Chris Chivers

‘The money machine is misfiring’: City blames Brexit for UK’s £20bn productivity headache Poor output since the leave vote has landed Rachel Reeves with a bigger-than-forecast budget spending gap

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It's official. You can mention the B word again... even to Keir Starmer.

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

At top, a black and white chart labeled "Normal Distribution," showing a curved line that starts low at the left, curves up and peaks in the middle, and returns to the same low position on the right. At bottom, a black and white chart labeled "Paranormal Distribution," showing the curved line transformed into a typical ghost (a floating white sheet draped over an upright body) with two dark dots for eyes.

Here’s something really graphic for Halloween:

Subrime mortgages and mortgage-backed securities all over again

"Having grossly mislead the British public over the supposed benefits of Brexit which have turned out to be entirely false, Mr Farage…”

Jaywick named most deprived area - again A seaside neighbourhood in Essex, part of the parliamentary constituency represented by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, has once again been named the most deprived in England. The latest official data showed that an area of the coastal village of Jaywick, close to the town of Clac-ton-on-Sea in the local authority of Tendring, has been classed the most deprived neighbourhood for the fourth time. Areas of Blackpool again make up most of the rest of the top 10, along with new appearances for neighbour-hoods in Hastings and Rotherham. Yesterday's data, published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), presented relative levels of deprivation in areas or neighbourhoods of England in 2025. The data highlighted "the scale of the challenge" but does not "reflect the progress made since 2019 or the strength of the people who call Jay-wick Sands home" , the Tendring District Council website said. MHCLG said Middlesbrough, Birmingham, Hartlepool, Kingston upon Hull and Manchester had the highest proportions of neighbour-hoods among the most deprived in England.

Farage earns more than £1m a year for non-MP work GETTY IMAGES - photo of the grifter Damian Grammaticas > Political correspondent 17 August 2024 Nigel Farage has revealed he is earning well over a £1m a year from work he does outside parliament, in addition to his job as an MP. It is thought his outside income is significantly higher than that of any other member of parliament.

Compare and contrast.
Absentee MP -v- his constituency.
Greedy grifting spiv -v- most deprived English neighbourhood.
He really couldn’t give a shit.
He feeds off the inequality and anger to line his own pockets. He doesn’t want solutions because the problems are his income stream.
(iPaper & BBC)

Yes, because Badenoch’s was a criminal offence carrying a custodial sentence, whereas Reeves’ was not.

[Scene is the entrance cabin to a NATIONAL TRUST PROPERTY AND GARDENS] 1 NATIONAL TRUST EMPLOYEE [inside cabin]: Hello there 2 [A young family - two parents two kids - have arrived at the front desk]. DAD: Hi - do you have an activity trail, for the kids? 3 NT EMPLOYEE: Of course – you’re just in time for the Autumn Gammon Trail! 4 MUM: That sounds fun, doesn’t it kids? 5 NT EMPLOYEE [handing an activity sheet and pencils to the kids]: Every autumn, the Reform Trust gammons flock back to the National Trust for the AGM. Just follow the trail round the grounds, and see how many you can spot! 6 NT EMPLOYEE [hearing something in the gardens]: Listen - that's their call [Calls emanating from the landscape]: tut-tut woke-woke 7 NT EMPLOYEE [showing the family an apparently empty fenced enclosure with some bushes in]: They are extremely sensitive and fragile... But you can bring them out of hiding if you put a little sign down mentioning slavery. 8 KIDS [pointing]: There they are! [Some little red faced PEOPLE wearing Barbour jackets and gilets emerge cautiously from the bushes. They are creeping towards a TINY SIGN in the middle of the enclosure]. [Little people noises]: woke-woke tut-tut woke-woke 9 [Close-up of the TINY SIGN - we can read that it says]: Slavery had a bit to do with building this massive house. [Noises from the little people again as they inspect the tiny sign]: tut-tut woke-woke 10 MUM [pointing]: What's that one doing there? NT EMPLOYEE: Oh, that's so sweet… 11 [We see that one of the people is sat on a rock, with a little laptop open on a tree stump, and they are furiously typing away]. NT EMPLOYEE: I think he's writing a column for the Daily Telegraph… 12 [We see close up to the little person’s screen, it is a word document reading]: Are National Trust scones secretly WOKE? [ends]

If you're a National Trust member, it's that time of year again: Midnight tonight is the deadline. It's a shame people have to keep doing this to keep a toehold on historical truth in this country, but here we are. Voting link: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/a...

I doubt this will get Royal approval, but it gets mine fwiwi.

The BBC phrasing here is disgusting: 'she had sex with Andrew' puts the onus on Giuffre, the child allegedly being repeatedly raped. This wording makes Andrew practically a bystander.

chrischiversthinks.weebly.com/pdfs.html
Exploring some themes in inclusion...

My sense is that #inclusion is being misunderstood atm. It's not about expecting everyone to fit into a one size fits all system then adjusting when they don't. It's about creating an environment that includes everyone through making adjustments ahead of time. Start by thinking about the outliers. 🙏🏻

Don't be fooled, Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk are playing you The message the hate engine transmits is simple: asylum seekers are not really people in need

Robinson, Musk and Badenoch are all part of an industry of grievance, a machine designed to spread hate which now operates across the British right – from respectable print outlets to wild-eyed online fascists

inews.co.uk/opinion/dont...

Keir Starmer tries to look tough - and exposes himself as a coward The government's immigration policy is in desperate need of a bold change in direction.

3 things Starmer could do instead of camps in old barracks that would actually WORK👇

1. Create safe, regulated routes to apply for asylum in the UK

2. Let asylum seekers WORK & support themselves

3. Fast track status for people from obviously unsafe countries
metro.co.uk/2025/10/29/k...

The Ultimate Guide to Adaptive Teaching - Webinar with Sue Cowley Sue Cowley shares ideas about adaptive teaching and offers a range of practical strategies for creating an inclusive classroom

I'm running a webinar about adaptive teaching after half term with lots of practical advice on inclusive approaches to teaching. Grateful for reposts. Many thanks to everyone who has shared this already! 😘
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-ultima...

Solar panels using up all of the sun

Yup. That’s Trump’s Energy Secretary.

Have THEY ALL got dementia?

This is why pushback matters. When forced to actually defend racism they get into a muddle. (See also Tory ILR plans).

"May use up all of the Sun" is from a McSweeney's article.
Right?

To my grandads' generation, it really meant something because they had been through WW1

Same thing for my Dad's generation and WW2.

Now this mawkish modern "war Christmas" has become performative and tacky as hell. Hijacked by politicians who have no interest in its purpose it's lost meaning too

The Duke of Pork 😂
Humourless Gibbon 🤣
Brilliant again from these guys 👏👏

I always respect the way an artist can sum up everything that’s going on in one photo.

The wicked become even worse when they are tolerated. Leo Tolstoy

—The wicked become even worse when they are tolerated.
~ Leo Tolstoy

They have got into a really NAZI habit, there...

Introducing ‘Egg Box Monsters’ . . . just in time for half-term and Halloween.
One egg box, no leftovers, totally recyclable. What I call ‘Pure Making’.
Full instructions are on the website here . . . www.darrellwakelam.com/news/egg-box...
#edusky #halloween

It’s not wokeness, it’s efficiency. If you have a product you want to sell to lots of different types of people, you include as many of those people in your advertising as you can so they all feel represented. And also actors are expensive so you employ as few of them as you can. Simples.

#Halloween

Trump raises tariffs on Canadian goods in response to Reagan advert Trump has announced he's adding 10% to his current levies on one of the biggest US trading partners.

When Trump bullies Canada, Britain can’t stay silent. The Prime Minister needs to come out and clearly criticise these tantrum tariffs, not sit on the fence. 🇬🇧🇨🇦

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Rich? Your prosperity pie chart...

Yay. Priceless. The right column at the right time. And a gleefully English two fingers to the haters.

Reagan's approach to the world prominently featured two things:

1) Russian aggression bad, Western democratic alliance good
2) Free trade good, tariffs and other barriers to trade bad

Pretending it's the opposite is the sort of reality inversion only someone who rejects truth itself could buy.