Friday🧵& Substack Essay Gambling on corruption vs. practical politics for all In 'mainstream development' (big budget health, education, climate, growth), being the 'whaddabout the politics?' guy can be lonely. Saying 'political economy' can also annoy/confuse.... 1/11

@cblatts I just changed phone and thought hard about whether to load this thing again. But cracked - still least bad way of finding out about madly wide range of research, policy, events... & for english coverage of rapidly moving news - eg this summer in Bangladesh, Kenya.

@HeavenlyIndie Ooh ooh. London?

@danbanik Sending warm vibes @danbanik . You may remember when we discussed politics, evolving norms, & perceptions of corruption on @GlobalDevPod I mentioned the gift of a puppy to my grandfather in return for his help. Well, history repeats (though I don't hold public office....)

@notanastronomer Here is what prompted my interest - dhaba eye tests and glasses for truck drivers - Tata/ titan eye plus

@JustinSandefur Hearing 'promising to leverage' has punctuated my career... including realising that those we were promising to leverage had also promised to leverage us, in some gravity defying machine. Are there great examples of real, effective leverage?

I have to admit to being a dyed-in-the-wool development dinosaur with late onset growth-o-philia. Growth <really> matters... A really exciting new role created at @open_phil

@LSEImpactBlog @LSEPublicPolicy @LSEGovernment Please please please let us give a corner of this resource to practical political economy research and analysis for each area of social policy (lets put more P in LSE!).

This is well worth a listen... and should make us think hard about 'elites' (global and national) when we say 'SDGs' from here on.

@DanNeidle oh wow! great graphic. Do such charts exist for other countries? Easy to make?... cc @ICTDTax @giulia_mascagni @NCdeMel

@cheng_christine @DAcemogluMIT @baselinescene I usually go for a fourth context.

@AW_Baker Paging Tweeter's Mr Pie @PaulAtherton13 ?

@notanastronomer Americans used to blame it on the boogie.

@DavidMapstone I'm old enough to remember this in the local South Oxon press. Brilliant pics.

@Sediment_Mattrs Gravity unleashed!

@notanastronomer @hamsiiidris How did you take this picture then? (*Double slit experiment reference).

@notanastronomer Small print: taken in Edinburgh by @hamsiiidris , not Oxon.

Lead article on Bangladesh is gripping but grim: a reminder that global education keeps ignoring warnings that politics really does matter - politicians, ministries of ed, teacher unions - act in own interest, & drag down results. 😁Flattered to be mentioned further down...