Founder & Director, Unplugged Coalition. Former Special Adviser to PM on Business, Regulation and Energy Policy. Works on things that matter. Gets stuff done.
Richmond, Surrey
Joined May 2011
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Jennifer Powers retweeted
'It feels like he is setting up an open conversation.'
Political Commentator Jennifer Powers discusses Andy Burnham opening the door to EU citizens living and working freely in Britain.
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Jennifer Powers retweeted
One of my favourite econ papers is a study from Chile which found that its online fuel price disclosure scheme actually led to *higher* prices for consumers, as it made it easier for petrol stations to coordinate their pricing.
I know people are worried about fuel prices. And I get it. You get to the pump, watch the numbers climb, and wonder why it's costing so much more than it used to.
The reality is that global events are pushing up costs, and families here at home are feeling the impact.
But I won't accept that there's nothing I can do to help.
That's why from today, you'll be able to see petrol and diesel prices on Google Maps, compare nearby stations and find the cheapest option before you fill up.
It's a small change, but if there's a practical way to help people keep more money in their pocket, I'll do it.
Jennifer Powers retweeted
Social media ban for under-16s to come into effect next March, Culture Secretary confirms
lbc.co.uk/article/social-med…
Jennifer Powers retweeted
I keep saying it, but allowing the sale of Arm in 2016 was such a crazily poor piece of decisionmaking that even by the standards of UK economic policy it’s something of an outlier.
i've banked with monzo since 2019. it's exactly what britain should be producing. built from nothing, forced every legacy bank to modernise, and now one of the biggest consumer banks in the country
and we're about to sell it to brazil
investors deserve a payout, fair enough. but the reason it's a sale and not an ipo is that our ipo market is dead. so our best companies get bought instead of listed
deepmind to google. arm to softbank. our car makers, our steel, our water, our airlines. now monzo
we build them and sell them. every. single. time.
Jennifer Powers retweeted
I've reviewed all government bills currently before parliament which haven't reached Royal Assent (17). The Govt is in good shape to end the session by March for either an early King's Speech or significantly limiting any legislative cost to an early general election 1/
Jennifer Powers retweeted
Infrastructure is 65% more expensive in the UK than France and Germany.
That’s £8.3 BILLION a year WASTED.
Not on tunnels or track.
On lawyers, lobbyists and consultants.
This is a CHOICE.
FIX our planning system, SAVE money & BUILD infrastructure.
Jennifer Powers retweeted
'It would make sense for him politically to have that personal mandate he lacks. I think he may have already waited too long...'
@Power_Jen of the Unplugged Coalition reacts to reports Prime Minister Andy Burnham could be looking at calling an early general election.
Jennifer Powers retweeted
Rent: for a long time, the 5 year change in rent was between 10-15%.
More recently, it has crept up to 35%
Jennifer Powers retweeted
'The latest and last U-turn of Keir Starmer...'
@Power_Jen of the Unplugged Coalition reacts as former PM Sir Keir Starmer draws up a resignation honours list despite having promised not to.
Jennifer Powers retweeted
'Are we going to reach a point where those with the deepest pockets are the ones who run the country?'
@DrStephenDixon asks @Power_Jen of the Unplugged Coalition about backlash as Reform receives its second £36m donation from a crypto-billionaire in just two days.
Jennifer Powers retweeted
'These are transformational sums of money for Reform... This really puts Reform in a strong position ahead of the next general election.'
@Power_Jen of the Unplugged Coalition react as Reform receives its second £36m donation in just two days.
Jennifer Powers retweeted
If we are to go back to the 1970s to inform current economic policy thinking, it would be advisable to take note some of the wisdoms of that period, as well as its follies. Here is one of those wisdoms, addressing the strategic voids that lie at the heart of all our governments:
“The truth is that there is never a convenient time for strategic thinking, in politics, business, or anything else. It sems to be an academic exercise, a speculative distraction, to be put off whenever possible ‘until there is more time’ or ‘the immediate pressures are off’. Strategy can be defined, for practical purposes, as ‘the careful thinking we wish we had done two years ago, but don’t have time to do today.’
And yet many of today's pressures are themselves caused by lack of a strategy. How often we finally decide to take some action without further delay, only to find that, after all, it cannot be started, because essential conditions had not been anticipated months earlier.”
(Hoskyns and Strauss, 'Stepping Stones', 1977)
Jennifer Powers retweeted
‘If it is keeping some children safe then that is a victory.’
Founder of Unplugged Coalition Jennifer Powers says social norms and expectations around social media use among children need to be addressed, as the Government’s ban on under-16s is due to take place next year.
Jennifer Powers retweeted
Throwing rubbish in a landfill is (usually) better for the environment than recycling it. With few exceptions, recycling ends up emitting more CO2 and costing more money, while landfills are cheap and secure.
- Recycling mid-tier plastics (like plastic bottles or butter tubs) costs thousands of dollars per ton of CO2 saved. It's cheaper to do direct air CO2 capture than that! And there is no shortage of plastic, nor any problem with sequestering it in the ground once we're done with it.
- Modern landfills are extraordinarily secure and are *much* more than just big piles of trash. They capture 75%–95% of methane gas. Groundwater contamination is doesn't really happen with landfills built since 1990. A study of 31 landfills built since 1988 in NY found no adverse effect at all on local groundwater quality.
- The crusade against single-use plastics has driven us to products that use far more materials and energy and would need to be used an absurd number of times to actually be an improvement. A steel straw needs to be used 150 times to be worth using. A ceramic mug needs to be used 1,000 times to beat a polystyrene cup. A cotton bag needs to be reused 173 times to beat single-use.
- Some things ARE worth recycling. Recycling metal saves a huge amount of energy and material – recycling aluminium saves 95% of the energy spent on making fresh stuff. So we do a lot of it already: about 30% of steel worldwide is recycled.
Modern, well-run landfills cause minimal environmental damage. We have plenty of space for them – less than 0.01% of the US is used for landfill and only about 0.02% of Germany. We can even build on top of old landfills, so the land area is not spent permanently.
New in @WorksInProgMag, @robertwiblin and @chalmermagne on why it's usually best to just bury your trash. worksinprogress.co/issue/jus…
Jennifer Powers retweeted
So @BBCLondonNews did a 23 second report about @JamesCleverly becoming a Mayoral candidate.
The only 2 facts they wanted to impart were 1) he was born in Lewisham & 2) he went to a private school.
Other relevant things: he’s been Home & Foreign secretary, and a London Assembly member.
Who’s writing this stuff?