This entire pointlessly destructive war so far has cost the US military around $60 billion, which is around twice the amount cut from USAID which saved millions of lives.

Also important to keep in mind that along with leadership vancancies, ONS is going through some large changes in its data production. Chiefly LFS, one of the most foundational datasets, is being redesigned for better quality.

The metro mayor system relies on consensus by its local authorities. That may get more difficult as more of them will be controlled by opposition parties.

The place element of the energy price shock is really important. The share of jobs in energy-intensive industries is almost 20 times bigger in places like Sunderland and Derby than in London/Cambridge. www.centreforcities.org/blog/which-c... Great analysis by my colleague @yz18.bsky.social

Looks to be a big day for energy policy today. But it started last week with the expansion of industrial electricity subsidies to more energy-intensive sectors. I wrote a short analysis on which UK cities had more of these industries, and thus more exposed to energy shocks/government measures.

“…You eat each other’s cuisines and learn new techniques, new spice combinations, trade for new ingredients; you grow stronger. You wear each other’s fashions and learn new patterns to apply to your lives, and because of it you grow stronger…” -N.K. Jemisin; The City We Became

In the U.S., a lot of problems r an issue of will/special interest capture. The UK is much more constrained by material reality. Adopting the U.S. mindset is completely unhelpful (e.g. thinking supermarkets r price gauging). Our problems require actual sacrifices, not just rules on big donors.

“The anti-foreign impulse and the anti-commercial impulse are related. Left and right end up hating the same thing, liberalism, because both movements have at their core a desire to control. To those who think systematically, the city must be offensive.” Super stuff www.ft.com/content/ba3b... l

Yes! Of course they were! The people very confidently arguing that we didn’t in Daniel’s mentions are just wrong!

It has been my great regret for a while that I never went to a meat raffle when I was in Minnesota.

Good.

Thank you to everybody who joined us for our Trans Day of Visibility Parliamentary reception last night. Trans people will always be visible in our movement 🌹🏳️‍⚧️

So happy for Hungarians - a chance to stop the erosion of democracy, corruption, and economic malaise. And such an unqualified middle finger to Trump, Vance and Putin - and all the politicians in Europe who endorsed Orban, like Meloni, Wilders, Weidel, Le Pen. All losers tonight

We set up a global talent taskforce to look for the brightest minds around the globe. This seems like a big, clear target.

Drill, baby, drill! (Holes to attach solar panels on your roof). www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Funding is a big part of the story. The new £2.3bn City Investment Fund includes £1.7bn for mayors in the North’s largest city regions, aimed at unlocking development and supporting denser city centres👇

My favourite fake American thing that doesnt exist or matter is gentrification

Wrote about how, as other research shows, immigrants tended to be disproportionately entrepreneurial. And like all other parts of the economy, it is geographically concentrated.

Great article by @stephenkb.bsky.social here: www.ft.com/content/b6d2... The government has made some moves on building high-quality office spaces (£500m). But a larger conversation on cities’ competitive advantage is necessary.

This government must emulate the boldness shown by Gordon Brown nearly two decades ago and convene an International Energy Summit, writes Labour MP @pollybillington.bsky.social

British MPs deal with far more local issues than comparable elected representatives in other countries. Whether they should do that function is a different debate. But them not understanding their voters is not the main issue here.

Larry Elliott in the Guardian and James Dyson in the Times agree. They are also both very wrong. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

The article starts with U.S. tariffs and the economic damages. Their recession-inducing trade war, our much needed economic self sufficiency.

The solution for 'how does Labour placate the MPs who would lose out?' is, to my mind, fairly straightforward. What you do is you: a) create the missing tier of regional government in England; b) adopt a more relaxed attitude towards dual mandates.

Ellison: Minnesota, the world is inspired by you. You won the JFK Profiles in Courage Award. They even nominated you for a Nobel Peace Prize, which is more than I can say for certain people I know.

There is an imagined working class, that largely no longer exists and a modern working class that the political class rarely interact with outside of service provision.

A lot of actual challenges about SME scaling. But also, many SMEs r just not growth-oriented. A corner shop could be an important part of the everyday economy without being the driver of growth. And that is fine.

I wonder how much of this is another spillover from US politics, where material limitations are often secondary to some sort of special interests. That is not the case in the UK (especially here), and it would be really bad for us to think that way.

My American uni is having an alumni reunion in London. We were founded by by a Scottish American so use Scottish symbols a lot (current mascot a highland cow). Which is why the event is called “Scots in London” in which “Scots” specifically mean “alumni of a small uni an ocean away.”

At some point, we need to deal with the fact that London is a prosperous but stagnant economy at the moment. A global superstar city is a rarity and a massive strength. We should feel lucky and not take the city for granted.

Once in a while, I think about how my weekly trip to Peckham library is the most reliably pleasant interaction I have with public service/realm.

Centre for Cities research found that 57% of the UK's productivity lag compared to leading G7 countries is due to the underperformance of its big cities. Today, the Chancellor highlighted the importance of closing this gap in order to boost national growth 👇

Anyway, on a happier note, the actual content of what the government is doing on energy is much better than the rhetoric. The only good thing about Trump's war is that it is at a time when the government can hopefully design a better energy support package than the Truss madness, too:

This was fun to write! The Government is trying to rebalance the nation's equity finance landscape, making it less London-centric. It is committing public money and encouraging private investments. All good goals, but is a shortage of finance the real reason behind the geographic unevenness?

The idea of two groups within the “struggling many:” one is locked out of the economy, the other struggling in it. Policy interventions would differ for the two. And socially, how helpful is to deduce a “working class” position on cultural values when it covers two very different groups?

@labour4transrights.bsky.social is doing very important work now more than ever. Really excited to see what is to come.

On aggregate, direct taxes in the UK *are* progressive. The very richest pay more than five times more in income tax than the poorest. Council Tax is the big exception. It absorbs only about 1 per cent of income at the very top, but nearly 5 per cent at the very bottom.

This is a frustrating column by Martin Wolf - which is sadly typical of a lot of economics commentary on GB energy. It does identify some of the key causes of high electricity prices - including Britain’s high exposure to gas prices and rising network costs. But there’s a lot it leaves out…

My blog today on three steps the Government should take to put the local gov reform agenda back on track: #1 Create their own map #2 Adopt the "Cornwall solution" in the shires #3 Leave straggler local authorities with chaotic local politics behind

How is limiting political influence to a small and arbitrary group of people strengthening democracy or accountability exactly?

My home state of Minnesota just won the most medals (13!) out of any U.S. state at the Winter Olympics. That's Minnesota nice on the ice for Team USA 🇺🇸

Stunned to learn that when people move into expensive flats they don’t blow up their own homes in turn

📅 In conversation with @mayorofgm.bsky.social Joins us to hear from the Mayor on Greater Manchester’s journey so far, lessons for other mayoral strategic authorities, his ambitions for Greater Manchester and the English devolution agenda more broadly👇 www.centreforcities.org/event/manche...

for the vast majority of people alive or who have ever lived, the single best thing you could do to improve their lives is give their country a few more percentage points of GDP growth (or allow them to move to a country that already has a higher GDP) any other suggestions pale in comparison

basically all of this discourse stems from the fact that America has solved all of the problems that can be solved with economic growth and from this Americans conclude that economic growth doesn't solve any problems

PLEASE ASK HIM - will there be refunds - what about the existing deals - will the US still give preferential access to the countries that have done deals - which countries will face investigations?

This is a great read. Have always thought that we underestimates the importance of graduate professionals in the labour markets and in politics. That is increasingly untenable.

“Let’s blame the culture/stigma around X” is the default response when the answers r hard or difficult to hear.

The thing is a "50% should go to university" target is at least a statement of aspiration "half of you should be tradeys" is the sort of thing you can only really say if you've not actually thought about it.

At the moment, the closer one looks at some indicators, the less certain they become about what is going on with the economy. A bit concerning to say the least.