Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
drphughes.bsky.social
Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
@drphughes.bsky.social
Work at a leading UK School of Management. Evidence Based Leadership Pracademic. 🥃 & 🚘 geek. Writer. Skeptic (management science / scientific). Personal account & views. Neurodiverse: though learning.
Reposted by Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
FACTCHECK: The frontpage of today's Daily Telegraph has a very confused story about offshore wind, which is all sorts of wrong

It says a technical change means higher subsidies & fewer new windfarms from the upcoming AR7 auction

Oopsie!

This is the opposite of the truth 🧵
October 29, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Reposted by Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Has Nigel Farage condemned Sarah Pochin's racist comments yet?

bsky.app/profile/alex...
October 25, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Reposted by Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
If Pochin doesn't lose the whip - and she should - then Farage's party will be happy to have a racist on its benches.
www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...
Reform UK MP says seeing adverts 'full of Black people' drives her 'mad'
Sarah Pochin was responding to a question about whether her party will do anything about the 'representation of demographics in TV adverts', and claimed white people were 'demonised'
www.mirror.co.uk
October 25, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Reposted by Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
"a kind of celebration of ignorance"
October 17, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Reposted by Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Are foreign bad actors behind the rise in fake, divisive 'culture war' news posts on Facebook? Sophie Perry takes a deep dive into the world of queer misinformation. www.thepinknews.com/2025/10/24/w...
What – or who – is behind the sinister rise in fake LGBTQ+ news on Facebook?
Are foreign bad actors behind the rise in fake, divisive 'culture war' news posts on Facebook? We take a deep dive into the world of queer misinformation.
www.thepinknews.com
October 25, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Wait, what? Brexit has made things demonstrably worse? Apart from 16,141,241, plus those who wanted to vote but were complacent / put off by the storm, who knew? 🤷‍♂️🤭
🚨🚨Major irony alert: Brits are pining for the pre-Brexit migration system.

The idea was that #brexit would give the UK back “control” of its borders and create a fairer system.

But the widespread perception is it didn’t turn out that way.🧵
www.politico.eu/article/labo...
Brits are pining for the pre-Brexit migration system
The idea was that leaving the bloc would give the U.K. back “control” of its borders and create a fairer system. But the widespread perception is it didn’t turn out that way.
www.politico.eu
October 17, 2025 at 6:16 AM
Reposted by Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
This is up there with the best of Sam’s blog.

Powerfully explanatory in terms of how Labour relates to white working class voters. And then, a practical guide on how to solve the apparent contradictions of the party, by focussing on areas of policy where non-zero sum gains can be made.
New post:

"Identity Crisis"

Labour keeps trying to appeal to a lost white working class vote + alienating middle-class grads / ethnic minority voters that are a much bigger part of their coalition.

Why? And how can they rebuild their coalition more effectively?

open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/i...
Identity Crisis
How Labour can rebuild their voter coalition
open.substack.com
October 2, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Reposted by Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Use of the word "evil" in official congressional e-newsletters, over time, by party
September 15, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Reposted by Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
The headline here should say:

"Number of private schools increases by 35 - showing fears of an exodus to be unfounded".

(The increase is mentioned way down the article.)

www.thetimes.com/article/19ef...
More than fifty private schools shut since Labour put VAT on fees
Department for Education defends ending tax breaks for independent institutions, after parents lost a legal battle at the High Court this year — view map
www.thetimes.com
August 4, 2025 at 7:22 AM
Reposted by Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
This is really a very helpful dataset which should be of value to all who need access to such information. I shall certainly find it valuable.

Please share widely.
July 17, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Reposted by Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
One of the great contests in world affairs is now between the attention span of the US president and the attention spans of those following the news.
June 24, 2025 at 7:23 AM
Reposted by Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Happy Dan Hannan Day!

If you're interested in how it all turned out in reality, my article for the Oxford Research Encylopedia of Economics and Finance reviews the economic evidence on the impact of Brexit.

oxfordre.com/economics/ec...
June 24, 2025 at 6:52 AM
Reposted by Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
My Sunday Times piece: The number of economically inactive has dropped by 300,000 over the past year but challenges remain, including long-term sickness and inactive young people:

At last, signs that Britain’s inactive workers are stirring

www.thetimes.com/article/e86b...
At last, signs that Britain’s inactive workers are stirring
The number has fallen by more than 300,000. But challenges remain, particularly concerning long-term sickness and youth unemployment
www.thetimes.com
June 21, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Reposted by Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
My Sunday Times column: There’s an air of permanent crisis about the public finances, and it is unlikely to be dispelled by this month’s spending review:

If we’re addicted to spending, we’ll pay even higher taxes

www.thetimes.com/article/1645...
If we’re addicted to spending, we’ll pay even higher taxes
Huge government spending, and debt, became the new normal in the pandemic and now chancellor Rachel Reeves faces an impossible task in keeping everyone happy
www.thetimes.com
June 1, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Another Sunday Times piece from me on the deepening fiscal hole Rachel Reeves is in, and whether she can dig herself out of it:

Public finances trilemma is threat to Rachel Reeves’s survival

www.thetimes.com/article/6ce0...
Public finances trilemma is threat to Rachel Reeves’s survival
Huge borrowing costs for the government, a struggle to meet her fiscal rules and Labour MPs’ revolt over welfare cuts make for perilous times at No 11
www.thetimes.com
May 25, 2025 at 7:40 AM
Reposted by Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
🚨🚨Another lovely nugget from #brexitland (I posted yesterday on a similar story reported by Guardian): Ministers are trying to sell a 1,300-truck #Brexit border check facility in Kent that is set to be rendered redundant by this week’s EU trade pact. So much WINNING. 🧵
www.ft.com/content/6676...
UK seeks to sell Brexit checkpoint made redundant by EU reset deal
[FREE TO READ] Site in Kent was built to carry out food checks that will no longer be needed
www.ft.com
May 22, 2025 at 8:27 AM
Reposted by Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Economists are in raptures, but they should be careful, warns The Economist. archive.ph/ce5Z0 www.economist.com/finance-and-...
The danger of relying on OpenAI’s Deep Research
Economists are in raptures, but they should be careful
www.economist.com
May 21, 2025 at 2:00 AM
Reposted by Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
My Sunday Times piece: Above-target inflation figures soon will renew criticism of the Bank of England. But any suggestion that we would be better off without an independent Bank should be dismissed:

Bank of England makes mistakes, but must keep its independence

www.thetimes.com/article/2eef...
Bank of England makes mistakes, but must keep its independence
Its inflation forecasters have had a bad run, but to punish it by handing control of interest rates back to politicians would be an error
www.thetimes.com
May 17, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Reposted by Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Welcome to Brexitland, US, in which waywardness is described as "strategic uncertainty", restrictions on trade boost performance and self harm is lauded....

Spoiler, it does not end happily

www.ft.com/content/342d...
May 1, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Reposted by Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
My Sunday Times piece: The IMF estimates that population ageing will reduce global economic growth by nearly a third in coming years. Can policies to promote healthy ageing and increase participation prevent this?

Must older mean slower for economic growth?

www.thetimes.com/article/da3b...
Must older mean slower for economic growth?
The global population is ageing, with all that could mean for economic growth if a lower share of people are working. But there could be a silver lining
www.thetimes.com
April 27, 2025 at 7:20 AM
Reposted by Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
not surprising. if you own the platform, you make the rules.
They Criticized Musk on X. Then Their Reach Collapsed.
Three users who disagreed with the site’s owner saw views for their posts plummet.
www.nytimes.com
April 23, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Reposted by Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Analyzing millions of tweets, researchers found that misinformation is strongly linked to radical-right populist parties, not populism in general or partisan politics alone, reports Eric W. Dolan for PsyPost. www.psypost.org/political-li...
Political lies have a pattern — and radical-right populist parties are leading the charge
Analyzing millions of tweets, researchers found that misinformation is strongly linked to radical-right populist parties—not populism in general or partisan politics alone.
www.psypost.org
April 22, 2025 at 12:30 AM
Reposted by Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
My Sunday Times piece: On top of national insurance and national living wage hikes, businesses face tariff uncertainty. The labour market’s weaker but there’s no sign yet of a collapse:

April has been cruel for firms. But is the outlook for jobs so dire?

www.thetimes.com/article/8a7a...
April has been cruel for firms. But is the outlook for jobs so dire?
Employers have been hit by rises in national insurance and the living wage, but it may not wreak havoc with jobs — even if the data is unreliable
www.thetimes.com
April 20, 2025 at 6:21 AM
Reposted by Dr PAW Hughes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
An anti-vax town in the US is currently being overwhelmed by the world's most infectious disease - a horror measles outbreak that has so far killed two children, writes Tom McGhie for Daily Star. www.dailystar.co.uk/news/us-news...
'Anti-vax' town says no to jab even as deadly Victorian disease kills their kids
An anti-vax town in the US is currently being overwhelmed by the world's most infectious disease - a horror measles outbreak that has so far killed two children
www.dailystar.co.uk
April 17, 2025 at 5:00 AM
🎯
My Sunday Times piece: Despite Donald Trump’s trade war retreat, what remains of his actions will damage the world economy, an unnecessary shock which will have consequences:

Can we get through this storm without a surge in debt?

www.thetimes.com/article/6746...
Can we get through this storm without a surge in debt?
The financial crisis and Covid drove a coach and horses through the chancellor’s fiscal rules. Will government debt surge again with Donald Trump’s tariffs?
www.thetimes.com
April 13, 2025 at 9:07 AM