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Matthew Holehouse

@matthewholehouse.bsky.social
79K followers 566 following 2.2K posts

Public policy editor based in the Britain section at The Economist

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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 1h
“At a fringe event at their conference Sir Bernard Jenkin, a veteran MP who helped to lead the Leave campaign, warned them: “Do not defend Brexit; Brexit is toxic with the voters.”” economist.com/britain/2026...
economist.com
Kemi Badenoch's pitch for power is incoherent
But Britain’s Tories still have a shot at reuniting the right
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Badenoch’s tax-and-spend slashing speech reflects the big underlying trend of British politics: attitudes to the size of the state are now at their most hawkish in well over a decade. The only wonder is why the Tories aren’t doing far better. My note: ☕️ 🫖 www.economist.com/britain/2026...
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
starting to see an inversion of the 2019-24 dynamic.. progressives voters increasingly united on Brexit and happy to air the issues, whereas Conservative ones split and their leaders keen to not "reopen the debate... arguing with ourselves." Badenoch sounding rather like Starmer used to...
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Very strange
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The PM has fired the starting gun on the rejoin debate, 22% of electorate are undecided and there’s lot of evidence that the Rejoin side is much less sure of its arguments, and much less prepared for the debate, than Stay Out
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Buy British procurement policies? Parity of esteem for apprentices? Such radicalism, prime minister www.economist.com/britain/2026...
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Gavin Jackson @gavinjackson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
www.economist.com/britain/2026...
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Buy British procurement policies? Parity of esteem for apprentices? Such radicalism, prime minister www.economist.com/britain/2026...
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Burnham is playing a fascinating balancing act on Europe. On the one hand, just asking the question because the status quo - Canada - is on the table. On the other hand, accepting the logic that points only to re-entry...
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
It’s possible this results in rejoining the EU. A more bearish scenario: Labour agrees to get rid of its red lines on customs union and single market; it fails to resolve whether that means it actually wants to join the CU & SM; it looks to the EU with big eyes to ask it resolve the contradiction
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
A paradox on Labour and Europe. Given we are told the party's base is so keen on a closer relationship with the EU - even rejoin - it's striking how little acute pressure is placed on the govt to complete the rather dilatory reset. While the Tory membership held their govt's feet to the fire on EU..
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Between the commission on electoral reform and the options exercise on Brexit, it looks like an invitation to the Labour Party to resolve the issues -- "find consensus" -- amongst itself. A recognition perhaps that No 10 couldn't impose a policy if it wanted to.
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This is unusually policy-dense and angular for a conference speech. Shorn of all the Wither England? soul-of-the-nation stuff that characterised Starmer's
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
"Immigration control, weakened -- by Brexit." Some New Labour-grade triangulation underway
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
“I became an outsider from the Westminster club.” As Mrs Thatcher said, if you have to say you are...
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Life, love and laughter, says Andy Burnham. The Hallmark premiership
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
fascinating
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Russ @russcornwall.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Why don’t you try and be Chancellor if you’re so keen on the words a Chancellor should use?
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Words absent from Chancellor's conference speech: tax, China, European Union, Hormuz, oil, gas, universities, productivity, gilts, America. 13 union(s), 7 miner(s). Curious.
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
People at conference say the funniest things
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"Every single evening is about Scotland" super, slightly shouty stuff
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
a reviewer who knows of what he writes
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Ruth Deyermond @ruthdeyermond.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This is a poor take that suggests Owen Jones doesn't know much about Russia in the 1990s, including Russia-US or wider Russia-West relations in the 1990s. By giving only one part of the story, he is repeating the Russian political elite's self-serving line that it was all the West's fault. Long 🧵
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
"I get the impression that he’s now waiting for a report into the third runway by the transport committee before saying more on this.” Fascinating
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
France's Haddad notably open about rejoin chatter on a visit to London. "It would make all of us stronger... Macron was quite blunt, the EU was stronger when the UK was in it. There's no ambiguity." But he warns it would be "much more fraught" if Britain sought sui generis membership.
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
All the debate about MPs' "second jobs", and yet we don't really have consensus as to what the purpose of their first one is
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Typically piercing of @tommctague.bsky.social www.newstatesman.com/cover-story/...
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
“He said he was committed to making Britain feel good about itself again, through setting a clear direction and reindustrialisation, and making sure this was a draw-a-line moment for the country.” No 10 read out of Trump-Burnham bilat
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Such an odd announcement. - Why go for SM+CU, (at best dysfunctional and probably inoperable) when rejoining is at that point actually-existing and more popular? - Why turn a Europe policy from an asset to a liability by making it the load-bearing part of huge tax cuts?
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Davey offering huge tax cuts just as public views of taxation reach their most hawkish since the last time he sat in Cabinet. It's Tea time www.economist.com/britain/2026...
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
It's possible the UK govt would find the politics of the EU reset easier if it at least pretended to want much of the substance of the deal, rather than continually describing what it is bound to sign up to as "EU requests"
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The Economist @economist.com · 21/09/2026
An opportunity to write for The Economist
bit.ly
Paid interns on The Economist’s foreign desk
An opportunity to write for The Economist
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The Economist @economist.com · 19/09/2026
Something appears to have slipped in the relationship between the state and society in Britain. Three culprits seem to be afoot bit.ly/4ylUgVv Illustration: Mark Long
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
A PM with the most expansive vision of the state since Thatcher meets the most hawkish public since the era of Osborne. economist.com/britain/2026...
economist.com
A big-state prime minister meets a small-minded British public
Taxed Enough Already
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Liz Truss is coming to save the Free Press (via playbook) www.thestreet.com/crypto/marke...
thestreet.com
Former United Kingdom Prime Minister Liz Truss Joins Roundtable Board of Directors, to Lead European Press Coalition
Truss joins Roundtable founder’s 35 year history of empowering professional journalism, with providing advanced technology for major media coalitions.
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
par for the course from perhaps parliament's weakest committee
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
If the MoU was a bit of political theatre to paper over the lack of a political consensus for independence in any of the signatories in the near future, then it was a remarkable success
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The Economist @economist.com · 17/09/2026
Taxed Enough Already
bit.ly
A big-state prime minister meets a small-minded British public
Taxed Enough Already
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Sam McBride @sjamcbride.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Northern Ireland's devolved government is in effect insolvent. It has become an unwelcome UK experiment in what happens when fiscal discipline collapses - and Stormont has little incentive to control its spending. London talks tough, but keeps acting weak.
economist.com
Northern Ireland cannot balance its budget. Nobody cares
The most expensive part of Britain
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
More Britons are failing to comply what used to be seen as civic obligations. Disparate, sometimes important and sometimes trivial, overlay them and it seems like something has slipped in the relationship with the state
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
A PM with the most expansive vision of the state since Thatcher meets the most hawkish public since the era of Osborne. economist.com/britain/2026...
economist.com
A big-state prime minister meets a small-minded British public
Taxed Enough Already
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
On misanthropy www.economist.com/britain/2026...
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Behold: Olympiad Man Olympiad Man has displaced Davos Man economist.com/business/202...
economist.com
Olympiad Man has displaced Davos Man
How maths geeks became market gods
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The conflating in ministers’ minds of high-quality vocational education and meeting the needs of local employers is a bit odd. If the former succeeds it ought to produce more labour mobility not less, which would be a good outcome for workers
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
A heartfelt plea for a little help from struggling family firms like uh Greene King and Marriott International (market cap: $90bn)
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
“I would rejoin the customs union,” he said. “It’s a quite simple thing to do…. It’s a pretty straightforward decision because unlike (rejoining) the single market it does not require you to accept the free movement of people.” Says who, George?
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
£72m is hardly a fortune in the real world - about the annual revenue of Battersea Dogs Home, or two branches of Sainsbury’s. Perhaps Britain will shift from having cheap politics to mid-price politics with relative ease
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
It will be interesting to see what Reform's absorptive capacity is for £36m+. A lot of money for a new party to spend and the stuff they're looking for - constituency campaign managers and hq staff - are not exactly available in bulk off the shelf
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Character counts in politics, and some voters are just less fun www.economist.com/britain/2026...
economist.com
The misanthrope party
Reform UK’s miserabilist streak is Nigel Farage’s asset, and his problem
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Character counts in politics, and some voters are just less fun www.economist.com/britain/2026...
economist.com
The misanthrope party
Reform UK’s miserabilist streak is Nigel Farage’s asset, and his problem
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