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David Higham

@oldtrotter.bsky.social

6.7K followers 620 following 16K posts

Former economist and civil servant. Former (age related) national cycling champion. Still a music fan. Sewn up member of the Zipper Club.

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David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · Jan 21

A short summary of my thoughts on regional policy. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Beyond ‘Levelling up’: how to improve regional policy in England: 10 lessons from 20 years

‘Levelling-up’ as a political slogan in the UK may be finished, but a commitment to reducing regional inequalities remains, as highlighted in the 2024 Green Paper on Industrial Strategy. This paper...

www.tandfonline.com

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David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 1h

Yes, I was wondering what had changed to make services between Manchester and Paris commercially viable since the days of Le Eurostar Habite Ici ?

David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 1h

Certainly was. Not sure our daughter has ever recovered from my wife attending a Richard Thompson concert when she was eight months pregnant.

David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 1h

They've done a good job with the new housing around Emma Bridgewater but the centre just gets worse and worse.

David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 1h

Linda can no longer sing, but Richard is still going strong.

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David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 1h

Not for the first time I'm left wondering whether these people understand what a matador does in a bull fight (or the sex of a bull)

While some of his extended family can't seem to stand him, Miller does have a very enthusiastic cheerleader in the form of the Fox News host Jesse Watters. Last October, Watters claimed that his show's audience believes that Miller is "some sort of sexual matador" and asked Miller to comment on this. The Maga-dor responded by telling young men to "be the alpha ... show that you are not a beta ... Be a proud and loud Trump supporter and your dating life will be fantastic." This is terrible advice for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that gen Z women are the most liberal group in the US.

I'm afraid it doesn't end there; a couple of weeks ago, the Fox News host had Miller's wife, Katie (a Maga bigwig in her own right), on his show to chat about how sexy Stephen is. "What is it like being married to such a sexual matador?" Watters joked. Very inspiring, apparently; he wakes up every morning excited about how he is going to "defeat the left".

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David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 1h

A point about the pottery industry which is, sadly, often forgotten. Was in Hanley on Saturday and it was even grimmer than I remember ☹️

David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 1h

A great song from a great album from a great series in the FT. I’d forgotten all about the CWS band from Manchester 🤦‍♀️ on.ft.com/46Ojkcn I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight — Americana with a dash of Englishness from Richard and Linda Thompson

I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight — Americana with a dash of Englishness from Richard and Linda Thompson

Heavily influenced by The Band, the 1974 track by the folk-rock duo also featured a Manchester horn ensemble

on.ft.com

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David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 1h

With difficulty given all that armour 🤔 on.ft.com/4qkn5xU How to have sex like a medieval knight

How to have sex like a medieval knight

From friars’ encounters with cross-dressing prostitutes to a mystic fired up by religious lust, the tastes of the late Middle Ages were far from vanilla

on.ft.com

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David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 1h

You’ll love this then open.substack.com/pub/peterhym...

Snapshot: Britain 1945, Britain 2025

My favourite passage of any history book is written by David Kynaston in Austerity Britain 1945-51. It is a vivid, rhythmic, pointillist portrait of Britain just after the war.

open.substack.com

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David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 1h

Stoke was an extraordinary place in those days. I have a picture somewhere of the Trent and Mersey canal going through Shelton Steel Works which is like Dante’s Inferno.

David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 1h

You did, and it most certainly does.

David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 1h

Sorry 😉 We’ve all been there.

David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 1h

The Q is how will services improve without a combination of more money, different management and changed working practices? Post war nationalisation didn’t solve the problem of the railways because HMT never provided adequate funding, management was often poor and working practices archaic.

David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 1h

This is about the U.K.

David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 2h

Have you a subscription? If not I'll use one of my credits to send you one.

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David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 3h

Which makes an election campaign focused on making ludicrous tax pledges and reinforcing Brexit ted lines, while relying on growth to fund improvements in public services, look either incompetent or dishonest.

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David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 3h

Doesn't fit with the current RW narrative which drives editorial decisions at The Times.

David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 3h

Picture of Andy Burnham saying "I would like to lead the Labour Party" and Starmer saying "So would I".

Reposted by David Higham

uphill gardner 🇪🇺 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ @gaygardener.bsky.social · 4h

Attempting to pin Brexit on Farage while continuing to do everything possible to avoid facing up to the harms and lessons of Brexit is classic Starmer

Edwin Hayward @edwinhayward.com · 16h

According to media reports, Labour are about to engage on a mad attempt to blame future tax rises on "Farage's Brexit" having caused more damage than expected.

Several gaping flaws:
- "Make Brexit Work"
- Constant Brexit red lines reinforcement
- 14 years of the TORIES in power
- Flatters Reform

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David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 6h

I'm pretty sure that Minsky wasn't the first person to point out the fundamental instability of capitalism, or even that expectations in financial markets could influence the real economy www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The Guardian view on an AI bubble: capitalism still hasn’t evolved to protect itself | Editorial

Editorial: Warnings about inflated tech stocks suggest investors never learn and central bankers learn too late

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by David Higham

Chris Dillow @chrisdillow.bsky.social · 6h

Good this. The thing is that Macmillan could be a one-nation Tory because British capitalism then was working for millions. Today it is not. That removes the economic base of one-nation Toryism.

Phil Burton-Cartledge @philbc3.bsky.social · 6h

"For the first time the right are open and honest about what they're about, and it's best for us to face them as they are ... There are no good Tories. Only class conscious defenders of a decaying system."

What Happened to One Nation Conservatism?

The jamboree of delusion and extremism that was Conservative Party conference birthed a small, fleeting genre of political centrist-to-soft...

averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com

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David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 6h

I made the switch to Apple years ago and have never regretted it.

David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 6h

See also local government reorganisation and tax reform.

David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 6h

And that list included telling a conference of Lancashire's great and good that they needed a single LEP 😬

David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 6h

Lovely piece from @greenmirandahere.bsky.social I'd never come across "hatch, match and dispatch" before. The two most stressful speeches of my life were delivering my father's eulogy and being the "father of the bride". Would your speech make a professional’s top 10? - on.ft.com/3KHZsyZ via @FT

Would your speech make a professional’s top 10?

Lists of hits and misses often feature when talking shop, but for public speaking such rankings raise the stakes

on.ft.com

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