This year - one of both mat leave and reporting travels around the country - I've found an alternative story to the "Broken Britain" narrative. My column for the @newstatesman1913.bsky.social Christmas issue:

This is why: 1. Never stop writing. If you are using AI only use it as a light editor. 2. Politicians should write the first draft of all their speeches to organise their thoughts. 3. Prose is vital to democratic societies.

Obviously a heck of a lot to digest from the Covid inquiry but this one rings true with our experience at the time. Stronger multi disciplinary expertise might have helped show the interconnections and trade offs between health, economics, geography and societal impacts www.bbc.com/news/article...

This stuff is honestly so far gone now, it would take a political generation to rebuild. And none of the incentives in British politics are taking us that way.

Research on this is clear: the uncertainty created by this policy will lead to people integrate less into British society. It is trading-off the reasonable policy goal of integration for the useless symbolism of immigration numbers. Bad policy to appease the far right. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Yes, I think this is what the “it’s smart not to do income tax” stuff is missing. If you remove salary sacrifice on someone’s pension contributions you are increasing their income tax! If you freeze thresholds you are increasing their income tax!

The fact that they got an extremely tense game of cat and mouse between the worlds most obvious flamboyant gay man and a giant monster man who has had 37 concussions....this is britain this is british pride

They should have advertised who everyone was playing for, throughout. Popped it under their names everytime they were in the diary room. The opportunity for tens and tens and tens of millions of pounds of free advertising for charities, totally wasted #CelebrityTraitors

Anyway, we need some joy, so here's the Egyptian foreign minister being given a Lego Pyramid by the Danish foreign minister.

Yes! This is much better than all the stupid "make November more miserable" initiatives

We have progressed from data collection to data analysis.

An email from Lewisham council, after four stabbings in Catford this week. Entitled “Mayor of Lewisham addresses serious incidents in Catford” This is. Not how to comms. No. God no.

If you can persevere through the ads this is worth a read. Wirral Council may have made a mistake with the leisure centre but lack of money will be the underlying reason. Goes back to the point oft made - it’s the lack of local government funding and provision which is creating the rifts in society

Well now I've planned a whole charity scandal-themed D&D one shot in my head.

I write because I love writing. I love writing even when I'm struggling with a writing problem that is killing me. Finding a way through that problem is both intensely rewarding and also helps me become a better writer. There is no reason for me to ever outsource that.

Today, we published a new @theifs.bsky.social Green Budget chapter on children with special educational needs & disability support, which is joint work with colleagues @eduinlatimer.bsky.social and Darcey Snape I wanted to delve deeper into some of the key findings....[1/6]

As the Trump administration threatens them, liberal nonprofits have been quietly preparing to do everything from surrendering 501(c)(3) status to relocating outside the US.

V interesting thread on something that could have been the headline going into conference if it hadn’t all been about ID cards & immigration; rebuilding communities, reclaiming ideas about roots & togetherness (the appealing bit of Blue Labour) from the ‘Maurice Glasman saying mad things’ bit of BL

Kirsty cites globalisation and tech as the two big drivers of dislocation. And champions the importance of social clubs in helping to tackle this dislocation. "We need a politics of joy and relationships"

Consumer debt is down, but like air being squeezed around in a balloon some of it looks to have shifted shape into arrears on priority bills

Looking forward to speaking at the Lib Dem conference Carers Trust fringe at 11.30am today and hosting the Civil Society Reception at 8pm tonight, and otherwise enjoying the beachside mingling.

at the center of the efforts to destroy civil society in russia, hungary, georgia and elsewhere is the stigmatization, harassment, & criminalization of NGOs. that's what this is about, a full-on assault on democratic debate & freedoms. this is not hyperbole. it's right here.

The reporting on Charlie Kirk’s killer in the UK & US highlights again how fundamentally ill equipped mainstream media is to report on political violence in the digital age. They do not know anything about online far right meme culture & it’s starting to do real harm. #r4today

This is not even a question at this point

Sometimes I think the real "peace dividend" since the end of the cold war was that a whole generation of analysts grew up underestimating the power of ideology, memory and emotion, and now they cannot recognize a huge cultural shift when it is staring them in the face. The "soft stuff"matters.

How young people relate to populism in a diverse & changing society may depend a lot on openness to Us v Them Both socio-economic (education, socio-economic, geographic residential mixing/segregation) and identity (values, in + out group perceptions, relationships) which contribute to this

I have a vg candidate: it is not the presence of diversity, so much as the *quality* of social relationships. UK has better in/out group relationships among the young: more meaningful contact (at school, work, socially) and in identity terms. So oppose discrimination. Less Us v Them grievances

He also said "More men of fighting age arriving in boats on our beaches than at D Day." And I've heard it ringing in my head about once an hour since.

Very excited about this work and its strong findings in its first pilot borough.

So what sort of leader did she aspire to be, I ask. “To think for myself, but not of myself.”

Britain has somehow managed to have low quality labour market data without even trying to.

🎧 New podcast episode: @lrouse.bsky.social and @emilyharle.bsky.social are joined by @nicolesykes.bsky.social @lbfew.bsky.social to talk about some of the reasons to be optimistic in a world of AI, the impact economy and enduring levels of trust in charities. Listen here: bit.ly/4ffAJNs

BREAKING: COUNTRY NOT BROKEN

“Last time we scored, I was buying cigs at the co-op. So I’m going back,” declares a woman as she departs the pub on the highstreet. England, truly full of patriots.

A man watching the football on the train on his phone just punched the air. A true feminist ally.

Strongly agree with this. No10 aside - where they get a lot of spads- we are still basically marooning inexperienced people in massive departments

More whimsy like this please www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The Prime Minister has just announced £53mn of funding to the Drive Project, which does amazing - well-evidenced - work preventing domestic abuse. @lbfew.bsky.social are privileged to have put the first £1mn of philanthropic funds into Drive, & utterly delighted to see government back it to scale.

The boss opening up a major event bringing government and civil society on how we deliver change together. Our communities are filled with hopeful, determined people transforming lives. Let’s rebalance between the market, state and civil society.

Amid wealth tax discussion, it's worth reflecting on recent changes in tax takes across the income distribution. Combining all payments (ie income taxes and VAT etc), the richest and poorest pay the most as a share of their gross income. But rates are down markedly in the middle of the distribution

Great interview on the difference that government can make. Having worked for Darren, I know he really cares about these issues as comes across in this piece. Also can very much imagine this: “He then goes on an enthusiastic digression about … Labour’s long-term funding for pothole maintenance”

An exciting moment as details of this social outcomes partnership emerges into the public realm for the first time. Funders, philanthropists & financial institutions have been quietly hard at work on this behind the scenes since the election, to get more money to community orgs transforming lives.

One group who think they are growing not shrinking are the overt racists. They think most people agree & they are rapidly shifting social norms. (This is typical of extreme fringe groups). 7% of people say supported violence riots in 2024. 85% 62% of that 7% believe most people supported riots

İ think there are a few key dynamics here * there is clear evidence that the overal aggregate l pattern is that overt racism is shrinking (esp longterm and esp across generations) but becoming more mobilised and vocal as it shrinks But 4 or 5 influential groups perceive it differently to that

Say yes to this

There’s an ESG manager out there somewhere who knows they’re never going to top this initiative. They peaked with this.

This is good news, reversing a brazenly partisan change by the previous government. Whatever the merits of First Past the Post for parliamentary elections, it is manifestly unsuitable for mayoral elections, where the winner really does take all.

The benefits of this for mums and kids has been known for a while. Problem was identifying a low cost and widely deliverable play option. Excellent news.

Something I don't really understand atm is that we really are at peak "everything is connected, this one thing is bad and getting worse because of these six other things that are related" but much policymaking still seems doggedly single issue, stuck in a linear "if this then that" mode