Reposted by Paul HebdenBeverly Tweetmaker @bvrlytweetmaker.bsky.social · 1hI have seen a rash of terrible graphs lately (including one taken from the NY Times) but this is truly next-level. 3102
Reposted by Paul HebdenQuinn Slobodian @quinnslobodian.com · 18hListening to Gates on @ezraklein.bsky.social is fascinating because he oscillates between his two modes—1) AI is more dangerous than nuclear weapons and 2) AI will help the world's poorest—with no real effort to reconcile the two. 617322
Reposted by Paul HebdenDavid Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 2hA view of national/ethnic identity predicated on intra-group unity and intergroup incommensurability is literally and inherently racist. It is also a pervasive outlook with a long history, which means that many people have internalised it. Including those it most harms. 1285
Reposted by Paul HebdenBrian Moore @briantrumpet.bsky.social · 4hWhat feels mad now is just how close WW2 was, not least as we studied it as 'history' just 30 years after it ended. 022
Reposted by Paul HebdenDave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 5hMy parents grew up around relatives who'd been in the Western Desert, who'd done years in a Japanese camp. They'd lived on rations until their teens. None of it was nostalgia. None of it was an excuse for racism. 4305
Reposted by Paul HebdenDave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 5hWhat really peeves me, born 1969, is how absolutely "present" WW2 was in my childhood as the immediate background to now, and how completely the sober understanding of that has been butchered since. 2426
Reposted by Paul Hebden𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖 𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 @sundaedivine.lol · 6h“Please don’t leave me alone with him.” 4222060546
Reposted by Paul HebdenI Am Incorrigible @imincorrigible.bsky.social · 9hSimon Clarke MP was born on 28 September 1984. That's all you need to know. #r4today 1031175297
Paul Hebden @paulhebden.bsky.social · 4hLike I said. Open corruption is the new normal of geopolitics today. The scale of what's going on with Man City, is nothing compared to the corruptions of the Trump family. But it is now transparently true that the rich and the powerful see absolutely no problem with behaviour like this. >>> 53715
Paul Hebden @paulhebden.bsky.social · 5hThis would be an excellent time for an enterprising journalist or researcher to download FTSE food supply chain profit calls, and run them through some NLP code in R. Of course an AI model could prob do it too, if the transcript data was cleaned etc www.thegrocer.co.uk/news/governm...thegrocer.co.ukGovernment set for major food resilience announcementThe government is to unveil a major new commitment to protect food industry resilience 122
Reposted by Paul HebdenFrances Ryan @francesryan.bsky.social · 7hDisability doesn’t care how old you are. Specialist food is no cheaper if you’re 19. Employers don’t lose their prejudice if you’re 21. This is blatant intergenerational inequality from Labour. Younger disabled people of all severities deserve better. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...theguardian.comKey disability benefit for young people may be axed under major welfare changesExclusive: Plan under discussion involves intensive support to help young people into employment 18507221
Paul Hebden @paulhebden.bsky.social · 7hNot a bad answer from Gemini here. "Would Karl Marx have liked AI?" 200
Paul Hebden @paulhebden.bsky.social · 21hModern politics is all about "Swiftboating" - attack your opponent for their strengths. Andy Burnham has to be very careful that football and the fact he has a hinterland, doesn't become the virtue he's attacked for. To be fair, his track record on Hillsborough puts him in a decent place imo. 220
Reposted by Paul HebdenDimitri Drekonja, MD, MS @dimitridrekonja.bsky.social · 01/10/2026For non-soccer fans: this scandal is basically a microcosm of what is going on everywhere re: the ultra-wealthy doing whatever they want because they can. Man City cheated like hell. But here is the prime minister implying they’re just too valuable to the UK to hold to account. It suckstheguardian.comAndy Burnham admits to ‘concern’ if Manchester City lose their owners after guilty verdictsThe primer minister said: ‘City have been a huge partner in building modern Manchester,’ while the Independent Football Regulator said it is monitoring the case 1241314395
Paul Hebden @paulhebden.bsky.social · 23hSo busy planning work today that I forgot to get on a zoom call. The irony!! 000
Reposted by Paul HebdenWill Stronge @wstronge.bsky.social · 01/10/2026The entire system needs to change including, arguably most importantly, the interface that is the JCP. The ethos, the staff manual, the layout of the space, all of it. Some steps towards that here, with a sketch of what it could look like: autonomy.work/portfolio/tr...autonomy.workTransforming Employment and Support InfrastructureRead our new report outlining how Jobcentres could be transformed from traditionally transactional spaces into holistic, empowering hubs – dynamic community assets that foster empowerment and resilien... 121
Reposted by Paul HebdenDan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I would be very careful with this factoid because it is very dependent on generous defined benefit schemes which future generations of pensioners, beginning with late GenX to early millennials, will not have 2116434
Paul Hebden @paulhebden.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I'll never forget being unemployed and a carer and having to go sign on with my 10-year-old in tow. It was always intentionally degrading, oppressive and stressful and left a mark on him. I vowed he could never be with me again to see the way those places treat people. 1142
Paul Hebden @paulhebden.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Westminster scrambled to memory hole covid. There's something at the core of reactionary politics that's instinctually dismissive of illness and the debilitating effect it has on people's ability to work. It aligns perfectly with reactionary ideas of self-reliance, freedom and austerity. 153
Reposted by Paul HebdenAnthony Painter @anthonypainter.bsky.social · 01/10/2026So this just misses the point entirely. Likely impact will be short-term before shunting the problem elsewhere in the system - like the mental health system with associated costs, when it will end up costing the welfare system more in the medium term. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...bbc.co.ukConservatives pledge 'tough love' benefit rules for under-25sThe party says it would bring in new work requirements for young people claiming Universal Credit. 24410
Reposted by Paul HebdenAnthony Painter @anthonypainter.bsky.social · 01/10/20261. Milburn's analysis is right- there is a *systemic* issue and, indeed, there has been for some considerable time. 2. The current particular issue is related to Covid and mental health. So support (mentors, coaches, health professionals, volunteering) better than hard welfare conditionality. 2447
Reposted by Paul HebdenAnthony Painter @anthonypainter.bsky.social · 01/10/2026The NEET rate basically hasn't changed for the whole of this century (except post-GFC and post Covid). It's been the same with tougher welfare sanctions and weaker. More apprenticeships and fewer. Higher employer national insurance and lower. I draw two conclusions from this.... 66239
Paul Hebden @paulhebden.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Think there's a scenario where UAE royalty literally takes its bat and ball home re: Man City. Could even conceive of a situation where they refuse to compete this season. Perhaps that's at the extreme, but hard to see how any of this ends well for City fans tbh. New ownership has to be likely? 121
Paul Hebden @paulhebden.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Mass website harvest are fiddly, may breach website terms and can get you banned. But there are always way to hybridize the collection of information that's still relatively swift but respectful. S'all I'm saying. 000
Paul Hebden @paulhebden.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I don't think planning reform is the silver bullet people claim it is, but then I read my street WhatsApp group and the miserable kneejerk moaning and, "we need to complain about EVERYTHING" of the middle class is so depressing. They complain about everything. 120
Reposted by Paul HebdenFinancial Times @financialtimes.com · 01/10/2026FT exclusive: The Premier League football club’s Emirati chair, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, was granted immunity six years ago in a move that could complicate any legal action resulting from findings that it artificially inflated its finances by more than £900mn. ft.trib.al/o3eobE1 11616
Reposted by Paul HebdenPeter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026🔴 We asked Tony Blair's think tank about charging businesses £500k for political access at party conferences and why one of its sponsor's logos disappeared after our reporting last week on TBI's alleged cash for access scheme This is what they said 72926344
Reposted by Paul HebdenChris Dillow @chrisdillow.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Treating the triple lock issue as one of pensioners vs non-pensioners is silly identity politics. The qn is: how do we best prepare for our retirements, & should we sacrifice some of this preparation to pay for social care insurance? I need convincing. 24816
Reposted by Paul HebdenSurvation. @survation.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Support outnumbers opposition in every age group, including those most affected: -> 55-64: 61% support, 16% oppose -> 65+: 55% support, 27% oppose 8/9 79126
Reposted by Paul HebdenTom Clark @tom-clark.bsky.social · 30/09/2026"From that social security you can build that national security" -- AB to BBC Last time he struck this echo pundits howled about a gaffe -- benefits before bombs! But he's actually doing something more interesting, not using "social security" to mean "welfare spend" but invoking as an ideal 2237
Paul Hebden @paulhebden.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Ooof. Personally think Zack needs to take this seriously and think about what he might be able to do to change some this. 010
Reposted by Paul HebdenSTC @blobbystc.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Getting rid of the triple lock is bad, actually 3547
Reposted by Paul HebdenChris Dillow @chrisdillow.bsky.social · 29/09/2026True. Labour should be calling higher petrol/diesel prices & higher bond yields the Trump tax - which is far more accurate than saying that Truss crashed the economy. 24519
Reposted by Paul HebdenCritical Takes on Corporate Power @criticaltakes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026It's a big problem for anti-corruption discourse that: 1. Powerful people have long been able to achieve the effects of corruption without doing anything that falls within the legal definition. 2. Trump has shown that you don't even need to go through those motions, if you're powerful enough. 111
Paul Hebden @paulhebden.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Id just ask white comrades to occasionally see their whiteness and understand how Jewish people continue to experience their inclusion within whiteness as a conditional. It is possible to do this without throwing other groups under the bus. 111
Reposted by Paul HebdenICIJ @icij.org · 30/09/2026Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed in October 2017 when a bomb placed in her car was detonated remotely. She had been working on #PanamaPapers stories. This month, the man accused of orchestrating her killing was found not guilty on all charges. buff.ly/rasQ0gkbuff.lyJury acquits Maltese business tycoon in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia - ICIJYorgen Fenech was the last of seven men prosecuted for her 2017 assassination. 13528
Paul Hebden @paulhebden.bsky.social · 30/09/2026The levels of corruption we see with Trump and his family are insane, made extremely worse by the role of crypto. But then you look at what Manchester City's owners were doing, in what's hard to avoid assuming their sponsors knew about, and you see - once again - just how rigged things are. 141
Reposted by Paul HebdenBeth Stratford @bethstratford.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Well, I for one am an economist who supports rent controls! Here’s why 🧵: Markets only work well if: -buyers & sellers have roughly equal power -producers respond to price signals & expand supply in response to scarcity -buyers can walk away if prices get too high 11410195
Reposted by Paul HebdenPriyamvada Gopal @priyamvadagopal.bsky.social · 29/09/2026"In October 2024, the same month that Jane Doe was allegedly raped, Cornell issued three-year campus bans to four students who pushed past police officers at a pro-Palestinian protest." You can guess which students faced life-changing consequences and for what crime. 1177
Paul Hebden @paulhebden.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Guess who's proposing to reduce the mandate on EV car production? Aaaaaannd guess which proportion of the population is forced to drive dirtier and more expensive cars? I'll give you a clue.... it isn't hedge fund managers in Kensington and Chelsea 120
Paul Hebden @paulhebden.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Guys, the UK is never going to have a high tech manufacturing sector. The car makers want to make petrol cars and protect their wealth long enough before they exit the UK entirely, blaming the Chinese 3241
Reposted by Paul HebdenDmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 28/09/2026Punching the services sector in the crotch over and over again until it gives up and magically returns to me the glorious era of mass manufacturing employment I mostly invented and automation has forever replaced. 1135656
Reposted by Paul HebdenPhil McDuff @mcduff.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Honestly incredible the extent to which so many people have convinced themselves that opposing universal benefits is somehow a progressive position. One of the main ways the centre left has radicalised itself into austerity Osborneism, tbh. 318850
Reposted by Paul HebdenM a r c u s 🏳️🌈🇧🇧 @marcusjdl.bsky.social · 28/09/2026One of the worst state pensions in western Europe, 2 million pensioners in poverty and increasing numbers of pensioners still paying rising rents… triple lock being removed is not a left wing position just because you don’t like rich boomers 1023570
Reposted by Paul HebdenDan Sabbagh @dansabbagh.bsky.social · 28/09/2026People trying to escape from second floor windows in central Kyiv a few minutes ago after a hit on the National Academy of Sciences 074
Paul Hebden @paulhebden.bsky.social · 28/09/2026There's an insanely good documentary by Russian documentary maker Anastasia Trofimova. She just basically travels with a soldier to the front line and lives with them for months. The film is 2-3 years out of date, but provides a shocking insight into actually who is being conscripted by Putin 110
Reposted by Paul HebdenArthur Snell @snellarthur.bsky.social · 28/09/2026I don’t understand this “very British/very English” framing. According to the Today programme it was “very English” that a member of the public called the police on seeing something dodgy. I’d no idea this is a specifically English thing. Perhaps we can encourage other countries to adopt this idea? 3262877
