Jonathan Hopkin

My go-to answer is Margaret Thatcher but it’s probably a little bit more complicated than that

Indeed! One of my lasting gripes about British political science is its total lack of comparative perspectives that might answer that question

The truth is they were never going to win a second term so they may as well have focused on doing as much good stuff as possible in this parliament. Very sad the way it turned out, but I should never have expected any better.

Welsh government: would you give up a couple of minutes a day to save dozens of lives?
Welsh drivers: no way

They’ve always been like this, and I have a dozen uncles and aunts to prove it

JFC

This makes you angry, cos it's a reannouncement of a load of stupid ideas cooked up by the Home Office, a dept so hard of thinking it can barely keep its doors open. But it's also richly (if darkly) comic, because it will increase gaming, degrade stats and achieve exactly the opposite of its intent.

Kind of amazing they’re trying this. Their only hope electorally is to stand on the opposite side of this debate imo

At least someone is having a good time

No matter how right-wing a Labour government tries to be it’s never enough for our conservative political and media elite

Housing is where the buck stops Over the next few years, it will be the most politicised business sector in America

Unaffordable rents, competition from 'investors' making it impossible to buy, housing ladder broken, existing owners unable to move, a govt that sees deregulation as the answer to everything. Much of this relevant elsewhere. But what happens if/when the buck does stop?
on.ft.com/3IX0eXY

Makes me want to cry reading this. But it’s true we have a lot in common culturally and historically with the most prosperous and egalitarian countries in the world, yet somehow managed to become a poor version of the United States

The face-eating leopard meme has a long history

There’s a whole political economy syllabus in there

📌

Guess we now know why Farage is interested in ditching the two-child policy

Epic trolling of the anti-asylum protests by the @financialtimes.com

US invested 20% more in AI data centers last year than it did in entire power sector. The US has gone ALL IN BET OF THE 21st Century on AI, while China has gone all in on green tech.

This is the Chinese great green leap forward.
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/bri...
bsky.app/profile/70sb...

Interesting amongst other things because it identifies that for all the talk of populism it’s our narcissistic and nihilistic elites that are dragging us towards catastrophe

Interior Order Chokes Off Permits for Solar and Wind on Federal Lands The department creates a seemingly impossible new permitting criteria for renewable energy.

Econ 101: bad news for solar & wind, no 2 ways about it.

Political Econ 101: Shows how solar & wind are winning, to make these sorts of roadblocks necessary to protect fossil fuel profits.

Clear signs of a the death thrall of the fossil fuel age

heatmap.news/sparks/inter...

Absolutely. So Trump is just sticking it to the liberal bureaucrats who ruined your life

Trump has caught us all in a trap of having to defend institutions that many find hard to distinguish from policies they think have harmed them

Totally normal

Read it again

People are sick of government so many will be indifferent to Trump trashing institutions. To win them over focus on the effects, not the principle

As America ramps up investment in make-believe language, China and others are forging ahead with decarbonisation. It’s all over, but America isn’t going to accept its fate peacefully, is it

Those without ideological blinders can easily see what is happening in China when it comes to energy. Will the rest of the non-petrostate world follow that winning model?

More evidence that is the case.

Bad news if you were hoping to sell LNG to these countries for the next 30 years.

There are two takeaways from this: Trump is a straight up dictator who manipulates reality to control people, and Trump has ****ed the economy. Tell the second story first!

I refuse to give a penny to the @theguardian.com until they pension him off

Simon Jenkins?