Ben Combes

UK-US Economist | Climate & Energy | Strategy Director | Visiting Sr Fellow @GRI_LSE | Advisor @XPRIZE | @LutonTown @KentCricket @Athletics fan | My views

[Ben Combes @ben_combes]

@sjdhatters How many season tickets does the club have now Simon? Is it 8,000 or so?

[Ben Combes @ben_combes]

@jerrylatter @NintendoUK @EdinburghUni Yep …

[Ben Combes @ben_combes]

@LutonTownExile There’s a huge incentive to have the final season at Kenilworth Road in the Championship, surely …

[Nintendo of Europe @NintendoEurope]

A legend, reborn.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is coming to #NintendoSwitch2 later this year.

[Ben Combes @ben_combes]

@azeem @ShanuMathew93 @dylan522p For what it’s worth 9% of GDP is what Germany spent on construction for reunification for well over a decade (from 3% of GDP typically)

[Ben Combes @ben_combes]

@spidey_simp @The_Kit_Parade I think it’s highly likely that they continue I just haven’t seen it confirmed

[Ben Combes @ben_combes]

@TheBarmyArmy Rain Stops Play

[Ben Combes @ben_combes]

@TimHarford Great article and agree on the thrust and spirit of the points made. A shame that the new Universal UK, whose name was announced on the same day, was not mentioned as a major supply shock that will surely lead Merlin and Alton Towers / Thorpe Park etc. to raise their game soon.

[Tim Harford @TimHarford]

Everything I know about economics, I learned queueing at Alton Towers
https://t.co/d6sVRSr3ja

[Ben Combes @ben_combes]

@LutonTown Phew! You had me for a minute.
Love this guy and really hope he’s here for the final season at Kenilworth Road and the first at Power Court! Great news and might encourage others to sign ✍️

[Ben Combes @ben_combes]

@Euthenos_ I realised this fully when I flew from London to Calgary last year and the flight was a straight line on the flight map.

[Ben Combes @ben_combes]

@_TeamsLikeLuton Agree with everything in the thread. Looking forward to the actual activity and comparison once the window closes

[England @England]

Come Together.

[Ben Combes @ben_combes]

@tomb337 Our programme for the first game of that season had only half-a-dozen names on it as we weren’t sure whether we could field a team…

[Henry Winter @henrywinter]

Anyone with any knowledge of English football history will know that it is ridiculous for Southampton’s chief executive, Phil Parsons, to claim that their expulsion from the Championship play-offs is a bigger punishment than the 30-point deduction imposed on Luton Town in 2008 which led to relegation and almost throttled the life out of the club. Absolutely no comparison and completely weakens Southampton’s attempted argument that being thrown out of the play-offs is “manifestly disproportionate to every previous sanction in the history of the English game”.

There is some good stuff in Parsons’ statement: accepting culpability for Spygate, apologising to those clubs they spied on and apologising to their fans “whose extraordinary loyalty and support this season deserved better from the club”. Well said. But… the rules changed since Leeds United’s “similar offence” in 2019, there is no right to the £200m (it’s not a fine), and to play the whataboutery game and make the comparison with the Hatters is, fittingly, mad. Southampton’s reputation is certainly damaged but at least their very existence is not at risk. #SaintsFC #LTFC

[Ben Combes @ben_combes]

@PeterDiamandis It was always a low-population-density play, as was fracking

[Ben Combes @ben_combes]

@BedfordHatter I was thinking exactly the same thing… we finished below both of these clubs. A woeful start indeed

[Ben Combes @ben_combes]

@LutonTown Encouraging to see you use the word ‘penultimate’. Hopefully that means the stadium is firmly on track as of now…