"England’s education reforms promised prosperity. They delivered great education instead" > Why England may destroy its world-leading education system. tomforth.co.uk/educationine...

Heathrow is not Britain's national airport. Nor should most of Britain want it to be. If London wants to make Heathrow Britain's national airport again, it should be free to try. 2000 words on why Andy Burnham is largely right. tomforth.co.uk/nationalairp...

15 months ago, I started building an archive of the UK government's Bus Open Data Service status updates. The locations of every bus in Great Britain every minute. It's gone well, but there are a few gaps. Do you have the data that could fill them in? data.datalibrary.uk/transport/BO...

Has Andy Burnham made a public statement on the mackerel swap-out scandal yet?

I read this. It was fun. I could not have disagreed more strongly. Nationalising the means of production of data centres is a path to madness. China and the USA are beating us by taking the precise opposite approach. We must learn from them, not our unimpressive Covid response.

James O'Malley@jamesomalley.co.uk · last mo.

Now FREE TO READ – why we need more data centres. I feel like an epidemiologist in February 2020 – the dangerous threat in the near future is so clear, and we need to prepare for it. Please consider sharing it with the data centre-sceptics in your life. takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/the-case-f...

I wonder if when Southern Italian economists tweet this map they get dozens of replies saying "try telling that to someone in Genoa mate!".

Simon Kuestenmacher@simongerman600.bsky.social · last mo.

Italy’s infamous north-south divide in one map. Quality of life is clearly tied to economic circumstances: the wealthier, job-rich north dominates the rankings, while the poorer south fills the bottom. Turns out money helps with quality of life. Source: buff.ly/lSxNZCh

What's the opposite of nominative determinism? www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna8294216

Philippines’ Cardinal Sin dies at 76

Cardinal Jaime Sin, the Roman Catholic cleric who helped lead revolts that ousted two Philippine presidents, died early Tuesday. He was 76.

nbcnews.com

The crossover happened in the 2024 data, but I didn't want to share it in case there were revisions. But now that I've checked in the 2025 data, I can be sure it's real.

I admit to signing up and paying the £4.50 just to annoy myself before going to the pub. But I ended up agreeing with a lot of this. Certainly I agree that a big problem is employers and that devolution is the best way to fix this.

Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · 2mo ago

New post just out: "Burnham's first mistake" Splitting 14 year olds into academic and vocational paths seems intuitive. But it's a terrible idea that risks increasing inequality, and closing down options for the young people that need them most. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/b...

The funeral for irony will be held next week.

My thoughts on economic growth and education in one place, since it's part of the topic of the day. tomforth.co.uk/graduateprem...

Was a bit much for England to deliberately lose to Argentina so they would be in Miami tonight as part of a very complicated sting, but I’ll take it.

A bit from me about what Burnham may mean by “redindustrialisation” as.ft.com/r/afe5abd3-4...

Burnham’s industrial revival will join up local needs and strengths

Forward-looking centre in Rotherham collaborates with business, capitalising on ‘muscle memory’ and existing assets

as.ft.com

One of the most exciting infrastructure projects in Britain right now. If we could build tunnels like the Norwegians we could build new motorways and railways so cheaply that they could be self-funding. The biggest prize is Manchester to Sheffield. www.thetimes.com/uk/transport...

Explosives could deliver northern boom via cheaper Pennines tunnel

Start-up says Scandinavian tunnelling methods could cut the cost of a proposed dual carriageway connecting Sheffield and Manchester by as much as 90 per cent

thetimes.com

I had great fun on the Crashed Podcast with @stokel.bsky.social and Alex talking about, 1/ My long history of advising Andy Burnham ;) 2/ Why the North South divide hurts the South as well as the North. 3/ Devolution's surprisingly good record, and challenges. share.google/kvT5GFSRwDkm...

Crashed

Podcast · Alex Hudson · In the Crashed podcast, the tech podcast about everything else, hosts Alex Hudson (@alexhuds) and Chris Stokel-Walker (@stokel) delve into the complexities of technology and it...

share.google

In 1998 and 1999, four of Britain's regions and nations voted for devolution. Since then, all have overperformed the rest of the country economically. Even Wales. . Also a bit of a rant about how there's more than one big city in Britain. tomforth.co.uk/agglomeratio...

www.economist.com/britain/2026...

The ascent of the chippy southerner

Andy Burnham offers something precious to the south: grievance

economist.com

Wrote about the ascent of the "chippy southerner" www.economist.com/britain/2026...

New episode: Manchesterism v Thatcherism @goldbergradio.bsky.social @bylinetimes.bsky.social is joined by @tomforth.co.uk who makes the case for greater devolution in England. pod.fo/e/43d3f8

Byline Podcast: Manchesterism vs Thatcherism

Can Andy Burnham's desire for more devolved government in the UK i.e. 'Manchesterism' undo the damage caused by Thatcherism? Adrian Goldberg talks to Leeds-based Tom Forth, an industrial strategist...

pod.fo

Also I look forward to a LOT of 9am Manchester meetings being pencilled into London diaries

There’s me thinking I’d seen the back of Andy Burnham 😂 Am v pro this No 10 idea though as you might expect. Could have a lot of consequences if done right, incl for media ecosystem Also not a ££££ thing but it sends a message. (Helpfully could also allow him to be near Makerfield on a Fri)

Well it’s something to do

I'd partly forgotten this but if you present yourself as the radical political force able to solve deep rooted problems, then you encounter a deep rooted problem and say actually, this is too difficult, I wish we hadn't bothered...it ought to be a tell. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Nigel Farage regrets running 'bankrupt' Worcestershire Council

The Reform UK leader says he wishes the party "hadn't bothered" to take control in Worcestershire.

bbc.co.uk

Here's the fledgling site, with some great stories on it already: theexchange.news/welcome-to-l...

Leeds' new local paper

West Yorkshire deserves great local journalism. Help us launch it.

theexchange.news

Delighted and daunted in equal measure to be joining @millmedia.bsky.social as a staff writer as they branch out to a new city. Launching in June, The Exchange will provide quality writing, features and investigations covering Leeds and West Yorkshire. Any local tips? Reach out!

Has anyone done an academic-type study on the emergence of the Kings Cross tech clusters? There was good work by @maxnathan.bsky.social among others of Tech City and Shoreditch Old Street Silicon Roundabout type stuff back in the day. Stuff like that.

Bradford has a higher business start-up rate than Leeds, Oxford, or Cambridge. But those businesses do very different things and raise much less money to grow. We are very fortunate to have such a broad base of entrepreneurialism in Britain to build on. tomforth.co.uk/entrepreneur...

An excellent, and excellently self-aware, review of three of the latest books on Britain, a reminder of how far we've come, and of our decline (or not), and our inequalities and lost potentials by @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Have we gone too far with British declinism?

Three new books portray a land caught in a muddle and beset by inequalities. A familiar story or is it time for a reset?

giftarticle.ft.com

Late to this tomforth.co.uk/densityisdone/, which as always from @tomforth.co.uk is well worth reading, but I'm not sure about the comparison made in the highlighted paragraph, given all of the European cities mentioned are adjacent to large bodies of water but neither of the English ones are.

In a rare appearance on Bluesky, I shall repeat my argument against this. It's just a case of over-analysing poor data. Use the correct data, and Britain's big cities are just as dense as Northern European equivalents like Hamburg and Rotterdam that are much more productive and support great metros.

Centre for Cities@centreforcities.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Britain’s big cities are not too dense. The issue is where density sits. Manchester and Leeds can look large on a 20km population ring, but they have far fewer homes near the centre than comparable cities abroad👇 buff.ly/VmzM8Bz