Central govt carries on the tradition of dictating operational minutiae to local councils instead of, y'know, fixing the big issues that REALLY impact local services e.g. social care, SEND, temp accommodation... BBC News - Councils warned against adopting four-day week www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

An English local council innovates, evaluates what it did, finds it works (replicating an earlier study in Scotland) … and all councils are told by the Labour government not to try it. What message does this convey? Another victory for ideology & cowardice www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Call me old-fashioned. But I don't think you can find out what C1 women living in East Midlands market towns currently think about, say, benefit reform without going and asking C1 women currently living in East Midlands market towns.

Because the issue of population change is so widely misunderstood, here's a short thread which seeks to lay it out simply. It explains why there is almost nothing anyone can do to change the global population trajectory, both as numbers rise, then as they fall. 🧵1/13

Not exactly surprising but let's remember that the govt at the time was under massive pressure from to get £ out to businesses & individuals with only minimal checks. Fraud was the inevitable result of schemes designed at breakneck speed without proper systems to deliver them (aka "red tape").

Really terrific piece by @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk this. Poses really difficult questions for governments of left and right about how provision works:

Australia recorded ZERO cases of cervical cancer in women under 25 for the first time since they started tracking the cancer in the 80s. This is the power of vaccines. The HPV vaccine is extremely effective at preventing cancer. Viruses can be oncogenic. Get your vaccines and protect yourself!

Many newspapers and politicians have been calling yesterday's fiscal statement a 'Budget for Benefits Street'. Here's three reasons why that is not accurate 🧵

This snippet from an interview with Enver Solomon, outgoing head of the Refugee Council, seems very typical of this govt's approach and speaks to a desire to relentlessly spend tax payer's money in pursuit of a dream of total administrative control

This is true. Enforcement of environmental crime, trading standards, food hygiene, asb etc have been cut to the bone because they aren't services that anyone notices...until something goes wrong, like this colossal flytip. See also the proliferation of high street shops selling illicit goods.

Fascinating thread

Save The Iain Anderson Show on BBC Radio Scotland For decades, Iain has done more than spin records. He has unearthed new voices, given first airtime to emerging Scottish artists & threaded songs together with stories, culture, and care. From Norman Paterson's petition on change.org c.org/D6xKqDtMtv

Powerful thread about the importance of refuge & security. People with security can build a life & contribute. Much better for everyone.

I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight www.cityam.com/the-british-...

Thought provoking thread about political leadership & the fallacy of the 'outsider' politician with experience of the 'real' world.

If you want people to feel that their day to day lives are improving then make sure that local government is properly funded. You could call it “the pothole theory of everything”.

Plug in your postcode. deprivation.communities.gov.uk

How we do pensions and retirement income in this country is predicated on a few assumptions, one of which is that old people have minimal housing costs and/or security of tenure. It's not happening anymore, and will get worse. www.joxleywrites.jmoxley.co.uk/p/the-other-...

Replace “Dems” for “mainstream parties” and “GOP” for “far right” and you have West European politics.

I am not opposed to a wealth tax. What I oppose are claims it is a simple silver bullet the government opposes because it is in hoc to neo-liberalism etc etc. Yes, tax wealth. But if we want no austerity and better public services, it means more tax rises on top. Sorry. That's the real world.

BBC News - Crime network behind UK mini-marts is enabling migrants to work illegally www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Oh fgs - that's the angle here? Not 'organised crime on the high street' or 'Vapes & fake cigs sold to kids' or 'Companies House allows sham directors to run crime networks across UK'?

Proper good news today - the Renters' Rights Act gets Royal Assent. Citizens Advice see 200 people a day with problems in private rented housing. The act shifts the balance towards tenants, but it's just the start, as @tessthompsonca.bsky.social says here wearecitizensadvice.org.uk/the-renters-...

I've been updating my lecture slides for this cycle, and I was about to post how it's wild to me that the last Index of Multiple Deprivation is still 2019. It's not like *anything at all* has happened in the last 6 years to warrant an update. Before I did, I thought I'd better go and check...

Apropos of nothing, I really do think UK journalists and politicians need some reminding that mass deportation of LEGAL immigrants, particularly those with permanent status, is far more extreme than even Trump's America and would basically place Britain completely on its own among democracies.

Higher taxes on gambling probably would cost some jobs. But employment has to be weighed against other social costs. That's why we don't have brothels and ketamine stores on every high street. It was a terrible mistake to let gambling shops become such big employers. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

And when those new coercive powers are introduced, then what follows will prompt another round of more coercive powers for the state, and then another, and then another. The UK is trapped in an illiberal spiral.

The government want more coercive powers for the state against protests, and the main opposition party wants more coercive powers for the state against migrants. Our political-media culture continues in a loop where the response to every perceived problem is yet more coercive powers for the state.

Incredible. Both the appointment & the reporting of it : /

This is no accident or diplomatic faux pas. It is retribution for UK recognition of Gaza. A v dangerous game but Netanyahu & his rw coalition partners won't care about that.

Alleged sex offenders should not be out on bail! It's a serious offence!!

I do genuinely feel for politicians (almost everywhere) having to grapple with the fact that the longer you keep people alive, the more they cost - literally exponentially - whilst everyone wants to live a long time and keep their loved ones alive, and no one wants to pay for it.

Uurgh. This gives me the heebie-jeebies. Digital surveillance by the state & whichever tech corporation gets the lucrative contract, social exclusion of people who are not IT literate, woeful track record of public IT projects, risk of hacking... Sorry, no I don't want this.

Not a significant change in fortunes then? Furthermore it would unleash all manner of angst & strife & be a huge distraction from the important business of, y'know, governing the country.

Stark statistics about the benefit cap & who is affected (families with children).

This! It's infuriating. Even though its bunkun, the news coverage will have sewn seeds of doubt in some pregnant women's minds.

Why the ideas here might help, substack.com/@jpspencer/n...

There are 4.24m people with Indefinite Leave to Remain (or equivalent). 82% are in work, compared with 74% of Britons 3.8m are in relationships with Britons They have about 2.4m British-born children. This bullshit is never going to happen. Again. But... www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Today marks the start of #OrganDonationWeek 2025. This week, it’s really important that you consider your wishes about organ donation, register a decision on the ODR and tell your loved ones - #LeaveThemCertain #YesIDoNate

I like this. I really like this. It exposes the rank hypocrisy of these ‘patriots’. Kudos to whoever wrote it via @thelondoneconomic.bsky.social

Having said that, who will *in practice* be asked for them, if ‘immigration enforcement’ is the purpose for which they will be used? People who ‘look like’ or ‘sound like’ they might be here illegally. That is, black or brown people, people with ‘foreign accents’ or foreign names. 3/10

The latest average monthly wage data means the UK state pension will rise by at least 4.7% next year under the Triple Lock. The lock is supposed to protect and boost the real income of pensioners. But it’s worth noting that pensioners - as a group - are not as poor as they used to be...🧵 1/11

Nice thread outlining what the government is delivering for ordinary people (y'know, the policies we don't hear anything about because everyone - including the govt - prefers to talk about small boats & immigration all the time...)

This is brilliant - and actually rather useful for anyone teaching methods (correlation isn't causation etc.) to undergraduates.

This is exceptional writing from Ian Dunt about Saturday's demonstration (read the whole substack piece).

Thank you for the moral clarity + challenge, Jonathan. At the bare minimum the vast majority of people in UK who reject a politics of violence + hatred can no longer close our eyes and hope the global rising tide of racist grievance + disintermediated lies will not wash up on our shores. It’s here.

‘Starmer plans electronic ID cards for all to help stop UK boat migrants’ I can’t believe this nonsense is back again. A Trojan Horse policy that hoodwinks all of us into accepting deeply problematic ID cards that won’t remotely impact asylum numbers. inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Are you young, highly educated and driven, and want to contribute to our stagnant economy with its aging population and low productivity? Well out you go

Across all questions, Reform UK voters are the most likely to have negative opinions about the state of both their local area and the wider UK yougov.co.uk/politics/art...

Reform UK: “Free speech! You can’t say anything these days!” Also Reform UK: “You’re banned from reporting on our council because we don’t like what you said.” www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...