Dear Boris Johnson, Where would you be today? Where do you reckon, you’d have got, if your parents had not had you, and you were born in Peckham not the upper east side? Imagine if I swapped out Eton for a Requires Improvement state funded school. Do you think if this h...

Dear Rishi Sunak, I read with keen interest the Treasury’s plan to lower the threshold for repayment on student loans that is to be announced in the Autumn Spending Review. The logic behind this policy is coherent: graduates earn more in their lifetimes, make useful s...

Dear Nadhim Zahawi, In light of recent insurgences in tuition fees for United Kingdom-based European students, and the complex socio-political climate of the Brexit, the perspectives of these students in higher education degrees (MA, MSc, PhD) has become more clouded th...

Dear Antonio Guterres, I am writing to express my concern about poverty. I think that it is a vital issue that we need to take immediate action for because it could save many people. I am Victoria Lazaridou, an English Literature student from the University of Roehampton, ...

Dear Will Quince, I write to you as the educational system is flawed, it is especially flawed for children and young people with special educational needs. I have had first-hand experience and exposure; I will first outline my position on this grave issue before expla...

Dear Nadhim Zahawi, Before I state the purpose of my letter, I would like to congratulate you on your new appointment as Secretary of State for Education. I believe, if even just going by your excellent and efficient Covid vaccine programme as vaccine deployment ministe...

Dear Paul Kofman, Now and then we hear the suggestion that economists are in need of some formal accreditation. Accountants, lawyers, doctors, pilots, and teachers, after all, require certification before they can practice. So why not economists? Yes, if only we had m...

Dear Andy Street, Where I live in Walsall, we have a constant and growing problem with litter. It feels like almost every street, every bit of green, is choked up with everything from cans to fly-tipped freezers. I see the same issue all around the region. There's an ...

Dear Melanie Mitchell, This letter is long overdue, but I wanted to thank you for writing your wonderful book Complexity: A Guided Tour. As an economist, I’ve been trained to think in a rigid sort of way. And it’s taken me a number of years and a lot of re-education to u...

Dear Biddy Martin, My younger sister, a senior in high school, just wrapped up her college admissions journey. About a week ago, she put her deposit down and committed to a school. She’s happy with the end-result – but she, like so many other high school students, foun...

Dear Councillor Rose Burley, Thank you for your recent letter in support of your renewed candidacy as councillor for Bentley and Darlaston North. You may not remember me, but I rang you during the early stages of Covid regulations after Walsall Council had taken the decision to ...

Dear Simon Armitage, In response to '70 Notices' You spent a long time looking hard to notice seventy things between greyscale streetlit troughs and Dark and White Peaks, saw a full moon bottled in a drop of dew, felt the full weight of Sheffield and Manchester come ...

Dear Jim McMahon, I am writing to you in your capacity as Shadow Minister for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs about the critical issue of our nation’s food security. In a time of short-termist, sticking-plaster politics, we need a serious, credible, long-term ...

Dear Eleanor, I’m not Paul Krugman. But I enjoyed the letter that you wrote to him on ‘thinking about economics’. Perhaps I can share a few thoughts with you because I am curious as to what you might make of them. (For context, my background is in economics and fi...

Dear Boris Johnson, It has been the privilege and honour of my life to serve for our country in the department which I believe is the most important, the true engine of opportunity, the Department of Education. I have spent my career dedicated to trying to create oppor...

Dear Jan Hasbrouck, [highlight=transparent]I’ve been wondering about ways to improve global education outcomes around the world. In an ideal world, such a policy or initiative should: (1) help students to discover and unlock their potential; (2) not drain the public cof...