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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 9h

Well, this is new. I can't access BBC news articles unless I pay for a subscription (services such as BBC Persian appear to be unaffected by the paywall).

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Zero boggles detected. bsky.app/profile/sema...

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

A source close to Paul Joyce confirms this isn't Paul Joyce. bsky.app/profile/paul...

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I did enjoy that, especially as those involved were at all times effectively known to everyone. Feel sorry for that chap Clifford Chance though.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

It is 1,331 days since Manchester City were charged by the Premier League.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Panic on the streets of Manchester.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I should think that a fair number of Man City's (non-Abu Dhabi) partners will have asked their lawyers to confirm what clauses and circumstances exist for early contract termination/renegotiation should it be necessary.

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Reposted by David Phillips

Philippe Auclair @philippeauclair.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

It's never been more important - and urgent - to support investigative sports journalism and, to do this, @playthegame-org.bsky.social has set up a new initiative, which I hope many of you will contribute to. Spread the word, and help us protect sport and the values we believe it should represent.

playthegame.org

Journalism Fund

Through public support, the Play the Game Journalism Fund fund enables Play the Game to commission freelance journalists and researchers to produce independent, investigative, and analytical journalis...

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The Man City result is probably both the best possible outcome for the Premier League and the worst possible outcome for the government.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

That's going to make for a fun Premier League Owners and Directors Test.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Hehe. Though this is much closer to what actually constitutes Opta's "super computer".

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I haven't mentioned how much I love Baby You're A Rich Man either. The mixture of really choppy, walking, and pulse-type lines. It's not as complicated as some of his others, but it is *perfect*. And that's why he's my fave, really, because there's just no-one with his ear.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I played bass as a teenager. Never, ever, ever got close to Lovely Rita. 😅

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Paul McCartney, for so, so, so many reasons. Isolate/listen to the bass lines in All My Loving, Oh Darling, Hey Bulldog, Taxman, ADITL, Come Together, Dear Prudence, Lovely Rita, I Want You - melody/counter-melody, and frankly, simply ask "How did he think of that?" Genius. bsky.app/profile/brai...

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

New York Times is New York Times-ing.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

In which "triumph" is defined by putting snipers on the roof. bsky.app/profile/nick...

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

That was unexpectedly nasty from Declan Rice at the end and I'm very surprised he wasn't sent off.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Perhaps Jim has lost so much confidence in the UK, it can only be restored by having the taxpayer be relied upon for the hundreds of millions of pounds in infrastructure funding without with Man Utd's new stadium effectively can't proceed. www.bbc.com/news/article...

bbc.com

Billionaire Manchester United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe says he has lost confidence in UK

Ineos founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe tells the BBC he thinks the country is "on the slide" and calls for more investment in the North Sea.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I'm not blaming Kang-in Lee, he's obviously an extremely sensitive person who feels pain in every region of his body regardless of where he's actually touched.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

It's not Laura's territory necessarily - it's Steven Ginsberg - but I do wonder what @laura-williamson.bsky.social thinks of this highly representative set of five men. You can do so much better than this, @theathletic.com. bsky.app/profile/thea...

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Messing with a Japanese video game company's intellectual property? This typically doesn't end well for the infringing party. bsky.app/profile/nanc...

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

The general rule of not seeing something done isn't the same as nothing is actually being done applies.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I'd be more surprised if the police / intelligence services (if suitable) weren't aware and hadn't deployed resources such as spotters accordingly. There might be more value, for example, in the gathering of intelligence than (the appropriateness of) arrests today. bsky.app/profile/joxl...

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

The actual d'Artagnan - Charles de Batz de Castelmoreis - is likely buried in a church in a little village called Wolder, near Maastricht. The body was discovered by chance under the church stones owing to subsidence, and will be DNA tested. bsky.app/profile/kate...

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

In the history of Jose Mourinho's career, this has to go down as one of the funniest defeats ever.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Depends. Are you Boycott, Vos, or Hurst?

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Thought you were talking about Whiley for a minute and was very confused. But Wiley, yes, that's odd.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Will this finally be the year when the transfer window is politely and quietly closed rather than slammed shut?

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

So no, there's not a "dangerous self-delusion" here. There are people who are making entirely reasonable assessments about their current and future predicaments based on a number of factors including an absence of stability allied with a President (deliberately) engaged in economic incoherence.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

People who think Trump's unpredictability/instability/erraticism is helpful in a leader don't think much about economic impact. A president who reverses course, escalates suddenly (Iran), or changes tariff policy on short notice essentially imposes a measurable tax on decision-making.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

For example, the Penn Wharton Budget Model built this directly into its estimate of Trump's tariff impacts. They calculated the surge in policy uncertainty alone - solely assessing the uncertainty about what happens next - would cut investment by roughly 4.4% in 2025.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

That's a firm-level effect - if and when businesses can't predict what happens next, they delay hiring, expansion, and investment decisions until things settle.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Their research shows policy uncertainty itself - separate from any *specific* policy - raises stock volatility and depresses investment, hiring, and employment. As per the image, that hit a record high in 2025, and the trade-policy-specific version of it is multiples above its historical average.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Finally, what's missing from Will's flippant post entirely is what erratic behaviour does to economic views. The Economists Baker, Bloom, and Davis built the Economic Policy Uncertainty Index by tracking news coverage of policy uncertainty going back to the 1980s.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Then you add tariffs on top - e.g. metals tariffs are separately pushing up steel, copper, and aluminium prices per the same Fed report. That's two distinct, administration-driven shocks (the war, the tariffs) both landing on ordinary consumer prices at the same time as the war slows growth.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

The Fed's Beige Book flagged that directly: energy and fuel costs rose sharply across every district because of the conflict, pushing up freight, shipping, plastics, and fertiliser costs. It was a policy choice which had an direct impact on food and petrol prices across the US.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

And just noting one obvious thing: some of the economic shock is wholly self-inflicted via the Iran misadventure. Brent jumping from around $60 to $87+ per barrel and US gas prices crossing $4 per gallon, after sitting under $3 before the conflict.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Calling that "self-delusion" flips the actual disagreement. People aren't necessarily bad at maths or assessing economic reality - the dispute is actually over which numbers are the right ones to feel their lives through, and there are large numbers who can perfectly rationally feel that way.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Moreover, approval isn't only "how do things look right now" - it reflects trajectory, expectations, and whether people think it's getting better or worse. You can rate the economy "not historically terrible" and still feel worse off than you expected to be a year ago. Both absolutely can be true.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

So the honest claim isn't "this is the worst economy in 50 years." It' a much wordier "the specific numbers that are cratering are exactly the ones that determine whether *you* feel okay - housing costs, debt, job prospects 0 while the ones that look fine are averages you're not the median of."

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

It's been referred to elsewhere, but it's a "K-shaped economy": asset owners, older workers, and high earners are doing just fine, which keeps the overall picture looking "okay". Renters, debtors, young workers, and the bottom half of the wealth distribution are absorbing the actual stress.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Recent US college graduates are also unemployed at higher rates than the overall workforce for the first time in decades, and *underemployment* for grads is at 42%. If you're 23 and are struggling to get a foothold, "unemployment is low" is really not describing your circumstances and challenges.

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

There are several other indices which are currently near or at record levels right: - Top 1% wealth share: highest ever (31.7%) - Home price-to-income ratio: ~5.08, close to double what's considered affordable - Credit card delinquencies: highest since 2008-09 - Homelessness: highest on record

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Certainly by classic aggregates, it isn't 1980-82 (experiencing double-digit inflation *and* unemployment) or 2008-09 (near 10% unemployment, financial system collapse) or 2020 (GDP in freefall). But "not the worst by four macro stats" doesn't equal "people are deluded for feeling squeezed."

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

It not being "by far the worst in 50 years" might be true on the headline stuff - unemployment, GDP, inflation - but that's also really beside the point, because it's not actually the argument people are responding to. bsky.app/profile/whst...

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David Phillips @davidphillips.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

If you move Minteh or Muñoz off the flanks, you're compromising on their biggest strengths, where they are most productive, and those positions. You've seen The Coach's Voice article on Muñoz already, here's an Athletic article on Minteh. With that, have a good day. www.nytimes.com/athletic/752...

nytimes.com

How Yankuba Minteh plays, what he’d offer Liverpool and his similarities with a young Salah

Liverpool have had a bid rejected for Yankuba Minteh as they look for new forward signings

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