Ryan Bourne
@MrRBourne
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Economics @CatoInstitute. Times Business columnist. S*bstack: The War on Prices. š fan.
Joined May 2011
Someone told me that if you close your eyes, Rishi sounds like Will from The Inbetweeners and now I can't unhear it.
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There's a European upper middle-class cope which basically says "yes, America might look richer, but there's no work-life balance, culture, or accessible healthcare." What I've learnt moving here is that, no, for genuinely comparable professionals, America is just much richer.
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Adolescence is now reaching knee bending & Captain Tom worship levels of social and political contagion in the UK.
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I disagree with @AOC on most major policy issues, but she takes her Committee duties incredibly seriously, always asks relevant and intelligent questions, and according to my colleague @CatoEdwards puts the time in on staying in attendance for long sessions too.
After asking Powell why the Fed has so consistently gotten the natural rate of unemployment wrong in the same direction, @AOC follows-up by discussing the breakdown of the Phillips Curve, and the idea that unemployment could be much lower without inflationary worries.
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Socialism is misery dressed up as fairness
Neo-liberalism is insecurity dressed up as freedom.
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How do you feel about happy hour?.
How do you feel about dynamic pricing?. Mostly positive: 10%.Mostly negative: 74%.
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I keep thinking about this paragraph. Extraordinary writing.
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If the Merkel read out is true, then it shows the backstop was always a sham intended to keep the whole UK in a customs union forever. The Brexiteers who held their nerve were right, and those who folded wrong.
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Boris Johnson was a deeply flawed individual, but never forget he saved the country from this cretin.
The unfolding events in Israel and Palestine are deeply alarming. We need an immediate ceasefire and urgent de-escalation. And we need a route out of this tragic cycle of violence: ending the occupation is the only means of achieving a just and lasting peace.
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There's literally a children's board game that demonstrates how easy it is to do surgery.
Thereās literally a childrenās board game that demonstrates that āfree-market capitalismā always leads to one person controlling everything.
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Having demanded a lockdown for a week, UK journalists will tomorrow pivot seamlessly to finding anyone with an inconvenience, however minor, asking: what will govt do for them? And: have the govt thought this through?.
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Gary Lineker on BBC Sports Personality of the Year: āyour vote will decide who wins.ā . Good of him to clarify given his referendum views!.
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"Yes youāll earn twice as much over there, but will you have access to 18 month healthcare waiting lists?".
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The number of ānamesā testing positive suggests to me that we are vastly undercounting how many people are out there with this virus already.
BREAKING: Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has tested positive for Coronavirus.
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Creating jobs is how this historic project gets done. #DYK: this week, we reached a milestone ā creating more than 13,000 construction jobs on the United Stateās first 220 mph #HSR system. 10,000 of these jobs have come just in the last 5 years! #BuildHSR #FactFriday
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Be a real shame if just one EU country blocked the extension of Article 50, wouldnāt it? If I were a Brexiteer in Parliament Iād be on the phone to the Poles, Hungarians and Italians right about now.
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The fact that free movement will end but most Brexiteers oppose this deal is strong evidence that, contra Remainer claims, the Brexit vote was much more about sovereignty than immigration. May has never understood that.
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I really donāt understand this sentiment, which is becoming commonplace in UK politics. What does feeling forced mean? If the job you want is in another city, why is it the responsibility of the business to allow you to stay where you are? Such a bizarre principle.
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Been in a pub just outside of Gillingham in Kent for 3 hours (traditionally a bellwether constituency). Real anger & fear Brexit wonāt be delivered. To a man or woman, loathe Corbyn & think May shd walk away. Overwhelming. These are votes Conservatives canāt afford to lose.
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Has the U.K. ever had a more useless Parliament? No understanding of what their original Article 50 triggering entailed. Done nothing useful for 3 years to deliver on a clear constitutional instruction. The sooner they are put in front of the public again, the better.
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I don't think politicians in the UK realise how utterly absurd they look to the rest of the world.
Excl: Yvette Cooper says she's considering banning kitchen knives with pointed ends to tackle soaring gang violence:
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Now do Ursula von der Leyen.
An MP of a party that 58% of the UK voted against in the last election, who wasn't even contemplated as PM at the time, and who promised people we would get a deal if we voted Brexit, just got made PM by 0.2% of the population by committing to leaving without a deal. #NotMyPM
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A great example of what can be, unburdened by what has been.
INSPIRATIONAL: This Ohio man overcame the debilitating burden of his own principles
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Donāt laugh, Brexiteers, but yesterday Tony Blair was in DC lecturing Americans on the need to defend democracy.
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Utterly absurd language. The additional risk for others of someone lying on the grass alone or with those youāve been quarantined with is ~0. Some people are enjoying the policing of peopleās lives a bit too much, forgetting the actual aim here.
Traitors. No other word for them. š.
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This week another reminder that much of what gets denounced as "neoliberalism" is actually just "economics.".
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The left donāt want you to inherit your fatherās wealth but think you must inherit his sins.
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BBC introduce story of heroin "epidemic" in US with backdrop saying "Trump's America". Quite an achievement given he isn't President yet.
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I live in the US and eat chicken about 4 times per week. Nobody here has a problem with chicken and canāt comprehend the fuss.
@MrRBourne Would you eat chlorinated chicken?.
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I used to consider myself a mild-mannered policy guy and commentator. But I'm so angry at MPs & the govt for this Brexit process, the useless negotiation, the crap deal, broken promises etc that tweeting about is no longer productive. The UK needs a complete political revolution.
.@PhilipHammondUK has just told me Brexit delay will inevitably be long, that UK will have to prepare for participation in European elections and cabinetās hope is UK would be allowed to Brexit earlier if deal passed in coming months. See full interview at 10.45 @itv 10.45. Big.
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I've just re-acquainted myself with the economics-themed legislative proposals sponsored by @KamalaHarris and, boy, there's some really awful stuff in there.
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As I was saying:
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The fact that these kids think this is what a politician should sound like is itself a damning indictment of Westminster proper. Utterly insufferable.
British Youth Parliament is brilliant. āKashmir is the most important issue that affects us all.ā.āI am PROUD to be PAKISTANIā *puffs out chest* . Great to see that even the young kids understand and embrace the new beautiful British sectarianism.
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Why is the BBC, funded through a privileged gatekeeper license fee, directly trying to replicate stuff already being provided by markets?.
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Isnāt it odd how a host of government and independent institutes all had their economic analyses of Brexit all ready to publish in the same week?.
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āThe creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.ā
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The thing that most commentators and politicians don't get about @SteveBakerHW is that he believes in something. Politics is not a game to him.
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You know who I feel sorry for today? Prince Harry. Heād have been there at Wembley giving it large. Instead itāll be a kale salad with the Mrs discussing the importance of supporting CRT in schools.
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So let me get this straight. Theyāll do āanythingā to prevent No Deal. Yet most voted down Theresa Mayās Deal (the Deal they say EU wonāt re-open), and most would vote down any Boris Deal too. They arenāt opposing no deal, theyāre opposing Brexit.
Brexit: Opposition MPs agree strategy to block no deal
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Genuinely baffling to me that U.K. politicians so obsessed with the idea of a customs union, the worst aspect of EU membership.
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I donāt really care about Greta guest editing the Today program. But I do remember years ago a furore over Nigel Lawson merely appearing on the show, and green campaigners saying that nobody who wasnāt a scientist should have a platform to comment on the science of climate change.
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99/100 when someone says "can we stop treating this as a political football" they really mean "please stop making your point and just accept my view.".
"Please can we stop treating this as a political football or way of scoring points against each other.". Gillian Tett, Financial Times columnist, calls for people to use "empathy" and "tolerance" on the gender debate. #Newsnight
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I don't think many U.K. commentators have really got to grips with the extent of the vibe shift in the US and the implications for their own politics.
If the British people are ever going to have a moral reckoning over the grooming gangs (theyāre rape gangs) scandal, theyāll have the Americans to thank for boosting the story. Because the UK authorities and mainstream media have gone out of their way to ignore it or worse,.
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Remainers have gone from āBrexit is racistā to āVote for a racist party to stop Brexit.ā.
Voting Labour with a heavy heart; I expect Johnson to win, in which case I hope Corbyn resigns as leader and is replaced by someone competent, popular, a Remainer, and above all, determined to recognise and deal with the cancer of antisemitism that has infected the Party.
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We will hear a lot of this. "The fear of God" doesn't imply violence, but could mean "fear for your political future", "fear for your party's future" or "fear no deal Brexit" too. Anti-Brexit politicians will try to tarnish the inevitable electoral backlash as violent and extreme.
This is deeply, shockingly, horribly and indeed dangerously irresponsible. What on earth is happening to our politics.Has nothing been learned from the tragic and terrible murder of Jo Cox ?.
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First Law Of Political Discourse: when someone calls for compromise they invariably mean āgive up on your principles and adopt my agenda.ā . Idea Brexiteers havenāt shown compromise in this whole process is absurd. The uncompromising block are those unwilling to deliver Brexit.
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Weāre seeing the final anti-Brexit spasms: the petition, the march, media ramping up supposed āshifting opinion,ā revoking being discussed by those who previously said a Peopleās Vote was their aim. They will all be defeated even if they succeed this time. Change is coming!.
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Hearing that those Tampa area gas stations have obeyed anti price gouging laws and kept their prices low despite demand surging. Unfortunately there's now no gas for those who urgently need enough just to get outside the hurricane path.
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UK folk keep saying āmasks will kill the High Streetā. The reason people arenāt shopping at the High Street is because of the virus. Steps to make stores safer for customers will likely increase custom.
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Pidcock gone. She didnāt have any Tory friends. Didnāt seem to have enough Labour friends either.
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Thirteen years' ago yesterday: but who will stop the cell phone king?
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Imagine if Gina Miller hadn't won the meaningful vote campaign. Brexiteers would have been left with a deal they hated and anti-no dealers at all costs wd be relieved now. Isn't life funny?.
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Look forward to seeing detail of Brexit UK-EU FTA deal, but right now want to thank @DavidGHFrost for all his work in getting here in a year. Politicians will get plaudits for speed, but he (after quite horrid press briefings from Remainers, it must be said) made it happen.
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Letās be honest. If any Conservative is going to avoid one debate, itās one hosted by the Channel 4 News team. Dropped any pretense at balanced reporting years ago. Always felt as if you were being set up for holding any free market, libertarian or conservative opinion.
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According to this report, since @JMilei deregulated rent and tenancy length controls, in Buenos Aires the number of apartments available for rent has doubled and rent prices have fallen 20%.
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Signing up to permanent customs union w regulatory alignment to avoid no deal is so stupid only politicians could devise it. No deal isnāt destination - itās a s-term choice given crud exit options. To sacrifice own trade policy to avoid that short term disruption just insane.
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Bafflingly extraordinary. MPs are divided on Brexit, primarily over effects on the economy. But they've just waved through climate legislation of massive significance, with no idea of how it's to be achieved, & huge uncertainties about potentially massive economic costs.
MPs have approved - without a vote - a change in the law so that the UK is committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. At the end of a short debate in the Commons, MPs backed a statutory instrument which amends the Climate Change Act 2008, reports @cripeswatson.
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Utterly desperate. The PM is trying to turn this Parliamentary vote into a Prime Ministerial campaign of her vs Corbyn to rally Tory base. It isnāt. Itās far more important: itās about the constitutional future of the U.K. Brexiteers, donāt blink!.
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Retweet if you admire NHS staff, but think the NHS as a healthcare institution is "nothing special.". A lot of people hold this view, but Labour MPs are intent on making this perfectly reasonable position seem beyond the pale in public debate.
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COVID-19 is so prevalent in the UK and US that some people who get the vaccine while being unknowingly infected will die a few weeks later from the active infection. It *will* happen. A test of how responsible we and the media are is how we will react.
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What does this even mean? How does a country ābuyā a public service of another country? Why would the US want to invest taxpayer money on a Mansfield walk-in centre?.
Boris Johnson is prepared to sell off the NHS to Donald Trumpās America. At this election you can stop him by voting Labour.
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There's a certain type of "centrist" UK commentator who genuinely gets more angry about Tory MPs than they do terrorism or the celebration of it. Their tweets in the past month could be summarized as "Yes, I'm sad at what happened on October 7, *but I am absolutely disgusted* at.
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Itās remarkable that the UK media gets more upset about Boris comparing Corbyn to Stalin in rhetorical flourish than the fact that Corbyn *actually employs* a known Stalinist. The speed with which Corbynās stated & observed extremism has become normalised is quite something.
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In my view, lockdowns again are, more than anything else, a societal and policy failure. A failure to do the marginal things on mask wearing, ventilation, avoiding large indoor gatherings, rapid testing, complying with contact tracing efforts, incentivising compliance etc.
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I donāt care about Lewis Goodallās views. I do care about Brits being compelled to pay for them through law if they want to watch any live TV.
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If government ministers think public will agree that their Brexit broken promises are the result of Brexiteers trying to deliver a meaningful Brexit, then they are in for another shock.
PPS: āJust to be really clear: ERG have done this to party. Theyāve softened Brexit because they were too proud and stupid to realise what was at stake. Baker has single-handedly put 5 points on Corbyn. Puts him in No10. And it puts the Brexiteers on the moron side of history.ā.
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The grown ups who want to shift away from the culture wars are back, baby.
šØ NEW: Rachel Reeves plans to replace all paintings in No 11 Downing Street with artworks by or of women to celebrate becoming the first female Chancellor. [@guardian].
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There's a lesson here, if other supermarkets and pharmacies were willing to learn it.
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A lot of MPs angry with Theresa May tonight. Bottle that feeling you have and multiply it by 17.4 million and then youāll be close to the anger that will be wrought if you overturn Brexit.
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When some of us said āVote May, Get Corbynā back in December we presumed that the second part would come after her premiership ended.
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If the Tory Cabinet think the answer to this moment is David Lidington, then I suspect that a period in opposition is in order.
Cabinet coup plotters want to install an interim leader to deliver Brexit. There is good support for David Lidington but others pushing Michael Gove and Jeremy Hunt.
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I've just had a glance through their Twitter feed and it seems @hopenothate has said nothing on here about the Israeli terror attacks or the associated hate-filled rallies supporting them in the UK? Surely I'm missing something?.
At our panel at Labour Party Conference, @NadiaWhittomeMP says that the Conservative Party's rhetoric and policies are moving further to the right.
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It's quite funny how a lot of Conservatives have hid behind the "oh, voters in the Red Wall won't want that" when you suggest any free-market policy, but now they appear to think those voters want green industrial policy and a focus on gender issues. .
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@ClareGerada I had stomach issues and was seen the next day, with an endoscopy within a week; a UK friend had the same infection and symptoms and it took 3 months.
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In Argentina, the supply of rental homes in the capital is now up 240% & real rents down 34% since @JMilei abolished tenancy rent control. Remarkable @UKLabour & @RachelReevesMP might give councils those price control powers. #WarOnPrices.#WarOnPrices.
New President @JMilei has taken his chainsaw to Argentina's rent controls! . @MrRBourne explains how the disastrous effects of rent caps and minimum three-year leases in Argentina provide an important warning against U.S. policymakers meddling in housing markets. #CatoEcon
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The Conservatives have always been able to deliver Brexit. Mayās Government has chosen not to. So her language here is apt.
Theresa May seemed to have second thoughts about saying the Conservatives WILL deliver Brexit.
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I think this is the most embarrassing thing I've ever seen on Twitter.
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The UK Parl will never accept the EU can impose labour and environmental standards as part of an FTA. We are not stupid! We will not kill our jobs by harmonising labour markets dynamically with countries that tolerate 10% unemployment. We will never accept being 'Greater France'!.
The @Europarl_EN will never accept the UK can have all the advantage of free trade, and not aligning with our ecological, health & social standards. We are not stupid! We will not kill our own companies, economy, single market. We will never accept āSingapore by the North Seaā!.
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This was such a low point in British democracy. Embarrassing all around.
Now here, in one image, is whatās wrong with the worldā¦.
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Iāve written a letter to the @EFL tonight. A lot of it is responding to a past exchange. But hereās a new part. #SaveDerbyCounty
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Spare me the crocodile tears of MPs today. They voted overwhelmingly for both the referendum and Article 50: the logical consequence of both was a commitment, endorsed by the public, to leave the EU on March 29th.
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A vote for Rory today is a vote for ānothing has changed,ā with the Conservative Party having just been reduced to 9% in a national election on the ticket he proposes. Talk about cliff edges, Tory MPs would be lemmings running off one if they stick to this suicidal strategy.
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I hope the useful idiots such as Letwin and Ken Clarke, who have basically said theyād prefer to normalise Corbyn as PM than leave the EU without a deal, see the potential consequences of their actions.
Remarkable - not just abolishing private schools - a policy some will favour- but appropriating their assets, endowments etc. Quite a signal.
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Let's face facts: Labour is an extremist party, that detests private property, calls for force to resist govt & has radical left agenda.
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There is a fundamental economic error from @Victoria_Spratt in this video: confusing increases in *supply* (shifts in the supply curve) with increases in the quantity supplied (movement up the supply curve). Help to Buy is a demand-side measure. To the extent that it induces new.
"Housing doesn't seem to function in the same way other assets do.". Labour are promising to build 1.5M homes in the next 5 years. Housing journalist @Victoria_Spratt explains why this increased supply won't make homes any cheaper. @maitlis | @jonsopel
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At risk of upsetting people, and perhaps itās been happening for a while and I was just less attuned to it when inside, from a distance it seems that there is a real dumbification of the British centre-right occurring. Itās exemplified by many things & not unique to a āfactionā.
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Jeremy Hunt having the best debate so far. Rory Stewart and Emily Maitlis showing no respect for Boris by constantly interrupting, and ruining the debate. No wonder Boris spurned the last one.
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Whatever your views on Brexit, the idea that what Britain needs is just more time to debate it is absurd. It's all we've talked about for 3 years! Nobody is going to change their mind now, hence why it's come down to this.
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