Friendship's quiet power to boost social mobility - great piece from @raviguru.bsky.social at Nesta - also relevant to cohesion, combatting loneliness, a whole host of issues we face - with some proven solutions we actually understand www.ft.com/content/2978...

How do friendships affect social mobility. I wrote in @financialtimes.com about research from BIT colleagues replicating Raj Chetty's US work analysing facebook data. Perhaps the department with communities in its name can run trials on cross-class interaction, and reducing 'friending bias'.

Journalists - want to write something sensible about what might happen in the budget? Use the @nestauk.bsky.social & IFS "Be the Chancellor" tool and see what might be needed...

What do social democrats do when there's no money?

Clearly this is the primary challenge facing the current government. I've written here about Labour's constraints - and sketched out what an escape hatch (or even a few!) might look like

ravigurumurthy.substack.com/p/labours-co...

Well worth reading @jo3hill.bsky.social on the perils of everythingism reform.uk/publications...

I've made a case for the defence here: ravigurumurthy.substack.com/p/in-defence...

TLDR I think it's often a necessary part of governing well - not bat tunnels though.

2 of the people I interviewed for my book on #SocialMobility used the same phrase about what influenced their journey (“I had a posh friend”)

Others said similar things

Now there's data to quantify the opportunity-boosting effect of socially-mixed schools, neighbourhoods, sports & hobby groups⬇️

Fascinating findings on friendship and social mobility from BIT colleagues.

It builds on Chetty's work in the US which found that economic connectedness is a powerful motor of social mobility.

With found some similar (and some quite different) patterns:

ravigurumurthy.substack.com/p/what-we-fo...

How can we halve obesity, without putting food bills up or lecturing people on what to eat.

Check out my latest substack on the maths of obesity and what policies will drive radical change without stoking a culture war.

open.substack.com/pub/raviguru...

Food for thought this weekend from @raviguru.bsky.social on how to deal with one of those long-term policy problems all govts duck (and with loads of win/wins around). Come on Wes...(and Rachel)
How to halve obesity open.substack.com/pub/raviguru...

🚀 How to design effective economic policies

Join us on 4 Feb for a breakfast event with @timleunig.bsky.social, architect of the UK furlough scheme, & our CEO @raviguru.bsky.social to discover how effective policy design & robust data targeting protected 3.25 million jobs.

Register: bit.ly/4alDn1Y

A new substack by Nesta CEO @raviguru.bsky.social is out today 🗞️

In this edition, Ravi writes about coherence in government and policy-making - and how to do strategy well. There's also a bit about Donald Trump, the Ministry of Defence and golf courses in Cyprus.

Free to subscribe ⬇️

Today’s substack is on strategy - with 7 tips on how the government can create compelling strategies. Plus a suggestion on what the MoD should do with its 19 golf courses (Yes, 19!)
ravigurumurthy.substack.com/p/better-str...

If you're looking for new reading in 2025, check out my substack Policy Fix. I'll be writing every other Friday. This week: overconfidence (including a calibration quiz that will tell you where you stand), and what started out as a laughable idea on heat pumps....https://ravigurumurthy.substack.com/

Great opening salvo from @raviguru.bsky.social. Love the idea about installers. Kevin @mulagostarr.bsky.social and his team like to ask their orgs "exactly who needs to do exactly what differently". This is a great example of how asking that question creatively gets you to interesting answers...

Get your Policy Fix! I'll be writing fortnightly on policy and innovation. First up is how to check whether you are overconfident, and why we should offer free heat pumps to 150,000 installers. Please share, subscribe, and tell me what you think.

ravigurumurthy.substack.com/p/the-overco...

What are the different paths to halving obesity?

Check out our ‘Blueprint’ project blueprint.nesta.org.uk, where we’ve reviewed thousands of papers with an expert group of academics, and rated interventions based on their cost, benefits, impact, and strength of the evidence.

This feels more Dave Gahan.

Democracy: doing it for ourselves

Join a Nesta conversation with Nicholas Gruen (Kings College London), Martin Wolf (Financial times), Claire Mellier (GlobalAssembly / ISWE) and @raviguru.bsky.social (Nesta) on 15 November in London or via live stream.

#CitizensAssembly

Not sure I wanted my first post on here to be about #strictly. And so far, can't see any such chat on here. But...vote for a suitably monstrous Krish tonight