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Jack Kessler

@jackkessler.bsky.social

8.3K followers 1.9K following 2.3K posts

I write the newsletter, Lines To Take, bringing you one big story of the day, every day. Sign up for free: https://www.linestotake.com/ I like human rights and French cuisine.

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Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · Mar 14

What it's like to go horribly, horribly viral.

That time I incurred the wrath of a continent (and the Daily Mail).

My new newsletter, Lines To Take, out now.

What it's like to go horribly, horribly viral

I incurred the wrath of a continent (and the Daily Mail)

www.linestotake.com

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Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 2h

Trump: Skilled visas to cost $100,000
UK: Great — more skilled migrants for us!
Also UK:

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Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 4h

Is SAF a load of PR bollocks or can it actually be a bridge to electric (for short-haul at least)?

Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 4h

Marmalade itself feels quite Lib Dem-coded, though fully accept that may be a colour thing.

Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 5h

Reminds of the difference between implementation (re devolution) of the Apprenticeship Levy vs Sugar Tax/SDIL. Learning lessons from previous mistakes is good!

Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 5h

He was delivering a talk and at the Q&A I quoted back at him something he wrote. God, even my subconscious is an insufferable kiss ass.

Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 5h

I dreamt about Stephen Kotkin again. I think it's the sweater vests.

Stephen Kotkin wearing maybe a gilet but in my mind it was more a sweater vest.

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Reposted by Jack Kessler

Karim Palant @karimpalant.bsky.social · 6h

This is a real marmalade dropper

An email headline reading ‘Labour members back tax rises to fund public services’

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Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 6h

There should be a Rightmove option for 'situated in a marginal constituency'.

Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 6h

An unexpectedly moving conversation between two friends, each burdened by the guilt of believing they weren’t there when the other needed them most.

"Should Never Have Done It!" - Freddie Flintoff REFLECTS On England Captaincy In 'Cursed' Ashes Tour

YouTube video by talkSPORT Cricket

www.youtube.com

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Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 7h

But both cruelty and incompetence can steer a nation toward a destination where governments are increasingly incapable of doing basic things well.

Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 7h

We are not the same. The UK is a relatively open, mid-sized economy enduring several lost economic decades, while the US is a superpower in which people are being disappeared off the streets by masked men.

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Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 7h

Or trade friction. Keir Starmer may not call tariffs "the most beautiful word in the dictionary" but he's still overseeing an economy where trade intensity is set to fall 15% compared to staying in the EU.

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Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 7h

Trump: skilled visas to cost $100,000
UKG: more skilled migrants for us!
Also UKG:

www.ft.com/content/33ce...

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour.
https://www.ft.com/content/33ce6a88-8bbf-4568-a9e6-f90a1a37d83d

For skilled workers bringing family to the UK through the main visa route for professionals, fees total tens of thousands of pounds over the five-year period before they can apply for indefinite leave to remain, experts said.

Fees incurred by a family of four who settle after five years on a skilled worker visa total £42,892 before tax, according to Ian Robinson, head of the UK practice at the global mobility company Vialto Partners.

When big employers in sectors such as tech, financial services and pharma cover those fees for high-earning workers, HM Revenue & Customs may treat some or all of the fees as a taxable benefit to the employee, putting the overall cost at up to £72,639 ($96,875), he added.

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Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 7h

Lies, damn lies and statistical agencies.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock (Zone 2, unfurnished, £2,000 pcm, bills not included), you’ll be vaguely aware that Trump recently fired Erika McEntarfer, head of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, for no other reason than the agency produced some statistics that contradicted the MAGA view that the US economy is booming.

This was, to be clear, one of the most bog standard authoritarian moves Trump has yet made. He follows in the inglorious steps of Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who removed the head of the nation’s statistical agency after a report showed inflation hitting 36%. Argentina in the 2000s and 2010s, which became famous for its unreliable inflation figures. And of course the Soviet Union, where economic data was less a measure of output than a sincere desire not to be sent to the gulag.

But what of Britain? In May, the head of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), Sir Ian Diamond, resigned with immediate effect, citing health reasons. But this just so happened to take place mere weeks before the publication of a fairly excoriating report into the statistical agency, which warned of “deep-seated” issues and concluded that “most of the well-publicised problems with core economic statistics are the consequence of ONS’s own performance”.

There is, of course, a category difference between punishing incompetence and lashing out at reality. But whether it’s political pressure or poor management, both the UK and the US are drifting into the same void: a world in which the numbers can’t be trusted — and policy is made in the dark, making life far harder for central banks and governments alike.

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Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 7h

"Britain Trump"

From extortionate visa fees to dodgy statistics, Donald Trump is making the US more — not less — like the UK.

My newsletter, out now.

"Britain Trump"

From extortionate visa fees to dodgy statistics, Donald Trump is making the US more — not less — like the UK

www.linestotake.com

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Reposted by Jack Kessler

Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 1d

"You're going to need a bigger buffer."

The OBR isn't some shadowy institution gleefully blocking elected politicians. What gives it real power is successive chancellors *choosing* to leave themselves precious little fiscal headroom.

✍️ www.linestotake.com/p/rachel-ree...

My newsletter, out now.

The government is rushing through its planning and infrastructure bill not because of the urgent need to build more homes or accelerate the green transition, but so that the OBR has time to run the numbers — and, ideally, score the reforms positively. The hope is that this will reduce the amount of savings (or tax rises) the chancellor needs to find.

As a payer of taxes, a liver in houses and a consumer of energy, sign me up. But as an observer of public policy, my eyes hurt. This is a completely wild way of making policy! There is always a bit of teaching to the test in any system, but at times the UK government engages in the equivalent of a school sending its low-performing students on a ‘field trip’ during exam week to artificially raise overall test scores.

The OBR is not some shadowy, underworld institution gleefully blocking elected governments from serving the people — or whatever Truss is mumbling in her sleep. Politicians created it. They can abolish it. What gives the OBR real power is simple: Reeves — like her recent predecessors — has chosen to leave herself precious little fiscal headroom. That is not imposed from on high. It is a decision voluntarily taken.

Back in the mists of time, Philip Hammond took OBR downgrades on the chin. They barely changed policy, because he left enough margin to absorb the hit. It will be painful in the short term, but Reeves is surely right to follow suit. To do anything less would be to hand the OBR power it should not — and frankly does not want to — have.

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Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 1d

I've never actually seen Jaws so trusting to cultural osmosis somewhat.

Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 1d

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Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 1d

Well you can't just drop a Martin Wolf column on me mid-thread — of course he'll be right and me hopelessly clutching! That is social media assault, David.

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Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 1d

HMT has lost confidence in the last few years. It defers to OBR and BoE — not always a bad thing. But they make mistakes too (see QE/QT). Not sure what the answer is — other than finding vast deposits of rare earth metals in some uninhabited but very well connected brownfield site in England.

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Reposted by Jack Kessler

James Austin @jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 1d

Everyone knows at least one person (normally, but not exclusively, a guy) whose gone properly mental due to net rabbit holes.

We see public figures regularly go mad and destroy themselves.

And we have, at a policy level, just decided to put our fingers in our ears and go nahnahnah

Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 1d

Last night I heard of another friend of a friend who has been lost to a rabbit hole of online propaganda. We need to start treating this as a serious public health concern.

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Reposted by Jack Kessler

Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 1d

What policy themed visitor trail would you do upon retirement? I would pilgrimage to visit the 100 Rishi Sunak outdoor chess sets around the country. I genuinely think it would be one of those fun random things that would take me to places I’d never otherwise go to

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Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 1d

For what its worth, I really don't think the OBR *wants* its forecasts to be quite so central to everything. And they wouldn't be, if the chancellor wasn't always a Trump Truth Social post away from breaching her fiscal rules.

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Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 1d

These reforms seem good. But rushing them through — not because of the urgent need to build more homes or accelerate the green transition, but so that the OBR has time to run the numbers — and, ideally, score them positively, is truly wild!

UK planning to be speeded up with new powers for ministers

Government is adding amendments to infrastructure and housing bill to strengthen scope for more timely construction

www.ft.com

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Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 1d

But *twice* leaving yourself £9.9bn in headroom — notwithstanding geopolitical headwinds and backbench rebellions — is like trying to get to the airport by leaving only as much time as Citymapper tells you.

You're gonna miss your flight!

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Jack Kessler @jackkessler.bsky.social · 1d

Meanwhile, the fiscal situation is objectively not great. If we had late 1990s surpluses and demographics, the OBR obviously wouldn't matter so much.

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