Paul Harrison

Unless someone in the Treasury reassures the markets pretty soon, there’s every chance the UK will need to raise *more* tax for less in return. Total clusterfuck in the making, this.

Having a budget fall apart more than a week before it’s actually be delivered might be a new record.

To fix the BBC, focus on competence and cash Corporation fails to learn from criticism, while politicians have consciously reduced its scope for quality journalism

The impossible dream some people on the British right are chasing is that you can have a BBC News operation that retreats from detail and expertise, that takes dictation from the government, but this will only create incompetence and failure when it suits you:

And North Northumberland

Thanks for an unexpected laugh out loud this morning

From the cross tabs - these figures are equally newsworthy but I think a much better reflection of vote intention

Don't know 34%
Conservative 10%
Labour 9%
Liberal Democrats 7%
Reform UK 22%
Green Party 9%
Scottish National Party (SNP) 2%
Plaid Cymru 1%
Other 5%

Seems odd to see people I know would be repulsed at the idea that the state impose death on an offender celebrating other lags doing it.

I don’t think I'd listen if you weren't there - consistently the voice of reasoned common sense!

@greenmirandahere.bsky.social Eminence was a great read. Thanks for your recommendation on, I think, Not Another One. Finally got round to it.

Been teaching seminars this week on whether polling should be banned during campaigns and after this I think maybe it should be banned except for during campaigns. Utterly mad way to frame a poll 4 years out from a general election.

Appalled by the violent scenes of police being attacked at the Tommy Robinson rally today. Those responsible should face the full force of the law.

These far right thugs do not speak for Britain.

I still use X as well because hardly anyone on BS actually follows me and I want some sort of eyeballs or ears for what I'm putting out

In an effort that will no doubt torch my follower base, I have laid out some basic numbers around our fiscal situation. Obvious, but still a little sobering for me.

freethinkecon.wordpress.com/2025/07/15/t...

School budgets slide further into the red Governors say budgets are now their biggest concern and one in 10 rely on financial support

NEW: Maintained schools budgets have fallen further into deficit according to exclusive figures, prompting fresh concerns about their viability amid squeezed funding, rising costs and falling pupil numbers.

By me, for Schools Week: schoolsweek.co.uk/school-budge...

Innocent subpostmasters went to jail, but now it is clear: the Post Office boss class belong there instead | Marina Hyde You thought it couldn’t get any worse, but the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British legal history just got wider, says Guardian columnist Marina Hyde

Marina Hyde has been writing damningly about the Post Office scandal for years and she’s just as brilliant today.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The real surprise came after the experiment. Fred Lambert, who writes for the blog Electrek, pointed out the same autopilot disengagement that the NHTSA had documented. “Autopilot appears to automatically disengage a fraction of a second before the impact as the crash becomes inevitable,” Lambert noted.

In a horrifying article about the dangers of Teslas, one point stands out: Teslas automatically disengage self-driving mode <1 second before an imminent crash--not enough time for the driver to react, but enough for Tesla to deny responsibility for fatal crashes, since self-driving "wasn't engaged."

The real Salt Path: how the couple behind a bestseller le... Penniless and homeless, the Winns found fame and fortune with the story of their 630-mile walk to salvation. We can reveal it was far from the truth

I spent months on this investigation and gathered docs from the UK courts, Land Registry and a French local authority, to show that Raynor and Moth Winn's story is not as they claim. @tortoisemedia.bsky.social @observeruk.bsky.social
observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Nervy markets put Reeves and Starmer on notice [FREE TO READ] Investors are getting fed up of being used by governments around the world as a low-cost cash machine

Bond market says no.
Me on the ridiculous bind that Reeves is in and investors' thirst for clarity.

(300 free clicks innit) - on.ft.com/4ezSQgV

Opinion: 'The first anniversary of Labour’s victory has been marked by a self-inflicted shambles which has shredded the authority of both the prime minister and his chancellor,' writes Robert Shrimsley. https://on.ft.com/4nvBJRf

They Asked an A.I. Chatbot Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling.

Don’t think I’ve ever muttered the words “fuck me sideways” quite so much reading a story as this one.

Dogs pollute water with pesticides even weeks after flea treatment When dogs given spot treatments for fleas go swimming, they release levels of pesticides dangerous to aquatic life for at least a month after the treatment

If your dog will jump in the nearest river, pond or lake given half a chance, don't use spot-on treatments for fleas and ticks, say researchers.

The boy who came back: the near-death, and changed life, of my son Max It was, we were told, a case of sudden infant death syndrome interrupted. What followed would transform my understanding of parenting, disability and the breadth of what makes a meaningful life

I wrote for the Guardian’s Saturday magazine about my son Max, who changed how I see the world. Took ages. More jokes after the first bit.

Thanks Merope Mills for being the most patient and generous editor.

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

‘No 10 is dysfunctional’:  Labour heads for a summer of discontent | The Observer Ministers warn of tax rises ahead of next month’s spending review, while senior figures bemoan a lack of vision. By political editor Rachel Sylvester

Angela Rayner and Ed Miliband stormed out of spending review meetings as disquiet grows on Labour benches - my piece for @theobserveruk.bsky.social on Starmer’s summer of discontent observer.co.uk/news/politic...

On Kneecap and knee jerks Literalism makes fools of us all

Wrote about the Kneecaps beat combo and the dreary literalism and legalism of our age open.substack.com/pub/padraigr...

Too many people at the top of the BBC think that they should be competing with the private sector not providing an important thing that the market can't. Should focus on providing detailed coverage of 'what's in it?' that someone with the reading age of a seven year old can parse.

Ministers demand BBC World Service plan for cuts as aid budget slashed Exclusive: David Lammy asks BBC bosses to draw up tightened budget amid criticism move could harm UK’s global influence

In microcosm, this is why “fund defence spending with an aid cut” is really stupid. What is your strategy to prevail in these conflicts if not through funding something like the World Service in addition to your hard power?

If a government with over 400 seats and 4 years left to govern cannot summon the courage to level with the public on social care then I despair at the capacity of our political system to ever deliver the change we need.

Schools can afford less than half a 2.8% pay rise, says DfE 'Headroom' in next year's budget only leaves enough for an increase of 1.3%, government analysis finds

Breaking: With welfare cuts hogging the spotlight, the DfE has just snuck out a school costs technical note, and it makes for grim reading

In it, DfE admits schools will be able to afford less than half of a 2.8% staff pay rise next year. Big cuts coming

schoolsweek.co.uk/schools-can-...

Green card holder from New Hampshire 'interrogated' at Logan Airport, detained Fabian Schmidt’s family said they are unsure of why he is being held. They said he has a recently renewed green card, and no active issues in court.

ICE stripped a German green card holder naked, drove him from Boston to Vermont to Rhode Island, put him in a cold shower, deprived him of medication, sleep and food until he collapsed.

No one knows why he was detained.

Investors dare to imagine a world beyond the dollar [FREE TO READ] The US could dismantle its own exorbitant privilege by pushing the big bond market beasts into the arms of others

About that whole "risk-free asset" thing... on.ft.com/41hSg0Q

A bird's-eye view of a former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp showing a wide dirt pathway flanked by parallel rows of barbed-wire fences. Groups of visitors walk along the path, surrounded by the remnants of brick structures and barracks, now reduced to foundations. Green grass contrasts with the somber history of the site, as the path leads toward a guard tower in the distance.

Auschwitz was at the end of a long process. It did not start from gas chambers.

This hatred was gradually developed by humans. From ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder.

Auschwitz took time.