Stephen Bush
@stephenkb.bsky.social
Associate editor and columnist @financialtimes.com. Post too often about culture, public policy, management, politics, nerd stuff, Arsenal, wosoc. Try my UK politics newsletter for free here: www.ft.com/tryinsidepolitics
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Stephen Bush
@stephenkb.bsky.social
· Feb 22
I sat through that so when my column gets factchecked I can say “yes, that line is accurate”. Such is the FT’s commitment to bringing you our best understanding of the truth. Subscribe here: subs.ft.com/products
There is a Grade-A 'social media drives some people crazy' exchange below this post about Star Wars. I don't want to spoil it but you'll know it when you see it.
It’s also funny because the prequels are actually about trade deficits? Like there’s obviously the top line plot but the secondary plot is about trade
November 11, 2025 at 2:24 AM
There is a Grade-A 'social media drives some people crazy' exchange below this post about Star Wars. I don't want to spoil it but you'll know it when you see it.
Reposted by Stephen Bush
Whenever America’s not on screen, all the other characters should be asking, "where's America?"
November 11, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Whenever America’s not on screen, all the other characters should be asking, "where's America?"
Why do you think that this conversation, which I, a person *in England*, about an English person, again, in England, is about anything other than the labour market in the United Kingdom? Honestly why don't you understand how damn rude it is to turn up in someone's mentions and call them unhinged?
November 11, 2025 at 2:09 AM
Why do you think that this conversation, which I, a person *in England*, about an English person, again, in England, is about anything other than the labour market in the United Kingdom? Honestly why don't you understand how damn rude it is to turn up in someone's mentions and call them unhinged?
Reposted by Stephen Bush
🎶What would you do with a BA- er, Master’s in English🎶
November 11, 2025 at 1:51 AM
🎶What would you do with a BA- er, Master’s in English🎶
Sat in a restaurant last year listening to someone talk about how they were getting ChatGPT to do their assignments for *an English masters they were doing part-time*. I still think about it occasionally.
Dude in the row in front of mine on a flight is literally producing the entire marketing campaign of a _________ fellowship using ChatGPT. Coolio…
November 11, 2025 at 1:44 AM
Sat in a restaurant last year listening to someone talk about how they were getting ChatGPT to do their assignments for *an English masters they were doing part-time*. I still think about it occasionally.
This is one of the two questions that haunt me about 'Inception'. The other is 'why didn't they put the cool recurring theme on the soundtrack'.
does anyone else remember the way inception was sold as this super confusing movie? and that newspapers were printing visual guides on what the plot was? and then you saw the movie and it was actually really straight forward?
what was that about
what was that about
November 11, 2025 at 1:05 AM
This is one of the two questions that haunt me about 'Inception'. The other is 'why didn't they put the cool recurring theme on the soundtrack'.
Reposted by Stephen Bush
for me it was andrew garfield
November 11, 2025 at 1:00 AM
for me it was andrew garfield
It took until 'Guiteau's bullet' for me to stop thinking of the cartoon cat.
Death by Lightning is good because it correctly portrays that Garfield was really killed by his incompetent Doctors not Guiteau’s bullet
November 11, 2025 at 12:57 AM
It took until 'Guiteau's bullet' for me to stop thinking of the cartoon cat.
Reposted by Stephen Bush
I'm still a bit uncomfortable with the number of people who seem to think what the BBC did with the Trump edit was either totally ok, or just a silly mistake. If a historian got caught playing fast and loose with sources and evidence like that in such an obviously politicised way, they'd be toast.
November 10, 2025 at 11:14 PM
I'm still a bit uncomfortable with the number of people who seem to think what the BBC did with the Trump edit was either totally ok, or just a silly mistake. If a historian got caught playing fast and loose with sources and evidence like that in such an obviously politicised way, they'd be toast.
If you think that “the slow vanishing of employee benefits” is a better trade politically than “the other lot saying you broke your promise on income tax”, you are out of your tree: www.ft.com/content/1160...
November 11, 2025 at 12:16 AM
If you think that “the slow vanishing of employee benefits” is a better trade politically than “the other lot saying you broke your promise on income tax”, you are out of your tree: www.ft.com/content/1160...
Really hope that Zarah Sultana keeps a diary, because I really want future historians to be able to answer “what was she thinking, really?” not whatever hindsight nonsense she comes up with later.
Your Party row erupts over hundreds of thousands of pounds in donations
Clash the latest in months of political infighting between the camps of Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana
www.theguardian.com
November 10, 2025 at 11:26 PM
Really hope that Zarah Sultana keeps a diary, because I really want future historians to be able to answer “what was she thinking, really?” not whatever hindsight nonsense she comes up with later.
Reposted by Stephen Bush
I think banning it would be bad, because:
1. It would backfire domestically
2. It would backfire HUGELY internationally
3. Democratic governments shouldn’t ban social platforms.
BUT: they really, *really* should stop using it.
1. It would backfire domestically
2. It would backfire HUGELY internationally
3. Democratic governments shouldn’t ban social platforms.
BUT: they really, *really* should stop using it.
genuinely hard to think of another single move the UK govt could do that would do as much good as banning twitter. it's the poison at the root of so much ill
November 10, 2025 at 12:35 PM
I think banning it would be bad, because:
1. It would backfire domestically
2. It would backfire HUGELY internationally
3. Democratic governments shouldn’t ban social platforms.
BUT: they really, *really* should stop using it.
1. It would backfire domestically
2. It would backfire HUGELY internationally
3. Democratic governments shouldn’t ban social platforms.
BUT: they really, *really* should stop using it.
Reposted by Stephen Bush
our BBC analysis:
“Insiders admit the BBC has often been at fault. But the scandals have been amplified by a hostile cohort of rightwing politicians and media allies”
www.ft.com/content/28b4...
“Insiders admit the BBC has often been at fault. But the scandals have been amplified by a hostile cohort of rightwing politicians and media allies”
www.ft.com/content/28b4...
BBC faces ‘existential’ threat after exit of top executives
Broadcaster’s deepest crisis in recent history comes amid fresh questions over its future role in British society
www.ft.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:12 PM
our BBC analysis:
“Insiders admit the BBC has often been at fault. But the scandals have been amplified by a hostile cohort of rightwing politicians and media allies”
www.ft.com/content/28b4...
“Insiders admit the BBC has often been at fault. But the scandals have been amplified by a hostile cohort of rightwing politicians and media allies”
www.ft.com/content/28b4...
Reposted by Stephen Bush
"We are in danger of becoming a race of fear-ridden neurotics - we who live in the finest country on earth."
Garfield Todd.
Garfield Todd.
My theory: these people have driven themselves so mad that they are now so terrified of ethnic diversity that when he passes Brasserie Zedel and some tourists and two black people come out, what he sees are machete-wielding militiamen.
November 10, 2025 at 7:15 PM
"We are in danger of becoming a race of fear-ridden neurotics - we who live in the finest country on earth."
Garfield Todd.
Garfield Todd.
Reposted by Stephen Bush
i literally went for a drink at the french house literally this afternoon what are we even doing here
November 10, 2025 at 6:48 PM
i literally went for a drink at the french house literally this afternoon what are we even doing here
Reposted by Stephen Bush
What’s frustrating is that none of the current outcomes in the housebuilding market are a surprise to those of us who follow it closely.
November 10, 2025 at 5:15 PM
What’s frustrating is that none of the current outcomes in the housebuilding market are a surprise to those of us who follow it closely.
Reposted by Stephen Bush
Whereas now the demand seems to be for people who are deeply knowledgeable about politics but who have never expressed a political thought in their lives and these people do not exist.
November 10, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Whereas now the demand seems to be for people who are deeply knowledgeable about politics but who have never expressed a political thought in their lives and these people do not exist.
Reposted by Stephen Bush
Brian Walden also represents another interesting change in that nobody is trusted to be an objective interviewer if they have expressed a political opinion anymore. The man wrote speeches for Thatcher while he was hosting the programme but still did the job he was meant to do properly.
November 10, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Brian Walden also represents another interesting change in that nobody is trusted to be an objective interviewer if they have expressed a political opinion anymore. The man wrote speeches for Thatcher while he was hosting the programme but still did the job he was meant to do properly.
Re-upping this - important point in a good thread. A lot of people seem to think that 'changing the regulatory environment' is like switching from Windows to Apple in terms of increasing housebuilding and lowering prices, and not a thing that takes ages if you just leave it to its own thing.
Oh, couple of other things I meant to include:
- juice housing demand. no, really. people can't afford to buy, so builders have stopped building and the whole system is gummed up, planning reform or not. they're going to have to do something to substantively help buyers.
- juice housing demand. no, really. people can't afford to buy, so builders have stopped building and the whole system is gummed up, planning reform or not. they're going to have to do something to substantively help buyers.
November 10, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Re-upping this - important point in a good thread. A lot of people seem to think that 'changing the regulatory environment' is like switching from Windows to Apple in terms of increasing housebuilding and lowering prices, and not a thing that takes ages if you just leave it to its own thing.
Reposted by Stephen Bush
whooooooo remembers NFTs?
November 10, 2025 at 3:57 PM
whooooooo remembers NFTs?
The final line of the original newsletter though - can I get a 'pointless pundit hedging for no real reason' award?
November 10, 2025 at 3:48 PM
The final line of the original newsletter though - can I get a 'pointless pundit hedging for no real reason' award?
Reposted by Stephen Bush
NEW: Rachel Reeves signals she intends to remove the two-child cap *in full*
"I don't think a child should be penalised because they're in a bigger family through no fault of their own," she tells BBC.
"I don't think a child should be penalised because they're in a bigger family through no fault of their own," she tells BBC.
November 10, 2025 at 3:05 PM
NEW: Rachel Reeves signals she intends to remove the two-child cap *in full*
"I don't think a child should be penalised because they're in a bigger family through no fault of their own," she tells BBC.
"I don't think a child should be penalised because they're in a bigger family through no fault of their own," she tells BBC.
Reposted by Stephen Bush
it‘s also changed the incentives a bit. You don’t get on a programme by leading a campaign or having expertise in an area, you get on it by saying something a bit spicy on Twitter before 11am in the hope that an overworked 24 year old researcher books you.
November 10, 2025 at 2:56 PM
it‘s also changed the incentives a bit. You don’t get on a programme by leading a campaign or having expertise in an area, you get on it by saying something a bit spicy on Twitter before 11am in the hope that an overworked 24 year old researcher books you.
I agree with this, but I think if the BBC were better led, it would make fewer culpable errors and it would both directly and indirectly be better placed to fight the real and concerted campaign against it.
The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.
November 10, 2025 at 2:28 PM
I agree with this, but I think if the BBC were better led, it would make fewer culpable errors and it would both directly and indirectly be better placed to fight the real and concerted campaign against it.
Reposted by Stephen Bush
A single shared source of truth is essential for a functioning democracy.
Without it you’re left with fragmentation, polarisation and a perpetual culture war where the discourse focuses on what divides us rather than what we have in common.
My column from last week: www.ft.com/content/5060...
Without it you’re left with fragmentation, polarisation and a perpetual culture war where the discourse focuses on what divides us rather than what we have in common.
My column from last week: www.ft.com/content/5060...
Why American-style polarisation is spreading across the west
New research shows how incentives in the modern media ecosystem help explain rising division and negativity
www.ft.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:43 PM
A single shared source of truth is essential for a functioning democracy.
Without it you’re left with fragmentation, polarisation and a perpetual culture war where the discourse focuses on what divides us rather than what we have in common.
My column from last week: www.ft.com/content/5060...
Without it you’re left with fragmentation, polarisation and a perpetual culture war where the discourse focuses on what divides us rather than what we have in common.
My column from last week: www.ft.com/content/5060...