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Peter Holmes

Peter Holmes

@pholmes8.bsky.social

4.5K followers 1.6K following 420 posts

Semi-retired trade economist, Emeritus @ UKTPO Sussex. Posts about Brexit, Freeports, WTO and anything else that catches my fancy. Migrating across from other place. Tweeted as @pholmes8. Blogs with others at https://blogs.sussex.ac.uk/uktpo/blog/ .. more

Economics 44%

Political science 25%

more

Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Peter Holmes, Mark Priestley

Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 20h

Why wouldn’t you want to know? What have you got to fear? Losing your precious Brexit? Being revealed as a traitor and a liar?
Surely, anyone decent and honest who genuinely cares about our country and our democracy has nothing to lose from this. So, sign up.
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74...

Petition: Call a public inquiry into Russian influence on UK politics & democracy

We are concerned about reported efforts from Russia to influence democracy in the US, UK, Europe and elsewhere. We believe we must establish the depth and breadth of possible Russian influence campaig...

petition.parliament.uk

Reposted by Richard Ashby Wilson, Diane Ravitch, Peter Holmes , and 1 more Richard Ashby Wilson, Diane Ravitch, Peter Holmes, Anne Norton

Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 20h

What do these corporations have in common?

Netflix
Ford
Tesla
T-Mobile
Duke Energy
DISH Network
Metlife
Dominion Energy
United States Steel

In recent years, they all paid their execs more than they paid in taxes.

This is what a corporate-rigged system looks like.

Reposted by Peter Holmes

Cas Mudde @casmudde.bsky.social · 21h

"Befehl ist Befehl" is strong in the U.S. military...

southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 22h

This is murder. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive, according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation. "The order was to kill everybody," one of them said.
A missile screamed off the Trinidad coast, striking the vessel and igniting a blaze from bow to stern. For minutes, commanders watched the boat burning on a live drone feed.
As the smoke cleared, they got a jolt: Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck.
The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack - the opening salvo in the Trump administration's war on suspected drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere — ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth's instructions, two people familiar with the matter said. The two men were blown apart in the water.

Reposted by Cas Mudde, Nicholas A. Christakis, Will Jennings , and 11 more Cas Mudde, Nicholas A. Christakis, Will Jennings, Brendan Nyhan, Mark D. White, Rosemary A. Joyce, David Rothschild, Eric Goldman, Joseph Schafer, Peter Holmes, Robert C. Richards, David R. Miller, Michael D. McDonald, Jesse R. Lasky

southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 22h

This is murder. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive, according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation. "The order was to kill everybody," one of them said.
A missile screamed off the Trinidad coast, striking the vessel and igniting a blaze from bow to stern. For minutes, commanders watched the boat burning on a live drone feed.
As the smoke cleared, they got a jolt: Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck.
The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack - the opening salvo in the Trump administration's war on suspected drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere — ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth's instructions, two people familiar with the matter said. The two men were blown apart in the water.

Reposted by Christian Odendahl, Will Jennings, David Burrows , and 3 more Christian Odendahl, Will Jennings, David Burrows, Peter Holmes, Mark Priestley, Nicolai von Ondarza

The Times & Sunday Times @thetimes.com · 1d

Kemi Badenoch says welfare spending is unchristian

Kemi Badenoch says welfare spending is unchristian

Kemi Badenoch says welfare spending is unchristian

www.thetimes.com

Reposted by Peter Holmes

LittleGravitas, →EU immigrant, UK→ emigrant, anti-Brexit @catanonim.me · 1d

And this, from @chrisgrey.bsky.social just today, highlights one of the real problems in SM/ a CU/ Art49.

https://chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2025/11/brexit-reminders.html

Anyone with an ounce of self-awareness or humility might show just an iota of contrition, perhaps even some shame, when shown their failings in such forensic detail. But Johnson and Cummings, the one girdled by his sense of entitlement, the other by his misplaced intellectual vanity, are incapable of humility or shame. As for Frost, he shows the self-awareness of a toilet seat. One might as well expect Liz Truss to refrain from pontificating about “sensible economic policy”.

But the more important point is not their all-too-obvious personal inadequacies, it is that these mesh seamlessly with the doctrinaire refusal to accept responsibility which permeates their entire world-view. As with Nigel Farage, nothing is ever their fault. Thus, if there were ever to be a public inquiry into Brexit, it can be said, not speculatively but with certainty, that Johnson, Cummings, Frost, Farage, and all those who had leading roles within it, would never, ever accept the truth of the damage they did.

This matters, even though such a public inquiry is not in prospect, because it helps to explain why Brexitism persists in British politics, and why, as regards Brexit specifically, Britain is stuck in an impasse. On the face of it, that shouldn’t be so. There’s really no longer any room for doubt about the damage Brexit has done, most obviously economically, and no serious analyst claims otherwise. And public opinion has firmly turned against it. This leads some to suggest that it should be (relatively) easy to at least begin the process of ‘rejoining’. But there is no realistic route to that whilst a powerful phalanx of politicians and, perhaps as important, media owners and commentators remain as an obdurate, shameless, unrepentant blockage to it.

Reposted by Peter Holmes

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 1d

Spoke to the New York Times for their report: the British public think immigration is up. It's actually down, sharply
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/27/w...

The British Public Thinks Immigration Is Up. It’s Actually Down, Sharply.

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Peter Holmes

Reposted by Peter Holmes, Mary Corcoran, Christina Pagel

Michael Savage @michaelsavage.bsky.social · 2d

NEW: BBC tells staff they cannot quote Trump line removed from Reith Lecture

BBC News article & Media Show prevented from repeating Rutger Bregman’s corruption allegation in its coverage… of whether the BBC censored his speech!

BBC/Trump fallout continues

www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...

BBC tells staff they cannot quote Trump line removed from Reith Lecture

Journalists not allowed to repeat Rutger Bregman’s corruption claims against US president in coverage of edit

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Peter Holmes

LBC @lbc.co.uk · 2d

- A 100,000 drop in net migration costs us £7bn
- Scrapping the two-child benefit cap costs us £3bn

What gets more attention?

James O’Brien says 'we have become a ludicrous country'.

Reposted by Cas Mudde, Will Jennings, Steve Peers , and 12 more Cas Mudde, Will Jennings, Steve Peers, Tim Bale, Samuel L. Perry, Catherine E. De Vries, Ernesto Priego, Jon Green, Peter Holmes, Simon Wren‐Lewis, Jacob T. Levy, Nikolay Marinov, José Antonio Noguera, Aurélien Mondon, Christina Pagel

Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 2d

Today's migration stats illustrate the migration doom loop in action...

(from my presentation at the IMF last week)

Reposted by Peter Holmes, Laurent Pech

Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 2d

The EU's ethics watchdog just ruled that 🇪🇺President von der Leyen's use of 'omnibus' packages to implement 🇺🇸President Trump's EU policy wishlist violates fundamental principles of good administration, including transparent, inclusive, and evidence-based law making.

Ombudsman finds maladministration in how Commission prepared urgent legislative proposals

The proposals concerned corporate sustainability due diligence (Omnibus I), the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and countering migrant smuggling.

www.ombudsman.europa.eu

Reposted by Peter Holmes

Ian Fraser @ianfraser.bsky.social · 2d

In Profits of Doom, @rbrooks45.bsky.social says the £252m PPE contract the UK gov't awarded to Tim Horlick’s Ayanda Capital in Apr 2020 triggered “perhaps the most egregious taxpayer-funded windfalls for the men at the centre of it” @privateeyenews.bsky.social

www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/spe...

Reposted by Peter Holmes

Ian Fraser @ianfraser.bsky.social · 2d

Private Eye's Richard Brooks has revealed how financiers behind Ayanda Capital (which is owned by a Mauritius-based holding company)—Tim Horlick, Nathan Engelbrecht, and Liz Truss adviser Andrew Mills—amassed £64m from UK taxpayers despite supplying faulty PPE during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Troughing. These are the sums that Ayanda Capital's Tim Horlick, Andrew Mills and Nathan Engelbrecht made from the taxpayer despite providing faulty PPE during the Covid-19 pandemoc.

Reposted by Peter Holmes, Christina Pagel

Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 2d

One big risk to the OBR forecasts has already materialised -migration is falling more quickly than their projections and that will hit growth and tax revenue.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn...

UK net migration drops sharply to 204,000 in year to June - live updates

Net migration fell by around two-thirds - from 649,000 in the year to June 2024 to 204,000 in the year to June 2025.

Reposted by Steve Peers, Lesley A. Hall, Peter Holmes , and 3 more Steve Peers, Lesley A. Hall, Peter Holmes, Aurélien Mondon, Vaughan S. Roberts, Christina Pagel

Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 2d

1/5 It was entirely predictable that The Telegraph would jump on @DavidOlusoga’s Empire series to fight its right wing culture war for control of our public history. Let’s see what they’ve done:

Reposted by Peter Holmes

Resolution Foundation @resolutionfoundation.org · 3d

We have been calling for an end to the two-child limit since it was introduced in 2017.

Scrapping it is the most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty, and a welcome step from this Chancellor.

A few weeks ago, we outlined three key reasons why it had to go ⤵️

Reposted by Peter Holmes

James Ball @jamesrball.com · 3d

"Witkoff is telling his counterpart Ushakov how to do something he is surely very familiar with: he is telling him how to manage someone ruling like an autocrat."
inews.co.uk/news/world/l...

Leaked recordings prove Putin is making Trump his puppet

The Witkoff tape reveals how much the game has changed - US diplomacy now appears to centre around flattering and stroking the ego of Donald Trump

Reposted by Peter Holmes

European Movement UK @europeanmovement.co.uk · 3d

The Chancellor wants to "boost trade, increase investment, and champion innovation", but is failing to fix one of the principal causes of the economic crisis: Brexit. The Government must urgently repair our relationship with Europe, or else forthcoming Budgets will continue to bear the brunt.

Reposted by Peter Holmes

Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social · 3d

£26 billion tax rise announced today in Labour's budget

£90 billon, how much tax revenue is lost because of Brexit EVERY Year

The reason taxes are going up and spending is being cut is because we can't afford stuff because of Brexit!

Reposted by Peter Holmes

Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 3d

How to get rid of Citizens United?

We can do away with it without a new Supreme Court. Nor do we need a constitutional amendment.

There’s a far simpler way. Let me explain: https://robertreich.substack.com/p/how-to-get-rid-of-citizens-united

How to Get Rid of "Citizens United"

We can do away with it without a new Supreme Court. Nor do we need a constitutional amendment. There’s a far simpler way

robertreich.substack.com

Peter Holmes @pholmes8.bsky.social · 3d

For sure he's not in Clacton!

Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla.bsky.social · 3d

I’m a past winner of the Orwell Prize & won partly because I exposed Vote Leave’s unlawful activities.

Michael Gove was its co-convener & refused to answer a single q. He’s now a judge of the prize & our world is truly one that Orwell would recognise

bylinetimes.com/2025/11/25/m...

Michael Gove Made Orwell Prize Judge Despite Record of Attacking Journalists and Dodging Scrutiny

Critics say "Orwell would have enjoyed the irony" of the former Conservative minister's appointment

bylinetimes.com

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Peter Holmes, Jonathan Hopkin , and 1 more Lesley A. Hall, Peter Holmes, Jonathan Hopkin, Nick Clarke

Resolution Foundation @resolutionfoundation.org · 3d

Is welfare spending ''out of control''?

Total welfare spending in Britain in 2025-26 is estimated to be 10.8 per cent of GDP.

That's just 0.8 per cent of GDP higher than in 2007-08, and total welfare spending has actually fallen fallen by 1.2 per cent of GDP since 2012-13⤵️

buff.ly/s5mz97u

The chart shows where spending on social security is shown as a share of GDP. As this makes plain, total welfare spending in Britain in 2025-26 is estimated to be 10.8 per cent of GDP. This is 0.8 per cent of GDP higher than it stood on the eve of the global financial crisis in 2007-08. But since 2012-13 (the peak in the post-GFC recession), total welfare spending has fallen by 1.2 per cent of GDP. Added to this, welfare spending is expected to rise by just 0.1 per cent of GDP across the forecast period until 2029-30 (after U-turns and before any decisions made at the Budget).

Peter Holmes @pholmes8.bsky.social · 4d

You touched on this very briefly. I searched & found “Compromise” once in text “Pragmatism” twice - on immigration.
What if BBC had said to you:
“Trump is threatening us with lethal Lawfare. We think we could placate him by dropping that phrase. Would you agree?”
*Might* you have wavered?

Peter Holmes @pholmes8.bsky.social · 4d

Your lecture was brilliant (likewise “Humankind”).
BBC Censorship was deeply cowardly.
But I did think you made your point about Trump pretty forcefully.

Meanwhile BBC censorship raised a question in my mind: how far must liberals be willing to compromise today?

Reposted by Peter Holmes

Philip Stephens @philipstephens.bsky.social · 4d

So now we know. Nigel Farage says his youthful admiration for the Nazis and embrace of "Gas 'em all" anti-semitism was just a bit of "banter". Nothing there to apologise for.

Reposted by Peter Holmes

David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · 4d

A very detailed assessment of UK trade policy published today by @thecitp.bsky.social. Lack of coherence, scrutiny and reporting are prominent contributors to the absence of any suggestion of success. So, in line with other assessments.

citp.ac.uk/uktpr/uk-tra...

UK Trade Policy: An Independent Review | CITP

Reposted by Peter Holmes

Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 4d

New analysis by the House of Commons library estimates that Brexit is costing the Treasury up to £90bn a year in lost tax revenue.

To fix our nations finances we must get closer to Europe and fix the problems caused by Brexit...

https://bit.ly/4pobLzs

Brexit costing UK up to £90bn in lost tax revenue , new analysis shows

Exclusive: Britons also up to £3,700 worse off, leading to calls for the Labour government to improve relations with the EU

www.independent.co.uk

Reposted by Steve Peers, Peter Holmes

Rutger Bregman @rutgerbregman.com · 4d

Here's the transcript. When I say ‘we had a convicted reality star’, you can add ‘who now rules as the most openly corrupt president in American history’ in your head.

downloads.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith...