Tom Clark
@tom-clark
Contributing Editor at Prospect Magazine; Principal Editor at Resolution Foundation
Really got to get these turnouts up if mayors are going to be out in charge of everything
Good growth in every postcode, 1965 style, included a ban on building offices in London! (from George Brown’s memoirs…)
John Healey’s appointment is a neat fix for all sorts of political headaches But he inherits all the same underlying dilemmas of policy www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/741...
In 1945 Attlee made a last-minute swap of the man preparing to be his chancellor with a man well-set to be foreign secretary It worked out well for him As Burnham makes the same swap in 2026 will it work out just as well? I have some doubts www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/741...
Looking back to June 2010 Budget scorecard, striking that bolted on to the LONG list of deep cuts to family & housing benefits there's extra spending on introducing the Triple Lock The great age divide in social security spending wasn't invented in think-tank land, but in HMT
Fascinating charts on the deep yet novel social divides on what counts as “poor mental health” Plus admirably thoughtful commentary here, all c/o @jburnmurdoch.ft.com www.ft.com/content/063b...
Amid the great devolution buzz, striking that actually existing devolution in Scotland is an afterthought @davidmcallister.bsky.social puts that right — while also taking the chance to remind Andy B that Manchester is in Southern Britain www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/739...
Boom-time for anyone who owns the 10th property along on this Mancunian street!
“I think, whereof I am clueless” A revelatory & totally different Friday read, c/o @pghoskin.bsky.social With a few random snapshots from within his own mind, he shows the rest of us that we don’t think like we think we do www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/73781/...
10 years ago, almost to the minute (how often can you say that?!) I tweeted this from Hackney & suggested turnout in Remainia was holding up well But didn’t assume was in the bag. Recall me & @jamesrball.com discussing how Leave had opposite age gradient to Scotland’s Yes—& that could spell trouble
Does mooted Al Carns/Darren Jones run aim to check a drift to the ‘soggy soft left’? If so, could self-defeat In unlike event either mustered 81 MPs they’d have to compete with Burnham for affections of mass membership Which, as with Starmer’s 2020 pledges, would involve all sides pitching left
Andy Burnham’s win was stunning But on the same morning we learnt the Govt had borrowed £23bn in May And many of the ideas floated in the winning campaign would only push that up www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/738...
For what it's worth (which from my PoV is really not all that much) polling day has seen the bookies' odds on a Burnham victory tighten from very likely to overwhelmingly likely ... with 20 minutes of voting left, some firms offering just £1 reward for £18 staked
"Welfare up, defence down"? Well, no, actually... despite a misleading chart from BBC's so-called "verify" There's been little trend in either non-pensioner benefits or defence since the mid-90s Chapter & verse c/o @ruthcurtice.bsky.social resolutionfoundation.substack.com/p/defence-ve...
I get Andy Burham’s Triple Lock line, given manifesto I don’t get floating pensioner tax cuts After flirting with WASPI compensation & reversing the Nat Ins rise, he’s now flirting with diluting the govt’s other big direct tax rise The mood music will need to change VERY fast after Thursday
A one-minute read on why falling prices are even worse than inflation www.linkedin.com/pulse/1873-a...
I was sat right next to the Guardian letters desk, when they took a call from David Hockney asking if “picture letters” could be considered & whether sending them in by Fax would work. They found a way, and if you click you’ll see he got the standard “D Hockney, Bridlington” sign off
Amazing intro to the perfect antidote to that T Blair essay Globalisation was once as irresistible as “the weather,” now AI the unstoppable “wave” of the future Swap to a metaphor about planning a journey or developing a city and the whole discussion would change
As BBC flags 'lowest birth rate in 50 years' ... here's my bigger picture look at a baby bust that's going global www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/pol...
I’m only doing a short review of Liaquat Ahmed’s 1873… … so won’t have room to work in this jaw-dropping news (to me) about how compromised Gladstone was when he failed to avoid getting entangled in Egypt The great anti-imperialist was personally on the hook for $4.5m in today’s terms!
The defining challenge for Burnham? Bringing Labour together The means? Abandoning the methods of Labour Together www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/736...
Andy doesn’t need to be a miracle worker! NEW COL The first step for Burnham (or anyone else) in arresting Labour’s decline doesn’t rely on any big new ideas It simply requires avoiding these sort Starmer-era slights against the party’s own base www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/736...
I knew Keynes had made a wild claim about Shakespeare's genius needing a climate of benign inflation to thrive I didn't know he'd widened it out into, well, a General Theory in this frenetic footnote
Interesting compare & contrast between Anthony Seldon on whether the PM is an impossible job in FT (killer stat below) www.ft.com/content/528a... And my Guardian piece on whether Britain is getting ungovernable (in which Anthony is one interviewee) www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Useful stats c/o @newstatesman1913.bsky.social .. so maybe a 6.5% swing to Lab from where we’d be at a general right now is required Will 🧵 a couple of examples of individuals moving the swingometer a long way
Does anyone think Makerfield looks even half-winnable for Labour? Seriously?