That's the thing. This govt, unlike Blair's, has no concept of modernity. This might be yet another morbid symptom of stagnation, as I wrote here: chrisdillow.substack.com/p/the-end-of...
It's nothing to do with evidence. Like Kruger on "sexual regulation" it's part of an urge to bring back the 50s: boys playing on bomb sites, everything shut on Sundays, everyone smoking & dripping for tea.
Not often. One way in which our culture is better than the yanks' is that we get our librtarianism from Nozick rather than some semi-literate loon.
Yet another datapoint confirming what George Stigler said: "regulation is acquired by the industry and is designed and operated primarily for its benefit." chrisdillow.substack.com/p/on-regulat...
"Pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field” - Edmund Burke. I fear the govt's immigration policy is making this error. But that's what happens when you make by policy by reading Twitter.
In the 20th C, a common critique of capitalism was that it was wasteful. In our era of AI slop & wifi fridges, this critique seems more valid, and yet it has been largely forgotten.
I suspect they didn't care enough to think about it.
We can't have a functioning "marketplace of ideas" if those selling crap don't go out of business.
Certainly agree there are big political obstacles. I suspect that growth is also hard to achieve for economic reasons - but unless the govt overcomes those political obstacles, we'll not find out.
They have. Everybody knows now that economic stagnation fosters racism and illiberalism - hence the culcha wars. The division is between those who accept this & fight on the right's terrain and those of us who don't and stress the primacy of economics.
Exactly. But Labour is ducking this challenge, as I wrote here: chrisdillow.substack.com/p/economic-g...
It's only about "culcha" because that's filled the vacuum caused by an absence of economic thinking: good politicians set the agenda rather than kowtowing to it.
A cynical explanation would be that it is now much harder for govts to get economic growth than it was in the 90s & that the govt would rather avoid this huge challenge.
As I wrote yesterday, "the Labour right is behaving as if its incentives are not to win the next election but to get cushy jobs outside politics after it." chrisdillow.substack.com/p/bad-incent...
It's one thing to say international law doesn't exist: where are the arrests & trials? It's another to say it shouldn't exist. And if you do, you have to say why there should be domestic law but not international law.
This. New Labour wasn't just wars & media spin. It was a serious attempt to apply an updated social democracy to new socio-economic conditions - eg NMW, tax credits, expanding HE. This govt is making no comparable efforts (maybe coz, given economic stagnation, it's harder.)
Reminds me of this classic from the genius Terry Allen: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wsf...
Also, saying that Labour has "surrendered its right to govern" is either silly or sinister. Given the speaker, I'm going with silly.
Seeing the talk about Kemi Badenoch reminds me of an old piece of mine on why politicians are selected to be so unimpressive: chrisdillow.substack.com/p/selecting-...
There's a new Francis Spufford. This is not a drill. I repeat, there's a new Francis Spufford.
What is the true significance of Labour’s by-election loss in Gorton and Denton? I got into an argument with Tom Watson about whether Labour can assume support for the “minor party” will collapse at a general election and this is the result... williamcullernebown.substack.com/p/arguing-wi...
New substack: how bad government is in part the product of bad incentives: chrisdillow.substack.com/p/bad-incent...
Yes, but it's not terribly useful.
Yes. And the point generalizes. Forecasts for pretty much anything don't tell us what will happen; at best they tell us what to be surprised by.
In order to understand UK politics in 2026 you must realise that a plumber & plasterer doesn't represent the interests of the working class because she is left-wing but a wealthy broadcaster & former academic does represent the interests of the working class because he is right-wing. Hope this helps
Possibly true (tho I doubt John Cole was as bad as Kuenssberg/Mason). But what of the rest of its output? Just look on the iPlayer; where are today's equivalents of The Great Philosophers, The Ascent of Man, Civilization etc?
**NEW POST**
LLMs hallucinate, & they hallucinate WORSE on topics we don't already know/write a lot about. This creates a huge accuracy gap.
This week I tested ChatGPT on Beethoven & Smyth to show how big this gap is & why it matters. It made up a LOT.
leahbroad.substack.com/p/chatgpts-a...
Or, many in this govt are behaving as if they don't care about winning the next election, but just want a few years on a power trip before getting some well-paid jobs outside politics, which would be jeopardized if they moved left.
