Aveek Bhattacharya

Yeees, but I doubt it's net positive for me to raise my taxes to pay for other people's child benefit, even taking a long term view.

I do worry though that exploiting fungibility is kind of sneaky and whether that sort of deception undermines trust in the long run.

On the broader point about the importance of narrative and the case for hypothecation, I think actual hypothecation is bad, but fake hypothecation (where govt spends what it was going to anyway but pretends it is dipping into an earmarked pot) is politically savvy.

So glad @pollymackenzie.bsky.social made this point because I was biting my tongue quite hard over the weekend

Alisson? You think?

A post on threads from user stephens_bens. It reads 'I'll always remember an interview with Steve Buscemi on Bulleye, Jesse Thorn asked him "As an actor with many decades of varied and outstanding roles across your career, does it ever bother you that one of the things you will most be remembered for is a 3-second gif in which you're wearing a backwards baseball cap and carrying a skateboard?" And without missing a beat, Buscemi replied "I'm carrying *two* skateboards." And you know what? He is.' Below that is a screen cap of Buscemi's famous "fellow kids" moment.

I never noticed this either.

When you go from winning all the time to losing all the time you want to find someone to blame, but man, sometimes shit just happens.

Liverpool hitting new levels of "sometimes it is just not your year."

Feel bad for Slot. Still think he's pretty good. Not sure what he's supposed to do about his best player becoming his worst player + a beloved locker room glue guy dying in an accident + losing every single dice roll.

Yeah, it's basically like this every week

As in, Chelsea *maybe* were better off giving up the goal rather than having to give up a penalty and having a player sent off. But that sort of thing doesn't happen too often.

Guys, your beef isn't with VAR. It's with the rules that clearly aren't made for a situation where ruling out a goal is to the benefit of the team that concedes.

Maybe the only thing I can think of to that's similar is the Liverpool v Chelsea 'ghost goal' in 2005?

Kinda like Aston Villa this season?

Oh no, I never listened to these and I'm not sure I still have the DVDs 😢

Baby bust and baby boom: Examining the liberal case for pronatalism - Social Market Foundation. This briefing paper considers the liberal case for explicitly ‘pronatalist’ policies that aim to increase the birth rate in the UK.

www.smf.co.uk/publications...

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Surprisingly, the evidence is pretty weak that expanding access to fertility treatment increases birth rates, or that the two child cap had much of an effect.

Both worthwhile policies for other reasons to be clear, but not necessarily if your main concern is birth rates

Wait when did you unmask as Wonk Watch?!?!

Thanks Rob for your support.

First song the DJ played at my friend's wedding...she was understandably FURIOUS

Maurizio Genz...is that something?

Been saying for ages, the possibility of someone from the 2024 intake being next is underrated - though more plausible if the contest comes later in the parliament

bsky.app/profile/avee...

+1, so good

Could get far worse PMs through far worse processes

That would be so much fun

Self-avowed Blairite? In this economy?

Who would you want if you were in the PLP?

But yes, the 21/22 team is criminally underrated

This time last year, we were quadruple chasing!

Thanks for the clarification, that makes sense - hard to summarise briefly without over-simplifying, and there is so much I wanted to say! It's a book that made me think a lot.

Read/Watched/Listened/Ate 5: February 2026

Enjoyed some more stuff in week 5 of 2026, ft @wdavidmarx.bsky.social @rostaylor.bsky.social @timharford.ft.com and a burrito

open.substack.com/pub/aveekbha...

I agree with everything you said - but I think we're talking about glaring inconsistencies!