This morning’s @BBCr4today not a great advert for the state of British politics - guests manage substance free debate on economics of towns (the new govt focus) while Labour MPs debate ending freedom of movement (which has already ended)
As a small thing @bbcnickrobinson - Tory vote INCREASE was biggest in more deprived areas not their actual vote
Just to be clear - the issues (of the economics of towns and migration) are massive deals. It was the nature of the conversations that was grim
And it's the answers not the questions that are the problem
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Hard not to conclude that's a fairly thin Queen's Speech.
Reasonable people might say that's understandable given the Government has had this pandemic thing to deal with. But it's quite a contrast with Biden and government's own build back rhetoric.
I'm broadly a fan of the main substance that is in there economy wise. On skills adult learning guarantee is desirable when we've still got 40% of the population without A-level equivalent qualifications (in contrast am sceptical that loan access will make much difference)
What marks out this levelling up agenda piece from @racheljanetwolf is:
- it has an actual agenda
- it's an argument for the Tories becoming French (specifically the 20th Century French right) ie focusing on liveability of places not their productivity conservativehome.com/platform/2021/…
I basically support a lot of what's in here. Liveability should be prioritised. The real trick is to combine it with sorting out our second cities productivity disasters too
That's what gives you the chance of ecosystem change for regional economies. The politics is towns vs cities but the economics is the opposite.
Big day for the economy (as well as the quality of our hair) today as retail and hospitality sectors open back up. Consumer spending = 62% GDP and was down around 10% last year.
Our priorities: eating out and getting our hair cut (shockingly we're four times as likely to want to eat out as go to the gym...)
For hospitality this is unmitigated good news - they've been the epicentre of this crisis (over half have limited cash reserves left) and those businesses able to operate under new rules (ie outdoor space) will see fast bounce backs in activity from incredibly low levels
Let's get the facts straight on disadvantages faced by some ethnic groups, labour market and living standards wise. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Read useful blog from @alanmanning4 and Rebecca Rose on stubborn pay/employment gaps between people from different ethnic backgrounds once we take into account personal (but not job) characteristics economicsobservatory.com/ethnic-minorit…
There has been major progress on ethnic minority employment rates - partly reflecting big educational progress. Over 20 years to 2016-17, employment among black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi men grew by more than a quarter. It doubled among Pakistani and Bangladeshi women.
Why cutting £20/wk from benefits isnt okay because it's "just ending a temporary increase"... a thread on the important history lesson in today's new @ONS incomes and inequality stats
I've had quite a few journalists ask in recent weeks why simply reversing the £20/week rise the Chancellor impressively swiftly put in place last April is such a big deal - surely it just takes us back to "normal" benefit levels that people were happy with pre-pandemic...
Why is this a deeply flawed approach? Because history goes back more than a year (who knew) - or to put it another way, there was nothing "normal" about what was happening to poorer families incomes immediately pre-pandemic. Today's stats make that crystal clear...