Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 24/09/2026Is this tram content? Bus content? Leeds content? Which of my famed monomanias was on Wordle I wonder. Intriguing. 100
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 23/09/2026It's looking increasingly dangerous to be 5 to 8 pints in The Sportsman and The King's Head in Huddersfield on a mid-afternoon when it's a bit quiet at work for me. 110
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 18/09/2026I've been asking after that for six years as have many others. It's a long story and after five years I just gave up and started collecting my own. Which is now used by people in UK gov including some within DfT. 110
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 18/09/2026But we've only got 15 months. And due to a cat-related incident, a computer overheating incident (fan blocked), and a URL change incident, we have some gaps. I'd love to fill in the gaps, and go back more in time. But it would need someone to give me their data. I'll host it. 121
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 18/09/2026The data is used by dozens of surprisingly big organisations. Universities, big transport consultancies, bus companies, local government,... somewhat amusingly central government too, even though they should have their own archive. Because it's completely open. 110
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 18/09/202615 months ago, I started building an archive of the UK government's Bus Open Data Service status updates. The locations of every bus in Great Britain every minute. It's gone well, but there are a few gaps. Do you have the data that could fill them in? data.datalibrary.uk/transport/BO... 241
Reposted by Tom ForthJim Waterson @jim.londoncentric.media · 11/09/2026Has Andy Burnham made a public statement on the mackerel swap-out scandal yet? 2516
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 31/08/2026I don't think investment is banned by default in the UK. It is banned by default in the rich parts of the UK, as it is in California and Massachusetts in the USA. The USA as a whole does great by the centre just not massively worrying about those places and letting Texas and Georgia win instead. 000
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 31/08/2026The Chinese central government is deeply concerned about how much many of its local governments are getting embroiled in data centre build out. Supporting too much, subsidising too much. If anything the Chinese central government wants to slow down and local government refuses to listen. 100
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 31/08/2026"At a minimum, plans for data centres and energy infrastructure should be rapidly called-in by the government and even more rapidly approved." > No. China and the USA are not beating us because their national government stepped in. Actually it's more the opposite! 110
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 31/08/2026I want more located domestically too. Yes. Absolutely. Putting even more power in the hands of the national government to achieve that seems a terrible way to do that. 120
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 31/08/2026You want to nationalise the means of producing them -- the planning system -- which is what I wrote I think. 120
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 31/08/2026I read this. It was fun. I could not have disagreed more strongly. Nationalising the means of production of data centres is a path to madness. China and the USA are beating us by taking the precise opposite approach. We must learn from them, not our unimpressive Covid response. 130
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 25/08/2026There's plenty of poverty in Milan mate. You can't just lump "the North" together like that. It's a really a Milan vs. The rest of Italy thing. Have you considered the 19th century migration patterns? Once you adjust for housing costs and savings rates though mate. 050
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 25/08/2026I wonder if when Southern Italian economists tweet this map they get dozens of replies saying "try telling that to someone in Genoa mate!". 350
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 22/08/2026Yes. Work is partly being done out of Darlington and I went up there for a couple of hours to chat with that part of the team. Good people asking good questions. My feeling was the pro-open side need to make their economic case better and I was happy to help do exactly that. 130
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 21/08/2026Yes. Moving schools from local control to central control counts as shifting employment from local government to central government. 010
Reposted by Tom ForthAlex Selby-Boothroyd @alexselbyb.bsky.social · 21/08/2026What's the opposite of nominative determinism? www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna8294216nbcnews.comPhilippines’ Cardinal Sin dies at 76Cardinal Jaime Sin, the Roman Catholic cleric who helped lead revolts that ousted two Philippine presidents, died early Tuesday. He was 76. 2276
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 21/08/2026Yes. I am very careful to tackle civil service growth and centralisation on London, especially in its senior ranks, later in the thread. 020
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 21/08/2026The buttons won't round themselves. Nor will the divs stay centred without supervision. 100
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 21/08/2026I know, for a now hear it a lot, that many people consider this to be "anti-Southern". And I don't disagree. Because I have long claimed that the patterns I've just shown in the other direction were anti-Northern. I hope people are consistent on this. And consider the relative scales. 040
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 21/08/2026This is the context into which Andy Burnham and his team at Number 10 North are talking about diverting significant resources out of the the civil service. www.politico.eu/article/burn...politico.euBurnham will divert ‘significant’ resources out of civil service, says No. 10 North chiefCaroline Simpson, the No. 10 deputy chief of staff, tells POLITICO England remains “one of the most centralized countries in the Western Hemisphere.” 110
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 21/08/2026As @instituteforgovernment.org.uk show very well, Civil Servant numbers have grown fastest in London and the majority of the Senior Civil Service remain based in London. www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/... 110
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 21/08/2026Some people may take comfort that the central government has itself substantially decentralised,... ,... right? Alas, no. 110
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 21/08/2026As a percentage of total employment, since 1948 when the data starts, Central government employment is today the highest on record. Local government employment is today the lowest on record. Some context for Andy Burnham's promise to try and reverse this trend. 62017
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 21/08/2026The crossover happened in the 2024 data, but I didn't want to share it in case there were revisions. But now that I've checked in the 2025 data, I can be sure it's real. 101
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 07/08/2026You won't like being told it. But you didn't do the cope you're claiming now. You were a rude prick. 000
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 07/08/2026Calling a named person "utterly fucking demented" whole you are anonymous only makes one person look demented. And it's not Sam. Surely you see that. 200
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 07/08/2026There is a certain honesty and transparency to you putting Daft in your bio that I respect. 100
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 07/08/2026I look forward to it. I feel like the UK problems are much deeper than the left behind by globalisation part though. The chart on graduate premiums declining in @jburnmurdoch.ft.com is something other than that. 130
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 07/08/2026So perhaps the MBacc existing only in the imaginations of people is okay. 100
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 07/08/2026Perhaps worth noting that I have no idea what a T-level is. But I was at the MBacc launch event and would have signed up my business there and then were I in Greater Manchester. I would be signing up to the mythical MBacc brand, not a T-level. Never a T-level. 200
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 07/08/2026For my further thoughts on skills and growth with fewer spelling and grammar mistakes (hopefully). I offer these two pieces. tomforth.co.uk/humancapital/ tomforth.co.uk/graduateprem...tomforth.co.ukBritish Growth and the Graduate PremiumBritain's economic problems will not be solved by more graduates. 250
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 07/08/2026"education, education, education,… because nothing matters more to the future prosperity of the country" said Tony Blair. We did the education. We did not get the prosperity. Without a good story for why, people (including me), will want the right to take other paths that led to more prosperity. 2100
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 07/08/2026We have great PISA scores, including great metrics for social mobility, diversity, and immigrant performance. It's a great story. But we were told that a great skills story would lead to great economic performance, and that certainly didn't happen. And the skills-incumbents need a story for why. 190
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 07/08/2026The thing that keep me on Andy Burnham's side (certainly not without criticism) on this is that I don't see of an understanding of where the last three decades of education reform in England have performed poorly. There's just so much celebration. But the picture is much less good for very many. 170
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 07/08/2026That's part of the messy part about building local coalitions of responsibility and accountability and agency that ultimately get me as a business offering places for people from non-academic routes. And get local people providing the colleges and courses. And kids choosing them. It's messy. 160
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 07/08/2026People like me who are big supporters of devolution should be honest about the drawbacks. If UTCs have a bad record,... but the trustworthy people who put the hard work in to non-academic education in Leeds mostly supported UTCs,... then I as a devolutionist back UTCs in Leeds. Even if it's wrong. 150
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 07/08/2026I am an employer. We have had good apprentices before. It works if the system is pretty stable, and there is a person at the local council or combined authority and at the relevant local colleges to guide you through it and that is so eroded now we just can't make it work. Which is a shame. 1171
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 07/08/2026I admit to signing up and paying the £4.50 just to annoy myself before going to the pub. But I ended up agreeing with a lot of this. Certainly I agree that a big problem is employers and that devolution is the best way to fix this. 6526
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 31/07/2026I don't think I can drink enough to enjoy drum and bass any more. 110
Reposted by Tom ForthSam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 31/07/2026The funeral for irony will be held next week. 1863783
Tom Forth @tomforth.co.uk · 29/07/2026Got you, yes. In pure distance, I agree with you. But to me it's just "moving to the nearest big city" and on that I think we're the same. 000
