OBR says data so far is consistent with its Brexit assumptions - 15% fall in trade, and 4% fall in productivity/GDP, over long run - compared to no-Brexit counterfactual.

Continued slow puncture..

NEWS: Published today, our public inquiry reveals that greater, long-term benefits, not by spending more money but by redirecting existing tree planting subsidies to better ends.

rse.org.uk/rse-releases-r…

BLOG Today I am publishing a report documenting and analysing the rural land market in large scale landholdings from 2020 - 2022. Short thread with some headlines. 1/8 andywightman.scot/2024/02/large-…

The EU vote on NGTs was won because the pro science movement is finally getting organised thanks to WePlanet Getting 37 Nobel laureates, 1000+ scientists doing demonstrations… Next we have to take on the anti-science member states.

weplanet.org/post/science-w…

'I never said Brexit was going to be easy,' says politician who was recorded saying that Brexit would be easy.

My book is published today in the US 🇺🇸

Published in the UK (& elsewhere) on 11th.

It looks at 7 of our big environmental problems & how to solve them.

These problems are massive. Urgent. But solvable. It's a critical decade for us to take action.

nottheendoftheworld.co.uk

Right Tom Whipple why can we not receive your science journalism excellence over on Bluesky?
Assuming here isn’t a Times house policy or something, can we persuade you to open shop?

Hungary has issued its ransom demand to Brussels.

Viktor Orbán said via his political director that he's ready to retract his veto on EU aid for Ukraine if Brussels agrees to unblock all of Hungary's funds that have been frozen over rule-of-law concerns.

politico.eu/article/hungar…

NEW: Does the American Dream foster inequality?

Let’s start with a shocking stat:

These two things are simultaneously true:
• The richest Americans are the richest in the world
• Food poverty is more severe in America than in any other developed country

🎧'My grandson's doing his Nativity play. They've made Jesus's mum a pregnant migrant woman crossing a border with her husband WHO ISN'T EVEN THE DAD. The school's gone woke!😡'

🎙️'You said this last year, Colin.'

🎧'Which is proof that Sunak's migration policy is failing!'

Essential read from Katy Hayward on why the Windsor Framework did not deliver a return to Stormont in Northern Ireland, laying the blame very firmly on poor handling by the UK government, with the further risk they are now making matters worse. encompass-europe.com/comment/why-di…

Y'days post: Fiscal failures: The UK Autumn Statement and the German debt brake mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2023/11/fiscal…
Rigid fiscal rules stop governments investing in the future (Germany). Inadequate rules and institutions lead to fiscal policy being used for party political gain (UK).

Next time you hear about Sunak’s famous love of detail and spreadsheets, bear this in mind. “Back of an envelope” doesn’t begin to cover it. Not serious government.

You couldn't make it up (h/t the i)

The paradox of public opinion on immigration: people want it reduced overall but favour the status quo or rises for all professions.

Does hydrogen for power (long-term storage) really make sense?

With the metric € per T CO2 avoided, I feel that it would score very poorly.
Maybe we can keep some natural gas (used as low as possible), and invest these € in other sectors not yet decarbonized.
1/4

Think I might have mentioned *a couple of times* that the UK won't be leaving the ECHR because of Northern Ireland (and the US), and looks like politics and the media are starting to realise this... theguardian.com/politics/2023/…

Sorry BBC Scotland News but Mallaig is not in Lochaber (whatever the political ward arrangements).

I mean it totally needs to be part of a sensible west Highland local govt structure… but that isn’t the current - overly large - Highland “council”, …or a ward called Lochaber.

Fraser MacDonald on 'Balmorality' in LRB 16/11 shows how reform of land-holding in Scotland, where it is the most unequal in Europe, is stymied by 'The Royal Family', inducing 'the kind of resignation occasioned by a wet Scottish summer'. lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/…

Abby Innes introduces Late Soviet Britain: Why Materialist Utopias Fail blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofboo…