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Nick Gray

@path-dependent.bsky.social
3.2K followers 1.5K following 2.7K posts

Political economy & place‑based policy Fellow of things at Teesside University That's not Teesside in the banner photo research.tees.ac.uk/en/persons/nich…

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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 7h
How is it that intelligent people still circulate this stuff as common sense? How do they explain all the other countries who pay more tax than we do but haven't experienced total economic collapse?
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 10h
Backing for the theory that some people will say anything in opinion polls. More than one in ten people think the police and armed forces should be privatised?
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 22h
A repeated dad anecdote: My family started the seventies in crap private rented, later bought the small house I was born in, got a regeneration grant to put a bathroom in, then by the end of the decade had moved into a nicer house on a nicer street along the road. All on one wage from the same job.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“Chips and gravy”. Some people are struggling with the idea of becoming middle class through education, the combination of middle class cultural traits with regional accents, or the idea that someone might authentically retain elements of a working class upbringing.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
So - as I understand it - a conservative government would find savings in the 'welfare' bill to fund defence and now also adult social care. Anything else? I'm sure there's still plenty.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I like Spaced, which isn't on the list But mostly because I'm that age, lived in London N4 at that time, and it's almost like a documentary.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
A minor point... About 80% of the price of a packet of (legitimatly purchased) cigarettes goes back to 'the taxpayer' in duty and VAT. For tabs bought from a bloke in the Dog and Duck public house, approximatly zero tax is paid. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Tories would prevent long-term jobless spending benefits on alcohol and cigarettes
The proposals would also see benefits cut for people who are able to work but have failed to hold down a job.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I think this was likely to happen under any political leadership but Reform entered town halls around the country on a wave of disillusionment (or even rage) with local government and a big offer to root out supposed endemic waste and corruption. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
South Tyneside Council nursery closures decision 'devastating'
Councillors confirm that all 10 Stanley's nurseries in South Tyneside will close by July 2027.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The Tories are floating a new way to be mean today I'm sure this time it will work.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Someone floats a vaguely populist idea about allowing alcohol at football matches and X responds despairingly as if this is Burnham's primary focus in government.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
For all the bowling brilliance, I was at Headingley on the Sunday in 2023 and it's Wood's swashbuckling six at the death that sticks in my mind (and some blokes near us in Newcastle shirts singing 'Howay the lads' in response). www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricke...
bbc.co.uk
Mark Wood: England fast bowler announces international retirement
England fast bowler Mark Wood announces his retirement from international cricket with immediate effect.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
[chef's kiss]
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
If it's out of a small tumbler rather than a wine glass, and I'm cooking, does it bypass my new self imposed 'no alcohol on a Sunday' rule?
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Seeing Conservative MPs raging at cuts to local government funding is melting my brain.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Anyone have any answers to Dom's question?
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
‘Unfair’, ‘outrageous’, ‘cruel’… still hundreds of pounds less than in Middlesborough www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Wandsworth council tax bills could almost double
The council says it will have to raise council tax significantly unless the government rethinks cuts.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Look at me sneering at the stout labouring folk of Piddington from the comfort of my liberal elite Gateshead enclave.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Durham county council is teetering on the edge of no overall control after more Reform UK resignations.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I'm firmly middle aged now and we've been reforming 'welfare' for my entire adult life. Come to think of it, I was welfare reformed as a teenager.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Great to see the Guardian getting stuck in as well. www.theguardian.com/education/20...
theguardian.com
Revealed: the university courses students regret – and those they don’t
We looked at graduates’ satisfaction levels after leaving university – and while most were happy, up to a third wish they’d picked a different subject
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
A quiet shit angle on English devolution from the UK's self styled leading progressive voice. www.theguardian.com/business/202...
theguardian.com
Ministers face backlash from hospitality industry over ‘tourist tax’ plans
Many mayors welcome power to impose tourist tax but industry warns of ‘irreparable harm’ and job losses
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Haarlem. How do any of these businesses survive in the face of the disgraceful lack of parking?
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
The UK in two headlines.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Is the pause in local government reform in part people in central government deciding, “Our priority is MSA and regional growth. We have finite time, capacity and political capital, let’s not spend it on fighting with councils that don’t want change?”
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
It's bizarre that so many X accounts appear to sincerely believe that, in standing against the much loved RNLI and with masked men dressed in a paramilitary style, they're on the side of public opinion. Are they mostly bots and unserious trolls?
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Channel four news essentially just spent 10 minutes airing the views of your Facebook uncle.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
If I say Alice Weidel has an air of Bond villain about her will I be veering into cultural stereotypes?
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I'm not sure it's helpful to draw equivalence between a bunch of middle aged hippies and a bunch of masked men in paramilitary get up, on the basis that they are both blocking the road. I don't think you have to agree with the middle aged hippies to see that.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Good to see the BBC leading a bond market story with the views of completely independent commentator Rupert Harrison.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
"If the AfD manages to form a government in Saxony-Anhalt, Siegmund has promised to immediately start a remigration and deportation offensive" Maybe betraying my ignorance but surely migration policy is federal? www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
Far-right AfD wins key German state election but may fail to secure majority
Exit poll shows Alternative für Deutschland on 44.4% of vote in Saxony-Anhalt after huge turnout, with votes still being counted
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Whatever problems Saxony-Anhalt has, it's certainly not full.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Probably unlikely but looking from the outside there's a tension between Reform's net-zero scepticism at the national level and the type of local economy that Cambell is working to support and grow. inews.co.uk/news/politic...
inews.co.uk
The Reform mayor who is tipped to defect to Labour
Luke Campbell is said to be on defection watch, but denies any intention of quitting Reform
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
These weekend "Reform pledge to simply..." headlines on the BBC website are getting almost funny tbh.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I've been idly thinking about James Orr's specialist knowledge and wondering if there's an ethical justification for what he appears to have been offering to do. To me he appears to be in check mate. Any moral philosophers out there?
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Reposted by Nick Gray
Leigh Jones @leighsus.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
A real test now of the media's appetite for Cambridge professors and their ethics.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Perpetual welfare reform.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I'd like a Venn diagram of: “People who seemed reasonably keen on levelling up” and “people who think Burham’s line on regional policy is nonsense and we simply need to roll back the state and slash taxes”
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Not only is "fifty ways to save" still online, it's up there without the "this was published under a different government, nowt to do with us mate" disclaimer that's generally plastered on everything - even the decent stuff. Hope it's an oversight. www.gov.uk/government/p...
gov.uk
50 ways to save: examples of sensible savings in local government
Practical tips and guidance for councils.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Crown sourcing the budget? I mean, OK... kind of... but who is going to read and collate the responses? Shades of the 2015 Public Sector Efficiency Challenge which I think got 22000 responses, most of which were, like, "do things better".
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Get the long term unemployed to staff prisons in return for their benefits. Hashtag two birds with one stone. If anyone from a populist party is reading this, you can have that one for free.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
This is doing the rounds on X. , I'm not getting into the 2000 vs 2026 thing, but it did strike me that nobody who has got inovled in the "good old days vs now" debate is sharing Reading line-ups from the 1980s. (pre-89)
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Durham and Gloucestershire closing for bad light last night and everyone coming back this morning to wrap it up within two minutes is the latest 'most cricket thing'.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
It's an extremely sad state of affairs when someone like Will decides he's had enough. Hope it's temporary.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
North east England's football bantz heuristic has actually happened.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Viewpoint diversity vs the bluesky echo chamber: latest.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
'empty cycle lanes' hotline www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Reform proposes £30 tax rebate for HMRC phone delays
People on hold to HMRC for more than 30 minutes would get a tax credit under plans announced by Robert Jenrick.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
On X they are worrying about ‘activist’ academics. Pulling it way back in time, do these people think enlightenment thinkers were working in a neutral, a-political vacuum? Like, Locke? Of course, you need to be aware of and reflect on your own values and assumptions.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
If AI does destroy all jobs and put us all on the dole, does it mean the median voter will be sitting up until 4 AM watching Ken Russel films, the magic roundabout, and peruvian league football? Bring back ITV Job finder with the same easy listening music but no jobs?
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
The famously footloose defence industry. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Sunderland City Council leader backs defence enterprise zone idea
The zones could allow defence firms to take advantage of tax-breaks, says the Adam Smith Institute.
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Anyway, you do all realise that people will be screen grabbing today's posts to have "they are losing their minds on bluesky over the lanyard class" lolz. I share the blame.
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