2/13 Some of its grandeur still exists at either end, but it is a shadow of its former self. What exactly happened? But first a quick aside: its construction destroyed the original Old Square, one of the first Georgian squares outside London, predating e.g. Queen's Sq. in Bristol

great reporting and writing 👇

Runciman with a perceptive review of Slobodian's new book "Hayek's Bastards" in the LRB What he notes here is true of many histories of both neoliberalism and the new right that claim to be about politics or economics but are really just intellectual history-lite.

Excellent reporting here by the brilliant Birmingham Dispatch team. My parents live on this site and the new landlord has made their lives hell: restricting access to water, bullying vulnerable (and sick) OAPs and delaying tactics to rack up legal costs. birminghamdispatch.co.uk/bewdley-plotla…

It was only in the untethered QE world that a big expansion of debt could have financed pandemic lockdowns. Now, with bond yields rising yet 2021-23 energy inflation having made central bank technical fixes harder, underlying post-Crash economic realities are resurfacing.

From our housing series this week, this is a must read. Writer and sociologist Dan Evans on the rise and fall of the UK's small landlords. hyphenonline.com/2025/05/22/uk-…

This is excellent.

Much of the decline on the streets around me comes directly from exempt accomodation landlords and the desire to pack Victorian terraces with nine or ten vulnerable people in tiny box rooms for rental yield. This is more attractive than starting a productive business in the UK

This. Parliament is sovereign, not courts. It’s absurd. And doesn’t matter if you agree with this or that ruling!

Alisdair MacIntyre was one of the most fruitfully provocative thinkers in the English-speaking world of the last century, especially in dismantling dominant models of social science. I am not aware of a more acid, more humorous opening to a philosophical essay. RIP.

RIP Alisdsair MacIntyre: “His original critique of liberal modernity has won followers on the Left and the Right. His account of how capitalism has undermined the conditions of human flourishing deserves the serious attention of socialists.” jacobin.com/2024/09/alasda…

We're hearing reports about absentee Northfields councillor Jack Deakin, who allegedly hasn't lived in Brum since 2023. There's concerns about Cllr Deakin's health & anger at Labour, who insiders say are not forcing a by-election because they fear losing. birminghamdispatch.co.uk/secretive-and-…

Good to see the energy price cap falling. We’re still being thoroughly ripped off though. Profiteers are raking it in on the back of a dysfunctional pricing system which ties the cost of electricity to gas, even when gas accounts for less and less of total generation.

Judges.

This problem is the direct consequence of Britain's discretionary planning system, which does everything on a case-by-case basis. This means that building anything is illegal by default, and land with planning permission is extremely rare and valuable.

I tried to reckon with Alasdair MacIntyre's huge legacy a few years back in Jacobin. I find myself more and more aligned with him. The journey from middle-class Presbyterianism to Marxism to socialist infuenced Catholicism is a revealing one. RIP jacobin.com/2022/11/alasda…

Interesting thread. Stuff we're also thinking about at Birmingham Dispatch r.e landbanking in anticipation of HS2 vs speculative, non-productive, gambling on planning permission. Digbeth should be much more developed and dynamic than it is, why?

In July, I'm reporting for The Independent in Mexico, mostly focusing on the environment, land ownership and politics. More on that soon. Particularly interested in ejidos — or communal land management. Give me a DM / send tips / contacts here and at [email protected]

My UnHerd piece looking back at The History Man half a century on is published today, with reference to Lorna Sage, David Lodge, Ian Watt’s pet boa constrictor, Kingers and Conkers, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, the Black Papers on education, & more unherd.com/2025/05/lesson…

Any Birmingham planning experts available to chat to me? It's for a story about The Square (bit near the Square Peg pub and Old Square roundabout + Square Shopping Centre)