John Rendel

Also, massive sandwich.

Is war, peace?

Trump seems to have timed this attack to avoid flooding the news space, ensuring the Clintons got maximum embarrassment from their deposition. Dark days.

Maybe it’s an LLM spewing them out for him?

Right. FPTP is producing governments that seem illegitimate to voters. That must be a big part of why it’s so hard to govern atm.

Do school meals really boost learning?

Drawing on evidence from 25+ countries, Biniam Bedasso shows that school feeding programmes consistently increase enrolment, attendance, and test scores – with the biggest gains for the most vulnerable children.

🔗 Link below ⤵️

The problem is power asymmetry not misalignment. ‘Misalignment’ is just the other side of plurality.

“I have searched the depths of facts not yet verified.”

"The voter is always right.“
A 🧵 about a popular yet misleading sentence, the nature of representation, and a personal argument that got me thinking about (British) democracy.

Exactly. The ‘re’ in the word representative is critical to the system’s effectiveness.

Most importantly, if asked, voters would agree that they want their leaders to use their values and professional judgement to lead (including making unpopular, longtermist decisions) not follow opinion polls.

Whatever you do, don’t think of a big, orange elephant.

Does the data back that?

Bad Bunny has secured the concept of love for the woke liberals. Game over.

If you trust the trust enough to manage the school, you should trust it to oversee spending RISE funding appropriately. The moral hazard (trusts letting schools struggle in order to access funding) isn’t a major issue as trusts are strongly incentivised to see all their schools do well.

It would make much more sense for the government to give RISE funding to the MAT overseeing a school in need of RISE. Gov. could agree a set of clearly defined goals. If the Trust fails to improve the school, the school should be moved to another Trust.

Making Blair a bad leader?

Perhaps an example of how siloed curricula cut by subject make less sense than tackling a book as literature and intro to political theory?

Private equity owns lion’s share of children’s foster ser... Three London firms are now the biggest players in the provision of foster carers in England

Private equity owns lion’s share of children’s foster services and is ‘bleeding the sector of money’

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

How steep is Trump’s democratic backsliding? The erosion of established norms has been dramatic but institutions are holding up

Very good piece by @jburnmurdoch.ft.com....

The US under Trump 2.0 has shifted towards authoritarianism as record speed but unlike other examples (e.g. Putin, Orban) it's happened by bypassing institutions rather than permanently corrupting them...

www.ft.com/content/b474...

Daron Acemoglu showed that ‘It’s the institutions stupid’ is a long-run version of ‘it’s the economy stupid’ - so the fact they’re holding up is key. The other thing that’s hopeful is the depth of the liberal cultural in the states. People who have got used to freedom don’t give it up easily.

Such a good tune

I think the relative (domestic) stability will see inflation fall to slightly below target, a little more growth and some improvements in NHS waiting times. Falling bond yields will then allow for a bit more spending relative to plan. They have now done a good part of the 'hard choices' bit

Agree with the idea that articulating a vision is critical to obtaining followers. He’s far from perfect but he is a steady hand in other ways.

The biggest reason for his lack of support tho is the impossibility of the job in the current climate. Give him two more years and he’ll be more popular.

Opinion | Please, World Leaders, Don’t Appease America

My new column is a strange one for an American columnist to write: "Please, world leaders, don't appease America!"
All of us, Americans included, will be better off if Europeans have the gumption to stand up to an increasingly erratic Trump. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/21/o...

A lot of my hope these days stems from the idea that bad guys struggle to get along with each other.

Media may not have noticed that Trump’s Board of Peace Charter was drafted so that the US need NOT ratify and become a party.Trump’s current status as US President is a necesary stepping stone but his unitary rule in the new international organisation would be personal, permanent and even hereditary

Are we honestly doing the World Cup over there? For real?

Threatening reciprocal, symmetrical tariffs in close cooperation with the EU might be the best response to this. We can’t just wait things out.

If Europe faces a 25% US tariff from June until Trump is impeached a month or two after the US mid-terms, that’s manageable.

Just remember: The insanity of Trump’s actions rises in close proportion to his level of desperation.

The one feeds off the other.

Insane actions -> bad results -> falling popularity -> desperation -> even more insane actions.