Tom Forth

Tom Forth

@tomforth.co.uk

Same as @thomasforth on X. Leeds, Yorkshire, UK.

7.8K followers166 following607 posts

Tom Forth reposted

James O'Malley
@jamesomalley.co.uk

🚨 Ireland is freeing its version of the Postcode Address File! 🚨

Richard Cantwell@manaboutcouch.bsky.social

So the Irish Government launched the 'Intelligence:Applied' programme at the AI Summit last week. Buried in the aspirational goals (see here: www.gov.ie/en/departmen...) is this particularly interesting nugget. It looks like the #Eircode database may become #OpenData! Grain of salt required.

Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

The 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.

Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

But 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.

Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

I 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.

James O'Malley@jamesomalley.co.uk

Now FREE TO READ – why we need more data centres. I feel like an epidemiologist in February 2020 – the dangerous threat in the near future is so clear, and we need to prepare for it. Please consider sharing it with the data centre-sceptics in your life. takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/the-case-f...

takes.jamesomalley.co.ukThe case for Nightingale DatacentresBritain isn’t prepared for the looming AI national security crisis
Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

I wonder if when Southern Italian economists tweet this map they get dozens of replies saying "try telling that to someone in Genoa mate!".

Simon Kuestenmacher@simongerman600.bsky.social

Italy’s infamous north-south divide in one map. Quality of life is clearly tied to economic circumstances: the wealthier, job-rich north dominates the rankings, while the poorer south fills the bottom. Turns out money helps with quality of life. Source: buff.ly/lSxNZCh

Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

There'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.

Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

The 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.

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Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

I 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.

Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

The 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.

View full thread
Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

The 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.

Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

As 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.

Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

I 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.

Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social

New post just out: "Burnham's first mistake" Splitting 14 year olds into academic and vocational paths seems intuitive. But it's a terrible idea that risks increasing inequality, and closing down options for the young people that need them most. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/b...

open.substack.comBurnham's first mistakeThe problem with his education plan
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Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

I 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.

Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social

New post just out: "Burnham's first mistake" Splitting 14 year olds into academic and vocational paths seems intuitive. But it's a terrible idea that risks increasing inequality, and closing down options for the young people that need them most. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/b...

open.substack.comBurnham's first mistakeThe problem with his education plan
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Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

We 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.

Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

"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.

Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

I 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.

Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social

New post just out: "Burnham's first mistake" Splitting 14 year olds into academic and vocational paths seems intuitive. But it's a terrible idea that risks increasing inequality, and closing down options for the young people that need them most. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/b...

open.substack.comBurnham's first mistakeThe problem with his education plan
View full thread
Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

That'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.

Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

The 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.

Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

I 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.

Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social

New post just out: "Burnham's first mistake" Splitting 14 year olds into academic and vocational paths seems intuitive. But it's a terrible idea that risks increasing inequality, and closing down options for the young people that need them most. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/b...

open.substack.comBurnham's first mistakeThe problem with his education plan
Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

I 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.

Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

People 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.

Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

So we've got to avoid that. But at the same time, I think it's a shame if we're telling kids in places like East Yorkshire like a lot of my friends growing up that the world is their lobster and if they study more and harder there'll be well paid jobs for them. There may not be.

Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

And I do think we believed that, and said that, and encouraged that belief among quite a lot of my friends growing up. And unfortunately, for lots of reasons we can't agree on, the well paid jobs we thought would materialise just didn't, outside of South East England and Scotland.

Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

A few quotes and some data from me on this topic here. 38% of jobs in Oxfordshire are available to those with no and low qualifications. 51% of jobs in Teesside are. Shouldn't we give people the freedom to choose what works for them and their place? inews.co.uk/news/educati...

inews.co.ukThe areas that could be left behind by Burnham's education reformsThe Prime Minister says technical pathways will help cut youth unemployment – but critics fear they will worsen inequality
Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

A lot of people really won't like it. "Soft bigotry of low expectations" stuff. And I somewhat agree. It is a tragedy if a bright kid in Middlesbrough doesn't know about the jobs they could get with more and harder study. Or feels that those jobs somehow "aren't for them".

Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

One of the most exciting infrastructure projects in Britain right now. If we could build tunnels like the Norwegians we could build new motorways and railways so cheaply that they could be self-funding. The biggest prize is Manchester to Sheffield. www.thetimes.com/uk/transport...

thetimes.comExplosives could deliver northern boom via cheaper Pennines tunnelStart-up says Scandinavian tunnelling methods could cut the cost of a proposed dual carriageway connecting Sheffield and Manchester by as much as 90 per cent
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Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

ps. a big new road in a tunnel should remove almost all traffic from the existing surface roads that wind their way through the Pennines frequently getting closed by landslides, snow, ice, and wildfires, and -- to be completely honest -- spoiling the view and the ambience a bit.

Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

One of the most exciting infrastructure projects in Britain right now. If we could build tunnels like the Norwegians we could build new motorways and railways so cheaply that they could be self-funding. The biggest prize is Manchester to Sheffield. www.thetimes.com/uk/transport...

thetimes.comExplosives could deliver northern boom via cheaper Pennines tunnelStart-up says Scandinavian tunnelling methods could cut the cost of a proposed dual carriageway connecting Sheffield and Manchester by as much as 90 per cent
View full thread
Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

I have drawn in red, on top of the existing map of UK motorways from Wikipedia, the gap that this tunnel would fill. It would properly connect South Yorkshire to Greater Manchester and Liverpool in a way it currently isn't. And with that, huge economic benefit.

Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

Currently the 44 miles from Sheffield to Manchester Airport is a drive or a train that you need to leave 2 hours for. To Manchester city centre you need to leave over 2 hours to drive. (the short and unreliable diesel trains can be a bit quicker). That's just far too slow. This fixes that.

Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

One of the most exciting infrastructure projects in Britain right now. If we could build tunnels like the Norwegians we could build new motorways and railways so cheaply that they could be self-funding. The biggest prize is Manchester to Sheffield. www.thetimes.com/uk/transport...

thetimes.comExplosives could deliver northern boom via cheaper Pennines tunnelStart-up says Scandinavian tunnelling methods could cut the cost of a proposed dual carriageway connecting Sheffield and Manchester by as much as 90 per cent
Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

When @roadscholar.bsky.social first told me about this I was all "yeah right, magic new tunnelling, great story" --- but it does actually seem to check out. Lots of British institutions had missed some of the importance of the North of our country having rocks more like Norway.

Tom Forth
@tomforth.co.uk

I had great fun on the Crashed Podcast with @stokel.bsky.social and Alex talking about, 1/ My long history of advising Andy Burnham ;) 2/ Why the North South divide hurts the South as well as the North. 3/ Devolution's surprisingly good record, and challenges. share.google/kvT5GFSRwDkm...

share.googleCrashedPodcast · Alex Hudson · In the Crashed podcast, the tech podcast about everything else, hosts Alex Hudson (@alexhuds) and Chris Stokel-Walker (@stokel) delve into the complexities of technology and it...