They should have advertised who everyone was playing for, throughout. Popped it under their names everytime they were in the diary room. The opportunity for tens and tens and tens of millions of pounds of free advertising for charities, totally wasted #CelebrityTraitors

The Liverpool City Region has been growing strongly in recent years – not too far behind Greater Manchester and third in the leaderboard of Northern productivity growth. But why is this the case? And what can we learn for the UK productivity problem? Short 🧵 1/5

Hurrah!

‘We would never have had that without devolution’ Susan Hinchcliffe, Leader of Bradford, on the investment in transport, skills, regeneration and culture in Bradford. At @instituteforgovernment.org.uk DevoLab event this morning.

Points to need to treat LCR, Cheshire & GM to work together to support their shared life sciences & speciality chemicals sectors. Collaborative initiatives like IBIC should help... news.liverpool.ac.uk/2023/10/06/5...

The @centreforcities.bsky.social's Climbing the Summit report said "Making our big cities simply average would go a long way to bridge the prosperity gap..." @lpoolcityregion.bsky.social shows can be done. What can other regions learn from their experience ? www.centreforcities.org/blog/the-uk-...

“Each decade we shiftily declare we have buried class and each decade the coffin stands empty.”

The Liverpool City Region has been growing strongly in recent years – not too far behind Greater Manchester and third in the leaderboard of Northern productivity growth. But why is this the case? And what can we learn for the UK productivity problem? Short 🧵 1/5

The Reform UK-led council in Kent shows exactly what a Reform UK government would look like. David Lammy: "Reform said that Kent County Council would be the best advert for what a Reform government would look like. "They're delivering on the chaos that they promised."

Peak Autumn

We’re beating global competition for contracts to build more ships and planes here in the UK. From Norway to Türkiye, what do these deals mean for British jobs? Let me explain 👇🏻

There is little public understanding about what local authorities spend their money on (ie principally adult social care). Labour Together's polling finds people think it takes up 13% of council spending, in fact it's 39%. And they overestimate admin costs. www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

A total and utter hero

Only one upland area of England remains an unprotected landscape. So why is the South Pennines area between Leeds and Manchester a tricky area to deal with? Read more about the unique history of the place and what it means for the future in the post below. open.substack.com/pub/futureno...

In case you're wondering, our town #HebdenBridge isn't in a national park. Something mulled on by @jpspencer.bsky.social in this post. Not the first time a designation has been proposed for the South Pennines; an area named after an @ordnancesurvey.bsky.social map. 🙃

Only one upland area of England remains an unprotected landscape. So why is the South Pennines area between Leeds and Manchester a tricky area to deal with? Read more about the unique history of the place and what it means for the future in the post below. open.substack.com/pub/futureno...

Reform has lost 1 in 20 (5%) of the 677 councillors it gained in May elections In Kent alone, it has lost 14% of its councillors... -11 have been expelled -6 suspended -9 have left the party -1 has defected to UKIP -9 have resigned from the council altogether www.politicshome.com/news/article...

Nigel Farage says this summer’s Raise the Colours movement was led by ‘ordinary people’ expressing their patriotism. Our reporters in five cities had a look and that’s not what we found.

This analysis featured in @yorkshirepost.co.uk today. York and North Yorkshire productivity was the lowest in the North from 2019-23. But with a new mayor from 2024 and a local growth plan now in place, we’d expect this to make a difference in coming years. www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/politic...

The Pennines are an unbroken chain of upland areas from near Stoke to Scotland. But looking closely at a map of protected landscapes like national parks – the chain is broken between the Peaks and the Dales. Why is this one area not protected - and should it be? Short 🧵 1/3

Exactly right. Voters can only hold MPs to account if they understand what they're doing. Yesterday's ECHR vote was a "ten-minute bill": a way of raising an issue in a short speech with almost zero chance of becoming law. That even many journalists misunderstood this is bad for trust in politics.

Great to hear from @mayorofgm.bsky.social and @joshsimonsmp.bsky.social at the @goodgrowthfdn.bsky.social ‘Big Northern Growth Reception’. Andy B talked about the resurgence of growth in the M62 corridor - and the need to build housing, infrastructure and skills pathways to deliver for all.

Nice piece on the special urban/rural character of the ‘south Pennines’ with its industrial heritage and wild moors and hills. From my 19thC terraced house in a small mill town it’s just 10 mins to this

V interesting. I grew up in this area in what used to be a very industrial (cotton and paper) town. A childhood of mills, chapels and walks on the beautiful moors.

All prepared to trot out my pat response that national parks represent a reactionary and nostalgic anti-urbanism that's incompatible with the South Pennines ("industrial Pennines" in the 45 Dower report) but as JP very reasonably points out that won't do for an area that's just different.

Government has published one of those quiet but important documents that might get overlooked as it is not 'newsy'. The headline finding is that £1 of public R&D investment generates £8 in net economic benefits for the UK over the long term www.gov.uk/government/p...

The Pennines are an unbroken chain of upland areas from near Stoke to Scotland. But looking closely at a map of protected landscapes like national parks – the chain is broken between the Peaks and the Dales. Why is this one area not protected - and should it be? Short 🧵 1/3

Wind power has cut £104bn from UK energy costs since 2010, study finds

Labour’s transformational Renters’ Rights Bill has just received Royal Assent – that means it is now an Act of Parliament and the law. The Act levels decisively the playing field between landlord and tenant and will improve the lives of millions of renters across the country.

The select committee report on the asylum hotel shambles highlights a point I made repeatedly - the absurd gimicks pursued by the last govt like Rwanda took resources away from running the actual system properly.

The splitting of the atom, the first proper nuclear power station and most of the UK’s remaining ones are all Northern. In fact, Heysham is likely the country’s largest source of clean energy as pointed out by @lizzicollinge.bsky.social More history here: futurenorth.substack.com/p/we-split-t...

According to some, the first splitting of the atom happened in Manchester. Cumbria was also the site of the world’s first large scale nuclear power station – and the North is still home to three of the UK’s five operating nuclear power stations. 1/2 ☢️🧵

I'm very proud that with Heysham 1&2 my constituency is apparently the one making the most clean energy in the whole of the UK!

According to some, the first splitting of the atom happened in Manchester. Cumbria was also the site of the world’s first large scale nuclear power station – and the North is still home to three of the UK’s five operating nuclear power stations. 1/2 ☢️🧵

Why is North Yorkshire the only part of the North that saw a recent fall in productivity? And which part of England saw the biggest fall? Hint: is one corner of London. 👇 open.substack.com/pub/futureno...

Why is North Yorkshire the only part of the North that saw a recent fall in productivity? And which part of England saw the biggest fall? Hint: is one corner of London. 👇 open.substack.com/pub/futureno...

Digital veterans cards are launching today. An optional digital version of a veteran's card will be available for +2m people today, via the government's One Login app. It will initially be for in-person use, with online use coming soon. It is part of the blueprint for a digital government. 1/2

The strange case of North Yorkshire Why is it the only part of the North seeing a recent decrease in productivity and what can we learn? Below is the bottom of the leaderboard for recent productivity stats - will leave others to look into why London is doing so badly. 1/5 🧵

The official data on productivity shows Britain's big cities have decoupled from the national economy. But while the big cities outside the capital are roaring ahead, London is stagnating. But can we trust this data? Are our regional divides closing? Our new paper investigates:

The strange case of North Yorkshire Why is it the only part of the North seeing a recent decrease in productivity and what can we learn? Below is the bottom of the leaderboard for recent productivity stats - will leave others to look into why London is doing so badly. 1/5 🧵

The official data suggests a productivity convergence between London and other large cities for the first time in more than a decade 📊 ⚠️ But there are reasons to be cautious about this trend. Read more👇 buff.ly/rIYgRG9

"We’ve talked a lot about how X will bring about the end of the world, and it might. I just worry we should talk more about the way the internet is systematically stripping us of our capacity to feel empathy, too." Written about how we all need to be nicer to each other (especially me)

Why do other global cities already charge visitors while English cities can’t? In our latest Re:Think, Researcher @coryberman.bsky.social explores how a modest tourist tax could fund local infrastructure and mark a step toward real devolution. re-state.co.uk/rethink/engl...

All of the places in this map - and more - should have trams. We just need to let local areas get on with building things again, as they do in other countries. Read more about how to get there here: futurenorth.substack.com/p/let-tracy-...

All of the places in this map - and more - should have trams. We just need to let local areas get on with building things again, as they do in other countries. Read more about how to get there here: futurenorth.substack.com/p/let-tracy-...

Are there any live proposals to get DSIT (and/or CLG?) to create a Civic Tech Fund? An initiative to support the UK’s civic tech movement (pro-social platforms like Library of Things, Olio, Park Run, etc) and shared infrastructure for community organising. 1/n

The story of the Leadboilers of Linthwaite dates back to the turmoil of the English Civil Wars in the mid-1600s. In the uplands, where the land yielded little but sheep, local people known as Linfiters—scraped a living however they could. After battles had swept through, they scoured

The map below shows how far behind France and Germany we are in mass transit. In France, every place with over 150,000 people has some form of tram or metro. But if mayoral areas can 'become builders' as @tracybrabinmayorwy.bsky.social puts it in the foreword, we can turn this around. 🧵 1/9