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

Note to Reform UK, on the occasion of its latest spat. The noun is "invitation", not "invite". And it's "obliged", not "obligated". If you cannot be trusted to uphold stuffy British practices, I do not see the point of you.

submitted 12 hours ago • 0 comments

I like this but I disagree. Covid-19 did change the world. It changed working habits, politics, fiscal policy and medicine. If we choose to forget Covid-19 and pretend that everything has gone back to the status quo ante, we're going to end up confused. www.ft.com/content/c073...

submitted 18 hours ago • 1 comment

Not sure about this. What I want in my backyard is a development of 1,000 homes (there’s lots of room; I live near green belt). I do not want 10 homes, or even 100. Small developments just mean competition for school places; big ones hopefully mean new schools. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

submitted 21 hours ago • 1 comment

These reports are always worth reading, not least for the brief sketches of extreme-right groups. Some of those tiny groups manage to be at once dangerous, deeply unpleasant and comically hapless.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

This report is interesting, and well-written. I repeat my occasional plea for a novelist to imagine a dystopia in which everyone studies STEM subjects apart from a tiny ruling elite of Classics graduates.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Down with this argument. Places do or do not need attention or cash regardless of how their residents vote. www.the-guardian.com/society/2025...

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

Political thing you might not notice if you don’t have small kids: Every nursery right now sending out massive fee increases for April and blaming the government’s NI increase, causing parents WhatsApp groups to light up with people demanding the government opt nurseries out of the tax rise.

submitted 7 days ago • 34 comments

This “planetary parade” thing is rubbish. The number of visible planets is one fewer than usual.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

I'm not sure Britain needs an international development minister at all. You need development policies if you're serious about doing bilateral aid--which the government appears not to be, to judge from its treatment of DFID and its approach to development budgets. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Home Office visa stats for 2024. As expected, sharp fall in work visas, driven by health & care (1/n) www.gov.uk/government/s...

submitted 9 days ago • 4 comments

How Britain builds suburbs. With one access road, this is in effect a cul-de-sac with 200 homes. People who live in such developments complain of traffic jams in the morning rush hour. It's next to other, similar, developments. Bring back Levittown, all is forgiven. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Attention journalists: a spurious metaphor has presented itself for consideration.

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

I like this. But I think it's going to be hard (1) to intervene in a discussion where religious believers, social conservatives and authoritarians are so prominent, and (2) to convince governments pursue or expand policies that are not just not in a country's short-term interest but actually...

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

Upward mobility? New paper on intergenerational mobility of the children of immigrants in 15 countries, with UK contribution from @alanmanning4.bsky.social [As you'd expect, UK looks pretty good.] www.iza.org/publications...

submitted 17 days ago • 1 comment

On the ageing of London, which I think reveals the city's strengths as well as its problems www.economist.com/britain/2025...

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment

A bone-chilling 24 hours for Europe. - Hegseth talks about US not being "primarily focused" on European security - Rules out NATO membership for Ukraine - US negotiates directly with Putin over the heads of Ukraine and Europe - IISS study shows Russia spends more on military than Europe combined

submitted 23 days ago • 6 comments

If I wanted to plead poverty and harsh treatment by the government, I'm not sure I would do it from an expensive vehicle powered by fuel that attracts an ultra-low duty. www.standard.co.uk/news/london/...

submitted 26 days ago • 6 comments

Among many other things, he was a terrific writer—a model for academic economists. He was also interested in how others write. The first time I interviewed him, he kept asking me who writes headlines and chart titles in the Economist.

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

I can think of some things for which the ratio of enthusiastic words written and spoken to actual progress is higher than it is for small nuclear reactors in Britain. But it is quite difficult.

submitted 29 days ago • 2 comments

Some extremely sound opinions on Charles I here. I am pleased to see that the sustained effort to rehabilitate his reputation has failed to move the British people.

submitted 29 days ago • 1 comment

This is excellent. Those annoying scammers turn out to be dangerous, at the democracy-undermining, state-hazarding level.

submitted 29 days ago • 0 comments

On Milton Keynes's growth ambitions. After a period in which MK started to look worryingly cautious and conventional, the road grid (and the terrifying roundabouts) are back. www.economist.com/britain/2025...

submitted 29 days ago • 1 comment

This is a good piece, and so is another piece on the FT home page, about Ukrainians’ struggles. It’s worth remembering, though, that the ability of Hong Kongers and Ukrainians to draw attention to their problems is a good sign. Not many articles about Sudanese migrants. www.ft.com/content/a710...

submitted 31 days ago • 1 comment

A friend argues that it is socially unacceptable to reveal a complete ignorance of, or a dislike of, certain musicians. You are allowed to say you don't know their stuff all that well, but that is the limit. He puts Bob Dylan and Nina Simone in this category. Is this true?

submitted 36 days ago • 5 comments

Tempting

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

On Britain's bubble-tea economy. It's visible in many places, but especially in Middlesbrough. www.economist.com/britain/2025...

submitted 38 days ago • 0 comments

50% of my power consumption comes from visiting the websites of regional newspapers.

submitted 39 days ago • 0 comments

The Office for National Statistics has produced some new estimates of the UK fertility rate in future. They are startlingly low. In just a few years, the assumption has gone from "probably similar to France" to "more like Japan".

submitted 39 days ago • 3 comments

Make copy-editing great again

submitted 41 days ago • 5 comments