"For over two decades since 1997, Britain has had the lowest levels of Gross Fixed Capital Formation – a measure of investment in non-financial public and private sector assets – of any OECD nation."
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Seb Schmoller
@sebschmoller
Wrote/ran TUC courses 78-96. Led ed tech & 96-12. Board then Chair 08-21. Now Board. Tweet accordingly, mainly.
Seb Schmoller’s Tweets
July thread by that is relevant to current re-emergence of "trickle down" and deregulation:
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The UK has low tax and regulatory burdens by rich-world standards. If lower taxes and more deregulation are your fundamental answers, you’re asking the wrong questions.
Props to any Tory leadership candidate with something serious to say on 
’s core problem: low productivity.
’s core problem: low productivity.Show this thread
Much to agree with in this piece by for , calling for a properly targeted and funded Lifelong Learning Strategy, rather than changes to the funding regime that will kill off key provision. Worth reading in full.
campaign-for-learning.org.uk/Web/CFL/What-w
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1. Disappointing economic performance 2. Talk to companies 3. Draft speech complaining of skills shortages, say vocational work should enjoy parity with academic 4. Cut training budgets 5. Return to (1), repeat.
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My first ever policy paper was on Enterprise Zones (also my most successful paper on media hits 😬).
It was called Do Enterprise Zones Work? The answer was NO.
Govt went ahead anyway, and they proceeded to not really work. Now the policy wheel has turned and they’re back again!
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New: govt has written to scores of local authorities asking them to express interest in having a low tax, low reg investment zone. Insists in its letter there is ‘no q’ of ‘imposing’ this on places, but that this is an ‘extraordinary offer’ nonetheless
enterprise-sharing.ft.com/redeem/2a606e8
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It's not so much "flying blind" because the Treasury has seen the OBR's draft forecasts - it's the passengers (the public) rather than the pilot whose vision is being impaired by not publishing them on Friday
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Full Story here:
Some concerns that policy is “flying blind” after rejection of offer of forecast to accompany Fridays tax and spend announcements, especially as permanent tax cuts which could impact budget rules are expected:
bbc.co.uk/news/business-
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Much to agree with in this piece by for , calling for a properly targeted and funded Lifelong Learning Strategy, rather than changes to the funding regime that will kill off key provision. Worth reading in full.
campaign-for-learning.org.uk/Web/CFL/What-w
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It seems unlikely this is directly aimed at Truss but it’s still extremely unhelpful for the new government in a week they are about to unveil a suite of economic policies which they won’t call, but nonetheless are, examples of “trickle-down.”
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I am sick and tired of trickle-down economics. It has never worked.
We're building an economy from the bottom up and middle out.
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She isn’t clear at all.
No costing, no modelling, no plan for negotiation, no legislation, no clarity for business or public services.
No transparency at all.
Just unfunded spending on a scale that would have made even Corbyn blanch.
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Summarised in this thread:
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Are the British the worst idlers in the world? Let's fact-check these five assertions from Britannia Unchained (which was co-authored by our new PM and chancellor)... ft.com/content/65548d
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And that lack of investment also applies to education, training & skills.
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A related piece in today's @FT, by @sarahoconnor_: "The British aren’t the worst idlers in the world. The problem — one Truss and Kwarteng would do well to focus on — is worse than that. They are running just to stand still."
ft.com/content/65548d [login/£?]
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Stunning
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Serenade at its most innocent form and with a great song 
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Although they used to breed, this is the first 21st century record of Corncrake on Skokholm. An unfamiliar plumage for us too. Showing very infrequently from the Orchid Bog Hide. @BirdGuides
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A related piece in today's , by : "The British aren’t the worst idlers in the world. The problem — one Truss and Kwarteng would do well to focus on — is worse than that. They are running just to stand still."
ft.com/content/65548d [login/£?]
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Fresh-start Truss faces a ‘sudden stop’. Overview by of how tough things are economically: socialeurope.eu/fresh-start-tr. (The snippet below caught my eye.)
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I stopped reading where they say developers “fetishize” interop. Ufgh. No, people EXPECT interop. Imagine an Apple car that could only drive on Apple streets. Interop is as basic as “first do no harm” is to doctors.
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Reversal of NI rise will be worth around 63p a month to the poorest tenth and around £150 a month to the richest tenth
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An awesome tribute this to a life of service, but if just 2 percent of it, and just a fraction of the events of past week, acknowledged the greatest change of her reign, the end of British Empire, the biggest empire in human history... we'd have a chance of being a sane nation.
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South Yorkshire pals?
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Help!! Our gear is stranded in Spain and we have our first show of the tour in Sheffield tomorrow 
can anyone help us out and lend us these things!!? Plz rt if u know anyone local who might x
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Eels swim from rivers in the UK across the Atlantic Ocean to their breeding grounds in the Sargasso Sea, a round trip of about 7,600 miles. This is how we treat them when they return.
And the does what exactly?
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Eels on the Brent struggle for oxygen after @thameswater allow sewage to flood it. @FishLegal_ @Feargal_Sharkey Is this legal
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Fresh-start Truss faces a ‘sudden stop’. Overview by of how tough things are economically: socialeurope.eu/fresh-start-tr. (The snippet below caught my eye.)
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If you're applauding Kwarteng's growth target but not decrying a decade of Tory austerity, you're not a serious economist but just a bad-faith tribal huckster.
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"I can't believe so many people's lives have been fucked up," say actual members of the Fucking People's Lives Up Party
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.@rcolvile: “Britain’s people are leading poorer, meaner lives than they should and could — especially our young people, who have been subjected to a relentless battering. Yet we carp and cavil if anyone tries to do things that might make us richer.”
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One of the most common errors in chess is Brexiting: that's when you form a bad plan, suspect it is a bad plan, but decide to go through with it anyway - just on the off-chance it might work.
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Thread - the last tweet is key.
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If the Schools Bill has already been torn apart by the House of Lords, I'm not really clear how this would help address the Lord's concerns about the future of state education. twitter.com/whazell/status…
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Today I met with officials in Helsinki, which has had a ~75% drop in road deaths over the last thirty years (including recent years with no ped/cyclist deaths at all).
Me: “How much of a role has IT played in reducing crashes?”
City official: “Zero. We simply slowed down cars.”
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NEW! @USDOT is seeking your feedback on a critical topic – Intersection Safety. See “Enhancing the Safety of Vulnerable Road Users at Intersections” and see how you can contribute bit.ly/3QIiJgY
read image description
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This is really the key point:
If the US had even vaguely normal levels of inequality (not communism!), the poorest Americans would be 40% better off and have some of the highest living standards among poor people anywhere.
While the highest earners would still be loaded! twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/s…
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There’s nothing Northern European about the British middle class anymore - time we all woke up to that reality
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Echoing Darren ’s observation. I think this may say something about different instincts of some schools & colleges? Don’t think any college would do this. We are all looking at how we can help parents with their funding gaps!
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Schools urge parents to help plug funding gaps as costs soar theguardian.com/education/2022
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Excellent data-journalism by about a
fundamental UK problem. (John - have you any plans to do equivalent comparisons for assets/wealth?)
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NEW: income inequality in US & UK is so wide that while the richest are very well off, the poorest have a worse standard of living than the poorest in countries like Slovenia ft.com/content/ef2654
Essentially, US & UK are poor societies with some very rich people.
A thread:
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Extraordinary stats. Britain rapidly becoming not just the sick man of Europe but the poor man too...
ft.com/content/ef2654
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If you care about adult education, please respond to Q3/Q4 of DfE’s funding consultation by 21 Sep; their proposal limits the offer, destroying provision for many who are trying to improve their/their children’s lives bit.ly/DfE_FA_Consult
@educationgovuk @andreajenkyns #HOLEX
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Just looked up my late, great friend ' blog to find it's been replaced by some sort of affiliate marketing site. Thank goodness for the internet archive. web.archive.org/web/2019021402
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Worth revisiting this (cringey) exchange from 2018 on the Treasury Committee on why the pound's fall matters.
Haldane rather smacked down here
parliamentlive.tv/event/index/ad
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Grammar schools: Follow ‘evidence not ideology’, DfE told. We might as well throw research out of the window if this evidence is ignored.
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