But there are also bad reasons it is difficult. The Green Belt is one formidable, entirely man-made barrier. The other is that Bristol airport - and almost all of this scheme - is in North Somerset, not Bristol. Which makes everything much more fraught.

Build a tram to the airport. Build a few thousand homes at every stop. Use the proceeds to help pay for the tram. I know there are good reasons it might be difficult. But afaik a feasible route has been identified (I think to the other side of the reservoirs from my silly line)

I’ve written about this more airily in the past. When you ask “what would make life better?” in rich economies, I think most of the answers involve more public sector or collective action (health, environment, transport etc.). So probably higher taxes. acjsissons.medium.com/what-w…

Baumol’s “cost disease” only works if demand for lower productivity services is income elastic (we want more as we get richer) and price inelastic (we only want a bit less as prices rise). Vollrath piece here makes this point if you don’t believe me: growthecon.com/feed/2017/05/…

If you’re a business, the Baumol effect might be annoying because it means higher costs. But honestly, higher wages are a good thing. And have you considered how much weaker demand would be if the Baumol effect wasn’t there to spread the wealth?

Pretty much exactly what we say. I’m sure you’re also worried about the very acute fuel poverty experienced by many on direct electric heating too

Rebalancing levies would have a fairly small impact on the typical household - your gas bill goes up, electricity bill goes down in proportion. But there would be winners and losers, and we think government should compensate those on low incomes.

This is our breakdown of options for levy reform. Removing levies on to general taxation is unlikely to happen - the cost to HMT is high. Rebalancing levies from electricity to gas is revenue neutral for government and has a much bigger impact on the electricity-gas price ratio.

This might be a bit nerdy, but want to put down some thoughts on the English Devolution Bill in the King’s Speech today. It doesn’t look on the surface like much of a change from the previous government’s approach to English devo, but I think there are some important shifts…