John West
@jwestjourno.bsky.social
M&A, macro and politics. Global Commentary Editor, Mergermarket. Any views expressed are regrettably my own.
One half of @illexplainlater.bsky.social - a Doctor Who podcast.
One half of @illexplainlater.bsky.social - a Doctor Who podcast.
Pinned
UK Budget chaos sets irregular drumbeat for dealmaker march – Continental Drift
In preparing her UK Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves seems to have taken this less as a cautionary tale of vacillation leading to ridicule and more as a playbook for setting fiscal policy.
ionanalytics.com
Fiscal flip-flops, market jitters & M&A fallout. Reeves’ tax u-turn swaps bold, simple policy for an unappetising Budget buffet, potentially choking UK domestic deal flow while inviting foreign takeovers. My latest column for Mergermarket: ionanalytics.com/insights/mer...
Reposted by John West
Just a jaw-dropping paragraph in Trevor Phillips's column for The Times.
This is a policy that, by his own account, has left parents of a particular race too frightened to walk their children to school.
And that's the example he chooses of the "vigour" we "need".
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
This is a policy that, by his own account, has left parents of a particular race too frightened to walk their children to school.
And that's the example he chooses of the "vigour" we "need".
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
November 24, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Just a jaw-dropping paragraph in Trevor Phillips's column for The Times.
This is a policy that, by his own account, has left parents of a particular race too frightened to walk their children to school.
And that's the example he chooses of the "vigour" we "need".
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
This is a policy that, by his own account, has left parents of a particular race too frightened to walk their children to school.
And that's the example he chooses of the "vigour" we "need".
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
Reposted by John West
A very welcome ruling in Northern Ireland - supporting that basic right of freedom of/from religion. The state - and state schools - should not teach a religion as truth or push it on children.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c2...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c2...
Religious education: Supreme Court rules the Christian-focused RE taught in NI schools is unlawful
In a unanimous judgement the Supreme Court allowed an appeal by an unnamed father and daughter from Northern Ireland.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 19, 2025 at 11:46 PM
A very welcome ruling in Northern Ireland - supporting that basic right of freedom of/from religion. The state - and state schools - should not teach a religion as truth or push it on children.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c2...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c2...
Reposted by John West
Martin Wolf on our essay. "So, what do I hope for from Wednesday’s Budget? Some sight of a workable and coherent long-term economic strategy. I do not expect it. It may already be too late. But, without that, it is hard to be optimistic about the UK’s future."
www.ft.com/content/17e1...
www.ft.com/content/17e1...
How to get the UK out of its economic hole
Reeves’ challenge is to remedy the disaster that Brexit has been for the country
www.ft.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:10 AM
Martin Wolf on our essay. "So, what do I hope for from Wednesday’s Budget? Some sight of a workable and coherent long-term economic strategy. I do not expect it. It may already be too late. But, without that, it is hard to be optimistic about the UK’s future."
www.ft.com/content/17e1...
www.ft.com/content/17e1...
Reposted by John West
Quite rightly her asylum policies have nuked any leadership prospects she had.
Please, Morgan, run her at the next contest. I want to see if you can beat your score with Liz Kendall.
Please, Morgan, run her at the next contest. I want to see if you can beat your score with Liz Kendall.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has seen her favourability drop 32 points among Labour members since her plans for asylum policy reform were announced
Cabinet rankings: Mahmood sees sharp drop in approval among Labour members – LabourList
Shabana Mahmood’s approval among Labour members has plummeted since her announcement on reform of asylum policy, exclusive polling for LabourList has revealed. The poll, conducted…
labourlist.org
November 22, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Quite rightly her asylum policies have nuked any leadership prospects she had.
Please, Morgan, run her at the next contest. I want to see if you can beat your score with Liz Kendall.
Please, Morgan, run her at the next contest. I want to see if you can beat your score with Liz Kendall.
Reposted by John West
BREAKING: The former leader of Reform in Wales, Nathan Gill, has been sentenced to ten and half years in prison for taking bribes to pump out Russian propaganda.
Gill was paid thousands to make pro-Russia speeches and TV interviews.
Gill was paid thousands to make pro-Russia speeches and TV interviews.
November 21, 2025 at 12:57 PM
BREAKING: The former leader of Reform in Wales, Nathan Gill, has been sentenced to ten and half years in prison for taking bribes to pump out Russian propaganda.
Gill was paid thousands to make pro-Russia speeches and TV interviews.
Gill was paid thousands to make pro-Russia speeches and TV interviews.
Reposted by John West
VERY funny that Labour are being pointlessly cruel and haemorrhaging support from their base and yet none of what they're offering is ever going to be enough for the people whose approval they're seeking, WHO could have predicted it
November 20, 2025 at 3:20 PM
VERY funny that Labour are being pointlessly cruel and haemorrhaging support from their base and yet none of what they're offering is ever going to be enough for the people whose approval they're seeking, WHO could have predicted it
Shifting indefinite leave to remain to 10 years from five years has no merit. But applying it retroactively to those already resident in the UK is performative cruelty - appalling on its own terms - and economically illiterate. The UK will get - is getting! - its lower immigration. It won't like it.
November 20, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Shifting indefinite leave to remain to 10 years from five years has no merit. But applying it retroactively to those already resident in the UK is performative cruelty - appalling on its own terms - and economically illiterate. The UK will get - is getting! - its lower immigration. It won't like it.
How they must chuckle about his NIC cuts. LOLZ.
Is this the same Jeremy Hunt who set out fictitious spending and tax plans to lure her into the trap that has doomed this government? That Jeremy Hunt?
November 20, 2025 at 1:40 PM
How they must chuckle about his NIC cuts. LOLZ.
Reposted by John West
The UK isn’t a “soft touch” on asylum.
UK asylum seeker benefits are similar to European neighbours
No right to work before 12 months (it’s 6 months in France, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands)
UK settlement after 5 years (it’s 3 or 4 in Germany)
Let’s cut out the alarmist rhetoric.
UK asylum seeker benefits are similar to European neighbours
No right to work before 12 months (it’s 6 months in France, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands)
UK settlement after 5 years (it’s 3 or 4 in Germany)
Let’s cut out the alarmist rhetoric.
November 19, 2025 at 11:52 AM
The UK isn’t a “soft touch” on asylum.
UK asylum seeker benefits are similar to European neighbours
No right to work before 12 months (it’s 6 months in France, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands)
UK settlement after 5 years (it’s 3 or 4 in Germany)
Let’s cut out the alarmist rhetoric.
UK asylum seeker benefits are similar to European neighbours
No right to work before 12 months (it’s 6 months in France, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands)
UK settlement after 5 years (it’s 3 or 4 in Germany)
Let’s cut out the alarmist rhetoric.
Reposted by John West
My Times piece: We need an independent fiscal watchdog like the OBR, but asking it to judge whether fiscal rules will be met in five years’ time, and raising taxes if not, is eccentric:
Our obsession with the fiscal rules is a very British problem
www.thetimes.com/article/c797...
Our obsession with the fiscal rules is a very British problem
www.thetimes.com/article/c797...
Our obsession with the fiscal rules is a very British problem
The UK’s rules are more tightly drawn than those in many other countries and set up a regular tug of war between the OBR and the Treasury before the budget
www.thetimes.com
November 18, 2025 at 5:08 PM
My Times piece: We need an independent fiscal watchdog like the OBR, but asking it to judge whether fiscal rules will be met in five years’ time, and raising taxes if not, is eccentric:
Our obsession with the fiscal rules is a very British problem
www.thetimes.com/article/c797...
Our obsession with the fiscal rules is a very British problem
www.thetimes.com/article/c797...
Reposted by John West
The i Paper is reporting that once the changes are brought in, the 20 year route will be applied to refugees who are already here.
I can't over emphasise the level of terror this will cause to our refugee population, and the lack of detail and timescale will make it very difficult to calm nerves.
I can't over emphasise the level of terror this will cause to our refugee population, and the lack of detail and timescale will make it very difficult to calm nerves.
November 19, 2025 at 8:06 AM
The i Paper is reporting that once the changes are brought in, the 20 year route will be applied to refugees who are already here.
I can't over emphasise the level of terror this will cause to our refugee population, and the lack of detail and timescale will make it very difficult to calm nerves.
I can't over emphasise the level of terror this will cause to our refugee population, and the lack of detail and timescale will make it very difficult to calm nerves.
Fiscal flip-flops, market jitters & M&A fallout. Reeves’ tax u-turn swaps bold, simple policy for an unappetising Budget buffet, potentially choking UK domestic deal flow while inviting foreign takeovers. My latest column for Mergermarket: ionanalytics.com/insights/mer...
UK Budget chaos sets irregular drumbeat for dealmaker march – Continental Drift
In preparing her UK Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves seems to have taken this less as a cautionary tale of vacillation leading to ridicule and more as a playbook for setting fiscal policy.
ionanalytics.com
November 18, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Fiscal flip-flops, market jitters & M&A fallout. Reeves’ tax u-turn swaps bold, simple policy for an unappetising Budget buffet, potentially choking UK domestic deal flow while inviting foreign takeovers. My latest column for Mergermarket: ionanalytics.com/insights/mer...
Labour’s core voter here. Absolutely baffling.
What's the offer to me?
I'm a broadly progressive professional nearing middle age.
Pandering to the right on social issues disgusts me. Their cowardice and lack of imagination on economic issues embarrasses me.
Voted for them at the GE, they're not getting my vote anytime soon
I'm a broadly progressive professional nearing middle age.
Pandering to the right on social issues disgusts me. Their cowardice and lack of imagination on economic issues embarrasses me.
Voted for them at the GE, they're not getting my vote anytime soon
November 18, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Labour’s core voter here. Absolutely baffling.
Reposted by John West
Happy 40th birthday to Bill Waterson’s ‘Calvin and Hobbes’. A work of consummate, stubborn, human, and more-than-human art.
November 18, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Happy 40th birthday to Bill Waterson’s ‘Calvin and Hobbes’. A work of consummate, stubborn, human, and more-than-human art.
Reposted by John West
A major problem for a government with an essentially performative policy approach is that it encourages / incentivises all other parties to so the same thing - what’s the point in being substantive if the actual government (whose competitive advantage should be governing) can’t be bothered…?
November 18, 2025 at 7:47 AM
A major problem for a government with an essentially performative policy approach is that it encourages / incentivises all other parties to so the same thing - what’s the point in being substantive if the actual government (whose competitive advantage should be governing) can’t be bothered…?
A reminder this morning of how much I wince at Politico’s arch, clever-clever Playbook stylings. A few headlines in papers that’ll never back Labour don’t make up for: 1) Mahmood torching her leadership ambitions; 2) the govt providing cover for Farage to push further right (rinse and repeat…)
November 18, 2025 at 7:44 AM
A reminder this morning of how much I wince at Politico’s arch, clever-clever Playbook stylings. A few headlines in papers that’ll never back Labour don’t make up for: 1) Mahmood torching her leadership ambitions; 2) the govt providing cover for Farage to push further right (rinse and repeat…)
Reposted by John West
The Prime Minister said in September that we are at a fork in the road. These asylum proposals suggest we have taken the wrong turning.
The idea that recognised refugees need to be deported is wrong.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
The idea that recognised refugees need to be deported is wrong.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Asylum system in UK ‘out of control’ and dividing country, home secretary says
Shabana Mahmood to unveil new proposals modelled on Denmark’s controversial system
www.theguardian.com
November 16, 2025 at 5:45 PM
The Prime Minister said in September that we are at a fork in the road. These asylum proposals suggest we have taken the wrong turning.
The idea that recognised refugees need to be deported is wrong.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
The idea that recognised refugees need to be deported is wrong.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Reposted by John West
Not everyone is unhappy about the Government's descent into anti-refugee politics
November 16, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Not everyone is unhappy about the Government's descent into anti-refugee politics
Reposted by John West
Someone should ask Starmer and Mahmood whether they think the Kindertransport, for example, should have been a return ticket. Whether Alf Dubs, rather than becoming a Labour MP and now Lord, ought to have been sent back with his family to Czechoslovakia once it was liberated from German rule.
This contribution to the volume of human misery is yet another policy from Labour based on a false premise, in this case that refugees are overly attracted to Britain. It will increase bureaucratic limbo, thus making worse the problem of "cohesion" it purports to solve.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays
Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Someone should ask Starmer and Mahmood whether they think the Kindertransport, for example, should have been a return ticket. Whether Alf Dubs, rather than becoming a Labour MP and now Lord, ought to have been sent back with his family to Czechoslovakia once it was liberated from German rule.
Reposted by John West
I came to this country as a child refugee. No English, no certainty, no idea what my life could become. Britain gave me refuge.
Not on a timer, not with conditions attached, but with a chance to grow roots.
A thread 🧵 1/8
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Not on a timer, not with conditions attached, but with a chance to grow roots.
A thread 🧵 1/8
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays
Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 10:29 AM
I came to this country as a child refugee. No English, no certainty, no idea what my life could become. Britain gave me refuge.
Not on a timer, not with conditions attached, but with a chance to grow roots.
A thread 🧵 1/8
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Not on a timer, not with conditions attached, but with a chance to grow roots.
A thread 🧵 1/8
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by John West
"Thank Heavens Reeves froze the thresholds," says the median voter in 2029 as they walk past the derelict sports centre and down the empty high street to cast their vote.
English councils plan to sell off social clubs and sports centres to balance books
English councils plan to sell off social clubs and sports centres to balance books
Survey finds 60% of key cities councils are planning to sell assets to meet costs of adult and children’s social care
English councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books, according to a survey of local authorities.
The key cities group of councils, which represents second-tier cities in England, said 60% of councils were planning to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 15, 2025 at 11:34 AM
"Thank Heavens Reeves froze the thresholds," says the median voter in 2029 as they walk past the derelict sports centre and down the empty high street to cast their vote.
Reposted by John West
To explain briefly: at the moment people successful in their asylum claims get permission to stay in the UK for 5 years, then have to apply for permanent residency. At that point a review of their status is done, but it’s rare not to succeed at that point unless they‘ve committed an offence 1/
To reiterate, this is about making life immeasurably more miserable and stressful for some of the most vulnerable people, in the almost certainly vain hope of winning over the votes of racists.
Anything more shabby and shameful is difficult to envisage.
Anything more shabby and shameful is difficult to envisage.
Asylum in UK to be made temporary under Home Secretary’s plans
Shabana Mahmood will lay out reforms modelled on the Danish system on Monday.
www.independent.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 9:36 AM
To explain briefly: at the moment people successful in their asylum claims get permission to stay in the UK for 5 years, then have to apply for permanent residency. At that point a review of their status is done, but it’s rare not to succeed at that point unless they‘ve committed an offence 1/
Reposted by John West
One thing I will say is that this immigration-bashing "strategy" is now indelibly Starmer's. It is Starmerism. Cooper was inertia personified but Mahmood is Starmer's key departmental promotion, brought in to do just this
And given that Starmer looks doomed, what future does this strategy have?
And given that Starmer looks doomed, what future does this strategy have?
The government just keeps doubling down on the strategy that’s taken it to genuinely historical unpopularity ever harder.
The horse will be flogged until it sprints.
The horse will be flogged until it sprints.
the video goes on and on about illegal immigration and yet the new proposal will target legal migration by confirmed refugees
November 15, 2025 at 11:03 AM
One thing I will say is that this immigration-bashing "strategy" is now indelibly Starmer's. It is Starmerism. Cooper was inertia personified but Mahmood is Starmer's key departmental promotion, brought in to do just this
And given that Starmer looks doomed, what future does this strategy have?
And given that Starmer looks doomed, what future does this strategy have?
Reposted by John West
THEY'VE ACTUALLY GONE AND DONE THE REGGIE PERRIN BIT
November 15, 2025 at 10:15 AM
THEY'VE ACTUALLY GONE AND DONE THE REGGIE PERRIN BIT