Reposted by Ian Boucherironeconomist.bsky.social @ironeconomist.bsky.social · 12hSomeone wishes for the good old days and the monkeys paw has decided we should do: (1) a 1970s oil crisis (2) a 1990s tech cycle (3) a 2010s eurozone debt crisis All at once. 812026
Reposted by Ian BoucherElection Maps UK @electionmaps.uk · 14hWestminster Voting Intention: LAB: 29% (+2) RFM: 23% (-1) CON: 19% (-2) LDM: 9% (-2) GRN: 9% (+2) SNP: 3% (=) RES: 2% (=) Via @survation.bsky.social, 29 Sep. Changes w/ 22-23 Sep. 69616
Reposted by Ian BoucherJWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 15hImagine Starmer having the political courage to announce what Burnham has (🤣). Now imagine the stuttering, wooden follow-up interviews in which he looks totally panic stricken as he tries to slot in his pre-rehearsed talking points regardless of what he's asked. Burnham is on another level. Sorry! 5212
Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Yeah this. I’ve never really thought that criticism made sense. He wants to do stuff. He has a mission. 000
Reposted by Ian BoucherDuncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 29/09/2026The actually refreshing bit about the Burnham speech is that he seems up for an argument, making a case and trying to convince people of something. Even acknowledged that trade-offs are a thing. 320920
Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 29/09/2026First part of that speech I found incredibly cringe inducing. Second half was electric. And finishes with the farm. All together now? Somehow I doubt it. 000
Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 29/09/2026This is like Steve Jobs mashed up with David Brent - not in a good way either. 000
Reposted by Ian BoucherAlex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 29/09/2026If I never hear from Sharon Graham, ever again, it will be several months too soon. She is typical of the intellectual dishonesty plaguing this country, which demands radical change, but objects to anything actually changing. 60772120
Reposted by Ian BoucherRob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Curtice identifies a key red flashing light in the MRPs - Labour are falling furthest in seats where Labour are first and con, ref or Nat are second. Labour therefore do a lot *worse* than uniform swing would predict (having done much better than uniform swing in 2024) 42811
Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 26/09/2026@marciles.bsky.social Bazunu standing up like this has seriously impressed me. Hopefully he sees the outpouring of support he is receiving. 031
Reposted by Ian BoucherLegal C @legalclaret.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Time to call this out. There is a tendency to talk utter gibberish about recent events. To compare two different events and draw unsubstantiated conclusions. To suggest people are doing “nothing”. A short thread. 89929
Reposted by Ian BoucherJohn Bull @garius.bsky.social · 25/09/2026will say it again: the most effective way to curb far right agitators like Lowe, "Tommo" et. al. would be to stop their ability to earn money for it from social media or live streaming. So much of it is grifting for revenue, not attention. 211134388
Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Not a huge fan of letting fans drink in their seats mainly because it will make away games even less attractive because I don’t want to be showered in beer. But posts like this sure could change my mind. 000
Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 24/09/2026The yougov MRP is both encouraging - Tories and Reform combines would only be ten seats above Labour and well short of gov. But also a result like that is the exact sort of breeding ground for a far right party winning the next time. A very weak multi party centre left coalition to scrape tiny maj! 010
Reposted by Ian BoucherStephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 21/09/2026In addition - the sketches are not racist, and it is a sign of a broader malaise that we now treat “jokes about racists and racism” as indistinguishable from “racist jokes”. 1325716
Reposted by Ian BoucherDavid Beech @davidbeech.bsky.social · 20/09/2026If you think we are in the majority when it comes to views on immigration you're deluded imv (sadly!) 121
Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 20/09/2026@reluctantnicko.bsky.social Bolton starting to look capable of surprising a few this season would you say? Didn’t have us down for any sort of a result today. New ones taking a while to settle in but one or two starting to look like players…. 000
Reposted by Ian BoucherMarc Iles @marciles.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Whites away, a-ha, a-ha... youtube.com/shorts/4r_NG... #bwfcyoutube.comBolton Wanderers celebrate stunning win at Norwich City 🙌YouTube video by The Bolton News - Wanderers Live 382
Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 20/09/2026So I can safely love football for the next three weeks now! 020
Reposted by Ian BoucherDylan Revisited @dylanrevisited.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Next week I’m interviewing someone who was at Bob Dylan’s Royal Festival Hall show in 1964. He sent me this photo of his programme from the night - now framed and looking great. 0121
Reposted by Ian BoucherWill Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 18/09/2026It’s very clear that the combination of various changes in HE policy over the past few years (perhaps most notably the lifting of caps) and an increasingly challenged global context are going to erode our research capacity in the long term. 2237
Reposted by Ian BoucherStephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Indeed. It’s a miraculous invention that has saved lives, allowed women to return earlier to jobs they love, made it easier for fathers (and indeed just family friends) to bond more quickly with babies. And it is badmouthed by woo-woo merchants. 4221
Reposted by Ian BoucherMarie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 17/09/2026unsure if it's a me problem, a you problem or a little bit of both but christ Bluesky is feeling dour these days, every time I open the app I have to ready myself for 75 Very Serious Debates About Serious Issues, whatever happened to getting jiggy with it, don't make me spend more time on Instagram 14283043
Reposted by Ian BoucherLeft Outside @leftoutside.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Can I shock you? I don't think Nigel Farage is very nice. 052
Reposted by Ian Boucherironeconomist.bsky.social @ironeconomist.bsky.social · 17/09/2026It’s fun to think about what will happen if we are really back to a long period of 5-7% interest rates. Firstly to support the much higher investment this implies consumption has to fall. Given debt loads this means either cuts to government spending or tax hikes on the average consumers. 3132
Reposted by Ian BoucherSunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 16/09/2026The large asylum bases are a v slow costly and v high profile polarising way to propose something that probably won't happen. They make a marginal difference to the challenge of clearing hotels & processing claims. There are many better approaches that defuse rather than amplify the issue 26327
Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Ed Sheeran today is singing….. ‘Ah but I was so much older then I’m younger than that now!’ 010
Reposted by Ian BoucherNadine Batchelor-Hunt @nadinebh.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Definitely feels like there’s a vibe of trying to low key ignore what Trump is doing in the Middle East because it’s Trump But this feels like it’s going to be the story of this winter when energy prices and oil prices sky rocket further 4236
Reposted by Ian BoucherZach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Lukewarm take: I feel a lot of pessimism about the present is built on not realizing just how bad the past was. Like if you just read a book about poverty in a first-world country in the 1950s it's staggeringly worse than now. 501157156
Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Not a Man City fan by any stretch but nobody can say they aren’t a joy to watch for a neutral. Absolutely wonderful football - the movement off the ball is something else. 000
Reposted by Ian BoucherDavid Beech @davidbeech.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Labour refighting the 80s and Reform mired in scandal a centre right party talking about sound money, pro business liberal with a small "l" would clear up right now. I'd be tempted myself tbh. 4172
Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Whilst I am concerned at the Burnham govt’s lack of grapple with trade offs and indeed seeming desire to continue to kick cans down the road - I do think you only need to watch PMQs to blow the argument he is ‘just Starmer with tik tok’ or whatever out of the water. He very clearly isn’t that. 051
Reposted by Ian BoucherStephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 09/09/2026The ansaphone message, like the forces of ethnonationalism, were dismantled only for within living memory to see it re-created in new and more horrifying forms. 1225321
Reposted by Ian BoucherDuncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Yep, not convinced they meant to select this guy. www.wisden.com/series/engla... 241
Reposted by Ian BoucherMrs Quent @quarkquent.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Between these twats at Dover and the lads in balaclavas on e-bikes with machetes stuffed down their trousers, I actually think it’s time to stop all that now 1121
Reposted by Ian BoucherMrs Quent @quarkquent.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Forget about immigration for a minute, can we do something about thugs and/or thuggery? 4214
Reposted by Ian BoucherDuncan Hothersall @dhothersall.bsky.social · 07/09/2026Seeing lots of people pronouncing the latest actions of the UK far right (Dover, Portsmouth, Glasgow) as indicating that we are now doomed to a fascist future. I could not disagree more. The feeling of this being a broken country is exactly what the far right seeks to create. But we CAN push back. 85410
Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 07/09/2026I might have misheard this but I’m sure Healey just said ‘enablers were privatised’ before describing this as arms length bodies and quangos with less accountability ‘holding up markets’. I’m not an economist so perhaps I’m missing something…but what? 000
Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 05/09/2026Yep it’s September and predictably I hate football! Don’t think this mood will change now. 000
Reposted by Ian BoucherKeiran Pedley @keiranpedley.bsky.social · 05/09/2026New from @ipsosintheuk.bsky.social: the Burnham bounce continues in full force Our latest Political Pulse shows 40% favourable towards Burnham and 24% unfavourable. An 8 point increase in the % favourable this month 2124
Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Apparently Burnham said at PMQs there is a case to look at further regulation on fireworks. I’ve heard enough - he needs three terms minimum! 000
Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 02/09/2026@reluctantnicko.bsky.social What happened with Dean? 000
Ian Boucher @desolationrow5.bsky.social · 02/09/2026The BBC seeming more interested in how Burnham ‘performs’ in HoC rather than substance is depressing me. Why are they writing editorials about fluff being brushed off his jacket before he takes his seat? Why is PMQs being built up? He’s a good performer - I don’t think that’s the weakness! 110
Reposted by Ian BoucherStephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 01/09/2026Not like Keir Starmer to make a promise he hadn’t fully understood the implications of and then back out, to the benefit of the Green party. 0436
Reposted by Ian BoucherElection Maps UK @electionmaps.uk · 31/08/2026Prime Minister's NET Approval Ratings after 6 weeks in office: 🌹 Burnham: +12.5% 🌳 Johnson: -4.7% 🌳 Sunak: -6.8% 🌹 Starmer: 7.3% 🌳 Truss: -48.0% electionmaps.uk/polling/appr... 47712
Reposted by Ian BoucherLuke Tryl @luketryl.bsky.social · 27/08/2026More optimism? Or more accurately less pessimism about the UK. Months into the Starmer Government the number sayign the country was getting worse rose to around 70%+ and stayed there. Since Burnham became PM that number remains high but has dropped to the mid 50s. 6156
Reposted by Ian BoucherLuke Tryl @luketryl.bsky.social · 26/08/2026Labour hold a 4pt lead over Reform in our latest voting intention, with the Tories a point behind Reform. 🌹 LAB 27% (-) ⏩ REF 23% (-2) 🌳 CON 22% (-) 🔶 LIB DEM 10% (-1) 🟢 GREEN 9% (-) ⚫ RES: 4% (New) 🟡 SNP 2% (-) N = 3,140 | Fieldwork 21-23/8 | Changes w 17/8 95022
Reposted by Ian BoucherSam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 25/08/2026New poll from Deltapoll: Lab 30% (+1) Reform 27% (=) Con 20% (-1) Green 8% (=) Lib Dem 8% (=) Fieldwork: 21st - 24th August 2026 Sample: 2,022 GB Adults First time Lab have been at 30% since Jan 2025. 1629067
Reposted by Ian BoucherJohn Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 23/08/2026There's a definite strain of Brexit that was people objecting to both European and non-European immigration, voting to stop the former, finding it increased the latter and that ultimately they thought that was worse. 1017824
