Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 29/05/2026Anticipating a weekend of sublime, transcendent beauty... 000 0
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 24/04/2026Can the next Scottish government revive the economy? Enjoyed recording this @uofgpolicy.bsky.social podcast with @graemeroy.bsky.social @davidwaite.bsky.social @kezdugdale.bsky.social and Prof Sara Carter open.spotify.com/episode/4iec... 093 9
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 13/03/2026Got the sleeper to London on Wednesday evening. Won't be in a hurry to repeat the experience... 000 0
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 07/03/2026Not been this excited over a new book for a long time 010 1
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 26/12/2025Boxing Day stroll up The Cobbler was quite glorious 0140 14
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 16/12/2025increase in employment very unevenly distributed across age-groups; prime age workers benefitting, younger and older (50-64) workers suffering 001 1
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 07/12/2025'us v them' framing in all its guises is utterly poisonous to social democracy and therefore should be avoided like the plague by anyone interested in progressing anything that vaguely looks like social democracy 0115 11
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 06/12/2025Scotland has, quite understandably, something of an obsession with the Nordics. But if we're going to learn from them, let's try to do it properly. My piece from Thursday's @heraldscotland.bsky.social business supplement 142 4
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 27/11/2025Been wearing this t-shirt for the last 15 years so it's nice to see the OBR (kinda) catch-up. Considering the productivity revision was of such importance to this budget the treatment of structural drivers/sectoral composition is worryingly flimsy. Not a single ref to Baumol in 60 pgs. Remarkable. 100 1
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 21/11/2025Scream it from the rooftops 🧵 on.ft.com/3XGBvuZ via @FT 152 5
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 05/11/2025Peak firework season seems like a good time to recall Baumol's advice that we worry too much about the rising relative costs of good things (health, social care) and not nearly enough about the declining relative costs of bad things (fireworks, guns, cars) 020 2
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 12/10/2025Standing room only for @ipprscotland.bsky.social SNP conference fringe on 'GB Energy and the acceleration of renewables in Scotland' with Stephen Flynn MP, Damien Zachlod, ENBW and Zoe Holiday, Community Energy Scotland and @davehawkey.bsky.social 054 5
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 24/07/2025Too misty for summit views on Beinn Eighe today but still... 090 9
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 04/07/2025My column from yesterday's Herald Business supplement. "It's difficult not to be critical of the Scottish government for the ever-diminishing purpose and clarity around economic policy in Scotland 021 2
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 13/05/2025'...Starter argued that "migration is part of Britain's national story and an essential element of a strong economy". He was right, even if his own rhetoric often fails to reflect this reality' My piece in today's @dailyrecord.co.uk.web.brid.gy responding to publication of the white paper 031 3
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 09/05/2025My piece from yesterday's @heraldscotland.bsky.social Business Supplement. Trump has provided an object lesson in bad economy policy-making. But it would pay not to get too smug about US failures... 010 1
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 03/05/2025Lovely clear morning on the top of Ben Ime 071 7
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 18/03/2025a bit better, but not much, for one-earner couples with 2 children 110 1
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 18/03/2025Your regular reminder that UK unemployment benefits in the first year of unemployment - and especially for single people - are very low. Source: Eurostat 121 2
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 07/03/2025My column from yesterday's @heraldscotland.bsky.social supplement. Wholly unacceptable that the UK's can't currently produce reliable labour market stats. Returning to pre-covid response rates might represent a significant improvement but the UK would still compare badly to other nations... 051 5
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 07/02/2025Should Scotland's 'vast number' of 'economic agencies' be 'reformed' out of existence? Nah. My column from yesterday's Herald Business HQ supplement 163 6
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 13/01/2025This one is think? On a train so difficult to get a good pic... 100 1
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 13/01/2025Re-reading this utterly essential book on the 10th anniversary of its publication. Incredibly frustrating that the 'welfare myth of them and us' has become even more deeply embedded during this period. 121 2
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 12/12/2024Can we revive manufacturing jobs? My piece from last week's Herald Business supplement 042 4
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 06/12/2024"the apparent rise since 2019 in the share of working-age Britons neither in work nor looking for a job is now thought to have been illusory" How much will the LFS's catastrophic deterioration end up costing us? Great work as always by @jburnmurdoch.bsky.social on.ft.com/41jY8II via @FT 050 5
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 05/12/2024Got a comment piece in the Herald's Business HQ supplement today. Will post link when it goes online 031 3
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 24/11/2024Say She She were predictably amazing at the Fruitmarket this evening 000 0
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 14/11/2024From slides presented by Ailsa Henderson to this seminar. I'm assuming source is the Scottish Election Study 120 2
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 14/11/2024From Ailsa Henderson's excellent presentation at today's seminar 010 1
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 14/11/2024Apparently English people are much angrier about politics than Scottish people 4112 11
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 14/11/2024From the new edition of @andy-wightman.bsky.social 's essential The Poor Had No Lawyers. Here's Andy on why he came to believe that "such claims are by and large true" 011 1
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 14/11/2024Start the day with a Tom Johnston quote! 2156 15
Stephen Boyd @stephenboydippr.bsky.social · 11/09/2024At a Parliament Comm yesterday the ubiquitous view that public services are simply unaffordable in the long run was again stated with absolute certainty. Here, Baumol relates an exchange with Joan Robinson which gets to the nub of why the serious people are, once again wrong 271 7
