Sam Freedman
@samfr.bsky.social
Writes the most popular UK politics Substack (samf.substack.com)
Sunday Times bestselling book "Failed State" out now. (An Economist and Financial Times Book of the Year for 2024).
Senior fellow: Institute for Government
Sunday Times bestselling book "Failed State" out now. (An Economist and Financial Times Book of the Year for 2024).
Senior fellow: Institute for Government
Pinned
The Audit - 2025
What did I get right and wrong?
open.substack.com
New post just out:
My 2025 audit - looking at what I got right and wrong this year. And picking out lessons to improve my commentary in 2026.
(Free to read)
open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...
My 2025 audit - looking at what I got right and wrong this year. And picking out lessons to improve my commentary in 2026.
(Free to read)
open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...
Reposted by Sam Freedman
That’d be the animal spirits of entrepreneurship and innovation let loose to disrupt a staid, cosseted, complacent sector, right?
December 27, 2025 at 8:38 PM
That’d be the animal spirits of entrepreneurship and innovation let loose to disrupt a staid, cosseted, complacent sector, right?
I love they got Frank Darabont to do two episodes of Stranger Things. Both for the 80s horror vibe and because maybe he'll do something else now and stop being retired.
December 27, 2025 at 8:13 PM
I love they got Frank Darabont to do two episodes of Stranger Things. Both for the 80s horror vibe and because maybe he'll do something else now and stop being retired.
Money well spent on ensuring there's an ongoing cause that unites policy wonks from all tribes.
Anyone done a cumulative cost of how much the UK has spent on the work done for Leeds not to have a Tram in the years between 1980 and 2025.
My back of an envelope call is about £1Bn ……. And that doesn’t include the opportunity costs and lost economic benefits
My back of an envelope call is about £1Bn ……. And that doesn’t include the opportunity costs and lost economic benefits
December 27, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Money well spent on ensuring there's an ongoing cause that unites policy wonks from all tribes.
Reposted by Sam Freedman
will also add - yes, this is my personal crusade - that turning podcasts into videos implicitly asks women to once again make more effort than men, as the bar for "camera-ready" for one gender is obviously higher than for the other
‘Painful to hear!’ How podcasts’ rush to video is turning them into dreadful listens
‘Painful to hear!’ How podcasts’ rush to video is turning them into dreadful listens
From Joe Marler’s visual-only stunts to the incomprehensible shuffling sounds Steven Bartlett recently subjected headphone users to, dodgy audio experiences are on the rise
www.theguardian.com
December 27, 2025 at 10:20 AM
will also add - yes, this is my personal crusade - that turning podcasts into videos implicitly asks women to once again make more effort than men, as the bar for "camera-ready" for one gender is obviously higher than for the other
Now the winner ot the FIFA peace prize has launched missiles at two more countries I'm sure they'll reconsider the decision. Seems almost corrupt in retrospect.
December 26, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Now the winner ot the FIFA peace prize has launched missiles at two more countries I'm sure they'll reconsider the decision. Seems almost corrupt in retrospect.
Reposted by Sam Freedman
"tell me we didn't just fire a dozen $500,000 missiles at a $200 camel"
"sir, no evidence of any camel present, sir!"
"sir, no evidence of any camel present, sir!"
December 26, 2025 at 7:17 PM
"tell me we didn't just fire a dozen $500,000 missiles at a $200 camel"
"sir, no evidence of any camel present, sir!"
"sir, no evidence of any camel present, sir!"
Apart from anything else they were both children of immigrants from a much poorer country...
December 26, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Apart from anything else they were both children of immigrants from a much poorer country...
Reposted by Sam Freedman
Good interview in the paper, this. I think Sadiq is right: London 'needs' to be less successful than it is for a bunch of political arguments here in the UK to work, hence the fictions being invented about it:
Populists attack London because it is ‘progressive and successful’, says Sadiq Khan
Rightwing attacks on one of the world’s most visited cities at odds with reality, says mayor
www.ft.com
December 26, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Good interview in the paper, this. I think Sadiq is right: London 'needs' to be less successful than it is for a bunch of political arguments here in the UK to work, hence the fictions being invented about it:
Reposted by Sam Freedman
New post just out:
My 2025 audit - looking at what I got right and wrong this year. And picking out lessons to improve my commentary in 2026.
(Free to read)
open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...
My 2025 audit - looking at what I got right and wrong this year. And picking out lessons to improve my commentary in 2026.
(Free to read)
open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...
The Audit - 2025
What did I get right and wrong?
open.substack.com
December 23, 2025 at 9:44 AM
New post just out:
My 2025 audit - looking at what I got right and wrong this year. And picking out lessons to improve my commentary in 2026.
(Free to read)
open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...
My 2025 audit - looking at what I got right and wrong this year. And picking out lessons to improve my commentary in 2026.
(Free to read)
open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...
We've always had these dead-eyed socipaths around. It's just a few years ago they were ignored and now they're "senior fellow" at places funded by evil millionaires + going on podcasts with a brain-rotted ex-PM.
Harrison Pitt accuses the King of treachery. Pitt is a Senior Policy Fellow for Rupert Lowe's Restore Britain, who also regularly co-hosts podcasts with his ally Tomlinson (who advocates banning all ethnic and faith minorities from public office). Like Lowe, Pitt is keen to dissolve boundaries/norms
December 26, 2025 at 9:08 AM
We've always had these dead-eyed socipaths around. It's just a few years ago they were ignored and now they're "senior fellow" at places funded by evil millionaires + going on podcasts with a brain-rotted ex-PM.
It's an unusual form of isolationism...
First-ever US airstrikes in Nigeria put the second Trump admin’s 2025 combat actions at:
—Nigeria—tonight’s strikes
—Yemen—1,000+ strikes (Mar-Apr)
—Somalia—120 strikes, 1 ground raid
—Syria—78+ strikes, 3 ground raids
—Caribbean—11 strikes
—Eastern Pacific—20 strikes
—Iran—3 strikes
—Iraq—1 strike
—Nigeria—tonight’s strikes
—Yemen—1,000+ strikes (Mar-Apr)
—Somalia—120 strikes, 1 ground raid
—Syria—78+ strikes, 3 ground raids
—Caribbean—11 strikes
—Eastern Pacific—20 strikes
—Iran—3 strikes
—Iraq—1 strike
December 26, 2025 at 8:44 AM
It's an unusual form of isolationism...
Making a turkey broth with the carcass like an old school grandma.
December 25, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Making a turkey broth with the carcass like an old school grandma.
It all worked. I'm shattered.
Happy Christmas everyone. First time in charge of xmas lunch and so far everything going to plan. Spreadsheets for the win. (Fingers crossed).
December 25, 2025 at 2:13 PM
It all worked. I'm shattered.
Happy Christmas everyone. First time in charge of xmas lunch and so far everything going to plan. Spreadsheets for the win. (Fingers crossed).
December 25, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Happy Christmas everyone. First time in charge of xmas lunch and so far everything going to plan. Spreadsheets for the win. (Fingers crossed).
The now traditional picture of our turkey brining in the twins old baby bath.
December 24, 2025 at 1:03 PM
The now traditional picture of our turkey brining in the twins old baby bath.
The flaws with the scenario in A House of Dynamite are really excaberated when watching it next to one of the world's foremost experts on nuclear deterrence.
December 23, 2025 at 9:47 PM
The flaws with the scenario in A House of Dynamite are really excaberated when watching it next to one of the world's foremost experts on nuclear deterrence.
Reposted by Sam Freedman
NEW: By a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court blocks Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Chicago to assist immigration agents. A majority holds that he likely lacks authority to do so. Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissent. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
![The Government asked this Court to stay the District Court's order. After the response and reply were filed, JUSTICE BARRETT referred the application to the Court. We directed the parties to file supplemental letter briefs on an issue that the District Court had addressed but the parties' initial briefs had not: the meaning of the term "regular forces" in §12406(3). In its supplemental brief, the Government argues that the term refers to civilian law enforcement officers, such as those employed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the Federal Protective Service.
Respondents, echoing the District Court, maintain that the term refers to the regular forces of the United States mili-tary.
We conclude that the term "regular forces" in §12406(3) likely refers to the regular forces of the United States mili-tary. This interpretation means that to call the Guard into active federal service under §12406(3), the President must be "unable" with the regular military "to execute the laws of the United States." Because the statute requires an assessment of the military's ability to execute the laws, it likely applies only where the military could legally execute the laws. Such circumstances are exceptional: Under the Posse Comitatus Act, the military is prohibited from "execut[ing] the laws" "except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress."
18 U. S. C. §1385. So before the President can federalize the Guard under §12406(3), he likely must have statutory or constitutional authority to execute the laws with the regular military and must be "unable" with those forces to perform that function.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:6h7b2i6ttw3l4t7pvbvxdith/bafkreiftbhzwvn3vgwhqsi7k2paizvdw4t26ailljvovso3chqupnmj364@jpeg)
December 23, 2025 at 8:16 PM
NEW: By a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court blocks Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Chicago to assist immigration agents. A majority holds that he likely lacks authority to do so. Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissent. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
Reposted by Sam Freedman
In the spirit of relentless self-criticism that marks Comment is Freed @samfr.bsky.social provides his self-assessment for the past year. Mine will follow after Xmas. samf.substack.com/p/the-audit-...
The Audit - 2025
What did I get right and wrong?
samf.substack.com
December 23, 2025 at 9:55 AM
In the spirit of relentless self-criticism that marks Comment is Freed @samfr.bsky.social provides his self-assessment for the past year. Mine will follow after Xmas. samf.substack.com/p/the-audit-...
New post just out:
My 2025 audit - looking at what I got right and wrong this year. And picking out lessons to improve my commentary in 2026.
(Free to read)
open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...
My 2025 audit - looking at what I got right and wrong this year. And picking out lessons to improve my commentary in 2026.
(Free to read)
open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...
The Audit - 2025
What did I get right and wrong?
open.substack.com
December 23, 2025 at 9:44 AM
New post just out:
My 2025 audit - looking at what I got right and wrong this year. And picking out lessons to improve my commentary in 2026.
(Free to read)
open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...
My 2025 audit - looking at what I got right and wrong this year. And picking out lessons to improve my commentary in 2026.
(Free to read)
open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...
Reposted by Sam Freedman
New post out:
@ldfreedman.bsky.social talks to @kschake.bsky.social - who's worked at senior levels in the US defense and state departments - on how the military should deal with Trump, Hegseth and illegal orders.
(Free to read)
samf.substack.com/p/the-state-...
@ldfreedman.bsky.social talks to @kschake.bsky.social - who's worked at senior levels in the US defense and state departments - on how the military should deal with Trump, Hegseth and illegal orders.
(Free to read)
samf.substack.com/p/the-state-...
The State and the Soldier
How should the US military react to a "unprincipled principal"?
samf.substack.com
December 21, 2025 at 9:11 AM
New post out:
@ldfreedman.bsky.social talks to @kschake.bsky.social - who's worked at senior levels in the US defense and state departments - on how the military should deal with Trump, Hegseth and illegal orders.
(Free to read)
samf.substack.com/p/the-state-...
@ldfreedman.bsky.social talks to @kschake.bsky.social - who's worked at senior levels in the US defense and state departments - on how the military should deal with Trump, Hegseth and illegal orders.
(Free to read)
samf.substack.com/p/the-state-...
One of the wonders of our time that Ted Cruz has found someone less likeable than him to run against www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
Ted Cruz weighs another presidential run, setting up clash with Vance
He feuds with Tucker Carlson and privately criticizes the vice president, touting traditional GOP foreign policy and warning of the party’s rising antisemitism.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 22, 2025 at 1:28 PM
One of the wonders of our time that Ted Cruz has found someone less likeable than him to run against www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
I see a lot of people celebrating violence against Andrew Tate and Jake Paul and really we should be better than...
Oh who am I kidding get Tommy Robinson in a ring with Oleksandr Usyk.
Oh who am I kidding get Tommy Robinson in a ring with Oleksandr Usyk.
December 21, 2025 at 8:16 PM
I see a lot of people celebrating violence against Andrew Tate and Jake Paul and really we should be better than...
Oh who am I kidding get Tommy Robinson in a ring with Oleksandr Usyk.
Oh who am I kidding get Tommy Robinson in a ring with Oleksandr Usyk.
Reposted by Sam Freedman
Very much worth reading.
Still struggle to understand how you can argue that even 'unprincipled principals'' legal claims should be superior to the military's judgement while later saying you don't believe "that the National Guard would willingly turn themselves into a repressive force"
#CivMilSky
Still struggle to understand how you can argue that even 'unprincipled principals'' legal claims should be superior to the military's judgement while later saying you don't believe "that the National Guard would willingly turn themselves into a repressive force"
#CivMilSky
New post out:
@ldfreedman.bsky.social talks to @kschake.bsky.social - who's worked at senior levels in the US defense and state departments - on how the military should deal with Trump, Hegseth and illegal orders.
(Free to read)
samf.substack.com/p/the-state-...
@ldfreedman.bsky.social talks to @kschake.bsky.social - who's worked at senior levels in the US defense and state departments - on how the military should deal with Trump, Hegseth and illegal orders.
(Free to read)
samf.substack.com/p/the-state-...
The State and the Soldier
How should the US military react to a "unprincipled principal"?
samf.substack.com
December 21, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Very much worth reading.
Still struggle to understand how you can argue that even 'unprincipled principals'' legal claims should be superior to the military's judgement while later saying you don't believe "that the National Guard would willingly turn themselves into a repressive force"
#CivMilSky
Still struggle to understand how you can argue that even 'unprincipled principals'' legal claims should be superior to the military's judgement while later saying you don't believe "that the National Guard would willingly turn themselves into a repressive force"
#CivMilSky
One morning into holiday and I've reached the "arguing with facile posts on LinkedIn". Just going to start working again.
December 21, 2025 at 10:02 AM
One morning into holiday and I've reached the "arguing with facile posts on LinkedIn". Just going to start working again.
New post out:
@ldfreedman.bsky.social talks to @kschake.bsky.social - who's worked at senior levels in the US defense and state departments - on how the military should deal with Trump, Hegseth and illegal orders.
(Free to read)
samf.substack.com/p/the-state-...
@ldfreedman.bsky.social talks to @kschake.bsky.social - who's worked at senior levels in the US defense and state departments - on how the military should deal with Trump, Hegseth and illegal orders.
(Free to read)
samf.substack.com/p/the-state-...
The State and the Soldier
How should the US military react to a "unprincipled principal"?
samf.substack.com
December 21, 2025 at 9:11 AM
New post out:
@ldfreedman.bsky.social talks to @kschake.bsky.social - who's worked at senior levels in the US defense and state departments - on how the military should deal with Trump, Hegseth and illegal orders.
(Free to read)
samf.substack.com/p/the-state-...
@ldfreedman.bsky.social talks to @kschake.bsky.social - who's worked at senior levels in the US defense and state departments - on how the military should deal with Trump, Hegseth and illegal orders.
(Free to read)
samf.substack.com/p/the-state-...