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Jonathan Portes Profile picture
Jonathan Portes
@jdportes
Professor of Economics, King's College London; Senior Fellow, UK in a Changing Europe. Personal views only; usual disclaimers apply.
8 subscribers
Oct 9 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Israel's systematic, deliberate ethnic cleansing and murder of civilians *as an explicit Israeli government policy* is exceptionally well documented.

This by @dannythefink is simply atrocity denialism. Morally and intellectually degraded beyond measure.

thetimes.com/comment/column…Image @Dannythefink Indeed. The war crimes are *exceptionally* well documented and evidenced, from Ministers/generals down to troops on the ground.

Aug 12 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
After the riots, how should the government respond? Some suggestions from @anandMenon1 & me.

1. Ditch clever, but undeliverable and damaging soundbites like "stop the boats."

archive.ph/HDuVj @anandMenon1 2. Recognise that asylum-seekers are human - and most will end up being recognised as refugees. Helping them to integrate – economically and socially – will be good for them, good for taxpayers, and good for local communities.
Aug 9 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
A very explicit call for violent racist pogroms in the UK from Spectator "Associate Editor" Douglas Murray @afneil @frasernelson

"If the army [is not] sent in, then the public will have to go in, & the public will have to sort this out themselves, & it'll be very, very brutal" @afneil @FraserNelson [the full text is worse, believe me]

NB deleted original version of this and reposted because there was a missing "not" which changed the sense ]
Aug 2 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
This group - Turning Point UK - was fulsomely endorsed in @frasernelson's Spectator (by Douglas Murray).

It still lists a (now former) Conservative MP, Marco Longhi, as its President. Image @FraserNelson TPUK's twitter feed for last few days is non-stop endorsement of far-right mobs, complaints that police provoked the violence, etc.

Spectator (Murray) on Turning Point. Image
Jul 23 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
I've been writing/researching on the 2CL since it was announced.

I'd abolish it tomorrow (like almost everyone else who knows anything about welfare/poverty).

BUT I do think there's some risk in current debate, exemplified by tweet below. [1/n] First, ending 2CL is very cost-effective in reducing child poverty for larger families.

But most kids who are poor now would still be poor.

And the interaction with other welfare cuts - especially the separate "benefit cap" means further progress will be harder/costlier
May 23 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
Migration is now falling sharply. That’s the government spin. And…for once, it’s true! 😉

ONS migration stats just released show fall from 764K in 2022 to 685K in 2023. But that’s just the start..



[1/13] ons.gov.uk/releases/longt…
Image More up-to-date visa data from HO shows a much sharper drop is coming. New visas for work and study have fallen by about 20% year on year. Emigration is now rising. [2/13]

gov.uk/government/sta…
Image
Mar 5 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
tl:dr

For political reasons, @michelledonelan recklessly spread a damaging and dangerous lie about named academics in an area *directly relevant to her Ministerial responsibilities*.

She has now admitted this and paid damages.

In what world is this not a resigning issue? @michelledonelan Meanwhile, @UKRI_CEO, whose initial response - now also deleted - was craven and pathetic, also needs to consider her position. At the very least a proper public apology is required.
Jan 11 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
The great UK trade mystery? UK-EU trade is now a *higher* proportion of total trade than before the referendum, and has been on an *upward* trend.

What's going on? tl;dr - we don't know.

[1/3?]

ukandeu.ac.uk/wp-content/upl…
Image This confounds the predictions of most economists (including me!) who expected the new trade barriers created by Brexit to reduce UK-EU trade (while having little impact on UK trade with the rest of the world).

[2/3]
Nov 23, 2023 • 13 tweets • 5 min read
Today’s migration stats: key points.

1. Some (more) revisions to previously published data but big picture remains the same: migration spiked post-pandemic driven by increases in non-EU migration for work (especially health/care) and study, HK/Ukraine, and asylum Image 2. But inflows peaked and *emigration* now increasing – a natural consequence of recent inflows, especially students More recent immigration => more emigration. So *emigration* will continue to increase, reducing net migration [we may be underestimating emigration, see below] Image
Nov 5, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
The @iealondon have a new report out Monday claiming to show Brexit hasn't hurt UK trade.

I just *love* the tables below (a direct screenshot from the press release!). They *really* think we/you/journalists are stupid.... Image @iealondon Here's post-Brexit goods trade in real terms - i.e. comparable to the second table above. Very clear that there has been a significant deterioration in UK export performance. Image
May 25, 2023 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
Today's immigration statistics: what have we learned?

Migration was at record levels last year, but has stopped rising and is now likely to fall, with fewer refugees and higher student emigration. So-called “forecasts” were wrong. Image In calendar year 2023 net migration was 606,000, up from 488,000 in 2021. While the coverage of the numbers (now including asylum seekers), and the way ONS measures it have changed, still fair to say that these are the highest figures on record (2/n)
May 24, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
If Starmer is going to complain about the number of work visas issued, the honest thing to do would be to tell us which of these occupations he wants to cut numbers in:
bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-p… via @BBCNews Image Now I've argued government *could* cut numbers coming in lower paid care roles *if* it's willing to require major increases in pay and improve training and conditions. Wheres the plan and money for that?
May 23, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
This is a common response: "We need skilled migration [in short-term] because we don't train/education Brits well enough."

Sounds plausible. But in fact it can be just another version of the lump of labour fallacy trotted out by anti-immigration politicians/commentators [1/3] Take universities. We don't need to hire researchers from abroad because we don't train our own. We need them because the UK HE sector is a growing, dynamic sector - in large part *because* of foreign-born researchers/academics. If it wasn't, we wouldn't need migrants! [2/3]
May 12, 2023 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
Yes, @FraserNelson is actually claiming that @FullFact -and others who point out falsehoods from politicians and the media - are a threat to free speech. Image Amusingly, @FraserNelson's views here about fact-checking didn't stop him trying to get me to withdraw an entirely accurate claim I made about him. I offered to bet him £1,000, but of course he didn't take the bet.. Image
May 12, 2023 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
As @M_Sumption said on #r4today just now, wait for the actual numbers rather than paying any attention to the CPS's wild guesses here.

We at @UKandEU and @MigObs will be analysing the data & holding a briefing when released on May 25.

telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/… @M_Sumption @UKandEU @MigObs The key trends discussed by @M_Sumption are analysed in our joint report here:

ukandeu.ac.uk/wp-content/upl…
Apr 26, 2023 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
It is worth reading this from Robert Jenrick to get a sense of how far the Conservative Party (or at least the current governing faction) has fallen, intellectually, morally and legally.

conservativehome.com/2023/04/26/rob… Image There is no evidence cited, or available, to support this - and it simply ignores the UK's history on refugees. Image
Apr 25, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
This by @JoshuaNevett is dreadful; exactly what the Dilnot report warned against.

"Some economists believe Brexit has had a negative effect on the UK economy, but others argue the benefits of leaving the EU will be seen over time."

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi… @JoshuaNevett There's a strong consensus among credible independent economists (as well as BoE, OBR & off-the-record HMT) that the economic impact of Brexit has and will continue to be negative. There is, a legitimate debate about *how* negative and the data and evidence will change over time
Mar 15, 2023 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Brexit and the UK economy - the OBR have re-evaluated the impacts and published their analysis in Box 2.4 of the EFO, here.

Bottom line: their estimate is still that it will reduce long-run productivity/GDP per capita by 4%.

obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploa…

[1/5] On trade, they note the underperformance of UK trade compared to other advanced economies, and conclude there's no reason to change their view (based on a review of external forecasts) that Brexit will reduce trade volumes by 15%
Jan 31, 2023 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
It’s Brexit Day!

On January 31, 2020, the UK left the EU. 3 years on, what have we learned?

3 key takeaways below.. 1. Brexit has, as economists predicted, reduced UK trade and investment.

Only a small, increasingly shrill, fringe group dispute this, although there’s lots of scope for debate about how large the impacts are. My evidence to the Lords EAC summarises:

ukandeu.ac.uk/trade-migratio…
Jan 3, 2023 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Happy New Year! The 2023 Financial Times' economists survey is here:

"The UK will face one of the worst recessions and weakest recoveries in the G7 in 2023, as households pay a heavy price for the government’s policy failings"

My answers in thread (1/6)

ft.com/content/81fbdf… Qu. 1: Will the UK economy outpace or lag behind other developed economies in 2023 and how will it feel for households?
Nov 29, 2022 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Douglas Murray makes it absolutely clear that for him black and Asian Britons - even if born here - aren't *really* British.

Straightforward Powellite white nationalism, no ifs, no buts. It would be gratifying if the "respectable" commentators who gave Murray's latest diatribe positive reviews - @alexmassie or @rcolvile come to mind - might actually hold their hands up and say, OK, he's just a bigot who went to Eton.

Won't hold my breath.