David Gooda
@davidgooda.bsky.social
North west. Irish diaspora. Housing, reading, running, singing, cooking. Grown-up children are no less time-consuming.
How to end the cycle of mistrust between the Treasury and everybody else - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... Must read from @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social The need to micromanage is really hard to uproot. Something for Healey's advisers to think about too
How to end the cycle of mistrust between the Treasury and everybody else
The lesson from Manchester is that it takes time for public investment policies to show up in GDP
giftarticle.ft.com
You can talk about tech sovereignty and defence all you like, but it doesn't matter if you're caving in to hybrid attacks within five minutes. Might as well save the money on the weapons, frankly, if European leaders are just going to surrender to hybrid attacks like this.
John Springford@johnspringford.bsky.social · 2d agoTreating this as a pan-European crisis and closing borders disproportionately *encourages* other countries to use these tactics as political weapons. Sow division, isolate EU countries who are particular enemies.
‘Climate change kills’: Pedro Sánchez speaks plain truth to Spain’s deniers 👏👏👏 www.theguardian.com/environment/...
‘Climate change kills’: Pedro Sánchez speaks plain truth to Spain’s deniers
PM has long history of speaking out on realities of global heating but political opponents remain unnmoved
theguardian.com
People are just not ready for the consequences of climate change.
Britain could face food shortages as drought continues, farmers warn
Farmers battle to salvage what they can of their crops as heatwave set to continue
theguardian.com
The 6 largest oil companies will collectively rake in $45B in profits in the second quarter of 2026 — nearly double what they made in the first quarter. Meanwhile, Canada, France, and Spain are battling record-breaking wildfires spurred by the climate crisis. Big Oil profits while the world burns.
To quote Mark Blyth, the climate crisis is ‘a giant non-linear outcome generator with wicked convexities. In plain English, there is no mean, there is no average, there is no return to normal. It’s one way traffic into the unknown’. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
There is no ‘getting back to normal’ with climate breakdown | Mark Blyth
As the IPCC report makes clear, there are now only unknown and unfamiliar alternative futures that we can choose from, says political economist Mark Blyth
theguardian.com
James Murray@james-bg.bsky.social · last wk.It's not going to become 'the norm' though, is it? That's what so fucking terrifying about it. It's going to become a lot worse, very quickly.
It's not going to become 'the norm' though, is it? That's what so fucking terrifying about it. It's going to become a lot worse, very quickly.
YouGov@yougov.co.uk · last wk.Would you be happy if this summer's weather became the norm? Happy: 38% Neither: 22% Unhappy: 38% yougov.com/en-gb/daily-...
Funny isn’t it? You’d think that if the need for data storage and processing conflicted with the survival of human life, the survival of human life would just about edge the trade-off.
Half the world’s on fire, the other is in deluge. The four horsemen of the Anthropocene: fire, floods, heat and drought. We are making our world increasingly unliveable. How is your government responding? How are you preparing for a disaster? #NomadCentury
‘We have lost everything’: extreme rainfall across Asia brings flash floods and typhoons
From Afghanistan to Taiwan, unprecedented deluge highlights devastating impact of climate breakdown
theguardian.com
I did a conference panel a few months ago with Dame Wendy Hall who said, from the stage, something along the lines of, "well I wonder which men are going to get the extra money they're suddenly finding for AI research?", and I guess we now know the answer to that.
Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · last wk.Think of all the awesome science-ing we could do with an extra £20M......🧪
If you want to scrap stamp duty and council tax and replace them with an annual property tax, *and* to have some proper fiscal devolution, then the correct tax to devolve would then be income tax (which you'd also cut as part of the initial change, I think).
If this had been policy in the 70s (as it partly was), towns would have produced lots of mining engineers & metallurgists just before pits & steelworks closed. As the yanks say, you should skate to where the puck's going, not to where it is. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Burnham to tell schools in England to adapt teaching to local business needs
PM wants curriculums for students aged 14 and above to be more responsive to local jobs market
theguardian.com
It's noticeable, too, that there wasn't a single question on the climate, at a time when Europe is experiencing catastrophic wild-fires & record-breaking heat. It's astonishing how low down the political agenda this remains in Britain, when all the environmental indicators are signalling disaster.
If only there were something we could do about the biggest threat that fuels almost all the other threats.
YouGov@yougov.co.uk · last wk.What do people in 7 countries see as the biggest global threats? France: Climate change: 48% UK: Climate change: 35% Canada: Climate change: 31% Poland: Military attack: 43% USA: Political extremism: 39% Germany: Mass migration: 36% Australia: Religious terrorism: 31% yougov.com/en-gb/articl...
If the King in the North really wants to go full tilt at moving the centre of government operations, may I present the ideal seat for Parliament in the North?
At the risk of making policy designed in a lab to please me and me only, the govt should plug the defence black hole by easing immigration restrictions. How high would net migration need to get to to reach 3.5% of GDP on defence?
Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · 2w agoHealey's fiscal buffer down to £7 bn from £25 bn (FT) due to Iran. He is also going to lose £12-13 billion when revising future immigration estimates down. (I don't think is already part of this drop to £7bn)
When the story of why humanity didn't stop climate change is written, it will feature front pages like this. Even as the skies blacken with climate change-induced wildfires, right wing media continue their relentless crusade against measures to tackle it.
The hardest of hard agrees.
Stuart Hoddinott@stuarthoddinott.bsky.social · 2w agoNEW BLOG: organisational boundaries in local govt, the NHS and police do not match up That's a problem for Burnham's devo ambitions He should intervene now to create an aligned system that paves the way for future public services devo More 👇 www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/burn...
I am increasingly of the opinion that the speed of climatic change and the associated impacts are going to catch billions of people completely off-guard. The level of complacency as this speeds toward us is mind blowing.
Historians will look at the SpaceX IPO as the tipping point if in the next year there is a global financial market collapse
Lou Mannheim@loumannheim87.bsky.social · 2w agoYou hate to see it
Major climate impacts on crops in North America and Europe. Major shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and now, potentially, the Red Sea. Transit through the Panama Canal threatened by drought. It's time we started getting serious about #FoodSecurity.
It feels like a lot of the criticisms come from the standpoint of excellent academy trusts in London which will succeed regardless of the national policy climate, whereas the issues are very different for middling chains based around more rural areas with weaker intakes and results.
I'm actually very upbeat and optimistic about the UK because I think the problems are quite easy to fix if you just combine a little bit of resource and an awful lot of willingness to fix problems!
Latest instalment in the ‘who could possibly have predicted that?’ series. A warning message from the US to the UK. Senior Living Facility in Distress as Immigrant Caregivers Are Forced Out www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/u...
How Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Is Hurting Elder Care
Retirement communities already grappling with labor shortages are being forced to terminate caregivers at a time when more Americans are living longer.
nytimes.com
Targeting crime, and especially the sort of petty crime that makes people feel like a place is unsafe or run-down, is something New Labour did well, in the face of a lot of initial criticism from both right and left.
Michael@michaeljsc.bsky.social · 2w agothere would be significant room for a Labour Home Secretary to lead a reforming agenda with socially conservative vibes that could unite the party, it’s just that it’s on crime, not immigration
