James Savage

Founder & Publisher @TheLocalEurope. Chair Swedish Magazine Publishers’ Assoc @SvTidskrifter. Chair Utgivarna . Brit by birth, Swede by choice. Own views.

[James Savage @SavLocal]

Can’t wait for the panel discussion this Thursday here in Minneapolis! https://t.co/kPGQQG2a6v via @YouTube

[Lionel Barber @lionelbarber]

Elon Musk, JD Vance and Tucker Carlson are dead wrong about the “free speech crisis” in Britain. The problem is “SLAPPS”, the frivolous law suits aimed at shutting down legitimate investigative journalism and lining powerful London law firms’ pockets. Time for a timid Labour government to act My commentary https://t.co/XmTskTaRyF

[Tim Shipman @ShippersUnbound]

Further to Blair. Literally every honest sensible person in all the main parties privately agrees with all these propositions:

- welfare spending is too high and is throwing good people on the scrapheap
- defence spending is too low
- the triple lock is unsustainable
- without cheap energy we cannot exploit the AI revolution
- we should be investing in EVERY form of energy: renewables, nuclear and the North Sea
- migration needs to be controlled to boost social cohesion and because the boats look like a huge failure of the state
- any new relationship with the EU will be imposed on us until we are stronger and cannot involve the closeness some desire without freedom of movement
- we are deeply embedded with America in ways which the public does not understand and cannot be told and however joyous it makes us feel to hate Trump, disengagement at the deep state level is not only wholly unrealistic but also undesirable
- Whitehall needs a total overhaul so specific project expertise and political appointees can be brought in quickly

Blair basically says all that.

The one thing he doesn’t say and which the same group of people agree on is this and it’s something Blair left behind:

- judges and quangos have too much power, are unaccountable and without redressing the balance in favour of parliament it is very difficult to do anything big fast
- the bare minimum that needs to change in this regard is to reform judicial review and planning law so we can put building and economic growth ahead of newts and NIMBYs

None of that above really ought to be up for discussion. It is all common sense but not one of our politicians will publicly say all of it

Whatever you think of Blair, engage with what he’s saying not how he makes you feel. The bare minimum we should expect from any leader is that they have an analysis of the current situation and a plan to deal with it which is as coherent and realistic as his intervention. Pretty well every critique I’ve read so far has failed to meet this requirement.

Over to Andy and Keir and Kemi and Nigel and Zack and all the others

[Michael Crick @MichaelLCrick]

In almost any other household, if a man suddenly parked a brand new £125,000 motorhome in the driveway - and acquired other new vehicles - his wife would ask where on earth he got the money from.

[Gideon Rachman @gideonrachman]

But she was his wife. They were living together. And he was spending the money to fund a luxury lifestyle. Seems remarkably incurious and unobservant of her.

[Ben Judah @b_judah]

Scrutiny is never tedious.

Brexiteers claim that leaving the 🇪🇺 can’t have been that damaging as 🇬🇧 growth post 2020 has tracked 🇫🇷🇩🇪.

But thing the Online Right is correct about is there is not one graph in this country that isn’t reflecting the Boriswave — which artificially juiced GDP by adding population. This post-Brexit wave is gigantic: roughly 4m people or 6% of the population.

If we look at 🇬🇧 per capita GDP growth compared to 🇫🇷🇩🇪🇳🇱🇳🇱 below the Brexit damage is even more clear.

From 1999 to 2015 we see 🇬🇧 GDP per capita growing roughly in line with 🇳🇱 with their services-led economy, much faster than 🇮🇹 and 🇫🇷.

Post-Brexit this historical higher growth rate in GDP per capita is wiped out. Just look below at the second set of columns which excludes the Covid years. We see 🇬🇧 falling behind 🇳🇱🇫🇷 and shockingly for some even 🇮🇹.

Only compared to 🇩🇪 suffering from the China manufacturing shock and the Russia energy shock does UK growth per capita look good.

What we’ve seen in this exchange is Tory Brexiteers, unlike Restore or Reform, are not comfortable in making an argument that Brexit is about identity and migration and worth any price. They have to deny the scale of the economic damage.

[Jessica Elgot @jessicaelgot]

Extraordinary launch video - never seen a by-election campaign which is such an explicit pitch to both the place and to the country

[Lionel Barber @lionelbarber]

Wes Streeting believes
it serves the UK’s economic interest to rejoin the EU, but it is certainly in his own political interest to open the Brexit question when his chief rival Andy Burnham is standing in Makerfield where Reform UK blew the doors off in the local elections

[Luis Garicano 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @lugaricano]

No smoking gun, but the preponderance of evidence points to smartphones, not economics, as the culprit for the global drop in fertility:
• In the US and UK, births fell first and fastest in areas that got 4G earliest
• Birth rates were stable in the US, UK and Australia until 2007; in France and Poland until 2009; in Mexico and Indonesia until 2012; in Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal until 2013-15
Each of these inflection points matches local smartphone adoption (see picture).
• The younger the age group, the sharper the drop.
• in-person socialising among young adults is dropping. In SK, by 50% in 20 years
• Sexual dysfunction is higher among heavy social media user
• Effect is largest in culturally traditional societies — Middle East, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa
• Decline holds across countries hit hard by GFC 2008 and those not hit, fast-growing and not growing.
Excellent again @jburnmurdoch.
https://t.co/RYEMXD2bRM

[Tim Shipman @ShippersUnbound]

This is the best piece on Starmer you will read today, perhaps this year

[Josh Gafson @JoshGafson1]

As Black Rod knocked on the door, someone in the Commons shouted 'not now, Andy'

[James Savage @SavLocal]

@JHuitfeldt Jag uppfattar detta som att du fortfarande kommer att vara ansvarig utgivare?

[Steven Swinford @Steven_Swinford]

Quite the spot from @SamCoatesSky

Sir Keir Starmer ignored advice from the head of the civil service to ensure that Lord Mandelson’s national security vetting was carried out before appointing him as ambassador to the US

Lord Case, who was the cabinet secretary at the time, told the prime minister in November 2024 that he should inform officials of the name of his preferred candidate so they could “acquire the necessary security clearances” and conduct due diligence on potential conflicts of interest

The prime minister did not take the advice and instead pressed ahead with Mandelson’s appointment, announcing it on December 20, 2024. Senior allies of the prime minister including Jonathan Powell, the national security adviser, raised concerns at the time that the appointment had been rushed

Starmer pressed ahead with Mandelson's appointment despite being told about Mandelson's long-standing friendship with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including the fact that it continued after he was jailed for child sex offences. The was also warned by officials about Mandelson's links to Russia and China

UK Security Vetting, the small body in the Cabinet Office that vets public appointments, subsequently concluded that Mandelson should be denied clearance on January 25, 2025. It is understood to have raised concerns about Mandelson's business links to China and Russia rather than Epstein

Sir Olly Robbins, the permanent secretary at the foreign office, considered the report from UK Security Vetting and decided that the security risk could be managed. He gave Mandelson's appointment the green light, and the peer became Britain's ambassador to the US in February. He was given the highest level of security clearance

Robbins did not inform the prime minister or anyone in Number 10. The prime minister went on to make a series of public statements insisting that "due process" had been followed and, in February, stating categorically that Mandelson had passed his security vetting. That claim was false

https://t.co/zL2ZWrN63z

[Peter Bone @PeterBoneUK]

There is always a Yes Minister episode!

[Mattias Svensson @mattias_neo]

Glad påsk! önskar Systembolaget.

[Tim Montgomerie 🇬🇧 @montie]

From LibDem to Cameroon to Tory Right and now to what is actually the fringe of American conservatism, Liz Truss is just a grifter. She's now gone to the only place on the political spectrum that's mad enough to invest in her. We see you Liz, we see you.

[James Savage @SavLocal]

Fascinating article by @jburnmurdoch in the FT: AI chatbots nudge people towards centrist and evidence-based positions (in contrast to social media, which push us towards extremes).

https://t.co/lS7E9Av9FO

[Gideon Rachman @gideonrachman]

So what’s the plan then?

[Gideon Rachman @gideonrachman]

Canada and the US at opposite ends of the scale on how people view their fellow citizens. Might explain something. Good to see UK much closer to Canada than US

[Gideon Rachman @gideonrachman]

So oil at 110 a barrel and another Khamenei in charge of Iran . Operation Epic Fury is in danger of turning into Operation Epic Failure