Gavin Kelly | Lightnews

Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · 19h

A small, welcome step on the fiscal devo journey.

www.gov.uk/government/n...

Levy on overnight trips will help mayors invest in local growth

England’s mayors will be able to invest in transport, infrastructure, and the visitor economy through a new levy on overnight stays.

www.gov.uk

Nuffield Foundation @nuffieldfoundation.org · 1d

Child poverty remains a persistent challenge in the UK. At Wednesday's Budget, attention will be on the Chancellor & whether she will scrap the two-child benefit limit. The Foundation's @amiddletonbeer.bsky.social assesses the evidence for this necessary, but not sufficient, policy.
bit.ly/3XhNsHr

Child Poverty in the UK: Removing the two-child limit is important, but insufficient - Nuffield Foundation

The decisions to be announced at the despatch box on Wednesday will have profound...

bit.ly

Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · 5d

The findings really chime with the powerful argument made by @lisaharker.bsky.social about our care system pushing young people into independence at too young an age.

www.nuffieldfoundation.org/research/our...

Generation abandoned? - Nuffield Foundation

Young people in care are being left further behind: we need to examine why care is not providing the right foundation for adulthood

www.nuffieldfoundation.org

Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · 5d

The conclusion is really important: don't assume that investing in 'older' young people doesn't work. Rather think more broadly about the sorts of relational investments most likely to pay-off.

Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · 5d

Want to help some of the most vulnerable young people in society get on in life?

Then extend the age at which young adults leave foster care, says this fascinating new US study by @khmusen.bsky.social

The effects - particularly on employment rates - are significant.

katemusen.com/uploads/jmp....

katemusen.com

Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · 11d

The ethics council to the vast Norwegian sovereign wealth fund (largest in the world) has been suspended by the Norwegian government.

Important & troubling piece by @martinsandbu.ft.com

www.ft.com/content/f6b3...

How Norway jeopardised its integrity overnight

Oslo abruptly changed the ethics rules for the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund

www.ft.com

Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · 13d

Here's Denis Healey when the basic (+ higher) rate of income tax was last raised 50 years ago (BR went up by 2p to 35%). Note the desire to avoid a *100%* marginal rate at the very top.

Ada Lovelace Institute @adalovelaceinst.bsky.social · 16d

📣Closing this week: We're hiring an Associate Director to lead our Emerging Technology & Industry Practice research domain.

It's an exciting time to join Ada as we begin our new strategy period.

Deadline: 23:59 GMT, 16 November 2025.
www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/job/associat...

Ada Lovelace Institute Associate Director, Emerging Technology & Industry Practice

www.adalovelaceinstitute.org

Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · 21d

So many issues Today programme could have asked Charlie Mayfield about on his new report. Very odd to pursue a line of enquiry about whether the UK statutory sick pay is too generous (we have one of the least generous systems in the OECD).

Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · 29d

Don’t think a 0.3% downgrade is especially surprising (regardless of analysts’ expectations). As brutal as the Budget will be for HMT, I expect they’d prefer this to 3 years of consecutive small downgrades.

on.ft.com/3WWvlq6 Reeves faces £20bn hit to UK public finances from productivity downgrade

Reeves faces £20bn hit to UK public finances from productivity downgrade

Bigger than expected reduction in OBR forecast deals blow to chancellor ahead of Budget

on.ft.com

Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · Oct 24

So sorry Sunder - shocking - please take care of yourself.

Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · Oct 24

Utterly brutal but completely necessary. Should never have been allowed to go on this long. Hope the fans now go in numbers to support & spend.

Sheffield Wednesday @swfc.co.uk · Oct 24

Julian Pitts, Kris Wigfield and Paul Stanley of Begbies Traynor have been appointed joint administrators of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club Limited and of Sheffield 3 Limited, the company that owns the club’s stadium, on 24 October 2025.

👉 www.swfc.co.uk/news/2025/oc...

Sheffield Wednesday @swfc.co.uk · Oct 24

Julian Pitts, Kris Wigfield and Paul Stanley of Begbies Traynor have been appointed joint administrators of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club Limited and of Sheffield 3 Limited, the company that owns the club’s stadium, on 24 October 2025.

👉 www.swfc.co.uk/news/2025/oc...

Nuffield Foundation @nuffieldfoundation.org · Oct 22

Delighted to see NELI, the Nuffield Early Language Intervention programme, described as an ‘education silver bullet’ by @beckyfrancis.bsky.social in @schoolsweek.bsky.social. NELI is a programme for reception pupils in England who need extra support with speech & language development. bit.ly/47CEtq3

‘I dream the curriculum every night’: Becky Francis profile

Becky Francis reflects on control, compromise, and finding the balance between ‘firebrand’ and 'technocrat'

bit.ly

Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · Oct 17

Yikes.

The Quarterly Journal of Economics @qjeharvard.bsky.social · Oct 17

Recently accepted by #QJE, “Digital Distractions with Peer Influence: The Impact of Mobile App Usage on Academic and Labor Market Outcomes,” by Barwick, Chen, Fu, and Li: doi.org/10.1093/qje/...

Digital Distractions with Peer Influence: The Impact of Mobile App Usage on Academic and Labor Market Outcomes*

Abstract. Concerns about excessive mobile phone use among youth are mounting. We present estimates of both behavioral and contextual peer effects, along wi

doi.org

The Quarterly Journal of Economics @qjeharvard.bsky.social · Oct 17

Recently accepted by #QJE, “Digital Distractions with Peer Influence: The Impact of Mobile App Usage on Academic and Labor Market Outcomes,” by Barwick, Chen, Fu, and Li: doi.org/10.1093/qje/...

Digital Distractions with Peer Influence: The Impact of Mobile App Usage on Academic and Labor Market Outcomes*

Abstract. Concerns about excessive mobile phone use among youth are mounting. We present estimates of both behavioral and contextual peer effects, along wi

doi.org

Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · Oct 16

Crucial scene-setting by @theifs.bsky.social in its Green Budget which @nuffieldfoundation.org is pleased to support.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies @theifs.bsky.social · Oct 16

NEW: The Chancellor almost certainly has a fiscal repair job on her hands at next month’s Budget.

But doing the bare minimum risks another fiscal groundhog day next year.

🧵 THREAD on our new IFS Green Budget's findings on the UK's economic outlook and fiscal situation:

The Institute for Fiscal Studies @theifs.bsky.social · Oct 16

NEW: The Chancellor almost certainly has a fiscal repair job on her hands at next month’s Budget.

But doing the bare minimum risks another fiscal groundhog day next year.

🧵 THREAD on our new IFS Green Budget's findings on the UK's economic outlook and fiscal situation:

Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · Oct 13

Hard to argue with the central conclusion: serious tax reform is long overdue. Whether its property, capital gains, carbon, motoring or self-employment - the tax system is not fit for purpose. Change will take time & needs to be carefully crafted. This Budget needs to be reforming + revenue-raising

Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · Oct 13

Here is the cut out & keep scorecard of revenue raised in 2029/30 from different tax options:

Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · Oct 13

All Budgets are billed as important but this one is set to be especially challenging.

Pleased @nuffieldfoundation.org supports @theifs.bsky.social Green Budget which illuminates the key choices & trade-offs.

Here's the chapter on options for tax increases.

ifs.org.uk/publications...

Options for tax increases | Institute for Fiscal Studies

If the Chancellor hopes to raise large sums from tax increases at the Budget, she should consider reforms that would make any increases less damaging.

ifs.org.uk

Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · Oct 10

Being clear about what is happening to graduates in the jobs market is important in its own right - but also because simplistic analysis just feeds the beast of suspect narrative (it's all AI etc)

More clear thinking from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com

Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · Oct 7

Well worth reading this thoughtful interview on race, identity and much else with the optimistic realist @sundersays.bsky.social

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · Oct 7

"We haven’t come all this way, Katwala says, “just for Elon Musk, a man born into an apartheid state, who’s polarised America, to come and start a civil war here by breaking the law"
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Sunder Katwala on race, patriotism and flag-waving: ‘The far right is vocal and angry because it is shrinking’

The director of British Future has spent his career trying to find common ground when it comes to race and immigration. He describes his own experience of racism – and why he’s still hopeful for the U...

www.theguardian.com

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · Oct 7

"We haven’t come all this way, Katwala says, “just for Elon Musk, a man born into an apartheid state, who’s polarised America, to come and start a civil war here by breaking the law"
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Sunder Katwala on race, patriotism and flag-waving: ‘The far right is vocal and angry because it is shrinking’

The director of British Future has spent his career trying to find common ground when it comes to race and immigration. He describes his own experience of racism – and why he’s still hopeful for the U...

www.theguardian.com

Omar Khan @omaromalleykhan.bsky.social · Oct 7

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter

Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · Oct 6

I expect we'll be seeing a lot more of this.

Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · Oct 6

Loved that book when I read as a post-grad. Curious to know what you make of it today....

Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · Oct 5

Some of the most thoughtful social commentary atm is coming via @manchestermill.bsky.social

manchestermill.co.uk/jews-and-mus...

Jews and Muslims in North Manchester: A personal story

‘We thought we were the luckiest people in the world to be born in Manchester’

manchestermill.co.uk

Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · Oct 4

When should (& shouldn’t) political differences be bridged?

A rich and timely conversation between Ta-Nehisi Coates & @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social

open.spotify.com/episode/4jQE...

Ta-Nehisi Coates on Bridging Gaps vs. Drawing Lines

open.spotify.com

Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · Oct 4

Thoughtful provocation from the always interesting Geoff Mulgan on the urgent need for future-facing exploratory social science.

geoffmulgan.substack.com/p/an-aria-fo...

An ARIA for social issues?

The case for exploratory social science

geoffmulgan.substack.com

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