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Alan Beattie

@alanbeattie.bsky.social

33K followers 1.4K following 7.9K posts

Opiner for Financial Times in London. Globalisation, econ, snark. RT≠👍. Views own. [email protected]. Sign up to my FT Trade Secrets newsletter https://subs.ft.com/spa3_tradesecrets?segmentId=357afa03-959c-93ed-0842-58e2115025d4.

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Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · Jan 7

OK, it's well past time to start a thread.

Welcome to Donald Trump's trade policy. Nobody. Knows. Anything.

1/n

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Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 36m

Also to annex Canada to deal with the Toronto rat problem. Thank you for your kind attention to this matter.

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Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 1h

She's clearly been framed by an intruder who came in and out through a closed window, as such intruders often do.

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Reposted by Alan Beattie

Esther Schindler @estherschindler.bsky.social · 6d

I just saw someone use the abbreviation “AI;DR” and I’ll be laughing for a while.

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Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 2h

Visit every levelling-up hanging basket north of Birmingham, perhaps take a flower from each one and make them into a garland.

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Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 16h

Relatable tbf

Dan Snow @thehistoryguy.bsky.social · 1d

Today in 1216 dysentery-ridden King John facing the loss of his kingdom to rebels backed by French & Scottish invaders, really topped it off by losing the crown jewels in the Wash.

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Reposted by Alan Beattie

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 23h

AI has lost the dunce vote. It’s over

Nate Silver
@NateSilver538 • 5h
•.°
I'm just one person, and my programming needs are somewhat unusual (building various kinds of statistical forecasting models). But I'm just not seeing the consistent productivity gains from LLMs that I would have expected if you'd asked me 6 months ago.

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Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 1d

More generally I'd say London may not be the best city of or for Europeans, but it's the best city in Europe by a mile (1.61 km).

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 1d

Typical Parisian, probably off your face on absinthe or whatever you Gitanes-smoking people drink over there.

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Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 1d

That's France as a whole, not just Paris. I suspect that Nice pulls in more visitors than Skegness. London is comfortably ahead of Paris on international visitors as in the other chart above, which counts tourist and business visitors, esp impressive as visitors have to cross a sea to get there.

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Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 1d

I'd nominate Saudi, for a slightly different kind of oily.

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Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 1d

Normally used metaphorically these days I would say, unlike this particular example.

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Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 1d

@secondmentions.bsky.social Can I get recognition for "the oleaginous legume" as second mention for soyabeans?

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Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 1d

TBF if he continues to do this kind of thing he's unlikely to trouble it for long.

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Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 1d

Because you see Marie they aren’t Muslim *at* us, they keep their Muslimness to themselves.

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Reposted by Alan Beattie

Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 1d

something quite brain-melting about the hard right's position apparently now being "we hate all Muslims and distrust Muslim states, aside from that one Muslim place that still has slavery because that sounds fun"

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Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 1d

“Privately grumbled” because right-minded people like your good self would correctly call them numpties if they said it in public.

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Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 1d

“Privately grumbled” because right-minded people like your good self would correctly call them numpties if they said it in public.

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 1d

Once again I beg people to accept that, between them, Viz and the Daily Mash have nailed every social and political issue in Britain quicker and better than the mainstream press. This from 2017.

www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society...

That wanker from school living in Dubai now

THAT utter wanker from school is now living in Dubai, it has been confirmed.

www.thedailymash.co.uk

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Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 2d

Agreed, but OBR downward revisions to productivity growth strikes me as an odd feature to pivot around!

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Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 2d

But Labour have said they'll make Brexit work! This line only works if it's accompanied by a pivot away from backing Brexit.

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Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 2d

But I don't see how it hurts him if he wasn't in charge.

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Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 2d

"We didn't know Brexit would have this effect."

"Loads of people said it would and you ignored them."

"Yes but they were right by accident, we were wrong for the right reasons, vote for us."

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Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 2d

Well, productivity looks weaker so they need to raise more. But if they didn't see that Brexit was likely to do that they're fools. So yes I'd agree, they either look dishonest or dim.

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 2d

Like the Paul Bettany character in Margin Call says when looking over the edge of a skyscraper: it's not the fear of falling people feel from up here, it's the fear they might jump.

Alan Beattie @alanbeattie.bsky.social · 2d

"Look what you made us do."

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