Robert Colvile
@rcolvile
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Director of @CPSThinkTank, EIC of @CapX, Sunday columnist for @thetimes, author of 'The Great Acceleration'. Politics, policy and parenting.
London
Joined December 2008
Have long been obsessed with English villages that sound like Dickens characters. Pleased to learn Tom Stoppard felt the same (via Charles Moore in @spectator).
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“Britain is a shockingly bad country to be young in. Our entire political system is based on extracting more and more cash from those of working age to pay for the pensions and care of those living in houses that people in their 20s & 30s can only dream of being able to afford.”
47% of young people are now planning to vote Green - at least, those that aren't headed for the airport. Me for @thetimes on why Britain is no country for the young, and how the Budget somehow made it even worse (link below)
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You mean Ed Miliband’s energy policies will actually… cost us money? No, I refuse to believe it.
Rachel Reeves’s pledge to cut energy bills by £150 a year will be largely wiped out by new levies on electricity and gas prices announced by the energy regulator, @emilygosden & @oliver_wright report Households face paying an extra £116 a year by 2030 to fund £90 billion of
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Last 5 matches: Liverpool (10.08) 4-11 (6.52) Opponents
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These transcripts are incredible - @OPENJ_UK have done good work in getting them into the public domain. We need a national debate about dramatically more severe justice for these people. Oh, and of course Labour are still sabotaging the inquiry.
Today, we’re releasing the first tranche of the redacted grooming gang sentencing remarks - 5 of them, from Rotherham - dating back to 2016. Available to read now at https://t.co/WpWqzplGNd
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The smart meter thing is just weird. I get email after email (the latest telling me my meters are reaching the end of their service life), I can only opt out of being bothered for six months, and this despite the fact our building literally cannot have smart meters.
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This. Have a look at the implied spending profile for the Department for Education as a result of the last spending review. Then, look at the implications of last week’s Budget for unprotected departments. There is no chance that these spending reductions happen.
Have been making this point since the last Budget! The spending restraint pencilled in for the next few years is hugely implausible, especially given NHS waiting lists, mood on Labour backbenches, SEND cash to find…
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Have been making this point since the last Budget! The spending restraint pencilled in for the next few years is hugely implausible, especially given NHS waiting lists, mood on Labour backbenches, SEND cash to find…
An important article on a topic which I’m surprised has not already been more widely picked up. There really is zero ‘headroom’ in the Chancellors/OBR forecasts once you take account of her implausible public spending cut assumptions and the risks which are already starting to
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Do yourself a favour and tune into Fulham-Man City. The kind of deeply mad game that every season needs.
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Our economy is just a stack of price controls with no understanding about supply. No wonder why we heading towards bankruptcy.
I've just been sent this letter from @Ed_Miliband's office that he sent to the energy firms about fixed tariffs. Lets hope they all play ball (however reluctantly)
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Straw poll - how many UK folk knew it was Giving Tuesday? Feels like the kind of US tradition that we really should be copying...
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The Environment Agency - can't stop it doing the stuff that's bad for the country, but try to get it to actually do its job and...
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The problem for those touting an EU reset as the cure for Labour's unpopularity is that we've reached the point where just being associated with Starmer makes an idea less popular.
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This is an absolutely brilliant chart from @TomHCalver, one of the clearest I've seen in demonstrating how the UK tax system has become markedly more progressive (pre-tax income share of the top 10% has barely moved during this period, from 35.9% in 2002 to 36.6% in 2023)
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🆕 We are delighted to announce the appointment of Lee Rowley (@Lee4NED) as a Research Fellow. Drawing on his experiences in government, Rowley will be spearheading a project examining why government so often does not work as politicians hope and the public imagine it should, to
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In praise of the OBR's (now-resigned) Richard Hughes
comment.press
In praise of the OBR's Richard Hughes
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Feel like I'm going mad. The Budget's 'headroom' is based on frankly irresponsible and wildly optimistic claims about what Labour will do in the final year of the forecast, and on ignoring a bunch of upward pressures on spending, and the claim is that she was being exaggeratedly
ft.com
Chancellor was instead far too optimistic about public finances and government’s ability to secure cuts
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This is great news but also - and I’m sorry to repeat myself - a completely different economic agenda from the Budget that was less than a week ago.
Huge from the PM. Starmer accepts the Fingleton Review *and* pledges to extend it to other infrastructure: data centres, railways, tramways, towns, labs, and more. Massive, and a big shift from the Treasury's equivocation. Implementation will be a big battle, but we can win.
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