Declan Gaffney
@greyskiesthinking.bsky.social
Research, analysis & grey-skies thinking on labour markets, social security, public finance & equality. Usual disclaimer. Cheap foreign labour 🇮🇪. Profile pic is Takashi Shimura with Toshiro Mifune in Stray Dog (Akira Kurosawa, 1949).
Pinned
If all young people deferred having children until they could meet the entire cost of raising them, there'd be no workers to pay for pensions in thirty years time.
Reposted by Declan Gaffney
Michael D. Higgins. What a wonderful man. We were blessed to have him as our president and I hope he has a long and fruitful ‘retirement’.
November 10, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Michael D. Higgins. What a wonderful man. We were blessed to have him as our president and I hope he has a long and fruitful ‘retirement’.
Reposted by Declan Gaffney
English Catholics in 1678:
November 10, 2025 at 10:52 PM
English Catholics in 1678:
Sounds like a job for WAAMA (specifically, the book handling & escort services).
I think this one has got to him because he's posted at least three separate responses to this over the last 10 hours:
November 10, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Sounds like a job for WAAMA (specifically, the book handling & escort services).
Reposted by Declan Gaffney
“When I was [at the BBC], at the height of Boris Johnson’s strength, that fear was ubiquitous. Scripts were sometimes written with a view not solely to their impartiality or truth, but the management of perception of impartiality from one side of the spectrum.“ @lewisgoodall.com
The truth about impartiality at the BBC
And the hysteria of the current "crisis"
goodallandgoodluck.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:21 PM
“When I was [at the BBC], at the height of Boris Johnson’s strength, that fear was ubiquitous. Scripts were sometimes written with a view not solely to their impartiality or truth, but the management of perception of impartiality from one side of the spectrum.“ @lewisgoodall.com
Reposted by Declan Gaffney
Also, think about incidence here. It’s a *seller* subsidy. The UK has fiscal capacity constraints and you want to subsidise…existing homeowners? If you wants to subsidise home builders just, you know, subsidise homebuilding! Reason demand doesn’t exist @ prevailing house prices is b/c price is wrong
November 10, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Also, think about incidence here. It’s a *seller* subsidy. The UK has fiscal capacity constraints and you want to subsidise…existing homeowners? If you wants to subsidise home builders just, you know, subsidise homebuilding! Reason demand doesn’t exist @ prevailing house prices is b/c price is wrong
I'm reminded of Homer Simpson reading the Good Book i.e. listening to the Bible on audiobook and falling asleep to the endless genealogies.
Definitely the two fattest, baldest, most physically laughable fucking nerds on the planet know alpha
November 10, 2025 at 7:51 PM
I'm reminded of Homer Simpson reading the Good Book i.e. listening to the Bible on audiobook and falling asleep to the endless genealogies.
Reposted by Declan Gaffney
NEW: Rachel Reeves signals she intends to remove the two-child cap *in full*
"I don't think a child should be penalised because they're in a bigger family through no fault of their own," she tells BBC.
"I don't think a child should be penalised because they're in a bigger family through no fault of their own," she tells BBC.
November 10, 2025 at 3:05 PM
NEW: Rachel Reeves signals she intends to remove the two-child cap *in full*
"I don't think a child should be penalised because they're in a bigger family through no fault of their own," she tells BBC.
"I don't think a child should be penalised because they're in a bigger family through no fault of their own," she tells BBC.
Reposted by Declan Gaffney
Even a simple factoid like this gets overlooked, but it was not long ago that *everyone* directly knew multiple examples of people taken away by this at something preposterous like age 22
November 10, 2025 at 6:56 AM
Even a simple factoid like this gets overlooked, but it was not long ago that *everyone* directly knew multiple examples of people taken away by this at something preposterous like age 22
Reposted by Declan Gaffney
Scrapping the cap entirely is both good policy *and* good politics.
Half measures will "save" some money short-term, but will piss *everybody* off and still leave very large numbers of children suffering from a policy designed to make them poorer.
inews.co.uk/news/politic...
Half measures will "save" some money short-term, but will piss *everybody* off and still leave very large numbers of children suffering from a policy designed to make them poorer.
inews.co.uk/news/politic...
Food vouchers, free milk and two-child cap: Reeves weighs up help for families
Ministers' long-awaited child poverty strategy is due this month - and it's closely tied to the Chancellor's Budget
inews.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 8:57 AM
Scrapping the cap entirely is both good policy *and* good politics.
Half measures will "save" some money short-term, but will piss *everybody* off and still leave very large numbers of children suffering from a policy designed to make them poorer.
inews.co.uk/news/politic...
Half measures will "save" some money short-term, but will piss *everybody* off and still leave very large numbers of children suffering from a policy designed to make them poorer.
inews.co.uk/news/politic...
Reposted by Declan Gaffney
The two child cap is a test of the government’s seriousness: if you are serious about child poverty, you lift it, and if you are serious about not wasting money, you don’t fritter away cash on dumb things like vouchers to try and manage the PLP.
If the government chooses to keep the 2 child limit and spend money on vouchers and parenting programmes instead, child poverty will rise and this will be a conscious and deliberate political choice in defiance of all the evidence
Scrapping the cap entirely is both good policy *and* good politics.
Half measures will "save" some money short-term, but will piss *everybody* off and still leave very large numbers of children suffering from a policy designed to make them poorer.
inews.co.uk/news/politic...
Half measures will "save" some money short-term, but will piss *everybody* off and still leave very large numbers of children suffering from a policy designed to make them poorer.
inews.co.uk/news/politic...
November 10, 2025 at 12:59 PM
The two child cap is a test of the government’s seriousness: if you are serious about child poverty, you lift it, and if you are serious about not wasting money, you don’t fritter away cash on dumb things like vouchers to try and manage the PLP.
The truth is there are some people who see reading a book in a public space as some sort of micro-aggression. I've had someone have a go at me for reading a book in *Grogans* of all places. (IYKYK.)
November 10, 2025 at 12:07 PM
The truth is there are some people who see reading a book in a public space as some sort of micro-aggression. I've had someone have a go at me for reading a book in *Grogans* of all places. (IYKYK.)
Reposted by Declan Gaffney
Maybe Keir should demand the heads of major US news networks any time they imply Britain is on the brink of civil war or that we live under sharia law. Or does it not work both ways?
November 10, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Maybe Keir should demand the heads of major US news networks any time they imply Britain is on the brink of civil war or that we live under sharia law. Or does it not work both ways?
Reposted by Declan Gaffney
Objectivity, impartiality and balance are all *different things*, and the lazy tendency to treat them as synonyms, and to use partisan balance alone as a proxy for the others, is the root cause of a vast amount of nonsense.
Robbie Gibb once suggested that reporters should reflect if they were getting more retweets from one side than the other - a braindead analysis that ignores that fair and impartial reporting of education might get more Tory retweets than say, criminal justice.
Stephen really does have the best take on this. It’s not clear that the BBC Board or indeed the rest of the News team really understood the message of the previous reviews, which were about getting detail right. Instead they wanted to know what was ‘biased’ or not like they were blotting out stains.
November 10, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Objectivity, impartiality and balance are all *different things*, and the lazy tendency to treat them as synonyms, and to use partisan balance alone as a proxy for the others, is the root cause of a vast amount of nonsense.
Reposted by Declan Gaffney
‘If the BBC was able today to report what it thinks, it would say this: there has been a coup’
The Observer view: political interference at the BBC
https://bit.ly/4qW3MeA
The Observer view: political interference at the BBC
https://bit.ly/4qW3MeA
The Observer view: political interference at the BBC | The Observer
bit.ly
November 10, 2025 at 6:00 AM
‘If the BBC was able today to report what it thinks, it would say this: there has been a coup’
The Observer view: political interference at the BBC
https://bit.ly/4qW3MeA
The Observer view: political interference at the BBC
https://bit.ly/4qW3MeA
Reposted by Declan Gaffney
The second part of the book includes poems about Dublin, in particular around Ringsend where Mary lived for many years.
There is even a poem about @booksupstairs.bsky.social One of the last times I met Mary was at an @arlenhouse.bsky.social launch in Books Upstairs.
There is even a poem about @booksupstairs.bsky.social One of the last times I met Mary was at an @arlenhouse.bsky.social launch in Books Upstairs.
November 8, 2025 at 10:05 PM
The second part of the book includes poems about Dublin, in particular around Ringsend where Mary lived for many years.
There is even a poem about @booksupstairs.bsky.social One of the last times I met Mary was at an @arlenhouse.bsky.social launch in Books Upstairs.
There is even a poem about @booksupstairs.bsky.social One of the last times I met Mary was at an @arlenhouse.bsky.social launch in Books Upstairs.
Reposted by Declan Gaffney
He explicitly encouraged the Capitol riot
November 9, 2025 at 7:54 PM
He explicitly encouraged the Capitol riot
The thing that really gets me about fascists is their refusal to apply standards of conduct consistently on social media.
November 9, 2025 at 10:31 PM
The thing that really gets me about fascists is their refusal to apply standards of conduct consistently on social media.
Reposted by Declan Gaffney
It’s easy to see why Trump wants to destroy the world’s number one news source. We can’t let him.
The BBC belongs to all of us here in the UK.
The Prime Minister and leaders from across the political spectrum should be united in telling Trump to keep his hands off it.
The BBC belongs to all of us here in the UK.
The Prime Minister and leaders from across the political spectrum should be united in telling Trump to keep his hands off it.
November 9, 2025 at 9:45 PM
It’s easy to see why Trump wants to destroy the world’s number one news source. We can’t let him.
The BBC belongs to all of us here in the UK.
The Prime Minister and leaders from across the political spectrum should be united in telling Trump to keep his hands off it.
The BBC belongs to all of us here in the UK.
The Prime Minister and leaders from across the political spectrum should be united in telling Trump to keep his hands off it.
Reposted by Declan Gaffney
Be clear, the American far right are coming for British democracy.
November 9, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Be clear, the American far right are coming for British democracy.
Bill Nighy for DG BBC. observer.co.uk/culture/inte...
November 9, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Bill Nighy for DG BBC. observer.co.uk/culture/inte...
Reposted by Declan Gaffney
The BBC's senior leadership resigning en masse over one dodgy edit in one programme, simply because the right wing press demands it, tells you everything you need to know about where the power really lies in that relationship
November 9, 2025 at 8:04 PM
The BBC's senior leadership resigning en masse over one dodgy edit in one programme, simply because the right wing press demands it, tells you everything you need to know about where the power really lies in that relationship
Reposted by Declan Gaffney
In passport line in Prague remembering my best experience in US:
Agent: why are you here?
I’m a Professor, giving a talk.
What’s you subject?
Political Philosophy.
My favourite!!
Really??
No. I say that to all the Professors.
Agent: why are you here?
I’m a Professor, giving a talk.
What’s you subject?
Political Philosophy.
My favourite!!
Really??
No. I say that to all the Professors.
November 9, 2025 at 7:52 PM
In passport line in Prague remembering my best experience in US:
Agent: why are you here?
I’m a Professor, giving a talk.
What’s you subject?
Political Philosophy.
My favourite!!
Really??
No. I say that to all the Professors.
Agent: why are you here?
I’m a Professor, giving a talk.
What’s you subject?
Political Philosophy.
My favourite!!
Really??
No. I say that to all the Professors.
Reposted by Declan Gaffney
This is absolutely nuts
Trump did incite the January 6 riot. Splicing a video to make that point is shoddy editorial but hardly a resignation event
When BBC is needed more than ever, Telegraph/Boris Johnson running the show
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd...
Trump did incite the January 6 riot. Splicing a video to make that point is shoddy editorial but hardly a resignation event
When BBC is needed more than ever, Telegraph/Boris Johnson running the show
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd...
BBC director general Tim Davie and News CEO Deborah Turness resign over Trump documentary edit
Davie says
www.bbc.co.uk
November 9, 2025 at 6:12 PM
This is absolutely nuts
Trump did incite the January 6 riot. Splicing a video to make that point is shoddy editorial but hardly a resignation event
When BBC is needed more than ever, Telegraph/Boris Johnson running the show
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd...
Trump did incite the January 6 riot. Splicing a video to make that point is shoddy editorial but hardly a resignation event
When BBC is needed more than ever, Telegraph/Boris Johnson running the show
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd...
Reposted by Declan Gaffney
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:39 PM
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Reposted by Declan Gaffney
54% is technically a majority, I suppose 🙄🤦🏻♂️
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
November 9, 2025 at 1:59 PM
54% is technically a majority, I suppose 🙄🤦🏻♂️
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...