Support good teaching by incentivising research? How to identify research-intensive universities?

If London reduces the ‘affordable’ target, the price of development land will rise and there will be no boost to house building.

@dag How common is it for one party to get permission to appeal against the granting of permission to appeal to the other party? Could PA appeal to UKSC if Court of Appeal finds for the Home Office?

Why do “senior no 10 figures” spend their time briefing this sort of stuff? Doesn’t serve good government but maybe is self-serving? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Perceptions have real effects www.kcl.ac.uk/policy-insti...

Members of my family were tortured and killed in the Holocaust because countries like Britain said it wasn't their problem. Everyone said never again. And here we are. It's sickening beyond belief.

IKEA Brighton joins the metropolitan birdshit trend.

As everyone says, a brilliant piece. But since Kenny Smith is from the east side of the Isle of Lewis, I would like to be sure he’s not related to my west-side Smith grandfather.

Hi all, just sent this out. Trump and Putin tried hard to corner Zelensky and put him in a terrible position. In return he has shown that the best way to deal with both bullies is to stand up to them and dont play by their rules. It’s a lesson Europe must learn now. open.substack.com/pub/phillips...

A must read: @sonia-sodha.bsky.social in the Observer today www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

16th April 2025, the day women in the UK got their rights back.

Because I'd worked with Truss I knew there really was nothing there at all. But it was so hard to get people to accept it. "She must have something because she's about to become PM". Nope, not at all. That's not how it works.

"Trump tells the American people that tariffs are a tax on foreigners. However, his own USTR disagrees and assumes that a significant burden falls on American consumers." - Our latest blog examines the USTR's analysis accompanying Trump's tariff announcement: www.uktpo.org/2025/04/04/w...

My take on what’s wrong with the USTR analysis of Trump’s tariffs: www.uktpo.org/2025/04/04/w...

Sussex’s VC has written for us about the “Kafkaesque” OFS finding that led to the uni getting a record fine

Must-read letter from Columbia academic lawyers about government demands: open.substack.com/pub/adamtooz...

Not yet passed on, but in the Sunday Times which CCHQ does not read?

Question for macroeconomists: spending from frozen/stranded assets does not increase borrowing or tax, so is it equivalent to monetary expansion?

Someone should write a thesis on the use of ‘Australian-style’ to sell political proposals in UK

Resisting the protection racketeers as well as the Russian aggressors.

Surely Ukraine’s real allies need to support it against this protection racketeering?

Powerful pessimism from @rafaelbehr.bsky.social; especially the final sentence.

A good one-sentence summary of why universities’ response to the 2012 fee rise was a disaster.

Good article, but is this true of Victorian Britain? www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

“unclear”; really?

What could possibly go wrong?

Since the EU proposals on youth mobility are consistent with the red lines, the government should be happy to look at them too.

This paper by the late, great Nick Crafts, on competition and productivity in the UK, well worth a read: cepr.org/voxeu/column...

Lewes castle, midday today

Excellent entry by The Economist into the competition for the most ludicrous moderation decision by Bluesky. But I think @naomicunningham.bsky.social is still in the lead.

"It's impossible not to know what's going on in Gaza..it threatens to stain Jewish history forever". ‪ A moving piece by distinguished Israeli economists Ariel Rubinstein (NYU/Tel Aviv) [ @arielrubinstein.bsky.social ] and Motty Perry (Warwick). [Correct non-paywalled link here]

1/ So, where were we? Oh yep, #duvetknowitschristmas. Firstly, some admin: Twitter/X has evidently been run into the ground by a preening, self-radicalised clot, so while there's a slim possibility that this annual celebration might be thriving over there, I won't know cos I won't be looking.

Why does the #ForWomenScotland v Scottish Government case heard at UK Supreme Court last month matter? Do MPs need to get their heads around it? (Yes, they do.) #WhatIsAWoman Read this one page 👇

Latest triumph of Bluesky moderation

Good sense (as usual) from Tim Leunig open.substack.com/pub/timleuni...

Should we have a competition for the most risible warning from the Bluesky Moderation Service?

Thanks for warning about adult content, BlueSky moderation, but at my age I think I can cope with Schiele.

There's a decisions ministers could take today which would demonstrate action in support of growth and Whitehall would be empowered. That is to align with EU goods regulations unless there's a good reason not. Who is not making that decision? Whitehall, or Ministers?

Since UK universities are short of overseas-fee students atm, and many don’t have enough home-fee applicants to fill their places, surely a scheme that brought in more home-fee students from the EU would be good for UK HE?

"To have a certificate that transforms a man into a woman is, says @naomicunningham.bsky.social , “as stupid as…[giving someone] a certificate to say that they are dead when they are alive or that they are alive when they are dead”." www.economist.com/britain/2024... @economist.com

British Transport Police policy in shocking breach of human rights They say a £5 certificate gives a male police officer "statutory power" to strip search women. How on earth did we get here? www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11...

Why does this balanced and informative note have a warning label? Bluesky moderators need to sort this out.

I have to admire LinkedIn’s view of the breadth of my skills.

The Reeves plan for local government pensions is not very radical. The really radical step would be to shift unfunded public sector schemes on to a funded basis, creating new source of investment funding. (1/3)

Y'days post: The Markets, the Budget, the Media and electing a Fascist mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2024/11/the-... In countries like the UK and US where half the media promotes political propaganda, the rest of the media needs to forget balance and provide good information and expose misinformation

Grim but realistic reading from @samfr

This (via @gsoh31.bsky.social) is the best critique of Acemoglu/Johnson/Robinson I've read by far. Really should be read by all economists... www.ft.com/content/1e25...

Another must-read from @samfr.bsky.social