Tom MacInnes
@tommacinnes.bsky.social
Interim Director of Policy, Citizens Advice. Policy stuff, data, graphs, that kind of thing.
Terrible argument. Making subscriptions easy to cancel IS a better product and makes the industry look less scammy
Press Gazette@pressgazette.co.uk · 2d agoAndy Burnham is bringing forward by several months to January plans to make subscriptions easier to cancel. Trade groups said this would leave publishers "scrambling to adapt to an entirely arbitrary new deadline - diverting valuable resources that would otherwise go into building better products"
I get there’s algorithms at work but there is no good reason why I’m seeing this story on the BBC beyond the fact there is some culture war adjacent stuff going on in WNBA rn. There are no other NBA or WNBA stories on the page (also I’m not into basketball) www.bbc.co.uk/sport/basket...
Chicago's DiJonai Carrington ejected for hard foul on Sophie Cunningham
Chicago Sky guard DiJonai Carrington is ejected from her side's defeat by Indiana Fever for committing a hard foul, before taking to social media to post "white privilege".
bbc.co.uk
💡 The last few years have shown just how quickly global events can drive up our energy prices. But incomes and bill support mechanisms have not kept up. It’s time for the government to #TurnTheTide on energy, housing and debt. Read more ⤵️ https://bit.ly/4eWFL1M
New 🔦SPOTLIGHT 🔦Report by @citizensadvice.bsky.social finds UC can create barriers to victim-survivors of domestic abuse to financial independence and freedom. Based on frontline insights, the report highlights 6 common challenges faced by claimants. www.citizensadvice.org.uk/policy/publi...
Universal Credit and domestic abuse: a spotlight report
Spotlight report by Dr Sarah Hadfield on how Universal Credit could better support victim-survivors of domestic abuse.
citizensadvice.org.uk
Some shocking stats on the impact of frozen support for housing costs. Ending the freeze is a no-brainer for boosting living standards 👇
@julia-rt.bsky.social · last mo.Frozen housing costs support is putting unsustainable pressure on renters' budgets: 48% of private renters getting UC across the UK have cut back on essentials in the last 6 months The no. of private renters we helped w/ housing benefit, who were also referred to foodbanks is up 79% since 21/22
Love this as a prevention case study: - Low cost, even revenue raising in the short term - Improves health outcomes and reduces costly hospital admissions Shows political leadership is key: - Politically costly for Khan to implement - Did it despite cost savings landing outside GLA
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2mo agoEmergency hospital admissions fell after introduction of London’s T-charge and Ulez, study suggests
This is true and also Prefab Sprout are an amazing band I wish I’d got into sooner.
Cooper Lund@cooperlund.online · 2mo agoNostalgia is at the root of reactionary thought, which is why you have to do your best to reject it. The problem is that it’s also very seductive. Like Prefab Sprout sang, “Nothing sounds as good as/"I remember that"”
Treating any communication platform that algorithmically selects which content to put in front of a user as a publisher, and legally responsible for that content, is the screamingly obvious solution that will deeply upset maybe seven companies and make life considerably better.
Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · 2mo agoOne of the obvious problems with a under-16 social media ban is that it won't work. (60%+ of Australian under-16s are still using these platforms). But it will make people feel like something has been done so they won't tackle the content, which is the real issue.
"The people coming to us every 30 seconds in crisis aren't just worrying about August, they're already struggling now and fear things will only get worse as winter hits" www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Cheaper theme park tickets and children's meals as VAT to be cut for some attractions this summer
Chancellor Rachel Reeves made a series of announcements aimed at relieving cost-of-living pressures.
bbc.co.uk
Today, alongside the @healthfoundation.bsky.social , we’ve published a major report looking at the link between poor health and housing. Too many people in the UK live in homes that are making them sick and it’s worsening health inequalities. www.citizensadvice.org.uk/policy/publi...
Building healthier foundations: How to improve access to healthy housing for all
Report funded by the Health Foundation exploring the links between housing and health
citizensadvice.org.uk
***The Disability Statistics Disaster*** I don't trust the official UK statistics on trends in the disability employment gap, and neither should you... -> New blog post at inequalities.substack.com/p/the-disabi...
This is an astonishingly successful public policy reform, and so heartening. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
Martha’s rule may have saved more than 500 lives in England since 2024
Patient safety mechanism which gives patients the right to seek a second opinion having ‘lifesaving impact’, says health secretary
theguardian.com
Really good answer from Kompany on Mourinho, Vinicius Jr and all that:
Kompany SLAMS Mourinho over VINICIUS INCIDENT —Calls out RACISM in FOOTBALL | FULL ADDRESS
YouTube video by Diario AS
youtu.be
Speaking to the Unsung Britain conference yesterday, @claremoriarty.bsky.social from @citizensadvice.bsky.social emphasised the importance of joined up policy making ⤵️
NEW: Planned welfare reform could see big benefit cuts for disabled people who can't work, Citizens Advice has warned The government wants to replace long-term ESA disability benefits with a new, much more time-limited benefit called Unemployment Insurance (UI) www.bigissue.com/news/social-...
Disabled people could face benefit cuts – even if they cannot work
Long-term claimants of employment and support allowance could be moved over to a new, time-limited disability benefit – equating to cuts.
bigissue.com
This year - one of both mat leave and reporting travels around the country - I've found an alternative story to the "Broken Britain" narrative. My column for the @newstatesman1913.bsky.social Christmas issue:
I was wrong about Broken Britain
The country can feel divided and lost, but there’s always another side to the story
newstatesman.com
Late shout for this. Still time to register!
Tom MacInnes@tommacinnes.bsky.social · 8mo agoAhead of our end of year Data Insights session (sign up here! Featuring special guest @anooshc.bsky.social from the New Statesman www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/turning-th...) I wrote something very short on the 2 child limit, living standards and political ambition medium.com/p/9e10a39f80cf
Ahead of our end of year Data Insights session (sign up here! Featuring special guest @anooshc.bsky.social from the New Statesman www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/turning-th...) I wrote something very short on the 2 child limit, living standards and political ambition medium.com/p/9e10a39f80cf
Turning the Tide or Treading Water? Living Standards After the Budget
After the government’s key announcements and the recent Autumn Budget, we’ll explore what those decisions mean for households and families.
eventbrite.co.uk
100% against the concept of things/ people being ‘overrated’. Goes for music, football, films whatever. If you don’t like it, say what you think, don’t bring others’ opinions into it.
Tracey Thorn@traceythorn.bsky.social · 8mo agoEarlier in the day, I'd seen someone post an article, The Twenty Most Overrated Albums of 2025, and I glanced at it with an eye roll, KNOWING that the Geese album would be no 1, as indeed it was, and I just thought OH FUCK OFF. Sometimes people are rated because they're fucking fantastic.
The living standards crisis will worsen without urgent action. Targeted bill support is needed. For energy alone, it could save 5.6 million households an average of £360 a year. The government and suppliers must act now to stop people spiralling into debt.
It is a lot of tweets but it’s worth reading. As he says - you can disagree on the substance. But we need to talk about the substance!
Torsten Bell@torstenbell.bsky.social · 9mo agoThat is a lot of tweets. If you got this far you deserve a prize. Reasonable people will debate this growth strategy. But claiming there isn’t one is lazy nonsense. Higher growth matters because rising living standards are the goal, and higher investment is a key tool.
"Scrapping the two-child limit and addressing high energy bills will prevent hundreds of thousands of children from growing up in poverty and help households across the country keep the lights on." Our CEO responds to today's Autumn Budget ⤵️ https://bit.ly/4pDEOzb
Great to see energy bills cut by average £150 in the budget - with the focus rightly on tackling the disproportionate cost of electricity. This should make it easier for people to benefit from clean power, and support people on electric heating, who are often in the deepest fuel poverty 1/2
Poverty is so expensive to our state and public services. It damages life chances for children and has a massive drag on the economy. Here’s what one of our brilliant frontline advisers wrote in our Budget submission on this:
Scrapping the two-child limit is a brilliant step forward. Reversing this cruel policy will not only pull hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty altogether (and lift many more out of very deep poverty); it will also stop over 100 additional children from being pulled into poverty every day
