I am pleased to see the government response to Task Force on Nuclear Regulation. First, it has been published on time which sends a positive signal about priorities. Second, the detailed and considered response shows that the Government is serious about reform. Third, almost every recommendation is to be taken forward fully. All of this should help bring about a substantial reduction in cost and delivery schedules for new nuclear. This should spur greater confidence for investors in nuclear in the UK. A few recommendations will be taken forward in a different way that in our report, as we envisaged. The role of the Implementation structure will be critical in continuing to ensure that this is prioritised.

Even if one disagrees partly with the choices of economist, this is a brilliant introduction to price theory. it shows how AI can be used in education

How are prices determined? While I slept, Claude made me "History of economic thought since Aristotle." I asked it to use my favourite textbook (Blaug, Economic Theory in retrospect). The result will astonish of you. Even top economists here will learn something, I promise.

Don’t get ‘locked in’ by EU rules, top nuclear adviser warns Burnham politico.eu/article/eu-rules…

“There’s a huge opportunity for countries with a renaissance in nuclear.” John Fingleton CBE, Executive Chair, Fingleton, shares advice for existing nuclear countries looking to kick-start growth. #NuclearEnergy #NuclearSympo #Symposium2026

We have just finished the inaugural meeting of the Rhine Group. We discussed the central elements of Europe's competitiveness agenda, including basic science, AI/compute and cybersecurity, defense, energy, entrepreneurship/start-ups. I will be updating you on any progress we may have. Some of the projects we will pursue include: - We'll help Europe catch up on compute (Mario Draghi diagnosed the problem and some solutions in a recent FT piece) - We’ll help European universities and scientific institutions and explore a Rhine Chair program with European universities. - We’ll work on some key EU policy challenges, including facilitating the flow of capital to entrepreneurs. - We will set up a grants program that I will explain and announce here.

This video about the "genius design" of the Madrid Metro needs to be seen by every Dubliner who wants a cheap, fast and affordable Metro in our city. Just bring in the Spaniards and let them do it. piped.video/watch?v=utt-KnIM…

Yes yes, of course the hospitality lobby says the tourist tax will hammer tourism. Of course they've come up with huge, scary numbers (which we can't verify). But the thing is, they're right. The tax *will* reduce tourism. The question is: how much? So we tried to find out:

If you've never read this oral history of Air Force One, POTUS, and the people with him on 9/11, it's incredible: politico.com/magazine/story/…

Microsoft Teams is one of the purest examples in tech of distribution beating product quality. Teams is a piece-of-shit product that's better distributed than Zoom -- bundled into the enterprise stack and already sitting in front of millions of users. What's another product this mediocre with distribution this good?

And here's a table assessing all the recent tax cut proposals by their "bang for the buck": the £ of additional GDP we'll get for each £ deployed as a tax cut. Pretty depressing that the tax cuts that get the most airtime are also the worst at driving growth.

Last night we hosted Abundance: Building the UK Energy System at our new office - an evening of conversations with the people who shape policy, on the challenges that will define UK energy over the next decade. We were honest about the problems. Energy costs are too high. Demand is about to surge as AI and electrification take off. And growth is slow because Britain can't build fast enough: grid connections take years, planning decisions drift past their deadlines, and plug-in batteries that could cut household bills sit behind a safety study, with rules not expected before 2028. But the message of the evening was optimism. Every one of these barriers is fixable - and we're ready to work with government to get it done. We especially want to thank @KanishkaNarayan, Minister for AI; @ClaireCoutinho, former Shadow Energy Secretary; @JohnFingleton1 CBE; @Jameswise (Balderton Capital); and @HarryStebbings (20VC) for joining our founders @alanchanguk (CEO) and @charlesorr (COO) on stage. Thank you to everyone who joined us. The problems are known. The fixes are on the table. Now we build.

Dynastic bias for academic economists is higher than for lawyers and doctors but much much smaller than for US politicians. academic.oup.com/restud/arti…

Tariff confusion | CEPR By Kalina Manova, Dennis Novy, Thomas Sampson, Aaron Tang cepr.org/voxeu/columns/tarif…

We should tackle the greatest harm first and be practical about results First, it is food delivery and other bikes that have had the speed limiter removed that are the greatest danger. These don't just run red lights, but go up one way streets, and pavements. As long as the law is not enforced against them, how can we expect other users to take it seriously. Second, we could introduce an compliance and etiquette test for all ebike users, testing them on use of the road. A lot of users of ebikes seem never to have driven or used a regular bike. That's great for mobility and carbon use, but we need to improve standards Third, ebike providers should have to stop the charging clock at red lights to reduce bad incentives. Fourth, if we are going to police red lights with enforcement, I suggest we focus on the most serious infringements first. We should prioritise those few people who speed through busy junctions without care or attention to pedestrians or cars, often causing cars etc to brake. Unfortunately, it is easier to enforce against riders who run a red pedestrian light than to catch somebody going dangerously at speed in a busy area. Can e-bike companies control their rogue riders? ft.com/content/239df019-16a0… via @ft

Europe's natural population change in 2022, births minus deaths with migration excluded. Almost the whole continent saw more deaths than births, with only a few countries such as France, Ireland and Turkey still growing.

The best diplomatic diaries put the personal details back into the history of great events. There are rich pickings in ‘Descent to Suez’ the enjoyable diaries of Evelyn Shuckburgh (ES), Eden’s Private Secretary from 51-54. Let’s start with a bad case of Villa envy in Geneva 1/8.

Was great to work with Jacob on this. We develop a formal model of conflict between conventional firms and AI firms over capital taxation come the AI transition, and whether 'digital fiscal capacity' gets built in time to effectively tax AI firms. Paper at papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.…

Here's an example of how flat property taxes of 0.5% and 0.65% compare with similar countries - some higher, some lower. Right now though the UK actually gets more tax revenue from property than any other OECD country, just in a stupid way.

What happens when a massive labor shortage hits an economy? In a paper now forthcoming in the AER @AEAjournals , Alex Trew, Bruno Caprettini and I examine this question for the case of Britain during the Napoleonic Wars. Shocks were both massive and long-lasting -- more than 10%

This excellent speech by @danielleiwood of the Australian Productivity Commission on how regulation holds back productivity growth in Australia is just as relevant to the UK. Well worth reading for new minister or advisor interested in growing the economy. pc.gov.au/media-speeches/spe…