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Jonathan Portes

@jdportes.bsky.social

63K followers 610 following 4.1K posts

Professor of Economics and Public Policy, King's College London; Senior Fellow, UK in a Changing Europe. Immigration, economics, public policy. Personal views only; usual disclaimers apply. Books: Immigration (Sage), Capitalism (Quercus) .. more

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Jonathan Daniel Portes is a professor of Economics and Public Policy at the School of Politics & Economics of King's College, London and a senior fellow at UK in a Changing Europe.

Source: Wikipedia

Political science 31%

Economics 28%

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Reposted by Jonathan Portes

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 4h

I don't think there is any doubt that the US Constitution first amendment protects holocaust denial, is there?
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/u...

What to Know About ‘Hate Speech’ and the First Amendment

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Diane Coyle, Jonathan Portes, Simon Wren‐Lewis

Simon Parker @simonparker.bsky.social · 6h

The absolute bloody vandalism of austerity in one chart. Good analysis of the overall picture here.

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Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Tim Bale

Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 9h

Completely forgot that I wrote to the FT a couple of weeks back, and just found this purely by chance while googling for something else that I've think I've written but currently can't find.

Letter: It’s black hole baloney
From Jo Michell, Professor of Economics, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK

Published SEP 24 2025

I was disappointed to see the FT reporting warnings of “a new black hole in the public finances” (September 9). A black hole is an astronomical body so dense that its gravity prevents anything from escaping. It is not the difference between a relatively arbitrary target and an uncertain forecast. As the BBC has acknowledged, journalists have a responsibility to take particular care when reporting on the public finances. Misleading and emotive metaphors should not be used — at least without caveat or quotation marks — in a serious newspaper such as the FT.

Jo Michell
Professor of Economics, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK

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Reposted by Stephen P. Jenkins, Mel Bartley, Simon Wren‐Lewis , and 2 more Stephen P. Jenkins, Mel Bartley, Simon Wren‐Lewis, Ralf Martin, Katherine Brickell

Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 12h

A much needed corrective by @chrisgiles.ft.com to the "welfare is out of control" narrative, drawing on research by my colleague @benbgeiger.bsky.social

www.ft.com/content/ee67...

No need for a moral panic about the welfare system

It’s far from perfect, but the UK’s spending is broadly controlled and employment is high

www.ft.com

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Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Albert Weale, Matthew Kelly , and 1 more Jonathan Portes, Albert Weale, Matthew Kelly, Colm O’Cinneíde

Chris Giles @chrisgiles.ft.com · 12h

There is no need for a moral panic about the UK's welfare system.

Far from perfect but recent discourse is nuts

Spending is controlled, not spiralling

Worklessness is near record lows

My column www.ft.com/content/ee67...

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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 15h

Ha. I did not know that. I'd always noticed the change in tone, and now you say that the explanation seems absolutely obvious..

Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 15h

yes, Setting Sons definitely the best album..

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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 16h

yes, although Smithers-Jones, which is the most directly an attack on contemporary capitalism, was one of the few songs not written by Weller, I think

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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 16h

Very much defending -it seems inconceivable now he could have said this, but he did. @davidallengreen.bsky.social wrote about it here.

davidallengreen.com/2023/02/bewa...

Beware of judges employing rhetoric: a note on Lord Denning and his “appalling vista”

3rd February 2023 Yesterday on this blog there was a quick post on the Tate Modern privacy/nuisance case – and I am delighted that I have now been commissioned by Prospect magazine to do an o…

davidallengreen.com

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Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Ben H. Ansell, Will Jennings

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 17h

Journalistic shorthand is net migration "currently stands at 430,000": that was the last figure (Jan-Dec 2024) in May 2025

It is a fact - not a prediction- that it is currently lower. (2025 data visa shows down again). I can predict that will obvs be confirmed on Nov 27th in data *to June 2025*

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Reposted by Jonathan Portes

Peter Jukes @peterjukes.bsky.social · 17h

The new edition of @bylinetimes.bsky.social goes to the printers tomorrow.

And we go where others fear to tread…

Subscribe by tonight and you’ll get it delivered to your door

subscribe.bylinetimes.com/editions/

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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 17h

It's the Lord Denning defence - "despite the incontrovertible evidence, this can't be true, because if it were I and others would have to change our worldview, which no sensible person would regard as acceptable."

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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 17h

On that, it's the combination of "any Palestinian who is any way associated with Hamas is a genocidal Jew-hater" with "Israel/the IDF can do no wrong, any evidence to the contrary is fabricated/imaginary/just a few bad apples" that I find particularly morally abhorrent.

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Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Steven Fielding

Paul Lewis @paullewismoney.bsky.social · 18h

It is may be 3x average pay but 62% tax rate on earnings over £100,000 and cliff edge removal of childcare subsidies limit aspirations of upper middle classes bit.ly/49arr4e misleading to call it ‘working hard’ not ‘being lucky and clever’. Many work very hard on £12.21/hour 48 hours a week or more

This tax trap is killing youthful aspiration

Little wonder the under-40s laud Margaret Thatcher: she valued hard work, unlike the rules that penalise them today

bit.ly

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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 1d

No - that's a rationale for raising the floor. People on skilled work visas earning > 40-odd K are well over median. Nowhere near the floor. (I can tell you this is not a JvR policy!!)

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Reposted by Colin Murray

Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 1d

Indeed.

The government has chosen to prioritise reducing (skilled, legal, for work) migration over growth and hence over improving public services.

No economic rationale - but even worse, no political rationale either.

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 1d

One mistake Labour made in their first year is loading quite a few new costs onto business all at once. They are risking doing something similar on immigration, I think.

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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 1d

Finkelstein has still not apologised for accusing me, and other Jews who criticised Israel's atrocities, of being "antisemitic trolls", nor indeed has he withdrawn this absurd and morally bankrupt claim.

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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 1d

For Danny Finkelstein, the systematic and deliberate massacres of civilians, and the use of mass starvation as a weapon, is the fault of Hamas and some unnamed individuals - as opposed to him and his fellow apologists.

archive.ph/CaNZH

And yes, there rose in Israel a war coalition, including vengeful and obnoxious individuals seeking the eradication of neighbours they saw as enemies.

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Reposted by Jonathan Portes

Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 1d

We can all bitch and moan and call out the utterly contemptible policies suggested by the likes of Reform and the Conservatives, but if that same condemnation is not applied to Labour then it shows it is not about supporting migrants, it is about being party political. 2/

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Reposted by Jonathan Portes

Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 1d

Hey news people: I know you like to pretend this doesn't exist, but you need to pay attention to the Nazi drama on Twitter. Basically, it seems as if Elon just restored two major neo-Nazi accounts that were banned by his product head, and might be about to fire the product head for banning them

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Reposted by Jonathan Portes

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 1d

One mistake Labour made in their first year is loading quite a few new costs onto business all at once. They are risking doing something similar on immigration, I think.

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Reposted by Jonathan Portes

Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Steve Peers

Tony Yates @t0nyyates.bsky.social · 2d

Thing by me on today's Econ nobel in @alphaville.ft.com : www.ft.com/content/b8aa...

Idealist and/or materialist theories of economic growth

[FREE TO READ] Nobel committee: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

www.ft.com

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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 2d

It *is* our GDP: growth and trust in government.

Can't be overstated how much of our (and Europe's) political dysfunction is downstream of low growth since 2010..

cepr.org/voxeu/column...

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Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Nandita Sharma, Peter Murphy , and 1 more Jonathan Portes, Nandita Sharma, Peter Murphy, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò

Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 2d

Front page of Scottish newspaper The National today.

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Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Steve Peers

Tristan Grayford @tristangrayford.scot · 2d

An important precedent set which I hope is wielded broadly

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Kent police apologise to protester threatened with arrest for holding Palestine flag

Force agrees to pay damages to Laura Murton, 43, who also had sign saying ‘Israel is committing genocide’

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Jonathan Portes

Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 2d

People now *lie* to claim they live in Hackney to get access to schools in that Borough. If you told someone that 20 years ago you would simply have been laughed at.

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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 2d

I wouldn't start this one at 0. Starting it at 95 is just hilariously bad/dishonest though, which is why I posted it

Reposted by Steve Peers

Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 2d

Great chart of UK's "soaring" debt from the Telegraph..

archive.ph/gZEYW

chart showing UK debt "soaring" as a % of GDP from 96 to 99%

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Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Steve Peers, Richard Waite , and 1 more Jonathan Portes, Steve Peers, Richard Waite, Brian Keegan

Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 3d

This is an exact encapsulation of why I moved to Bluesky.

No amount of handwringing in the Atlantic about how I owe some eternal Promethean suffering to the discourse is going to make me stay on a site I hate, that stopped doing anything for me professionally years ago.

Well – no. Bluesky may or may not be, as one centre-right friend who felt unwelcome put it, “self-righteous island”. But the idea that’s why we went is nonsense. That I’ve largely stopped posting on a site that’s done more to shape my career and social circle than the rest of the internet combined is less about avoiding rival opinions (I love arguing with people who are wrong!) than with the fact the site simply became unusable. It stopped generating the things (good jokes, interesting debate, clicks) I wanted; it became extremely good at generating the things (racists, pornbots, racist pornbots) I did not.

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