Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Declan Gaffney

@greyskiesthinking.bsky.social

7.5K followers 530 following 5.5K posts

Research, analysis & grey-skies thinking on labour markets, social security, public finance & equality. Usual disclaimer. Cheap foreign labour 🇮🇪. Profile pic is Takashi Shimura with Toshiro Mifune in Stray Dog (Akira Kurosawa, 1949).

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Declan Gaffney @greyskiesthinking.bsky.social · Aug 22

If all young people deferred having children until they could meet the entire cost of raising them, there'd be no workers to pay for pensions in thirty years time.

Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · Aug 22

Dickensian vibes. Letter in today's @financialtimes.com

3 13 60

Reposted by Declan Gaffney

Mike Brewer @mikebrewerecon.bsky.social · 2h

My small contribution to today's great RF report on wealth inequality was to have us headline with the metric for measuring wealth gaps that I first came across in the work of the late John Hills

www.theguardian.com/inequality/2...

Lifetime of earnings not enough for UK workers to join wealthiest 10%, report says

Research finds it would take average worker saving all their earnings for 52 years to match wealth of richest 10th of society

www.theguardian.com

2 1

Reposted by Declan Gaffney

The Journal @thejournal.ie · 4h

The loyalist paramilitary group, the UVF, issued a threat to torch any Belfast City Council vans or depots bearing dual language logos including Irish.

jrnl.ie/6836699

Irish language groups to stage 'celebration' event at Belfast City Hall following UVF threats

The loyalist paramilitary group, the UVF, issued a threat to torch any Belfast City Council vans or depots bearing dual language logos including Irish.

jrnl.ie

1 5 8

Reposted by Declan Gaffney

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 5h

No, it's not. It's all a lie. The blunt truth is across 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.

Iain Mansfield @igmansfield.bsky.social · 5h

Outstanding piece by Stephen Daisley.

Ethnicity is no barrier to Britishness - it's culture and integration.

That means 'smaller cohorts and aggressive integration policies' - and tackling the institutions that 'have amplified grievance narratives and radical anti-Western ideologies'.

21 190 700

Reposted by Declan Gaffney

Alison McGovern @allymcgovern.bsky.social · 7h

We cannot accept this.

news.sky.com/story/abject...

'Abject failure' as UK's homeless deaths rise - including children

The government's homelessness minister, Alison McGovern MP, has described the increased number of deaths as an "abject failure that cannot be tolerated".

news.sky.com

7 13

Reposted by Declan Gaffney

Marcus Hutchins @malwaretech.com · 2d

People keep endlessly falling for this idea that if they can just finally prove once and for all that Trump is a bad person, his voters will turn their back on him and it'll all be over. It's not even remotely close to reality and should have been clear as day the second he got elected back in 2016.

13 55 310

Declan Gaffney @greyskiesthinking.bsky.social · 19h

It's not usually hard to identify the point in a Simenon novel where he's bored and just wants to get it over with. When the same character is called Nina in one chapter and Anna in the next you kinda know you're not in for an elegant resolution.

Reposted by Declan Gaffney

Lewis Goodall @lewisgoodall.com · 1d

Am wondering if all of those suddenly deciding they’re against communities living “parallel lives” might reconsider their support of religious schools? Or indeed private ones?

75 400 1.8K

Reposted by Declan Gaffney

Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 1d

THE SECRET PROJECT I'VE BEEN WORKING ON FOR THE PAST FEW MONTHS IS FINALLY LIVE

CHECK IT OUT

outsidersartsclub.com

40 130 590

Reposted by Declan Gaffney

The Secret Barrister @barristersecret.bsky.social · 1d

This is a lie.

There are many criticisms you might sensibly and truthfully make of the Sentencing Council and the Sentencing Guidelines. I’ve been making them for years.

But this is an outright lie. Pure fabrication. A fraud on the public.

120 1.8K 3.3K

Declan Gaffney @greyskiesthinking.bsky.social · 1d

No. It's because they just didn't do the work, which is tricky and time-consuming. There's lots of other official data that doesn't fit with
government messaging.

Declan Gaffney @greyskiesthinking.bsky.social · 1d

I really really don't want an election in France, presidential or legislative.

Reposted by Declan Gaffney

Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 1d

Oh, that kind of integration… ah well… nevertheless

Dom White @domw.bsky.social · 1d

"We want people to be living in mixed communities, don't we?"

Robert Jenrick's home is in Eye, Herefordshire, where 165 out of 166 residents were white at the time of the last census.

Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 1d

Wow. Robert Jenrick doubles down by branding a black journalist's questions "ridiculous" and saying that the problem is not his comments, but "journalists like you who pop up and try to knock me down", adding that "this is the reason why terrorist attacks happen". ~AA

3 19 96

Declan Gaffney @greyskiesthinking.bsky.social · 1d

🧵This is not just an issue for specialists. Official data which is not fit for purpose is feeding a crisis narrative on benefit claims that is for the most part accepted uncritically by political elites and the media.

Louise Murphy @louisemurphy.bsky.social · 1d

It's increasingly perplexing that DWP aren't prioritising improving their stats to better reflect the move from legacy benefits to UC.

Until then, we'll keep getting misleading headlines like 'Long-term sickness claims rising by 5,000 a day' - you can't blame journalists when the stats are so bad!

1 5 8

Reposted by Declan Gaffney

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 1d

I don't think there is any substantive difference between Reform and the Tories on asylum or justice anymore. We don't have a centre-right party.

18 47 250

Declan Gaffney @greyskiesthinking.bsky.social · 1d

That accent aigu will haunt me till my dying day.

Declan Gaffney @greyskiesthinking.bsky.social · 1d

Sorta comforting to see some Parisian traditions haven't died off yet. I mean just try to find a valse á musette or a packet of Gitanes maïs these days.

Reposted by Declan Gaffney

Omar Khan @omaromalleykhan.bsky.social · 1d

A human rights position is universal, requiring us all to extend rights and protections to those we disagree with

Yes, you can deny some groups are owed human rights, but only by denying their humanity

5 37 180

Reposted by Declan Gaffney

Musa Okwonga @okwonga.bsky.social · 2d

Everything I have learned about [insert name of far-right US media pundit], I have learned entirely against my will.

5 66 420

Declan Gaffney @greyskiesthinking.bsky.social · 1d

Mood.

Reposted by Declan Gaffney

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 1d

Not a serious person. Zero mention of what this would mean for the over a million British citizens whose own access to welfare in the EU is protected by the withdrawal agreement.

EU citizens living in UK shouldn’t be allowed welfare benefits, says Tory rising star

Katie Lam — who is earning plaudits on the Conservative right — calls for Brexit withdrawal agreement to be reopened.

www.politico.eu

45 170 610

Reposted by Declan Gaffney

Mathilde Larrère @mathildelarrere.bsky.social · 1d

les supermarchés ferment dans peu de temps
courrez acheter du popcorn il n'y en aura bientôt plus
(ou des pavés, mais ça se trouve pas à Intermarché)

info BFM
Lecornu ne souhaite pas être renommé premier ministre par Emmanuel Macron

29 77 350

Declan Gaffney @greyskiesthinking.bsky.social · 1d

Quite surprised that the @itmadublin.bsky.social site doesn't have a 'reject all' or 'essential only' option for cookies. Maybe it's just as well: I'd probably spend far too much time there if they did. But this way I don't use it at all.

Reposted by Declan Gaffney

Ed Hammond @se13ed.bsky.social · 2d

Policymaking - developing and agreeing policies, and then implementing them - is difficult, but plenty of people (increasingly) confuse it with "coming up with ideas for policies" which is, indeed, very easy. Same philosophy that says that announcing the thing is the same as doing the thing

Tony Yates @t0nyyates.bsky.social · 2d

Someone who thinks 'policymaking is generally not very complicated' either does not know what they are talking about or has very strong ideological leanings that help disappear the trade-offs that worry the rest of us.

Wrath of God Bot @wrathofgodbot.bsky.social · 2d

Good thing he has a high quality team of thoughtful people with a firm grasp of the issues and how complex governing is

12 27

Reposted by Declan Gaffney

Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 2d

HE LITERALLY SURRENDERED TO THE TALIBAN. My god

Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 2d

He could’ve fought, but he faked bone spurs. So someone else had to go in his place - most likely a working class kid whose daddy couldn’t afford to bribe a doctor. Now he’s talking shit about how it should’ve been fought.

2 18 73

Reposted by Declan Gaffney

France Culture @franceculture.fr · 2d

Moins d’un mois après sa nomination, Sébastien Lecornu juge les conditions incompatibles avec ses fonctions de Premier ministre et démissionne. Analyse d’une crise politique inédite.
➡️ https://l.franceculture.fr/J04

4 13