.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

A quiet evening then.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

I very much doubt Zia Yusuf's resignation will so much as make the needle flicker. The reaction to it shows, however, that journalists are bored with "Rise of Reform" and are craving a vibe shift.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

I have no idea how Elon Musk thinks he can win a confrontation with Donald Trump. Never has the expression “don’t get high on your own supply” seemed more apt.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

Just what is it about Nigel Farage that he has such bad luck with colleagues falling out with him?

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

The Reform cross-break is fascinating

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

From the dayjob: my thoughts on the government's ideas for consolidating DB pension schemes. www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-wo...

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

In a world with 8 billion people, birth rate drops don't seem particularly scary to me.

submitted 1 day ago • 3 comments

Torsten Bell is occasionally talked about as a future Prime Minister. He has just secured the pensions professionals niche vote. www.gov.uk/government/n...

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Retrofitting theory to facts. Crime is falling, many people have a misty-eyed nostalgia for the past and it's not gaslighting to point out they're wrong. 1/2

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

The band on the Titanic, playing Nearer My God To Thee.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

I'd completely forgotten Mel Stride was Shadow Chancellor.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

James Fenton - Tiananmen

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

I would like to meet a representative of the 4% of current Conservative voters who thinks the Conservative party is in a very strong state at the moment.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

I have just had the alarming thought that there is going to be (if there is not already) a huge subculture built around sexual attraction to AI creations. Has this paraphilia been named? It needs a name.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

It’s not a new point, but Kemi Badenoch has dismantled the guardrails around the Conservative party. Robert Jenrick demonstrated that again today. Even when she’s gone, even if replaced by someone more moderate, they will not easily be re-erected.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

1) I use my phone to time myself strictly between sets. 2) I use it to take vanity pics of myself. Essential use, imv.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

It would be a brave decision to break so early with a president who could easily prosecute you for a string of serious crimes for which there is considerable evidence already in the public domain.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Oh I am MASSIVE pensions fan of this excellent work from the PLSA. £60,600 is how much you’ll need to spend annually for a “comfortable” retirement as a “two person household” - and that’s assuming your mortgage is already paid off. Start saving, folks!

submitted 3 days ago • 3 comments

Reporting since Sunday’s drone strikes indicates that fewer warplanes were destroyed than initially thought, but the loss of two of these early warning and control aircraft would be quite something. Kyiv claims Russia has only six operational A-50s.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment