Adrian Wooldridge @adwooldridge Twitter profile

Last Seen Profiles

@101reporters

@HedonistaLibera

@Games4ndChill

@ngb_app

@crazyxgif

@Bunnidarling

@NonaNona12121

@keigohwks

@EOSDT

@piyopiyo_chuuya

@BuxB_

@ThatJohnnyD

@eteasia

@kehmetmarahanli

@mooks_intown

@wiktil_345

@joe__oconnor

@TheELongWave

@shigexiaomaomi

@yuyufee_7

@CollinRugg

@hydralr76243675

@Semen_der

@Berry_Cookie1

@oxygenyash

@SquishJoshua

@TayyanKhan8

@wavedigital_

@stw_pdg

@_Facts_Check_

@RandyScottESPN

@DA97980822

@dnazarian8

@ffzhu_hk

@ccandealonso

@hyungcxii

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

1 month

For those of us who first came across Joe Biden a a plagiariser of Neil Kinnock, all this talk of his honesty and decency is somewhat confusing.

50

265

2K

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

29 days

Why doesn’t Neil Kinnock deliver a speech saying that he’s decided to retire? Then Biden can plagiarise it and, hey presto, the Dems’ big problem is solved

13

99

1K

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

1 month

Leaving aside the British election, the pace at which the liberal order is collapsing globally, and mainstream liberal philosophy imploding, is astonishing

120

164

906

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

4 years

I'm puzzled by the idea that Covid-19 means the birth of a new age of big government. Singapore, which has dealt with the crisis well, has a much smaller government than Britain. What matters is the effectiveness of government, not the size, and size can reduce effectiveness

62

153

770

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

2 years

The solution to Britain's class divide doesn't lie in abolishing private schools, as Labour suggests, but in returning them to their original purpose, educating brilliant but poor children. We need to democratize excellence, not eliminate it, via @opinion

From Aristocracy to Meritocracy: the Revolution in Britain’s Top Schools

Two photographs, 35 years apart, show how far higher education has come in the U.K.

www.bloomberg.com

37

100

692

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

3 years

I suspect that GB News may find a niche market for a more conservative take on the news--half the country

23

58

630

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

3 months

It’s not just the supply of people like Vennells that worries me but the demand. She was a pluralist, with several jobs, because lots of British institutions want what she is selling

Lucie Fur

@Lucie_Fur99

3 months

We've all worked for people like Paula Vennells - they're everywhere. People who are over-promoted and lack both the morals and critical thinking skills to do the job they're paid for. That's why the public have so much empathy for those affected - because it could happen to us.

1K

4K

23K

35

107

635

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

3 years

A personal note: after thirty-two wonderful years at The Economist, I'm moving later this year to Bloomberg Opinion ( @bopinion ), to write a column on global business. Much as I loved my old life, I can't wait for the next chapter

53

36

521

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

7 years

The FT should print this letter everyday

18

235

396

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

7 years

I can't see how the Conservatives can govern when they are so profoundly divided over Brexit. They are, in themselves, a coalition of chaos

13

301

382

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

5 years

I once had lunch with the soon-to-be emperor of Japan when he was a student at Oxford: he was intensely interested in 18th century English canals, waterways and navigation. Charming fellow

8

48

374

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

5 years

What is driving contemporary populism is not so much growing inequalities of wealth as growing inequalities of esteem. The language Remainers use to describe Leavers makes the problem much worse

50

89

346

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

4 years

Has any historian ever bettered Gregory of Tours' opening sentence: "A great many things keep happening, some of them good, some of them bad."?

21

72

354

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

6 years

I'm told, on good authority, that the beard bubble has burst: San Francisco, the epicentre of the problem, has now gone completely clean shaven and the rest of the BoBo world is bound to follow. If true, 2019 might not be such a disaster after all

27

104

322

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

2 years

The Queen grasped Edmund Burke’s great dictum that, for a true conservative, the point of change is to stay the same, at least in the things that really matter. Monarchy is a restraint on modernity or it is nothing, via @opinion

The Revolutionary Monarchy of Elizabeth II

She defied the bicycle-riding, down-marketing of European royals and transformed the Windsors into a staunchly bourgeois yet mesmerizing dynasty.

www.bloomberg.com

3

65

316

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

1 year

Confidence in US colleges is declining with remarkable speed:

36

68

309

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

7 years

Labour canvasser just told me that "the capitalist mode of production will continue to exist" under Corbyn

41

140

278

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

8 years

The problem with May's global Britain strategy: the most global Britons are pro-EU and the most enthusiastic leavers are not very global

25

222

281

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

3 years

Ursula von der Leyen seems to be a European version of Chris Grayling

12

44

287

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

6 years

The degeneration of America’s conservative intellectuals: a case study,

16

77

269

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

1 year

One of the great absurdities of our times: institutions whose very essence is exclusivity (Harvard, Coutts) boasting about how inclusive they are

15

60

282

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

2 years

The Queen embodied the civilizing power of tradition, which counterbalances change without resorting to the bloviation of outright reaction. via @opinion

The Revolutionary Monarchy of Elizabeth II

She defied the bicycle-riding, down-marketing of European royals and transformed the Windsors into a staunchly bourgeois yet mesmerizing dynasty.

www.bloomberg.com

9

43

265

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

3 years

"The evidence of economics is overwhelming: Meritocracy promotes prosperity, and dismantling meritocracy will reduce it. Those who support the current campaign against merit need to admit that they are opting for lower growth". via @bopinion

Meritocracy, Not Democracy, Is the Golden Ticket to Growth

The price of abandoning it will be less wealth and more poverty.

www.bloomberg.com

27

89

276

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

2 years

Ignore the nonsense about a continuity cabinet. Winchester's first prime minister for 200 years (Sir Henry Addington, 1801-4) has created the Conservative Party's first Eton-free cabinet since the party's foundation in the 1830s. A very British revolution

20

54

272

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

3 years

The disaster that is San Francisco: from this week’ Economist: “there are 50% more injection drug-users in San Francisco than there are students enrolled in its public high schools.”

12

74

267

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

4 years

Culturally, the British feel closer to America, Canada and Australia than they do to Europe. Two-and-a-half times as many British expatriates live in the English-speaking world as on the continent

How Brexit happened

Britain went from enthusiastic commitment to the EU to an acrimonious departure on unfavourable terms

www.economist.com

38

68

256

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

6 years

The European Research Group isn't European, doesn't do any research, and isn't a group

13

73

257

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

4 months

The intellectual decline of McKinsey is as remarkable as its ethical decline

Chris Brunet

@realChrisBrunet

4 months

Over the past few years, @McKinsey has released at least 4 studies claiming a positive relationship between DEI and firm performance. A new paper published today in @EconJWatch finds these results can't be replicated. ''Our inability to [replicate] their results suggests that

491

3K

11K

22

35

252

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

2 months

“I didn’t think I would ever cover an election where the inside people of the two major parties hoped their candidate would die.” Andrew Neil on the US election

6

58

240

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

4 years

Remember when this was fashionable?

In Defense of Looting

A fresh argument for rioting and looting as our most powerful tools for dismantling white supremacy.Looting -- a crowd of people publicly, openly, and direct...

www.hachettebookgroup.com

19

35

212

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

6 years

Another dismal year for films: Hollywood only has two modes at the moment: insulting the audience with banal retreads or bludgeoning it with PC lectures

22

35

177

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

2 years

The poet Shelley once described poets as “the unacknowledged legislators of the world.” In today’s America, that honor belongs to the armchair warriors of the culture wars, of whom the most important, on the right, is Christopher Rufo, via @opinion

An Anti-Woke Warrior Has US Companies Running Scared

Christopher Rufo’s mission is to make clear to “woke capital” that it will pay a high price for progressive political activism.

www.bloomberg.com

8

51

182

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

2 years

Brexit scrambled the party’s internal promotion system by creating an ideological test for jobs. A generation of competent people such as Rory Stewart was driven out of politics. Gargoyles such as Jacob Rees-Mogg were absurdly over-promoted. via @opinion

How Brexit Winnows the Candidates to Succeed Boris Johnson

There are wannabes who can be dismissed out of hand but the leave legacy is going to be a factor one way or the other.

www.bloomberg.com

10

79

193

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

7 years

The two countries that pioneered neo-liberalism, US and UK, are in chaos; Germany, which preserved a stodgier model, is strong and stable

8

98

187

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

6 years

He’s right

reason

@reason

6 years

"The End of History" author Francis Fukuyama thinks leftist identity politics "triggered a reaction on the right," and that's how you get Trump

126

71

227

56

34

162

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

2 years

British politics is focused obsessively on the acquisition of power rather than on the successful exercise of power, via @opinion

The Decline and Fall of the Tory Empire

Two books on the fall of Boris Johnson and the short reign of Liz Truss suggest the British political system is badly broken.

www.bloomberg.com

13

49

174

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

3 years

"Ensuring that their brand remains hot and providing their “distribution channels” with “content” will require them to extract more and more value from the monarchy—perhaps including revelations about racism and sexism at the heart of the royal family."

Harry, Meghan and Marx

Brand Sussex represents the biggest threat to the monarchy so far

www.economist.com

14

46

161

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

3 years

The finished book finally arrives. An odd feeling

7

17

169

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

1 year

I'm sick of reading all these Tory denunciations of the North London elite? What about the South London elite? Don't we count for anything?

21

23

167

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

17 days

The idiocy of the academic left really does know no limits, but I'd like to take this excrescence as an excuse to recommend Jonathan Rose's wonderful, "The Intellectual Life of the British Working-Classes", about poor people struggling to obtain the infinite benefits of literacy

Sam Haselby

@samhaselby

17 days

Frederick Douglass described learning to read as his first lesson in abolitionism.

222

743

6K

8

27

164

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

4 years

The one great claim that populism has is that its popular. When it ceases to be popular you're left with nothing but ruined institutions and desperate politicians

6

38

157

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

7 months

This is superb

Curt Mills

@CurtMills

7 months

Iggy Pop on Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1995

105

782

3K

8

35

154

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

8 months

Must read

Niall Ferguson

@nfergus

8 months

Niall Ferguson: The Treason of the Intellectuals - Ivy League edition | The Free Press

126

766

2K

10

25

139

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

5 years

Plato believed that democracies eventually destroy themselves, and, in their death throes, turn to a colourful demagogue via @TheEconomist

What would Plato make of Boris Johnson?

The case against Mr Johnson’s leadership bid was perfectly made in “The Republic”

www.economist.com

8

63

143

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

6 years

The trouble with Corbyn’s Labour Party is that it’s left hand doesn’t know what it’s far left hand is doing

6

30

129

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

7 years

Penguin should be ashamed to put its name to such bigotry

Penguin Books

@PenguinBooks

7 years

“Every time I see a woman in public reading a book by a man (usually dead, usually white), I fantasize about offering her a book by a woman instead.” BACK TALK author @d_lazarin shared 6 must-reads by women, for women, with @SignatureReads . .

1K

50

77

5

34

122

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

6 years

Exactly. There’s more than virtue-signalling going on. There’s class war: the cultural marginalisation of the economically marginalised. Dangerous as well as contemptible

Claire Lehmann

@clairlemon

6 years

"Many progressive environments encourage [anti-white rhetoric] especially universities—as it conveniently helps obscure/rationalise their elitism—shifting the focus away from class and in part by painting lower-income whites as immoral & thus unworthy."

42

292

774

4

39

117

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

6 years

None of the cash machines in the building where Labour is holding its annual conference work. A sign of things to come?

8

37

118

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

7 years

Having heard Jeremy Corbyn & John McDonnell, in Brighton, and John Redwood and Jacob Rees-Mogg, in Manchester, I'm petrified for our future

11

56

121

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

6 years

Critical theory, now all powerful in university humanity departments, is incapable of applying critical theory to itself (Claire Lehmann)

7

22

116

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

1 year

One thing is clear from the Affirmative Action decision. Its impossible to have any sympathy with the president and fellows of Harvard, who decided to protect their own children and the children of alumni, funders etc. from the costs of AA, and impose the cost on Asian Americans

3

15

122

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

6 years

Liberalism has been captured by the global elites--and in the process one of the world's richest philosophies has been turned into a set of arid, trite, self-serving formulae, via @TheEconomist

Some thoughts on the crisis of liberalism—and how to fix it

Liberalism needs nothing less than a great rebalancing if it is to regain its intellectual and political vitality

www.economist.com

5

51

111

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

5 years

Also: a well-managed public sector, with lots of internal markets, and a v competitive private sector

George Eaton

@georgeeaton

5 years

The Nordic states are the happiest and most equal countries in the world and they have a larger state than anything proposed by Labour. #BBCLeadersDebate

59

856

2K

10

24

117

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

2 years

Chinese think tanker says that China must unload "the burden of Russia" as quickly as possible, via @uscnpm

3

42

118

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

7 years

US universities resemble US car companies in the 1960s, charging higher prices for shodier products, via @QuilletteM

8

41

102

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

8 years

My latest column, on how management theory is becoming a compendium of dead ideas via @TheEconomist

12

59

110

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

2 months

This is all about the failure of the right rather than the virtues of the left, and the reason for the failure of the right is people like you

Isabel Oakeshott

@IsabelOakeshott

2 months

It is genuinely bewildering that a leader as drearily unimpressive as @Keir_Starmer is heading for a history majority. Perfect conditions for the rise of the Right. #2029

1K

439

3K

6

24

117

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

6 years

This is an astonishing verdict on the state of modern academia. Whole sub-disciplines are nothing more than garbage

9

60

106

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

2 years

One of the many weird things about the New York Times' vendetta against the UK is that, at the moment at least, London is so much more vibrant than New York

Iain Martin

@iainmartin1

2 years

World's worst newspaper.

1K

394

1K

11

16

110

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

2 years

The payroll is still ignoring public opinion, and a few clients in the Lords, but I sense a significant shift against Johnson in the broader Tory elite, including among Brexiteers.

Iain Martin

@iainmartin1

2 years

Boris Johnson can't ignore the booing - they should be his crowd. Spot on by @Dannythefink - fascinating to watch parts of the Tory leadership deny the realities of public opinion and what it portends...

106

391

2K

4

23

112

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

1 year

That must be a good candidate for the most idiotic question ever asked

Anıl Akman

@Anil_Akman

1 year

@adwooldridge @sarapci

3

17

77

8

26

110

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

7 years

"Children with poor ability but rich connexions, pressed through Eton and Balliol, eventually found themselves in mature years as high officers in the Foreign Service" (Michael Young, Rise of the Meritocracy)

5

33

105

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

6 years

Whatever we do over the next few weeks, let's not allow the Bourbons of Brexit (BoJo, J R-M, Redwood, Cash etc etc) to escape accountability. We will never forget or forgive

4

22

108

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

3 years

My column in today’s Times, The West abandons meritocracy at its peril

15

103

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

6 years

The only way Theresa May can unite a bitterly divided nation is to sack Chris Grayling

4

24

103

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

5 years

If you drive sensible people like Amber Rudd out of the party, and elevate people like Rees-Mogg, then you are going to get disasters like today's Grenfell comment

8

24

101

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

6 months

Jacob Rees Mogg is both very articulate and very stupid, a dangerous and irritating combination

11

105

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

22 days

If we are to save liberalism from the Trump/Vance/populist onslaught--and I increasingly doubt that we can--we liberals need to be much harder on liberalism's failures, self-indulgences and compromises with power.

24

20

102

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

6 years

God help us

Nancy Chen 陳嵐欣

@popgenchen

6 years

Today I went to a training on inclusion practices for allies, & I found the emphasis on nonviolent communication v. helpful. Here’s an effective framework for responding to tricky situations that’s non-judgmental & focuses on actionable changes in behavior. #DiversityAndInclusion

54

31

156

17

15

97

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

3 years

A new book and a new puppy: quite the week!

8

7

98

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

8 years

My last column as Schumpeter predicts a future of stagnation, division and populist outrage, via @TheEconomist

Our Schumpeter columnist pens a dark farewell

In 1942 Joseph Schumpeter warned that capitalism might not survive. A surge of populism means it is once more in danger

www.economist.com

6

78

97

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

4 years

“Smart-government conservatism” should begin with the idea that if you believe in a small state, then you need a focused, efficient, competent one.

The Crisis of Conservatism

The right has been the natural party of government in America and Britain for four decades. Now it needs to reinvent itself.

www.bloomberg.com

8

32

96

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

5 years

Sad news: Norman Stone, a giant in a profession taken over by pygmies, has died

25

38

98

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

4 years

My latest Bagehot, Whatever the question, the answer is Germany

Whatever the question, the answer is Germany

Even the British right has got the Teutonic bug

www.economist.com

12

34

97

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

3 years

Delighted that my Aristocracy of Talent has been shortlisted for the Financial Times/McKinsey business book of the year

8

15

97

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

2 years

The Queen pulled off a remarkable trick in preserving a monarchy that was simultaneously majestic and apolitical. It is a measure of her achievement that the new monarch will be largely judged on his ability to pull off the same trick, via @opinion

The Revolutionary Monarchy of Elizabeth II

She defied the bicycle-riding, down-marketing of European royals and transformed the Windsors into a staunchly bourgeois yet mesmerizing dynasty.

www.bloomberg.com

6

18

93

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

4 years

This is very good The Five Crises of the American Regime - Tablet Magazine

The Five Crises of the American Regime

Our plagues today are political, identity-related, social, economic, and demographic

www.tabletmag.com

7

40

95

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

4 years

How did Denmark become a mink superpower? My column from six years ago

Adventures in the skin trade

How the Danes became masters of the global fur business

www.economist.com

3

17

94

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

7 years

Are there any leaders of the (incredibly badly run) Remain campaign who haven’t been given honours?

21

34

86

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

5 years

As an undergraduate at Balliol Milne was so committed to the Palestinian cause that he spoke with a Palestinian accent and called himself Shams, Arabic for sun, via @TheEconomist

Cummings and Milne, rival advisers bent on disrupting British politics

The unelected aides to the Conservative and Labour leaders are revolutionary consiglieri with much in common

www.economist.com

13

43

86

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

3 months

Frank Field told me that the biggest change in the UK he had seen in his life-time was the return of genuine hunger in the UK

1

44

94

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

1 month

The Madame Ceausescu of the liberal order

Stanley Pignal

@spignal

1 month

Jill Biden on the cover of Vogue looks like a bad misfire. "We will decide our future" has a vaguely autocratic air. Like Madame Ceaușescu or Asma "Rose of the Desert" al-Assad telling the plebs to mind their own business.

38

65

365

12

23

94

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

4 years

My 2017 Bagehot on why the best way to understand Britain is to read its spy novels--and, above all, John Le Carre

To understand Britain, read its spy novels

The nature of the establishment, the agonies of decline, the complicated tug of patriotism: spy novels explore what makes Britain British

www.economist.com

5

13

84

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

3 months

Doesn't an article on how Daniel Radcliffe escaped from the long shadow of Harry Potter prove that Daniel Radcliffe hasn't escaped from the long shadow of Harry Potter?

The Atlantic

@TheAtlantic

3 months

When Daniel Radcliffe accepted his most famous role at age 11, he was warned that early fame would leave him “fucked up.” Chris Heath on how the actor escaped the long shadow of Harry Potter:

4

5

39

4

10

89

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

5 years

This is a depressing moment in national history, a broken prime minister, an implacable clique, and a national disaster round the corner

8

34

87

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

7 years

Marx's writings are more relevant than they have been for decades, my Bagehot column, via @TheEconomist

Labour is right—Karl Marx has a lot to teach today’s politicians

The shadow chancellor's comment provoked scorn. Yet Marx becomes more relevant by the day

www.economist.com

5

41

87

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

8 years

Trump thinks that winning an election is like becoming CEO of a company: everybody kow-tows to you on pain of being fired.

3

39

84

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

5 years

Admirable that Boris Johnson could take time out from campaigning to write this excellent piece on Jasper Griffin, via @Telegraph

Boris Johnson on Professor Jasper Griffin, who taught him about heroes, life, death and glory – and...

When I was 16 a wonderful teacher lent me a book called Homer on Life and Death.

www.telegraph.co.uk

4

20

85

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

4 years

My long essay, co-written with John Micklethwait, on how Western governments need to reform to address the challenge posed by Coronavirus--and by the rise of Asian powers, via @bopinion

The Virus Should Wake Up the West

The job of government is to protect its citizens. The pandemic reveals that key institutions in Europe and the U.S. are no longer up to the job.

www.bloomberg.com

8

44

82

Adrian Wooldridge

@adwooldridge

2 years

Past societies were better than ours at providing geniuses with no-strings attached sinecures so that they could devote themselves to creativity, via @opinion