It’s not entirely clear that the MAGA crowd care about foreign policy at all. This may in fact explain the lack of any need to be consistent on either by the vulgarian in the White House. On the core issues that matter to the MAGA crowd, he tends to hew closer to the line

The meek are meek mostly as a tactic😂

Of course! As old and as good as gold itself😊

I was really thinking of opportunities for some tactical allocation.

The question then is, what are individuals to do? Should they pile into gold, even at current dazzling prices?

Why does this matter? The starting point of this conversation should be for us to admit to our varying levels of hypocrisy towards the NHS. I’d happily confess to mine: I’d love a much better NHS, but I don’t want to pay for it bc I’m already taxed to the hilt, thank you very much.

Don’t get me wrong, there are lots of things that better management can improve but in fact, that also revolves around money: the NHS gets the managers it can afford to pay. And we get an NHS voters have agreed to pay for and no better.

Glad you were ok in the end. Your excellent piece describes key issues facing the NHS. What was left unsaid was the structural issues and constraints that has led to the quality of service as it is.

More capacity
More/better tech
More experienced staff

…all need more money.

Who’ll pay?

How long before MAGA commissars are embedded in every unit?

If it’s going to be so dire, what are debt-ridden govts to do? Have their tattered cheque books at the ready for the inevitable bailouts, I guess!

In the case of America, something will have to give. As the pass through to consumers of tariffs increase and the inflationary effects of Trump’s other big signature policy on immigration hit home with declining growth perhaps in time for the midterms, he’ll be forced to reconsider.

I have not seen anyone articulate how exactly public ownership alone will address the bottlenecks accessing GP services. It seems to be all down to magical thinking

www.business-live.co.uk/enterprise/s...

I agree on the point about rip off-rail transport in England is extremely expensive compared to the continent. We’ll have to see how public ownership helps with that.

Interim data on performance is not promising

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10...

Clearly too early to fully understand the impact of “liberation day” or the wider impacts of Trump’s revolutionary govt

Not sure who is having the argument but it’s clearly not in the interest of the political elite to spread power and the state’s meagre resources even more thinly.

As for the so-called monarchs, they have always subsisted by preying on their own people and collaborating with external powers

There’s practically no difference between the Benin expedition of 1897 and the colonial structures overseeing the plunder of Nigeria today at federal and state levels. The Europeans are shockingly naive to hand over looted artwork to another band of plunderers

For its own good, the UK should have been spared this “growth”. The danger is that Rachel Reeves and the Starmer circus use this as an excuse to double down on the pressure they’re applying to the neck of the UK economy.

Always interesting seeing Americans wring their hands over the solution to some of these issues when they can simply look to Europe. It’s not as if the folks on the old continent have completely figured it out but by God, there’s a few good things to copy.