Bar rank by Discount Rate E&W LGPS 260411 001 A Flourish data visualization by John Clancy

BREAKING
@dgbailey.bsky.social &my breakdown of all relevant stats in just-out 2025 Valuations of all England &Wales Local Govt. Pension Funds. public.flourish.studio/visualisatio...
Postcode lottery in outcomes for taxpayers. V.troubling re: Public Accounts Probity. Total chaos. @tobyn.bsky.social

In Memoriam: Lisa De Propris (1967 – 2026) - RSA Main Lisa De Propris was born in 1967 and grew up in Bologna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. She studied for her first degree in Political Science and Political Economy at the University of Bologna...

With a heavy heart, I share the obituary of my beloved wife, Lisa, written by our friend @philtomlinson.bsky.social I hope you’ll take a moment to read & remember a truly extraordinary woman who meant everything to Mikey & myself & so much to so many others. www.regionalstudies.org/news/lisa-de...

RBKC SINKS DHCLG How spectacular, but entirely correct, decision by Local Government Pension Fund for 0% employer contributions til 2029 will cascade &repeat across UK LGPS; releasing tens of £bns of delayed public spending. @dgbailey.bsky.social &my blog blogsfromtheblackstuff.com/bftbblog2604...

nigel driffield Thank you…Key points that I picked up… Policy makers think that manufacturing policy is for a sector…actually it’s for a diverse sector and needs to be at a more granular… | Jon Hil... nigel driffield Thank you…Key points that I picked up… Policy makers think that manufacturing policy is for a sector…actually it’s for a diverse sector and needs to be at a more granular level. UK...

Not surprised perhaps but spoke at this to about 500 manufacturers. Their take on industrial strategy is miles away from whitehalls.

www.linkedin.com/posts/jonhil...

The £621 Million Question, And The Names Behind It For a decade, Birmingham was told its share of the West Midlands Pension Fund carried a substantial deficit. Was this true ?

Brum’s Chronicler-in-Chief Mike Olley’s latest GRIT column is (yet again) a must read: www.midlandsgrit.co.uk/p/the-621-mi...

New Blog from the Blackstuff - why making things still matters and what Britain needs to do next. @makeuk.bsky.social @smmt-ukauto.bsky.social @unitetheunion.bsky.social blogsfromtheblackstuff.com/bftbblog2602...

New Blog from the Blackstuff - why making things still matters and what Britain needs to do next. @makeuk.bsky.social @smmt-ukauto.bsky.social @unitetheunion.bsky.social @johnmclancy.bsky.social blogsfromtheblackstuff.com/bftbblog2602...

“So, yes, we welcome the fact that we were right & the economically illiterate Chief Commissioner No. 1, Max Caller, has been found out to be very wrong indeed. And we do hate to say we told you so.” New Blog from the Blackstuff + @johnmclancy.bsky.social blogsfromtheblackstuff.com/bftbblog2602...

“So, yes, we welcome the fact that we were right & the economically illiterate Chief Commissioner No. 1, Max Caller, has been found out to be very wrong indeed. And we do hate to say we told you so.” New Blog from the Blackstuff + @johnmclancy.bsky.social blogsfromtheblackstuff.com/bftbblog2602...

The ‘cost of undoing Europe’: Brexit and the UK textile and apparel industry Brexit, marked by the UK’s 2021 exit from the Single European Market and Customs Union under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, offers a unique case of reversing deep economic integration. The re...

Great recent @cssjournal.bsky.social paper ‘The ‘cost of undoing Europe’: Brexit & the UK textile & apparel industry’ by Patrizia Casadei, Simona Iammarino, Philip McCann & Raquel Ortega-Arigilés @acadsocsciences.bsky.social @regstud.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

✨Missed the deadline to submit a paper to a SS at #RSA26? There's still time to submit to the general pool ✨

⏳ Deadline: 19th February

For more information on the conference: bit.ly/4atPUlH

Join the RSA community in Gothenburg

➡️ Regions as Arenas in a Changing World
📆 15-18 June 2026

😀🔄

Appeal launched to keep Bronze Age treasure in Staffordshire The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery is fundraising to hold on to a nationally significant Bronze Age treasure trove

The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery is fundraising to hold on to a nationally significant Bronze Age treasure trove | Adam Colclough
@centralbylines.co.uk

The EU’s Industrial Accelerator Act (due out this month) is part of a wider reconsideration of industrial strategy. Get up to speed with our bumper recent @cssjournal.bsky.social special issue on ‘Industrial strategy reborn’ @acadsocsciences.bsky.social
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

A critical review of the UK's Modern Industrial Strategy: lessons for ‘place-based’ policy The paper explores the implications for regional development contained within the UK’s recently launched Modern Industrial Strategy White Paper (2025). We critically examine the industrial strategy...

As the EU discusses a ‘Made in Europe’ strategy & prepares to unveil its Industrial Accelerator Act, where has the UK got to on industrial strategy? Our recent critical review in @regionalstudies.bsky.social gets you up to speed. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... @regstud.bsky.social

blogsfromtheblackstuff.com/blogsallauto... Move the 2030 Petrol Car Ban to 2035, and Fix the EV Transition Properly.

The coffee is rubbish too.

Reminder that Starbucks’ CEO made 6,666x more than the company's median employee in 2024.

Now, Starbucks is lifting a cap on the CEO's use of a private jet to commute from California to Seattle.

It's been four years since Starbucks stores began unionizing and workers still don't have a contract.

Move the 2030 Petrol Car Ban to 2035 & Fix the EV Transition Properly. New blog: blogsfromtheblackstuff.com/bftbautoblog...

The @smmt-ukauto.bsky.social is right. We really do need a comprehensive review of the ZEV mandate. New blog: blogsfromtheblackstuff.com/bftbautoblog...

UKICE Lunch Hour: UK politics in flux - UK in a changing Europe Join UK in a Changing Europe experts as they discuss the high levels of volatility and fragmentation in UK politics.

*******TODAY******* Put your questions to @drjennings.bsky.social @sophiestowers.bsky.social and Rachel Wolf. Address the burning issues. What's happened to our party system? What's happened to trust in politics? Is Starmer doomed? Should I be in the House of Lords? ukandeu.ac.uk/events/ukice...

The SMMT is right. We need a comprehensive review of the ZEV mandate. New blog: blogsfromtheblackstuff.com/bftbautoblog...

Green supporters pretending not to understand why I am annoyed about their misuse of my words and image on their leaflets will now be blocked without warning. I’ve explained it several times at length. Life is too short for this nonsense.

Since #bbclaurak is trending, let’s remind ourselves that ONE MONTH ago, the BBC invited Mandelson on for a soft-ball interview on her show. While HIS CLIENT , Palantir’s Louis Moseley appeared as a pundit

Both, as I wrote at time, were ‘abject failures of journalism’
1/

Is the UK’s industrial strategy really place based? New @rsablog.bsky.social blog on our recent @regionalstudies.bsky.social paper. Blog here: regions.regionalstudies.org/ezine/articl... paper here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... @regstud.bsky.social @rsaibis.bsky.social @prt1969.bsky.social

Starmer camp warns leadership challenge risks economic chaos Investors also signal concern at prospect of a more leftwing government

"Stability with Starmer or chaos with anyone else" might need a bit more work. This is a PM whose authority had been shredded by a series of policy U turns and now the decision to appoint Mandelson. Starmer won't be able to drive any meaningful change www.ft.com/content/c855... via @FT

the FT had by Saturday night broken two stories showing that the Mandelsons had taken over $100,000 from the world’s most famous paedophile

by Monday we were all writing various stories about him leaking sensitive state secrets to Epstein

they could have easily pulled this puff piece in time

Quite funny that Starmer's allies are waking up to this point now …

Cuts to Winter Fuel… not in the manifesto
Disability benefit cuts… not in there either
Cutting jury trials… also not there
Digital ID… no mention
Raising employers NI… nope
Freezing tax threholds… nah
Contracts with Palantir… no

BREAKING: Birmingham City Council 2day published Budget admits for 1st time pension fund refund of *£141million*. BCC thought it would be £42M only 10 wks ago. Employer Contributions: 16.5% - ridiculous.
The refund *should* be over £400m in next 3 yrs. Watch out for Blog 2moro + John Clancy.

I'm not sure how this works as a defence. There is nothing in what Glasman said that Starmer couldn't have worked out for himself. Outsourcing basic political judgement to a chief of staff with a clear agenda of his own is hardly the mark of leadership, is it?

We've reached the "Maurice Glasman showed better judgement than the PM" stage of this crisis. Not sure there's any way back from that...