In The Last 25 Years France Has Built More Miles Of Motorway (Highways) Than The Entire UK Motorway Network brilliantmaps.com/france-motorwa… From the must read: Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated report by Ben Southwood, Sam Bowman and Samuel Hughes

Yes, and watermelon (which tastes just like cucumber)

If you thought Heathrow's third runway debate symbolised everything wrong with Britain's infrastructure policy, wait till you hear about Gatwick... Gatwick has had two runways since 1979. However, due to its very British planning agreement, it is only allowed to use one. 🧵

My review of "Why Nothing Works" by Marc J. Dunkelman (cc: Charlie Anderson). goodreads.com/review/show/71…

I sat down with regulation supremo John Fingleton to discuss how to make a success of the Regulatory Innovation Office. There’s lots of food for thought for Former Science Minister Lord Willetts, who joins as its first Chair today… 🧵

In March of 2020, the @PYMNTS Intelligence team began to benchmark the paycheck-to-paycheck status of Americans as part of our monthly consumer studies related to COVID, the digital shift and how people spent and saved their money. 5 years later, 67% of Americans consumers live

I am a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission. The president just illegally fired me. This is corruption plain and simple. My full statement:

💫 We’re launching the Centre for British Progress Our founding essay: Rediscovering British Progress is a case for growth that drives shared progress, rooted in Britain's values and industrial heritage. It all starts with a postcard from 1870 👇 britishprogress.org/articles/redis…

This is the Queen's Stepwell in Gujarat, India, built nearly 1,000 years ago. It's incredible, but it isn't unique — India is filled with hundreds of stepwells just like it. Here is the story of the world's most extraordinary underground architecture...

New research out from me today: why has Britain experienced so little productivity growth in recent years? And why (at least up until now) has the US has performed so much better? Spoiler: it’s not just tech companies and energy prices 🧵

I am very pleased to be taking on this role at this critical time for the UK economy. gov.uk/government/new…

And work has already begun with my first induction meetings yesterday.

So... the digital world has nearly eliminated friction (ChatGPT writes essays, Meta's AI plays your friend). The physical world drowns in it (Newark airport, infrastructure crumbles). And for those who can afford it, friction becomes an optional aesthetic choice (West Village

We were delighted to host John Fingleton, Nuclear Regulator Taskforce lead and colleagues to our site. The visitors heard how regulation of decommissioning nuclear sites in the UK, including Sellafield, is a large part of existing nuclear regulatory activity. #sellafield

Deport Dishwashers or Solve All Murders? marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolu…

What’s Ireland’s biggest development problem? We can build houses – at a small scale. But what we really struggle with is new neighbourhoods – with transport, parks, jobs, and homes. Our new Progress Ireland paper, on land readjustment, shows how we can do this:

Every year for the last 40 years, France has built more homes per person than England. If England built at French levels, it would have almost 3 million more homes. French homes are, on average, a fifth bigger that English homes.

I despair for the UK. No country has better fundamentals to profit from the current global mess, so why is Oxbridge not a rival to Silicon Valley? Every one of its problems—from Heathrow to housing, from small boats to the deficit, from the NHS to the explosion in welfare—is

Mission‑driven government needs more than ambition:  we must rewrite the rules of the game. Today for @britishprogress, Pedro Serôdio and I show how mechanism design (‘ reverse game theory’) can help the Government shape markets, crowd in investment and deliver radical reform.

An important element of the new Economic and Social Research Council strategy we are working on is to make the promotion of economic growth an explicit goal of our work. I've written a short piece about why we're doing this, and what that might involve.