Stephen Boyd

Not been this excited over a new book for a long time

sorry to hear you're moving on Douglas - your reporting will be missed, especially when we have so few experienced specialist correspondents working in Scotland. Very best wishes for whatever you do next. Will follow on Substack - and might bump into you somewhere in the Black Isle over the summer!

Will technology reduce the cost of delivering public services? | IPPR The Scottish government has huge ambitions for digitising public services. In late November 2025, first minister John Swinney stated that:  “…the potential

Blog: will AI and other tech drive down the cost of delivering Scotland's public services? Perhaps, but caution is warranted.

Consider radiology; long touted for AI replacement but currently struggling with rising demand/staff shortages. Might it hold wider lessons?

www.ippr.org/articles/wil...

Will technology reduce the cost of delivering public services? | IPPR The Scottish government has huge ambitions for digitising public services. In late November 2025, first minister John Swinney stated that:  “…the potential

Rapid technological advances and the implementation of AI has the potential to transform healthcare - however this does not necessarily translate into reduced costs for public services.

Read our latest blog on the limits of new technology in making healthcare cheaper

www.ippr.org/articles/wil...

Who Owns Scotland 2025 - Land Matters SCOTLAND’S CONCENTRATED PATTERN OF LANDOWNERSHIP CONTINUES TO GET WORSE Today I publish Who Owns Scotland 2025, the second annual report on landownership in Scotland. The first (Who Owns Scotland 2024...

Today I publish Who Owns Scotland 2025, an annual analysis of landownership across rural Scotland. The most significant finding is the continuing trend over past 15 years of fewer and fewer owners owning more and more of rural Scotland. andywightman.scot/2026/02/who-...

In a west end cafe trying to get some work done but they've just played a cover of Powderfinger so grindingly awful that I've lost all concentration and now not sure I'll ever be able to focus again

going this afternoon - really looking forward to it

Three American Speeches at Munich, and Plenty of Confusion

1/Just back from Munich Security Conference. A few takeaways:
1.Old transatlantic alliance based on taken for granted trust is over (one official described it as a funeral).
2.US might talk nice but still is on a collision course w/Europe. 3.US firms stand to lose.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/15/w...

1994 and 1995. Just saying.

More than a safety net: The welfare state as springboard to economic success and a better country | IPPR It is widely proposed that higher social spending – especially in the form of social security benefits – is damaging to the economy. Yet the evidence prese

📢 It's launch day!🚀

💷 Social spending ≠ economic damage.

💪Plenty of countries prove you can have strong social security and strong economies.

Read our new report, More than a Safety Net ⤵️

@stephenkb.bsky.social @davehawkey.bsky.social @caseysmithippr.bsky.social

www.ippr.org/articles/mor...

More than a safety net: The welfare state as springboard to economic success and a better country | IPPR It is widely proposed that higher social spending – especially in the form of social security benefits – is damaging to the economy. Yet the evidence prese

The @ipprscotland.bsky.social report - More than a Safety Net - is published today.

Is the welfare state a brake on economic development?

No, countries with high levels of social spending are among the most dynamic, productive and innovative economies in the world

www.ippr.org/articles/mor...

Manchester Utd owner is giving media interviews claiming UK "colonised" by immigrants

He thinks population rose 12 million snce 2020!

11 million people born abroad; this was 9.5 million in 2020, so that is up 1.5 million (not 12 million) but rose 7 million in 30 years from 4m before 1997

'UK has been colonised by immigrants', says INEOS boss and Man Utd co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe In an interview with Sky News's Ed Conway, Sir Jim says Britain faces profound political, social and economic challenges, among them an unprecedented rise in immigration in recent years.

No matter the depths of their sickening ignorance, it seems filthy rich men will always have a platform

news.sky.com/story/bluesk...

For months, we have been digging into a big myth — that strong social protection holds back economic growth.🔍

Spoiler: it doesn’t.💪

We launch our findings tomorrow in our report 'More than a Safety Net'. Stay tuned.🚀

For now, hear it from @stephenboydippr.bsky.social ⤵️

Major news outlets: Please consider prominently reporting what this all-star team of researchers has found.
www.nber.org/papers/w34791

Over 300,000 children already living in the UK could face 5–10 extra years before they can settle permanently.

Changing the rules mid-journey will likely increase child poverty. Latest from us 🔗 www.ippr.org/articles/far-from-settled-the-governments-earned-settlement-consultation

Wonderful!

Why the case for growth in Scotland needs restated and how to do it When making their case for growth, politicians would do well to focus on creating a shared national purpose around broadly based prosperity

My latest @heraldscotland.bsky.social column on economic growth and the looming Holyrood election.

"What might prove elusive are clear and coherent explanations of why...growth remains a legitimate aspiration but one that is increasingly hard to achieve"

www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/2582...

Rethinking public sector productivity | IPPR The Spending Review published alongside the 2026-27 Budget commits the Scottish government to a programme of reform ‘designed to protect frontline services

💷 Why do the costs of health, education & care services seem to rise relentlessly?

In our latest blog we turn to William Baumol to explain why it pays to be cautious about rapid productivity growth/lower costs in people driven services.

@stephenboydippr.bsky.social🖊️

www.ippr.org/articles/ret...

UBI fans must remember a job is about more than the money The value of work often gets left out of discussions about AI

"...even if you pay a price in terms of innovation and productivity, the ethos that most people of sound mind who want to work, can work is a policy end in and of itself"

strong agree with @stephenkb.bsky.social and the beauty of it is...we can avoid such trade-offs

www.ft.com/content/18ee...

"Some economists love simple stories, especially when they support their ideological priors, but a bit of knowledge of history often reveals that the truth is somewhat more complicated"

@richardaljones.bsky.social on what Alex Honnold tells us about knowledge and innovation

softmachines.org?p=3249

The BBC is getting played here: if a contributor gets to flat out deny having his own words quoted to him on television (with the viewer not told the denial is untrue) then post about "dropping truth bombs". The mission to inform & counter misinformation is flailing if the editorial controls so weak

Brilliant letter in The Economist from Professor Ian Wray
Heseltine Institute for Public Policy, Practice and Place, University of Liverpool
www.economist.com/letters/2026...

Apples and oranges? Scottish teachers’ pay in international context | IPPR Ongoing pressures on the Scottish government budget are firing debate about the public sector paybill. Is the public sector in Scotland unmanageably big? A

📢 Starting today, we will publish a series of blogs as part of our project on Employment, Productivity and Reform in the Scottish Public Sector.

First up, this blog by @davehawkey.bsky.social looking at teacher pay per pupil in Scotland in an international context. ⤵️

www.ippr.org/articles/app...

👶The Scottish Child Payment is cutting child poverty and bucking the UK trend. Imposing a two-child limit would put that progress at risk.

@stephenboydippr.bsky.social responds to the Scottish Conservatives' plan announced today to impose a two-child limit on the Scottish Child Payment⤵️

Reform says it would cut green policies to fund £2bn income tax cut in Scotland Party’s pitch to voters in May Holyrood elections dismissed as ‘profoundly unserious, almost comically so’ by analysts

"Stephen Boyd, the director of the Institute for Public Policy Research Scotland, described the proposals as 'profoundly unserious, almost comically so'." @stephenboydippr.bsky.social contributed to this article on Reform's tax plans.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I see Labour MPs all chuntering away on X as they discuss who might be selected as a Labour candidate - using a platform explicitly designed and run to destroy their party and any other party like it.

"1 in 5 pupils are getting a SEND diagnosis..the vast majority then trip into the benefit system because they get child disability allowance allowance.'

This is completely false from Milburn. He's supposed to be reviewing this issue and he's just making things up. Inexcusable.

Very strong demand at this morning's gilt auction - bids worth 3.66 times the £4.75 billion on offer for a 4% gilt due in 2029.

It ranks as the 9th strongest out of the 1,208 auctions held since 1998.

DMO said to be ecstatic, someone has broken out a packet of Blue Ribands.

She was, as always, amazing