A few weeks ago, I invited readers of this blog to take part in a little experiment. I wanted to find out whether people understood how popular their political opinions really were. Not whether they were right or wrong, but whether they had a realistic understanding of what other people thought. The survey consisted of … Read more
How the ONS rewrote Britain’s productivity statistics, and why the government’s economic strategy has a rather awkward problem. Nine years ago I accidentally lied to the Office for National Statistics. I was taking part in the Labour Force Survey. My working hours varied enormously, the questionnaire wasn’t very good at coping with this, and eventually … Read more
Three months after Durham High School closed its doors for the final time, the future of its 13.77-acre site on South Road may be about to become clearer. The administrators have announced that prospective purchasers for the land and buildings must submit their best and final offers by 29 October, following what the selling agents … Read more
America has just withdrawn its B-1 bombers from their base at RAF Fairford, retreating in the face of a threat that remains unclear. Nobody has shot the bombers down, nobody has attacked the base and Iran denies that it was planning to do so. But intelligence suggesting that the aircraft and the people operating them … Read more
Tomorrow the Conservative Party conference starts in Birmingham. To prepare for it I have been reading one of the most significant political texts of the last decade, a book which I think is essential to understanding the modern British right. It is Liz Truss’s autobiography, Ten Years to Save the West. Its subtitle is Lessons … Read more
It is Andy Burnham’s first Labour conference as PM. The big headline is that he wants social care to be free at the point of use, and that some, but not by any means all, of the funding will come from scaling back the pensions triple lock. At first sight, this sounds like an obviously … Read more
When I moved back to the UK from Spain last year, two things struck me. Every British city centre smells of weed. Brits are angry, and they are at their angriest behind the wheel of a car. I have written before about how the UK quietly decriminalised weed. Theresa May cut police budgets, police forces … Read more
There is some good news coming for your electricity bill next week. From 1 October the government is temporarily abolishing the 5% VAT charged on domestic electricity. The Treasury reckons that will save the average household about £45 a year. Unfortunately, on precisely the same day, the energy price cap is going up. From October … Read more
