Jon Chadwick 
No, It’s Not “Foreigners Using the NHS” It’s total nonsense, despite what you read online. To be eligible for NHS treatment, you have to be ordinarily resident in the UK. Your entitlement doesn’t last forever once you leave. If you’ve been living abroad and you return, you are not automatically treated as a permanent UK … Read more
I’ve been back in the UK for a few months now. A few things have struck me after being away for a while. People are angry — really angry. As soon as you get off the plane you encounter people wound up and looking for a row. A trip to the supermarket means road rage, … Read more
Strike!!! Britain is on strike. A massive strike to bring the government to its knees and force a general election. At least, that’s the claim. This isn’t just people refusing to work for a week. The strike also involves not shopping, not going to the pub, not doing… anything. Total withdrawal from society. You didn’t … Read more
I was in Barcelona last weekend. One of the world’s best cities. It also happened to be the opening weekend of Melania, the new documentary about Melania Trump, and the promotion was impossible to miss. A massive billboard dominated Plaça de Catalunya. Every bus stop seemed to have her face on it. Amazon money, very … Read more
Trump is bonkers Donald Trump’s speech to the World Economic Forum at Davos was a rambling, incoherent mess. His letter to the Prime Minister of Norway was equally unhinged, blaming Norway’s failure to award him the Nobel Peace Prize for the crisis over Greenland. He appears not to understand the difference between Norway and Denmark … Read more
The online right are currently having a meltdown over the Fabian Society. For those unfamiliar with them, the Fabians are a middle-class intellectual group historically linked to the Labour Party. They were founded in the late nineteenth century by Sidney and Beatrice Webb, with figures such as George Bernard Shaw among their most prominent members. … Read more
The biggest political story of the weekend wasn’t the soap opera around Andy Burnham. It was the death of the Conservative Party. For those who missed it, there has been a furious online row among the British right over the Government’s decision to hand over the Chagos Islands. In the real world this is not … Read more
This is controversial and will remind some people why they hate blogs. But it’s been nagging at me for months, so I’m saying it anyway. For the past few months I’ve seen a lot of right-wing content circulating online about cousin marriage in the UK — specifically whether it should be banned. Leaving aside the … Read more
Are UK House Prices Really Falling? Testing the Claims Over the last few months I have been talking about a potential fall in house prices. The logic behind this is simple – quantatitive easing and cheap money boosted the supply of funds to buy houses, while the Government restricted new house building. Both of these … Read more
