Duncan Robinson

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I've been up at 5am every Monday for the last three weeks to try and book a driving test for May. There are often 20k people in the queue ahead of me. Really cannot overstate how bad it is.

They fixed passports (much trickier!) so this is quite genuinely because driving licenses are in the Can’t Quite Be Arsed pile. Bad!

All interesting points. What’s interesting in this debate is that the extra taxes envisioned by Polanski and co raise about £20bn or so (assuming they work). So less than 1% of GDP. Is that all you need to transform society?

Can the British state stop this obvious and easily solved scam? Let’s find out!

Nice to reassure people that they’re not dinosaurs just in case

YouTube video by The Economist Why doesn’t the UK become closer to the EU?

Worth watching this Economist podcast with @duncanrobinson.bsky.social on the UK's relationship with the EU and the UK's ongoing PTSD www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn-G...

Reliant on a now three decade old approach to political comms. Equivalent to Blair copying Harold Wilson’s approach

www.economist.com/britain/2025... new guy just dropped

keep typing

I love Tim

www.economist.com/britain/2025...

Pity the AVOCADOs The Aggrieved Victims Of Crushing Academic Debt Obligations have it rough

Labour is hitting people who support the party with exorbitant marginal rates, and giving distorting perks to people who will never vote for them and who, often, have little need.

Is it politically astute? No. But is it the right thing to do? Also no.

www.economist.com/britain/2025...

And The Economist’s word of the year for 2025 is… An unappetising symbol of a messy year

Incidentally the @economist.com word of the year is ‘slop’
economist.com/culture/2025...

That sounds very Peter Mandelson circa 1994

“Muh Buh dah”

Made the mistake of reading this while drinking tea and very nearly ruined my keyboard.

Too late Jim

Including the wonderful observation of budget coverage: "Newspapers were filled with the victims of a brutal reverse-mugging by the housing market, which wrestled their wallets open and filled them with housing equity."

It’s wonderful

Somebody stop him

"the Student Loans Company (the taxman in plastic glasses and fake moustache)"

www.economist.com/britain/2025... new guy just dropped

Our interview with Sir Keir Starmer Britain’s prime minister understands the size of the moment. He just does not know how to meet it

www.economist.com/britain/2025...

I was just saying to my mate that Britain needed a mission of national renewal, renewing our country, understanding our country for what it is, which is a society of reasonable, pragmatic, compassionate people who would actually help each other out if they had half the chance to do so

Really interesting shift from Starmer basically saying Reform are beyond the pale of normal politics. An active threat, unlike Conservative Party

Our interview with Sir Keir Starmer Britain’s prime minister understands the size of the moment. He just does not know how to meet it

“If there is a Conservative government, I can sleep at night.” A right-wing populist Reform UK government, however, “is a different proposition”.

Starmer speaks to @zannymb.economist.com; note by @duncanrobinson.bsky.social

www.economist.com/britain/2025...

AIs could turn opinion polls into gibberish Large language models can answer surveys and pass the tests to check that a respondent is human

AIs could turn opinion polls into (even worse) gibberish www.economist.com/united-state...

maybe it's just that good