Stephen Boyd

GMS on hit list as BBC Scotland plans restructure – Daily Business Read More

This is outrageous. There will soon be no serious broadcast media left in Scotland.

Would be nice to see some cross party pressure on BBC Scotland to stop this nonsense

share.google/yBZPKbXufZeJ...

📢 We are in Aberdeen this weekend at the SNP conference, hosting three fringe events. A conference pass is required to attend the events. Hope to see you there. Details below ⤵️

IPPR Scotland responds to the Scottish government’s new climate targets | IPPR IPPR Scotland welcomes the new climate targets agreed by the Scottish government today.  Dave Hawkey, Senior Research Fellow, IPPR Scotland said: “In the w

"The forthcoming climate plan must be built on sound financial and democratic pillars. That means a clear role for taxes, so we share transition costs fairly rather than leaving individuals to do it alone." - @davehawkey.bsky.social responds to today's climate targets www.ippr.org/media-office...

Scotland’s future in the UK Leader of the Conservative Party in Scotland Russell Findlay MSP outlines Scotland's Future in the UK

"Now Scotland can claim to some of the great thinkers of yester-year. The country of Adam Smith, the father of conservatism"

ok, who's gonna break the news about Edmund Burke to Russell Findlay?

www.conservatives.com/news/scotlan...

OK, let's take this seriously. I had an odd half an hour and via Apple Books had a quick look at the three claims I knew most about - two re the post-Brexit bilateral preferential trade agreements replicated from the EU versions and one about cheaper bananas. All are wrong or wildly implausible. 1/n

Reform likely to raise Kent council tax after cost-cutting drive falters Nigel Farage’s party promised to revive local authority finances by slashing wasteful spending

“Everyone thought we’d come in and there were going to be these huge costs we could cut away but there just aren’t"

Tempting to laugh but, frustratingly, such delusions about public sector spending/reform are very widely shared across political parties.

on.ft.com/4mNVKkw via @FT

Essential @abenewman.bsky.social thread on an important - and hopefully catalytic - speech

bsky.app/profile/aben...

"Europeans, let's wake up!" — Defend Democracy “We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks.” President Macron on the occasion of German Unity Day, 3 October 2025.

1/Striking speech by Macron: The future of European democracy depends on taking back its digital information space. A remarkable turn from Silicon Valley as source of enlightenment to being a purveyor of slop. And the stakes aren't just ad revenue but the nation.
defenddemocracy.eu/macron-democ...

This is great. Cory D nails the business model in all its dismal detail. He had consistently been excellent doing a job, that let's be honest, professors in business schools should have done.

Have we passed peak social media? As platforms degrade into outrage and slop, users are turning away

"It'd be a hugely welcome developmnt to discover that we have not merely reached social media saturation point but that the experience has been degraded to such an extent that it's shocked people out of their stupor...causing them to pivot to healthier uses of their time"

www.ft.com/content/a072...

It's just not true that "the active interventionist and redistributive state policies that would be needed to tackle regional and household inequalities, insecure labour markets, and hard-pressed public services appear unavailable to governments aiming to remain globally competitive."

A half-forgotten hero of British music DJ Guy Stevens - let me tell you his story...

New article - Guy Steven’s, taste-maker extraordinaire (just ask Pete Townshend, The Clash, the Stones, Steve Marriott).

Here - davehaslam.substack.com/p/a-half-for...

One week to go before the Jimmy Reid Memorial Lecture with Professor Ghassan Abu-Sittah talking about the Gaza crisis. For further details and ticket information: reidfoundation.scot.

Trump Is Getting Closer to Having an ‘Infinite Money Pit’ If the president takes over the Federal Reserve, he will have extraordinary power to reward his friends and destroy his enemies.

1. This piece by Roge Karma is absolutely worth reading - www.theatlantic.com/economy/arch... . If the Supreme Court allows Trump to fire Lisa Cook, the consequences are likely to be disastrous. key points:

Fucksake, this #discourse AGAIN?
Yes this platform is smaller, very observant. But I don't spend all day being force fed Nazi slop or getting harassed by Nazis on a Nazi platform specifically engineered to amplify Nazis. It's not a hard decision, let's all just move on.

this important, highly topical @benbgeiger.bsky.social blog deserves to be very widely read

bsky.app/profile/benb...

How Westminster became obsessed with paedophiles Nonce politics is not confined to the fringes

"Britain’s attitude to paedophilia—obsessive, yet careless—is dragging Westminster to a dark place"

www.economist.com/britain/2025...

We're delighted to be a part of the Scottish Transport Summit organised by @transportscotland.bsky.social. After excellent talks by Cabinet Secretary @fionahyslop.bsky.social and Cllr Gail MacGregor, IPPR Scotland director @stephenboydippr.bsky.social gives a keynote lecture on transport & economy.

Means testing is a dog of a tax and it will destroy the welfare state This is started as an essay on the basic economics of means testing. It veered into speculation on means testing’s function in the Australian political economy. Economically, a means test is …

It’s like they read @davidsligar.bsky.social’s excellent article and decided that they really like means testing. Not surprising really, you’d expect nothing more from them, it’s more surprising how popular it is with Labour.

westernsydneywonk.wordpress.com/2021/06/05/m...

In Edinburgh on October 7 with
@lighthousebks.bsky.social
for anyone up there. There is a lot of commonality between Edinburgh's housing crisis and London's, so I'm looking forward to a good discussion

lighthousebookshop.com/events/homes...

The words “We’ve published analysis on how climate change mitigation could affect the Scottish Government’s fiscal sustainability” alongside the cover page for our publication.

We have published our Fiscal Sustainability Perspectives paper considering how climate change mitigation could affect the Scottish Government’s fiscal sustainability. Read it here: bit.ly/46hZaFV
This thread summarises some key points from the report. 1/4

A more complicated and sophisticated economy needs more complicated and sophisticated regulatory structures. You can't prove anything with a chart like this.

The absurdity of castigating Musk while continuing to provide him with free content is glaring btw.

Science Under Siege: A Talk With Peter Hotez and Michael Mann Lysenko comes to America

"And I saw how deeply conspiratorial and dug in he was and equally how uninterested he was in the actual science. He couldn't care less about the science of autism"

Science under seige - fascinating/disturbing conversation between Krugman, Mann and Hotez

open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

Ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe Has Earned £40k For Posting On X Independent MP Rupert Lowe has earned nearly £40,000 from posting on Elon Musk’s social media platform X since his election last year, far surpassi...

This @zoecrowther.bsky.social article shows how a payment for results system has turned X into a machine for monetising division. Those who shout loudest, push extremes, or declare Britain “broken beyond repair” are the ones who profit. 2/7

www.politicshome.com/news/article...

I was going to tweet this last year but somehow I was impeded…

“When [economic] growth does, and does not, reduce poverty”

www.bii.co.uk/en/news-insi...

— A great literature review by a team including @paddycarter.bsky.social and @paulsegal.bsky.social

Donate to Ahmad & Samar: A Future Beyond Gaza's War, organized by Fatima Ayub My name is Ahmad Johar, a 25-year-old, Palestinian from Gaza. I have lived throu… Fatima Ayub needs your support for Ahmad & Samar: A Future Beyond Gaza's War

Just spoken with Ahmad as I was worried. He is finding the current situation overwhelming with no end in sight. He’s emotionally exhausted & is asking for our friendship and support at this time. Please do donate/share his campaign, & let him know we’re here for him. Thank you
gofund.me/2b0c549bf

📢NEW BLOG📢

🫀People living in the most deprived neighbourhoods in Scotland are less able to lead healthy lives, and this has serious consequences for their cardiovascular health.

Labour needs to give up magical thinking on ‘reform’ Changing the way the government does things should not be seen as a money-saving exercise

Scotland's political class should stop and read this essential column:

"...start by asking what you want to accomplish and what systems will best achieve that. If cost control is your aim, then what you need is not reform but to change who pays for something or for what"

www.ft.com/content/0e56...

Cummins lobbies PM for $100m fund to help clubs manage climate change costs Australia's men's Test cricket captain has lobbied Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to contribute to a $100m fund to help sporting clubs withstand the effects of climate change.

What Pat Cummins is doing for climate adaptation and mitigation in Australia - protect something people love in their normallives, help them do it differently (loads of solar) - is an incredibly replicable model for climate advocates everywhere

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...