Absolutely right. He will make a big impact.

Interesting example of importance of language in politics. Lib Dems wouldn’t use Big Society-‘Tory words’.Coalition rebranded delivery unit as implementation unit.I suspect levelling up will be replaced.

To honour Danny I’m carrying on the 100 push ups a day - now over 2000 in total. He emphasised the importance of good habits as James Clear has recently argued in Atomic Habits.

Very sad to hear of death of Danny Kahneman, a great psychologist who won a Nobel prize in economics. He helped the behavioural insights team and spent time with me when I was Cabinet Secretary. A really kind man and wellbeing advocate.

My wonderful PA Annie talked me into this.I’m proud of the work Pro bono economics does with charities and Frontier’s with many organisations.Acts of kindness are great for your wellbeing as Richard Layard godfather of wellbeing economics would say and today is his 90th birthday

I had the pleasure of working with Angus Deaton on the subject of wellbeing and policy. As he says economists “ often equate wellbeing with money or consumption, missing much of what matters to people “. His ideas for how economics should change are spot on.

I recommend this podcast: some very scary material about how young people are losing faith in democracy.

And listen to today podcast with Nick Robinson and Amol Rajan on ‘Is democracy dying’ to see link between good democracies and wellbeing.

Certainly not a breach of the code. Alistair was a model Minister who worked really well with the civil service. During the GFC he played a blinder. I’m priveliged to have worked with him. My thoughts are with the wonderful Maggie.

Among older groups it's not pensioners who are most likely to be poor but those in the early and mid 60s who can't work and subsist on benefits less than half as generous as available from state pension age.

Great to join such a constructive discussion about the need for change and to realise there is an emerging consensus about what needs to be done to make government work better for the people.

I couldn’t agree more- one of the great economic historians.

Just caught up with news agents podcast from 15/09 on why we need to talk about wealth. Really important discussion led ably by Lewis Goodall on need to confront the massive gap between taxes on income and wealth. Should be essential listening for Chancellors, current or shadow.

I remember the introduction of Sure start many years ago. Learning from that programme and reintroducing an even better version would be a great example of how to prevent problems and thus improve long term fiscal sustainability.

I agree. Good to see Labour strengthening the way fiscal policy is made building on the Conservative creation of the OBR.

We know he was very proud of you. My thoughts are with all your family.

And you need Ministers to help. I tried to change pay system for civil servants under various regimes but didn’t convince Ministers. Reform’s report emphasises this needs reform at both Ministerial and civil service level: reform government not just the civil service.

A serious report that looks at a much neglected area: the state of our democracy. This matters because the most successful countries- measured by how people view their own lives- are mostly strong democracies.The U.K. and US do badly on both measures.

A great opportunity to demonstrate how you could make a winning combination using the best players. Having just seen the wonderful Dear England let’s hope you achieve even more than Gareth.

Interesting debate on today prog about screenwriters guild strike over use of AI. I wish they had asked chatgpt to come up with a defence for its use.