He's seemingly trying to pull the same trick of attacking "the Conservative terms" of the Brexit deal / EEC membership rather than engaging in the rights & wrongs of the fundamental issue itself. I can understand it why he's doing this but it may be too late for subtle messaging.
The story of that whole period is people exploiting Brexit for short-term personal and party political advantage, to the great detriment of the country.
Wilson pretended to be "neutral" at the time for the sake of party unity. I imagine Starmer is privately pro-European, as he always was prior to 2019, but his political strategy still seems guided by Johnson's victory that year. Generals fighting the last war.
Because if you listen to @steverichards.bsky.social that was nimble and effective positioning by Wilson at the time which enabled him to maintain party unity.
One of the countries at the bottom of that democracy list is also a monarchy and you could consider North Korea to be a kinda sorta de facto monarchy, in that it's ruled by a hereditary dynasty.
Analysis in @thetimes.com by @leaskyd.bsky.social & Anna Dowell of the sharp decline in British identity uncovered by the Scottish Social Attitudes survey.
With comment from Sir John Curtice on the polarising of Scottish politics and from myself on the decoupling of Scottish and British identities:
"The hundreds of billions of dollars companies are investing in AI now account for an astonishing 40 per cent share of US GDP growth this year... In a way, then, America has become one big bet on AI."
"The hundreds of billions of dollars companies are investing in AI now account for an astonishing 40 per cent share of US GDP growth this year... In a way, then, America has become one big bet on AI."
There's a whole Wikipedia page on the debate about excess mortality in the USSR under Stalin. Whether you accept the hyperbolic numbers sometimes touted (20m) or the much lower revisionist figures, which are still in the millions, it's a horrific legacy. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excess_...
You can see clearly the party space fragmenting as Reform dominate the authoritarian (and increasingly the 'moderate') groups but staying virtually at 0 on the liberal left. While the Greens move to a strong second place in the liberal left group but struggle outside that group.
"The hundreds of billions of dollars companies are investing in AI now account for an astonishing 40 per cent share of US GDP growth this year... In a way, then, America has become one big bet on AI."
The Tories' problems are deeper than merely a bad leader. The centre-right has been weakened by the degradation of erstwhile professional jobs and by capitalist stagnation. Here's one I wrote earlier: chrisdillow.substack.com/p/the-centre...
A key question this year is just how much of US economic growth has come from tech investment, aka the AI boom. The net contribution of the tech to real GDP growth is a bit more than a third YTD. But consumer spending, a bigger part of GDP, has weakened, in effect making tech's contribution larger.
Quantity of references is no guarantee of their quality. If he's just referencing "Briefings for Britain" or whatever they're called, Patrick Minford and a bunch of other partisans with a dog in this fight, it's simply an exercise in cherry picking.
Just had time to properly read this brilliant piece by @benansell.bsky.social. It left me even more convinced than I already was that what he calls Labour's (and indeed the Conservative's) "prole-whisperers" are horribly mistaken if they genuinely think chasing after Reform voters is the way to go.
This is the same Gully who used to be a prolific poster at the other place? I didn't know he was still plugging away, especially as only 11% of people now consider Brexit a success. yougov.co.uk/politics/art...
I remember a conversation with an old economist friend of mine a few years ago who predicted British politics would remain extremely volatile until and unless pre-2008 levels of growth resumed. The bumpy ride looks set to continue indefinitely.
