Cam Vargas

Is Cumbria seeing a resurgence in manufacturing? And a Northern productivity league table

A few weeks back, I wrote a post on why Greater Manchester is the fastest growing part of England.

Today, I’ve followed this up by creating a Northern productivity leaderboard and then looking at the second fastest: Cumbria.

futurenorth.substack.com/p/is-cumbria...

🧵

1/6

Ministers could give mayors control of schools and hospitals in devolution shake-up Exclusive: Labour Together report, endorsed by Steve Reed, says devolving power can improve services while saving money * Labour thinktank hopes Starmer will devolve more power to his potential rivals Ministers are drawing up plans to give mayors significant new powers over hospitals and schools as part of a new wave of devolution that could change how public services are run in England. Steve Reed, the local government secretary, wants to give mayors control over many more local services, and is weighing up handing over some NHS services and even parts of the criminal justice system. Continue reading...

Ministers could give mayors control of schools and hospitals in devolution shake-up

So google maps updated some satellite footage, here’s one single Ukrainian village. One out of thousands

www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

See also the *massive* cocaine epidemic among 40- to 50-something men. The media keeps talking about young people and drugs but peak deaths are among 40-49 year olds now.

And yet... Under qualified pollsters fighting for attention in an oversaturated market, working with shit quality panels, will continue to churn out this polling, and sell it to naive reporters, whose editors desperately want this to be true

this is v good

Majority of Labour members back digital ID card rollout, poll reveals - LabourList A majority of Labour members want to see the government introduce a digital ID card system, an exclusive poll for LabourList reveals.

A majority of Labour party members - who are on any metric rather more socially liberal than the average voter - back ID cards. Plenty of polling showing they are popular with voters in general. Perhaps the zombie myth that British voters oppose them will die at last?

labourlist.org/2025/09/digi...

Top 10 areas for productivity growth in England. Greater Manchester is top in recent years.

Greater Manchester has been the fastest growing part of the country in the past decade – measured either by total growth or by productivity growth. I’ve had a look into the data to try to work out what is growing and why.

Below are some of the things I have found.

🧵 1/7

Perhaps also you could interview some of those making editorial decisions in the media about whether they are taking their responsibilities seriously?

Aire Park in Leeds. Trees with a blue sky and buildings in the background.

Parks and playgrounds are integral to places, allowing people to relax, children to play and more. Hard to imagine NYC without Central Park, or Ilkley without its moor! This builds on a historic legacy of Victorian era council developing them for the good of their communities.

Short 🧵

1/3

What has London’s Bakerloo line got to do with the government’s ability to invest in the North?

Put simply, if we let London raise more money from high land values to pay for its infrastructure, this frees up more government spending for the rest of the country.

Read below to see detail 👇

This is how we pay for the Bakerloo Line extension One weird trick can extend the Tube, level up the north and make the Treasury happy.

This is how we pay for the Bakerloo Line extension FREE TO READ!)

takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/bakerloo-e...

About a sixth of the public endorse very extreme views on making legal/settled migrants leave & then follow up on the specifics. (This overlaps with the 8% who say they support violence in protests & liked the riots, so it should be challenged, not indulged)

After 800 people attended across 8 protests on Friday, up to 2000 across a dozen modest protests on Saturday, "UK braces for more protests" is an absurd headline

Largest protests & counter so far this weekend well below 500 people (but a much larger Gaza protest on Friday night mostly unreported)

Gna be fascinating and depressing to see the coverage of a property tax (if it happens) massively skewed by every commentator and newspaper editor owning an expensive house in London or the southeast and standing to lose out

Really good piece and thread (really worth signing up to this newsletter!) I think the big question, as a longtime supporter of fiscal devolution, is: what do you do about the fact that the tax base is now quite weak in a lot of places?

The report found the number of A-levels taken across the UK in physical education last year was higher than for French, German and classical languages combined. It blamed a shortage of qualified language teachers and the decision made by Tony Blair's government in 2004 to scrap the requirement for young people to study one language until the age of 16.

More A-levels taken in PE than in French, German and classical languages combined! on.ft.com/3Hw6eq3

A bit behind schedule, but how voters moved in the year since the 2024 election.

Labour facing same splintering of the last govt: a significant bloc crossing floor to primary electoral opposition, with a numerically larger chunk moving to opponents on same side of spectrum, plus many 'don't knows'.

preach

large parts of UK politics are swinging far-right with very, very frightening speed, and racists are getting increasingly open about expressing their bigotry.

What if – hear me out – some people just sincerely think digital ID would be a good idea for public policy and that the trade-off with civil liberties is worth taking, and a weird quasi-conspiracy isn't required?

Increasingly convinced the cheapest way to address this is to reverse local government austerity. Returning English local authority budgets to 2010 levels would cost about £7bn. Factor in population and demographic change and you'd want maybe £15bn. Benefits could be seen quickly and felt widely.

How about, instead, we give them ballooning responsibilities, less money, and limit their ways to raise it themselves?

A genuine milestone to celebrate The English Devolution and Community and Empowerment Bill marks a genuine change in how the country is governed. The Bill comes in at a hefty 338 pages, owing to...

The new Devolution Bill entrenches the mayoral model, extends its powers to new areas and creates a framework for the transfer of more powers - including a new right to request and a parliamentary lock on the removal of powers.

New article by me in the MJ: www.themj.co.uk/genuine-mile...

Since people keep asking...

We don't know with confidence how 16 and 17 year olds would vote. Polling evidence is quite scant because young people are some of the hardest to reach (and I would expect those you can reach will be disproportionately engaged and, therefore, not very representative). 🧵

I'll be interested to see who's brave enough to do the first poll of 13+ (given that they will probs now be old enough to vote at the next GE)

PS. We'll need to be careful about polls of 16-17 yr olds until we have good confidence in samples and adjusting for turnout.

I say Greens only because its Greens who are capturing protest votes from Labour among young voters atm, and may be able to mobilise preferences>votes.

A very important correction thank you @ecasalicchio.bsky.social

✈️ Britain’s talked about a third runway at Heathrow for two decades. Our new report with @BritishProgress shows how a flight could take off before 2029 - if Parliament chooses to speed up the process through a Public Bill.