Craig Ryan

Fascinating stuff. Seems to me the biggest shift was between 1400 and 1500. Shakespeare's language is familiar to us; Chaucer's ain't.

Trump raises tariffs to 15% on imports from all countries President announced increase from 10% using different authority from mechanism that supreme court struck down on Friday

I mean he can't even do shit stuff properly. Why 10% last night and 15% today? He just makes it up as he goes along.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Thanks. I didn't have a favourite church door knocker, but I do now.

Ah, yes! From back in the day when the planners insisted that if you're going to build all these house you've got to build a boozer too.

Always Start with People, Not Technology A people‑centred industrial strategy for AI, good work, and the everyday economy

Unless there is a determined agenda for work in the everyday economy - services like retail, hospitality, and care - then democracy will remain unstable.

What industrial policy for the working majority looks like. And it's not just spread AI.

This week's piece.

open.substack.com/pub/anthonyp...

What's a "flat top" boozer?

Taking off my partisan goggles for a minute, it is monumentally and historically stupid for Labour and the Greens to be slugging it out for the right to come second to the fascists.

Britain’s global standing, and a service of tremendous value to the world, being destroyed by little, little people, with little, little imaginations, and their little, little accounting ledgers.

This is absolutely the point. Our response to some people literally getting away with murder isn't to legalise killing people.

Sorry David. Absolutely didn't mean to imply your story wasn't true!

Stat of the day. Ten years of protectionism, pro-manufacturing policy, China economic confrontation and US manufacturing employment has surely gone up?

Nope. It's down. From 8.5% to 8.1% of employment. The new nationalism is many things but a job engine ain't one of them.

Must've been a bad fake, as I think the designer concerned is Tommy Hilfiger (one "l" and one "g")

This disqualifies Farage from any office in the UK whatsoever on national security grounds alone. Tankie nonsense.

Of course. Good to see you too!

We were in recession two years later and unemployment went over 3 million. Not much to celebrate from what I remember.

Sam Altman was right - this unironically is PhD-level intelligence

NHS deal with AI firm Palantir called into question after officials’ concerns revealed Exclusive: in 2025 briefing to Wes Streeting, officials warned reputation of tech firm behind US ICE operations would hinder rollout of data system in UK

NHS deal with AI firm Palantir called into question after officials’ concerns revealed

In 2025 briefing to Wes Streeting, officials warned reputation of tech firm behind US ICE operations would hinder rollout of data system in UK

www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

I think Cnut is unfairly maligned - he did his seaside stunt to show his courtiers that he DIDN'T have superhuman powers.

He Leaked the Secrets of a Southeast Asian Scam Compound. Then He Had To Get Out Alive — WIRED IT WAS A perfect June evening in New York when I received my first email from the source who would ask me to call him Red Bull. He was writing from hell, 8,000 miles away.

This is an amazing piece of work by Andy Greenberg at WIRED: the inside story of a Chinese-run "scam compound" in Laos and one enslaved worker who risked everything to blow the whistle. Long but worth it.

apple.news/Ac2HtjYPtQh2...

Will Romeo be the first woman cabinet secretary. (She should've got it six years ago).

When I first saw his name in a headline yesterday, I thought it was a joke story about Starmer being replaced by a bot.

Who or what are E-Starmerites?

(I did Google it and got a lot of links to the Emirates airline)

Disbelieve the evidence of your eyes and ears, etc.

There's something I never expected to hear: "Italy are 133-8 with 4 overs remaining". Had to rewind to make sure I hadn't misheard. #r4today

American workers just took home their smallest share of the nation's wealth since 1947 — even as corporate profits soar.

Why? This chart has the answer.

Wheels are off. CQC still hasn't replaced CEO Julian Hartley who quit last autumn. And now have to appoint a new chair first. And all this while the CQC is supposed to be reinventing itself.

so a month ago I was reading @markpackuk.bsky.social’s speech on Twitter in the lords and there were obviously fake stats the government used to justify Twitter’s UK reach and its continued importance to British audiences

Rob has now found the source of the data was… Twitter

Not sure this the right strategy. Reform can only win if the anti-Reform vote is badly split among the democratic parties. "Anyone but Reform" risks that happening. Anti-fascists need to pick a dog in this race.

There's a strong similarity between McSweeney and Mandelson in that both convinced their leaders they were indispensable, but when you step back and look at what they've actually done, there's almost nothing there.

It's nonsense of course. Neither the UK nor France are remotely near any reasonable definition of "third world" economies. And Italy is "poorer" than both.