What can a middle power like Britain do when the US and China hoard the most advanced AI? Looks like we’ll soon find out.

Cat has moved out for the summer, so I have to listen to ‘Radio 1’s Relaxing ASMR Cat Purring’ on BBC Sounds.

What if there were no north-south divide and we were just all English if we lived in England? Mad, I know, but imagine it

British electricity mix at 3pm on 2nd Jul 2026 🔥Gas 8.3% Biomass 3.2% Wind 34.6% Solar 37.9% Hydro 0.4% ⚛️Nuclear 8.9% ➡️Imports 6.6% Other 0.0% 🪫Storage 0.0% 🔌Generation 34GW 🌍Carbon intensity 73 gCO2e/kWh vs target of annual average 50-100 gCO2e/kWh by 2030

Thinking about babies given up for adoption today. My mum was given up in 1938. As an adult, she tried to find out about her birth mother, who was dead by then. She went to the village and spoke to some people who remembered the shame of Frances getting pregnant, and she’d never say who by.

The Misanthrope at the National Theatre. What a dog of a reworking. Sandra Oh is indisposed, which didn’t help. Some irony here, I realise.

Christos on the Northern line is playing video at full volume on his mobile, pausing only to tweezer a stray hair from his upper lip.

@rostaylor.bsky.social wrote about this for us some ago at @prospectmagazine.co.uk —her piece remains worryingly still relevant. www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/pol...

Also: Harsh marking, exacerbated by native speakers taking an easy option Teacher shortages German dying off I’d also suspect, Brexit.

Pretty much all we know is that Burnham wants to award procurement contracts to British companies. Understandable, but tricky when it comes to defence.

There's ONE WEEK LEFT to nominate your favourite non-commercial, artistic, poetic, silly, frivolous website of the past 12 months for the 2026 Tiny Awards! We've had 100s of nominations so far but would like more, please - entries are free, please help us celebrate the Good Internet: tinyawards.net

New Substack: why fighting the poll tax could be fun! Burn your bills and douse hapless council workers in water. Plus the regular recommendation of top European drama to stream. It’s French again this week. open.substack.com/pub/rostaylo...

Out now: MORE JAM TOMORROW POLL TAX One of the biggest blunders a modern government ever made. With the LSE’s Tony Travers morejamtomorrow.com/episode/poll...

The former chancellor’s Can We Be Rich Again? offers a dated prescription that breezes past immigration in the blink of an eye ✏️ @rostaylor.bsky.social

They work in Milton Keynes but can you really see a pavements robot being able to cross the Archway Road? It’s hard enough for humans.

Wrote this last week, to explain devs to a non-UK audience. ‘Burnham will govern in an age of growing divisions, where the traditional media ecosystem is breaking down and Britons watch an infinite scroll of hate-filled influencers on social media denigrate their country and its government….

Includes a chat with @jonnelledge.bsky.social about Burnham’s speech yesterday.

8) Double down on net zero, but as economic policy not climate policy. Stop talking about net zero and start talking about electrification. UK was fast to digital tech where others clung to fax machines; now it is fast to electric industry where others cling to clunky old fossil fuels. Own it.

Wrote this last week, to explain devs to a non-UK audience. ‘Burnham will govern in an age of growing divisions, where the traditional media ecosystem is breaking down and Britons watch an infinite scroll of hate-filled influencers on social media denigrate their country and its government….

My latest for @thenewworldmag.bsky.social on the heartbreaking, growing phenomenon of 'locked in' kids - children who end up living an isolated life in just one or two rooms for years. How should we reach them, and is there still hope for their families? www.thenewworld.co.uk/hannah-fearn...

Thank you, Gemma. Means a lot.

I’d go further and argue the Tube is a way of conceptualising and making sense of a city as big as London. But yes. Even NOT making eye contact on the tube is part of why it works. On Saturday a bloke was travelling with his pigeon on the Northern line and the froideur was briefly interrupted.

Not heard a speech like that in a very long time. It’s as though the culture wars and social media never existed.

It’s not even the honeymoon, it’s the first flush of new love, when anything is possible and even his running shorts look good.

Woken by thunder and lightning in the early hours, took a day trip to the north-west, returned to London and it’s still hot and muggy. AARGH

Jeremy Hunt’s written another book about how to fix Britain. It’s short, easy to read and desperately glib. open.substack.com/pub/thenewwo...

Jeremy Hunt’s written another book about how to fix Britain. It’s short, easy to read and desperately glib. open.substack.com/pub/thenewwo...

Please. Temperature. Drop more quickly. Still 30c outside and in.

Fair enough.

As I spritz myself feverishly while trying to get my head around sovereign AI, it would be very cheering if you were to SUBSCRIBE to my Substack. I always recommend something not in English that I’ve dug up on streaming and that you might enjoy. Next time I might do Nailed It! Mexico.

‘Why should a duke pay more than a dustman? It is only because we have been subjected to socialist ideas for 50 years that people think this is fair.’ New MORE JAM TOMORROW out now. morejamtomorrow.com/episode/poll...

‘Why should a duke pay more than a dustman? It is only because we have been subjected to socialist ideas for 50 years that people think this is fair.’ New MORE JAM TOMORROW out now. morejamtomorrow.com/episode/poll...

Everywhere you go, in the real world and online, you are under constant surveillance from the government or one of the tech giants. Unless, that is, you happen to be a billionaire ✏️ @rostaylor.bsky.social

New Substack on poll tax nostalgia, plus the brilliant French series Netflix wouldn’t recommission. open.substack.com/pub/rostaylo...

May I share this verse from a Centre for Policy Studies pamphlet about the poll tax? The Dustmen Millionaire Pronounces that the charge is fair. ‘Some dustmen do outdo some dukes’ Is how he phrases mild rebukes. From the latest MORE JAM TOMORROW, out now. morejamtomorrow.com/episode/poll...

"Absolute required reading, comes through my letter box every week and is now as welcome as Private Eye" - @mrjamesob.bsky.social on The New World Get your signed copy of A History Of Brexit in 256 Disasters when you subscribe Offer here: buff.ly/k8KmgTp

How do the rich enforce their privacy? And what about the rest of us? I talked to experts @petefussey.bsky.social and @susansegfault.bsky.social for The New World. open.substack.com/pub/thenewwo...

Apparently we all have to listen to this, or the council will send bailiffs to take your TV and video. (Seriously, Ros's podcasts are excellent)

Made it in Japan @clairedeb.bsky.social!

Contains advice for Andy Burnham.

I laughed like a drain.

New Substack: why fighting the poll tax could be fun! Burn your bills and douse hapless council workers in water. Plus the regular recommendation of top European drama to stream. It’s French again this week. open.substack.com/pub/rostaylo...

How do the rich enforce their privacy? And what about the rest of us? I talked to experts @petefussey.bsky.social and @susansegfault.bsky.social for The New World. open.substack.com/pub/thenewwo...

Out now: MORE JAM TOMORROW POLL TAX One of the biggest blunders a modern government ever made. With the LSE’s Tony Travers morejamtomorrow.com/episode/poll...

I predict that if you like More Jam Tomorrow, you’ll enjoy Our Friends in the North.

Out tomorrow … New MORE JAM TOMORROW

Out tomorrow … New MORE JAM TOMORROW

Hottest night ever recorded in France.

🔥OUT EARLY🔥 Keir Starmer steps down and our panel look at what the Starmer era really means. @rostaylor.bsky.social, @jonnelledge.bsky.social and @rafaelbehr.bsky.social are joined by special guest @chrisgrey.bsky.social to discuss the fallout ➡️ linktr.ee/ohgodwhatnowpod

Appalling. As a fellow owner of a cantankerous, mildly aggressive tabby and white moggy from Battersea, this is air-filling journalism at its worst.