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9 Mar, 8 tweets, 3 min read
Okay FINE, I WILL listen to @anandMenon1 back in West Yorkshire, talking about what levelling up might mean for Wakefield, and how that compares to what some people I Wakefield think it should mean. bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0…
Great to see that @NeilDotObrien's been looking at my cartoon page. I completely agree with everything he says, which is good.
I'm not quite as sure about Jim O'Neill's excitement about Green Book reform. I've written that here. tomforth.co.uk/beyondbcr/
I'm also a massive fan of the great bus chat and transport chat.
There was a bit of talk about improving training to boost skill levels and attract high skill jobs,... which was of course convincing. But also the "gentrification" (which the Labour leader of the council welcomed) of Leeds commuters moving to Wakefield should also boost skills.
I'll say,... @denisemjeffery has played a blinder here. Great stuff. "Levelling up to me isn't about coming up with a scheme and saying here's £25m to redevelop your town centres, it's about systematically, year after year, putting money back into Wakefield so we can do things".
Well that has cheered me right up. Conservative, Labour, experts, locals, local experts, presenter, the whole lot,... with a good, realistic plan for Wakefield's future success. I think I'll have a Rhubarb liqueur (bought at Wakefield Rhubarb festival obviously) G&T to celebrate.
Some local mappery of interest -- the leader of Leeds City Council @JamesLewisLab lives in and represents a ward of Leeds that is actually closer to Wakefield than it is to Leeds. West Yorkshire 'aint that big.

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More from @thomasforth

Tom Forth Profile picture
11 Mar
It's an unusual angle, but I'll share it, because Twitter. Lots of the money "spent on" Test and Trace hasn't actually been spent. It's sat on in imaginary budget somewhere in case it's needed. Sounds fine? No, it infuriates me. Because no local government ever gets that benefit.
Local governments had to go out and spend what it takes, were promised their costs would be covered, then they weren't. And while they beg for the money, T&T gets to sit on billions.
Transport for the North, having spent less this year for pandemic reasons, wanted to return to spending its usual amount next year, but they just got their budget cut to the lower level (which the PM then lied and continues to lie to the House of Commons about).
Read 10 tweets
Tom Forth Profile picture
10 Mar
I might struggle with some of the content, and much of the context, but that is an A++ front cover. The font, the logo, the design. Great stuff. Image
Hey, do you know what, I'm not struggling at all. The digs at the EU are petty and unnecessary,... the sign of an unconfident nation,... but apart from that it's very good. It's an early report, just setting out the remit, and it does that well.
This is probably not a good sign though. I will make sure to make a strong representation on it. (which I have little doubt will be ignored). Image
Read 9 tweets
Tom Forth Profile picture
10 Mar
The UK government has the Google problem with industrial strategy and regional economic development. New products are so quickly dropped that people don't invest in them, which makes it inevitable that they will be dropped. It's a tough spiral to break. arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/0…
The Scottish Government isn't engaging with the Union connectivity review for the same reason that you don't use Google Meet, which replaced Google Hangout, which co-existed with Google Chat, a bit like Google Duo, which is like Google Allo, which replaced Google Talk. Maybe.
Google Reader? Cancelled? Google Inbox? Gone. It's such a joke in tech that there's a website listing all 226 abandoned products. killedbygoogle.com
Read 4 tweets
Tom Forth Profile picture
10 Mar
Ah man -- the @instituteforgov do it again. What a table. And a reminder that everyone writes software, and then Microsoft win.
Absolute classic "user needs" attitude from GDS, GSS and Cabinet Office there too, having a default that no-one else uses. Loads of Macs with Google Meets really understanding their users (who use Windows and Teams). I would love an SW1 style series.
My favourite by far is HMRC though. If I understand the table correctly their default was MS Teams, but they also could not use MS Teams. Which may be because the table is wrong, or I've not understood it. But it may also be because they actually couldn't get MS Teams to work.
Read 4 tweets
Tom Forth Profile picture
9 Mar
No surprise, I don't know what's going with UK industrial strategy. Seems like they've thrown the whole thing away, but I don't know. So I can only add two things,
1/ The UK always has industrial strategy, so if it's anything, this is just a return to the closed centralised type.
2/ There is an argument (similar to arguments for communism) that technology lets us create better plans centrally than a distributed approach could achieve. If the levelling up algorithm and the Treasury North algorithm prove to be excellent when published, I'll concede that.
(although really an excellent central planning system would have published the justifications for its decisions along with the decisions, so I suspect the test is already failed).
Read 4 tweets
Tom Forth Profile picture
9 Mar
At least a third of why I am comparatively positive about France is that it's the best method I've ever found for achieving positive change in the UK. There is nothing that decision-makers in this country hate more than being obviously eclipsed by Paris and by France.
Take the UK retrenchment from foreign aid. All the arguments like "DFID are respected around the world, a great department, world-leading methods, etc...", "it's the best way to build British soft power", "we can achieve so much to beat global poverty", etc... yawn.
France is increasing foreign aid from 0.44% to 0.7% of GDP while the UK cuts from 0.7% to 0.5% of GDP. The total amount of foreign aid from the two is increasing, so all the "these people will miss out" stories are a stretch. It's just that the French cement their lead over us.
Read 4 tweets

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