Policy Sketchbook
@policysketch.bsky.social
[the sound of a million people searching for HotDogGuy.jpg]
November 18, 2025 at 8:56 AM
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Is this an opportunity to post my favourite chart about French parenting? Not really, but I am going to do it anyway.
October 30, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Is this an opportunity to post my favourite chart about French parenting? Not really, but I am going to do it anyway.
This illustrates some of the points I was making yesterday. Mortality rates have been falling consitently for decades. Fewer people are in the last two years of life, where most healthcare usage happens. And yet... healthcare usage has been going up.
September 1, 2025 at 12:48 PM
This illustrates some of the points I was making yesterday. Mortality rates have been falling consitently for decades. Fewer people are in the last two years of life, where most healthcare usage happens. And yet... healthcare usage has been going up.
Price of Carte Noir is only 18% more in Sainsbury's vs Monoprix.
April 1, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Price of Carte Noir is only 18% more in Sainsbury's vs Monoprix.
This is from a 2019 report by @adamcorlett.bsky.social. Putting all taxes together, using ONS data, he finds that UK taxes overall are not highly progressive, have not become more progressive, nor have they risen.
April 1, 2025 at 8:29 AM
This is from a 2019 report by @adamcorlett.bsky.social. Putting all taxes together, using ONS data, he finds that UK taxes overall are not highly progressive, have not become more progressive, nor have they risen.
The really dumb thing about charts like this showing that the share of tax paid by the top 1% has more than doubled since 1980 is that the share of income going to the top 1% has also more than doubled since 1980 so there is in fact nothing to see here.
March 30, 2025 at 10:39 AM
The really dumb thing about charts like this showing that the share of tax paid by the top 1% has more than doubled since 1980 is that the share of income going to the top 1% has also more than doubled since 1980 so there is in fact nothing to see here.
Sort of, but with a little “nasty bureaucrats have been frustrating the will of the people” sprinkled rather distastefully on the top. I feel like here they are probably doing the right thing but probably not entirely for the right reasons.
March 13, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Sort of, but with a little “nasty bureaucrats have been frustrating the will of the people” sprinkled rather distastefully on the top. I feel like here they are probably doing the right thing but probably not entirely for the right reasons.
This is from last year, but... none of this stuff has sales or profits to justify any of these valuations, right? Someone like Jeff Bezos owns an incredibly dominant money making machine, but Musk owns nothing remotely comparable to that.
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
March 11, 2025 at 1:28 PM
This is from last year, but... none of this stuff has sales or profits to justify any of these valuations, right? Someone like Jeff Bezos owns an incredibly dominant money making machine, but Musk owns nothing remotely comparable to that.
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
Michael Jackson picked up this theme in his book on critical systems thinking last year.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10....
March 3, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Michael Jackson picked up this theme in his book on critical systems thinking last year.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10....
Exactly. My conclusion in this post from last year was that managers like you have a big role in protecting those actually running NHS services from politically-driven nonsense. Some do this, others pass the nonsense directly down to their teams.
policysketchbook.wordpress.com/2024/02/13/b...
policysketchbook.wordpress.com/2024/02/13/b...
February 28, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Exactly. My conclusion in this post from last year was that managers like you have a big role in protecting those actually running NHS services from politically-driven nonsense. Some do this, others pass the nonsense directly down to their teams.
policysketchbook.wordpress.com/2024/02/13/b...
policysketchbook.wordpress.com/2024/02/13/b...
If you have a look at some of the posts on my blog from last year, you will probably recognise more of your NHS experiences…
policysketchbook.wordpress.com/2024/09/13/m...
policysketchbook.wordpress.com/2024/09/13/m...
February 27, 2025 at 8:43 PM
If you have a look at some of the posts on my blog from last year, you will probably recognise more of your NHS experiences…
policysketchbook.wordpress.com/2024/09/13/m...
policysketchbook.wordpress.com/2024/09/13/m...
Oh no wait Nate Silver says Musk is a genius because he tweets so much so maybe he *can* do HR for the entire federal workforce, my bad.
February 27, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Oh no wait Nate Silver says Musk is a genius because he tweets so much so maybe he *can* do HR for the entire federal workforce, my bad.
The fact that the richest man in the world / aspiring evil dictator of the US is personally putting out a recruitment call for air traffic controllers is a crazy level of over-centralisation of government. He, er, does not have capacity to do the HR for all government professions himself.
February 27, 2025 at 5:20 PM
The fact that the richest man in the world / aspiring evil dictator of the US is personally putting out a recruitment call for air traffic controllers is a crazy level of over-centralisation of government. He, er, does not have capacity to do the HR for all government professions himself.
Reminded of this point by this passage from @samfr.bsky.social. There's rarely hard evidence on what works in public policy, so you need an underpinning theory of what a good country looks like. There's a fine line between "I am not ideological" and "I have no vision of what I am trying to achieve".
February 19, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Reminded of this point by this passage from @samfr.bsky.social. There's rarely hard evidence on what works in public policy, so you need an underpinning theory of what a good country looks like. There's a fine line between "I am not ideological" and "I have no vision of what I am trying to achieve".
But Chris references research showing that half the productivity growth from markets is through "creative desctruction" rather than incumbents raising standards. When we are talking about essential public services like hospitals, this is off the table, so markets are ony half as effective.
February 11, 2025 at 9:32 AM
But Chris references research showing that half the productivity growth from markets is through "creative desctruction" rather than incumbents raising standards. When we are talking about essential public services like hospitals, this is off the table, so markets are ony half as effective.
Well quite, I would have thought this was rather the point - a country with a somewhat low birth rate that makes up for it with net migration dodges the cost of educating some of its adults (along with some maternity costs) and so makes a fiscal gain.
February 10, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Well quite, I would have thought this was rather the point - a country with a somewhat low birth rate that makes up for it with net migration dodges the cost of educating some of its adults (along with some maternity costs) and so makes a fiscal gain.
This is a good paragraph.
February 6, 2025 at 11:54 AM
This is a good paragraph.
Even here our man has to sugar the pill. Are we making up plans during the year that we know are unrealistic? Yes we are. But are we breaching professional ethics? Of course not, we stand firm on our principles!
November 13, 2024 at 12:09 PM
Even here our man has to sugar the pill. Are we making up plans during the year that we know are unrealistic? Yes we are. But are we breaching professional ethics? Of course not, we stand firm on our principles!
Hoverstadt argues that matrix structures are inherently unstable (this is from The Fractal Organisation, 2008).
October 15, 2024 at 8:43 AM
Hoverstadt argues that matrix structures are inherently unstable (this is from The Fractal Organisation, 2008).
I feel like Gus O'Donnell is lacking a bit of self-awareness here as to exactly why he now gets paid a lot to do relatively little.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
October 6, 2024 at 12:39 PM
I feel like Gus O'Donnell is lacking a bit of self-awareness here as to exactly why he now gets paid a lot to do relatively little.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
In the midst of this is a crisis of accountability in the NHS, and in particular around integrated care boards (ICBs). Darzi argues that the basic structures are OK, and he may be right, but the new govt really needs to implement a coherent accountability structure to make any progress on reform.
September 30, 2024 at 9:14 AM
In the midst of this is a crisis of accountability in the NHS, and in particular around integrated care boards (ICBs). Darzi argues that the basic structures are OK, and he may be right, but the new govt really needs to implement a coherent accountability structure to make any progress on reform.
So providers are pretty much told by NHS England that they have to massage their financial plans to say that it's going to be OK. Then when these fictional plans aren't delivered, the solution is to subject them to paralysing degrees of micromanagement!
September 30, 2024 at 9:09 AM
So providers are pretty much told by NHS England that they have to massage their financial plans to say that it's going to be OK. Then when these fictional plans aren't delivered, the solution is to subject them to paralysing degrees of micromanagement!
NHS England has created a system where it's not in the interest of providers to be honest about their financial plans, so increasingly providers are taking the easy (and sometimes only tractable) route of telling NHS England what they want to hear.
September 30, 2024 at 9:07 AM
NHS England has created a system where it's not in the interest of providers to be honest about their financial plans, so increasingly providers are taking the easy (and sometimes only tractable) route of telling NHS England what they want to hear.
"You expect me to reform?"
"No Mr Bond, I expect you to die."
"No Mr Bond, I expect you to die."
September 12, 2024 at 4:00 PM
"You expect me to reform?"
"No Mr Bond, I expect you to die."
"No Mr Bond, I expect you to die."
Mixed reviews for sure, but four stars overall, so I guess this means it's a good product?
August 28, 2024 at 1:40 PM
Mixed reviews for sure, but four stars overall, so I guess this means it's a good product?