Professor of Materials Physics and Innovation Policy at the University of Manchester. Nanotechnology, polymer physics, regional economic growth.
“In many sectors this is the way globalisation works: a small handful of companies are responsible for the world’s production of a single widget” Great piece on the detailed texture of globalisation:the world economy is even more interdependent than simple trade figures suggest.
A great piece on Oldham's economic problems, featuring @FrancisAlun & @AndyWWestwood. Quotes a resident: “We just haven’t got any money" - sounds obvious, but so many SE-based politicians & commentators don't appreciate just how poor towns like Oldham are.
"Nuclear takes too long to build", say its opponents. Great post from @_HannahRitchie looking at the data. "The median time to build a nuclear reactor was 6.3 years", but there's a long tail. But some countries (like the UK) have just got worse at building anything.
A v interesting & relevant article. "The scaled reshoring of advanced manufacturing, in short, provides a strong foundation for reducing spatial disparities that were largely precipitated by the offshoring of manufacturing in the first place"
A great piece from @AndyWWestwood on the growing international importance of place based industrial strategy, especially in USA through CHIPS act. Interests of national security & political stability now coinciding with economic imperatives. We need to get this right in UK.
A really interesting piece from @RianCFFWhitton asking the question why steelmaking in the UK has declined so much compared to other developed countries. It's not just inevitable decline of a sunset industry - the EU, Japan, Korea & USA remain large producers...
"What does it mean when you accidentally meet a target?" Great piece from @JoshMartin_econ on the effect of the big upward ONS revisions to business R&D stats. "The poor productivity performance of the UK remains, and measuring R&D differently doesn’t change that."
The UK faces economic & energy crises, public services are collapsing, & international environment dangerous & unstable. UK lacks state capacity to deal with this polycrisis. Good piece from @arisroussinos from a Conservative perspective: crucial issues, whatever one's politics.
