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Matthew Brooker

@mbrooker.bsky.social
1.6K followers 1.6K following 1.4K posts

Columnist for Bloomberg Opinion in London. CFA holder, from Slough, 25 years in Hong Kong, 5 in Shanghai. Opinions are my own.

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Reposted by Matthew Brooker
Anton Gerashchenko @antongerashchenko.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Bill Browder: Putin has got a major shortage of diesel fuel in Russia, and so I don't believe that he's actually gonna supply the fuel. Second, the amounts are de minimis compared to what the United States actually needs.
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Not Russian?
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Reposted by Matthew Brooker
Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Andy Burnham first PM to confirm Kremlin role in Brexit vote The prime minister has revealed UK authorities told him there was ‘clear evidence’ that Moscow meddled in the referendum observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
observer.co.uk
From Russia with interference: Burnham first PM to confir...
The prime minister has revealed UK authorities told him there was ‘clear evidence’ that Moscow meddled in the referendum
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Right
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Bravo
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
“Places where energy prices are high are poor” - did I hear that right from Kemi Badenoch? Places where energy costs are high: Britain, Denmark, Belgium Places where they are cheapest: Iran, Libya
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
“I think it’s frustrating when people rush to judgment and proclaim people with guilty,” said Burnham on Wednesday -- a day after an independent panel proclaimed Manchester City guilty in a 40-page judgment that followed almost two years of deliberations. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
Andy Burnham’s Manchester City Remarks Rile Government Officials
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s handling of the Manchester City Football Club scandal has riled fellow government politicians who want to keep the process independent of government influence.
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Why wouldn’t you think this when you were just pardoned by a “benevolent” dictator?
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
“Democracy has been hailed as, like, the holy grail for the last couple hundred years, but democracies are inefficient… If you get a benevolent dictator, it’s actually extremely efficient. There’s very little debate going on. You don’t waste time on a lot of frivolous stuff.”
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Inside a Billionaire’s Paradise With Crypto’s Most Powerful Ex-Convict www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/b...
nytimes.com
Inside a Billionaire’s Paradise With Crypto’s Most Powerful Ex-Convict
Changpeng Zhao, jailed in the United States for a financial crime and pardoned by President Trump, is now living a gilded life in the United Arab Emirates.
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
They’re all real, though whether Charles Moore can be considered real is a separate philosophical question
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
This is not a serious party
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Don’t they ever get bored?
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
A selection of the highly varied content on today’s Telegraph home page
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
If the UAE’s condition for investing in Britain is that they get to write their own rules, then do we even want their money?
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Trump has been such a great ally of Europe. Why wouldn’t we release our emergency diesel reserves to help his electoral chances? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
US pressures Europe to release diesel reserves as Trump threatens export ban
President Donald Trump has threatened to ban diesel exports in a bid to ease prices in the US ahead of the November elections.
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
If Abu Dhabi wants to be considered a modern, progressive and technocratic state, then it should consider playing by the rules of the countries where it invests www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
bloomberg.com
Man City Is a $1 Billion Sportswashing Lesson
Sometimes you can be too successful. “You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off,” Michael Caine tells an over-enthusiastic explosives specialist in The Italian Job, a heist movie that ends w...
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Reposted by Matthew Brooker
Paul J Davies @pauljdavies.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Properly punishing Man City will be good for the investment value of the Premier League as a whole, says @mbrooker.bsky.social for @opinion.bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
bloomberg.com
Manchester City’s Torment Is a Dream for Its American Rivals
Manchester City has been found guilty of systematically breaking Premier League rules for almost a decade, in a watershed for the world’s richest football competition. The verdicts taint the legacy of...
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The Premier League’s damning judgment on Manchester City is a turning point for English football www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
bloomberg.com
Manchester City’s Torment Is a Dream for Its US-Backed Rivals
Manchester City has been found guilty of systematically breaking Premier League rules for almost a decade, in a watershed for the world’s richest football competition. The verdicts taint the legacy of...
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Curiouser and curiouser
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Bully for the Premier League. Gave them both barrels
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
It’s dangerous and hostile territory youtu.be/9U0tDU37q2M?...
youtu.be
Monty Python - Climbing the North Face of the Uxbridge Road
YouTube video by feraldarryl
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The state of us
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham implored President Donald Trump to bring up the case of imprisoned Hong Kong dissident Jimmy Lai at a Thursday summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, according to two people familiar with the situation. www.politico.com/news/2026/09...
politico.com
British PM asks Trump to bring up Jimmy Lai with Xi
The British delegation said the Hong Kong dissident could live in the United Kingdom, a person familiar with the situation said.
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Cambodia is now the biggest supplier of bikes to the US. Sure it is www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
bloomberg.com
A $5,000 Bike Shows Why It’s Hard to Build in America
Trump’s tariff regime was meant to bring manufacturing back to America. A $5,000 bicycle shows how his levies are undermining that goal.
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
What’s the Chinese for Streisand effect? hongkongfp.com/2026/09/22/s...
hongkongfp.com
Security Bureau weighs action as Joshua Wong film tops Netflix charts
The Security Bureau has said it is "taking relevant follow-up actions" after a state-backed newspaper flagged a years-old Netflix documentary about pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong.
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
At least Alf Garnett paid his taxes www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
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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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Cantonese, actually
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Reposted by Matthew Brooker
Tony Tassell @tonytassell.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
From a @robertshrimsley.bsky.social column on how mega-donors obscure the wider threats to British democracy www.ft.com/content/f270...
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Joshua Wong was once an icon of democratic hope; now he is a symbol of China’s broken promises over Hong Kong www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
bloomberg.com
Joshua Wong's Freedom Means More Than Cheap Chinese Cars
Joshua Wong became a global celebrity as a teenage protest leader in Hong Kong, appearing on the cover of Time magazine, serving as the subject of an award-winning documentary distributed by Netflix a...
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Are you not reassured?
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Well this aged well
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Silo episode 9 reminded me how much I love Peter Gabriel. Here he is singing Here Comes The Flood in German, which I always felt sounded better for some reason open.spotify.com/track/4dyd5H...
open.spotify.com
Jetzt Kommt Die Flut
Peter Gabriel · Flotsam And Jetsam · Song · 2019
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Perfect
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
I didn’t ask. I didn’t discuss politics with anyone. I was a tourist…
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Oh yes
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Oh, I’m back. I don’t think I would have posted on social media while there…
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Apparently so
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Back in mainland China for the first time in a decade. Lots of EV showrooms
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Weren’t people who did this for a non-far-right cause sent to prison?
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Reposted by Matthew Brooker
Ian Fraser @ianfraser.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
YouGov poll: Most Britons see Reform UK as untrustworthy, extreme and incompetent, while the most common words used to describe its leader, Nigel Farage, are “racist” and “liar”. yougov.com/en-gb/articl...
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
“There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.” Thought for the day, from Terry Pratchett (Guards! Guards!)
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
No need to even ask…
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Arron Banks is said to have paid private investigators to investigate Gabriel Pogrund, editor of the Sunday Times’ Insight team, after he broke a series of stories about Nigel Farage. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Arron Banks ‘hired private detective’ to look into journalist who investigated Reform UK
Asked whether he targeted reporter who investigated party finances, Brexit campaigner says: ‘When you live by the sword, you die by the sword’
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Quite!
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
It takes some brass cheek to say FIFA will “no longer tolerate any attacks on its integrity, good governance and due process” when you are the one who has dragged these through the mud
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
It stinks www.ft.com/content/2c74... At least half a dozen senior NHS leaders linked to Palantir
ft.com
At least half a dozen senior NHS leaders linked to Palantir
Extent of ties revealed as scrutiny grows of US tech company’s contract to build new data platform
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Why FIFA doesn’t change www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
bloomberg.com
What's Wrong With FIFA? Look Beyond Infantino
Gianni Infantino’s recent capitulation looks like a textbook case of overreach by a leader unaccustomed to restraints on their power. The FIFA president’s plan to sell a stake in a $20 billion commerc...
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
🍿🍿🍿 www.ft.com/content/613c... Fifa insiders turn on Infantino over controversial $20bn investment plan
ft.com
Fifa insiders turn on Infantino over controversial $20bn investment plan
Interventions by two senior officials deepen crisis over president’s plan to create new commercial venture and sell 20% stake
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Matthew Brooker @mbrooker.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Brilliant piece that hits the nail on the head www.ft.com/content/6a35... We’ve moved from income world to wealth world
ft.com
We’ve moved from income world to wealth world
Passive wealth gains increasingly matter more than earnings for one’s standing in society
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