A brief history of rentierism An interview with Brett Christophers, author of 'Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It?'

The Fairness Foundation‬ @fairness.bsky.social‬ does really important work. It was a privilege to get to talk to them about asset manager power and rent extraction in housing and infrastructure

www.faircomment.co.uk/p/a-brief-hi...

Are voters who (correctly) clock that technocrats aren't representing their interests, irrational to give their votes to populists? Whilst the mainstream regards uninformed voters as a bit silly (just need to get messaging right), I'd say voters are actually behaving quite rationally.

Indeed! But any wonder that 40 years of 'I'm from the government i'm here to help 😉", snigger, leads to disenchantment? If the press – if it bleeds it leads – amplifies this, then it's not a huge surprise when poorly remunerated politicians who only last a wet weekend, look to feather their beds.

a man and a woman are standing outside of a house ALT: a man and a woman are standing outside of a house

"Jeux sans frontières, Guerre sans larmes" 🎶

Brenda from Bristol when asked about the latest rock star biopic?

Being half-German, this is one of my favourite dishes!

Although I do remember my (German) Mum offering my wife 'what do you call this in English? Ahhh, pig's head!' 🤢 🤣🤣🤣

Fiscal conservatism + hostile environment? I suspect many one nation Tories are going steady on old chap.

Palantir in the NHS is linked to Mandelson

Mandelson is linked to Wes Streeting

Wes Streeting is defending Palantir’s involvement in the #NHS

Nothing to see or everything to see

Palantir must be removed from the NHS

PM to blob, 'why can't you be like Morgan or Olly, real men who "get things done'''!

After the train crash, 'Oh b-b-but I didn't know'

Nobody said the job is easy, but to govern is to choose. 🤷‍♂️

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The Honourable Member for Ashfield used unparliamentary language?!

a referee gives a red card to a soccer player ALT: a referee gives a red card to a soccer player

"Your Party MP Zarah Sultana suspended from parliament after calling Starmer 'barefaced liar'". Out for five days, and will miss the next game.

a man in a suit and tie says i do n't wanna know ALT: a man in a suit and tie says i do n't wanna know

McDonnell, "And the message, that unspoken message to civil servants, was what Mandelson wants. Mandelson gets."

Pet peeve, "Hey, let's choose a load of colours that look nice together as they kind of look the same". Like guns, colour indexes should be banned or at the least licenced....🤦‍♂️

Lord Skidelsky obituary: leading historian of Keynes Historian and foremost authority on the British economist John Maynard Keynes who was founding chairman of the Social Market Foundation, dies aged 86

Very sorry to hear about this. Shortly after I finished reading his brilliant three-volume biography of Keynes, perhaps 15 years ago, I met him at a conference in Brazil. We became friends after that and met several times, mostly in London but also in Beijing.
www.thetimes.com/uk/obituarie...

a man in a suit and tie is sitting at a table and says " then you smudge it all over " ALT: a man in a suit and tie is sitting at a table and says " then you smudge it all over "

"Starmer says it is 'unforgivable' officials let foreign secretary say usual vetting procedure was followed"

a close up of the face of a green hulk with a serious look on his face . ALT: a close up of the face of a green hulk with a serious look on his face .

You're looking a bit green around the gills Mr Prime Minister?

a man in a hat is talking to a woman who is wearing a hat ALT: a man in a hat is talking to a woman who is wearing a hat

Uh-oh. He's going to put on his angry head.

The stealth manufacturing boom in the US. How will the world pay for the US AI boom? The Xi Jinping school of journalism & the sorrows of Burkean liberals. Great links, images, and reading from Chartbook Newsletter by Adam Tooze

Burkean liberals. "This temperament is one of deep ambivalence. An ambivalence that knows what it wants—liberty, equality, justice—yet dreads the implications of their arrival. It desires emancipation but fears upheaval. It preaches change but practices delay"

adamtooze.substack.com/p/the-stealt...

Indeed. Where are markets detrimental to objectives?

And if price caps are imposed on self-funding unis, similar issues crop up to those you see with water authorities. A mess.

😳 Out of interest, did the next paragraph saying anything about lebensraum or racial hygiene?

Five Gulf-stranded cruise ships clear Strait of Hormuz Five of six Gulf-stranded cruise ships, MSC Euribia, Mein Schiff 4 and 5, Celestyal Discovery, Journey, clear Strait of Hormuz with Aroya Manara remaining

Not saying all cruise operators are ambivalent about exploiting staff, but...

www.seatrade-cruise.com/ship-operati...

Indeed. We aren't going to get the sweet deal we left with.

Which isn't to say we shouldn't rejoin, but rejoining regardless of the deal on offer would be to repeat the mistakes made with Brexit.

Republicans also spend like drunken sailors when in power, and whine about debt cielings when they're not. 🤷‍♂️

Turturro Was Right About Everything

a man in a suit and tie is surrounded by other people . ALT: a man in a suit and tie is surrounded by other people .

I've seen this plot somewhere before? 🤔

True. But T's & C's? If costs of rejoining are also asymmetrical, we're trading what for what?

Is adopting € a condition of rejoining? And what if ceding more 'control' to Brussels than before we left leaves you open to becoming the next Italy or Greece?

A tweet from Pope Leo XIV that reads: “When simulation becomes the norm, it weakens the human capacity for discernment. As a result, our social bonds close in upon themselves, forming self-referential circuits that no longer expose us to reality. We thus come to live within bubbles, impermeable to one another. Feeling threatened by anyone who is different, we grow unaccustomed to encounter and dialogue. In this way, polarization, conflict, fear and violence spread. What is at stake is not merely the risk of error, but a transformation in our very relationship with truth.”

Apparently the Pope has read Baudrillard.

Spain approves plan to give around 500,000 undocumented migrants legal status Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said migrants helped "build the rich, open and diverse Spain that we are and to which we aspire".

1/2
BBC: "In a letter to Spaniards posted on social media, Sánchez said the mass legalisation sought "to acknowledge the reality of nearly half a million people who already form part of our everyday lives"."
bbc.com/news/article...

Empathy Is a Muscle You Build A system for turning “they” into “we.”

The title of Will Self's latest "The Quantity Theory of Morality"
reminded me of this👇.

If the opposite also applies is it any wonder that the US running 'greed is good' for 40yrs has meant it now resembles the Stanford prison experiment?

wearenotdivided.reasonstobecheerful.world/empathy-is-a...

Completely guessing and sorry to hear of his struggles.

But just checked Guardian review, "Thirty-five years on, Self augments his earlier hypothesis with The Quantity Theory of Morality, in which Zack Busner – now in his dotage – proffers the warning that there is only so much good to go around."