David Henig

Unconvinced from what local knowledge I have that a southern academic will prove popular in a north west city, certainly the ground would seem open to a more local alternative if on offer, but perhaps I don't understand how modern politics has evolved.

Always been the major flaw in this theory. "Anywheres" might be more "cosmpolitan" but they still have a community orienation. I live in a very "anywhere-y" place but there's plenty of school fetes and local book groups.

I see an outright racist is running in a by-election and I humbly suggest that is exactly the term we all use

I already dislike "free trade zone" to denote a reduced tariff agreement between countries. I dislike "mother of all deals" even more. Trade agreements aren't game changers, but they should lead to some economic gains. Long game with India given its restrictions.

Fair point on judges, but Parliament has huge powers to override them

Condolences for your loss

We’re getting worried about Great British Railways Nationalisation can work, but the Government isn’t doing it right

Really good read on the lack of any clear explanation of what rail nationalisation is for. IMO it's thought about a cheaper, more comprehensive and reliable railway and that requires both ongoing revenue support, major investment and changes in working practices open.substack.com/pub/catching...

No. There are too many large differences between all of those countries to be the start of something big. Set our ambitions more realistically as aiming to prove that talking and agreements are better than the alternatives.

One day there may be some more UK interest in general in the neighbours mostly to the west. Should actually be a bit embarrassing how little we know about Ireland.

Austria looks pretty vulnerable to me.

Cyprus?

(no, this is not a serious post)

Wannabe authoritarians give up after the 7th round of counting?

Fair point on PR. France and the UK seem most at risk. Italy I think has some guardrails which I'm not completely up with.

Actual best hope for Europe is that Trump destroys the reputation of far right national populism such that it becomes unelectable here, but I sadly doubt that will happen, too many people just in their own echo chambers.

For sure the US will be tested by Trump's wannabe autocracy, but I stick by the view it will just about come through because it has enough independent institutions. I also stick by the view that most European countries would not because they don't.

Those Europeans who spent yesterday obsessing over Trump destroying the US would do far better to think about how the few guardrails that will stop him do not exist in most of our countries. Germany might be the only exception to this?

There was never a single international set of rules respected and followed by all, and there isn't now a complete free for all - but there's a clear shift away from inter-governmental structures towards nothing particularly clear.

The Personalist Global Order When individual whims drive great-power policy.

"The rise of personalism makes it difficult to speculate about the future of the global order". Indeed, but we have a multitude of emergent orders of globalisation competing and collaborating with each other, of which this is just one.

www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

One nation tories playing bad cop? Good luck with that.

Anyone still got a minitel terminal?

What if I don't want AI "enabled"?

Wondering if "Former" would have been a better name than "Prosper" prosperuk.com/meet-the-team/

Braverman was a Brexit minister for about 10 minutes and I have the distinct memory of her insulting a Swedish friend who asked a question at a conference about how the UK might work with allies...

Oh that's a shock about Suella Braverman defecting to Reform said nobody.

Oh yes, I saw that one, the revenge was that at the first sign of challenge they said they needed to compromise with the evil empire, perhaps to take some of the rough edges away, and were then all eaten?

Think there might have been a little more to it than this... there's maybe an Onion style headline in here somewhere that "EU has no idea how China grew and is determined to do the same..."

and of course China remains much poorer than the EU.

The Telegraph just released a video talking about the EU's aims to become a superpower, and er, they have the UK as members...

Long game, trade with India, there will be increasing opportunities, but will take a lot of work to develop them

I probably wouldn't be getting overly excited about reduced prices for EU wine in India given the expectations of Australia's industry that prices will remain very high even after tariff reduction www.wineaustralia.com/news/market-...

Introduce protection for retailers and logistics companies suffer as well as consumers... such are the choices www.ft.com/content/3287...