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Reposted by Rick

Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 5h

'Nigel Farage could never be trusted to run Britain after getting Brexit so wrong'

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

'Farage could never be trusted to run Britain after getting Brexit so wrong'

No Brexit champion, particularly Nigel Farage, is worthy of high office after proving so conclusively wrong on such a seismic issue, says Mirror Associate Editor Kevin Maguire

www.mirror.co.uk

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Rick @flipchartrick.bsky.social · 5h

Chart from @theifs.bsky.social Green Budget showing the sharp rise in the Corporation Tax gap.

“HMRC random audits suggest that 53% of small businesses submitting a corporation tax return under-declared their tax liability in 2021–22 – up from just 15% in 2017–18.”

ifs.org.uk/publications...

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Rick @flipchartrick.bsky.social · 14h

Great news.

www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/10/09/p...

Peter Doig is bringing a cult classic London pub back to life—here's why it matters

The prominent artist and his partner, the gallerist Parinaz Mogadassi, will be preserving McGlynn’s in King's Cross at a time when such important community hubs are continuing to go under

www.theartnewspaper.com

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Rick @flipchartrick.bsky.social · 19h

Interesting piece by @evawiseman.bsky.social on 70-somethings and smartphones.
I’m convinced this was a significant factor in the Brexit vote and the rise of Reform.

observer.co.uk/news/columni...

Teenagers’ phone use? It’s the grandparents we should be ...

Maybe our fears about the ill effects of social media, screen time and doomscrolling are wasted on the young

observer.co.uk

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Ehijacked 📎 @ehijacked.bsky.social · 20h

It’s time to drag this story out of the shadows.
It’s time that Russia’s malign influence on British politics was properly investigated.
Agree? Add your name here.

@writesbright.bsky.social

open.substack.com/pub/writesbr...

It’s time for a REAL Russia report

Putin’s fingerprints are all over our politics. It’s time to prove it.

open.substack.com

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Rick @flipchartrick.bsky.social · 1d

Chart based on Bank of England and OBR data.
Concept nicked from @duncanweldon.bsky.social.

Rick @flipchartrick.bsky.social · 1d

We have a society which still holds late 20th century assumptions about what the state should do, how living standards should improve, when people should retire, when they should buy a house and so on.

Alas, we don’t have late 20th century growth.

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Rick @flipchartrick.bsky.social · 1d

As I said in 2016, George Osborne was ‘more Micawber than Machiavelli’.

flipchartfairytales.wordpress.com/2016/03/17/o...

OBR repossesses the sofa

At first sight, the cuts to public service spending outlined in yesterday’s budget don’t look that much bigger than those in the autumn statement. As these charts from the OBR’s E…

flipchartfairytales.wordpress.com

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Rick @flipchartrick.bsky.social · 1d

Perhaps we should call this ‘Continuity Micawberism’ as it was George Osborne’s strategy and that of every chancellor since. Per capita GDP is stubbornly refusing to grow at pre-GFC rates and they are left hoping that ‘something will turn up’.

Ben Zaranko @benzaranko.bsky.social · 5d

I've written about the UK's productivity problem for @theobserveruk.bsky.social. Come for the comparison of the UK economy to a hedgehog, stay for the comparison of Rachel Reeves to a Dickens character.

observer.co.uk/news/busines...

In Britain’s ‘hedgehog economy’, growth is wild, spiky – ...

The spines on the OBR’s charts are a signal to the chancellor to pull all the levers to improve our growth prospects

observer.co.uk

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Rick @flipchartrick.bsky.social · 1d

The closest I’ve seen to anyone trying to get to grips with this is the World Management Survey. Even here, though, the link between aggregate productivity and behaviour within firms isn’t clear.
I’m about to start a piece of work on this so any thoughts would be welcome.
worldmanagementsurvey.org

World Management Survey – Our mission is to build a high-quality, systematic dataset to be used by researchers worldwide in digging deeper into the black box of productivity across industries and coun...

worldmanagementsurvey.org

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Rick @flipchartrick.bsky.social · 1d

An study by @stianwestlake.bsky.social found that the UK was experiencing the reverse of Schumpeterian creative destruction. It’s more productive firms were going out of business and being replaced by less productive ones.

flipchartfairytales.wordpress.com/2015/04/23/s...

Startups and the productivity puzzle

The productivity puzzle continues to puzzle. It seems to be too puzzling for our politicians to talk about but lots of other people are on the case. Duncan Weldon wrote a piece earlier this week lo…

flipchartfairytales.wordpress.com

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Rick @flipchartrick.bsky.social · 1d

Under some circumstances (especially when Labour is cheap) you can increase your turnover and profits while your productivity is falling. flipchartfairytales.wordpress.com/2017/04/24/p...

Productivity: Why worry?

My post on productivity earlier this month prompted a few questions about the relationship between profit and productivity, and specifically, how a company can increase its profits while productivi…

flipchartfairytales.wordpress.com

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Rick @flipchartrick.bsky.social · 1d

This is a question I keep asking. There is a disconnect between economic and management academic studies.
Economists are now at panic levels over productivity but it’s not something you hear discussed in businesses. A lot of organisations don’t even measure it according to its economic definition.

George Kean Proudfoot @pojmasta.bsky.social · 4d

Given the productivity puzzle has now been a thing for decades, is anyone doing deep empirical work on it - e.g. ID'ing cohorts of high/low productivity firms in the UK and then digging into differences and drivers in their operations, ways of working, strategies etc. via proper observation?

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Reposted by Rick

EconomicsInTen @economicsinten.bsky.social · 1d

Interesting article by @benzaranko.bsky.social - it's kind of fascinating that productivity is being forecast to struggle given the huge investment in AI & data centres. Thought these were the 'several bullets' for productivity or will this not come in fast enough for the OBR forecasts? #EconSky 🤔

Ben Zaranko @benzaranko.bsky.social · 5d

I've written about the UK's productivity problem for @theobserveruk.bsky.social. Come for the comparison of the UK economy to a hedgehog, stay for the comparison of Rachel Reeves to a Dickens character.

observer.co.uk/news/busines...

In Britain’s ‘hedgehog economy’, growth is wild, spiky – ...

The spines on the OBR’s charts are a signal to the chancellor to pull all the levers to improve our growth prospects

observer.co.uk

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Rick @flipchartrick.bsky.social · 1d

The Faragist press are wetting themselves over the so-called graffiti at Canterbury Cathedral.
It might have helped if the church had made it clear that these are stickers, not spray paint. So it’s only like putting a painting on a wall.

www.canterbury-cathedral.org/news/posts/d...

Delight and Displeasure: Art Installation's Questions to God Divide Public Opinion | Canterbury Cathedral

www.canterbury-cathedral.org

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Reposted by Rick

David Klemperer @dmk1793.bsky.social · 1d

Which way Labour man?

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John O’Shea @politicalhackuk.bsky.social · 2d

A very moving interview with the great Neil Kinnock from @lewisgoodall.com on @newsagents.bsky.social - really worth a listen on the 40th anniversary of that speech.

They say never meet your heroes, but that doesn’t apply with Lord Kinnock.

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Rick @flipchartrick.bsky.social · 1d

I'm a trustee of 2 charities. One has stopped posting on X, the other is hanging on in there. Neither got the traction that they had 4 years ago. Is seems that anything not on Musk's agenda is pushed so far down the stack it sinks without trace.

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Rick @flipchartrick.bsky.social · 2d

I know there are a lot of them in there during the day on weekdays.
I was making a serious point. How much of Wetherspoon’s revenue is dependent on DB pensions? See also garden centre cafes, cruise holidays and a number of other businesses.

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Brent River Park @brentriverpark.bsky.social · 2d

A follow up investigation by @jim.londoncentric.media identified the specific housing developments.

www.londoncentric.media/p/revealed-t...

Revealed: The London flats pushing raw sewage into the Thames

London Centric shows you the apartment blocks sending untreated human waste into the capital's waterways, causing "a quiet, steady, background poisoning".

www.londoncentric.media

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Brent River Park @brentriverpark.bsky.social · 2d

We exposed a similar problem in West and North London a year ago.

Diligent research by our trustee Ben Morris of @brentpollution.bsky.social and our friends at @friendsrivcrane.bsky.social found 100 homes discharging sewage into rivers.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Raw sewage from new homes being flushed into London rivers

Raw sewage is being dumped into London's rivers from at least 100 homes, a charity finds.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Rick

Brent River Park @brentriverpark.bsky.social · 2d

Properties discharging sewage directly into rivers is a nationwide problem.

Here’s a story from Hampshire:

“Multiple properties built in the 1980s were illegally plumbed into surface water drains.”

www.advertiserandtimes.co.uk/news/sewage-...

Sewage flowing straight into Lymington River from illegally plumbed homes for decades, water firm finds

Untreated sewage from homes and businesses has been flowing directly into Lymington River for decades, it has been revealed.

www.advertiserandtimes.co.uk

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Rick @flipchartrick.bsky.social · 2d

The impact on Wetherspoons will be interesting.

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Reposted by Rick

tadaaa.bsky.social @tadaaa.bsky.social · 2d

Until a conversative experiences something it doesn't exist

bsky.app/profile/tada...

tadaaa.bsky.social @tadaaa.bsky.social · Sep 5

The conservative brain simply lacks imagination

If they haven't experience "it", or thought of "it", it doesn't exist

bsky.app/profile/tada...

tadaaa.bsky.social @tadaaa.bsky.social · Apr 16

A fundamental issue with conservative brain is a lack of imagination

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Reposted by Rick

Robert Hutton @roberthutton.co.uk · 2d

It's weird. There were just no clues that this is what he was like.

Henry Dyer @direthoughts.com · 2d

Johnson refused to answer specific questions or to provide factual denials to allegations of rule-breaking, while insisting all the rules had been followed at all times. His responses led Acoba’s chair, Isabel Doverty, to find him in breach of the rules.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Boris Johnson breached rules designed to stop abuse of contacts made in public office, watchdog finds

Johnson found to have breached rules after refusing to answer specific questions about allegations published by the Guardian

www.theguardian.com

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