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Bryn Davies

@daviesofbrixton.bsky.social
339 followers 109 following 262 posts

Trade union actuary; currently a Labour Party member of the House of Lords

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Reposted by Bryn Davies
Inside Croydon @insidecroydon.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
EXCLUSIVE: Inside Croydon goes in search of the 'real' Andy Burnham insidecroydon.com/2026/10/01/i... #Croydon #Labour #Burnham @adambienkov.bsky.social @left-foot-forward.bsky.social
insidecroydon.com
Inside Croydon goes in search of the ‘real’ Andy Burnham
ANDREW FISHER has spent the week at the Labour Party Annual Conference in Liverpool, where the new Prime Minister continued to confound political editors and expert pundits A Blairite, a Brownite a…
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Reposted by Bryn Davies
Henry Tapper @henrytapper.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The best advertisement for social care and pensions we've had this year henrytapper.com/2026/10/01/t... This is great. Excellent to have someone like Yvette Cooper on board.
henrytapper.com
The best advertisement for social care and pensions we’ve had this year
This is great.  Excellent to have someone like Yvette Cooper on board.
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
@morganvine.bsky.social gets it spot on. The real debate now is what is the right level for the State Pension. It should not be based just on what it happens to be in 2030.
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
This is getting bonkers! The idea that social care could be funded by scrapping the triple-lock makes no sense. We simply don’t know what abolition would save, if anything at all, apart from some speculative figures from the OBR. We do know that a social care service will be expensive.
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Speculation in the FT about abolition of the triple-lock. What it doesn’t say is that the main political problem faced by arguments for abolishing the triple lock is that it doesn’t save any money over the period up to the next election.
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Reposted by Bryn Davies
Torsten Bell @torstenbell.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
So much of the right these days have a massive patriotism problem. This guy: - is a tax exile (left long before this govt) - hates his own country while complaining he doesn’t get big enough subsidies from it - laments the manufacturing hit from a Brexit he supported www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Billionaire Manchester United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe says he has lost confidence in UK
Ineos founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe tells the BBC he thinks the country is "on the slide" and calls for more investment in the North Sea.
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
edconway.substack.com/p/the-30000-...
edconway.substack.com
The 30,000-mile fish finger
There’s a good chance the cod on your child’s plate has been around the world and back. Not that you’d learn any of that from the label...
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Okay. Rephrase my question. For me the question to ask about John Healey as CEx is would he have spotted the political bear-trap posed by the Winter Fuel Payment? More broadly, have the welfare hawks learnt any lessons?
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Reposted by Bryn Davies
laperry2.bsky.social @laperry2.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
www.worseonpurpose.com/p/your-cookw...
worseonpurpose.com
Your Cookware Got Worse On Purpose
One buyout firm quietly collected Pyrex, Corelle, Instant Pot, and Oneida. Farberware is a name on a 200-year lease. And the pans still worth buying.
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
For me the question to ask about Shabana Mahmood as potential CEx is would she have spotted the political bear-trap posed by the Winter Fuel Payment? More broadly, have the welfare hawks learnt any lessons?
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Reposted by Bryn Davies
Tom Powdrill @tompowdrill.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Spent a lot of time recently looking at pensions of relatively modest earners in quite economically important sectors. Loads on auto-enrolment minimum contributions or close to it. The state pension is going to be a (the?) major chunk of their income. The attacks on it on so wrong-headed.
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Am I the first to coin the term Burhamsplaining? The desire by commentators to tell someone who has accomplished the most stunning political coup of recent times how he is still getting it wrong.
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
I hold no brief for Hunter Biden but his conclusions from the NY Democratic primaries are worth reading with relevance to the UK.
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
You know you have a problem when they have to extend the scale.
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Three economists with no connection with the Labour movement urge Andy Burnham to repeat the Winter Fuel Payment disaster. www.thetimes.com/article/98cb...
thetimes.com
Andy Burnham’s advisers back scrapping pension triple lock
A group of leading economists working on potential policies believe it’s a ‘no-brainer’ to abandon the pledge and replace it with a more affordable alternative
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Reposted by Bryn Davies
Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Devoured by private equity. Bernard Matthews Body Shop Byron Burger Casual Dining Cath Kidson Claire’s Comet Debenhams Flybe Four Seasons Health Care Homebase Maplin Thousands of jobs lost, supply chains destroyed, creditors not paid, pension rights lost, taxes dodged. Yet govts venerate PE.
leftfootforward.org
The finance curse is devouring the UK
Prem Sikka is an Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the University of Essex and the University of Sheffield, a Labour member of the House of Lords, and Contributing Editor at Left Foot Forward. Th...
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Reposted by Bryn Davies
Andrew Fisher @fisherandrew79.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
🧵 With a leadership contest apparently imminent, it got me thinking about the first Labour leadership campaign I worked on … No, not Jeremy Corbyn in 2015, but nine years earlier – the John4Leader campaign, which began in 2006 shortly after Blair had set a timetable for his departure ... 1/n
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Reposted by Bryn Davies
Ken Penton @kenpenton.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Prima facie evidence of why Trump had to file for bankruptcy four times whilst running a casino…
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
yes!
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Feeling aggrieved at having to wait five minutes for a train at Brixton tube station.
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
I’m receiving lots of posts on my timeline about both Traitors and Greenland. It’s difficult, initially at least, to know which is which.
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Reposted by Bryn Davies
Stuart McDonald @actuarybyday.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
The problem with a seasonal epidemic is that it's way too easy to write a sexy "flu numbers twice as bad as last year" headline, which is true but misleading, when you ought to be writing a "flu arrives a little earlier than last year" headline.
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
Good news for the supporters of CDC pensions with the nomination of David Pitt-Watson to the House of Lords. David has been one of the most active proponents of CDC and chair of the www.thersa.org/projects/col...
thersa.org
Collective Defined Contribution Pensions Forum
Read about the RSA's CDC Pensions Forum which supports the policy implementation and regulation of CDC pension schemes.
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Reposted by Bryn Davies
Prospect Pension @prospectpension.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
Very good report about joint Prospect and FDA letter to civil service pension scheme manager about closing the unacceptable gender pension gap in that scheme: www.civilserviceworld.com/news/article...
civilserviceworld.com
Unions call for action on civil service ‘gender pension gap’
Ministers urged to adopt best practice from elsewhere in the public sector to drive Civil Service Pension Scheme reform
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Big news. Report stage of Pension Schemes Bill, the Minister announces, in response to the “Byrne amendment” they will introduce legislation on how trustees should allow for structural factors such as climate risk and members’ standards of living when they are making investment decisions.
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
The announcement that the GLA will use the GLC coat of arms is great news, recognising the continuity of London local government and the importance of the GLC and its achievements. See www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/the...
ianvisits.co.uk
The King grants the Mayor of London permission to use the GLC’s historic coat of arms
The King has commanded that the Greater London Authority (GLA) shall be allowed to use the coat of arms that once belonged to its predecessor, the GLC.
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Reposted by Bryn Davies
Philip Stephens @philipstephens.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
Resolution Foundation does some great, informative stuff on policy/politics. Really welcome antidote to the breathless obsession of most of Westminster village with who-said-whattery-when and meaningless opinion poll speculation about the next election. @resolutionfoundation.org
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
The FT reports that the Chancellor said the government would make sure those only receiving the basic or new state pension “do not have to pay small amounts of tax through Simple Assessment from April 2027”. Easily said but harder to deliver. The problem is with the word “only”. 1/3
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
The problem posed by frozen tax thresholds being overtaken by index linked state pensions is to be tackled by the government via “Simple Assessment” from 2027-28 onwards. It will be “exploring the best way to achieve this”.
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Strong welcome for indexation of pre-97 accrued benefits in PPF and FAS. Puts more pressure on other DB schemes to do likewise, with amendments to Pension Schemes Bill.
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Reposted by Bryn Davies
Resolution Foundation @resolutionfoundation.org · 25/11/2025
Is welfare spending ''out of control''? Total welfare spending in Britain in 2025-26 is estimated to be 10.8 per cent of GDP. That's just 0.8 per cent of GDP higher than in 2007-08, and total welfare spending has actually fallen fallen by 1.2 per cent of GDP since 2012-13⤵️ buff.ly/s5mz97u
The chart shows where spending on social security is shown as a share of GDP. As this makes plain, total welfare spending in Britain in 2025-26 is estimated to be 10.8 per cent of GDP. This is 0.8 per cent of GDP higher than it stood on the eve of the global financial crisis in 2007-08. But since 2012-13 (the peak in the post-GFC recession), total welfare spending has fallen by 1.2 per cent of GDP. Added to this, welfare spending is expected to rise by just 0.1 per cent of GDP across the forecast period until 2029-30 (after U-turns and before any decisions made at the Budget).
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
I broadly support a cut in salary sacrifice for pension contributions. It’s never really made much sense. But it should be recognised that the loss of employers’ NI relief will be another problem for university finances, which are already rumoured to be facing a tough Budget.
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Reposted by Bryn Davies
Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
I am grateful for @adamjkucharski.bsky.social. He takes such care to deconstruct a claim made by the director of National Institutes of Health on excess mortality during the pandemic. We need sober analyses more than ever right now, even amidst the madness. kucharski.substack.com/p/excess-mor...
kucharski.substack.com
Excess mortality or excessive assumptions?
How to make a popular metric tell any story you like
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
It’s worth remembering that Labour received 560,335 fewer votes in GE 2024 compared to GE 2019. 
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Ministerial statement “Pensions Update” on House of Commons Order Paper today. It’s been suggested that it’s about the PHSO report on 50’s women, but no sign of it yet.
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
A good example of where we have to find good journalism these days manchestermill.co.uk/the-men-who-...
manchestermill.co.uk
The men who raised the flags
Nigel Farage says this summer’s movement was led by ‘ordinary people’ expressing their patriotism. That’s not what we found
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Reposted by Bryn Davies
Dean Baker @deanbaker13.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
The New York Times continues the decades-old effort to divert anger against the rich into generational conflict. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/o... Insofar as young people have it hard today, it is because we rigged the economy to give the rich all the money, not because of baby boomers.
nytimes.com
Opinion | Thanks a Lot, Boomers
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Reposted by Bryn Davies
Chris Giles @chrisgiles.ft.com · 15/10/2025
There is no need for a moral panic about the UK's welfare system. Far from perfect but recent discourse is nuts Spending is controlled, not spiralling Worklessness is near record lows My column www.ft.com/content/ee67...
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Money and Mental Health @moneyandmentalhealth.org · 29/09/2025
Money and mental health problems can trap people in a vicious cycle. Financial pressure harms wellbeing, and poor mental health makes earning and managing money harder. It’s common – but not inevitable. 💜 We’re working for fairer systems and practical support to break this vicious cycle.
Graphic representing the cycle of money and mental health problems. Four rectangles connected to each other in a loop, saying: “Mental health problems → Mental health problems make it harder to earn, manage money and spending, and to ask for help → Financial difficulty → Financial difficulty causes stress and anxiety, made worse by collections activity or going without essentials.”
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
Most welcome news that @johnmcdonnellmp.bsky.social and Apsana Begum MP have had the Labour whip restored. Let’s hope the olive branch is extended all the others who have had the whip removed for voting with their conscience.
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Next year’s increase in the Basic State Pension and the New State Pension increase is nothing to do with the triple-lock. The increase is in line with average earnings, as required by law. It would be the same, with or without the triple-lock.
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Reposted by Bryn Davies
Prospect Union @prospectunion.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
Sign our petition calling on government to end the gender pension gap for public sector women ✍️
megaphone.org.uk
End the Gender Pension Gap for public sector women
This will make a real difference to millions of women and shows what can be done when pension schemes take this issue seriously.  We are calling on all other public sector pension schemes- coveri...
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Prospect Union @prospectunion.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
🚨 Prospect research reveals women lose out on £7,600 a year in retirement. A 36.5% gender pension gap – that's double the gender pay gap. This inequality is unacceptable. Government must take real action now to close the gap.
theguardian.com
Gender gap means retired women ‘have four months a year with no pension’
Income inequality means women in effect stop receiving a pension from 21 August, union leaders say
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
Still looking forward.
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
So what happened to the second stage pensions review on adequacy? Despite clear hints that it was all ready to go and that we would find out on the 15th, nothing. Has someone lost their nerve?
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Money and Mental Health @moneyandmentalhealth.org · 30/06/2025
We have now published in full our response to the government’s ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working’ Green Paper. You can read it in full here 👇 🔗 www.moneyandmentalhealth.org/policybriefi...
This consultation is premised upon the government’s proposed reforms to the welfare system, which we strongly oppose. While reforms are required to better support the needs of people with mental health problems, reducing access to PIP, whether for current or future claimants, will cause significant harm that cannot be mitigated without enormous and complex changes.
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
La Nonna menu,
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
Read the roadmap but watch out for the potholes! www.gov.uk/government/p... Workplace pensions: a roadmap - GOV.UK
gov.uk
Workplace pensions: a roadmap
A roadmap setting out the government’s provisional plan to implement reforms across Defined Contribution and Defined Benefit workplace pensions.
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Bryn Davies @daviesofbrixton.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
A Pensions Bill to “Make provision about pension schemes; and for connected purposes”. 104 pages; 102 clauses and one schedule. Let’s hear ideas of what more should be included to make pensions better.
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