A blue plaque in honour of two bollards
Seen in a Dorset village. The first blue plaque for a bollard? @worldbollardassoc.bsky.social
Some bitterness is evident.
Why is Dubai discourse so rich? Class identities all mangled and so everyone thinks they are punching up and letting rip. Full column 🫵 www.economist.com/britain/2026...
There is a strong short-term weather effect. Boats do not set off when it’s windy. It’s been a windy winter.
It’s mean and unfair, but let’s do it anyway. Number of small-boat crossers in the 2 days before Britain’s home secretary made asylum temporary: zero. Number in the 2 days since: 479.
www.gov.uk/government/p...
Our editor-in-chief, @zannymb.economist.com, asks Dario Amodei about Anthropic’s clash with the Trump administration over AI safety. Watch on Thursday from 6pm London time
Such a strange, pervasive view. I know people who are convinced that plastic put in a bin in Britain ends up strangling a dolphin.
Emma! Also: Carr, Steeple Sinderby; Lodge, Trading Places; Smiley, Moo; almost anything by Wodehouse. I liked Moshfegh, My Year of Rest, maybe just because I like New York. The Sellout by Beatty is great (I like LA even more) but I didn’t find it funny.
Much attention is rightfully paid to the victims. But far too little is given to the tens of thousands of people struggling after unintentionally taking a life
Nonsense. The big news is Netflix / Warner Bros.
Uncovered Georgia O’Keeffe Letters Confirm Paintings Were Veiled Depictions Of Basset Hounds
Uncovered Georgia O’Keeffe Letters Confirm Paintings Were Veiled Depictions Of Basset Hounds https://theonion.com/uncovered-georgia-okeeffe-letters-confirm-paintings-were-veiled-depictions-of-basset-hounds/
Basically decided paranoia is a consequence of living through an era of consequence. www.economist.com/britain/2026...
Pretty sure he's right about this one:
In the land of the free...
Europeans: 48 fluid ounces is roughly 2 wine bottles.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/24/u...
Jake Fiennes is right. It doesn’t matter to a bee whether the flower grows on a small farm or a huge farm. Trying to tilt the agricultural economy towards small farms is pointless and counterproductive.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
My piece on the strange little parks that have appeared in the Thames
www.economist.com/britain/2026...
It would have been even better if done in the official handwriting of the day. 1600 was the worst.
Interesting piece. Incidentally it shows two things, familiar to anyone who has interviewed boat crossers:
--Many, many of them have been "Dublined", ie, fingerprinted by another European country
--They are very confused and have little reliable information
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
25% discount on my new book today and tomorrow, for anyone interested in an accessible overview of why immigration is difficult and unpopular
Bring back Heseltine's garden festivals! I do sometimes wonder if Ebbw Vale and other Valleys towns have in a strictly superficial sense coped better with the economic battering they received, which was often worse than anything seen in Durham or S Yorks.
For people who love pre-ordering paperbacks. There's a discount on my book until Friday--enter code FEB26.
Essential reading for the UK local elections in May, when much nonsense will be said and written about white working-class people.
www.waterstones.com/book/underdo...
Employment rates for non-EU born are now *above* those for the UK born.
Gap used be nearly 10 percentage points.
A tribute to the success of UK immigration/immigrants and labour market integration, especially in recent years.
Something government should celebrate..
🏭 The share of the UK public who say the country needs to reduce carbon emissions to net zero sooner than 2050 has nearly halved since 2021.
📉 29% of the public now say the UK should achieve net zero before the government's 2050 target – down from 54% in 2021, when this question was last asked.
"How much is a pint of milk?"
"The important thing is that people are rightly concerned about the price of milk. I am very angry about the price of a pint of milk."
"Yes but how much?"
"The last government lost control of the price of milk. My government has..." etc.
Have never been sure why politicians of all parties can get away with (indeed, are defended for) talking utter nonsense about some things, e.g. the level of net immigration, crime rates, but are pilloried for not knowing other things, like the price of a pint of milk.
Interesting piece, and admirable commitment to driving development folks mad, as we have yet another piece about foreign aid illustrated with a picture of a bag of food.
Poor Yvette Cooper, forgotten already. If the number of small-boat crossings is substantially lower this year (which is possible!) and you want to credit a British politician, she is the one to credit.
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
Also "California incubates reactionary politicians"
The "TV is taking over our lives and making everyone crazy" stuff is a bit dated, surely.
