James Kane
@jameskkane.bsky.social
Former civil servant, think tank person, not-yet-former lawyer. Opinions may be mine but are never anyone else’s.
Reposted by James Kane
Sorry, are you seriously implying Israel would have refrained from providing that info and let its embassy be attacked because it didn’t like UK policy? There must be better examples of intel sharing that would be jeopardised than that… www.thetimes.com/uk/defence/a...
August 8, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Sorry, are you seriously implying Israel would have refrained from providing that info and let its embassy be attacked because it didn’t like UK policy? There must be better examples of intel sharing that would be jeopardised than that… www.thetimes.com/uk/defence/a...
Reposted by James Kane
We at @instituteforgovernment.org.uk have coordinated a letter in @thetimes.com today in which numerous individuals and organisations call on the government to withdraw its mistaken rules which are having a serious chilling effect on civil servants speaking in public…
July 14, 2025 at 5:10 AM
We at @instituteforgovernment.org.uk have coordinated a letter in @thetimes.com today in which numerous individuals and organisations call on the government to withdraw its mistaken rules which are having a serious chilling effect on civil servants speaking in public…
Reposted by James Kane
If you live in or near Manchester, and/or if you care about great local journalism and wish you could find more of it, you need to read this from @joshiherrmann.bsky.social
manchestermill.co.uk/keeping-an-e...
manchestermill.co.uk/keeping-an-e...
Keeping an eye on things
An editor's note by Joshi
manchestermill.co.uk
June 29, 2025 at 3:14 PM
If you live in or near Manchester, and/or if you care about great local journalism and wish you could find more of it, you need to read this from @joshiherrmann.bsky.social
manchestermill.co.uk/keeping-an-e...
manchestermill.co.uk/keeping-an-e...
It's been a while since I checked my understanding of parliamentary sovereignty, but I think it… already can?
www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
Parliament should be able to impose Trump-style travel bans, says Badenoch – UK politics live
Tory leader says lawmakers should have the ability to bring in such measures on ‘a country-specific basis’
www.theguardian.com
June 6, 2025 at 12:10 PM
It's been a while since I checked my understanding of parliamentary sovereignty, but I think it… already can?
www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
Reposted by James Kane
Maybe "their voters" are not aging homeowning social conservatives who happened to work in manufacturing 30 years ago?
Keir Starmer's net favourability rating has dropped 12pts in a month to -46, his lowest level ever, including a 34pt drop among Labour voters
All Britons: -46 net rating (down 12 from 13-14 Apr)
By 2024 vote
Labour: -5 (down 34)
Lib Dem: -13 (down 12)
Conservative: -76 (up 1)
Reform: -94 (down 5)
All Britons: -46 net rating (down 12 from 13-14 Apr)
By 2024 vote
Labour: -5 (down 34)
Lib Dem: -13 (down 12)
Conservative: -76 (up 1)
Reform: -94 (down 5)
May 16, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Maybe "their voters" are not aging homeowning social conservatives who happened to work in manufacturing 30 years ago?
Hard to see the EU as geopolitically serious if it does this.
EU Commission to reintroduce pre-war tariffs on Ukrainian farm imports ditching "transitional arrangements"
🇺🇦🌾🇺🇦🌾
Critics call it "shameful" while officials frame it as shift from emergency aid to partnership
@robfranciseu.bsky.social has the story ↓
borderlex.net/2025/05/16/c...
🇺🇦🌾🇺🇦🌾
Critics call it "shameful" while officials frame it as shift from emergency aid to partnership
@robfranciseu.bsky.social has the story ↓
borderlex.net/2025/05/16/c...
Commission to reintroduce pre-war agriculture quotas on Ukraine exports - Borderlex
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borderlex.net
May 16, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Hard to see the EU as geopolitically serious if it does this.
Reposted by James Kane
This also happened in the 2001 election in the UK.
One curious little detail from the Canadian election: the two main party leaders are in neighbouring seats. Carney is standing in Nepean, south-central Ottawa, while Poilievre represents Carleton, the suburbs to its south.
April 27, 2025 at 9:43 AM
This also happened in the 2001 election in the UK.
Reposted by James Kane
it is insane that we use FPTP for this ... and mad also that people in the Labour Party see it as cynical, pragmatic and hardheaded not to be interested in changing the rules
🆕🧵In @observeruk.bsky.social @moreincommonuk.bsky.social polling & focus groups of next week's 4 metro mayor races. Top line: fragmented electorate means turnout operations could have a big sway on results with 3 races too close to call & switching these races to FPTP means some small winning shares
April 27, 2025 at 8:06 AM
it is insane that we use FPTP for this ... and mad also that people in the Labour Party see it as cynical, pragmatic and hardheaded not to be interested in changing the rules
Reposted by James Kane
Re-upping this for Sunday since everyone else is again talking about how ridiculous FPTP is becoming for local government.
❎NEW BLOGPOST ❎
Next week will see perhaps the worst ever local elections for the two main parties. With voteshares fracturing, FPTP is struggling to cope - and local politics is perhaps the best place to start with electoral reform.
www.joxleywrites.jmoxley.co.uk/p/voting-ref...
Next week will see perhaps the worst ever local elections for the two main parties. With voteshares fracturing, FPTP is struggling to cope - and local politics is perhaps the best place to start with electoral reform.
www.joxleywrites.jmoxley.co.uk/p/voting-ref...
Voting Reform and the local elections
No, not like that.
www.joxleywrites.jmoxley.co.uk
April 27, 2025 at 10:26 AM
Re-upping this for Sunday since everyone else is again talking about how ridiculous FPTP is becoming for local government.
Reposted by James Kane
A very funny takedown of the very weird and not a little disturbing Anglofuturism thing - pleased to be quoted in it. thecritic.co.uk/issues/may-2...
Strange new world | Andrew Orlowski | The Critic Magazine
An impatient group of young, self-confident, AI-obsessed policy wonks is trying to re-shape Britain — inspired and funded by American tech billionaires.
thecritic.co.uk
April 27, 2025 at 9:01 AM
A very funny takedown of the very weird and not a little disturbing Anglofuturism thing - pleased to be quoted in it. thecritic.co.uk/issues/may-2...
Reposted by James Kane
This is good stuff.
archaeologymag.com/2025/04/stud...
archaeologymag.com/2025/04/stud...
New study reveals wealth inequality was never inevitable
A recent study published in the journal PNAS is overturning traditional wisdom regarding the origins and inevitability of wealth inequality
archaeologymag.com
April 27, 2025 at 2:05 AM
This is good stuff.
archaeologymag.com/2025/04/stud...
archaeologymag.com/2025/04/stud...
My particular hatred is fast casual restaurants (mostly in US) that refer to “your protein”. No, chicken, pork and tofu are not interchangeable nutritional units to be inserted into a dish ad lib.
have to say I find few things as charmless as people who are obsessed with their protein intake, something quite distinctly bleak about it www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/w...
The More Protein, the Better?
It’s a common refrain on social media. We fact-checked this and five other big protein claims circulating online.
www.nytimes.com
April 27, 2025 at 11:40 AM
My particular hatred is fast casual restaurants (mostly in US) that refer to “your protein”. No, chicken, pork and tofu are not interchangeable nutritional units to be inserted into a dish ad lib.
Reposted by James Kane
The EU is likely to treat any suggestions for European reform from Nick Clegg with the same respect it treated suggestions for European reform from JD Vance
April 27, 2025 at 11:26 AM
The EU is likely to treat any suggestions for European reform from Nick Clegg with the same respect it treated suggestions for European reform from JD Vance
Curiously, it’s also directly opposed to what was generally believed to be the UK’s interest pre-Brexit. For a country with a large deficit on goods trade counterbalanced by a services surplus to sign up to a customs union without free movement of services is … a choice?
Very confused editorial. If the UK is to reintegrate into the EU, it will be on the EU's terms. Trying to lead the process and ask for special treatment (customs union but no freedom of movement) which no member state enjoys is a deeply un-serious proposal
observer.co.uk/news/opinion...
observer.co.uk/news/opinion...
April 27, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Curiously, it’s also directly opposed to what was generally believed to be the UK’s interest pre-Brexit. For a country with a large deficit on goods trade counterbalanced by a services surplus to sign up to a customs union without free movement of services is … a choice?
Reposted by James Kane
Clips from this series are now part of a Christmas tradition in my house. Members of my family can quote sections of her classic speeches verbatim.
I can’t recommend the weird, almost body-horror gruesomeness of this episode on mincemeat enough, but my biggest takeaway is that Fanny Craddock appears to have perfected an aesthetic that can only be described as “Samurai Thatcher”.
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
December 22, 2024 at 8:50 AM
Clips from this series are now part of a Christmas tradition in my house. Members of my family can quote sections of her classic speeches verbatim.
Reposted by James Kane
The position on collective responsibility re assisted dying does seem a bit odd. In eg Brexit the govt had a position, but ministers were allowed to dissent from it. Here the govt doesn’t have a position - that should make it more straightforward for ministers in favour & against to make their case
I explain this point in more detail here. 4/4
publiclawforeveryone.com/2024/11/18/a...
publiclawforeveryone.com/2024/11/18/a...
November 24, 2024 at 8:05 PM
The position on collective responsibility re assisted dying does seem a bit odd. In eg Brexit the govt had a position, but ministers were allowed to dissent from it. Here the govt doesn’t have a position - that should make it more straightforward for ministers in favour & against to make their case
“Arrogantly capitulating” is a phrase and a half.
Afaik this is first outing of the new line on UK-EU rels of the Badenoch era.
Conservative position is that HMG policy is to rejoin the EU (albeit a secret one).
Conservative position is that HMG policy is to rejoin the EU (albeit a secret one).
November 22, 2024 at 8:06 PM
“Arrogantly capitulating” is a phrase and a half.
Reposted by James Kane
@torstenbell.bsky.social is right, see my substack - timleunig.substack.com/p/how-to-pre...
November 19, 2024 at 4:11 PM
@torstenbell.bsky.social is right, see my substack - timleunig.substack.com/p/how-to-pre...
I have visited a fair few food factories and always had the same feeling: they are cold, noisy, sometimes smelly. On the other hand many of the workers seemed to enjoy their jobs. Hard to know whether automation will increase or reduce aggregate human happiness.
Really good Martin Wolf column. And this sentence leapt out to me. on.ft.com/3Cs1Aqn
My first visit to a car factory (2011 I think) was eye opening to me. And left me with mixed feelings.
1/2
My first visit to a car factory (2011 I think) was eye opening to me. And left me with mixed feelings.
1/2
November 16, 2024 at 3:48 PM
I have visited a fair few food factories and always had the same feeling: they are cold, noisy, sometimes smelly. On the other hand many of the workers seemed to enjoy their jobs. Hard to know whether automation will increase or reduce aggregate human happiness.
Had never picked up before on the connection between the Arabic word for “definite article” (lām al-ta‘rif) and the English word tariff: both a definite article and a tariff being connected with determining things.
I was wondering why English has a special word for import taxes (tariff).
It's taken from Italian (tariffa), mimicking the Arabic word word ta'rif used by Arab traders to reference the list of fees they had to pay when entering Mediterranean ports in the 10-12 century.
www.wsj.com/articles/tar...
It's taken from Italian (tariffa), mimicking the Arabic word word ta'rif used by Arab traders to reference the list of fees they had to pay when entering Mediterranean ports in the 10-12 century.
www.wsj.com/articles/tar...
‘Tariff’ Comes From Bygone Days of Arab Trade
As Washington continues to debate tariffs, Ben Zimmer looks at the word’s derivation from Mediterranean commerce a millennium ago.
www.wsj.com
November 16, 2024 at 1:19 PM
Had never picked up before on the connection between the Arabic word for “definite article” (lām al-ta‘rif) and the English word tariff: both a definite article and a tariff being connected with determining things.
Reposted by James Kane
Moore has more claim to being a historian than I do, but I don’t think that the original peasants’ revolt was to do with inheritance tax on ownership of substantial amounts of land.
November 16, 2024 at 9:27 AM
Moore has more claim to being a historian than I do, but I don’t think that the original peasants’ revolt was to do with inheritance tax on ownership of substantial amounts of land.
Reposted by James Kane
It doesn’t seem like a good long term strategy for individual European countries to resist integration and collective policymaking, and wind up dependent on the preferences of 5% of the voters in Pennsylvania.
We Europeans (including the UK) have no time to be depressed, to be angry, or to be scared. Too much time has been wasted over the past two years. No more burying one’s head in the sand, no more hoping for the best. Time to step up. For our security, for Ukraine, for our future.
November 6, 2024 at 8:26 AM
It doesn’t seem like a good long term strategy for individual European countries to resist integration and collective policymaking, and wind up dependent on the preferences of 5% of the voters in Pennsylvania.
Reposted by James Kane
I miss voodoo economics. The claim that tax cuts pay for themselves was empirically crazy, but it had some logic to it. The claim that taxes on imports don’t raise consumer prices is pure self-serving magical thinking www.nytimes.com/2024/10/24/u...
Trump Flirts With the Ultimate Tax Cut: No Income Taxes at All
The former president has repeatedly praised a period in American history when there was no income tax, and the country relied on tariffs to fund the government.
www.nytimes.com
October 25, 2024 at 11:15 AM
I miss voodoo economics. The claim that tax cuts pay for themselves was empirically crazy, but it had some logic to it. The claim that taxes on imports don’t raise consumer prices is pure self-serving magical thinking www.nytimes.com/2024/10/24/u...
Can a thwarted career be compensated by a panegyric epitaph?
September 6, 2024 at 1:09 PM
Can a thwarted career be compensated by a panegyric epitaph?