Paul Nightingale

I'd be much more sympathetic to the REF culture warriors if they could (a) tell me if culture is a cause or effect, and (b) show some evidence of having read the extensive academic research on how organisations work.

Why is Starmer becoming more confident criticising Brexit? Because quietly, without any great drama, a consensus has been reached. It's a disaster inews.co.uk/opinion/brex...

One for the Brits as well.

British grid had a number of hours last night when exports > fossil fuel generation - ie net zero operation. It will be at least another month or so before the British grid can operate with no fossil fuels due to inertia and other services being supplied in other ways (chart from grid.iamkate.com)

Belt and Road Initiative significantly crowded out Japanese infrastructure projects & reduced frequency of foreign leaders’ visits to Japan, particularly those from countries in East Asia including Pacific & South Asian regions where Sino-Japanese competition is most intense
cepr.org/voxeu/column...

How polarised is Britain? Behind media perceptions of a sharpening political divide is a more complicated picture

"Polarisation may be an unhelpful term .... It implies that both sides are becoming equally extreme. Arguably the real dynamic is that elements of the right have hardened, embracing positions that would have been unacceptable a decade ago" on.ft.com/46TGRHs by @henrymance.ft.com 1/

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.

Sometimes I think about how from 1935-1975ish, Bell Labs produced an insane amount of revolutionary science and technology, including 11 Nobel Prizes, the transistor, UNIX, C, the laser, the solar cell, information theory, etc. The secret? Provide scientists with ample, steady, no-strings funding.

Equity frictions vary widely across Europe, shaping entrepreneurial finance, wealth, and output. Unlike debt, reducing them boosts efficiency while also reducing inequality, from Alessandra Peter https://www.nber.org/papers/w34301

Mini thread trying to debunk the "RCT or bust" propaganda. Looking forward to a chilled Saturday morning on Bluesky. 😉

Elite school students end up in better universities than expected, based on their grades | British Politics and Policy at LSE Students of private and grammar schools are over-represented in elite universities, but only part of that is explained by better grades.

Natch.🙄"Even when we control for both age 16 and age 18 academic achievement, private school pupils still attend much higher ranked university courses than their peers of similar achievement." (Reason being they make fewer 'safety' applications, material comfort encouraging them to take more risks).

Cambridge sets up ‘fresh thinking’ retreat for frazzled civil servants The Downing Battcock Institute aims to provide a safe space where harassed policymakers can meet academics and contemplate offbeat ideas over ‘nice dinners’

While poor ‘frazzled’ civil servants chat in beautiful surroundings over ‘very nice dinners’, we wonder why people have voted serially for profound change and are now embracing populism….. Cambridge sets up ‘fresh thinking’ retreat for frazzled civil servants

www.thetimes.com/article/ca17...

This by @crookedfootball.bsky.social is rather excellent on the goals of politics.

When i was young and going to Brussels as an academic policy wonk, I didn't know who to support (Kissinger's problem). Marie Jahoda told me "the Scandinavian grandmothers!!"

Exciting!

Under UK law, a company can make £200m+ in sales and still hide its profit & loss by calling itself “small”.

That’s how PPE Medpro kept its finances secret.

A short thread on one of Britain’s daftest loopholes, the 1970s EU compromise that created it — and how to fix it.

It's also a big thing for racists. Plays into all their fears.... And into their "women should be in the kitchen raising kids not at work" guff.

There are a couple of issues. First, many women would like to have more kids than they do. But housing, wages, childcare etc make it very difficult. I guess men as well???? Second, there is a great about future ratios between working pop and retired. And third politics gets nasty. usual caveats

British Politics' Midlife Crisis Why British Parties Can't Make Peace with Their Actual Voters

Just had time to properly read this brilliant piece by @benansell.bsky.social. It left me even more convinced than I already was that what he calls Labour's (and indeed the Conservative's) "prole-whisperers" are horribly mistaken if they genuinely think chasing after Reform voters is the way to go.

The role of science and innovation in sustainable growth: How can STI support economic growth while tackling environmental challenges? 9 October 2025, 13:00-14:00 CET. Ask your question on Sli.do #sustainablegrowth

How can science, technology & innovation drive growth while tackling climate and #sustainability challenges?

Join us in Brussels or online on 9 October to explore new OECD evidence at our event with @bruegel.org.

🔗 bit.ly/4o5PDJB

#STIpolicy #GreenTransition #SustainableGrowth

Celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Turing Test | Royal Society An event celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Turing Test, held at the Royal Society on 2 October 2025.

You might imagine that an event celebrating 75 years of the Turing Test would be all "Wasn't he prescient, and look, now we really do have machines that think!" Mercifully, this event yesterday was close to the opposite. /1
royalsociety.org/science-even...

This is great. Reupping

The Making of China and India in the 21st Century: Long-Run Human Capital Accumulation from 1900 to 2020 by Nitin Kumar Bharti, Li Yang :: SSRN share.google/jEgZMlmUsw82...

Some fun classic readings for the weekend - the Procedure Fetish by Bagley.

TLDR: Our obsession with procedure as a cure-all is misplaced and probably counterproductive.

www.jstor.org/stable/45285...

Which reminds me of Nightingale's first law of science policy "Fund more history"

This looks good.

Dan Wang's "Breakneck: China's quest to engineer the future" is as good as people say.

Useful to read it with Dunkelman's "Why Nothing Works". Which is also really good on the US

And for background Paul Sabin's "Public Citizens" is a wonderful history of changes in the US.

Reminder of this event tomorrow!

Scientific Publishing Industry Faces Federal Scrutiny Federal officials are raising long-standing concerns with research journals and the academic incentive structures propping them up. But experts say the government alone can’t overhaul the industry.

www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

I think it would do people good to spend more time looking at and thinking about this graph.

From the excellent www.gov.uk/government/p...

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