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Giles Wilkes

@gilesyb.bsky.social

19K followers 1.2K following 4.2K posts

Former politico, comment writer, spread betting dealer, editor, now think tanker, consultant, former baker of overly dense loaves.

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Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · Jul 15

In an effort that will no doubt torch my follower base, I have laid out some basic numbers around our fiscal situation. Obvious, but still a little sobering for me.

freethinkecon.wordpress.com/2025/07/15/t...

There really is no getting out of this fiscal corner

It is something of a cliche to argue that Britain is running out of money, living beyond its means, wandering through a fiscal fool’s paradise – but no less true for that. The trend of …

freethinkecon.wordpress.com

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 2h

Been pondering this answer, whether it's a purely semantic point or substantial.

The biggest one-off wealth tax achieved in a while was 1997 windfall, 0.5% of GDP. If we managed 4x that, and got £70bn, that might lower the deficit by ~£3bn ... That is peanuts, so I conclude: semantic

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 3h

*bangs head on the desk until it bleeds**

A ONE OFF wealth tax cannot help the problem of a DEFICIT which is a RECURRING thing
www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

*my head not the desk

Reposted by Giles Wilkes

James Austin @jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 4h

'Taxes may have to rise'

Yes, if you're spending billions on nationalisation (plus billions on infra and new power generation) while choosing to make utilities free at the point of use, I would think taxes would have to rise.

Particularly given the wider state of public finances.

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 3h

My take isn't "name a great writer, you won't be able to find them writing about writers". It's more about what seems to have been their primary and enduring motivation, which is reaching outside of themselves and their own small lives. I guess.

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 4h

I met him during his heyday when I honestly believe he was touting the idea of China being drawn into the UK regulatory orbit, post Brexit. Satire has seen nothing like it

Reposted by Giles Wilkes

Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 5h

Interesting post. If this is indeed an award for method, then what's rewarded, in terms of theoretical method, is 'try and say something interesting while sticking to the accepted -- indeed required -- method of representative agent inter-temporal optimisation'.

undercoverhist.bsky.social @undercoverhist.bsky.social · 14h

What does a Nobel Prize on ‘innovation-driven economic growth’ actually reward?

A historian’s perspective on how to deal with the Nobel frenzy

beatricecherrier.wordpress.com/2025/10/13/w...

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 5h

"In 1950 no fewer than 805 cyclists were killed on the roads in Britain—ten times the number killed last year"
www.economist.com/internationa...
From The Economist

But note a slightly rising toll in The Netherlands

Forget EVs. Cycling is revolutionising transport

Pedal power is booming, spinning up a new culture war

www.economist.com

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 5h

To savagely attack the self important writer who thinks what they are doing matters so much... I'm guessing obviously

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 5h

Then I contend that writing was better before the existence of writers

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 5h

They should be taxed

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 5h

But it really is about the events, not the writer's struggle as a writer to write the writing, while occasionally meeting someone in a cafe

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 5h

Omg yes. "Write about what you know", what a reveal

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 6h

And Bloom is far more interesting than Stephen

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 6h

Well I think it marked a bad turn

Reposted by Giles Wilkes

Oliver Mantell @olivermantell.bsky.social · 6h

It certainly avoids the classic flaw of “I, a uniquely sensitive individual, am a novelist. Behold my uniquely sensitive creation: a novelist (who is uniquely sensitive…)”.

I take Casaubon as Evans/Eliot roasting (a side of) herself…

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 6h

I was worrying about precisely that, but she treated him harshly that I think she was trying to make my point

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 6h

A late career indulgence

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 6h

Honourable exception, granted

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 7h

*ok Dante is an exception. And Joyce?

**I'm looking at you, Iris Murdoch

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 7h

The really, really great writers hardly ever featured writers in their works. Dickens, Homer, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Chaucer, etc*. The most tedious novelist is the one that imagines their way into the world of a novelist from Brooklyn or Oxford**

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 1d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 8h

Like "An essential condition today for entry into the upper echelons of Conservative party politics is being willing to at least pretend that you think taking Britain out of the EU was a good idea. This is a never-ending lobotomy for the Tories"

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 8h

"One reason the successive Tory administrations from 2016 to 2024 achieved so little beyond damage control is that they traded middle-aged voters who needed little from the state for older voters who require rather more"
on.ft.com/4oi1TXq column full of brilliant insights by @stephenkb.bsky.social

How Brexit drained the Tories’ talent pool

The party can’t keep expecting successful people to pretend that leaving the EU was a good idea

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 23h

What does this do to bond yields

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 1d

The best spads are hardly ever talking to media so the question of cliche is beside the point

Reposted by Giles Wilkes

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 1d

It's hard to help Americans left behind because so much of US identity is rooted in individualism. The average American conservative holds all three positions at once:

— Virtue signals about supporting US manufacturing
— Against raising the minimum wage
— Buys foreign imports because they're cheap

HardPass4 on Twitter tweets: "I'm willing to pay more for quality products if they are made in America, by Americans, who are paid a decent income." The tweet shows Norman Rockwell's "Freedom of Speech" painting, which is often used to show the tweeter is expressing a brave opinion.

HardPass4 on Twitter tweets: "MINIMUM WAGE JOBS WERE NOT MEANT TO BE A CAREER. Why does no one understand this? Entry level jobs are STEPPING STONES to better jobs. No one wants to work towards that though."

HardPass4 on Twitter tweets: "Buy $5 gloves instead of $50 ones. Trust me." The tweet shows a box of "Gorilla Grip" gloves.

The label on Gorilla Grip gloves show they're made in China.