In a Vaughan-Williams spiral currently, reinforcing my belief that early 20th c England possessed all the attributes of cultural nationalism (folk revivals, wistful middle class fantasias of lost arcadias) that in continental Europe & Ireland mutated into political nationalism,

This is a good, sobering post on the limits of press release radicalism re. nuclear (see also: airport expansion, house building). Also this is a great photo

Sir David Metcalf, Ex Director of Labour Market Enforcement, pointed out that companies could expect a HMRC min wage investigation once every 500 years.

James Dickson Innes' The Moelwyns from Llan Ffestiniog.

Denmark's politicians are in step with the public on immigration. Perhaps this is why they don't have a vigorous far right, suggests Ian Leslie citing John Burn-Murdoch.

Augustus John found someone to design his house in Chelsea with the unconventional method of walking into a nearby pub and asking if any of the drinkers were architects. Built for £2,200 (£325k-ish today). Last listed for rent at £40k p/m in 2017.

As if Britain’s constitution hangs on a 1998 environmental treaty. Loser-pays has anchored English law since at least the Statute of Gloucester in 1278. The Aarhus Convention is a constitutional aberration not a foundation.

Is this the greatest disparity in any metric between devolved administrations? In Scotland, 40.5% of children, and rising, are identified as having special needs, while in Wales the figure is just 9.5% and falling. Stark contrast.

The new Sunday Times/More in Common MRP has Caerphilly Westminster seat at: Reform 31% / Labour 23% / Plaid 17% Even allowing for it being the Westminster seat that seems...off?

Fascinating thread on how Welsh Gov's approach to SEN provision has diverged from England and Scotland.

i just got this odd little book, it's roughly the size of a passport this photographer went around calling the biggest european companies, asking to show up at their office and shoot their boardroom this is unilever in 1993

This is a British advert for a heat pump from 1982. The main selling point back then was that it worked as AC in the Summer as well as a heater in the Winter. Today, large grants are available to install heat pumps in the UK, but not for the ones that work as ACs too.

The rise of 'workslop' has created a novel workplace tension: the awkwardness created when it's clear that something has been churned out by AI but the person responsible won't acknowledge it and everyone else is reluctant to say anything. (via James Marriott's newsletter).

top tier comedy. a billion articles about how conservatives are full of happiness and joy and its based almost entirely on word choice.

When Wales voted for Brexit the establishment here blamed it on a mix of: > False consciousness. > Algorithms. > English incomers. Seems like a similar response happening now re. Welsh voters listing immigration as a top issue. I don't think it's a great idea.

I think Doughnut Economics has had more influence on Welsh policy discussions than any other book in the last decade. Unfortunately seems to have been deployed primarily as a way of talking past & around basic failures of economic policy.

Liverpool Cathedral's urban setting in early twentieth century, and today.

Think this is true. Also what tends to matter isn’t just the level of migration, but the rate of change. It’s *precisely* more conspicuous in very low migration areas. This is one big error, another is that brown and black people can’t be opposed to migration…not correct.