Sam Freedman

New post: Young people are increasingly unhappy. It's a real phenomenon + nothing to do with "snowflakes". There are lots of standard culprits - social media, school, economy - but none can explain the long-term trend. So what is going on? (£/free trial) samf.substack.com/p/the-agency...

This feels like the biggest story from the Guardian's Boris leaks... he took £240k from a Venezuelan hedge fund after meeting Maduro. And having denied he was paid. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

The actual group moving most strongly to Reform are male Gen X-ers. We need more articles on how to deal with them.

Not going to pretend today wasn't depressing but the far right has been stronger in the UK before. Mosley packed out Earls Court and was backed by several large newspapers. Enoch Powell had the support of 74% of the population. Musk has a net popularity rating of -52%

I love Anna Maxwell Martin. Ludwig is a very silly programme and she's still brilliant in it.

Have to admit I thought Macklemore was a band not a person.

This answer is interesting because it illustrates how little most people have thought about the effects of AI. It would be impossible to do coursework at scale now (and Powell has said her comments were misreported).

Middle-class kids already do genuinely good vocational courses like degree apprenticeships. I just don't know what problem they're trying to solve. www.thetimes.com/uk/education...

Tbf that's roughly the average age of the constituency...

I'm on Westminster Hour tonight talking about the Reform donations, social mobility and other things...

George is right but I've always thought they would do this because it is probably the policy that works best politically for them. IHT is wildly unpopular, especially in the southern seats they need to try and win back from the Libs.

Alarming number of pervy old men articles about Sadie Sink in the right-wing press this week.

This is encouraging. As I wrote here, whether people notice immigration is falling is one of the key Qs in British politics at the moment. samf.substack.com/p/race-to-th...

Fyi in 2024 the Harris Campaign spent $1.2 billion during the 2024 election and Trump spent around $500 million. Money isn't everything in politics.