Duncan Robinson

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...

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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

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Chart showing real median salaries by graduate status. Postgrads have declined 17%, grads 12% and non-grads by 3%

Since 2007, real median postgrad salaries have declined by 17% and 12% for undergrads (*before* accounting for student loans!). The narrative of the 2010s was dominated by the status-loss of industrial workers, the 2020s might be the decade of disappointed grads

Polling from More in Common shows that Greens and Reform win a higher share of voters who struggle to make ends meet, while Labour and the Conservatives win those who are most financially comfortable

Reform UK and the Greens are hoovering up financially insecure voters. My piece this week looks at the return of Britain's class politics (with a twist) www.economist.com/britain/2026...

Forthisme

The full decant costs are insane on their own merits

Is "deliverism" dead? Lawrence gave his first take on Iran at the weekend and will return to it later this week.

What is "deliverism"? Is it dead? And what would its death mean for progressive politics?

This essay (kindly published by @samfr.bsky.social) is my attempt to trace five years of trans-Atlantic debates, to set out what I see as the stakes, and to analyse where these arguments have now gotten to:

If you want a geopolitical safe haven where your imaginative tax arrangements and business models won't attract closer scrutiny just move to Luxembourg

The paranoid style in British politics It has its uses

New Bagehot on the paranoid style in British politics and how everyone became a conspiracy theorist
economist.com/britain/2026...

Heard he was gonna get an “undefeated in league and playoff games after 5pm for 27th time” tattoo. Alas

An extraordinary statistic indeed! Bet they were gutted to lose the undefeated at home games after 5pm in the league and playoffs record

The new Supreme Leader of Iran must be someone with impeccable establishment credentials, who has a proven track record of problem solving numerous crises, and who has their finger on the pulse of a vast, interconnected bureaucracy.

For these reasons, Louise Casey, Baroness Casey of Blacksto-

The paranoid style in British politics It has its uses

From left to right, rich to poor, almost every Briton will at some point reach for a complicated conspiratorial explanation when a simpler and more likely one is at hand

A party can lose and still learn nothing Gaza, Sir Oink Alot and the whack analysis.

Tom Watson says it was just Gaza and Burnham would have lost
open.substack.com/pub/tomwatso...

Toddler calling me “Duncan” rather than Dad, making him sound like exasperated colleague

@duncanrobinson.bsky.social had this so right - they are all targeting ‘Dead Voter’. So perhaps they can dissolve the living and unearth the dead

Basically decided paranoia is a consequence of living through an era of consequence. www.economist.com/britain/2026...

Take your points, which is why I frame paranoia as necessary at the end

Whingingggggggggggggg is so underrated, especially with this government. Doesn't even matter if you'll never vote for them if you whing, you win

Everyone's at it, whether you think local politicians are the reason your high street is a dump or if you think the Queen is communicating through a hat

Featuring me, questioning whether the Queen really was signalling pro-EU sentiments via the medium of headwear:

Basically decided paranoia is a consequence of living through an era of consequence. www.economist.com/britain/2026...