Associate editor and columnist @FinancialTimes. Tweet about politics, policy, culture, nerd stuff. Tongue mostly in cheek. Get my newsletter here 👇
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Jul 12, 2023 • 18 tweets • 6 min read
I've written the books essay for the coming weekend's @ftweekend on four books: three excellent, one not so much. (Inadvertently an exciting opportunity to test some theories I have about positivity and negativity over on Threads): ft.com/content/03aad3…
The first is Hybrid Hate. I love this book. Really fascinating account of how race theorists from the Renaissance to the Third Reich tried to theorise their way out of the Garden of Eden and the Enlightenment: https://t.co/9LyvUdrSemft.com/content/03aad3…
Nov 14, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
The central tension in effective altruism, I think, is whether it wants to be advice for most earners (in the UK, those giving £100, £200 or £1000 a month) or for a gilded few giving £10mn or £100mn: ft.com/content/91c88d…
“Why not both?” Well I would say that 1) the £100mn donor is well, perhaps better served elsewhere and 2) almost everything EA has done targeted towards that group has been bad: ft.com/content/91c88d…
Nov 14, 2022 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
My column this week is on intestinal parasites and Sam Bankman-Fried: two things effective altruists have struggled to reach a conclusion on: ft.com/content/91c88d…
There’s a lively debate in development circles about intestinal parasites: the so-called “worm wars”. But those wars have also spilled over into effective altruist and philanthropic circles more broadly: ft.com/content/91c88d…
Nov 14, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Today’s Inside Politics: some thoughts on the UK’s increased borrowing costs, the UK government’s credibility problem and what they should do about them: ft.com/content/eaec84…
Parking the social costs of doing so, on its own terms, it seems incredibly risky to me to seek to restore the UK’s credibility through promising to have real terms public sector cuts after 2025: ft.com/content/eaec84…
Nov 10, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Today’s Inside Politics: ultimately the policy problem causing strikes in the UK is not that deep and the solution is not either. It’s just the politics of it that are hard for both parties: ft.com/content/f44f3d…
Ultimately a lot of UK policy issues are not that deep. You need money to do stuff. 'Doing stuff' also includes 'public sector reform', by the way: ft.com/content/f44f3d…
Nov 9, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Today’s Inside Politics: some thoughts on Gavin Williamson’s resignation, its cause and what it means for Rishi Sunak and the government’s viability: ft.com/content/b88ead…
A big part of his problem is, essentially, being a good enough parliamentary fixer to have irritated a lot of Tory power brokers, but not a good enough one to scare his critics into silence: ft.com/content/b88ead…
In my column this week I’ve written about something that I think UK equalities law does well: ft.com/content/62ff72…
I've recently been reading 'Undesirable Immigrants' a great new book by @PrincetonUPress, and of course reading a lot about Rishi Sunak, the UK's first 'non-white' prime minister: ft.com/content/62ff72…
Today’s Inside Politics: Rishi Sunak’s Cabinet is an attempt to reconfigure the government with one aim: to make it broad enough to get tax rises and spending cuts through Parliament: ft.com/content/aa30ab…
Suella Braverman’s return is part of that (though of course she’s also there as part of Sunak’s horse-trading to *become* PM in the first place) But so too is Johnny Mercer and Andrew Mitchell: ft.com/content/aa30ab…
Oct 25, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Today’s Inside Politics: Rishi Sunak is a history-maker (first British-Indian, first ethnic minority PM for close to 150 years) but the most politically important thing about him is that he is the youngest for more than 200: ft.com/content/d4af5c…
Sunak arrived in Parliament with a huge amount of hope and expectation on him, as @henrymance details in his superb profile: ft.com/content/ec59dd…
Oct 24, 2022 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
My column this week is on falling fertility in the rich world, the good and bad things driving it: ft.com/content/2f90b9…
Good: greater reproductive freedom, medical information and access to contraception. ft.com/content/2f90b9…
Oct 15, 2022 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
I think this about right. Truss one of a number of Conservative politicians who had been profiling in that 'I am loyal, but I'm a bit to the right of the current leader'* space since 2010.
*For varying degrees of 'loyal' and varying degrees of 'bit' depending on the politician.
Where I (only slightly) part ways with @ChristabelCoops is you can't cleanly separate the market reaction to Trussonomics from the general sense internationally that the UK does mad things now - a perception that springs from Brexit.
Oct 12, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
My central assumption (say 50 per cent probability) is that Liz Truss will survive as PM at least until September 2023, because while there are loads of MPs who have an interest in changing the rulebook to bring that moment forward, the cost of doing so is born individually.
This is a recurrent theme of @Dannythefink's: there is a 'market failure for coups' in politics. This thesis has generally held up well and I expect this will remain the case: thetimes.co.uk/article/ed-wil…
Oct 11, 2022 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
My column in today's paper is on the global debate on colour-blind casting: ft.com/content/dc4db3…
'Colour-blind' casting is increasingly in vogue: the Netflix and the BBC use it across a lot of productions, while its presence is fiercely contested by fans of Game of Thrones, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings: ft.com/content/dc4db3…
Oct 11, 2022 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Today's Inside Politics can be read here: on the latest moves the Truss government is making to reassure markets: ft.com/content/8064f6…
As this great piece by @GeorgeWParker and @ChrisGiles_ sets out, Truss has changed approach to try to win back credibility. But the core problem remains unchanged: ft.com/content/7e3fd4…
Oct 9, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Rewatching Buffy is a good way when ill is a good way to gauge if you are on the mend, because between Friday at noon and today I am once again able to ask questions like 'but seriously, *why* is she broke?'
This is closely linked to why it's a good thing to rewatch when you're ill, because there is literally zero character development.
Today's Inside Politics (in inboxes now, also here: ft.com/content/d45611…) is on the politics of @georgewparker, @sjhmorris and @DanielThomasLDN's scoop on bankers' bonuses, which you can read here: ft.com/content/e5dac8…
It's hard to defend the existing cap in policy terms: it has not reduced executive pay, but it has increased fixed costs and therefore harmed the competitiveness of European banks against US ones. But what about the optics? ft.com/content/d45611…
Sep 14, 2022 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
Today’s Inside Politics is online here. You can read it here and get it direct to your inbox also : ft.com/content/d0def2…
Truss and Kwarteng have made increasing growth their big priority. But as @ChrisGiles_ and @GeorgeWParker report, experts are dubious: ft.com/content/9ed0b2…
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