Not surprised perhaps but spoke at this to about 500 manufacturers. Their take on industrial strategy is miles away from whitehalls. www.linkedin.com/posts/jonhil...

Brum’s Chronicler-in-Chief Mike Olley’s latest GRIT column is (yet again) a must read: www.midlandsgrit.co.uk/p/the-621-mi...

New Blog from the Blackstuff - why making things still matters and what Britain needs to do next. @makeuk.bsky.social @smmt-ukauto.bsky.social @unitetheunion.bsky.social blogsfromtheblackstuff.com/bftbblog2602...

New Blog from the Blackstuff - why making things still matters and what Britain needs to do next. @makeuk.bsky.social @smmt-ukauto.bsky.social @unitetheunion.bsky.social @johnmclancy.bsky.social blogsfromtheblackstuff.com/bftbblog2602...

“So, yes, we welcome the fact that we were right & the economically illiterate Chief Commissioner No. 1, Max Caller, has been found out to be very wrong indeed. And we do hate to say we told you so.” New Blog from the Blackstuff + @johnmclancy.bsky.social blogsfromtheblackstuff.com/bftbblog2602...

“So, yes, we welcome the fact that we were right & the economically illiterate Chief Commissioner No. 1, Max Caller, has been found out to be very wrong indeed. And we do hate to say we told you so.” New Blog from the Blackstuff + @johnmclancy.bsky.social blogsfromtheblackstuff.com/bftbblog2602...

Great recent @cssjournal.bsky.social paper ‘The ‘cost of undoing Europe’: Brexit & the UK textile & apparel industry’ by Patrizia Casadei, Simona Iammarino, Philip McCann & Raquel Ortega-Arigilés @acadsocsciences.bsky.social @regstud.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

✨Missed the deadline to submit a paper to a SS at #RSA26? There's still time to submit to the general pool ✨ ⏳ Deadline: 19th February For more information on the conference: bit.ly/4atPUlH Join the RSA community in Gothenburg ➡️ Regions as Arenas in a Changing World 📆 15-18 June 2026 😀🔄

The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery is fundraising to hold on to a nationally significant Bronze Age treasure trove | Adam Colclough @centralbylines.co.uk

The EU’s Industrial Accelerator Act (due out this month) is part of a wider reconsideration of industrial strategy. Get up to speed with our bumper recent @cssjournal.bsky.social special issue on ‘Industrial strategy reborn’ @acadsocsciences.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

As the EU discusses a ‘Made in Europe’ strategy & prepares to unveil its Industrial Accelerator Act, where has the UK got to on industrial strategy? Our recent critical review in @regionalstudies.bsky.social gets you up to speed. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... @regstud.bsky.social

blogsfromtheblackstuff.com/blogsallauto... Move the 2030 Petrol Car Ban to 2035, and Fix the EV Transition Properly.

Reminder that Starbucks’ CEO made 6,666x more than the company's median employee in 2024. Now, Starbucks is lifting a cap on the CEO's use of a private jet to commute from California to Seattle. It's been four years since Starbucks stores began unionizing and workers still don't have a contract.

Move the 2030 Petrol Car Ban to 2035 & Fix the EV Transition Properly. New blog: blogsfromtheblackstuff.com/bftbautoblog...

The @smmt-ukauto.bsky.social is right. We really do need a comprehensive review of the ZEV mandate. New blog: blogsfromtheblackstuff.com/bftbautoblog...

*******TODAY******* Put your questions to @drjennings.bsky.social @sophiestowers.bsky.social and Rachel Wolf. Address the burning issues. What's happened to our party system? What's happened to trust in politics? Is Starmer doomed? Should I be in the House of Lords? ukandeu.ac.uk/events/ukice...

The SMMT is right. We need a comprehensive review of the ZEV mandate. New blog: blogsfromtheblackstuff.com/bftbautoblog...

Green supporters pretending not to understand why I am annoyed about their misuse of my words and image on their leaflets will now be blocked without warning. I’ve explained it several times at length. Life is too short for this nonsense.

Since #bbclaurak is trending, let’s remind ourselves that ONE MONTH ago, the BBC invited Mandelson on for a soft-ball interview on her show. While HIS CLIENT , Palantir’s Louis Moseley appeared as a pundit Both, as I wrote at time, were ‘abject failures of journalism’ 1/

Is the UK’s industrial strategy really place based? New @rsablog.bsky.social blog on our recent @regionalstudies.bsky.social paper. Blog here: regions.regionalstudies.org/ezine/articl... paper here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... @regstud.bsky.social @rsaibis.bsky.social @prt1969.bsky.social

"Stability with Starmer or chaos with anyone else" might need a bit more work. This is a PM whose authority had been shredded by a series of policy U turns and now the decision to appoint Mandelson. Starmer won't be able to drive any meaningful change www.ft.com/content/c855... via @FT

the FT had by Saturday night broken two stories showing that the Mandelsons had taken over $100,000 from the world’s most famous paedophile by Monday we were all writing various stories about him leaking sensitive state secrets to Epstein they could have easily pulled this puff piece in time

Quite funny that Starmer's allies are waking up to this point now … Cuts to Winter Fuel… not in the manifesto Disability benefit cuts… not in there either Cutting jury trials… also not there Digital ID… no mention Raising employers NI… nope Freezing tax threholds… nah Contracts with Palantir… no

BREAKING: Birmingham City Council 2day published Budget admits for 1st time pension fund refund of *£141million*. BCC thought it would be £42M only 10 wks ago. Employer Contributions: 16.5% - ridiculous. The refund *should* be over £400m in next 3 yrs. Watch out for Blog 2moro + John Clancy.

I'm not sure how this works as a defence. There is nothing in what Glasman said that Starmer couldn't have worked out for himself. Outsourcing basic political judgement to a chief of staff with a clear agenda of his own is hardly the mark of leadership, is it?

We've reached the "Maurice Glasman showed better judgement than the PM" stage of this crisis. Not sure there's any way back from that...

Is the UK’s industrial strategy really place based? New @rsablog.bsky.social blog on our recent @regionalstudies.bsky.social paper. Blog here: regions.regionalstudies.org/ezine/articl... paper here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... @regstud.bsky.social @rsaibis.bsky.social

BTW, that's not a quote from Chris. It's how I'm feeling about the impact of this - not so much on the Labour government and its chances of re-election but on British democracy itself. The whole thing stinks to high heaven and is an open goal for every tin-pot populist out there.

🚨NEW EVENT🚨 📈UK-EU regulatory divergence has increased in the financial services sector, despite aligmnent in other areas 🇬🇧🇪🇺 To make sense of where the sector fits into the UK-EU relationship, we've assembled a team of UK and EU experts 📆Tue 24 Feb, 1pm GMT 💻Online ukandeu.ac.uk/events/ukice...

Many farmers are 'struggling to make ends meet'. Katie Jones shares her own experience of the challenges many British farmers face. Watch the full discussion on how we can decarbonise farming without pushing down on farmer's living standards: buff.ly/KuGaKVh

⏳12 days to submit your application to the ARL, @rsaeurope.bsky.social and University of Amsterdam joint summer school. ⏳ 🔶 New Perspectives on Urban Infrastructures 📆 8-10 July School is aimed at 2 & 3 year PhD students. For more info & submit your application: www.rsaeurope.org/event/summer...

Interesting post on new manufacturing paradigms suggests place might not matter so much ? blog.spec.tech/p/the-art-of...

Breaking: UK Local Govt. Pension Scheme assets now pass £0.5Trillion, so Management expenses this year inevitably over £3B. Labour has prioritised taxpayer payment of £16B almost entirely to investment bankers. Today's blog with @johnclancy

who do *you* think should investigate Peter Mandelson? 1) the parliamentary authorities 2) Peter Mandelson 3) the police 4) the ghost of Jeffrey Epstein

The Times published this fantasy monologue from Milburn on the front page without bothering to do the most basic factchecking, and follows up with the mealy-mouthed and borderline incomprehensible correction above. Pathetic excuse for journalism.

The Times has now published a correction of some of the multiple errors in its front-page splash interview of Alan Milburn on NEETs/SEN. Of course, having published Milburn's invented numbers, they don't bother to give their readers the actual ones. Original article here: archive.ph/I0f49

here's tonight's FT splash, fresh from the Epstein files

Delighted our recent @regionalstudies.bsky.social paper ‘A critical review of the UK's Modern Industrial Strategy’ is getting so many reads and attention; it’s a call to arms for putting place at the centre of a modern industrial strategy @regstud.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Chinese car firm Chery to open European base in Liverpool @jasperjolly.bsky.social + comments by yours truly @ukandeu.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Call for Abstracts Open: 20th Regional Innovation Policies Conference, 17-18 Sept, 2026 Birmingham, UK #RegInnoPol26 @regstud.bsky.social @rsaeurope.bsky.social @rsaibis.bsky.social @prt1969.bsky.social @lisadepropris.bsky.social @fmfai.bsky.social @regionalwhispers.bsky.social ow.ly/8C6O50XSVAL

Six years on, geopolitics is impacting severely on Brexit choices. By @jreland.bsky.social and me ukandeu.ac.uk/brexit-in-a-...

So no announcement as yet on a JLR-Chery deal to enable Chery models to be made in the UK using spare JLR capacity. The business secretary Peter Kyle went public prematurely in talking to theFT about it last weekend, reflecting inexperience on his part.

Breaking news. UK LGPS Actuaries Firms' 'quadopoly' reported to Competition & Markets Authority. John Clancy & myself make Enterprise Act 2002 pt.4 request for a formal market study by the CMA. Full detail here in our latest blog: blogsfromtheblackstuff.com/bftbblog2601...

Solidarity to Minnesota. Discovered another one of their talented artists. His work is beautiful! #StandWithMinnesota Minnesota artist: Jim Musil @jimmusilpainter.bsky.social

A gentle riposte to @timleunig.bsky.social last Observer column which seemed to write off much of UK manufacturing. That would be a bad mistake. @makeuk.bsky.social @smmt-ukauto.bsky.social @unitetheunion.bsky.social @faradayinstitute.bsky.social blogsfromtheblackstuff.com/bftbblog2601...

Yeah! Ozzy Osbourne exhibition extended to Sunday 27 September 2026: Ozzy Osbourne (1948-2025): Working Class Hero | Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/exhibitions/...

Kyle is definitely in the mediocre bunch of Business Secretaries. Quite a lot of them both conservative and labour.

Great to see our @regionalstudies.bsky.social paper (with a stellar list of authors, me excluded…) getting lots of reads.: ‘critical review of the UK's Modern Industrial Strategy: lessons for ‘place-based’ policy.’ @https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00343404.2025.2597466

Why a JLR-Chery tie-up could be a win-win. New Auto Blog from the Blackstuff: blogsfromtheblackstuff.com/bftbautoblog...

Why a JLR-Chery tie-up could be a win-win. New Auto Blog from the Blackstuff: blogsfromtheblackstuff.com/bftbautoblog...