Giles Wilkes @Gilesyb Twitter profile | Pikagi

Pikagi

Giles Wilkes

@Gilesyb

33,413

Followers

2,418

Following

5,021

Media

54,387

Statuses

After advising No10 and BIS,writing @FT , now specialist partner @flintglobal , senior fellow @instituteforgov looking for authentic ways to improve us

London

https://t.co/37YNsjsizm

Joined March 2009

Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.

Pinned Tweet

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

5 months

Remarkably, 15 months ago there was a 49 day government whose actions triggered a bond market panic and the reversal of tens of billions in tax measures. Even more remarkably, it blamed “Treasury Orthodoxy“ for the country's ills. So we sat down to investigate 1/16

@instituteforgov

Institute for Government

@instituteforgov

5 months

[NEW] Treasury ‘orthodoxy’: What is it? And is it a problem for government? Our report by @Gilesyb @ollybartrum @RhysClyne says the department wields too much influence across government and dominates strategic thinking at the centre. 📖 Read the report

1

23

50

14

83

235

Last Seen Profiles

@Wise_CouncilMan

@BelindaBencic

@fwfy89

@jandakembangstw

@SamuelObregon06

@Phenomenal316

@kilgaaaaaarra

@joyvi

@APottachi

@KasihLudah

@macarenaolona_

@ReileighBrown1v

@Hedinft

@Hedinft

@Almaist79821301

@dreamcvlts

@AERGFAMILY

@CristianHueiqu1

@TooFred

@haekiir0

@JB_Durham80

@MAA

@IanCostelloRN

@redvliz

@PreetoSardarni

@SartoteasXlQc

@bollywoodmytake

@CamdynKay

@yheller81

@lolpwnzies

@ferrodriguez995

@eu_carolrocha

@Not_boter

@Bangura_HAB

@sehunniescart

@sahryie

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

6 months

I'm SO glad I never had to learn English as a foreign language. This *looks* like nine consecutive nouns.

Tweet media one

432

4K

67K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

I'm old enough to remember when the point of an Emergency Budget was to solve one, not cause one

36

1K

7K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

3 years

the Remainers just won't talk about this graph

Tweet media one

194

466

5K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

This is an absolutely damning chart - via @FT

Tweet media one

152

2K

4K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

This is an astonishingly important story from @jburnmurdoch . Our suddenly-diminished labour force is an immediate, dangerous drag on UK prosperity. It's a hypothesis, but if NHS decay is the reason, this is THE issue of the decade

Tweet media one

Tweet media two

177

2K

4K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

The Economist absolutely goes to town on the political roots of the UK's demise

Tweet media one

Tweet media two

72

1K

4K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

can't be too careful. Checking for all of you

Tweet media one

28

402

3K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

5 years

This is a HUGE story from @ChrisGiles_ - "Brexit has cut UK productivity by up to 5%, says BoE". Before any kind of Brexit has happened Because percentages sound little, it won't get the coverage it deserves. It's £40-100bn of lost income *every* year 1/

85

2K

3K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

3 years

Not sure I've ever seen @FT take the gloves off like this: "There is no doubt that a substantial proportion of the governing Conservative party shares Patel’s contempt for the England team’s anti-racism efforts" -

58

858

3K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

3 years

Bemused southern Remainers like me, about to be befuddled by the Hartlepool poll result, need constant reminders that there are lots of people who really, genuinely, honestly think that the Government did them a massive favour by pushing through Brexit ...

163

249

3K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

Half an hour into the queue at the car rental, I'm still bemused at how each transaction appears to be a bespoke, anguished negotiation between a tourist and someone seemingly bewildered to be asked to provide a car, of all things. Why isn't it two minutes max?

109

91

2K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

5 years

On the BBC Katya Adler is clear that, from the EU point of view, the weakness in the UK bargaining position is not the threat of parliament stopping no deal, but our utter lack of a decent alternative to the backstop

56

615

2K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

8 months

I actually think that to write this ungrammatically is plain rude. Several verbless sentences can be found within this rant, and at one point this causes her, unintentionally, to call Boris Johnson unforgivable. Ffs

Tweet media one

198

220

2K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

"at the World Bank, we did hundreds of investor surveys on what determined their willingness to invest in a country...Low taxes and enterprise zones were always near the bottom" via @FT

29

754

2K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

3 years

For some reason I just can't understand, that broadcast said very little about non pharmaceutical interventions, such as limiting large gatherings indoors

44

198

2K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

I don't know what's the obsession with making this or that 'work like Netflix', we already have something that works like Netflix, it's called "Netflix". The point of public service broadcasting is to fill gaps...

34

198

2K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

1 year

This is shocking. Since when did people in the UK start calling autumn "fall"?

Tweet media one

190

72

2K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

7 months

Imagine, for one minute, that the Chancellor had to announce *all the details* of what public services have to do in order to find an extra £20bn of "savings" in a few years' time - and not just the nice things he can do with £20bn today 1/

16

398

2K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

5 months

2016: "Brexit will make you richer! Cheaper food! Well funded health care! A prosperous trading nation!" 2024: "oh you wanted *tangible* benefits did you, you philistine? How low! There's more to life than being able to afford dinner"

Tweet media one

72

328

2K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

3 years

Nice to see Jurgen Klinsmann commentating so eloquently on the BBC. I wonder which former England player they have doing this on German TV

103

62

2K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

Genuinely fascinated and blown away by how highly functional Finland's state appears to be. How/why is this? Amazing @FT story by Richard Milne

Tweet media one

Tweet media two

Tweet media three

88

285

2K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

17 days

Goodness: on @BBCRadio4 I've just heard Fraser Nelson say of the Conservatives' tax claim "they seem to think they have a licence to lie during election campaigns", which is off-the-scale disrespect for a Spectator editor... 1/

56

334

2K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

Editor: "I'm tired of us looking anti-Truss" Writer: "but her performance thus far has been panned everywhere..." Editor: "don't care. Find something positive to say" Writer: "can I set the bar really low?" Editor: "sure" Writer:

Tweet media one

18

158

1K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

The Economist takes off the gloves, fills them with nails, puts them back on, starts punching

Tweet media one

17

400

1K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

10 months

My overall verdict: - Truss is more sincere than I expect. She really, really believes this stuff. - Against that, she is madder than I expected. She really, really believes this stuff. Some of what she believes is internally consistent but still nuts imho: 1/

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

10 months

Truss: "we were deliberately careful about discussing public spending. The politics is difficult" Translation: we obfuscated the implications of our plans because people would have hated it and realized it is incredibly unworkable

8

73

396

35

181

1K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 months

Astonishing chart from @jburnmurdoch - The UK is brilliant at handling immigration, relatively. Could be a huge strength in the decades ahead

Tweet media one

87

315

1K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

7 months

I honestly wonder if the Rwanda policy deserves study as the stupidest ever to be pushed in the UK. Perfectly calibrated to repel centrists; wind up furious right-wingers; and obviously do next to nothing about the actual issue. Also wasting govt time massively. Incredible.

69

272

1K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

9 months

Serious question: what are the worst actually completed "white elephants" in the UK? AFAIK the ones that were *feared* to be white elephants - Jubilee line, Crossrail, Eurotunnel, etc? - we now regard as a thoroughly good thing 1/

360

122

1K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

It's taken a war and global pandemic to mask the debut of the worst policy for small company exports ever conceived by a UK government- via @pmdfoster 1/2...

Tweet media one

12

676

1K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

8 months

This may be the most astonishing policy success I've read about in years

Tweet media one

17

261

1K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

3 years

This graph is very telling

Tweet media one

61

431

1K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

8 months

Braverman's letter may be the lowest-class event I can recall in politics. It isn't a 'zinger'. Geoffrey Howe's quietly devastating speech was a zinger. This on the other hand was pure crude aggression.

56

121

1K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

6 months

@PeterGazdik Fans

3

0

1K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

4 years

"to many foreign observers, Britain’s death toll serves as confirmation of deeper-rooted problems: a political culture of hubris and exceptionalism; atrophied public services; inequality and poor health"

Tweet card media

How coronavirus Britain looks from abroad

Britain’s handling of covid-19 is drawing unfavourable comparisons

www.economist.com

27

461

1K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

5 years

Extraordinary how many policy postures he picks up and mauls in just two minutes

@brexit_sham

Brexitshambles

5 years

People may have their problems with Blair but listen as he perfectly elucidates the real problems with Brexit. Most appear to have forgotten that the reasons people voted for Brexit aren't the reason why we are where we are; that's because Vote Leave and LeaveEU lied and cheated.

148

2K

4K

23

354

1K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

4 years

As your go-to person for the Wars of the Red Tape, can I put this astonishing figure in context? 50,000 staff, let's call that £30k each, very conservative; this is a skilled job. That's £1.5bn recurring annual wasted spending. - via @FT

98

554

1K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

I'm confused. Can't the PM just ask the Taxpayers' Alliance simply to divulge where all the easy cuts to public spending can be found? I'm sure they've been telling us for years that there are loads of them

20

121

1K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

4 months

In 1947, Hugh Dalton "revealed a sentence of the budget to a reporter minutes before delivering his budget speech. Prime Minister Clement Attlee accepted his resignation". In 2024:

Tweet media one

15

349

1K

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

4 years

My favourite saying about spads is still: they are like poisoners. Either famous, or good at their job.

15

184

969

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

The Economist gives it both barrels

Tweet media one

Tweet media two

15

356

930

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

5 years

Nothing makes my lips curl with contempt harder than the way governments assume something is handled, "because they have a spreadsheet" Except the mind-blown wonder with which the journalists report it

Tweet media one

147

307

915

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

4 years

The Economist Bagehot column has gone to 11 on the rude scale

Tweet media one

Tweet media two

36

304

899

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

4 years

Announced at 5. "Unveiled" 90 minutes earlier on a journalist's Twitter feed, like all grownup countries do it

@Peston

Robert Peston

4 years

These are the measures to be announced by the PM at 5, as I understand it. They will last 2 December. And they are, In effect, a new “Tier 4” that will be imposed for a month initially to the whole of England. 1) All pubs and restaurants to close, though takeaways...

2K

2K

3K

17

153

795

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

3 years

My *first day* as a spad, a well known business organisation slaps down on my desk a list of 100 regulatory problems from members. Hooray, I think: actual content. Leafing through - about 98 were variants on "I find it tiresome having to make arrangements for pregnant staff"

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

3 years

It's always the same. Someone chunters on about how what we need for growth is regulatory change. But they're not sure what. So they issue a plea to business/the public. It's like asking someone else to provide the punchline to your own stupid joke -

Tweet media one

59

142

575

34

179

760

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

9 months

Just glorious -

Tweet media one

48

72

755

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

9 months

Tom is probably right. The day after the announcement, the cost of HS2 was raised by unknown billions by the sheer destructive and uncertainty-spreading manner of the thing. Now industry has to wearily look at all these other schemes. It's all a pitiful mess 1/

@thomasforth

Tom Forth

9 months

Labour are, I suspect, very sadly, right not to promise to uncancel HS2. The earth is being salted, the wells are being poisoned. It's probably over. Try again in a decade or two. Hope I'm wrong. Don't reckon I am.

70

157

1K

13

113

739

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

"it has been Scholar’s misfortune to have to confront the Conservatives with the consequences of their own policy choices in terms of lower growth and lower tax receipts" - perfectly put

@Simon_Nixon

Simon Nixon

2 years

It's hard to avoid the suspicion that what really lies behind the Truss government's assault on the Treasury is deep embarrassment at the economic consequences of the last 12 years of Conservative party rule. My latest

38

362

829

11

206

705

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

10 months

Trying to compile history's maddest takes without this man's incredible output would be like listing the twenty greatest sonnets without including Shakespeare

Tweet media one

42

96

725

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

This, from @resfoundation is the most astonishing chart - were it not from such a reputable source, I would not believe my eyes

Tweet media one

25

450

705

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

3 years

.... rather than, say, that a bunch of wilfully self-destructive people perversely chose to vote against their own interests to punish remote, elite others from the privileged south in an irrational spasm of cultural spite and are still somehow enjoying their vandalism

16

33

700

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

6 months

Ok so my daughter Flo says this this the point at which I should try to publicise her singing career. This is her lovely first song. She's releasing another at a gig on 23rd February

Tweet card media

Don't Make Me Move On

Flo Wilkes · Song · 2023

open.spotify.com

11

15

701

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

Listening to analysis on Radio 4 that there is no identifiable limit to how far energy bills might rise, it's hard to believe the leadership election is taking place in the same country

14

158

699

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

4 years

‘A giant bonfire of taxpayers’ money’: fraud and the UK pandemic loan scheme - The numbers in this story are astronomical. Any other time and this would be the public policy scandal of the decade

23

319

677

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

6 months

"No10 to lay enormous trap, built in the shape of the word TRAP, wrapped in trap-themed paper and advertise the trap in Trap Monthly, Your Magazine for Labour Traps"

@whazell

Will Hazell

6 months

Exclusive @Telegraph : Downing Street officials are looking at changing the Government’s fiscal rules in an attempt to set a trap for Labour over borrowing

351

120

156

35

122

665

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

A lot of people totally owning Putin on Twitter today, totally exposing his hypocrisy. Bad day for him.

21

40

655

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

3 years

Why they still think Brexit is helping them is still beyond me, but that they do is surely undeniable

33

23

644

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

3 years

This is really sad

@BylineTV

Byline TV

3 years

“I regret voting leave” the owner of one of Devon’s largest fish exporters said he was brainwashed by brexiteers, now his business is facing ruin because of Brexit

2K

9K

20K

50

183

653

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

1 year

What a fascinating chart

Tweet media one

30

107

653

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

1 year

I like the "fingers crossed" because it suggests the result on the day may be in doubt, and some pretender to the throne may be lurking. Makes it a bit more watchable.

@SkyNews

Sky News

1 year

The Prince of Wales has told Sky News he feels "good" ahead of the weekend's coronation, adding: "fingers crossed." Latest coronation news:

256

158

2K

22

31

638

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

There is nothing, NOTHING, more pitiful than a government spinning that it's about to transform the economy through an attack on "Red Tape", unless it's the newspaper docilely amplifying it

20

101

615

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

1 year

if you want a benefit from blowing up your car, you are going to become way fitter now, walking way more. Thank me later

Tweet media one

25

74

630

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

3 years

"Believe in the good faith of people whose opinions you find incomprehensible" is my sanctimonious self-advice of the day

37

29

600

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

10 months

Downing Street's environmental policy:

Tweet media one

13

130

606

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

8 months

don't want to sound too like a teenage Corbynista but I wish the people who see AI as an existential risk would apply half as much imagination to what they think might happen if global warming hit 2.5 or 3.0 degrees

31

108

605

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

5 years

I think this is the sort of sharp, unconflicted reporting that has just won the FT that newsroom of the Year award, and not the one from other journalists joyously tweeting out the stunt

@PickardJE

Jim Pickard 🐋

5 years

Johnson's digger stunt at the JCB factory was great publicity for the company: so would it be a conflict of interest if it turned out that JCB and/or its chairman Anthony Bamford were big donors to the Conservative party?

Tweet media one

Tweet media two

Tweet media three

120

1K

2K

9

232

596

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

5 years

A short thread on this £15bn a year red tape bill because I don't think it's fully sunk in how FLIPPING ENORMOUS THAT IS - via @FT

25

470

573

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

4 years

This looks like an incredibly serious mistake on the government's side: having a de facto shutdown without allowing insurance clauses to be triggered. Theatres have a huge multiplier for the London economy, and productions don't just grow back like sugar cane

@PatrickGracey

Patrick Gracey

4 years

. @BorisJohnson has just doomed an entire industry by telling people not to attend the theatre. By not enforcing a shutdown, production insurance will not apply so producers and shows will go bankrupt, and tens of thousands of people will be without pay. @hmtreasury @DCMS

401

5K

10K

33

320

579

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

I can't bear this: "yes we have to cut spending because that way we can have competitive taxes and ultimately grow the economy and boost spending". Do the maths: a £40bn cut in spending would require GDP -every year- to be £100bn higher to compensate. Does it achieve that? 1/

8

220

581

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

If you fear a "monstrous coalition", wait till you remember what damage can be done by a narrow, minority-view party sect in full undemocratic control of the executive

@Telegraph

The Telegraph

2 years

🔴Liz Truss will issue a stark warning to Conservative MPs returning to Parliament this week to stop undermining her or face a “monstrous coalition” of Labour and the Scottish National Party

95

18

78

14

110

576

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

3 years

It's always the same. Someone chunters on about how what we need for growth is regulatory change. But they're not sure what. So they issue a plea to business/the public. It's like asking someone else to provide the punchline to your own stupid joke -

Tweet media one

59

142

575

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

1 year

don't think I will ever get over the irony of the one solidly positive Brexit economic win to materialise is higher migration. Never.

Tweet media one

29

169

576

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

I'm afraid this bit strips away all conceivable sympathy for the Treasury for me "We can't afford to fund fair pay rises because we want to cut taxes in election year". Saying the quiet bit out loud ...

Tweet media one

15

298

564

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

4 years

2000-2019 Lib Dems: we should transform the economy through renewable energy like wind people: shut up stupid hippies, learn how to count 2020 Tories: let's do loads of wind, become "Saudi Arabia of wind" people: woah, visionary, that's more like it

20

115

558

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

1 year

It genuinely fascinates me, how much more quickly things were done in the pre-computer age 1960s- via @FT

Tweet media one

45

80

545

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

6 months

OK, the seats consequence of this actually happening are hilarious:

Tweet media one

@YouGov

YouGov

6 months

Labour holds a 27pt lead in our latest voting intention poll (16-17 Jan) - their largest lead since Liz Truss was PM Con: 20% (-2 from 10-11 Jan) Lab: 47% (+2) Lib Dem: 8% (-1) Reform UK: 12% (+2) Green: 7% (-1) SNP: 3% (=)

Tweet media one

57

239

871

31

56

553

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

4 years

Every year it becomes more embarrassing and mystifying that we allowed this guy into Downing Street

@realDonaldTrump

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

4 years

15K

29K

140K

70

49

525

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

4 years

via wow @TheEconomist is not pulling its punches

Tweet media one

33

243

537

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

"among the benefits of Brexit, you are now allowed to walk your dog in a park on Tuesdays..." "um but Minister you're already allowed to wa..." "PUT IT IN GODDAMYOU" via @FT

Tweet media one

12

170

507

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

3 years

I guess it was impossible to know at the time, but for future we might want to avoid putting ourselves in a position of maximum weakness and then negotiating. Lesson learned.

Tweet media one

64

65

505

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

1 year

Everyone screws up. But have you ever hired a caterer only to watch him form a private army of hardened criminals & then invade your country?

23

78

512

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

What's rather remarkable is that the worst of the economic outcomes - winter fuel bills, higher mortgages, the spending cuts - are yet to come

@PeoplePolling

PeoplePolling

2 years

NEW: Westminster Voting Intention poll (20 Oct): 🔴 LAB: 53% (= from 12 Oct) 🔵 CON: 14% (-5) 🟠 LDM: 11% (+3) 🟢 GRN: 6% (=) 🟡 SNP: 5% (-1) Full tables:

157

1K

4K

21

126

507

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

Takes something bordering on genius to find what is literally the most unworkable, bad idea from early Thatcherism and adopt it

@economics

Bloomberg Economics

2 years

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has signaled that she would give the Bank of England a money supply target to ensure it’s “tough on inflation” if she wins the Tory leadership race and becomes Britain’s next prime minister

9

10

23

21

121

503

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

4 years

Saw in the FT today that local authority income is down 60% since 2010. With all the chatter about Levelling Up, I'm constantly surprised the whole conversation isn't dominated by that fact

16

183

494

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

The nation that laughed itself stupid - another superb piece from @JGaneshEsq

Tweet media one

Tweet media two

31

155

487

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

4 years

This is phenomenal writing by Rory Stewart

16

123

475

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

8 years

Difficult to see the pound forming the Dying Elephant pattern as good news

Tweet media one

23

508

460

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

8 years

This is beautiful writing-

Tweet media one

19

422

477

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

3 months

It's like Gladstone and Disraeli in there right now

Tweet media one

10

21

483

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

1 year

However badly you've messed up, have you ever messed up so badly that your former headmaster writes into the Times to bemoan his failure to have done something about it? No? you're doing OK

@rwilliams1947

Richard Williams

1 year

An excellent letter in The Times this morning from ⁦ @ClaughtonJohn ⁩ — who, if memory serves, combined his work as a master at Eton with writing cricket reports for the Independent on Sunday.

Tweet media one

57

681

2K

11

143

476

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

4 years

When he finds out who was advising No10 during that time he is going to be absolutely bloody furious

@aljwhite

Alan White

4 years

STEVE HILTON IS ON FOX ATTACKING AUSTERITY THE GRIFT HERE IS ABSOLUTELY OFF THE CHARTS

108

298

1K

14

101

465

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

1 year

anyone with eight or nine hours free today, go round to the Express and explain the difference between levels and rates of change. You'll need crayons, sock puppets,, plenty of haribo sweets as rewards. Good luck

@MrRBourne

Ryan Bourne

1 year

Alright, that's it. I just....give up.

Tweet media one

65

141

2K

19

104

468

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 months

Cannot be tweeted enough

@Samfr

Sam Freedman

3 years

Homer flying first class: "Look at me Marge I'm reading the Economist! Did you know Indonesia is at a crossroads?"

Tweet media one

19

227

3K

3

35

467

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

2 years

There is no amount of dunking on libertarian perma-tax-cut think tanks that is excessive, imho. They have been sneering at the centrist consensus for decades, with no thought whatsoever for the real world consequences if their policies were enacted. It's part of learning

@ChrisGiles_

Chris Giles

2 years

How it started.....How it finished @iealondon

Tweet media one

Tweet media two

17

54

279

16

105

456

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

4 years

I still consider the noblest 10 minutes of my life those I spent in 2015 arguing at the FT leader conference that we endorse Miliband in the election, because a. his fiscal plans were clearly less insane than Osborne's b. he didn't threaten a stupid referendum ...

7

57

453

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

4 years

Rishi Sunak reveals forecasts suggesting coronavirus will leave the economy 3% smaller in 2025 than previously expected. That is *huge*. Almost half a Brexit.

10

102

443

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

7 months

The Conservatives are literally going to waste years arguing about loyalty to the Rwanda Policy as a mark of purity. Attacking people who call it bullshit. For something is ineffective at its very core.

14

54

441

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

1 year

I'd go further. It's quite clearly a protest vote against the removal of Liz Truss and the refusal to continue her excellent policies

@johnredwood

John Redwood

1 year

Many former Conservative voters stayed at home in protest at high taxes, lack of control of our borders, and too much local and national government interference in their lives.

4K

757

5K

18

54

439

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

3 years

It is curious how this is barely a feature of the political discussion any more

Tweet media one

@James_BG

James Murray

3 years

We're going to get through an entire conference season without the slightest inquiry as to how over 100,000 people died and the UK experienced one of the worst death rates of any developed nation, aren't we? The learning lessons phase was basically measured in microseconds.

45

672

2K

21

175

429

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

7 months

The One Nation Tories have far more reason to object to the Rwanda bill, and are caving. The ERG types have been given an incredibly hardline bill, and are rebelling for more. The Conservative dynamic since 2013, in a nutshell.

19

133

430

@Gilesyb

Giles Wilkes

4 years

Stages of lockdown scepticism I've seen: - Pandemic over, relax harder (Aug) - so what if cases are rising, this isn't exponential (Sep) - Well it's deaths that matter, no one is dying in Sweden - OK so it's bad but I think Vallance exaggerated -there's nothing we could have done

18

83

425