This does not look like 'spiralling' inactivity, as in current bond vigilante narratives, echoed by government

Looking at the trends in rates fro just these flows, allm of them are cyclical, but flows from inactivity (directly) have been more positive than job changers or flows from unemployment.

New job starts, overall, have been trending down - this looks very much like online vacancy trends from the likes of Indeed Hiringlab. ONS gives breakdowns of where job starts came from.

The net flow from inactivity to unemployment is down this quarter, but remains above pre-pandemic levels. This means people who are economically inactive flowing towards the labour market.

This quarter's labour market flows can help answer. Flows into unemployment (by definition), come from either employment or inactivity. In the last quarter, the net flow between employment and unemployment is -ve, so , on net, people are flowing to jobs, while the net flow with inactivity is +ve.

And there were many 'loonybins' aka mental hospitals (which sometimes did a better job than old people's social care).

I'm obliged for the nod.

The "Penrose Effect" seems to be a real thing - hypothesised in the 1930s and re-tested in the last decade or so:

Where you reduce your inpatient psychiatric provision, you'll see a correlated rise within 10yrs in prisons of seriously mentally ill prisoners.

Yes, we talk about the HSE a bit on our report in the summer - www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications... - I think really important to have lots of conversations about the roles of HSE as well as Acas + employment tribunals etc in a reformed system

Curious that the Health and Safety Executive (sadly underfunded) has such a limited role here - ensuring that work at least avoided causing ill-health or disability would seem squarely in their remit.

The British going in for indirect rule messes with the narratives. The triangular trade had built up some local empires, which were then suppressed when they tried to carry on slaving, unless deals done to give the ex-local slavers or their opponents power in their own areas.

That's likely the context of the Adam Smith comment about a lot of ruin in a nation. Starting with the Scots recovery from the '45 Jacobites to his time and the Scots Enlightenment.

We just (!) need STV multi-member, so the psephologist can estimate tactical voting flows within blocs (as @ballotbox.scot demonstrates for unionist and nationalist blocs).