Ben Barber

👨‍💻Software engineer, 📈Market data analyst and ⛰️Outdoors enthusiast.

[Ben Barber @benbarber]

This looks great

[Tim Sneath @timsneath]

One of my personal favorite features announced at WWDC will I suspect be a sleeper hit: container machines, allowing your Mac to run a lightweight, persistent Linux environment with your home directory and repos automatically mounted: https://t.co/dOBdfOOVxC

[Ben Barber @benbarber]

So much better without it!

[Josh Pigford @Shpigford]

the thing i'm most excited about in macOS 27 is that they're doing away with that godforsaken floating liquid glass sidebar.

[The Kobeissi Letter @KobeissiLetter]

What just happened?

The S&P 500 just erased nearly -$2 TRILLION of market cap just hours after 3rd strongest US jobs report in 18 months.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin is officially down over -50% from its record high in October 2025.

What's happening? Let us explain.

(a thread)

[Robert Jenrick @RobertJenrick]

The Sentencing Council’s decision to suspend their two-tier guidelines is a victory for common sense.

I will keep fighting against two-tier justice under #TwoTierKeir

[Ben Barber @benbarber]

@MarketPalmer_ Looks different if you apply screen quality to the measure. The $15k screen in 2000 had the best tech/screen quality available, where as the $250 screen today is a bag of shite. Want the latest screen today? it’s going to cost you a lot!

[Ben Barber @benbarber]

🎯🎯

[Matthew Marsden @matthewdmarsden]

I grew up in the Uk.

Almost every Friday or Saturday night there was a fighting a pub. I have seen loads of them.

Not once did I see a knife pulled. In fact, you were considered a coward if you ever did.

This is an imported culture, and it has been allowed to fester like a cancer.

And like cancer, it will continue to grow until it kills its host, unless it is destroyed.

[Matt Goodwin @GoodwinMJ]

Keir Starmer: “there is no such thing as two-tier policing”.

Police chiefs today: “we will review controversial guidance advising officers to treat ethnic minorities differently”.

The absurdity of modern Britain.

[Pete Oxenham @peteoxenham]

strava mcp launched today lfg

[Ben Barber @benbarber]

@piersmorgan

[Tottenham Hotspur @1882_Tottenham]

Winning in Europe isn’t for everyone

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

A farmer dies in April 2026.

His son inherits the farm. The farm has been in the family since 1847.

The farm consists of: 300 acres of grazing pasture, a farmhouse built in 1892, a barn, a milking parlour, two tractors of varying ages, a Land Rover that runs about 70% of the time, and a herd of 180 Hereford-cross cattle.

On paper, the farm is worth approximately £3.2 million. This is because land near him has been bought recently by a London hedge fund looking for carbon credits, which has dragged the comparable value of every field within forty miles upward to a number nobody local can justify.

In cash, the farm produces a profit of about £28,000 a year in a good year. In a bad year it loses money. The son also works as a fencing contractor three days a week to keep the operation viable.

The inheritance tax bill on a £3.2 million estate, even at the reduced 20% rate, comes to approximately £140,000 after the increased threshold is applied. The son does not have £140,000. The son has never had £140,000. The son has £4,200 in his current account and an overdraft.

The son sells 60 acres to a developer to pay the tax. The developer puts solar panels on the 60 acres. The remaining herd cannot be sustained on the reduced land. The herd is sold. The barn becomes a holiday let.

A different family eats Brazilian beef this Christmas without knowing why the price went up.

The Treasury collects £140,000.

The land never produces British food again.

[SpaceX @SpaceX]

Watch Starship's twelfth flight test https://t.co/wxna6dy4Lh

[Ben Barber @benbarber]

@SteveSalterPGA @Tesco Had this same issue multiple times with steak from @tesco. Refuse to buy it from there now.

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

Activist: "Your cows are putting carbon into the atmosphere."

Farmer: "Where did they get it?"

Activist: "What?"

Farmer: "The carbon. Where did the cow get it before it put it anywhere."

Activist: "From... eating?"

Farmer: "From eating grass. And where did the grass get it."

Activist: "The soil?"

Farmer: "The air. The grass pulled it out of the air last spring. The cow ate the grass. The cow breathed some of it back out. It went back into the air it came from."

Activist: "But it's still going into the atmosphere."

Farmer: "It's going back. There's a difference between a thing going somewhere and a thing going back. You've described a circle and you're frightened of it."

Activist: "Then just don't have the cow."

Farmer: "The grass still dies in autumn. It rots where it falls. The carbon goes back into the air either way, just without anyone getting fed in the middle."

Activist: "It's not that simple."

Farmer: "It's grass, cow, breath, grass. Or it's grass, rot, air, grass. Same circle, fewer dinners. If that's complicated for you I'd stay away from the water cycle. That one's got clouds in it."

[Ben Barber @benbarber]

@mkobach

[Laila Cunningham @policylaila]

Two men live in Zone 2 London.
Both are around 30. Both sleep in a one-bed flat.

But only one believes he has a future in the city.

James was born in London.
He went to university, got a degree, found a decent job and now works at a marketing firm near Old Street.

He earns just under £60,000 a year.
On paper, he is doing well.

But every month James opens his payslip and watches a third of it vanish before he ever sees it.

Income tax.National Insurance.Student loan.Then comes the rent.

Nearly £2,000 a month for a small one-bed flat with mould around the windows and a landlord who only renews the tenancy six months at a time.

Every evening James scrolls Rightmove looking at tiny flats he cannot afford in the city he grew up in.

Even the cheapest one-beds near him now cost around £400,000.

The deposit alone feels impossible despite earning more than most people in Britain.

His parents bought their first home younger than he is now.
James still does not know if he will ever own one.
So he keeps renting.Keeps waiting.
He watches friends delay children.

People earning what used to be considered “good money” still checking every direct debit before payday.

Now meet Shaheed.
He arrived in Britain recently and was granted refugee status.
He does not work.

He lives in a one-bed flat in East London. His housing costs and council tax are largely covered through the welfare system.

He qualifies for free prescriptions, dental treatment and eye tests.

He does not spend his evenings worrying whether the next rent rise will wipe out what little he has left at the end of the month.

And this is the part driving so much public anger.

James works full time, pays a fortune in tax and still cannot see a long-term future in the city he was born in.

Shaheed does not work, yet has more housing security than the man whose taxes help fund the system.

That is how a city loses its young people, because they stop believing hard work leads anywhere.

London has to become a city where the people who work, contribute and build lives here can realistically afford homes, raise families and feel secure again.

[Ant Middleton @antmiddleton]

The UK is absolutely insane and riddled with corruption. Starmer banning legal, documented people, intellects, Politicians, journalists, Europeans, leaders, truth tellers, whites, passport holders, law abiding citizens from entering the most civilised, tolerant and advanced society on the planet. All whilst refuses to stop illegal immigrants, committing a criminal offence of illegal entry, of whom we know nothing about and have proven time and time again to cost British lives! How is such a twisted, weak, pathetic man allowed to get away with such tyranny. Years ago he would have been physically removed by the scruff of the neck and told to never return. Fact! I am just hugely shocked that he can leave the front door of his house without being lynched, arrested and made an example of. Surely there’s a warrant out for his arrest? Remember people, citizens arrest is a thing and completely legal…

[Conservatives @Conservatives]

WATCH: @KemiBadenoch annihilate Keir Starmer and the entire Labour Party in her response to the King's Speech 🔥

[James Cleverly🇬🇧 @JamesCleverly]

Side note.

To the Labour MPs who shout “Liz Truss” whenever the economy is discussed, should note that the UK 10yr bond yield under Truss peaked at 4.7%

This morning, because of Reeves’ and Starmer’s ineptitude the 10yr bond yield is 5.02%

Labour crashed the economy.

[Ben Barber @benbarber]

@DavidDack Sub 20 brilliant
Sub 25 good
Sub 30 solid effort