I saw a neat four box model recently that did left v right and maintenance of status quo v disruption. Reform and the Greens now very much on the side of disruption but the former gets a lot more attention. Fair I think to say Labour is status quo. I don't think we really know about Tories.

Reactions to the new Archbishop of Canterbury show the right isn't now the party of the establishment - the left is. - Almost all comments from those on the right are critical. - Almost all from those on the left are positive. Not a criticism of either side - an observation.

Three years of blogging. Growth, levelling up and globalisation. www.edrith.co.uk/p/three-year...

Fascinating, data-rich piece here by @benansell.bsky.social on why our political parties seem to wish a different set of voters to the ones they actually have were voting for them. benansell.substack.com/p/british-po...

This is the sort of basic public service improvement that will be noticed by millions of people. Ending gross and obvious dysfunctionality. It is what Government should be prioritising. Good on Wes Streeting for pushing it through. And how typical that the BMA opposed it!

Starmer gave a pretty good speech yesterday which has given him the headlines that he no doubt wanted. But I doubt spending most of Conference raising the salience of his opponent's best issue will work out well for Labour the longer term.

Three years of blogging. Growth, levelling up and globalisation. www.edrith.co.uk/p/three-year...

So if Labour want 2/3 young people to go to 'higher level' technical learning, university or apprenticeships. And the target for technical and apprenticeships is 10%. That means far from abandoning the 50% to university target, Labour has potentially just raised it - to 57%!

Another view (my view) is that the immigration system should aim to maximise the economic and fiscal benefit to those already resident. The logical consequence to this is an immigration system with high barriers such as an income threshold or post graduate degree, combined with welcoming attitudes.

On the morning of Keir Starmer's conference speech here's a new post on an odd psychopathology in British politics - our main parties don't like the people who vote for them - the dreaded Professional Managerial Class. And so they are acting out like a divorced dad seeking cooler voters. 1/n

New maintenance grants for poorest students. Importantly, only for those on priority courses. Funded by levy on international students - ensuring the benefits from those who come to study here are shared more broadly. Details to come but this looks positive.

Refreshing from Matthew Syed on how politics has moved to the left in the past 20 years www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

What's the best evidence - akin to the Rutgers papers on TikTok (i.a. chart below) - that the X algorithm is - or isn't! - biased in favour of certain topics?*

New snap poll shows the support for ID cards has vanished. With the 1.5 million(!) petition it provides further evidence for yesterday's thread. The ostensible majority in favour is soft. Those against feel very strongly. And it being championed by a deeply unpopular government is a millstone.

New Edu-Substack launched by the always thoughtful Will Bickford-Smith. His first piece on 'a new Minister's starter guide' is well worth a read - and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next. wbickfordsmith.substack.com

An EU youth mobility scheme could be OK if it's like the ones we have with AU/NZ: can come to work, travel or study, time-limited, no benefits, no subsidy. If it means opening up the benefit book, paying their student loans or taxpayer-funded jollies then no, thank you.

A thing that is IMO really interesting about people that I have only learnt thanks to social media, are the large number of people who think “searching for people saying bad things about you” is the same as “those people saying bad things about you to your face”.

Good article here, and bangs a drum I always endorse. Geography. Is. Not. Destiny. Geography determines what you start with. Politics, culture and society determine what you end up with.

Do small countries on the edge of regional hegemons enjoy an advantage in nimbleness and agility? Or are they crippled by reduced access to the larger market? We dig in to the data to find out. www.edrith.co.uk/p/geography-...

Some args I see against universal ID: 1. “I don’t like the way the govt is arguing for it, making it all about immigration”. I’m not keen on a lot of this govt’s comms but the route to a majority on this issue runs through more authoritarian voters so it makes sense to go big on framing like this

ID card debate is fascinating. Polls suggest a majority support (Graph: YouGov). But Reform, Lib Dem, Conservatives, Corbyn all strongly oppose - plus host of diverse campaigners. Can the supposed public support withstand that sort of united onslaught?

Do small countries on the edge of regional hegemons enjoy an advantage in nimbleness and agility? Or are they crippled by reduced access to the larger market? We dig in to the data to find out. www.edrith.co.uk/p/geography-...

Delighted to be on Radio 4 this afternoon with @benansell.bsky.social to discuss zero sum thinking in politics. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Coming up at 4pm on Radio 4, Rethink Winners and Losers where we look at the idea of a ‘zero-sum mindset’ something that affects people of all political backgrounds. With Stephanie Stancheva, Parth Patel, @igmansfield.bsky.social, Patricia Andrews Fearon and Cleo Watson.

Its this sort of thing that makes the State Visit worth it. Yes, it was unendifying but if it saves a single Ukrainian life then it was entirelybthe right call.

First time I've seen Labour below 20% in the poll of polls. Real question over whether 'floors' for party support are a meaningful concept in the modern age.

Yup. The rate limiting step in almost every context I've seen is attention. And you need a teacher to direct this. Almost every tech model starts from the wrong point because it assumes children will want to study the material and won't need their attention managed.

Twitter obsesses over Bluesky in the manner of a rejected partner convinced that they might still win their ex over Bluesky obsesses over Twitter in the manner of the partner who left, but who didn't get the last word and can't let it go

The reason why assessment matters is that it forces you to think about what the curriculum really means. As Dylan Wiliam says, assessment operationalises curriculum. substack.nomoremarking.com/p/lessons-fr...

Excellent, if alarming, piece by @samfr.bsky.social on the influence of TikTok and other short-form video sites on politics. samf.substack.com/p/three-seco...

Great read on the new Home Secretary's decisiveness. Rewriting the modern slavery guidance within days. Turns out, you can just do things. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

I hope those who've spent years glibly arguing 'free speech doesn't include hate speech' and 'freedom of speech doesn't include freedom from consequences' are happy now the Trump administration is using *these exact arguments* to cancel opponents and get presenters taken off air.

I maybe have too free of a morning.

'Maybe this example isn’t true, but the fact that you believed it shows that something very like it is going on.’ Some sort of lies are more common on the right - do you agree? Also: more on THAT civil service internship scheme, and culture wars as memetic traps. www.edrith.co.uk/p/thoughts-i...

Do the right and the left lie in different ways? Are internships more like a job or like an open day? And why do some subjects function as memetic traps for smart people? The first edition of Thoughts in Brief. www.edrith.co.uk/p/thoughts-i...

Do the right and the left lie in different ways? Are internships more like a job or like an open day? And why do some subjects function as memetic traps for smart people? The first edition of Thoughts in Brief. www.edrith.co.uk/p/thoughts-i...

A stark warning to all those who've glibly repeated the mantra, 'hate speech is not free speech.' Those in power will always, always, abuse that power to outlaw and clamp down on speech they dislike. www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGvt...

Essential problem has been the primacy of politics over policy, which has led to a government that is really unpopular but hasn’t really *bought* much with its unpopularity: www.ft.com/content/6567...

The ur-text for this is the Simpsons episode where Homer is elected sanitation commissioner, and is wildly popular until he runs out of money after a month. Governments always have options for short-term popularity at long-term cost.

This exemplifies the challenge for those on the left hoping for an anti-Reform coalition that includes Labour. Speaking as a Tory who watched the 2024 election play out, too many people are underestimating just how unpopular an incumbent government can become. And it's still only one year in.

If you want to defend a human rights regime that prevents people being deported to Afghanistan. Then that same regime needs to not prevent us deporting people to France. Either fix the system, or see it swept away.

Explaining the Higgs Boson to a Tory science minister - in 1993. One for all the politico/science nerds out there!

Civil Service Numbers continue to creep upwards. There were 517,000 (full time equivalent) civil servants at the end of June, 4,000 up on a year earlier - and 133,000 more than in the summer of 2016 when there was a referendum ...

Averages are great. But sometimes a focus on the average is misleading. To know if you're producing too many of something, one should look instead at the marginal benefit. Those urging university expansion and mass immigration plead the average in vain. www.edrith.co.uk/p/the-fallac...

They say that the 'average' graduate sees a good return. Or that the 'average' immigrant is net economically beneficial. But as any fool knows, to assess if the current numbers are too high, we need to look at the marginal benefit - not the average. www.edrith.co.uk/p/the-fallac...

Citroën has some great product placement going on in Ballet Shoes.

In the last week or two I've noticed a few people (to the left of me) who had been just posting on here going back to posting on here and X. Curious as to the reason, if this matches any of you reading this and want to share? (Not criticising: I also post on both).

A free society relies on the premise that people can speak out without fear or humiliation. No more political violence. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlIv... This is really good from Bernie Sanders (not words I often say!). But seriously, worth listening to the whole thing.

Smart words by John Womersley here: www.timeshighereducation.com/news/could-r...