How might recent uptick in oil and gas prices affect the energy price cap?
If the highs we saw on Tuesday continued, the cap would increase by roughly £500, undoing and-then-some the £117 fall coming in April thanks to Government policy.
The Gulf defence spending boom that follows this war is going to be quite something.
This is cruel to the young people concerned, self-destructive for the UK and will not win over a single Reform voter.
The one thing that bugs me in this obvious development is the complete absence of self-reflection. "I was wrong" is a sentence that apparently is no longer in use. Instead, you just throw out statements in all directions. One of them will end up being correct.
Impeccable timing with these @financialtimes.com headlines on the same day highlighting the Trumpian US approach to its allies.
On the same day, the US is
- further easing sanctions on Russia
- starting probes to raise tariffs on EU, UK and Canada
Generations were once drawn to the idea of America and its power was to a large extent based on that. One of the tragedies of what’s happening now in the Middle East is many — especially the young — are concluding it’s a pretty crap idea.
How Paris beat the car www.ft.com/content/882e...
There are so many reasons I feel deeply disappointed by this Government and its betrayal of what Labour should be.
This is one of the most pointlessly cruel.
Such a dismal tale about the UK govt: so obsessed w competing with far-right to keep out foreigners that it won’t let in the brightest & best from war-torn countries even when they’re hand-picked by the FCDO, lest they ask to stay. Soft power sacrificed, but how many Reform voters will it convert?
“Reeves has been ratcheting up the rhetoric on closer EU relations which she described as the “biggest prize” in trade”
If only we’d acknowledged this BEFORE we threw it away in a fit of arrogant prejudice. Getting back in the room is far harder than flouncing off
giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
Shame can be a destructive emotion, but this is what a culture without shame looks like.
And it's consistently rewarded and indulged.
Voters across France head to the polls Sunday for elections that will offer major clues to next year’s all-important presidential race that the far right is tipped to win.
Here’s what you need to know to follow the first round of the vote like a pro.
Barely two days after G7 leaders “reaffirmed their unity and their determination to maintain sanctions against Russia”, the United States temporarily lifts sanctions on Russian oil that’s currently at sea, allowing it to be shipped to buyers around the world.
The phrase “false flag” is, er, a red flag. The number of genuine documented cases in history is tiny but conspiracy theorists always jump to it first
The latest episode of @economist.com's Insider show looks at the war in Iran, how long it might last & how serious this could get for the world economy. It was a really sobering conversation, and consensus was that markets are still mispricing the risk. www.economist.com/insider/the-...
Montie 4 Trump
![Andrew Neil: That Trump started the attacks on Iran without even having the semblance of a plan to keep the Strait of Hormuz open is both a mystery and a scandal — from which he might not recover politically. Republican grandees in swing seats/states now beginning to panic, flooding White House with calls to ‘do something’ as gas [petrol] prices soar.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cbvszoqtcywxew6vdl2uyghj/bafkreignwdpb7xfpkevffbpuriuumaj2b2vt7mafq6fhj5ch7crdpughoe)
It would indeed be 'a mystery' if we were dealing with a rational non-demented idiot.
tweets u post when you r not at all stressed abt the economy
And the co-host of Peter Mandelson’s drinks reception before last year’s White House Correspondents Dinner was…
Welfare spending has risen by 0.9% of GDP since 2007-08, that’s a shift but the idea it’s “ballooned” is overdone.
Lack of growth has been a far bigger problem.
The Strait of Dover is one busiest.
This thread is unfortuantely aging like fine wine, or perhaps fine spirits that someone's set on fire and thrown at an oil tanker.
Every day that goes by any sense that the US can just TACO and turn the crisis off gets weaker.
Britons tend to oppose allowing the US to use UK airbases specifically to launch attacks against missile bases in Iran, as US bombers begin to land at RAF Fairford
Support: 35% (+3 from 2 March)
Oppose: 49% (-1)
yougov.com/en-gb/daily-...
Not to make it all about me but with my mortgage up for renewal in a few weeks’ time the repayments are now due to go up by 20% thanks to Trump.
Next stage of US tariffs just dropped - formal investigations into countries with goods trade surpluses with the US. Foregone conclusion it leads to tariffs.
But as with military adventurism - simplistic action and hype only delivers bad outcomes. www.hinrichfoundation.com/research/art...
Why haven’t the gulf states built a pipeline through Saudi Arabia to be able to get their oil an gas out through the Red Sea?
Relations with Riyadh aren’t perfect but it would have weakened Iran’s threat to close the straits; one would have thought the US would have cajoled them into it.
The Iran War is yet just another installment in my oft repeated observation: Trump does not pursue policy in the traditional sense, nor does he engage in good faith negotiation. He demands concessions that give him wealth, status, submission, or subservience. I see no strategic goal or plan.
This looks like the mirror image of Liz Truss’s approval rating.
