So - a lot of people are saying this, and it is to an extent true, but the only reason it is not true of Labour is that the public services think tanks are for the most part real think tanks which provide an intellectual life that isn’t coming from Labour itself.

Labour is also a lot more aware of their problem, which is why Re:State, a cross party think tank, can still have a big influence on aspects of government policy.

Is it stuck up to say that I had numerous conversations at party conference that reminded me lots of people are far more interested in sounding clever rather than actually being clever?

People talk about getting a "better" political class with little agreement on what that means. I suspect the best change would be getting more people who are seriously interested in policy and government. Surprisingly few MPs actually are.

The PM is announcing the government is setting up a virtual hospital This is game changing - & a reform we exclusively called for in our paper paper out a few months ago: 'Hospital as a service, not a building' Huge win for @rosiebeacon.bsky.social & @alicesemark.bsky.social Real world impact 👏

New paper out today on automation in hospitals! Loved researching this - needless to say the efficiency gains of automating pharmacy are enormous yet embarrassingly rare!

Giving Peter Mandelson a major diplomatic position was always going to end in disaster. Mandelson is undoubtedly talented, but he has persistently shown extremely poor judgment and a magnetic attraction to wealth and power. Making him Ambassador was another predictably bad appointment by Starmer.

I am hardly a natural Rayner cheerleader, but genuinely furious that she's gone. Laurie Magnus's verdict confirms she acted on advice, she just missed the disclaimer saying she should get extra advice. Not just an honest mistake - a mistake literally anyone could make. There but for the grace etc...

It is sad but I doubt it's the end of her political career. She's one of savviest politicians I've met and will be back. This resgination has been done in a way to maximise the chances of that.

This is an argument for falling population, falling GDP, and an employment crisis.

How. Is. This. Legal?! Private equity is fundamentally incompatible with public service delivery (and it should be distinguished from the general private sector market of public service providers). It's an egregious exploitation of the service users & the taxpayer & should be illegal IMO

After months of going back and forth in my head about the resident doctors’ strikes, I turned my internal debate into a written dialogue. I’m curious on where other people land. 🤔 Read here: re-state.co.uk/rethink/head...

What *is* a fair wage for a resident doctor? Research Manager and Head of Health, @rosiebeacon.bsky.social , blog imagines a clear-eyed conversation between two people on opposite sides of the strikes – and asks where the line between fairness and affordability really lies.

Essentially every core understanding a Labour leader needs to follow to succeed is contained within Tony Blair’s 2011 foreword to the Unfinished Revolution.

What are some interesting, well written politics or history books I should be reading while on holiday?

Excellent analysis from @rosiebeacon.bsky.social on the 10yr Plan … the really genuinely radical announcement & it’s up & running is Greater Manchester as a Prevention demonstrator .. this is proper neighbourhood health .. vision & leadership from @mayorofgm.bsky.social @evefrancisholt.bsky.social 👏

Churchill cried multiple times in the chamber. Including after the "blood, toil, tears and sweat" speech appropriately.

FWIW I think the 'pound falling' is consistently and annoyingly overstated: 1. It's the single most reactive market and responds acutely to political theatre 2. It had a much deeper trough on 18th June than it did yesterday 3. Even with the dip £ is now hovering around its highest point since 2022

and fwiw i fear the “we must spend less” mindset can trap us in an under-investment doom loop whereby GDP stagnates (because lack of eg capital infrastructure spend) and so calls to reduce public spending get louder (rinse & repeat)

to be clear: i think this is an interesting and important debate - i’m just not convinced that “we tax and spend too much” should be taken as an unchallenged starting point (particular when you benchmark other advanced economies) 1/2

Prior to the Spending Review tomorrow, Head of Health @rosiebeacon.bsky.social has written about our newest proposal for Remote General Hospitals and why this is important for the public finances 💸 re-state.co.uk/rethink/30-b...

Ahead of the SR next week, my long read today looks at where the £22.6bn extra cash chancellor Reeves added to health spending in England for this year has gone. A thread >>

Time to meet the health team at Re:State! While at its inception the NHS was visionary, three quarters of a century later, with demand rising and outcomes deteriorating, a bold and urgent rethink is needed. This programme explores what that should look like.

Ok so let me get this straight: Resident doctors received 2 above inflation pay rises since Labour came in Decided they wanted to strike before even receiving second deal Said they wouldn't accept anything under 5% in second deal Got 5.4% Now balloting to strike?

Excited to publish this today! If the Government want to slash wait times by the end of this Parliament, they should scrap the New Hospitals Programme & instead create Remote General Hospitals – hospital care without the hospital. And lots more...

Read more, as well as 17 other recommendations in the report, covering in detail not just the what but the how: re-state.co.uk/publications...

🚨NEW PAPER 🚨 Today we publish the next paper in our Hospital of the Future series - 'Hospital as a service, not a building'. For everyone but the most high-risk, complex patients, attending a physical hospital building should be a thing of the past.

Some thoughts on Labour’s winter fuel payment U-Turn: the manner and timing of it has annoyed many MPs, it undermines Rachel Reeves’ credibility, it is an eccentric use of the government’s limited fiscal firepower. Other than that, it’s a great idea!

"Whilst the Government’s three priorities are admirable and logical, they don’t tell us the destination; what we are really trying to achieve ... . If you can’t define the question, it’s impossible to produce the answer." Loved this piece!

"Britain is the sick man of Europe and our broken food system is the main culprit" - another fantastic piece from our Re:Thinks collection, from the inimitable Tim Spector: re-state.co.uk/wp-content/u...

This is a thought-provoking piece from Penny: "The NHS in England typifies our current concept of the State – described in terms of numbers of employees, or number of hospitals or scanners – we see inputs as a measure of success." Highly recommend from the new Chair of NHSE!

A classically excellent piece of writing from Michael Gove for @re-state.bsky.social Re:Thinks collection

Some thoughts from me in this excellent little collection marking the re-launch of the think tank formerly known as Reform. Mine: politicians are going to have to cheer up if we want to rethink the state successfully. 🧵

You may have noticed something different about us... After nearly 25 years as Reform think tank, today we've become Re:State Same bold ideas to remake the State, new branding to reinforce our strict independence. Read more about our rename here 👇 re-state.co.uk/rethink/the-...

www.economist.com/britain/2025... quite the chart from @archiehall.bsky.social

Patrick is definitely one to watch over his career. I hate the term rising star but he indisputably is one. An intellectual capability beyond his years!

We are delighted to be hosting David Skaith and hear his insights as Mayor of York and North Yorkshire You can still join in with the link below👇

Our 'Meetings with Mayors' series continues on Wednesday afternoon with @davidskaith.bsky.social, Mayor of York and North Yorkshire! Sign up here us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi... to hear about the future trajectory of devo in England and the opportunities/challenges of the Combined Authority model

I'm all in favour of the government making it easier to digitise everyday life admin but I think doing stuff that many other countries already do as standard is pushing the definition of radicalism

Also can't help but consider the opportunity cost of so much work going into such narrow areas of policy (other than the obvious groupthink) while supposedly crucial policy areas like immigration have almost no public intellectual ecosystem. But planning has literally thousands of people obsessed

There is such an insane volume of energy around abundance/progress studies/YIMBYism/build build build/LFG movement but everything they say seems to be pretty similar. How can so many people be saying so many of the same things? An odd lack of critical analysis for such a large body of people

Our 'Meeting with Mayors' webinar series reflects on the opportunities and challenges of the Combined Authority model, the future trajectory of devolution in England, and much more... 📩[email protected] to sign up!

When I talk about the lack of direction from the centre of this government. They have a (published, reality-based) white paper on employment and a (soon to be published, and I don't hold out much hope it will be reality-based) green paper on benefit reform, PLUS a set of labour market reforms...

I also wrote a piece for the @telegraphnews.bsky.social on how the NHS actually works. We've ended up with a half devolved, half centralised NHS which achieves the policy ambitions of neither system. And just streamlining NHSE doesn't fix this identity crisis 👇 www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03...

"we have now designed a system that is half decentralised, & half centralised, & which produces the full benefits of neither approach" 🔥 @telegraphnews.bsky.social piece by @rosiebeacon.bsky.social on why dismantling NHSE is not enough (we dont choose headlines😬) www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03...

Last year, we @reformthinktank.bsky.social recommended NHS England be abolished. The government may well be listening as the last week has seen huge, and well overdue, streamlining of NHS England. So how could this *actually* change how government manages the NHS?

Good morning S&P 500

DHSC and NHSE are planning a 50% (!!!) cut in headcount. Even taking account of the fact that staff numbers ballooned during the pandemic and that trusts are over managed from the centre, that's a massive decrease