"Look! Look at the bond yields! We must break our manifesto pledge!" said Torsten Bell, ashen-faced and wide-eyed, to the 74th Labour backbencher of the week

More plausible, if we're thinking cynically, is they're saying this now to convince Labour backbenchers that the income tax/NI reforms are necessary, and will then actually implement them. But that would also require a smidgen of competence, so I don't yet think it's likely

Some further reading - 2009 NEF analysis of real value to society of different professions. People in advertising and finance destroyed between 7 and 47 times more value than they created. Hospital cleaners created 10 times more social value than they were paid neweconomics.org/2009/12/a-bi...

That said, I often think that to understand the news at the moment, a narrow focus on Parliamentary politics isn't where it's at. A combination of global and domestic political economy is probably a much better angle

House of Commons - Emma Crewe. Brilliant in that it takes a v different, anthropological, perspective on the Commons, and v engaging. Her one on the Lords is a bit old now, but also good. For a shorter, broader anthropology of Parliament, she also did Commons and Lords, although I haven't read it

Makes me think residential housing shouldn't be a marketised product. Things that produce rents shouldn't be competing with productive assets for yield - inevitably leads to very high rent

I've had this sort of thought before. So what would happen as a result of h2b would be house prices increase a little due to extra demand, then over time landlords exit the market as yields are insufficient, and renters exit the rental market to buying, meaning house prices drop back to equil point

If you haven't looked into it already, it's worth reading around the literature on thin and thick ideologies. Populism is often considered a thin ideology. Some disagree with that, but def doesn't fall into the category of 'surely'