Tom Forth

And here's a piece I wrote about it later in 2016 looking specifically at Birmingham. I used The West Midlands as a comparable geography to London there, which I think is right. www.tomforth.co.uk/inclusivegro...

The tool I built back in May 2016 lets you compare lots more geographies if you like. Data is from 2011/12, so really could do with updating, but I don't have the time to do much of that any more. www.tomforth.co.uk/incomebymsoa/

Thanks for sharing these. Partly in response to you question on inequality in Manchester,... yes I do think we'd expect to get more unequal as it got richer. That would bring down UK inequality. Here's the maths from way back in 2016. tomforth.co.uk/themathsofin...

I think it's more useful to think about productivity than wealth. And yes, very much a UK second city problem, as this plot I've pinched from @tomforth.co.uk makes clear

Is Manchester really turning into London?
No. London is a very unequal city, but Manchester is both more equal than London, & significantly poorer.
A plot comparing spatial inequalities in household incomes (after housing costs) in GM and London
(inspired by an earlier version by @tomforth.co.uk)

My scepticism of "joined up thinking", "independent experts", "getting out of siloes", "evaluations", "collaboration and co-production" and "doing what works" grows stronger by the week. Agency, independence, and action, even if wreckless, are so much rarer and we could do with more of them. imho.

On X I encouraged people to come over to here to read @gilesyb.bsky.social recent thoughts on expert recommendations in reports. But since you're already here, you can just read them, and I agree.

Let the record further show that we wrote these suggestions. Nothing about skills, not really anything about joined up thinking, not that aligned with the essay collection's summary. I would say that I, along with @gilesyb.bsky.social, was among a small core of sceptics at the meetings.

Our findings. As is typical of me, the paper contains great celebrations of,
1/ London's innovation success and fiscal transfer generosity.
2/ Conservative government beating its R&D target.
3/ The British research establishment publishing more and better data.
4/ The ONS.

Wrote a paper. Read the paper. Seems okay. You can read it too. The pub is now much fuller than my reading on X. niesr.ac.uk/publications...

How do we get great graduates into great jobs more quickly? We're trying a new thing at The Data City to make that happen. It might work, it might not. I guess we'll find out in 8 weeks when our first ever data science fellowship completes. Let's see. github.com/TheDataCity/...

Unsurprisingly the panel will not feature me, because I will not be there. Which probably means it will be even better and you should go!

Hahahahaha

There is only one sure way to hear how I pronounce @anastasiabekt.bsky.social's name and it's in this podcast episode!

The National Data Library. A home for excellence and collaboration using the best of British data.

Big thanks to @jamesomalley.co.uk and ‪@mjrobbins.com‬ for somehow editing our conversation about a National Data Library (datalibrary.uk) into something that makes me sound quite coherent and considered. I start chatting at 45 minutes if HS2 makes you too sad. www.abundancepod.com/p/why-hs2-is...

autocorrect on "argument"?

So I wrote a thing.

Here is the gist. My provocation was a bit of heresy aimed at my own tribe of decent, evidence-driven, apolitical policy wonks who quite sensibly worship at the altar of the arms-length institution, the predictable rule, politics-free decisions and so on ... 1/

@jacktindale.bsky.social thinking of u.

Luke knows Hull far better than I do. He was the most popular candidate among my mates still living there and in the East Riding. My hope is that the Labour old guard have reached out and offered to help and he's accepted. eg. Alan Johnson knows 100x more about governing Hull than Nigel Farage does.

Very good. The effects of congestion charging in Manhattan seem quite amazing. I haven't managed to keep with whether Trump has managed to ban it or not. Do you know if the congestion charge is still in operation?

Thanks. Yes, an update is being rolled out. We didn't expect Leeds City Council to change the URL without putting a forward in.

us government went from telling miners “learn to code” to telling coders “learn to mine” in less than ten years

This will teach me to change 10TB to ten terrabyes (sic) on the last read through.

#coproduction

fixed!

Nation Rebalanced: How do we create a country that works for all places? — Labour Together This report, by Labour Together’s Director of Devolution, JP Spencer, sets out a bold vision for how to rebalance the UK economy and create prosperity in every part of the country. It outlines four k...

I read the new @labourtogether.bsky.social report --- Nation Rebalanced --- and I thought it was excellent. You can read it too, starting here. The foreword is a bit partisan, but the main report is much more,..... 😎,..... balanced. www.labourtogether.uk/all-reports/...

Ha. Thanks. Yes, I saw that. I think a terrabye is when you have a really big party and you have to say goodnight to everyone as they leave.

The National Data Library.

We're getting on with building The National Data Library here in Leeds. We've had huge interest and support from the private and public sector and it's growing fast. Learn more and join in! datalibrary.uk

I distrust your team much much less. Thanks!

Buuuuut, I got my team to do the same and we got v different numbers