Tim Leunig

Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity <<< Simon Johnson & Daron Acemoglu's book is 99p on kindle today. Bargain! www.amazon.co.uk/Power-Progre...

Of all the policy ideas I have written up since leaving government, my plan to reduce and eliminate smoking is the one I would most like to see government take up - timleunig.substack.com/p/smoking

How to kickstart the UK economy. With Tim Leunig | The Economics Show Planning and tax reform are at the top of this ex government adviser’s list

Brexit's "great success": £850 million loss a week. That's a number to put on a bus, and a bargain of the century according to @timleunig.bsky.social: pay £350 million - get £850 million. shows.acast.com/the-economic...

TIL that @timleunig.bsky.social — as economic adviser to ChX during COVID — advocated for blanket purchase of Netflix for British households to make lockdown more bearable.

I did indeed argue for the govt purchasing a national sub to @netflix.com during lock down - and I still think it would have a good think to have done!

Over to Monaco🇲🇨 where we have exclusive footage of bollards saving lives.
#WorldBollardAssociation

I claim my prize for reading all of them. Most coherent summary of your strategy yet.

Hearings Archive - UK Covid-19 Inquiry The independent public inquiry to examine the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK

On Monday afternoon I will appear in person before the Inquiry. As well as being open to the public, it will be streamed. My evidence submission, and the hearing transcript will be available on the Inquiry website at the end of Monday. covid19.public-inquiry.uk/hearings/ 3/3

Writing 89,500 words is a lot of work - my evidence is much longer than my PhD. It look a lot of evenings and weekends, and I am also hugely grateful to @Nesta for giving me time off (the Inquiry does not cover this and witnesses have no right to time off). 2/3

The covid inquiry is looking at the government's economic response. I was asked (aka required) to submit evidence. There were over 80 questions, each typically having 8 sub-questions. In total I submitted 89,650 words, plus an annex containing many email chains. 1/3

Reeves’s budget is from deep within Labour’s DNA | The Observer

Interested in my take on the Budget? You can read it for free in the Observer - observer.co.uk/news/politic...

This also proves that voting matters. Labour have done this, the Tories oppose it. 3/3

Abolishing the two child rule is unambiguously the most cost efficient way to reduce child poverty and I am delighted that Rachel Reeves bit this (unpopular) bullet and JFDI. (evidence on cost efficiency: media.actionforchildren.org.uk/documents/AC...) 2/3

Like all too many children in the UK today, I grew up poor. I am no longer poor, and I am delighted to pay higher taxes to reduce - or ideally eliminate - child poverty. 1/3

The abolition of the two-child benefit cap, which punishes children for their parents' circumstances, is the best part of the budget, potentially lifting almost half a million children out of poverty.

It may also be the part that comes under fiercest attack. So it needs celebrating and defending.

Even by his own high standards, this piece but @stephenkb.bsky.social is very, very good.

What should the Chancellor do this week? If I had only one wish, this is what it would be...

It's Budget Week - so this week I have set out in my substack the one big thing I am looking for - timleunig.substack.com/p/what-shoul... (£/free trial)

UK is costliest country to build new nuclear power, government review warns Task force calls for super regulator to seize control of sprawling bureaucracy

Good FT summary by MalcolmMoore on @johnfingleton.bsky.social review of why nuclear is so expensive to build, and never gets built. Same is true for housing. Solution: Do fewer surveys, spend more on the environment and build more! www.ft.com/content/467b...

We’ll need good data next time or lockdown arguments multiply At the start of the pandemic two professors, Martin Landray and Peter Horby, did something that should have been banal but was also rare: they tested drugs

Particularly fine article by @tomwhipple.bsky.social - www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

The relative tax treatment of the employed and the self employed is simply not fair. Action should be taken.

Cuting VAT on fuel is a bad policy for so many reasons. If @teamlabouruk.bsky.social / Rachel Reeves chooses this option we will know that this is not a serious government.

New free link on.ft.com/4r7ILgO

The Home Secretary says "we have become the destination of choice in Europe, clearly visible to every people smuggler and would-be illegal migrant across the world"

That is a factually untrue claim: the Home Office shows that the UK is fifth, getting 1/10 claims, while Germany gets 1/5 claims

Has any government ever taken notice of a knight threatening to return their knighthood?

Chart: Total population living in extreme poverty by world region, 1990 to 2040 - projected to be flat Extreme poverty is defined as living below the International Poverty Line of $3 per day. This data is adjusted for inflation and differences in living costs between countries. Projections from 2026 to 2030 are based on growth forecasts from the World Bank and the IMF. From 2031 onward, projections are based on the growth rates observed in the period 2015-2024.

On any average day in the last 35 years, about 115,000 people left extreme poverty behind. But based on current trends, progress against extreme poverty will come to a halt.

Important slow news story on @ourworldindata.org

ourworldindata.org/end-progress...

How to make flying (even) safer Technology can be our friend

Over the last couple of years I have produced policy ideas on a wide range of topics. This week I propose two near costless ideas that would improve air safety. @boeingdefence.bsky.social @airbus.com timleunig.substack.com/p/how-to-mak... (Free to read)

Hence my preference for a qualitative fiscal assessment...

Want some good news about the UK economy for once...levels of GDP (and forecasts) keep getting revised up...

D: Reuters News Q = Ukrainian attack halts oil exports from Russia's Novo, affecting 2% of global supply, sources say By Reuters November 14, 2025 5:20 PM GMT+1 • Updated 1 hour ago

Yesterday Ukraine blew up the Novorossiysk oil refinery, which is still burning furiously. Today Russia has been forced to suspend all exports - 2.2 million barrels a day.

That sound you now hear is the Russian economy burning.

£5.4m maths programme to boost early years numeracy outcomes The government hopes to launch an 'evidence-based maths programme in 'at least 5,000 settings' to improve numeracy outcomes for children in early years

The government hopes to launch an 'evidence-based' maths programme to improve numeracy outcomes for children in as many as 5,000 early years settings

schoolsweek.co.uk/5-4m-scheme-...