This may be the least popular argument you can make on Twitter, but as I argue in my @thesundaytimes column, we need to wean ourselves off the culture of catastrophe (1/?) thetimes.co.uk/article/ill-pr…
.@_HannahRitchie recently wrote an excellent piece pointing out that 50%+ of young people agree that 'the world is doomed' due to climate change - a conviction shared by approx 0% of serious scientists.
On sleaze/corruption, I've been pelted here for suggesting the Tories aren't irredeemably corrupt. But on second jobs, the numbers involved are far smaller than expenses - even if you assume that absolutely none of these jobs are legitimate, which is clearly nonsense.
Only one MP (G Cox) is working 20+ hours a week on 2nd job. Nothing so far is as awful as the 90s, when you had MPs taking cash bribes, perjuring themselves in court etc. Transparency International says the UK is pretty un-corrupt, and has got less so in past decade.
Climate change, corruption, Covid, racism and the other issues I discuss genuinely are problems. But you can discuss them without defaulting to the most catastrophic rhetoric/analysis (even if it's nowhere near as good for your social media engagement).
But our culture of political discussion - esp online! - strips out nuance and perspective and just leaves us with tribalisation, polarisation and division. Now RIP my mentions, as the kids say... thetimes.co.uk/article/ill-pr…
Generally though we do seem like a bunch of softies. 'Occupation' further down, 'material well-being' not in the top five. We're also among those really keen on nature...
First panel: Lord Mandelson, Crawford Falconer, Susan Schwab, @ShankerASingham, Creon Butler. Such a concentration of trade expertise the stage may implode.
Some new stats from @ONS today on energy efficiency of housing which make clear how ambitious/costly Net Zero is going to be in this area. Direction of travel is to ban renting/make mortgages harder below EPC Band C - ie below 69/100 ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulati…
The FT pointed out a few days ago that bringing all homes up to Band C by the 2035 target would cost £330bn. Ouch. ft.com/content/1d009a…
Even just bringing a home from Band D to Band C costs £6,472 on average, according to Savills - but saves only £179 in energy costs. Some hard decisions ahead about how ambitious we are - and who pays...
Fascinating new @CPSThinkTank report out today on the value of university. Worth reading the whole thing but quick thread to summarise (1/?) cps.org.uk/research/the-v…
The university system is a priceless national asset. But there is a significant long tail of courses that aren't delivering for their students - because universities are incentivised to maximise quantity of recruits rather than quality of outcomes for them.
.@TheIFS (who have done a lot of the work on this) estimate that 20% of students are actively worse off financially for going to university. This is obviously concentrated among particular courses/institutions. Here's lifetime return by course
It’s tempting to analyse the Budget as a one-off. But as I argue in my column today, last week was part of an inexorable process - the transformation of Britain into an elderly care system with a state attached. (1/) thetimes.co.uk/article/the-bu…
Part of the story here is obviously about Covid. Like all the rest of us, the state put on weight during the pandemic - and like all the rest of us, it’s finding it hard to lose.
A big part of the jump in spending in the new figures is the Treasury admitting that the pandemic is not a meteor but an asteroid. Under the original plan, departmental spending was meant to drop back to pre-pandemic levels. But (Adam Curtis voice) that was always a fantasy.