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Stephen Bush

@stephenkb.bsky.social

74K followers 4.5K following 57K posts

Associate editor and columnist @financialtimes.com. Post too often about culture, public policy, management, politics, nerd stuff, Arsenal, wosoc. Try my UK politics newsletter for free here: www.ft.com/tryinsidepolitics

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · Feb 22

I sat through that so when my column gets factchecked I can say “yes, that line is accurate”. Such is the FT’s commitment to bringing you our best understanding of the truth. Subscribe here: subs.ft.com/products

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 3h

There has been IMO a slightly bizarre 'oh you need to wait your turn' approach to legislative slots which has I think lost sight of what is mission critical and what most benefits from happening early.

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 3h

The government has brought forward measures to fix the BSR to be fair!

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 3h

The key thing to understand why the BCR and the BSA are so bad is that they are primarily about finding a way to blame someone other than the government for failures of regulation. Hence: oh, a second staircase, because you can see whether a building has one just by eyeballing it.

Left Outside @leftoutside.bsky.social · 5h

The impact assessment for a second staircase is mental. Why is it recommends to spend £3bn to get £9mn of benefit? The low case BCR is 0.0002. What???

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Reposted by Stephen Bush

Nute @nutedawn.bsky.social · 5h

Obviously this is a particular left-wing species of it, but I think this is a reflection of a very real Online trend found all over the political spectrum where people don't understand some aspect of the world and so assume their ignorance must reflect a conspiracy by The Powers That Be

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 5h

I suspect actually that one area I have “the FT endorsed Trump“ style fake beliefs based on the title is probably jobs like your, where I understand what a specialist librarian *does* in the abstract and therefore believe I know what you do to a much greater level.

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 5h

Hah!

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 5h

A thing that always causes me a minor epistemic crisis are the people who have really, really strong ideas about the FT, a paper they have never read that they have completely made up but believe to be true. I must have beliefs like this also! But what are they?

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Reposted by Stephen Bush

Dylan Difford @dylandifford.bsky.social · 6h

Probably just one of those coincidences that Labour's losses in every direction peak among those most concerned about their personal finances. If anything, it's actually perfectly normal for a government to be losing 70% of their voters in that category.

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Reposted by Stephen Bush

Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 7h

Questions my toddler asked my partner in the last five minutes heard over the baby monitor: What is an “item”? What is “galore”? Can I have a big brother? Can you make my next brother a girl? But why is he a giraffe [presumably when pointing at a character in a picture book though this is unclear]

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 7h

Food price inflation in the UK is above our peers because of policy choices made in the UK.

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Richard @notthathunter.bsky.social · 7h

also since the next main movie is going to take aaaages, Bezos should also greenlight an old man Bond movie with Pierce Brosnan, even a bad version of the concept would be easy money

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Reposted by Stephen Bush

Pete Fraser @petefrasermusic.bsky.social · 9h

This is devastating.

I think for my age, he’s *the* generational genius of pop music. That he’s a unique vocal talent, on the level of Marvin Gaye, goes without saying, but his colossal musical intelligence is what made him D’Angelo. A unique musical intellect.

www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...

D’Angelo, Grammy-winning neo-soul pioneer, dies aged 51

Singer known for tracks such as Brown Sugar and Untitled (How Does It Feel) died at home from pancreatic cancer

www.theguardian.com

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 7h

Terrific piece this. Continue to find it bizarre how little “food inflation is off the chain” and “core inflation is above target” featured as topics at Labour conference or more broadly as “theories to why the government is unpopular”.

Anoosh Chakelian @anooshc.bsky.social · 15h

“I think politicians are ignoring prices and bills and hoping we’ll forget about them and find something else to complain about…”

My report on how the flighty Westminster bubble forgot about the cost-of-living crisis, which certainly isn't over:

Energy bills rise while Westminster talks immigration

Why have our politicians forgotten about the cost-of-living crisis?

www.newstatesman.com

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 7h

A oui.

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 8h

The movie that Disney or Sony ought to try and make IMO is a cheap Spider-Girl flick with Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. $50mn budget, mostly just a gentle coming of age dramedy. Two shortish fight scenes, nothing else.

Culture Crave 🍿 @culturecrave.co · 8h

Andrew Garfield doesn’t think ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 3’ will ever happen

“It’s not happening and I don’t believe it ever will, but sweet of you to want it to happen"

(via GQ)

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 8h

Yeah - I really just put it because I think the SA claim about medical innovation is not *wrong*, I just don't think it's where the money is going to come from on it.

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 8h

Indeed. It's just nice to have little icons of the NPCs for the players to look at! Adds a small spark of joy (also frankly avoids the 'I am tipping my hand by mistake that this NPC is suss' problem).

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 8h

It can do some v useful things in medical research, too, but I think in general when you start going 'okay, what's a thing that's kinda a slog, but easy to check if it is egregiously wrong', a lot of the actual use cases involve recreation of some kind or another.

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 8h

Agree. Not just for smut, either.

I spent more time than I care to admit trying to work out if I would be breaking the FT's 'Acceptable Use of AI' if I used the in-house AI to write character descriptions of random D&D mooks, or breaking it if I used a separate AI I paid for myself.

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 8h

I think a lot of it is that for the core players, they didn't enjoy 1997 to 2001, and Labour was re-elected at the end. Absolutely no thought as to whether or not them not enjoying it was normal or not.

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 8h

I would occasionally say in a tone of contempt: 'I mean, sure, but you haven't either - you don't get to average out the jobs that Gillian and Jeremy have actually created around the table!' and I hold my hands up, turns out you actually kinda can.

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 8h

Same. Ignoring the friends I have made *from covering politics*, I don't know a single person my age who voted Conservative in 2024. My mother, a single mum working in university administration, had more Conservative voting friends in 1997 than that!

Reposted by Stephen Bush

Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 8h

Labour’s immigration plan in full:

- raise the salience of small boats as much as possible
- make it harder and more expensive for people to come here legally and contribute
- ???
- solve the small boats issue to rapturous applause
- markets reward their ingenuity with return to growth

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 9h

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the Conservative criticism of Labour I absolutely did not give enough intellectual houseroom to pre-election was 'none of these guys have ever created a job'.

Bo Jacobs Strom @bojs.bsky.social · 11h

Headlines going to the English requirements but I'd completely missed this part of the plans, yet another act of idiotic self harm. Completely incompatible with the government's stated aims on housebuilding, growth, etc.

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 9h

Yes, it's striking that Keir 'I love institutional memory' Starmer didn't seem to think that institutional memory counted for anything.

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 9h

I don't as a rule check my mentions on there very often these days, but equally when I want people to read my opinions I put them in the pages of the world's No 1 English language business newspaper.

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