Dumbest take of the week = opposing infrastructure on the basis that it won’t boost growth in the next 30 seconds… It’s not a clever talking point, it’s ridiculous. The same arguments have left us without the houses or energy we need (remember Nick Clegg’s nuclear nonsense?)

The Robert Silver Prize invites essay submissions on a subject related to the impact of British Jewry on 20th-century Britain. The winner will receive £1,000, & a short version of the winning essay will be published in the Jewish Chronicle. Deadline: 21 April Link in reply⬇️

"I was immediately gripped by Impossible Monsters because he begins this book . . . at the perfect yet most unexpected point . . . Michael Taylor is absolutely brilliant at describing Ussher’s extraordinary, monumental, logical thought processes . . ." (1/2) fivebooks.com/best-books/the…

As Eugene McCarthy said, the function of moderate Republicans is to go on the battlefield after the battle is over and shoot the wounded.

This morning The Times carries the obituary of Jacqueline van Maarsen, Anne Frank’s best friend, who has died at the age of 96. She was a friend of Auntie Ruth (Mum’s eldest sister) too & in November 1939, inscribed this in Ruth’s Posie (autograph) book. thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/…

Extending Free School Meals, along with our other suggested measures, would take projected child poverty back down to around its 2011-12 level. This could be funded from existing departmental spending plans in the upcoming Spending Review. Read more➡️ buff.ly/4biQa5z

Lysenkoism USA style

This new paper goes a long way towards explaining the purge happening in US universities: their boards have become magnets to private financiers. In fact, these boards serve the same elite consolidation role that interlocked corporate boards once played. academic.oup.com/ser/advance-ar…

Traitor? Elon, if you don’t understand that defending freedom is a basic tenet of what makes America great and keeps us safe, maybe you should leave it to those of us who do.

There is a young man in jail today for protesting at his college. No charges. No criminal conduct. In dictatorships, they call this “a disappearance”. I want to tell you why this case should matter to you, even if you strongly disagree with what he said or did.

Uber driver told me SFPD officers make $600k/year for “driving in circles & sleeping in their car on graveyard shifts” I was like “oh I bet it’s tough” & he was like “nah cops don’t do shit in SF.” he's joining the police academy bc his cop friend just bought a Lambo

Really important to understand this. Talk of “austerity” is way overblown in context of what govt announced in October and by comparison with stated plans of last govt. Had they implemented those plans (unlikely) that really would have looked like austerity.

Henry Hill has two new pieces out criticising the expansion of higher education. Why is it that high-profile people who think fewer people should get higher education ALWAYS seem to have multiple HE qualifications plus an excellent education that has served them well.

Message: "I don't care." nydailynews.com/2025/03/28/kri…

Metal detectorists found a beautiful dagger on a beach in Poland, and museum curators identified it as coming from the Hallstatt culture (Iron Age), some 2,500 years ago. buff.ly/of4JG8p

Columbia University: University Senate report finds University actions over past year eroded shared governance, academic freedom columbiaspectator.com/news/2025/04/0…

The BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants scheme is now open for applications from postdoctoral – or equivalent – scholars in the humanities and social sciences. Learn more: thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/ba-lev…

New Post: In memoriam: Professor Claire Callender OBE buff.ly/yy2obYR

New Post: The OfS’s fine on Sussex is a blow against free speech, not for it buff.ly/qYiE8yn

You have to get a very long way through this Sun story labelling the Foreign Secretary "LAMMY DODGER" and a "THUG" before they report his fare was actually paid in full, and the taxi driver concerned admitted trying to scam him out of an extra £600 before being charged with theft