Given UK government's focus on economic growth Ministers really should be asking civil servants why they have not done any assessment of the potential economic growth of open address data (& geo data more broadly) Every other govt that does has come to conclusion to push it towards open...

We're looking to fill a couple of Senior Content Designer roles across the OPG and Probation digital teams www.jobtrain.co.uk/justicedigit...

with apologies to that New Yorker cartoonist, Peter Steiner

"UK digital ID sector warns of legal action if [digital driving licence] limited to GOV.UK Wallet" www.biometricupdate.com/202602/uk-di...

We live in strange times...

Follow up from the matplotlib maintainer who got hitbotted theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-...

Anyone looking for a name for their new band?

"Transcription tools used by councils in England and Scotland reported to wrongly indicate suicidal ideation" www.theguardian.com/education/20...

This focus on long term reliability is one of the things missing from current thinking on "AI-ready" data. We need data infrastructure and that requires institutions, business models, regulators, legislation. www.gov.uk/government/p...

Second, there's already a lot of evidence about particular foundational datasets being valuable, but a lack of govt will to make them more accessible. Address data is the most pertinent case here. ODUG was making the case for that back in 2012. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a8217...

From that experience, I take two and a half lessons. First, a survey of current usage and demand is unlikely to give you a coherent or prioritised picture of what benefits *could* be if data were more accessible. Better to take a govt goal and work backwards to data that unlocks it.

You can be very mentally active and still go on to develop dementia. The framing of articles like this isn't at all helpful in my view. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Anyone who's thinking about fan democracy in English football today might find this survey of interest ->>>

The things you find when find when helping prototypes root themselves in legal context #154232 in a long series "Downloadable letters explaining UK laws and conventions on people's names and name changing [for a range of different countries]" www.gov.uk/guidance/nam...

And I want world peace, with enough custard creams for everyone

"[Stripe] Machine payments allows automated systems and AI agents to make payments on behalf of users" docs.stripe.com/payments/mac...

What might turn into an irregular reminder If you're not treating with skepticism the claim that Moltbot is all autonomous agents - rather than a lot of it being other humans wearing a badly fitting robot mask - then you might find your conclusions rather stretchy www.lwilko.com/blog/when-th...

Just as importantly - if not more importantly given UK public's growing dissatisfaction with cost of living, public services &c&c - is that the AI Skills Hub is incredibly hard to use, doesn't address people's needs &c. It won't be effective even on its own terms techpolicy.press/the-real-cos...

Another useful guide from your friends at Buckinghamshire Archives

One thing you can read across from the USA is that authoritarians who promise authoritarian policies - that are outside democratic norms - if they get elected will quite happily try to follow through with lots of authoritarian policies if they do get elected nation.cymru/news/uproar-...

Team: "Peter, can we talk to you about data licensing?" Me:

The way Chris pincher has been basically been erased from boris downfall is really instructive in Westminster culture and how these people get away with it

This weekend a relative told me that they did a day trip to Altrincham for a viral brioche and I'm still trying to work out how I'd explain that to the Peter-of-5-years-ago let alone a Peter further back in time than that

ec.europa.eu/commission/p... The EU seems to have mandated agentic AI without thinking very hard about the security, scraping and other risks. Hard anti-competition makes bad law.

This will only be used for finding cute and good dogs Pinkie promise

Thinking about the dynamics generated by people finding it easier to "vibe code" things around UK public sector open data Including potential increased demand for certain types of data/filters to meet some (vibe code) user needs school-finder-uk.netlify.app

If you love cats, or are wondering if you could, have a read of this thread. Little furry tyrants who are also extremely cuddly and sweet

Friends worry that Peter has "drawn" another picture in figma that he plans to show to some professional designers on Monday

Hello lovely people, I need your help. We still haven’t found a buyer for Mum’s lovely retirement house near the sea in Cromer on Norfolk coast. It really is time someone else was making happy memories there. I’d really appreciate everyone sharing it widely 😁 www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/1...

If anyone who follows me knows of any decent support groups near Manchester for + people with early onset Alzheimers + *and* the youngish adult children that care for them then LMK

No Ts and Cs? No data...

Just drove an hour to Manchester with Spotify on (semi)random I started it with some Northern Soul When I arrived Spotify was playing me - TW: MOR music ahead - Ocean Colour Scene :0! Computers are officially rubbish

But did rescue old caricature of mum when she was a hotel manager Mum was told not to study at school - by both her mum and teachers - and to be a housewife After 3 kids she needed/wanted to work and ended up running a hotel with 60 rooms, 50-60 staff, and some of their lives to help with too

Thirty-odd years ago grandad Cecil turned his hand to making a dolls house for his first great-grandchild, my niece Full of furniture & dolls & working lights Niece & nephew played with it for years As part of house clearance we're sadly letting physical objects go, but their memories will remain

Having quick bacon butty at a quick bacon butty place in Lytham St Annes A couple just walked up to an outdoor perching spot with reserved sign, sat down, shop staff came out and greeted them with "good morning sir" (no greeting for madam) and are table serving them a quick bacon butty Peak Lytham

Shrek's image on Australian commemorative coins likened to Queen www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

New podcast alert! For this week's edition of The Economics Show, I interviewed Tyler Cowen on the economics of food, though the conversation ended up a bit broader than that. Links to listen here: www.ft.com/content/4c85...

When a researcher shows you their secondary research and it includes something you posted on social media a couple of years back

Good www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

A total inversion of the old 'human in the loop' defense: "Waymo asks for guidance in certain situations and gets human input. But the Waymo vehicle is always in charge of the dynamic driving task" cybernews.com/news/waymo-o...

A couple of years ago, I posted a photo of me with the children of a school in my constituency on Facebook, receiving nothing but likes and heart reactions. 🧵

I can't take the "we're ungovernable! none of the levers work!" chat seriously when given a working "appoint peter mandelson y/n" lever, good choices were not made.

Late to this but good to see ICO investigating Grok/X/X.AI/(SpaceX now), while other regulators are better placed on the content harms there could be some data protection issues here too and regulators can't be certain until they start looking under the hood a bit more ico.org.uk/about-the-ic...

This made me both chuckle and sigh, I hope there's some much better "lesson learned" pieces coming about the failure of this particular government's attempt at their version of missions restate.substack.com/p/why-missio...

OK, I am now an official member of the "knock Parliament down and start again" team Keep it simple and just build something more useful & maintainable on the same bit of land www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Follow @wtmadupdates.bsky.social for all the main new digital ads run by parties and leaders ahead of May's elections in the UK.

Broadband installer: bad news I'm afraid, we're going to need to arrange a cherry picker hoist to lift us up so that we can pull the new cable from the telephone pole over to the top of your house. I'm really sorry :( Me: COOL! BIG TRUCK!!!

A student I know - ok, my nephew - is running a survey to learn about football fan's views on Fan Democracy in English Football If you're a football fan/know fans then do fill in/share > docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... TYVM