Tim Leunig | Lightnews

Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 1d

Parliament today

Tim Leunig @timleunig.bsky.social · 1d

Well yes, when you want someone to have stuff in stock, right next to where you are, so that you can buy the thing at the drop of a hat and not wait a day, you will end up paying more. That is also the market working well!

Prateek Buch @prateekbuch.bsky.social · 2d

But when I need them there and then... Plus own brand aren't as good! Maybe the market is fine and I just have niche needs 🤣

Resolution Foundation @resolutionfoundation.org · 1d

Farming subsidies are increasingly linked to environmental outcomes.

This change has upended decades of stability in how farmers are subsidised.

Find out more about how we can support farmers with the net zero transition 👇
buff.ly/ogIwegT

Chart showing composition of public spending on agriculture, historical and projected: England

Prateek Buch @prateekbuch.bsky.social · 2d

But when I need them there and then... Plus own brand aren't as good! Maybe the market is fine and I just have niche needs 🤣

Tim Leunig @timleunig.bsky.social · 2d

The market is working fine, and you need to stop complaining! amazon.co.uk/Post-Notes-Assorted-Colours-Sheets/dp/B0FBX59NLX/ref=ast_sto_dp_puis?rdc=1

Post-it Notes, Assorted Colours, 24 Pads, 100 Sheets per Pad, 76 mm x 76 mm - Self-Stick Notes for Note Taking, to Do Lists & Reminders, School and Office Supplies : Amazon.co.uk: Everything Else

amazon.co.uk

Tim Leunig @timleunig.bsky.social · 2d

You just need to swap around. You are complaining about £2.60 a pad, but 1 min research showed they are 83p on Amazon. Own brand alternatives are half that price on Amazon as well.

Anna Clarke @annaclarke.bsky.social · 2d

"The price just doesn't matter if you can't get a home".

Good write up here of the problems of trying to use rent controls to force down private rents.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Rent controls are coming to the UK - but they're not a guaranteed win for tenants

www.bbc.co.uk

Tim Leunig @timleunig.bsky.social · 2d

Freezing fees and maintenance loans also means they borrowed less, so there is less to write off. Good news for tax payers, bad news for unis, mixed news for students and graduates (who are also taxpayers, remember)

Tim Leunig @timleunig.bsky.social · 2d

The IFS rarely get these things wrong. Freezing the repayment threshold, and the interest rate threshold, means graduates will repay a lot more than earlier.

Rob Blackie @robblackie.bsky.social · 2d

@timleunig.bsky.social is this really right?

I know the Conservatives cut back grants a lot but by that much?

Andrew McRae @mcraeandrew.bsky.social · 3d

I expect to spend today staring at this: ‘we’ve gone from government suggesting that the state would subsidise undergraduate student loans by about 45p in the pound, to making a profit on them for that cohort’.

A *profit* on student loans: everyone should read this. 🤯
wonkhe.com/blogs/gradua...

Tim Leunig @timleunig.bsky.social · 2d

1000 snowdrops bought for £105 will give HUGE amounts of pleasure for many years - here is where I got mine from... eurobulbs.co.uk/shop/galanth... (other suppliers are available, but I can vouch for these). Buy loads and just chuck them in, all over the place.

Tim Leunig @timleunig.bsky.social · 2d

Love snowdrops!

Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 2d

Times:

The Metropolitan Police is expected to announced on Tuesday evening that Mandelson is being investigated on suspicion of misconduct in public office, an offence that carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Rob Blackie @robblackie.bsky.social · 2d

@timleunig.bsky.social is this really right?

I know the Conservatives cut back grants a lot but by that much?

Andrew McRae @mcraeandrew.bsky.social · 3d

I expect to spend today staring at this: ‘we’ve gone from government suggesting that the state would subsidise undergraduate student loans by about 45p in the pound, to making a profit on them for that cohort’.

A *profit* on student loans: everyone should read this. 🤯
wonkhe.com/blogs/gradua...

Graduates are paying more and getting less

Jim Dickinson traces how a student loans system once sold as cost-sharing has become one where graduates fund everything – and where Labour has quietly reversed promises to make things fairer Jim Dick...

wonkhe.com

Schools Week @schoolsweek.bsky.social · 3d

📊 Changes rolled out across 32 local authorities as part of a Tory-era SEND pilot have cut exclusions and kept more children in mainstream education, a report has found
schoolsweek.co.uk/piloted-in-s...

Piloted in-school SEND support 'cut exclusions' - report

Standardised EHCPs also welcomed by parents and councils, researchers find

schoolsweek.co.uk

Centre for Economic Policy Research @cepr.org · 3d

📢 #CallForPapers for the 11th Monash-Paris-Warwick-Zurich-CEPR Text-As-Data #Workshop!

Papers using text, audio, images, or other unstructured data are welcome.

Organisers: @elliottash.bsky.social @essobecker.bsky.social & Philine Widmer
Deadline: 13 March
cepr.org/events/11th-...
#EconSky

Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 4d

BREAKING on ft website:

Lord Peter Mandelson leaked a sensitive UK government document to Jeffrey Epstein while he was business secretary that proposed £20bn of asset sales and revealed Labour’s tax policy plans

www.ft.com/content/fdf7...

Mandelson leaked sensitive UK government tax plans to Epstein

Former ambassador forwarded memo from special adviser to Gordon Brown to late sex offender in 2009

www.ft.com

Tim Leunig @timleunig.bsky.social · 5d

Well, I will take "not bad", but I don't think I am mad. Rather I think I am just honest about the world, and about policy choices... ;-)

Mark O’Neill 🐻 @radiobeartime.com · 5d

This is not going to end well.

We need a renegade truth teller like "Mad not bad"
@timleunig.bsky.social ;) to run a session at the House with big colourful diagrams of the utter hames we have got ourselves into and how every future choice has serious existential implications.

Cat Neilan @catneilan.bsky.social · 5d

Momentum is building among backbench Labour MPs to force action on student loans

Options include 0% interest rates, raising repayment thresholds and monthly payments so students aren't forced into overdrafts

MPs said to be "spooked" by possible Reform policy offer

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Mark O’Neill 🐻 @radiobeartime.com · 5d

This is not going to end well.

We need a renegade truth teller like "Mad not bad"
@timleunig.bsky.social ;) to run a session at the House with big colourful diagrams of the utter hames we have got ourselves into and how every future choice has serious existential implications.

Cat Neilan @catneilan.bsky.social · 5d

Momentum is building among backbench Labour MPs to force action on student loans

Options include 0% interest rates, raising repayment thresholds and monthly payments so students aren't forced into overdrafts

MPs said to be "spooked" by possible Reform policy offer

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Young Labour MPs team up to force chancellor’s hand on st...

Backbenchers hope to overturn chancellor’s change to scheme that could burden graduates with above-inflation interest rate increases

observer.co.uk

Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 5d

BBC radio thinks a photo of Prince Andrew with an unknown woman is more newsworthy than revelations of tens of thousands of pounds from Epstein to the then deputy prime minister’s partner, seriously?

Resolution Foundation @resolutionfoundation.org · 6d

April 2026 will mark a true milestone for the UK benefits system: the end of the thirteen-year rollout of Universal Credit that has brought together all means-tested working-age benefits.

But there are still further improvements to be made ⤵️ buff.ly/TjrE4OW

Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 6d

I'm not prone to exaggeration but this is probably the biggest scoop I've ever been involved in

Mandelson's partner took £10,000 from Epstein to pay for his osteopath course while Mandelson was de facto UK deputy prime minister, according to new files

more to follow

www.ft.com/content/c950...

Jeffrey Epstein sent £10,000 to Mandelson’s husband, emails show

Epstein sent Reinaldo Avila da Silva payment in 2009

www.ft.com

Tim Leunig @timleunig.bsky.social · 8d

I once thought this, but the latest CfDs are £92 for offshore wind. That is why I have changed my mind. As Keynes said, "When the facts change, I change my mind, what sir, do you do?"

Prof David Bailey @dgbailey.bsky.social · 9d

UK wind costs: Offshore wind CfDs have cleared as low as £39–42/MWh. Onshore wind is already £30–45/MWh. Same order of magnitude as Texas solar. UK government modelling shows wind costs falling into the low £30s/MWh this decade with scale, finance & stable policy. Nothing in physics stops that.

Regional Whispers @regionalwhispers.bsky.social · 9d

Interesting exchange between @dgbailey.bsky.social & @timleunig.bsky.social on the future of manufacturing & energy prices sparked by the latter’s recent Observer piece & Bailey’s blog response. Worth following.

Prof David Bailey (@dgbailey.bsky.social)

#industrialstrategy Birmingham Business School, UK in a Changing Europe Senior Fellow, Contemporary Social Science Editor in Chief, Editor Regional Studies, ‘activist academic’ (Gove’s 🪓man Max Caller...

dgbailey.bsky.social

Prof David Bailey @dgbailey.bsky.social · 9d

UK wind costs: Offshore wind CfDs have cleared as low as £39–42/MWh. Onshore wind is already £30–45/MWh. Same order of magnitude as Texas solar. UK government modelling shows wind costs falling into the low £30s/MWh this decade with scale, finance & stable policy. Nothing in physics stops that.

Tim Leunig @timleunig.bsky.social · 9d

Agree manufacturing has many benefits and its decline will hit us. Agree too UK electricity prices could be lower. But I don't see you offer evidence UK energy could be as cheap as Texas (etc) solar. Do you have any? If not, why would manufacturing stay here? I fear is really is an Act of God.

Prof David Bailey @dgbailey.bsky.social · 9d

A gentle riposte to @timleunig.bsky.social last Observer column which seemed to write off much of UK manufacturing. That would be a bad mistake. @makeuk.bsky.social @smmt-ukauto.bsky.social @unitetheunion.bsky.social @faradayinstitute.bsky.social blogsfromtheblackstuff.com/bftbblog2601...

Prof David Bailey @dgbailey.bsky.social · 9d

A gentle riposte to @timleunig.bsky.social last Observer column which seemed to write off much of UK manufacturing. That would be a bad mistake. @makeuk.bsky.social @smmt-ukauto.bsky.social @unitetheunion.bsky.social @faradayinstitute.bsky.social blogsfromtheblackstuff.com/bftbblog2601...

James O'Malley @jamesomalley.co.uk · 11d

New YIMBY Pod!
🦁 NIMBYs vs Bristol Zoo
📋 How @darrenpjones.bsky.social wants to fix a broken civil service
⚡️ And we speak to @timleunig.bsky.social about how we could conceivably build an electricity cable from Texas to the UK! (Among many other things!)

www.abundancepod.com/p/nimbys-vs-...

NIMBYs vs Bristol Zoo

Plus fixing a broken Civil Service, and building an electricity cable from Britain to Texas

www.abundancepod.com

Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 13d

imagine being the father or mother or son or daughter or sibling of one of those brave British troops who died in Afghanistan, and having to listen to this crass ignorance