Looks like it’s time for my regular rant of “you had TWO YEARS when you KNEW you were going to be in govt, you spent a vast amount of political capital hiring a civil service chief of staff, you had ANYONE you wanted to help, why did you do absolutely ZERO prep for what government in 21c IS?!!??!”

This is as excellent as everyone says. I am struck in particular by the SpAds working more closely with officials. Thoughts follow….. 1. In my experience, a huge part of the political team’s weekly life is bonding in anger over what they see as conscious or unconscious blocking by officials.

As someone who has a niche interest* in “the economics of popular culture”, I am all here for this *annoying habit, according to most other people

Cricket, eh?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c3... Look, that email could have been from literally anyone, ok?

Half Ma’am Half Brisket

I need the most Bluesky take you have- no, that's too Bluesky

Fascinating straw in the wind. Is this that Reform: A) has changed its mind - poss driven by its own councils B) never believed it, was helpful as a dog whistle, but now they need to be serious C) still believe it, but need to be serious Which one it is bears relevance for lots of other issues!

So look, yes the club may cost you £500k to be a founder member. But you get Chat-Lizzie-T with it

Breaking: Two 'elite' sixth forms proposed by Eton College and Star Academies have been approved, while the government blocked a third feweek.co.uk/eton-gets-go...

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume Breathes a life of gathering gloom. Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying, Sealed in the stone cold tomb. Mary: ok…..thanks, I guess, third magi? For this present and your….good wishes for the future of my newborn baby?

She’s found 1000 reasons to vote for Reform, and she did it all in 24 hours

I take no satisfaction in being right despite some Stokes and Jacks hope. Still there’s always football. Oh.

Every. Single. Analyst / Commentator / Pundit / Coach: see off the new bowlers, keep it calm, the ball is doing more in the night, there’s a great opportunity with this pitch, don’t drive at wide balls out there deliberately for you England top order: hold my beer

Please share this info. I cannot emphasise enough: all formulas are the same by law (*except prescription ones), you don’t need to spend £3-£5 more a tub for the branding. Spending more buys no extra quality and does not make you a better mama x

Wes Streeting on R4 after being told a GP on the programme earlier had complained that new online consultation systems meant they being overwhelmed: “I appreciate that without patients the NHS would run more smoothly.”

This is very clear on the UK's growth strategy. Explaining how it fits together and what they are doing and why. All seems very sensible to me.

I would say this, but the IfG's budget live blog is already great, even before we get to the main event - where else do you get this kind of content?

This is all just smoke and mirrors, I want to see the numbers! Sorry, just getting a head start on Bluesky wonk commentary this lunchtime

God love Test cricket

Alarm set for 2am - see all the 🏏 lovers in a few hours….

Great thread. But apart from this, there’s no issues

The BBC Scotland commentary for Kenny McLean’s halfway line goal is glorious. Stuff of dreams. 🔥 Congratulations #Scotland, see you at the World Cup.

Oh come on. Tho I’m delighted that K+C has solved all serious problems in its borough, and therefore has spare resources for a stupid stunt

Strong "recently divorced dad trying to hit on much younger women" energy here.

Quite a contrast to the BlueSky consensus the last 24 hours

Dear @britishairwaysque.bsky.social, when you put on a flight w a certain number of seats, and when people then buy those seats, and bring with them the hand luggage you allow them, please do not hector us that “the flight is very busy and we have no bag space”. You literally designed it this way!

I understand there's a split within govt over how big the controversial new levy on international students should be The q at the moment is whether it should be 6% or a £1,000 fee Different depts & unis would favour one over the other....read more below👇 www.politicshome.com/news/article...

I have to say, I find this letter completely baffling for a number of reasons:

Surprised how well #celebritytraitors worked, esp as one of the major designed asymmetries in the final - whether the original Traitors have recruited or not and therefore uncertainty over how many are left - couldn’t have happened. It *ought* to have made a very simple Faithful 3-2 Traitors ending

Too bloody right. One of the richest clubs in the world can pay for their own new stadium. Why on earth should taxpayer socialise costs and let the club and the owners take future profits?

Staggering that Today cuts away live from the CX speaking, in a specifically chosen prime time slot, to ask two random Labour MPs what they think about is in the speech *that we can’t hear because they’ve cut away from it*

Wonderful win for England’s women cricketers. Great to see on a day that had no other sport whatsoever to distract from it.

Another great real time thread from John on the DfE perm sec evidence. The below is simultaneously staggering, and not - why would DfE have this data? A great example of @rcolvile.bsky.social database state again - it’s much easier to implement things where data collection and segmentation exists

This is a fascinating thread (albeit you may get slight PTSD remembering all of the issues from 5 years ago)

Not even in retirement, but when we’re on holiday in the UK, I ask my kids to look up the details of tiny village primary schools we go past, and I see how full they are, and wonder about local economies, labour force, and school provision. My 12 yo is an expert navigator of the GIAS website. WHAT?

Fair play for getting headlines out of dropping a mythical target for HE entry, briefing it as being anti HE, and in fact setting a new target for tertiary participation. Piss off the people who ought to be happy and make happy the people you want to irritate?

Big shift here - that’s about £5bn all in (and a big political priority) shifting from DfE to DWP

Pet parrots which typically live alone (whilst those in the wild live in large flocks) were given the technology to call each other. They would use it for up to three hours a day, and developed favourite friends 💔 on.ft.com/3K05vhS

Has a technologist ever had a correct opinion about education?

My learned colleague reminds me that from 1995 to 2001 we had the department of education and employment, pre DWP…..

Dedicated uni minister coming I think. Skills white paper is, erm, now tricky. And a tertiary system seems a long way away right now….. (Plus we’re almost certainly going to have funding for pre 16 and post 16 now split between DfE and DWP as funding agencies)

Britain on verge of civil war: update

That debut was more Coventry Gyokeres than Sporting Gyokeres

That’s the quickest fight I’ve seen since AJ early days

Of all the terrible AI forced on us, I think Meta AI on Facebook may be the absolute worst

You can hear them crying in Turin

A brilliant example of both the age bifurcation in politics, but also why we shouldn’t treat all age viewpoints equally. I’m much more interested on this question on what 18-24 yos think (who unsurprisingly prefer HE) than what 50-64s and 65+ almost certainly mis-) think about it.

Spursy