Sam Freedman
@samfr.bsky.social
Writes the most popular UK Substack (samf.substack.com) Author of Sunday Times bestselling book "Failed State". (An Economist and Financial Times Book of the Year for 2024). Working on book two. Senior fellow: Institute for Government
Also the experience of air travel has got worse in some respects but the price has gone down massively and the number of routes increased a lot. Consumers' revealed preference was to be treated like cattle in return for much more regular and cheap flights.
Constantine@ajaxsinger.bsky.social · 13h agoFood, man. Food is so much better than it was in 1986. All of it. Poor-people food, restaurant food, fresh food, frozen food. Food is just a hell of a lot better.
Just thinking how Johnson spoke like a newspaper column — colourful, bantering bullshit — whereas Badenoch speaks like the worst kind of comment section: querulous, chippy, pedantic (I'm just talking tone here, not content)
New post out: There's going to be a lot of talk about wealth taxes in the run up to the budget. So we asked one of the country's leading experts to give us a ten year plan for doing it right. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...
The right way to tax wealth
A 10 year programme for an incoming government
open.substack.com
Quite impressive to completely undermine your own defence and insult most of your party's elected officials in the same sentence.
Chris Terry-Enescu@cjterry.bsky.social · 7h agoIt's OK for criminal ex-neo Nazis to run your bins is a hell of a line.
This was very good and, for a piece in tax, suprisingly enjoyable. One again raises how possible this sort of tax reform at scale is - just reading through Y1/2 is enough to bring me out in political hives. At the very leaat you'd need to do it at the start of a Parliamentary term
Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · yesterdayNew post out: There's going to be a lot of talk about wealth taxes in the run up to the budget. So we asked one of the country's leading experts to give us a ten year plan for doing it right. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...
Anyone who refuses care from a non-white member of NHS staff should be told to pay to go private.
Charles EP Murphy@cepmurphy.bsky.social · yesterdaynews.sky.com/story/nhs-st... stereotypically this has been seen as Old People, but not only would the old people of now have often been born post-Windrush, lot of this will be younger people who've always lived in a diverse Britain. The guy with a pregnant wife likely millennial at oldest
Ofc she doesn't. She has the IQ of a satsuma.
Pawel Swidlicki@pswidlicki.bsky.social · yesterdayDoes she realise Dunkirk wouldn't have even been possible if French forces had surrendered as opposed to fighting a rearguard action which allowed the BEF to assemble in Dunkirk and the evacuation flotilla to be formed?
Emma Chamberlain, tax barrister, visiting professor of tax at the LSE and Oxford University, co-author of the Wealth Tax Report, has a guest post with Comment is Freed -‘The right way to tax wealth’. Clear, practical thinking from someone who understands and has thought deeply about all angles.
Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · yesterdayNew post out: There's going to be a lot of talk about wealth taxes in the run up to the budget. So we asked one of the country's leading experts to give us a ten year plan for doing it right. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...
The state of this. A lovely day out for Badenoch and Philp, playing dress up and making pronouncements about early release schemes - having left the country with one hundred available men's prison places, after fourteen years in charge. You read that right. One hundred places.
Faaascinating and well, doable? Although the hope for cross-party consensus does require a 200% saner Tory party than we have now
Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · yesterdayNew post out: There's going to be a lot of talk about wealth taxes in the run up to the budget. So we asked one of the country's leading experts to give us a ten year plan for doing it right. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...
New post out: There's going to be a lot of talk about wealth taxes in the run up to the budget. So we asked one of the country's leading experts to give us a ten year plan for doing it right. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...
The right way to tax wealth
A 10 year programme for an incoming government
open.substack.com
This is great, about the tricky trade-offs involved in opening up more vocational pathways. Sam also makes a good point about employer engagement and the 'free-rider problem' of training people who may go on to work elsewhere. I think genAI will make this a growing problem for graduates too. 1/2
Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · 4d agoNew 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...
When we're staying with my parents, I often work at the same table as Dad. It's like a little substack factory.
Phew. I thought they woudn't but it's good they have confirmed this government will not do something which is completely crazy. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Angela Rayner rules out rent controls in England
The housing secretary tells the BBC that the Renters Rights' Act is already having a significant impact on the market.
bbc.co.uk
Why do so many progressives want this? I just don't get it.
Al@btown85.bsky.social · 2d agoThe pressure on kids too! In Berlin they get divided after the 6th class (12). My eldest already under so much pressure (despite us trying to remove it) to do well in exams etc to ensure she’s at the gymnasium. Parents going nuts in regards to it. They’re 9!
Talked a bit about this in this post - you can't stop education systems sorting kids, as it's one of their implicit functions. But you can ameliorate the consequences of that sorting. samf.substack.com/p/the-gap-th...
Ed Cadwallader@cadwalladered.bsky.social · 2d agoI agree with Sam that selection at 14 is a bad idea but the reason it keeps coming up is that there's a genuine problem we're not addressing with what school offers kids at the bottom of the academic distribution
If I wanted to protect the most prestigious and highly paid jobs for the social groups who usually hold them I'd probably design an education system that discouraged poorer children from studying the entry qualifications for these jobs as early as possible..
Enjoyed the Odyssey but mostly I'm just happy that's millions more people will know about Circe, Menelaus, Scylla and Charybidis....
Really good post
Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · 4d agoNew 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...
NEET numbers are primarily a labour market issue not an education one. We know this as numbers have also risen in Wales and Scotland which have different education systems.
Jim Lauder@mrjlauder.bsky.social · 3d agoFirst, on this bit, Reeves and Starmer are culprits more so than Tory edu ministers - min wage hikes, emp NI, new workers' rights (all stuff I agree with in the abstract) all piled on at once... Yes, you're going to get a NEETs issue. That's pretty basic economics.
This piece was published Sat afternoon. It could win awards for incoherence. Its big point is the EU Commission had no interest in stopping these people going into Europe By the time it was published it was clear none had done so www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
Ceuta is what happens when you’re not serious about migration
Ursula von der Leyen doesn’t seem to care about the tide of people rushing the Spanish border. Voters in Britain will
thetimes.com
The interesting thing about school closures during covid (agree with them or not) is they had much less impact on long-term academic outcomes than people expected (me included). But much more long-term impact on mental health and attendance.
Introducing the "McCirce Meal" - you get a large pork burger and your Coke is spiked.
Tyron@tyron.bsky.social · 3d agofeel like McDonald's should have done some kind of lotus-themed Happy Meal tie-in for The Odyssey
As I kept saying before he took over all the "we have no idea what he wants to do" comment was so weird. Few incoming PMs have had a clearer set of priorities.
a rare photo of sean connery signed by roger moore@steamedhamms.bsky.social · 3d agostruck by how much of Burnham’s agenda is spelled out fairly plainly in head north and yes written constitution is mentioned in that mix
It's really hard to see how Farage can avoid a sanction for breaking rules on declarations. At very least he was clearly considering a return when the Harborne donation happened. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
Nigel Farage struck Reform comeback deal long before election
Supervised by the convicted fraudster George Cottrell, the agreement undermines Farage’s claim about when he decided to return to politics
thetimes.com
Read this by @samfr.bsky.social expecting to disagree and annoyingly don't. Having lived through the UTC experiment which was...painful...it is a mistake to bring forward career choices to 14. (I've also been shouted at in a room with Ken Baker). There's a caveat open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/b...
Burnham's first mistake
The problem with his education plan
open.substack.com
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...
Burnham's first mistake
The problem with his education plan
open.substack.com
Very good piece from Sam.
Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · 4d agoNew 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...
Whatever the good intentions Andy has for the kids he cares about many of us think this is precisely what will happen.
Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · 4d agoNew 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...
