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Phil Biles

@philbiles.bsky.social
58 followers 34 following 145 posts

Moved over from that other place that was becoming a bit challenging

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Phil Biles @philbiles.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
This 👇🏻
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Chris Grey @chrisgrey.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Remember how Brexit was supposed to bring the "regulatory agility" for rapid medicine authorisation and make the UK a "world-leading" medicines regulator? Well, that turned out to be yet another illusion. Good new @ukandeu.bsky.social analysis here: ukandeu.ac.uk/the-uk-us-me...
ukandeu.ac.uk
The UK-US medicines deal and the hidden costs of Brexit - UK in a changing Europe
Vilija Vėlyvytė argues that the UK-US medicines deal which will see the NHS pay more for new medicines is an unexpected cost of Brexit.
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Simon Nixon @nixonsimon.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
How Europe lost the Battle of Ceuta; the four horsemen of the summer apocalypse; why Europe faces a climate sovereign doom loop; and why the Clacton by-election is not a joke - latest edition of Wealth of Nations just published open.substack.com/pub/nixons/p...
open.substack.com
Europe's Defeat
How Europe lost the Battle of Ceuta; the four horsemen of the summer apocalypse; why Europe faces a climate sovereign doom loop; and why the Clacton by-election is not a joke
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Phil Biles @philbiles.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
@nationwideuk.bsky.social we’re trying to move home and are ready to exchange because our buyers, having had a mortgage agreed with you, are having to provide a load of additional information at the last minute. We have been on hold for over a week now with no updates forthcoming from you
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Benjamin Husstad-Nedberg @factforce.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
1/4🧵 A brief summary of what the #Trump regime has achieved in its war with #Iran after 5 weeks: a) The Strait of Hormuz is closed. It was open before the war began. b) #China and #Russia observe that the #US has not adapted to drone warfare. ⤵️
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Phil Biles @philbiles.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
@vikkislademp.bsky.social this is what I was trying to articulate in my emails to you. Needs to stop being the elephant in the room, requires leadership & greater education open.substack.com/pub/kirstyhu...
open.substack.com
In Trump’s Era of Maximum Geopolitical Instability, does the UK Rejoining the EU Make Sense?
The UK would be better off in these dark geopolitical times inside the EU. But does UK politics have the strategic maturity to go down the rejoin path? And would the EU say yes?
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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 21/02/2026
A retired British primary school administrator with a British passport and a valid visa was shackled, chained and detained for six weeks by ICE www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks
Karen Newton was in America on the trip of a lifetime when she was shackled, transported and held for weeks on end. With tourism to the US under increasing strain, she says, ‘If it can happen to me, i...
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Matt Steinglass @mattsteinglass.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Jew in Amsterdam here. Please use Anne Frank as a comparison point to explain how state persecution of scapegoats impacts children, that is the point of her example, thanks
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David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
On the UK-US pharmaceutical deal I'm afraid this does look like two nasty trends coming together to make a very bad agreement for the UK - namely Whitehall power to make deals with no scrutiny, and companies working with countries to coerce others. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
What will be the cost of Keir Starmer’s new medicines deal with Donald Trump? British lives | Aditya Chakrabortty
More than £3bn that could have been used for UK patients will go to big pharma for its branded products, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty
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Led By Donkeys @ledbydonkeys.org · 27/10/2025
Farage: epic grifter
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
This is what tolerance of anti-migrant political rhetoric leads to. A surge in racial abuse against nurses and care workers. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
theguardian.com
Racist incidents against UK nurses surge by 55%
Royal College of Nursing calls on government to stop using anti-migrant rhetoric, which it says emboldens racist behaviour
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Chris Alexander @chrisa327.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Number of people who go bankrupt due to medical debt each year by country: 🇩🇪:0 🇫🇷:0 🇬🇧:0 🇦🇺:0 🇨🇦:0 🇯🇵:0 🇮🇪:0 🇪🇸:0 🇮🇹:0 🇵🇹:0 🇩🇰:0 🇸🇪:0 🇳🇱:0 🇮🇸:0 🇺🇸: 530,000
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Phil Biles @philbiles.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Consistently brilliant. Thankyou
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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
Cracking letter.
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Adam Schwarz @adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
1 in 3 doctors were born overseas. 1 in 2 builders were born overseas. 1 in 6 nurses were born overseas. 1 in 4 transport workers were born overseas. 1 in 7 UK business founders were born overseas. 1 in 5 university academics were born overseas. The UK would be screwed without them.
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Phil Biles @philbiles.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
Only just got round to reading this, a brilliant article. Pity politicians haven’t found the moral gumption to defend immigrants as they have with benefits changes this week
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John Springford @johnspringford.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
Chart-heavy thread incoming. This is an attempt to survey the research to answer the question - were the forecasts predicting a lot of Brexit damage correct? 1/n.
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Peter Foster @pmdfoster.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
Labour's immigration announcement today is a reflection of the paucity of honest debate by BOTH political parties over the last decade on this issue. Labour has never made a counter-argument, or been honest about economic cost of immigration curbs, so it's stuck making Tory/Reform arguments 1/n
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John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch.ft.com · 22/04/2025
Striking stat from @kellycnbc.bsky.social on this: The rise in treasury yields since Trump’s tariffs were announced leads to an increase in US debt interest payments that is larger than all the DOGE savings.
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
This is really exciting. There'll be lots of objections, of course. But the ambition of it is thrilling. Basically using European rearmament to try and turn the euro into a global reserve currency.
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Fintan O'Toole @fotoole.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...
irishtimes.com
Fintan O’Toole: The voice of the Almighty Dollar is shouting stop, Mr Trump
The most effective pushback against Donald Trump right now is a plunging financial graph
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
Trump officials admitted to an “administrative error” when they deported Abrego Garcia — a legal resident with no criminal record. A judge ordered Garcia be returned, but Trump is fighting it in court. Garcia now sits in a prison in El Salvador. The cruelty is staggering.
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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 02/04/2025
If you are going to report how "reciprocal" these tariffs are or how they quantify trade barriers and economic injustices... ... please keep in mind they're not, becuase that would have required work. Instead just did: COUNTRY'S US SURPLUS --------------------------- = Rate% ITS EXPORTS TO US
Tweet from James Surowiecki. It reads: 

Just figured out where these fake tariff rates come from. They didn't actually calculate tariff rates + non-tariff barriers, as they say they did. Instead, for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country's exports to us.

So we have a $17.9 billion trade deficit with Indonesia. Its exports to us are $28 billion. $17.9/$28 = 64%, which Trump claims is the tariff rate Indonesia charges us. What extraordinary nonsense this is.

It quotes another of his tweets which reads: 
It's also important to understand that the tariff rates that foreign countries are supposedly charging us are just made-up numbers. South Korea, with which we have a trade agreement, is not charging a 50% tariff on U.S. exports. Nor is the EU charging a 39% tariff.
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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
In which @miafarrow.bsky.social is absolutely spot-on about law and policy.
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Alex Thomas @alexgathomas.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Almost like it is possible to reduce civil service headcount without crude distorting headcount targets Clearly it’s too early to draw a strong inference, but Starmer, McFadden and Reeves have had more impact on staff numbers than the last govt’s “immediate headcount cap” of 2023
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Mark Hamill @markhamillofficial.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Could not agree more. The Prez & VP are shameful, embarrassing Putin puppets & a disgrace to our country. 🤮 #SlavaUkraine 🇺🇦
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Brian Klaas @brianklaas.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
A reminder to the British press: Donald Trump just says stuff. Reporting what he says as though it’s fact will inevitably make you look like an idiot. There’s not going to be a US/UK trade deal imminently and Trump really doesn’t care about the UK, even if he likes being flattered.
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Peter Baker @peterbakernyt.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
Having served as a Moscow correspondent in the early days of Putin's reign, this reminds me of how the Kremlin took over its own press pool and made sure that only compliant journalists were given access.
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John Harris @johnharris1969.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Latest from me: the Tory hollowing-out in the South of England is plain: Woking, Guildford, Tunbridge Wells, Horsham, scores more. So why is Badenoch going full Trump and further pushing those places away? www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
It’s the Kemi delusion: the more the Tories run towards Reform, the more their voters will run to the Lib Dems | John Harris
Part of the genius of UK Conservatism used to be how it responded to chaos using the balm of tradition. Second-hand Trumpism will only alienate its voters further, says Guardian columnist John Harris
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Alex Thomas @alexgathomas.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
And again: the lesson from Musk is there is no lesson from Musk His project is not government improvement or reform. Those of us actually interested in better government need to look elsewhere www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/trum...
instituteforgovernment.org.uk
Donald Trump and Elon Musk are showing how not to go about government reform | Institute for Government
Would-be government reformers would be wise to reject the Trump/Musk approach.
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James Taylor @jamestaylor-com.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
"I always hesitate to bring my political beliefs into this space. I don’t think my listeners would expect that from me and some of you will find it disappointing: not what you were looking for... " [1 of 2]
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Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
Brexit: “that great victory for the sovereign right to cock things up”… give ourselves food poisoning, lose control, swamp ourselves in red tape, pay more for stuff and stubbornly isolate ourselves from our own continent… A relentless, ruinous stupidity. (Private Eye)
FOOT-IN- MOUTH
ANOTHER Brexit "control of our borders" success story last month, with the entry into the UK of animal food products banned after an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Germany.
The cause was the failure of an IT system called "import of products, animals, food and feed system" (IPAFFS) - one of many border controls that had to be created when the UK left the EU and lost the use of existing IT systems (ie the EU's food safety Traces platform).
When Germany declared its foot and mouth outbreak on 10 January, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) immediately banned the import of cattle, pig and other animals and associated products. But it took a week for controls to take effect "due to failings in Defra's communications and IT systems, specifically IPAFFS" , according to a
letter last week from Commons environment and food committee chair Alistair Carmichael to the Defra minister responsible, Baroness (Sue)
Hayman. "As a result" , testimony from port
operators showed, "prohibited German goods made it through the UK border"
The head of health and public protection at the Dover Port Health Authority explained that the banned imports had gone through due to another feature forced on borders thanks to Brexit: the timing out of checks if they're not completed within a certain number of hours.
Oh dear, another unreliable IT system necessitated by that great victory for the sovereign right to cock things up.
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Phil Syrpis @syrpis.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
There's a theme - that the failure of 'the old world order' (economically, socially, geopolitically, etc) has opened the door to populism and autocracy. The evolution of the Ukraine war exemplifies that theme. 1/6
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Here's the executive order just signed by Trump. One of the defining features of fascism is that the discretionary power of the leader always prevails over the rule of law.
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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 19/02/2025
Lviv is crazy pretty, and every shop and cafe in the old town would be a six-time interior design award winner anywhere else.
Old town of Lviv.Old town of Lviv. Cafe Marevo.A cafe in Lviv called Corks and Crumbs.View down a cobbled street in Lviv.
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Phil Syrpis @syrpis.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
I have a sense of how Starmer’s meeting with Trump next week might go. I hope I’m wrong, but I worry that I’m not. 1/
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Ian Bond @cerianbond.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
Exactly right. Putin is back in the ‘superpower’ chair, despite being a war criminal presiding over massive harm to the Russian army & economy. Trump has given him an unnecessary & undeserved diplomatic win, instead of helping Ukraine beat him on the battlefield.
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Phil Syrpis @syrpis.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
Trump's foreign policy isn't difficult to understand. What is difficult to fathom is the UK government's insistence that it wants to, and that it can, act as a bridge between the US and the EU. Short thread. 🧵1/6
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Peter Ungphakorn @coppetainpu.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
Good for AFP
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Lewis Goodall @lewisgoodall.com · 15/02/2025
Have written about JD Vance’s Munich speech. In what may prove to be the biggest week for European security since 1991, it’s time Europe listened to what Trump and his Vice President are telling us. open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...
open.substack.com
We need to listen to what Trump and Vance are telling us.
This may have been the biggest moment for European security since 1991.
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Phil Biles @philbiles.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Excellent 👇🏻
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Colin Yeo @colinyeo.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
Massive kudos to @stellacreasy.bsky.social for calling this out and tabling an Urgent Question today.
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Rafael Behr @rafaelbehr.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
Column: In the Musk Revolution lessons from 20th Century history will be deleted www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
In the Musk revolution, lessons from the 20th century will be deleted | Rafael Behr
Democracy’s traditional defence against fascism doesn’t work against the new far-right hybrid coded in Silicon Valley, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr
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Alex Massie @alexmassie.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
There’s an Ebola outbreak in Uganda just now. American money helps keep such things in check. Withdrawing that money has obvious implications.
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Alex Thomas @alexgathomas.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
bsky.app/profile/alex...
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Ellen L. Weintraub @ellenlweintraub.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
Received a letter from POTUS today purporting to remove me as Commissioner and Chair of the FEC. There's a legal way to replace FEC commissioners-this isn't it. I've been so fortunate to serve the American people and stir up some good trouble along the way. That's not changing anytime soon.
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Ian Bond @cerianbond.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
The UK is in much more trouble than it seems to realise. 85 years of being able to rely (mostly) on the US being on our side is coming to an end. Even if Trump doesn’t hit us with tariffs, his policies will undermine Europe’s security, including the UK’s.
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Phil Syrpis @syrpis.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Excellent piece. I'd add that Trump is quite some distance from being a reliable partner (ask, eg Canada), and will, at every stage, put America first. And then to look at how the government is seeking to engage with the EU and the US.
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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Like other economists I'm being asked to comment on Trump tariffs. We should do so - it's our job. But first we should make the point stated eloquently here by @alanbeattie.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/c26b...
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