This is excellent,worth a read. As an educator, it is one of the most frustrating things to hear ‘why don’t you teach X’. Half the time, we do, you just didn’t listen. And the other issue is capacity. I’m desperately trying to organise more trips and clubs. But I’m already overextended, by choice.

This is really worth reading. "Put it in the curriculum" assumes that adults have learned everything they will ever need to know and that the state can play no role in informing them. When you put it like that, it becomes clear what abject bullshit the assumption is.

The 600-lb gorilla in the room: an enormous amount of what you teach kids in school does not stick around in their heads for long. The fantasy that anything taught is heard, understood, remembered, and applied or supported for life is literally that, a teacher's wet dream. The reality is, "Huh?"

The GR team is not lazy, so we have never campaigned for renting to be put on the national curriculum. However, now mortgages (mortgages!) have been recommended to go in it, it feels like we'll have to try and get space for the more immediate tenure today's schoolkids will need to get to know

This is so right, and why everyone wanting to cram "AI" into the school curriculum - as if we even knew *what* we'd teach about it to children in 2028 - is so wrong.

oh my god yes. you only have to look at how often people complain about not being taught something in school that they absolutely were taught in school. education isn't a magic bullet!

"If we want a society that is literate in money, media, and citizenship, we need an infrastructure for lifelong learning that reflects how adults actually live. Schools are only one node in a much bigger information system, and we’ve been neglecting the rest." <-- This.

It's up there with "change the culture"

Good blog this. I think another reason why this comes up so often (“put it on the curriculum” was far and away the most repeated ask when I chaired the BoD’s commission on racial inclusivity) is that the kind of person who submits to inquiries liked school, likes learning, had an inspiring teacher.

The left thinks state information is compromised because it’s produced by a western patriarchy. The right thinks it’s produced by a woke establishment elite. And so we have given up on building and propagating any kind of shared knowledge infrastructure. Instead we say “put it in the curriculum”

For political hacks like myself, 'put it in the curriculum' is the oldest and hattiest of old hat policy ideas. Why do we think schools should solve all our problems? What if we thought differently about life skills and civic education? howtorunacountry.substack.com/p/schools-ca...

OUT NOW – In Power 01: Transforming Downing Street New FGF report urges the Prime Minister to create a dedicated ‘Downing Street’ department equipped to drive his agenda. Full report ⬇️ www.futuregovernanceforum.co.uk/resource/in-...

This is a great read. Polly's point that support for political leaders needs to come from their parties is spot on - with the best will in the world, when it comes to personal skills and behaviours, politicians don't always want to listen to civil servants (or even independent orgs like the IfG)...

"You are King Baby: high status and powerless all at the same time." Great observations on political life and how we can do better from @pollymackenzie.bsky.social howtorunacountry.substack.com/p/political-...

What if we treated political careers like other high-pressure professions, and actually invested in our leaders to help them thrive? howtorunacountry.substack.com/p/political-...

Some v good points in here, which my experience with ministers supports

“We want to be the grammar school of the world, attracting only the very best” “Let’s do that by charging really high entry fees and making migrants feel unwelcome at every turn”

Most MPs are King Baby: high status and powerless all at the same time. No wonder so many end up a bit… odd.

A French cyclist survived for three days after a horrendous 130-foot fall into a ravine, kept alive by the bottles of red wine he had in his shopping bag, police said.

This is good on how fundamental research can lead to unanticipated applications. I especially like the study of root vegetables leading to flat screen TVs (through the discovery of liquid crystals) www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Had an email from Southwark Council about how they enforce renters rights.

I got the last pumpkin in the shop. It is very small and the candle keeps blowing out so no-one is coming to the door. In other words I am sat at home with only a very large bowl of sweets for company.

If you've been tempted by a London Centric subscription... you've only got a few hours to sign up and be entered in the draw to win the most excruciatingly laboured physical metaphor of the year! www.londoncentric.media/p/london-pho...

We’d love people’s input to this! 👇 Where are the UK public sector reformers? Help map the movement so that we can work out together how best to support it. Grateful for RTs

'Normal management and leadership tools are almost non-existent in politics, with "democracy" used as an excuse to run Westminster like a venn diagram of feudal courts'

Really thought-provoking stuff from @pollymackenzie.bsky.social here on the very weird dynamics of our democracy and how we could make our politics healthier. (In the spirit of the article, I am trying not to take her passing criticism of Whips Offices personally...!) substack.com/home/post/p-...

What if we treated political careers like other high-pressure professions, and actually invested in our leaders to help them thrive? howtorunacountry.substack.com/p/political-...

Government has published one of those quiet but important documents that might get overlooked as it is not 'newsy'. The headline finding is that £1 of public R&D investment generates £8 in net economic benefits for the UK over the long term www.gov.uk/government/p...

Totally untrue garbage from @thetimes.com & @dailymail.co.uk today - smear dressed up as journalism. Some facts: - There is no “£900 desk” - my constituency office has Ikea desks/chairs - we significantly underspent the new MPs allowance to set up an office www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Rare opportunity. We are currently recruiting for a member of our senior leadership team to take forward our work on productivity and growth. Do get in touch if interested. www.resolutionfoundation.org/about-us/opp...

Another uneventful week in politics. By-elections in Caerphilly and Moseley. A new Labour deputy leader. Trump bulldozing the White House. What does it all mean? @pollymackenzie.bsky.social joins us on Tuesday evening to try to explain.

Loving your country means loving it as it is — not as you wish it were. Britain is getting old. Instead of fearing it, we should lead the world in how to live longer, better. My new piece on making the most of an ageing society is out. howtorunacountry.substack.com/p/we-must-lo...

so much discourse about immigration, so little about aging

Loving your country means loving it as it is — not as you wish it were. Britain is getting old. Instead of fearing it, we should lead the world in how to live longer, better. My new piece on making the most of an ageing society is out. howtorunacountry.substack.com/p/we-must-lo...

A new post on the long march to shorter feedback cycles in government. How’s it going and what should we do next?

love the idea of genuine wellbeing as economics at it's most grown-up (contrasted with the bleak idea of a state as just a monopoly of violence)

Love this. Putting forward a ‘north star’ centred on universal wellbeing has been one of the most valuable things @socialcarefuture.bsky.social has done

This yarn starts with tax dodging office blocks and becomes a wild rural crime multi-hyphenate boasting about his international mafia-linked career from Ribchester and yet my main takeaway is that snails are lowlifes www.londoncentric.media/p/terry-ball...

What's the purpose of government? I have promised optimism in my writing but this week I'm posing a rather existential question that often gets forgotten. Plus a motto and some nuggets of joy. howtorunacountry.substack.com/p/whats-it-a...

What's the purpose of government? I have promised optimism in my writing but this week I'm posing a rather existential question that often gets forgotten. Plus a motto and some nuggets of joy. howtorunacountry.substack.com/p/whats-it-a...

Freelance web designer thought it was a good idea to AI me into a suit. So very wrong.

My hero is a farmer, not a duck. Which will only make sense if you read this new piece by me, the start of a new substack which I am bravely calling How To Run A Country. howtorunacountry.substack.com/p/its-the-de...

My hero is a farmer, not a duck. Which will only make sense if you read this new piece by me, the start of a new substack which I am bravely calling How To Run A Country. howtorunacountry.substack.com/p/its-the-de...

'Join in. Running a country is not the job of the government. It’s the job of all of us.' Amen @pollymackenzie.bsky.social is doing a bit of writing again howtorunacountry.substack.com/p/its-the-de...

[Great post] "The most important part of a system is often the person who keeps it from breaking today" blog.ronbronson.com/design-as-re...

"“Everyone thought we’d come in and there were going to be these huge costs we could cut away but there just aren’t,” said a third senior Reform cabinet member in Kent - " on.ft.com/3KDLMVu Reform at least have the excuse of never having been in government. Other parties should know better...

Five years in Downing Street, running a think-tank, starting a new political party, @pollymackenzie.bsky.social has what it takes to get to the bottom of the madness of politics. Political Therapy returns on 28 October.

OMG this is the same dress Liz Truss wore on her first, and her last day as PM. It’s from The Fold.

We are calling on the UK Government to not introduce a levy on higher education provider income from international students, reduce visa costs to attract global talent, and to review higher education funding to create a sustainable model www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/58...

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