Benjamin Rowley

I make things up and jot them down.

[Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias]

The UK actually has a ton of frontier or near-frontier global companies for a country of its size and I think its economic problems could basically all be solved with “YIMBY stuff” in a way that isn’t true elsewhere.

https://t.co/GqeegtC3Vw

[Wessie du Toit @wessiedutoit]

Defence spending has yet to reach 2.5% of GDP. Welfare is almost 11%.

[Lewis Goodall @lewis_goodall]

The Soho Society is objecting to *every* new bar/restaurant licence in what is supposed to be the centre of London’s nightlife. More planning/licensing insanity.

I asked them to come on my Sunday LBC show: "We will absolutely not be taking questions from journalists". Of course not.

https://t.co/0UfHJs9Klg

[𝓢𝓪𝓶 @samofsamshire]

When I am dictator, there will be a national wealth fund created purely to finance underground parking for every residential area in the country.

[Tom Harwood @tomhfh]

I think a huge part of the reason why no government has been able to enact difficult pro-growth reforms is that the average voter still believes we remain a rich country.

You hear this in politicians’ rhetoric “the sixth richest country in the world”.

We’re the sixth largest economy but now far from the richest. Per capita we’re tanking down the rankings.

One of the reasons why Poland or China have been able to have growth miracles in recent years is they think like a developing country.

They know they were poor and they have to build to get rich.

We think we are rich and that we don’t have to build anything anymore, or that when we do, it has to be the most expensive possible version of what we build.

Bat tunnels. Fish Discos. Kittiwake hotels.

We think we’re rich so we can afford to chase some wealth creators away, afford to mandate public biodiversity net gain on every development in the country, and afford to ratchet up state pension spending five times faster than the rate of growth in the economy.

We’re suffering from acute ‘rich country delusion’.

It’s only once we realise we’re far poorer than we should be that we can start to fix this nonsense.

[The Telegraph @Telegraph]

🔵 Lord Gove has urged Sir Keir Starmer to remove the pension triple lock, stating the safeguard was “not defensible”.

🔗: https://t.co/3kgROOO93E

[rt hon Sir Desmond Swayne TD MP @DesmondSwayne]

If, like me, you were born in 1956, you’ll receive almost £300,000 more in benefits than you’ll pay in taxes in your lifetime

State Pensions make up a huge chunk of that

Long term, we simply can’t afford to sustain the Triple Lock’s generosity

Blog:

https://t.co/nHaFEHdFCe

[Empire Aesthetics @Empireaesth]

The sun never sets on the British Empire!

[Nicholas Boys Smith @boys_nicholas]

Some new development looks good BEFORE the trees grow …

[Hvygens @Hvygens]

Lee Kuan Yew: "I ignore polling as a method of government. I think that shows a certain weakness of mind. An inability to chart a course. Whichever way the wind blows, whichever way the media encourages the people to go, you follow. You're not a leader."

[sean thomas knox @thomasknox]

Just build Poundbury. Again and again. That's what everyone loves, it is now a proven success. Tell architects who despise "pastiche" to go jump in the Cam

[Sam Bowman @s8mb]

A very attractive new development outside Newcastle at Lambton Park (via @Sasha_Metcalfe).

https://t.co/fC12Nsl9Aa

[Robert Colvile @rcolvile]

Sorry, Kevin, this is nonsense. Housing costs as a % of income have risen from 10% in 1957 to 30% or more. We are 6.5m homes behind European average. And the evidence from the many other countries with similar interest rates but higher housebuilding is pretty bloody clear.

[Benedict Spence @BenedictSpence]

What makes a pensioner more deserving of protection from market forces than, say, a young family?

[Anglo Futurism Capital LP 🇬🇧🐿️ @RollingHedge]

Hannan is correct here and this is the conversation nobody in elected politics wants to have.

Foreign aid is roughly £15bn.

The triple lock premium above earnings-only indexation is already £12bn/yr and growing every year by design.

One of these gets talked about constantly. The other is sacrosanct.

@GreatBritishTT built a model on exactly this. The numbers are worse than most people assume:

https://t.co/DyV3mytaDY

[Catherine Blaiklock @blaiklockBP]

Over-55 homeowners have £3.4 trillion of property wealth.

£321,213 per household.

76% have no mortgage.

1.6% of under 40's own a house with no mortgage.

[Robert Colvile @rcolvile]

Dan is right. The great fantasy of British politics is that we can balance the books in the face of remorseless demographic pressures without any given set of core voters feeling pain.

[Tom Harwood @tomhfh]

By what metric is opposing massive state spending increases (even on favoured demographics) "far left"?

[Rupert Lowe MP @RupertLowe10]

It wasn’t that long ago millions of young people had some of the best months of their lives stolen from them all to unsuccessfully avoid what was a nasty cold for the overwhelming majority.

To suggest youngsters have not sacrificed anything in recent years is offensive guff.

[Callum @AkkadSecretary]

The UK had austerity, just not for pensioners.