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Days 1 & 2 done. Hard miles in 30/40 zones reinforced how insulated drivers are—soundproofed, aircon, music—easy to forget your vehicle’s power. Heard horns aimed at frustration, not danger. Some passed too close, too fast. Tough, but it’s why I’m doing this for Brake. Thank you for sponsoring! 🙏

Well, the government has a seven page memo on devolution and England and... there is a lot in there! Will add some thoughts, but the most striking thing is the pace. A lot of the serious reforms are due to come in April 2028 - this is not a gradual roadmap! www.gov.uk/government/p...

Rewiring the State – Cabinet StatementThis publication sets out this government's plan to fundamentally rewire the state by shifting power, funding and accountability from Whitehall to local leaderswww.gov.uk

Most importantly - as @gavinfreeguard.com says - this: "Loudly and deliberately scrapping the civil service speaking ban and giving public servants the confidence and incentives to share what they’re doing — with one another and external stakeholders — would help."

Very much agree with much of this. As local news ecosystems have been hollowed out, there's little capacity for serious scrutiny at the scale required. We do what we can here in Kent, but I can't confidently say we have the resources to do what needs to be done under more powerful mayoralties.

Yes indeed - @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social FT newsletter today raises lack of local media scrutiny. Something we also touched on here (with @michaelkenny.bsky.social @jacknewman.bsky.social @samwarner.bsky.social): www.productivity.ac.uk/wp-content/u...

Dig diary – that’s all folks… The last dig diary ever. Famous last words...

Dig diary – that’s all folks…The last dig diary ever. Famous last words...www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk

This is a really important point from Jen. All those of us who started out on local or regional papers know the vital role they played holding local authorities to scrutiny (also teaching generations of journalists how to do the job!) Powerful mayors will need a media they can't just ignore.

Skills: The focus on more devolution of 16-19 and employment support is the right focus, bringing them more in line with adult skills (a devolved success story). Both are complex, patchwork, and top-down which means many slipping through the cracks. Devo could rationalise and align a lot of this

The tax retention news is so big it has overshadowed some of chunky stuff in the press release that complements it and fills out the devolution strategy pursued by the new PM. Some initial reactions by me and some @centreforcities.bsky.social thinking below to get you started 👇

The Govt's now updated its Connect to Work business case to reflect the slower than expected start, revise down lifetime starts by 20k, calculate benefits differently (increasing impact assessment). Overall, scheme only gets 20k additional people in work but generates £1.2bn fiscal savings.

30 July 2026: Connect to Work - Programme Business Case 2 Summarywww.gov.uk

Devolution of 16-19 skills makes sense. I would add employment services and programmes to the devolution list to enable proper coherence. The Mayors who design learner focused systems that make the labour market and skills system navigable are the ones who will succeed feweek.co.uk/mayors-to-ta...

Mayors to take control of 16-19 fundingAndy Burnham's devolution package ends years of DfE resistance to handing local leaders power over post-16 budgetsfeweek.co.uk

I had a go at getting 16-19 skills on the table for devolution ahead of the 2015 election, unsuccessfully. The key issue iirc was that a big chunk of 16-19 funding is for A-levels in FE colleges, and devolving that would mean treating schools and colleges differently for A-levels…

For the 5th consecutive year child casualties have flat-lined at around 13,000 road casualties of age 16 and under. In what other area of life would the death or injury of 13,000 children be "acceptable"? The government has a Road Safety Strategy that aims to reduce child KSIs by 70%.

Just looked at the newest Graduate Outcomes data to check this and actually 63 per cent of known first-in-family graduates were in professional level employment 15 months after graduation. It is lower than the proportion of graduates who have one or more graduate parents, but still comfy majority

One of my former colleagues used to point out that one person’s definition of a skills shortage is another person’s definition of low wages.

Every commentator saying too many kids go to university has to tell their own kid to not do a degree

I saw this glacier tongue in the 1990s some time. It is part of the Jostedalsbreen glacier, which is the largest in mainland Europe, and it has traditionally been the most popular one for tourists to visit. Not sure how much longer that will be true.

Median earnings and family incomes for those aged 25 today are barely higher than for 25-year-olds twenty years ago. Recovery from the financial crisis and then COVID has proven sluggish for young adults, impacting earnings and income growth.

sure let's keep our systems around raising and educating children on the same calendar cycle it was on when they needed to be home to harvest crops on the farm now that we're training them for a post-industrial adulthood makes sense i'm sure there's no other way we could set things up