One day, politicians will learn that the binding constraints on public investment aren't made-up fiscal rules but real resources: labour, materials & the management skill to deliver projects on budget. I fear they might have to learn this the hard way. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Reeves to press ahead with plans to borrow billions for investment

Exclusive: Chancellor’s plan to change rules to allow more borrowing comes as cost of government debt rises

Yes. Perhaps the least-distant precedent for Trump isn't so much any politician as PT Barnum; people didn't care about whether his shows were real or fake, as long as they were entertaining. (Though Barnum's own politics were different).

I want to believe he named her after the brand of cider.

If you have more than a billion dollars you should be required to employ someone whose only job is to constantly tell you why your latest idea is fuckin stupid.

The average person shouldn't pay much in fees: they should have a global index tracker, which charges less than 0.2%pa. These should be sold over the counter in a minute in any bank branch. That they're not tells us that the industry (& govt) doesn't want investors: it wants people it can rip off.

Me for @instituteforgov.bsky.socialwww.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/rais...

Raising standards in public life: the case for legislation – and soon | Institute for Government

It takes more than warm words to overhaul ethics and standards in public life.

Yes, as it had the effect we wanted. But Trump is such an outlier that we can't infer general lessons from that. Vance, being coherent and sane, is different. It's important that people like him are selected against. I'm not sure debates do this.

Yes, confirmation bias, but this is yet more evidence for my belief that debates are a bad thing: stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_an...

It's one of the systemic structural flaws in financial journalism: reporters depend for stories/quotes/explanations upon those who have a vested interest to push.

If you’re looking at this app because you’re interested in politics, you’re probably the reason that we can’t have nice things. medium.com/@pauliewauli...

The British political class picked a side. It wasn’t the parliamentarian one.

I’ve just finished reading Sam Freedman’s excellent Failed State. As a guide to the hole British statecraft is in, it’s the first must-read book I’ve seen aimed at the general reader in a long time…