“By focusing on the social causes of the riots…rather than…the digital tools those individuals may or may have not used on the way, Labour managed to demolish the entire pretense of the Conservatives’ seven-year project on online safety in less than seven weeks”

Gold is a really bad asset to do this with. Say we kept it... what then? It earns no income, so it only helps a deficit once. And what if the price then rises? Your opposition make this tweet. The Conservatives sold off billions of *income generating* assets (land, shares.)

I'm not sure if Britain is culturally set up to do so, but states *can* own assets, manage them commercially, and earn an income. The Crown Estate does this, and Singapore and Norway do it on far larger scale. You just have to resist the temptation to raid the pot or interfere.

Personally, I'd love it if the British state owned core infrastructure (nuclear power, water, ports, rental housing) and was able to run them commercially and take an income to reduce taxes.

States are good when you have a low-innovation, monopolistic, essential service reliant on debt. They can borrow cheaply and use scale to their advantage. Nuclear/water/roads etc. But they're bad at innovation, creative destruction, and slow - so take a back seat elsewhere.

There are some fundamental reasons why Ukraine is being used as a shield against Russia and not treated as an ally by the US and Europe. These reasons are deeply ingrained in culture and psyche, and aren't a product of everyday politics. A 🧵

Isaac King 🔍 This is a relabeled graph of the Gartner Hype Cycle

Everyone saying “no we can’t let the NHS use a proper joined up digital patient database, it’s all part of a plot to privatise British healthcare and sell your data” should be forced to read the dozens (hundreds?) of case studies like these bbc.co.uk/news/health-67…

When the UK eventually rejoins the EU Single Market and Freedom of Movement is restored I’ll be celebrating. ➡️ How about you?

If Ukraine is defeated and occupied by Russia one day, many Ukrainians will blame the fickle and unreliable West for their tragedy. And if Russia’s armies head to Poland and further into Europe after that, they will have hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian veterans in their ranks

Trump or not, the lesson should be that Europeans can't base their defense strategy on a coin toss in Pennsylvania every 4 years. Too many saw 2016 as an accident they could wait out until the adults came back. That was and still is a mistake

As the results of the US Presidential election still come in, the U.K. must urgently consider its position in Europe and our security. Slava Ukraini

Another round of very online Euro analyst wailing and gnashing of teeth is a pointless waste of time that will just get in the way of practical efforts to adjust European strategy

The situation is what it is. Analysts and policymakers need to move on and deal with it.

Current reactions play to my pet theory that the EU is better served by the Italian, Polish or French shrugging of shoulders and moving on rather than German meltdowns over how the US is not the Narnia that German analysts once thought it was.

Europe must now double down on rearmament, starting with Ukraine. The Bambi eyed days on our own defence and security are done.

Europeans shouldn't waist time again with fantasizing endlessly about strategic autonomy. They should go to work immediately and massively invest in Ukraine and in defense.

This.