I would like to launch a formal complaint against Gen Z. I am increasingly noticing members of this generation writing things like “Sureeee no problem” or “OMG I would dieeee”. They are extending the wrong vowel sound and frankly I haaaaate it

Day after the solstice and oh boy the nights are really drawing in aren’t they

Turn it off. Stop using it. Turn it off. Stop. Stop. Stop. If every time I was wrong about something, a gallon of precious water was boiled into the sky, my neighbourhood got polluted and someone lost their job, people would stop asking me things.

Can you imagine emailing someone and actually receiving this as their out of office? Lol

It's what Tony Benn would have wanted... #ai

This is what they tell me…

Thrilled that the Civil Service World podcast is back, after the briefest of (5-year) hiatuses! Ep1 of the revamped series features DSIT innovation guru Claire Donaldson. Have a listen & add us to your feed - there'll be lots more episodes over the next few weeks! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/c...

[Youth Pastor voice] You know who else had a man cave?

The placement of these googly eyes on this poster has brought me so much joy

Something has happened to French restaurant names since I last came here… a 🧵

There is a Simpsons moment for everything ❤️

Tried to google the word count of On the Road.

I am so sick of things “hitting different”. I just saw an ad for a fruity shower gel on the back of a bus with the words “NATURE HITS DIFFERENT” emblazoned in massive letters. Fuck that!

This would be almost funny if it weren’t so serious www.bbc.com/news/article...

Empowering, humble, candid, sweary (!) & v witty opening keynote speech from Baroness Louise at CSW’s inaugural Collaboration Conference #CSWcollab25

Great interview by my colleague @tevyemarkson.bsky.social with the ex-perm sec of DfID Mark Lowcock. Lowcock does not pull his punches when talking about his former department's decline... www.civilserviceworld.com/in-depth/art...

Traitors: peacock shriek overdone. Discuss.

Still obsessed with this: after all the DOGE guff literally the first thing that Trump has said he will do is establish a new arm of the federal bureaucracy on Day One

⬇️ this is deeply alarming and upsetting. (Also, an account by the name of dominiccummings is replying to all the replies with emojis. If it is the man himself, it would appear that spreading misinformation and undermining our democracy is all just a game to him)

Just in from mammoth interview session to two bits of news. One that a DV perp got locked up because of something I did and that a vulnerable constituent had a a massive wrongful debt written off after our intervention. This is why I came to politics, this is why I'll just keep cracking on.

We are just sending the final pages of the new issue of CSW to press and I think this - from a feature about machinery of government changes and defunct departments - might be my favourite bit

4yo daughter took pic of me on the loo with her sub-polaroid camera and waved the pic in my face saying “you can only have this if you stay in your bed all night!” Parroting my words back at me, yes, but she came up with the sextortion part all on her own. Impressive.

This is insane?

@alexolorenshaw.bsky.social will you lurk, or treat us to your thoughts?

To me this screams non-story. If, for example, each of the DWP’s c.90,000 officials — after years of austerity/pay restraint/inflation — has taken home a shopping voucher worth £68 as their bonus, good for them. Richly deserved I say.

There are more than 10m children in school in the UK…but, per Times, 3,000 might move to state sector because of VAT rise…so Whitehall is “braced” 😲😲😲 Says a lot about UK media bubble, the way this story is reported. You pay VAT on luxuries. Private schooling is that.

Despite popular demand, I am once again thrusting horrifying Victorian Christmas cards under your noses. First: Frog on Frog violence

The remake of You’ve Got Mail looks shit

Just falling asleep when you remember you didn’t move the effing elf on the shelf. I never wanted to be an elf on the shelf family, damnit!

He's hiring a ship He's packing his cloak He's moving to England To follow some bloke Dracula is coming to town

Me: you’re not getting a drone for Christmas 7yo: Ok fine. How do you spell lip balm? 7yo: Actually I already know

As I said -- only a matter of time before news orgs lashed out at Apple's lackluster (and evidently dangerously wrong) AI summaries of their work. This is shambolic and the BBC has every right to be furious about it.

Strong “wrong-kind-of-snow” vibes from Southeastern this morning as my train is delayed because of “slippery rails”. Ummm we live in a permanently damp country??!

Our first reaction piece to the new cabinet secretary's appointment (there'll be a more in-depth one coming in the next couple of weeks) www.civilserviceworld.com/in-depth/art...

Chris Wormald - the balance sheet. In favour: 1. vastly experienced (much, much more than Case). Run two v big budget depts. also held senior role in what is now MHCLG; done time at the centre as head of EDS and heading Clegg office. former head of policy profession.

Massive away win for the little fella.

Teenage babysitter to me and husband just now: “You and your lime bikes. You’re like millennials!” Me and husband: “We ARE millennials” Her: “Oh! I thought you were boomers” 😑😑😑😑😑😑

A remarkable stat: Heidi Alexander’s appointment as Transport Secretary means the cabinet is now 100% state-educated for the first time in history.

Matt is always at his best when he brings together two topical stories. Tomorrow’s cartoon is just 👌👌👌

In memory of Jim Abrahams, spoofer extraordinaire, here is one of my favourite scenes from Airplane 2

PSA: For anyone wondering what’s in Snoop’s red wine, this is what it says on the back of the bottle 🧐

A classic example of AI being put to good use, doing what it does well IE classifying and pattern spotting - and helping the red squirrel population in the process www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Government press office, sharing literally the most anodyne information imaginable, which is also already in the public domain: ‼️ PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS STRICTLY ON BACKGROUND AND NOT FOR ATTRIBUTION ‼️

CSW is now on Bluesky! Sign up for all your civil-service-related news, comment and gossip

Get with the programme, Keir (and departments)! www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

He follows me on there too! Since back in 2009. I don’t think his team understood how it worked - think they felt they HAD to follow anyone who was following his account

tragically malicious

“The global AI demand may (…) require 4.2–6.6 billion cubic meters of water withdrawal in 2027, which is more than the total annual water withdrawal of 4–6 Denmark or half of the UK. #ethics of #AI oecd.ai/en/wonk/how-...

When I met the Fiscal Crumpet at an IfG event i told him it was like meeting a celebrity. He told me - not in so many words - that that made me a bit of a loser. But I stand by it!