Matt Griffith

29. One of the great advantages of B'sky over Twitter is the peace that comes from never seeing the takes of the most obviously unwell and unhappy take-mongers.

The difficult truth that the politics of English devolution needs to wrestle with is that there is a large number of people who basically want the advantages of 'being like London' but while deeply resenting and pushing against any of the political economy things that would involve.

A ten year infrastructure strategy…or financial engineering? A 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy? Or financial engineering to reboot PFI with limited impact? Thomas Aubrey & Con Keating   When any new government strategy is published, it’s easy to be …

Following my recent FT article on infrastructure investment, I have written a piece with Con Keating on some fundamental weaknesses in the government’s infrastructure strategy. henrytapper.com/2025/06/27/a... One major reason for the UK’s low rate of growth is the UK unilaterally deviated from

Lessons from the Victorians for funding big projects From housing to transport, infrastructure could be delivered faster using the finance models of earlier eras

This is a really excellent piece in the FT today on how the UK could get out of its current "underfunded, badly delivered" infrastructure model

on.ft.com/4jSU1sK

Chart showing total gross fixed capital formation as a proportion of GDP: advanced OECD economies and G7, 1995 to 2022

Public investment in the UK has lagged behind average OECD levels for over two decades.

Read more ➡️ buff.ly/iPgoNzv

Controversial opinion: the government could maybe get more bang for its buck in the medium term by turning Bristol into a city of 1 million+ than by doing the OxCam arc

Bristol is the only big-ish city outside London with above average productivity.
It is bigger (c. 550k people) than Oxford and Cambridge combined. People want to move to it - so housing is expensive. It’s constrained by its size, has rubbish transport links…

He's like Philip Larkin: instantly recognisable poetic cadence from just one verse.

"They fuck you up. That's what I said. I came in here and said, they fuck you up. My parents, they were beautiful parents. Someone once told me I had really beautiful parents."

What perfect albums came out when you were 16?

So many, I had not thought nostalgia could forget so many.

Solyndra is often cited as a cautionary tale against industrial policy. In hindsight, though, the worst mistake the Obama administration made was the $465m loan to Tesla that allowed Musk to avoid bankruptcy.

A news item about JD Vance, a bearded disgrace of a man. The headline says, ‘Vance flees to undisclosed location after protesters disrupt Vermont ski trip’.

“If you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you.” - JD Vance, Munich, February 2024.

Business West is looking to hire a Policy Specialist to fire up our member-led policy work! 🚀

Do you know anyone great for this role? - give them a nudge!👇

www.businesswest.co.uk/careers/job-...

This is a new level of madness. I don't know how it can be stopped

Must-read piece. Europe cannot afford to be the chorus in a Greek tragedy, wringing its hands on the edge of the stage while horrors unfold elsewhere. Ukraine’s success is a vital interest for European countries, including the UK. They need to act, not wait for Trump to harm their interests.

Revealed: Trump’s confidential plan to put Ukraine in a stranglehold Panic in Kyiv as US president demands higher share of GDP than Germany’s First World War reparations

The @telegraphnews.bsky.social says it has the document Zelensky was asked to sign
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...

Really enjoyed speaking at the Festival of Flourishing Regions in Bristol on the funding & financing of the next wave of infrastructure in the UK with Stephen Peacock, Hannah Hickman and @pmdfoster.bsky.social

New multi-million pound research centre to propel regional economy A new research centre to bring together universities and businesses to engineer regional growth

This is good news. Congratulations to all involved, especially @iprnickp.bsky.social and @mattwgriffith.bsky.social. The need for this has come up in many of our Festivals of the Future City and in other fora.

Classic West C'unry vernacular break out spotted at Odeon Bath.

Crushed by decades of spell check, but still manages to somehow fight back.

If Putin wanted to be in a direct military conflict with NATO, he would be. He wouldn't need an excuse but could easily invent one.

There is no scenario of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia that ends in Putin's victory.

Either he falls, or we all die in nuclear fire.

He knows this.

Don't want to depress people, but my computer offered up a new Twitter account on Tuesday.

Zero input from me, and this is the lead "for you" tweet it got.

The public square has been high jacked.

"Bring forward retaliatory measures to target the critiical national industries of the French running dogs"

"But Chairman Xi, have you really thought this through?"

Global relief as Chinese elites decide against terrible act of self harm:

My refuge, the normally prohibitively expensive, Rick's Bar

But this time a single Baron de Sigognac 10 year seems a fair price to pay for avoiding Hindi movie levels of drenching.

Sometimes you've gotta role with serendipity.

Summer, Bristol