Matt Skinner

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We’re teaming up with London Social Ventures on the Adult Social Care Impact Launchpad, connecting researchers with care teams to turn bold, evidence-based ideas into action. Real change, grounded in rigour. More soon on how to support or pilot the work.
londonsocialventures.com/impact-launc...

I really get the national outrage over the felling of the sycamore tree, but 4 years in prison seems v expensive and unlikely to address their behaviour. Surely several years of community service planting trees and public realm work and educating them would be a better outcome

Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in London reduce road traffic injuries: a controlled before-and-after analysis (2012–2024) Background Between 2015 and 2024, 113 Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) were implemented across Greater London, with 27 subsequently removed. We investigated their impacts on road traffic injuries ins...

It turns out that when you remove cars from city streets, many fewer people are injured or killed. #CarsRuinCities

A staggering 96 private jets are expected to fly in for Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez's wedding

But they will use paper straws on the planes

Ceasefire didn’t last very long did it

📅 @carecityuk.bsky.social has spent the last year building belonging in Barking & Dagenham – working with 100+ people, saving £££ & embedding real community power.

We heard about the lessons learnt – and how these can be applied in other contexts to create more connected places.

#StrongerThings

Back at the ‘Glastonbury for change doers’ that is #StrongerThings already reconnecting with fab people this morning. We’ve brought the Barking and Dagenham community along this year to share their learning from connecting and supporting people experiencing social isolation and complexity

As Heidi says (and knows well), this is the start of the process.

American space scientists are hardly alone as the target of gratuitous, damaging cuts. Park rangers, rural nurses, migrant restauranteurs, chemistry PhDs, and countless others have suffered. Ask Congress to restore sanity.

🔭🧪🛰️

Farage claimed in his speech today that he would raise £65 *billion* by cutting climate policies, DEI schemes, and ‘Quangos’.

He’s not running a serious operation and every political journalist in the country has a public duty to shout that from the rooftops

Delighted to be part of the Community Benefit Society Working Group helping to shape this in Barking and Dagenham with some brilliant local community leaders

It’s also because we continually plough more money into doing the same things, wondering why doing the same thing doesn’t result in new savings

I’m not sure mass genocide is really in keeping with the spirit of Eurovision

Socialism is what they called public power. 

Socialism is what they called social security. 
 
Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations.
 
Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.

—Harry Truman, 1952

Fantastic evening at the launch of The Academic Centre for Healthy Ageing @acha020.bsky.social - huge ambition to connect research into real change with our communities in North East London. Congrats to all the ACHA team on an excellent launch

There is no point saying to the Reform-curious 'ah, it's all a lot more complex than that, that's simplistic'. The whole point of the right-populist insurgency is a revolt *against* complexity, the promised escape into a simpler, purer world.

Thrilled to share the news that Helen England has been appointed the new Chair of @carecityuk.bsky.social Board

Presumably the govt will be building the new electric arc furnaces at Scunthorpe. Wonder what the economic case is for letting the coal ones go off, keeping the staff employed and building the electric furnaces is vs current scenario

China calling Trumps bluff on tariffs whilst the rest of the world fumble around to make deals - felt like there was time to plan a better response

Tariff medicine coming from someone who encouraged injecting bleach and who has put an anti vaxxer in charge of pub health. Not surprising this medicine tastes a lot like poison

Trump Declares A Trade War On Uninhabited Islands, US Military, And Economic Logic There’s a fundamental problem with Donald Trump’s new trade policy: it fails a test that actual 5th graders can pass. I know this because I tried explaining his “Liberation Day&#8…

I wrote a bunch of words trying to explain how economically incomprehensible the tariff stuff is. It explains how a 5th grader understands basic econ better than Trump and his economic advisors.

www.techdirt.com/2025/04/03/t...

I just did the numbers and this assumption looks to be completely right.

Let’s pause for a minute and consider how INSANE this is. 🧵

Ever wondered what happens if you elect a complete moron >>> USA

Well done the judicial system in France

Jfc

‘Under the changes, people who are not able to wash half of their body, or who are unable to cook a meal for themselves will no longer be able to claim Pips unless they have another limiting condition.’ - but we will spend £10bn to build a new road wtf

Please will this govt now finally admit that their plan isn’t working. Get in the room with EU leaders and thrash out a plan to allow easy trade. Call it whatever it needs to be politically but get on with it. Can we also stop measuring GDP as a good growth measure - it’s fundamentally broken

Rachel Reeves to announce further benefit cuts Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, was forced to seek further cuts after the Office for Budget Responsibility rejected her welfare savings estimate

Last-minute spreadsheet wars between the Treasury and the OBR are ludicrous way to run a country, a ludicrous way to run an economy, a ludicrous way to fund public services and a ludicrous way to run the welfare system www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Spot on.

In short, it’s a timid unimaginative government who have a bafflingly simplistic idea of how government actually works, see the world through focus groups, and whose attention is entirely on trying to win the next election in 4 years time rather than keeping the UK from collapse.