Check out ⁦the excellent ⁦Institute for Government⁩ Ministers Database where you can find out everything you need to know about the 1,100 ministers we’ve had since 1979! This is the product of years of work by IfG colleagues, both past and present! instituteforgovernment.org.uk/ministers-data…

An extraordinary book, great recommendation...

The two party system is not looking too healthy: Labour is ~15 points behind the average governing party, at this point after an election. But the Conservatives are also ~13 points behind the average opposition

Striking difference between Starmer and the people at the top of his cabinet

David Runciman on Tony Blair’s On Leadership lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/…

My tip for improving UK productivity: make the bloody train wifi work. Pounds are evaporating into the ether above every train because the internet isn't coming out of the ether. thetimes.com/article/583f7c…

mortifying nonsense on the front page of the sunday telegraph by Camilla Turner. no, the report does not say it is cheaper to bury cables. it says it is £2.2bn cheaper to build pylons. relevant parts of the report attached below

I've been v impressed with this so far. For the first time in my life I feel like there's a publication telling me someone new about the city I live in.

Also on London privilege: Poverty is spread out; opportunity is concentrated. But there is no better place in Britain to be poor."

"I am too easily romanced by new stories,” Sir Paul confessed in “10½ Lessons from Experience”, an investment memoir. -- an intriguing profile of Paul Marshall, Britain's newest media mogul, by A D Miller economist.com/britain/2024/1…

The thing about "the UK’s tax burden is now at a record high", is that this is also true for almost all countries 📈

🧵Assaults on front line prison officers: Latest data. Headline: awful, record breaking and getting worse. HMPPS bosses helpless to deliver the thing that is foundational to everything else hopeful: safe prisons. Why? 1/

“As prisons become more overcrowded and unruly, they’ve become no more than warehouses for people.” On “The Intelligence” Tom Sasse discusses a simple solution to the doom loop in Britain’s prisons econ.st/4fuSOWS 🎧

My review in The Economist economist.com/culture/2024/1…

Secret TFL plan to do awesome policy to create nicer city

This is the only thing you need to understand about inheritance tax on farmland ft.com/content/ab3585…

Why is making Heathrow bigger so screamingly necessary? A few points from my latest for The Economist: Start with a map of where economic output in London happens. After the financial centres, the Heathrow cluster in the west jumps out. 🧵 below ➡️ economist.com/britain/2025/0…

Ahmed al-Sharaa lays out his vision for rebuilding Syria’s fractured and bankrupt state. Read his first interview since assuming the presidency as he talks to Zanny Minton Beddoes, our editor-in-chief: econ.st/4aR76jy

Here's where we are: - FDP (& Lindner) out - BSW on the cusp of 5%, too close to call - if no BSW, Union + SPD have a (uncomfortably small) majority - if BSW makes it, CSU must swallow its pride and accept a Union-SPD-Green "Kenya" govt - (and a ghoulish AfD-Linke-BSW opposition)

A under-discussed backdrop to yesterday's election results—Britain today feels less pleasant, well-maintained and orderly than a decade ago: from potholes to phone-snatchers. I've spent the past few months digging in to why for The Economist. A short 🧵 on what I've concluded.