Jon Chadwick

Interest rate on Government debt is rising, economic growth is slow. Why? #interestrates #GovernmentDebt #Budget2026 jon-chadwick.com/2026/10/28/g...

Every few months the same story comes round again - overpaid public sector workers. I looked at 3 Newcastle institutions; Newcastle Hospitals, Fenwick and NUFC to see if that was true? #NUFC #NHS #PublicSectorJobs jon-chadwick.com/2026/10/25/p...

I’ve spent £20 trying to win a house, a camper van and some camera equipment, but discovered a £1 billion +industry built around some peculiar gambling laws and an expensive VAT dispute. #Omaze #prizedraw #economics #gambling #HMRC jon-chadwick.com/2026/10/21/e...

Why is everyone suddenly shocked by Russian interference in Brexit when the evidence has been public for six years? The real story is what the Mail, Telegraph and Express chose to tell their readers. #Brexit #russia #AndyBurnham #UKPolitics jon-chadwick.com/2026/10/19/r...

Does everyone agree with me? Probably not. How good are we at judging what other people think? Results of my survey reveal surprising gaps between public opinion and what we think others else believes. jon-chadwick.com/2026/10/17/d... #PublicOpinion #UKPolitics

How can newspapers continue to be surprised about something which keeps happening? #UKeconomy #GDP

9 years ago, I warned the ONS was getting its employment figures wrong. Now it has revised UK productivity growth upwards, are UK is more productive than we thought. What does this mean for the economy jobs wages? #productivity #UKEconomy #employment jon-chadwick.com/2026/10/14/u...

New information shines a light about the closure of Durham High School, and the sale of the land gets closer #durham #durhamhighschool #UKEducation jon-chadwick.com/2026/10/11/d...

America has the most powerful military in the world, so why does it keep losing wars? The answer may lie in a theory Mao developed nearly 90 years ago. #america #usarmy #mao #MilitaryHistory #Geopolitics #iran jon-chadwick.com/2026/10/07/w...

Liz Truss lasted just 49 days in Downing Street, but did her ideas ever really go away? As the Conservative Party conference begins, how much of her political programme runs through the Conservatives, Reform and Restore? #Conservatives #ReformUK #UKPolitics jon-chadwick.com/2026/10/03/l...

Andy Burnham has put free social care back on the political agenda — but is the National Care Service really a progressive policy? #SocialCare #AndyBurnham #NationalCareService #nhs #pensions #PublicSpending jon-chadwick.com/2026/09/29/s...

For anyone interested in the background behind the Garvaghy road protests this explains modern Orange and Unionist politics jon-chadwick.com/2026/08/15/l...

Thirty years ago, Britain thought it was looking at the future. Britpop was at Knebworth, rave had conquered the charts, Blair was coming, but somehow the future was already turning into nostalgia. bbands.co.uk/1996-when-th... #britpop #raveculture #Oasis #theprodigy #underworld #90smusic

Why did Durham police decriminalise dangerous driving? #policing #dangerousdriving jon-chadwick.com/2026/09/26/d...

September #quiz jon-chadwick.com/2026/09/26/q...

Britain has some of the highest electricity prices in Europe. But generating electricity isn’t particularly expensive. Why is the gap between cost and price so enormous? #EnergyPrices #electricitybills #costofliving #EnergyPolicy #netzero #economics jon-chadwick.com/2026/09/23/w...

How common are your opinions? Social media makes us think that everyone shares our opinions. A short survey to put that theory to the test. #publicopinions #UKPolitics #PoliticalPsychology jon-chadwick.com/2026/09/19/u...

Parliament says student loans were mis-sold. They behave like a tax when graduates repay them, so why do we still pretend they’re loans? #StudentLoans #TuitionFees #GraduateTax jon-chadwick.com/2026/09/16/s...

We’ve already had one referendum on a vague idea, then we spent 5 years trying to work out what it actually meant. We couldn’t so we rushed to a poor outcome. There are even more complications in breaking the country up. bsky.app/profile/jonc...

Why did Durham High School really close? VAT, years of financial decline — or something else? I’ve followed the money and test the rival claims. #durham #durhamhighschool #privateschools #VAT jon-chadwick.com/2026/09/13/d...

Trump’s renaming is out of control. Orlando FL will become Donaldo. Trampolines will become Trumpolines. And Orange County will lose an O and a Y. #trump

Britain’s political funding rules are going to change after a series of scandals. The new rules will change UK politics. But who will pay for political parties afterwards? #UKPolitics #PoliticalFunding #ElectoralReform #CampaignFinance jon-chadwick.com/2026/09/09/u...

Small boats dominate the political argument over immigration. But strip away the rhetoric and look at the numbers: what is actually happening? #smallboats #ChannelCrossings #immigration #AsylumSeekers #UKPolitics #refugees #homeoffice #ReformUK jon-chadwick.com/2026/09/05/s...

Premier League clubs spent £3 billion this summer. But transfer fees aren’t quite what they seem: amortisation, accounting rules and player trading have turned the transfer market into a strange financial economy of its own. #PremierLeague#transferwindow #football jon-chadwick.com/2026/09/02/p...

Britain has already agreed reparations for slavery. We paid £20 million, but we paid the slave owners, not the slaves. How did we get there? And can we correct that mistake 200 years later? #slavery #Reparations #BritishEmpire jon-chadwick.com/2026/08/29/u...

August Quiz. You know what to do. #quiz jon-chadwick.com/2026/08/29/q...

In preparation for European football today I will mostly be walking backwards through my garden making "come on" gestures and throwing garden furniture at the hedge while my neighbour turns a hose pipe on me #SunderlandAFC #europaleague

Reform says it can save £50bn a year from welfare. George Osborne thought PIP would save billions too, it ended up costing more. Why are politicians still convinced there are easy savings waiting to be found? #GovernmentSpending #ReformUK #ConservativeParty jon-chadwick.com/2026/08/26/r...

Muslims make up around 6% of Europe’s population today, same as in 1900. At points in European history, Muslims probably made up a greater share of the population than they do now. So why do some people claim Muslim Europe is something new? #EuropeanHistory jon-chadwick.com/2026/08/22/m...

Tito was a communist who trained as a locksmith. He understood something about capitalism that we have forgotten: a small business and a multinational corporation are not the same thing. #Tito #yugoslavia #economics #smallbusiness #China jon-chadwick.com/2026/08/20/e...

What would be the economic costs of Irish reunification? Who pays them and could they afford it? #UnitedIreland jon-chadwick.com/2026/08/18/c...

Take me home Enver.... www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyF1...

Fifty years ago the Sunday Times visited the Wigan Casino. I went to a Northern Soul night in Durham to find out why. it is still cool. bbands.co.uk/why-is-north...

Back in Northern Ireland after 20 years. Flags and murals still there, but loyalism changed; strong communities, a generation moving beyond sectarianism; but a darker legacy of paramilitaries and hostility #northernireland #loyalism #unionism #belfast #orangeorder jon-chadwick.com/2026/08/15/l...

We’re told the high street was killed by Amazon, business rates and changing shopping habits. What if we’re ignoring the role of private equity, debt and the extraction of value from some of Britain’s best-known retailers? #HighStreetRetail #privateequity #economics jon-chadwick.com/2026/08/13/w...

Nigel Farage is in trouble, but he is still likely to win in Clacton. The reasons lie in the economics and demographics of Britain’s declining seaside towns. #NigelFarage #clacton #ReformUK #immigration #Brexit jon-chadwick.com/2026/08/11/n...

How much does Britain really contribute to Israel’s war effort — why can’t we stop? #Israel #Gaza #UKPolitics #ArmsSales #armsExports #F35 #ForeignPolicy jon-chadwick.com/2026/08/08/u...

Andy Burnham wants to devolve spending decisions to Local Authorities and Regional Mayors. But does this create more problems than it solves? #AndyBurnham jon-chadwick.com/2026/08/05/a...

Why did GPs stop making house calls? It wasn’t just funding. Medical advances, ageing population, changing expectations and political reform transformed general practice over decades. Having run NHS primary care services myself, here’s how it happened. #NHS #GP jon-chadwick.com/2026/07/29/w...

Why does Northern Irish music sound distinctive? From the Miami Showband killings to Stiff Little Fingers, Ash and Kneecap; sharp lyrics, big melodies and guitars played as though somebody’s life depends on it. #punk #stifflittlefingers #theundertones #kneecap bbands.co.uk/alternative-...

Is America winning the fight against obesity—but only for those who can access the drug? What happens when one of the biggest medical breakthroughs of the century is distributed by income rather than need? #glp1 #MAHA #PublicHealth #NHS #Healthcare #Ozempic #Wegovy jon-chadwick.com/2026/07/25/g...

Last Saturday of the month, and it's quiz time! #quiz jon-chadwick.com/2026/07/25/q...

The BMJ says the UK-US drugs deal could cost 200,000 lives. But if an economic model measures only the costs and ignores the benefits, how much confidence should we place in its conclusions? #NHS #healtheconomics #BMJ #pharmaceuticals jon-chadwick.com/2026/07/22/u...

Everyone wants to bring back manufacturing. But can modern governments can actually do it—and what happens when they try? #manufacturing #IndustrialPolicy #productivity #economy #Brexit jon-chadwick.com/2026/07/18/b...

For forty years, privatisation was part of Britain’s economic consensus. That era is over, but what replaces it? #privatisation #economics #IndustrialStrategy #UKPolitics #Renationalisation #utilities jon-chadwick.com/2026/07/16/w...

US businesses have been refunded around $81 billion after Trump’s tariffs were ruled unlawful. So why didn’t American shoppers see prices fall? The answer says a great deal about how tariffs really work. #Trump #tariffs #economics #inflation #USEconomy #TradePolicy jon-chadwick.com/2026/07/15/t...

The biggest question about World Cup refereeing isn’t whether FIFA gives orders. It’s whether football’s financial incentives mean nobody has to. #WorldCup2026 #FIFA #football #messi #argentina #england #PremierLeague #championsleague #FootballEconomics jon-chadwick.com/2026/07/14/f...

God took Messi and Pele Mixed them up and made them one Called them Jude Bellingham Said “my work here is done” #judebellingham

The Durham Miners’ Gala and Horden represent very different County Durhams, but together they reveal what has happened to community, solidarity and civil society in Britain’s former mining towns. @durhamminersgala #DurhamMinersGala #northeast jon-chadwick.com/2026/07/12/h...

The traditional British seaside holiday was as much a victim of deindustrialisation as coal mines and shipyards. A history of works fortnight, and the towns left behind. #BritishSeaside #CoastalTowns #UKHistory #SocialHistory #Clacton #Tourism #Photography jon-chadwick.com/2026/07/11/t...