Duncan Robinson

You’re remembering the mini-Budget wrong Yes, unfunded tax cuts — but it was the energy support package wot done it

You’re remembering the 'mini-Budget' wrong.

Yes, the unfunded tax cuts and gilts crisis. But it was the Energy Price Guarantee — priced at £60bn for the first six months(!) wot done it.

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Ten years after the EU referendum, Britain has become more European A nation of caffeinated populists

Britain’s rejoining of the EU would be immensely difficult and fractious. It might, however, feel right

Coming soon to a self-promoting timeline near you

Dubai is the front line of Britain’s war with itself They’re not laughing now, are they?

Emigrants always leave a mark on the country they depart. Usually, they are discussed in sorrow. By contrast, the flow from Britain to Dubai triggers apoplexy

Trump: “How do you like the performance?”

Dubai is the front line of Britain’s war with itself They’re not laughing now, are they?

This is very good from @duncanrobinson.bsky.social on what Dubai discourse tells us about ourselves
economist.com/britain/2026...

🚨CAN YOU AFFORD TO IGNORE THESE FACTS about the carpet at trade shows?
www.newstatesman.com/politics/eco...

“It’s quite exhausting being an addict. All that running round, raising the money, scoring, meeting horrible people. It’s much lovelier to have lunch with you in a nice restaurant.”

Daily Telegraph owned by Axel Springer is quite Jonathan Coe-plot coded

Brilliant column:

bsky.app/profile/dunc...

Axel Springer poised to buy Telegraph in £500mn deal German media group has gatecrashed a proposed acquisition by the owner of the Daily Mail

Massive UK media scoop - Germany's Axel Springer is poised to agree a shock £500mn deal for the Telegraph in a move that will scupper the acquisition of the UK newspaper group by the Daily Mail. W/ the FT's finest @JFK_America @ArashMassoudi

www.ft.com/content/e5cb...

Excellent column

Dubai is the front line of Britain’s war with itself They’re not laughing now, are they?

"Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader with a knack for the kind of populism that will not have you kicked out of a dinner party..." <chef's kiss> @duncanrobinson.bsky.social www.economist.com/britain/2026...

Honestly the contempt I feel for Dubai 'ex-pats' isn't based on class so much as their willingness to embrace a life of luxury and excess in a society propped up by slavery, exploitation and human rights abuse as though they were living in a JG Ballard novel they refuse to understand

This is fascinating, and reminds me of Jilly Cooper's observation that British people specifically detest the class immediately above and below them (eg middle to upper and vice versa) but are fine with a bigger gab (working to upper).

As the class system get flattened, everyone hates everyone else

Rightly so!

And I for one cannot wait

Days getting warmer, sniff of pollen in air. Means one thing: discourse about parks in London being partly closed off for festivals!

Why is Dubai discourse so rich? Class identities all mangled and so everyone thinks they are punching up and letting rip. Full column 🫵 www.economist.com/britain/2026...

What the Dubai expats discourse says about blurred meanings of class in today's Britain:

"Social hierarchy has become an Escher painting, an optical illusion in which everyone is both above and below one another. And so everyone thinks they are punching up. The result is a searing, mutual contempt"

From @duncanrobinson.bsky.social's take on the schadenfreude over the plight of British expats in Dubai www.economist.com/britain/2026...

Time's change

Why is Dubai discourse so rich? Class identities all mangled and so everyone thinks they are punching up and letting rip. Full column 🫵 www.economist.com/britain/2026...

:(

Hadn't clocked quite how Dubai-coded Reform was before this piece www.economist.com/britain/2026...

Dubai is the front line of Britain’s war with itself They’re not laughing now, are they?

www.economist.com/britain/2026... full column

Good way to think about British politics has been the redistribution of humiliation (ht @cesigno.bsky.social), with everyone in a zero-sum status game. "They're not laughing now, are they?" now the common mantra

www.economist.com/britain/2026... Column on Dubai and how everyone thinks they are punching up

:(