@timbale.bsky.social
Professor of Politics at Queen Mary University of London & author of The Conservative Party after Brexit: Turmoil and Transformation (now out in paperback). The bits and pieces I do for websites and newspapers turn up eventually at https://proftimbale.com
@timbale.bsky.socialI guess that's the proverbial $64,000 question: how many of those would have taken it up anyway?
@timbale.bsky.socialWith enemies like this, who needs friends?
@timbale.bsky.socialWow! Apparently driven by the fact that "67 per cent of UK entrants finish within the standard length of their programme, against 43 per cent across the OECD." (Source: wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...)
@timbale.bsky.socialReposted by @timbale.bsky.socialThe Tories’ line-to-take on this - namely that it’s plagiarising policy they announced last year - is nuts: even if it were true, it’s utterly at odds with Badenoch’s attempt at Conference to convince voters that there’s a fundamental difference between the Conservatives and Reform. #MakeYourMindUp!
@timbale.bsky.social"People aged 25-34 are vaping more than any others, overtaking 16 to 24-year-olds, with 16.4% using e-cigarettes daily or occasionally." So it's not just all those (pre) adolescent roadman-wannabees, then.
@uglygame.bsky.socialReposted by @timbale.bsky.socialFascinating story illustrating, yet again, that some of the most dubious things that wealthy people get away with rely on respectable law and professional services firms - in respectable places - knowingly assisting their dubious behaviour.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...
@timbale.bsky.socialPresume it was judged too risky to mix up the couples? 🙄
@chadbourn.bsky.socialReposted by @timbale.bsky.socialIranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson: “If the Strait of Hormuz is open, why did America reach out to Russia to solve the diesel problem?”
@timbale.bsky.socialSpot-on. In the late great Jim Bulpitt’s terms, on this issue anyway, Farage has achieved #PoliticalArgumentHegemony
@profalexstevens.bsky.socialReposted by @timbale.bsky.socialReform: Here's a stupid idea that is totally unworkable in practice. Tories: Oi, that's our idea!
@robfordmancs.bsky.socialReposted by @timbale.bsky.socialTl;dr - it is predictable right now that the Chancellor, certainly next year and perhaps this year too, will have to spend less and tax more than currently being forecast because the government's immigration outcomes and policy goals directly contradict the assumptions of OBR forecasts
@robfordmancs.bsky.socialReposted by @timbale.bsky.socialAnother on the list of "things that are obvious from the evidence yet ignored" is "current immigration policy will deliver a great big hole in future budgets". The OBR currently assumes net migration bottoms out at 200k then rises. That isn't going to happen
@timbale.bsky.socialThe Tories’ line-to-take on this - namely that it’s plagiarising policy they announced last year - is nuts: even if it were true, it’s utterly at odds with Badenoch’s attempt at Conference to convince voters that there’s a fundamental difference between the Conservatives and Reform. #MakeYourMindUp!
@timbale.bsky.socialAnd tearing up the TCA with the EU in the process - and if you think a referendum will create uncertainty for potential investors in the UK, you ain’t seen nothing yet!
@timbale.bsky.socialHe was ahead of his time.
@timbale.bsky.socialNFA - yours, The Language Police. 😁
@timbale.bsky.socialCineworld unlimited!
@timbale.bsky.social“On the topic of taking inspiration from Margaret Thatcher, she moved the uprating of the state pension from earnings to inflation, where it stayed until 2011. That is what taking tough a decision really looks like.” @davidgauke.bsky.social
@gdriehuis.bsky.socialReposted by @timbale.bsky.social
@timbale.bsky.socialOoft!
