On a structural level, the government is not taking this stuff seriously enough This content is a threat to public order and is driving a disintegration of the social fabric. An administration with its finger on the pulse would understand that a lot of issues run downstream of this

This is a must read piece of reporting and storytelling on one of the biggest challenges facing people growing up in the poorest places in modern Britain, from @anooshc.bsky.social www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

The drinking culture in Parliament isn't great. That said, I do think the Greens trying to turn Parliament into a new culture war (which is I think clear what this now is), has potential to descend into something quite damaging. Not least when Reform realise, and blow the whole thing up.

When Liverpool beat Barca 4-0 *checks notes* seven years ago we were a completely different country.

This is the broadsheet newspaper columnist equivalent of one of those "What the London Marathon taught me about B2B sales" style LinkedIn posts

Interesting assessment from @jacktshaw.bsky.social of the emerging Green agenda for local government

Chris Curtis is spot on here. But the truth is that for Labour in opposition, ahead of GE24, the entire plan for this parliament was to effectively say/do little beyond steading the ship. Theirs was a "two-term, decade-long" project in which real reforms could only come in the second term.

Think this is a pretty good idea - the article is well worth a read. Feels like the sort of thing government could run with that would make a positive impact on housebuilding pretty quickly.

A great paragraph in this essay from @georgeeaton.bsky.social. A vision of the good life is the thing that is most clearly missing from progressives at the moment. Believing that life is for living and our best times are ahead of us, not behind us, is what gets societies through troubled times.

Some good news from government this Friday! A new scheme will create 2000 nursing apprenticeships for young people living in the most deprived parts of the country. There will also be funding for a further 2000 young people in these areas to study medicine at university. www.gov.uk/government/n...

Good pamphlet this. In particular, this point from @jeevunsandher.bsky.social, as he makes the case for a community led economy. Civic assets are economic assets. That's why we need policy attention on community ownership, civic high streets.

Some worrying new data from the ONS today. - Healthy Life Expectancy in the most deprived areas has *fallen* for both men and women, compared to both 2019 and 2021 data - Life Expectancy in the most deprived areas has still not recovered since COVID

The constant Westminster-based attacks on S. Cambs by Conservatives and Labour are both depressing and incredibly boring It’s good for councils to try new things! Evidence suggests the 4 day week scheme has been successful! If residents don’t like it, they can vote out the Lib Dems next month!

Govenernment have got into an absolutely god awful habit of press releasing policy announcements without publishing anything about what the policy even is. £300mn yesterday for a high streets policy, with Steve Reed on the broadcast round, and NO TELLING YOU WHAT IT IS? www.gov.uk/government/n...

I have read all sorts about Reform "professionalising" their operation and starting to get serious about policy. It is not obvious any of that is going to start showing up in their plans - be it for councils, or countries - any time soon.

Does anyone know of any work looking at the loss of 'working men's clubs' and their replacement with digital spaces? Have been struck several times recently by how the comments under facebook posts resemble the kind of comments I would hear in these spaces as a teenager.

Glad the Chancellor has asked the Treasury to look at fiscal devolution ahead of the Autumn budget. A model we developed at CPP in 2023 is one I still have confidence in. Prioritises growth *while* supporting poorer areas to make bigger investments sooner, pulling regions together not apart!

Government taking action on heating oil is correct. During the last energy crisis the price of home heating oil had already spiked, and falling, by the time government had made an intervention. For places such as Northern Ireland that depend on it much of the damage had been done.

Govt’s Pride in Place targets areas with economic deprivation and weaker social infrastructure. Yet, our analysis reveals 2 challenges. We find 430 doubly disadvantaged neighbourhoods in England (home to approx 3.5 million people) are unfunded, incl many ranked as facing the greatest challenges 1/3

A very useful resource from @rmudie96.bsky.social and the ICON team: www.neighbourhoodscommission.org.uk/pride-in-pla...

We've built a data explorer for every neighbourhood receiving funding through the Pride in Place programme. You can map, zoom in, and compare every neighbourhood with data on deprivation, need, social capital, and social infrastructure. You can download it all It's completely free to use, too. 👇

BRITAIN'S AI BEAR CASE What happens, if AI takes off, to an economy that is... ... highly dependent on exporting professional services? ... Too energy-scarce to build many data centres? ... Less dynamic than ever? I work through those questions here: notes.archie-hall.com/p/britains-...

I'm a Plan 2 loan holder. I wish we had a better deal. But ours is nowhere near as bad as current students, on Plan 5s. Yet they do not have jobs in politics or the media, so no one is representing them. Even if we find a Plan 2 solution we will be back here, once again, in a few years time.

Some of the FT comments section is higher quality than nearly all the paid for opinion writing in the 'quality' papers

This will be a very good event, on what has been one of the most ionteresting research programmes we've run at ICON. Do sign up and tune in!

Hiring costs are up, unemployment is climbing. Could this be deliberate - a bet that squeezed employers will invest in technology and create better jobs, for displaced workers? My latest for @labourlist.bsky.social sets out why I'm skeptical. labourlist.org/2026/03/labo...

Hiring costs are up, unemployment is climbing. Could this be deliberate - a bet that squeezed employers will invest in technology and create better jobs, for displaced workers? My latest for @labourlist.bsky.social sets out why I'm skeptical. labourlist.org/2026/03/labo...

We're talking about Plan 2 loans because the affected are old enough to be in jobs in the media/politics. Plan 5 loans are much worse, but their holders are too young to be listened to. The media class would not take them seriously. They didn't before. wonkwatch.substack.com/p/why-is-eve...

The idea that every choice made in response to a genuine change of circumstances is a "U-turn" and therefore an embarrasing display of weakness, rather than, IDK, a *response to an genuine change in circumstances*, is becoming really tedious www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

The wider point here is that you can only sell assets once. Sales such as these, which many councils are being forced to make, are not a sustainable solution to financial pressure. Likewise drawing down reserves, which an increasing proportion of councils have now been doing for 3 years or more

This is total nonsense and has no regard for any actual policy content it’s just a vibe. Meanwhile I’m yet to see a single decarbonisation policy from Polanski that isn’t wealth taxes but apparently that’s acceptable?

Has the cost of living moved beyond a temporary "crisis" type issue to something that is more permanent? Unless the next few years sees a gigantic wave of economic growth, or a collapse in the cost of housing, goods, and utilities, it is hard to see how it is not a top 3 political issue in 2029.

Enjoyed talking to Better Retailing about @iconeighbours.bsky.social research into the state of England's local shopping parades: www.betterretailing.com/exclusive-co...

V interesting take. My secondary fully embraced the “rules for the sake of rules” thinking and there is no doubt in my mind I did a lot worse at school because of it. The argument it prepares kids for work is based on a decades-outdated view of how modern workplaces function. All a waste of time.

Very much agree with this. I still think that the underlying political issue is the limit of relying on agglomeration as the engine of growth. Even with good public transport, growth takes time to move outwards from the centre and Gorton and Denton is just down the road www.ft.com/content/7e91...

Quite the finding in @philtinline.bsky.social @futuregovforum.bsky.social report on power Nearly 61% who think their local high street is bad blame the council - just 37% think it's changing consumer demands Telling how often it is institutions, not social forces, people point the finger at!

Good article. There are lots of great ideas already out there, and often it is bettter to bring them back up than develop something totally new In ICON's biggest policy piece so far we said "there are no original ideas in this paper", and weren't joking! wonkwatch.substack.com/p/does-polic...

Polling questions id like to see asked of those who strongly oppose the Employment Rights Act: How much of its contents (sick pay, secure contracts, flexible work), do you personally enjoy in your job? Do you agree they make you less productive? If you disagree, why?

Are Reform going to turn economic policy into the next culture war issue? My colleague Andrew O'Brien's analysis of Robert Jenrick's speech yesterday is right Reform's reindustrialisation rhetoric does not acknowledge what such a plan would actually require www.newstatesman.com/politics/eco...

Many good points in this thread. The economic circumstances of these places are difficult but rarely if ever are we starting with absolutely nothing at all.

- Bad policy design (levelling up wasnt more than maybe refurbishing a few leisure centres) - No real efforts to truly connect these communities to bigger regional investments - Politicians desperate to jump to the end of process (growth, jobs) while avoiding step 1 (rebuilding social foundations)

This looks like something that could snowball into something that would cause many headaches. Another well-intentioned policy objective (delivering devolution across England) comes into contact with an incredibly difficult political environment. www.thetimes.com/article/3158...

A cathartic burst of irritation from me about the overuse of hyperbole open.substack.com/pub/gileswil...

New substack: politics is not about cosy debates or soundbites on silly TV shows. It’s about conflicts of interest. chrisdillow.substack.com/p/economic-g...

It would be quite something for the US State Department to start directly funding far-right think tanks in Europe (including London) Not least because the UK government itself does not fund the think tank sector whatsoever (which is imo a gigantic error) www.politico.eu/article/maga...

I also worry about the job creation bit. Can Restart+Jobcentre+Bootcamps overcome a job market where no one knows the extent of AI disruption? IDK

One reason I think unemployment is going to come to bite this government quite soon is the "raise labour costs to 'free up' workers to move to better jobs" strategy falls apart on a) geography b) if those jobs existed, why aren't people already moving? c) if it's skills, we arent investing enough

We could pay for quite a lot of people to enroll on skills programmes, get good jobs, and increase economic growth, if Radcliffe paid his taxes here.

"Over the past 14 years, English local authority funding for youth services has fallen by 76% in real terms, a loss of £1.3bn. Since 2012-13, England has lost about half of its local authority youth workers" www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

I don't think there are words in the dictionary to express how much I hate the ONS website. They must have a team of several dozen there working on making sure whatever data you want is impossible to find. Evil.