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Nicole Sykes @nicolesykes.bsky.social · 2d

This really tickled me.

Reposted by Nicole Sykes

Luke Sibieta @lukesibieta.bsky.social · 5d

Today, we published a new @theifs.bsky.social Green Budget chapter on children with special educational needs & disability support, which is joint work with colleagues @eduinlatimer.bsky.social and Darcey Snape

I wanted to delve deeper into some of the key findings....[1/6]

The Institute for Fiscal Studies @theifs.bsky.social · 6d

NEW: The share of children receiving disability support and the share on high-level special educational support have both doubled since 2016.

THREAD on @eduinlatimer.bsky.social, @lukesibieta.bsky.social and Darcey Snape's IFS Green Budget chapter, funded by @nuffieldfoundation.org:

Chart shows share of under 16s on disability benefits and share of pupils with high-level special educational support. Title states: "The share of children receiving high-level special educational support and the share on disability benefits have both doubled in the past decade."

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Reposted by Nicole Sykes

WIRED @wired.com · 7d

As the Trump administration threatens them, liberal nonprofits have been quietly preparing to do everything from surrendering 501(c)(3) status to relocating outside the US.

The Trump Administration Is Coming for Nonprofits. They're Getting Ready

As the Trump administration threatens them, liberal nonprofits have been quietly preparing to do everything from surrendering 501(c)(3) status to relocating outside the US.

wrd.cm

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Reposted by Nicole Sykes

Gaby Hinsliff @gabyhinsliff.bsky.social · 10d

V interesting thread on something that could have been the headline going into conference if it hadn’t all been about ID cards & immigration; rebuilding communities, reclaiming ideas about roots & togetherness (the appealing bit of Blue Labour) from the ‘Maurice Glasman saying mad things’ bit of BL

Nick Plumb @nickplumb.bsky.social · 11d

Kirsty cites globalisation and tech as the two big drivers of dislocation.

And champions the importance of social clubs in helping to tackle this dislocation.

"We need a politics of joy and relationships"

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Reposted by Nicole Sykes

Nick Plumb @nickplumb.bsky.social · 11d

Kirsty cites globalisation and tech as the two big drivers of dislocation.

And champions the importance of social clubs in helping to tackle this dislocation.

"We need a politics of joy and relationships"

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Reposted by Nicole Sykes

Nick Plumb @nickplumb.bsky.social · 11d

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Will broken windowism save Labour?

A new neighbourhood policy is designed to make up for Boris Johnson’s betrayal – and combat Nigel Farage

www.newstatesman.com

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Reposted by Nicole Sykes

Tom Clark @tom-clark.bsky.social · 14d

Consumer debt is down, but like air being squeezed around in a balloon some of it looks to have shifted shape into arrears on priority bills

Resolution Foundation @resfoundation.bsky.social · 14d

The number of households behind on at least one priority bill has been creeping up over time.

While the poorest fifth are most likely to be affected, the prevalence of bill arrears crept up the income distribution during the cost of living crisis.

Read more: buff.ly/A8msGuU

Chart showing proportion of individuals living in families behind on at least one priority household bill, by income group: UK

The chart shows that pre-pandemic bill arrears were heavily concentrated among the poorest in society: in 2019-20, 17%t of those in the poorest fifth of the income distribution were behind on at least one major household bill, almost double the rate seen among the next poorest fifth (9%), and more than four times the middle fifth (4%). Since then, however, the prevalence of bill arrears has crept up the income distribution. Among the poorest fifth, the proportion of families in arrears actually fell during the pandemic before rising in the cost of living crisis, but by 2023-24, it was only 1 percentage point above its 2019-20 level. The second-poorest fifth, by contrast, saw a much sharper rise: the proportion in bill arrears shot up by 6 percentage points between 2019-20 and 2023-24, moving close to typical rates of arrears seen in the poorest fifth.

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Nicole Sykes @nicolesykes.bsky.social · 14d

The West was pretty nice to Putin for a while. That's served us well.

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Nicole Sykes @nicolesykes.bsky.social · 18d

Started off the day well: heading in entirely the wrong direction.
<insert joke about the political party of your choosing/state of the nation/economy here>

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Nicole Sykes @nicolesykes.bsky.social · 18d

Looking forward to speaking at the Lib Dem conference Carers Trust fringe at 11.30am today and hosting the Civil Society Reception at 8pm tonight, and otherwise enjoying the beachside mingling.

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Reposted by Nicole Sykes

David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 23d

at the center of the efforts to destroy civil society in russia, hungary, georgia and elsewhere is the stigmatization, harassment, & criminalization of NGOs. that's what this is about, a full-on assault on democratic debate & freedoms.

this is not hyperbole. it's right here.

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 23d

Vance: "There's no unity with people who fund these articles, who pay the salaries of these terrorist sympathizers...Soros' OSF and the Ford Foundation...benefit from generous tax treatment...How do they reward us? By setting fire to the house built by the American family."

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Nicole Sykes @nicolesykes.bsky.social · 23d

Watched a Reform London AM and one of their justice leads fall out about it at their conference.
"We shouldn't be touching it" vs "Labour opened up the conversation and what they've done needs to be reversed".

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Nicole Sykes @nicolesykes.bsky.social · 24d

They’ve opted for caution overall, it’s served them up until now, but falling outs of a few cantankerous malcontents over hyper internal process issues is about as Lib Dem a thing as was ever to Lib Dem.

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Nicole Sykes @nicolesykes.bsky.social · 24d

The party’s going through what I would expect it to in terms of identity shift, given how much the parliamentary group changed, with a few MPs it wasn’t expecting to get being a bit grumpy, unsettled positions on things like migration, & a HQ still staffed by people there in 2015 and slow to change.

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Reposted by Nicole Sykes

Zoe Gardner @zoejardiniere.bsky.social · 26d

The reporting on Charlie Kirk’s killer in the UK & US highlights again how fundamentally ill equipped mainstream media is to report on political violence in the digital age.

They do not know anything about online far right meme culture & it’s starting to do real harm. #r4today

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Reposted by Nicole Sykes

Eric Michael Garcia @ericmgarcia.bsky.social · 26d

This is not even a question at this point

Gam Silroy ❌️👑 @gamsilroy.bsky.social · 26d

People need to understand that Gamergate is the most important domestic political event of my lifetime

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Reposted by Nicole Sykes

Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 27d

Sometimes I think the real "peace dividend" since the end of the cold war was that a whole generation of analysts grew up underestimating the power of ideology, memory and emotion, and now they cannot recognize a huge cultural shift when it is staring them in the face.
The "soft stuff"matters.

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Reposted by Nicole Sykes

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · Sep 6

How young people relate to populism in a diverse & changing society may depend a lot on openness to Us v Them

Both socio-economic (education, socio-economic, geographic residential mixing/segregation) and identity (values, in + out group perceptions, relationships) which contribute to this

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Reposted by Nicole Sykes

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · Sep 6

I have a vg candidate: it is not the presence of diversity, so much as the *quality* of social relationships.

UK has better in/out group relationships among the young: more meaningful contact (at school, work, socially) and in identity terms. So oppose discrimination. Less Us v Them grievances

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Nicole Sykes @nicolesykes.bsky.social · Sep 6

He also said "More men of fighting age arriving in boats on our beaches than at D Day." And I've heard it ringing in my head about once an hour since.

James Ball @jamesrball.com · Sep 6

“Some analogies seemed poorly thought through. Zia Yusuf promised “the most audacious deportation flights since World War 2,” which is not a period most of us would invoke when discussing the forced movement of people.”
www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-r...

The Reform party conference and the end of democracy

Farage is getting ready for power, but his party is becoming much more politically extreme than he is. If he gets the chance, will he give them what they want?

www.thenewworld.co.uk

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Nicole Sykes @nicolesykes.bsky.social · Aug 30

Or "has crushes on bad guys/specifically guys with long hair".

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Nicole Sykes @nicolesykes.bsky.social · Aug 29

See also: I want my fancy vintage dinner set, but I don't want lead poisoning.

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Nicole Sykes @nicolesykes.bsky.social · Aug 29

Indeed. Caroline was briefing me on the next stage day before yesterday. Very exciting.

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Nicole Sykes @nicolesykes.bsky.social · Aug 29

Very excited about this work and its strong findings in its first pilot borough.

Tom Pollard @pollardtom.bsky.social · Aug 29

My final piece of work for @neweconomics.bsky.social was a collaboration with Camden Council & a brilliant team of staff there

We ran a test & learn pilot to explore how to increase voluntary engagement with employment support among ill & disabled residents 1/3

Image of report cover with the title 'Increasing voluntary engagement with employment support: Findings from a test and learn pilot led by Camden Council' with logos for the New Economics Foundation and Camden Council

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Nicole Sykes @nicolesykes.bsky.social · Aug 24

I'm sure someone's on it. Ready to take our sober, sober money.