Hope this ends with an Ed Miliband white van apology but for dogs
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.
My newsletter, out now.
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
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?”
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...
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
"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...
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
