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Peter Savage.

@pcsavage.bsky.social

Retired TU Official. Interested in Law, Good food, Wine, Running and unfortunately Everton. Not necessarily in that order. I have friends everywhere.

2284 Posts1398 Follower1134 Folgt
Alex Andreou@sturdyalex.bsky.social · yesterday

There is a danger that by arguing the amount, we end up conceding the framing. Britain's welfare is ungenerous, the spend in total is mid-to-low table, and below past peaks. Benefits need reforming because they're unfit for purpose and trap, instead of enabling people. Not to make fantasy savings.

Chart of UK overall benefit spend, showing it lower than post-GFC or pandemic and largely in similar proportions, pensions being the largest chunk by far.Charts showing the UK is mid-table of comparative OECD countris on total social expenditure and bottom third in terms of cash benefits.Charts showing that the UK has the lowest welfare income replacement rate (ie. how far one's income drops if they lose their job) of any comparator OECD country, and third lowest, if you add housing benefit (which is more than the cash benefit element).Graph showing that the generosity of the UK's welfare spending has been declining over decades against trend.
Larry the Cat@number10cat.bsky.social · 2d ago

The picture on the front of Reform's policy is of HMS Ocean on the River Thames in 2012. It was sold by to the Brazilian navy in 2018. Turns out you can judge a book by its cover.

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Sean Jones KC@seanjones.org · 3d ago

One interesting aspect of the recent COVID discourse is that a lot of us have forgotten that lockdown and school closures was not simply about preventing deaths, it was about keeping the *rate of infection* down to a level the NHS stood some chance of coping with.

Russ Jones@russincheshire.bsky.social · 3d ago

Science not being 100% right does not mean science is 100% wrong. There will always be areas on the margins of science that seem incomplete or disputed. That doesn't mean the other 99.9% of science is made up. Just in case Lewis Goodall needs help understanding this basic fact.

Mark Thompson@markreckons.bsky.social · 5d ago

Can you imagine how much of a story it would have been if Reform had won the Manchester mayoral contest. And for a while it looked not only possible but in some ways probable looking at the polls a few months back. And yet they were trounced. They got nowhere near. That should be a big story.

Paul Bernal@paulbernal.bsky.social · 6d ago

I get a little annoyed by the coverage of the proposed sell-off of the World Cup. They’re not just planning to sell it off. They’re planning to sell it off *to the Trump family*. That should be up front and central.