Best Of

Meanwhile the Budget continues to inspire: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp816jrnynyo

"High Street job losses are "inevitable", prices will rise, and shops will close as the result of the tax increases in the Budget and other rising costs, a group of the biggest retailers in the UK is warning.

Tesco, Amazon, Greggs, Next, and dozens of other chains are urging the Treasury to reconsider some of the measures."

About that growth thing....

Beautifully written piece in the TLS on life in Kharkiv now.

https://bsky.app/profile/jamesmeek.bsky.social/post/3latvtnhh4s2l

Horrendously sad.

It is. But I fear, like our very own Sean Thomas, Meeks is someone who travels and sees what he wants to see. War-weariness is also far from unusual: from listening to my grandparents, you would have seen plenty of war-weariness here in Britain in 1942, 1943 and 1944. That does not mean they didn't want to continue the fight. But we also forget how many people did not fully obey the rules, from black-marketeers and the people who used them, to the many who did not obey the blackout at all times.

Meeks is a good writer, but he needs a good editor. He *always* over-writes. And that's quite an accusation coming from me.

(If you want to see a video from Ukraine which IMV is better than that article, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQQCq1ijRjc Sometimes images really do cover 1,000 words.)

I'm sure they were all sick of the totally unwanted and unnecessary war from Day One. But life is about tradeoffs, and I imagine most of them probably realise, like our ancestors, that giving way to a mad tyrant would be far worse for them and their children - those that survive anyway.

We can only be grateful that none of us have ever had to make similar choices, and we should do all we can to help that brave country so we never have to.

Our government is making different choices. The first quarter of PM yesterday was about our new "pragmatic" relationship with China that Starmer is promoting. And then we get headlines like this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2l4eynl4zo the very next day.

So the slightly remote possibility of further exports and modest growth seems to outweigh such considerations. Can't say I am impressed.

Meanwhile the Budget continues to inspire: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp816jrnynyo

"High Street job losses are "inevitable", prices will rise, and shops will close as the result of the tax increases in the Budget and other rising costs, a group of the biggest retailers in the UK is warning.

Tesco, Amazon, Greggs, Next, and dozens of other chains are urging the Treasury to reconsider some of the measures."

About that growth thing....

Related, Edinburgh Uni :

https://www.holyrood.com/news/view,edinburgh-university-issues-redundancies-warning

One of Scotland's most prestigious universities has blamed the UK Government's National Insurance hike for looming job cuts.

In an official message to all staff, Sir Peter Mathieson, principal and vice-chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, says the change by the new Labour administration has created "a multi-million pound increase to our salary bill".

Student numbers are also down and Mathieson has warned staff it of "selective voluntary and, if unavoidable, compulsory redundancy" measures to come.

Beautifully written piece in the TLS on life in Kharkiv now.

https://bsky.app/profile/jamesmeek.bsky.social/post/3latvtnhh4s2l

Horrendously sad.

It is. But I fear, like our very own Sean Thomas, Meeks is someone who travels and sees what he wants to see. War-weariness is also far from unusual: from listening to my grandparents, you would have seen plenty of war-weariness here in Britain in 1942, 1943 and 1944. That does not mean they didn't want to continue the fight. But we also forget how many people did not fully obey the rules, from black-marketeers and the people who used them, to the many who did not obey the blackout at all times.

Meeks is a good writer, but he needs a good editor. He *always* over-writes. And that's quite an accusation coming from me.

(If you want to see a video from Ukraine which IMV is better than that article, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQQCq1ijRjc Sometimes images really do cover 1,000 words.)

I'm sure they were all sick of the totally unwanted and unnecessary war from Day One. But life is about tradeoffs, and I imagine most of them probably realise, like our ancestors, that giving way to a mad tyrant would be far worse for them and their children - those that survive anyway.

We can only be grateful that none of us have ever had to make similar choices, and we should do all we can to help that brave country so we never have to.