Policy lessons on how to have children, and how to bribe them

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Afternoon all, A moderately quiet week politics/economics wise. Which is nice. Unless you’re a renter hoping we’d actually stop the ‘landlord evicting you for fun’ thing, given we’ve got yet another delay to the Renters Reform Bill. There has been the ‘how much should pensions go up next April’ row, but even that was half … Continued

Britain’s big search for profits, puffers and prisoners

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Afternoon all, The G20 in India will get all the weekend headlines, but without sounding too parochial we shouldn’t be moving off the story of Birmingham quite so quickly. Way too many people in Westminster sounded surprised the city council’s declared bankruptcy. And there’s been no discussion of the city’s even more important deficits on … Continued

Brooding over beer and crunching the cricket numbers

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Afternoon all, I’m all for some routine in life. It helps contain the existential angst. So at least the Bank of England is helping with their now traditional monthly interest rate rise. Obviously that’s less useful on the financial angst front, but you can’t have it all. I’m down in Dorset today and didn’t see … Continued

Close encounters of the productive kind

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Afternoon all, Last weekend I wrote a short article on Britain’s dangerous habit of getting distracted public policy wise. Luckily (for the article’s accuracy, not for Britain) the last week has rather proved the point. The response to the ULEZ/Uxbridge row? Government playing footsie with the idea of scrapping plans to phase out new petrol/diesel … Continued

French fears and WFH Anglo-Saxons

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Afternoon all, Turns out by-elections are just like sports days at ‘woke’ primary schools – everyone gets to win something. Uxbridge was clearly a bit of a surprise, but Conservative politicos of an optimistic bent should probably take more heart from this week’s inflation news than the west London result. I’m no soothsayer, but it’s … Continued

Longer working lives and parental worries about pay rises

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Afternoon all, So… I’m all for yesterday’s public sector pay announcements for bringing to an end teacher strikes traumatic home-schooling flashbacks. But it’s worth pondering two rather less self-centred implications. First, the price of public sector workers is up but with little extra funding for these pay rises the quantity is likely heading down. Today is probably … Continued

Binge watching pensioners and binge reading kids

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Afternoon all, The cost of living crisis got real this week: Nigel Farage hasn’t even got the £3 million minimum savings needed to stop Coutts taking back control his debit card. Forget foodbank usage being up 50 per cent vs pre-pandemic levels, this is what real hardship looks like (you’d think from the huge media attention). … Continued

Britain’s tax roller-coaster and levelling down North London

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Afternoon all, Another Etonian resignation this morning. We need to be careful because at this rate social mobility may get a real boost. The danger is real – remember no Etonian managed to become Prime Minister between 1964 and 2010. Disgraceful. Luckily the Conservative Party/country has got back into feudalism the habit of electing them … Continued

Young German radicals and misleading comparisons with Romania

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Afternoon all, I’m on the way to a big cliff. Hopefully to climb up, not jump off, but that was yet another terrible week for the British economy. Starring out at a never ending and choppy Atlantic from the top of jagged Cornish granite seems an appropriate response to the latest dollop of doom. Rishi’s … Continued

CrapGPT and an historic mortgage crunch

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Afternoon all, Quite a week. Mortgages are up, Boris is out. Basically Britain’s having a full on protestant work ethic/puritan phase – no-one with a mortgage can holiday/eat out/savour the small joys of life, but at least we can tell the kids that crime = punishment. Cromwell would be proud. Until he found out that … Continued

Why we need greater exposure to data, and less exposure to Donald

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Afternoon all, You know what I was feeling reading the ONS latest GDP release at 7am this morning (usual doubts about my lifestyle choices aside)? Emotionally conflicted. Stepping back, it’s staggering that Britain (and Europe generally) has avoided a chunky recession given the scale of the energy price shock (a trebling of wholesale prices) we’ve … Continued

Britain’s cost of quiche crisis

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Afternoon all, The bunting’s out, the quiches are in the oven (see COTW) and I’ve had to fight my way into Resolution towers all week amid ever growing tourist/police numbers in Westminster. The coronation is very much on. I know there’s a bit of scoffing at genuine enthusiasm levels, but I was down in Kent … Continued

The benefits of better work, superstar firms and drunken hordes

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I was wrong. Obviously on lots of things, but I mean specifically on precipitation on last week’s ‘holiday’. It was more hail than rain throughout Cumbrian walks. I tried the Dominic Raab approach of telling the kids to toughen up and enjoy the “direct critical feedback” from the British weather, but unsurprisingly this led to … Continued

The Budget and Britain

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Afternoon all, I’m generally anti banks going bust. Doubly so when the rude things do it in Budget week – there’s quite enough going on already. And trebly when it ended up being a bigger Budget that most expected. But we are where we are. For our comprehensive take on the Budget – the forecasts, … Continued

Snazzy snapshots and regional rifts

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Afternoon all, I for one did not see the Government moving quite so quickly from stopping the boats to stopping the trains. But then again maybe it’s fitting the week managed to squeeze in immigration and HS2 given they have something in common: I’ve lost track of how often I’m told that scrapping (or for that … Continued

Dodgy data and malevolent mobiles

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Afternoon all,  Apparently Labour had a very cunning plan – a Sue Gray shaped conspiracy to bring down Boris Johnson. Which will be a surprise to anyone whose paid attention to the “more in common with Baldrick than MI5” Labour Party over recent years. It’s probably also news to the police who dished out fines … Continued

Fridgeonomics and why the early bird fails the exam

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Afternoon all, Have I got this right? The same people that did the Brexit deal, the fundamental choice of which was to sell out Unionism, have now decided it was terrible because of what it did to Unionists? AND they’re attacking Rishi Sunak for trying to fix it? Britain might not have any tomatoes but … Continued

Squeezing in more neighbours and sourcing out more childcare

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Afternoon all, Our labour market inactivity problem has got serious, arriving at the centre of British politics, with Nicola Sturgeon resigning and Labour attempting to involuntarily resign Jeremy Corbyn. Amid that chaos you probably missed another Tory MP’s jumping on the ‘no way I’m standing at the next election’ bandwagon. The Government’s probably minutes away from … Continued

Boom scrolling, bitcoin bashing and dodging difficult policy choices

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Afternoon all, We did it! Well done Britain avoiding a recession in 2022 with growth in the fourth quarter of… 0.014 per cent. This is what success getting over the line by the skin of your teeth looks like. Just to ensure we don’t get at all perked up by the no recession news, the ONS put out … Continued

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