The "economy reset" is not going... that well

Yikes

People aren't able to have the children they say they want to have. It's a huge problem we can't afford *not* to solve. A short film with me, (aged 46),@PMArslanagic (aged 29) and Emina (age 0). www.youtube.com/watch?v=l21q...

The Telegraph reports on data I’ve obtained showing there are over 600k graduates on Universal Credit. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07...

My new longread on residential sorting - Is Britain Balkanising? www.neilobrien.co.uk/p/is-britain...

My piece on why the new sex education guidance will fail open.substack.com/pub/almondtr...

Most schools in the Netherlands have banned smartphones. The impact? "children found it easier to concentrate (75%), the social environment was better (59%) and some [schools] said results had improved (28%)." Unbelievable that England hasn't done the same. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

What a mess. They promised more teachers, they delivered fewer, so they are trying to move the goalposts. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07...

Even Schools Week talking about "shapeshifting" on this. If we had try to spin away declining teacher numbers like this Labour would have gone mad schoolsweek.co.uk/the-shapeshi...

V interesting www.tes.com/magazine/new...

I’ve obtained a load of new data under FOI about where in the country recent migrants have moved to. I use it to look at the impact on wages and rental costs. open.substack.com/pub/almondtr...

I have a longish two-part piece out, on what's gone wrong with sex education in schools. Part one is here: www.neilobrien.co.uk/p/sex-educat...

Ironically I am traumatised by this sign

Best thing on here

Let’s get smartphones out of the classroom. Our new film looks at the harm a smartphone-based childhood is doing to our kids. youtu.be/1EHCupqEUsk

Do read; you won’t regret it: @neildotobrien.bsky.social on what matters in life www.neilobrien.co.uk/p/stargazing

Whyyyyy would you say that

A non-political piece for a sunday www.neilobrien.co.uk/p/stargazing

Interesting thread

Bridget Phillipson wants to boast teacher numbers are up, even though teacher numbers are down, so she now says the loss of 2,900 primary school teachers doesn't count. I made a tool so you can look up what happened to primary school teachers in your constituency. www.datawrapper.de/_/kX04l/

It's amazing this central pledge has been binned so early in the parliament.

I have a short piece up on Labour's decision to abandon one of their main election manifesto promises: www.neilobrien.co.uk/p/labour-hav...

There's 2,900 fewer teachers in English primary & nursery schools than last year. I've made an interactive map. 47 constituencies have lost more than 5% of their teachers. Labour's response? To say they *no longer count* against their Manifesto promise of 6,500 extra teachers.

🔥🔥🔥🔥This is HUGE.🔥🔥🔥🔥 One of the central planks of Labour's Manifesto - abandoned - because teacher numbers are falling! There have lost 2,900 teachers in primary this year and their response is - to say they now don't count! @tesmagazine.bsky.social www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Massive mistake - this will damage public services, blow an 11,000-nurse hole in the NHS workforce plan and make it impossible to get in to the professions for kids who don't go to uni. No surprise they have announced this in recess feweek.co.uk/level-7-appr...

- Labour said they would hire 6,500 more teachers - They just announced schools will be left £400 million short on the underfunded pay deal (and NI) - That's the equivalent of sacking... 6,500 teachers.

Have visited so many schools that are being forced to make redundancies recently - bleak

The government will (inevitably) be forced to close at least some of the funding gap their broken promises have created - but by then schools will have sacked teachers ahead of school year 25/26 and set timetables. Mad.

👨‍🏫Don't sack Sir 👩‍🏫Don't dismiss Miss The government should keep their promises - and stop the teacher redundancies

On Sky News I talked about how the government's broken promises are putting 13,000 teacher jobs at risk

> Labour promised they would fully fund the National Insurance tax rise for schools - they didn't. > They promised they will fully fund the pay awards - they haven't. > The result is that teachers are getting sacked across the country:

Sadly lots of schools I speak to are making redundancies at the moment - partly as a consequence of the broken promise to fully fund the National Insurance increase & partly due to expected underfunding of both staff pay awards.

14% of drivers aged 65 and over now avoid driving at night because of dazzling headlights - and I'm getting more and more emails from constituent about this. I've written a short piece about it: www.neilobrien.co.uk/p/blinded-by...

This may be Phillipson's final, shameful, legacy - she's about to cut almost all higher (L7) apprenticeships. A leaked letter reveals she would have cut them all if other departments hadn't intervened, but will now preserve a tiny number for under 21s. MAD. feweek.co.uk/phillipson-t...

This is horrific, hope they can get out of the slide to full blown war

"Children born in August are 20% less likely to go to a Russell Group University than children born in September." - h/t @neildotobrien.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/almondtr...

A table you can stare at for a long time. Why is the FSM ‘gap’ so much bigger for White British kids than any other group? Why is the male-female gap is much bigger for black children and white British kids on FSM? Why do boys do worse? Do we need to rewrite Harry Potter with Ron as the swot?

-Nurseries, schools and colleges are in financial meltdown thanks to Labour's tax raid. -The Schools Bill, Ofsted reforms & apprenticeship cuts are all a disaster. -But the Education Secretary is spending her time not on this, but a briefing war with No.10 to try keep her job. Sad state of affairs

Though there is a long way to go on phonics in England it is a lot better than in Labour-run Wales, where the government still push Cueing, and the results are disastrous: www.itv.com/news/2024-09...

My new piece looks at the (unfinished) phonics revolution in primary schools, and why - despite rising standards - there is still a long way to go for many groups and places. www.neilobrien.co.uk/p/phonics-in...

My new piece looks at school improvement and income. Over the period 2010-2024 the biggest gains were in the bottom half of the income distribution - but particularly in IDACI deciles 2 to 5. (🧵... 1/5)

“Are we absolutely making the best use of resources for higher education that we could at the moment? I'm not convinced that’s true,” @neildotobrien.bsky.social tells @helenpacker.bsky.social & @twilliamsthe.bsky.social www.timeshighereducation.com/news/neil-ob...

Weirdly fascinating: time to see what's on the telly right now in in Albania or Eswatini tv.garden

Govt nursery anno today is so micro and dishonest: -Spending £37m, but the NI increase COSTS nurseries over half a *billion*. -Will create 6,000 places (0.06% of total), most of which are term time only - Fees for parents are rising 10% & many nurseries are on edge of closing

It's wild that a notionally social democratic government has focussed its main tax rise on... low income workers

Government making a £15 micro-announcement on nurseries today while increasing tax on nurseries by over half a *billion* All parents will see is fees going up 10% (if they can even get a place)

Blow For Keir Starmer As Labour Plummets To Lowest Ever Level In Shock Poll More than half of voters now support either the Tories or Reform UK with the local elections just a month away. www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/huge-b...

Interesting report

Good piece on how the NI increase is hammering nurseries www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The NI increase kicks in at the end of this week. OBR say 76% is passed through into lower wages. So someone on £13k loses £500. Someone on £9K loses 5% of their income. Amazing that a left wing government has gone with a tax increase that's laser-targetted on low paid workers.