Stephen Bush

https://bsky.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/stephenkb.bsky.social

Associate editor and columnist @financialtimes.com. Post too often about culture, public policy, management, politics, nerd stuff, Arsenal the champions, wosoc. Wow! (center) Try my UK politics newsletter for free here: [ft.com/tryinsidepolit...](http://www.ft.com/tryinsidepolitics )

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Last Notes

2026-08-15 16:49:40 GMT

There’s an underlying assumption a lot of people are making that if a black guy successfully misleads you, it means you have set your racism levels too low.

2026-07-19 14:29:52 GMT

Excellent Free Lunch by [@[email protected]](https://bsky.brid.gy/ap/did:plc:bo2iacbu4r2t326ohyljzjff ) this:
[Andy Burnham should pursue a d...](https://www.ft.com/content/45657e57-c8d0-4e58-b20d-d67a7bfdb050?syn-25a6b1a6=1 )

2026-07-15 15:36:43 GMT

Scoop by [@[email protected]](https://bsky.brid.gy/ap/did:plc:xl3w3umjsx2ery4yyivbmrml ): according to three people familiar with Andy Burnham’s thinking, Shabana Mahmood is set to be the next Chancellor:
[Shabana Mahmood set to be name...](https://www.ft.com/content/54d17925-a1d3-4bae-a1bc-a325df7577dd?syn-25a6b1a6=1 )

2026-06-08 17:39:34 GMT

"Humans evolved on every continent simultaneously" - I swear, every day on this website, an American reinvents early modern racism from first principles, while believing themselves to be right-on!
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:brnnpb6x3pdapjeqqs275gbd/post/3mns7fjet322g

2026-05-12 20:55:27 GMT

“Psychodrama” has always obscured more than it resolved- right from the start it was the way that BBC Politics in that era babbled its way around the conviction that couldn’t cover Brexit in detail without being biased and that the public needed to be talked down to.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:cvss7ivwf5rdsxriykpagids/post/3mlonsoe7js2m

2026-05-08 20:10:21 GMT

The Liberal Democrats now have 56 seats out of 90 in West Surrey. Truly, Kemi Badenoch’s days of being a bad leader are certainly coming to a middle.

2026-02-03 13:32:06 GMT

My column today: on why if AI creates a world where almost everyone has to live off UBI, we should throw away the machine instead:
[UBI fans must remember a job i...](https://www.ft.com/content/18ee22b9-5d62-445e-829f-c454378595c3 )

2026-01-20 17:52:45 GMT

Mark Carney's speech really is terrific: full text is here and very much worth your time.
[The Carney doctrine](https://paulwells.substack.com/p/the-carney-doctrine )

2026-01-13 11:18:41 GMT

Fascinating piece on why HS2 is the most expensive per mile railway ever built. Featuring a chart that made me yelp 'Christ alive!'
[How the UK ended up building t...](https://www.ft.com/content/3f731e87-bc4b-426c-a97c-67e1ad50831d?shareType=nongift )

2025-12-17 13:44:07 GMT

"A phrase I have heard a lot from people in business since 2022 is “this stupid war”, as though it is all a sort of accident or misunderstanding, and not the choice of an implacable state." Terrific column, this: [www.ft.com/content/36c2...](https://www.ft.com/content/36c23306-6ad4-4d06-bd4f-e5c2e3e51491 )
[When business and democracy do...](https://www.ft.com/content/36c23306-6ad4-4d06-bd4f-e5c2e3e51491 )

2025-10-23 10:14:18 GMT

Hadn’t, in truth, really absorbed the scale of what the Conservatives are proposing on ILR and immigration more broadly until this week’s Sunday Times interviews. Some thoughts on that in today’s note:
[Tory deportation plan would up...](https://www.ft.com/content/9a1d3c1f-ebe8-4a0b-8ad9-e5bb188c00c0 )

2025-10-05 09:45:48 GMT

Terrific weekend essay by @henrymance.bsky.social
[How polarised is Britain?](https://www.ft.com/content/c7e4e399-428d-4323-884b-32723c9e694f )

2025-09-16 20:59:48 GMT

Being ill the right way = ordering a curry and watching “Xena: Warrior Princess”.

2025-08-06 10:55:13 GMT

Today’s newsletter: on the GK Chesterton rule of regulation and why government needs to provide digital ID not outsource it to third parties:
[Online safety demands trust — ...](https://www.ft.com/content/4c35eccb-8bf8-4b16-8e61-9b166b65fe28 )

2025-07-02 15:08:29 GMT

There's a lot of 'the spendthrift PLP versus the Iron Downing Street' about, which ignores that the PLP accepted a deferment of scrapping the two child limit and voted to means-test winter fuel.

2025-06-15 13:10:01 GMT

👇 genuinely don’t understand why people are unable to comprehend “don’t get AI to do something for you if you can’t understand whether it has produced the wrong answer”.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:elnbwcdlrjj4ot26olansut2/post/3lrndracdb226

2025-05-18 20:10:30 GMT

The word 'enshittification' really has become a thing people say, patronisingly, to things that a) describe literally none of the conditions of the article and b) would not explain the problem if it did.
https://oyster.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:xbnsfdtxoothg654ujxe3p25&cid=bafkreih3bolhtosd447qqompnfssp733uye6shg6yefyz3fxteyypwviai

2025-01-31 12:49:55 GMT

Fascinated by how inept the Tory party's 'we are celebrating five years of Brexit' is. Fronted by their most unpopular frontbencher. Suggests the EU-UK security pact is bad. Has a typo in the press release.
https://oyster.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:xbnsfdtxoothg654ujxe3p25&cid=bafkreiapor2g3cc6tsfhi5g6f3eycbvoirmfqmbpjp22olz7puu42xrgcy

2025-01-19 13:59:41 GMT

Sunday 19 January: I always knew I was a 'fairweather fan', but today I discovered exactly what point on the thermostat I become a 'I'm not schlepping out to watch Arsenal in THAT' fairweather fan. (In my defence, I also am getting a cold.)

2024-12-27 16:41:29 GMT

Unless I’m missing something, Badenoch has tweeted herself into a situation where she is either spreading falsehoods about Reform (i.e. Farage may have a case for libel) or she is saying “CCHQ or someone connected to me broke the law”:
[Farage and Badenoch trade clai...](https://www.ft.com/content/f00c5113-4be4-4b08-991f-f2d773bb090c )

2024-11-04 16:00:58 GMT

It's not *surprising* but it is kinda wild that we are 20 minutes into a Commons debate about the future of family farms and the word 'Brexit' has not yet been mentioned.

2024-10-25 12:36:46 GMT

I am really unconvinced by freeports, but it is fascinating how Brexit has coded a thing that Labour did for longer than the Tories as “rightwing”. (Particularly as I would say my objection to them used to be a thing that marked me out as rightwing)
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4s5yz6vxl4dhdr72jbhr75pc/post/3l7djw2fb7k2r

2024-10-02 12:53:55 GMT

Kemi Badenoch’s “we were a bad government because we didn’t dismantle the Blair-Brown governing apparatus” is so funny to me. The Blairite civil service machine didn’t stop Cameron and Osborne dismantling most of New Labour’s public policy legacy or *BREXIT* for goodness’ sake.

2024-09-24 09:46:35 GMT

My column this week: on the wisdom of picking Tim Walz and why every minority politician needs one.
[Why every campaign needs a Tim...](https://on.ft.com/4dfmHJ7 )

2024-08-17 12:58:02 GMT

At my most illiberal on the FT podcast this week:
[How do you solve a problem lik...](https://www.ft.com/content/98b9fccd-b8e5-451a-b04a-47ceb1a2efae )