Should be interesting! Oral evidence session: MPs quiz Innovate UK and Regulatory Innovation Office Evidence session Tuesday 14 July, 9:30am, Committee Room 8, Palace of Westminster Watch live on parliamentlive.tv

Striking how this long article has almost no interest at all in the people who died.

beyond Dan Wootton levels of performative mourning from Farage

On the money

When was the last time someone with a degree in science and technology studies reached a Wimbledon semi-final?

Chris Mason should just go on and work for GB News now His hero worship for Nigel Farage is now just an open joke

Point

Egypt woz robbed

So this morning I heard Michael Crick saying that if Farage is found guilty and suspended for more than 14 days, there will be a recall by-election. And now Farage says he’s resigning for a by-election. Is that not just confirming that he is guilty as charged?

Imo he's doing it to try to discredit the inevitable recall election. When it does happen he can say "look, they didn't like the answer so they're asking again"

"waaaaaaaaah, oh wah wah waahhhhhhh" - Nigel Farage, 62

This is essentially a free party political broadcast.

I did my best to do a commentary on Burnham's theory of economic growth & its antecedents here. If anyone wanted an op-ed from me about it I'm available... softmachines.org?p=3324

My holiday is over.

Absolutely spot on. It’ll be interesting to revisit this in three months when we have an idea of the cabinet appointments and direction of travel. All the discussion of Burnham’s big idea politically - devolution - has overshadowed the (hoped for) big idea economically - industrial strategy.

You may want to apply for this if you know anything about technology and its regulation apply-for-public-appointment.service.gov.uk/roles/9471

Burnham’s speech contains a lot on the role of startups, research, innovation and universities in developing local economies. Owes a debt I think to the select committee work of Chi Onwurah and co. He has a decade of experience with this stuff. It’s a good starting point.

Not sure I am as hopeful about the changing of the guard, but v much agree with this diagnosis: "what Kyle and Kendall are delivering is in fact a rebranded, Conservative technology strategy whose neoliberal purpose is to avoid substantive public debate on a question they cannot win."

"I've never known a moment so rich in possibility." Here's to hoping that @williamcb.bsky.social has this right: open.substack.com/pub/williamc...

I really like this analysis. Very good on where there might be scope for an alternative policy vision within the existing constraints (the PLP, faction, the policy context, etc.). A lot hinges on the 'could be' a turning point, but I find this useful on where to look for change to happen.

Today I explain why I think Andy Burnham could be a turning point for Britain. In essence: “Precisely because of the failure of Starmerism, he inherits a party and a country that is open to a genuine change of direction.”

Interesting argument that we are now at a potentially positive rupture point in the UK. The PM promised change and adopted policies that made change impossible, strengthening the (failing) status quo.

Excellent piece giving insight into the 'soft left' point of view as well as a hopeful case for Burnham. We may start to see Monday.

Today I explain why I think Andy Burnham could be a turning point for Britain. In essence: “Precisely because of the failure of Starmerism, he inherits a party and a country that is open to a genuine change of direction.”

Ancient historian thoughts on Iran mess. One thing that always struck me about the Hellenistic kingdoms is how quickly they surrender. These are kings who build up their whole self-definition about being good at war, but they quit as soon as they lose a battle.

Pierrot has sad eyes

Some useful details in here about what practically could be done. Interested in the idea of the crisis response protocol - but Ofcom are so ponderous and risk averse, and so wedded to the outdated voluntary regulatory approach, that I think something far stronger is needed

Hill I will die on: Anthony Head’s greatest role was as Gently Benevolent in Bleak Expectations.

Pope Leo trolling Peter Thiel here. (From his encyclical on AI: Magnifica Humanitas. www.vatican.va/content/leo-...)

New substack: what Labour should learn from Thatcher: chrisdillow.substack.com/p/the-35-str...

The local elections were the loudest wake-up call we could have received. If we want voters to have faith in politics again, we need a system that can truly reflect their views. I call on all MPs to show that we are ready to be much more radical in reforming our elections.

Tony Blair tells Radio 4 that the £257 million his institute has received from a billionaire AI investor has absolutely nothing to with his lobbying for the AI industry

in fairness, 2010 onwards does show reducing workers' rights leads to a booming economy

Blair putting on full display what is in many ways his special ability - to lay out a political argument grounded in his own view of global trends (globalisation in the 2000s, tech in the 2020s). But… institute.global/insights/pol...

“Us” is a 2-way street, Tony. There is no us in the Tony Blair Institute. There was no us when you hooked up with William Hague. There is no us in your lobbying for Palantir. There is no us in your gig for Trump. Neoliberalism has failed and Labour has to move on, with or without you.

Oh, what's that... some recent articles on machines praying, you say?! 1. "Will AI Create a Religion?" 2023 muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/articl... 2. Existential Conversations with LLMs (with M. Shanahan) 2024: arxiv.org/abs/2411.13223 3. LLM theisms (book chapter, behind paywall) 2026, tinyurl.com/2rdntkz9

Series 2 Amanda is not the same as Series 1 Amanda.

👇👏 "UK AI policy has become heavily supply-side: compute targets, hyperscaler partnerships, frontier model announcements. The harder and more valuable question is: how do nurses, teachers, planning officers, accountants and small business owners adopt these tools in their own organisations?"

This is what I would be doing if I was running the UK government's IT systems procurement. Just stop. And start building the in house capabilities.

cc @williamcb.bsky.social

The rewriting of history carries on. It was the 2016 Brexit referendum that has crowded out more important issues from British political life. The single biggest cost of Brexit is its opportunity cost: all the things that could’ve happened between 2016-24. But sure, let’s talk about “SW1 pathology”.

NEW: Palantir’s revolving door. A new investigation by @thenerve.news has found Palantir has recruited more than 30 senior officials from UK govt, a strategy transparency experts say poses an ‘acute risk’ of corruption. 1/ Link ⬇️

Yes, Swiss scientist Fritz Zwicky coined the term “dark matter” which is impressive, but he also coined the term “spherical bastard” to describe people who are bastards no matter which way you look at them, and I think that should be celebrated more.

📉 Visiting and posting on X and Facebook has collapsed: nearly 50% drop! On X, it is mostly Democrats who have become inactive. Many still occasionally log on, but rarely and quietly.

This makes no sense at all: "While the dominance of the fiscal rules left them tied to pledges not to raise income tax or national insurance." Nothing in the fiscal rules stops the government from putting up taxes! www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

In 2016, I spoke to veterans of Hungary's 1956 revolution for a BBC radio doc. They told me how student protesters plucked up courage, & began to shout "Ruszkik haza!" - "Russians go home!" Now Hungarians are shouting it again. @newstatesman1913.bsky.social www.newstatesman.com/internationa...