"More young adults to leave UK because of low salaries and rising tax burden" - on.ft.com/498VbP7 I really don't understand why the FT carries stories based largely on quotes from wealth managers. It's very thin stuff

Manufacturing accounts for 8% of UK economy: should we try & increase this? Yes (imv), but it's important to distinguish some good arguments for this from bad ones (and recognise some uncertainties) my blogpost: softmachines.org?p=3180

travelling down this road, knowing the delights of An Teallach are only minutes away...bliss bsky.app/profile/74fr...

"the uniquely British problem of working-age people who do not work" In fact, the UK working age labour force participation rate (63.1%) in 2023 was higher than the US (62.6), Germany (61.5), Japan (62.9), France (56.3), Italy (49.9) and OECD average (60.9) www.heraldscotland.com/politics/vie...

Peak firework season seems like a good time to recall Baumol's advice that we worry too much about the rising relative costs of good things (health, social care) and not nearly enough about the declining relative costs of bad things (fireworks, guns, cars)

Mayfield Review looks serious and balanced. "Employers must be in the lead. Some may resist that message amid tight margins and slow growth. But many already recognise they are carrying the cost of ill-health every day" assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6909fa...

find myself having to make this point on a daily basis bsky.app/profile/path...

Partly, but it's also a fairly rational antipathy to grifters and buffoons.

I've written a couple of things over the last days about how the government and much of Westminster remaining on X as the platform becomes increasingly toxic is having consequences for our politics...

"...the most damning assumption is that the country is so stupid, so sycophantic and so passive that it won’t mind that Andrew has received no real punishment since Giuffre’s memoir appeared" www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

New post out: "The worst social policy ever" Today we have a guest post from @ruthpatrick0.bsky.social on the abomination that is the two-child limit and why Labour need to scrap it ASAP. Lots of data but also powerful testimony. (Free to read) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...

Average person’s life saw ‘no meaningful improvement’ over past year www.independent.co.uk/news/busines... Last chance to tune into our webinar on this topic with @graceblakeley.substack.com at 10am this morning: carnegieuk.org/event/how-is...

Extensive coverage of @ipprscotland.bsky.social polling in today's @heraldscotland.bsky.social We wanted to know about the public’s voting intentions, their policy priorities and whether they believe the Scottish Parliament can deliver for them...🧵 www.heraldscotland.com/news/2557155...

🚨 NEW: Reform UK is on course to return 22 MSPs at next year’s Holyrood election — making Nigel Farage’s party the second largest in the Scottish Parliament, a new Survation poll suggests. @heraldscotland.bsky.social www.heraldscotland.com/news/2557131...

🚸Too many children are missing out on the child maintenance support they deserve. It’s time for change! We @ipprscotland.bsky.social alongside @opfs.org.uk , @fifegingerbread.bsky.social are calling for a fairer, safer system. 📄 opfs.org.uk/betterforeve... #TransformingChildMaintenance

🕰️Our tenth anniversary conference is exactly a week away. If you haven't already registered, this is your chance. Seats are limited.

Very limited places available for @ipprscotland.bsky.social 10th Anniversary Conference on 29 October. Agenda and registration details here: luma.com/event/manage...

Even in this place, I feel the sheer scale of foreign aid being demolished isn't fully appreciated. As it stands, it is perhaps *the* most catastrophic change to preventable deaths in our lifetimes, and the salience - even in presumably friendly spaces - is basically zero apnews.com/article/myan...

Yes I do Yes of course Impossible question bsky.app/profile/feli...

There is no need for a moral panic about the UK's welfare system. Far from perfect but recent discourse is nuts Spending is controlled, not spiralling Worklessness is near record lows My column www.ft.com/content/ee67...

In one crisp para — & the 2 charts he highlights — @chrisgiles.ft.com bursts a huge number of “welfare” myths www.ft.com/content/ee67...

A much needed corrective by @chrisgiles.ft.com to the "welfare is out of control" narrative, drawing on research by my colleague @benbgeiger.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/ee67...

We're hiring!💥 IPPR North are looking for a senior researcher who has big ideas for the future of our regions. Join us at this pivotal time for our economy and democracy. Based in Manchester, apply by 31st October. www.ippr.org/jobs/senior-...

Today's stats (Jun-Aug) point to a deteriorating Scottish labour market: 16-64yrs employment down 20k on quarter (-16k women, -4k men) Unemployment up 5k (women +5k) Inactivity up 15k (men +5k, women +11k) 16-64 rates: Employment 74.3% (74.5% May-Jun) Unemployment 4% (3.6) Inactivity 22.7% (22.8)

What does a Nobel Prize on ‘innovation-driven economic growth’ actually reward? A historian’s perspective on how to deal with the Nobel frenzy beatricecherrier.wordpress.com/2025/10/13/w...

It's hard to help Americans left behind because so much of US identity is rooted in individualism. The average American conservative holds all three positions at once: — Virtue signals about supporting US manufacturing — Against raising the minimum wage — Buys foreign imports because they're cheap

Standing room only for @ipprscotland.bsky.social SNP conference fringe on 'GB Energy and the acceleration of renewables in Scotland' with Stephen Flynn MP, Damien Zachlod, ENBW and Zoe Holiday, Community Energy Scotland and @davehawkey.bsky.social

“Edinburgh’s a fairly conservative, insurancy-type town and it doesn’t exactly rave all that much except during the Festival, so we went to Glasgow...Britain’s Chicago!" V good piece on the ISB's Hangman's Beautiful Daughter in @heraldscotland.bsky.social www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

This is outrageous. There will soon be no serious broadcast media left in Scotland. Would be nice to see some cross party pressure on BBC Scotland to stop this nonsense share.google/yBZPKbXufZeJ...

📢 We are in Aberdeen this weekend at the SNP conference, hosting three fringe events. A conference pass is required to attend the events. Hope to see you there. Details below ⤵️

"The forthcoming climate plan must be built on sound financial and democratic pillars. That means a clear role for taxes, so we share transition costs fairly rather than leaving individuals to do it alone." - @davehawkey.bsky.social responds to today's climate targets www.ippr.org/media-office...

"Now Scotland can claim to some of the great thinkers of yester-year. The country of Adam Smith, the father of conservatism" ok, who's gonna break the news about Edmund Burke to Russell Findlay? www.conservatives.com/news/scotlan...

OK, let's take this seriously. I had an odd half an hour and via Apple Books had a quick look at the three claims I knew most about - two re the post-Brexit bilateral preferential trade agreements replicated from the EU versions and one about cheaper bananas. All are wrong or wildly implausible. 1/n

“Everyone thought we’d come in and there were going to be these huge costs we could cut away but there just aren’t" Tempting to laugh but, frustratingly, such delusions about public sector spending/reform are very widely shared across political parties. on.ft.com/4mNVKkw via @FT

Essential @abenewman.bsky.social thread on an important - and hopefully catalytic - speech bsky.app/profile/aben...

1/Striking speech by Macron: The future of European democracy depends on taking back its digital information space. A remarkable turn from Silicon Valley as source of enlightenment to being a purveyor of slop. And the stakes aren't just ad revenue but the nation. defenddemocracy.eu/macron-democ...

This is great. Cory D nails the business model in all its dismal detail. He had consistently been excellent doing a job, that let's be honest, professors in business schools should have done.

"It'd be a hugely welcome developmnt to discover that we have not merely reached social media saturation point but that the experience has been degraded to such an extent that it's shocked people out of their stupor...causing them to pivot to healthier uses of their time" www.ft.com/content/a072...

It's just not true that "the active interventionist and redistributive state policies that would be needed to tackle regional and household inequalities, insecure labour markets, and hard-pressed public services appear unavailable to governments aiming to remain globally competitive."

New article - Guy Steven’s, taste-maker extraordinaire (just ask Pete Townshend, The Clash, the Stones, Steve Marriott). Here - davehaslam.substack.com/p/a-half-for...

One week to go before the Jimmy Reid Memorial Lecture with Professor Ghassan Abu-Sittah talking about the Gaza crisis. For further details and ticket information: reidfoundation.scot.

1. This piece by Roge Karma is absolutely worth reading - www.theatlantic.com/economy/arch... . If the Supreme Court allows Trump to fire Lisa Cook, the consequences are likely to be disastrous. key points:

Fucksake, this #discourse AGAIN? Yes this platform is smaller, very observant. But I don't spend all day being force fed Nazi slop or getting harassed by Nazis on a Nazi platform specifically engineered to amplify Nazis. It's not a hard decision, let's all just move on.

this important, highly topical @benbgeiger.bsky.social blog deserves to be very widely read bsky.app/profile/benb...

"Britain’s attitude to paedophilia—obsessive, yet careless—is dragging Westminster to a dark place" www.economist.com/britain/2025...

We're delighted to be a part of the Scottish Transport Summit organised by @transportscotland.bsky.social. After excellent talks by Cabinet Secretary @fionahyslop.bsky.social and Cllr Gail MacGregor, IPPR Scotland director @stephenboydippr.bsky.social gives a keynote lecture on transport & economy.

It’s like they read @davidsligar.bsky.social’s excellent article and decided that they really like means testing. Not surprising really, you’d expect nothing more from them, it’s more surprising how popular it is with Labour. westernsydneywonk.wordpress.com/2021/06/05/m...

In Edinburgh on October 7 with @lighthousebks.bsky.social for anyone up there. There is a lot of commonality between Edinburgh's housing crisis and London's, so I'm looking forward to a good discussion lighthousebookshop.com/events/homes...

We have published our Fiscal Sustainability Perspectives paper considering how climate change mitigation could affect the Scottish Government’s fiscal sustainability. Read it here: bit.ly/46hZaFV This thread summarises some key points from the report. 1/4

A more complicated and sophisticated economy needs more complicated and sophisticated regulatory structures. You can't prove anything with a chart like this.