Every big-tech corp making AI-related layoffs right is proving their management have no interest in the innovation they could be realising by freeing up newly 10x'd employees to work on experiments and new ideas. It's an old-world way of thinking, primed to be disrupted by AI, not to benefit from it

Well, here's the tool and data. better-britain.github.io/voting-depri...

If there was a general election tomorrow and the same picture played out as at the recent locals (even adjusted for the shift in voting patterns between locals and generals) my census-signals based model says Reform comes away with 252 seats, the Greens 145, and Labour are wiped out.

For regular development agents... 9-10hrs a day, plus a couple of hours afk each evening on long-running tasks, and supplemental API requests/generations, I spent $83 on AI platforms last month. In terms of work generated, 10-12 small/decent projects, 3 shipped. Roughly ~2 devs worth.

Trying to figure out how to write up "How your doctor and dentist are both scamming you [uk edition]" (surprise, it's just as bad as the US edition, arguably slightly worse because it's more opaque) without sounding like a total fucking nutter.

Started pulling together my own take on Google Podcasts (now it's long dead) on Monday, and now I have an 80% complete project and only 93 TODOs, so I expect to be finished by 2032 :D

I'm sorta pro genai (technically awesome, a social crapshoot), but hfs STOP making your developers review code produced by machine. They can't take responsibility for it because it doesn't work in the same way as code written by a person. Software architecture is more about boundary design anyway

Before Iceland's famous advertising sign-off was "Mum's gone to Iceland" it was "Come Inside" and "We're full of surprises". www.youtube.com/watch?v=obti...

Maybe it's media noise but it looks like Streeting really did just start his leadership bid by tying a massive dead albatross around his neck, when Starmer should have already done that, and be taking the electoral cost of doing it with him out the door. What a massive missed opportunity

I have a compromise I like... Automatic voter registration, rather than outright mandatory voting. You then get to draw boundaries more closely linked to population (helping the poor), than merely to pre-engaged registered electors (helping the wealthier first, especially in low-density wards)

Reform voters don't want 'change they can believe in'. Many don't want change at all. They don't want net zero or legal immigration, let alone illegals, they don't want transexuals or gays, or to be strong together in Europe or to be a good labour market. They don't want garden cities or big ideas.

Had a scroll through Labour MPs looking for whatever drops of charisma they have. They're too new but Adam Thomson, Tony Vaughan, Pam Cox and Alan Gemmel stand out. I'd probably go with experience before 2029... Mumsy anti-Thatcher, Helen Hayes or Debbie Abrahams (maybe too openly Northern)

My attempt to find out who is actually voting Reform? The voter deprivation map, now covers all of England, census signals, locals-only turnout, regional filter and some other cruft.

Wrong. Magnets

If Starmer undoes Brexit in all but name and then quits to try and sell us someone slightly to his left, I hope he whistles behind the door on his way out, like Cameron, the pig poking bellend.

interesting that when tories do corruption, it's openly/brazenly stealing 33 billion quid, but when the left do it, it's a couple of grand and it's because the tax system is intentionally a fucking mess to make tax dodging easier, for tories... According to newspapers, that's the same scale of thing

This puerto rican dentist lady joined the US Army because the insurance system wouldn't let her treat patients, and in the Army she could finally treat patients like humans again. Heart breaking. www.dvidshub.net/video/100649...

I got tired of seeing the same basic trendline-goes-down on turnout... Here are stacked bars showing who didn't vote of absolute population. Roughly the same overall number of people are voting, but usually as a smaller share of a growing population.

It's Manchester only for now, but here's my Voting vs Deprivation map, updating daily as results are counted. better-britain.github.io/voting-depri...

Updated my best selling (not best-selling, sadly) book on building complex software with Gen AI tools this week, and it was so much easier to make smaller and more precise changes with modern models. I don't see how publishing can adapt to so much raw throughput now it's relatively easy to craft.

Pretty sure this election won't be quite as bad as everyone is saying, but I do have a hat that I could end up having to eat.

Made a per-word/phrase diff view extension and cut the amount of headspace it takes to review language passes by like 90%. Probably should have done this 3 years ago.

Made some bowls clearing blanks to make room for recently felled pear and laburnnam

About a fifth of the way

Felt like making a quick fun project, so I put together a site for browsing and playing all my favourite podcasts. It's better than 98% of podcast apps/sites, and is entirely hosted on github pages/actions. Install it to use media controls and offline/background play.

Wrote this one up for BBB :) betterbritain.org.uk/what-brexit-...

Updated the Year of Labour report for 2026 policies and changes, events and optics.

Immigrants vs Billionaires.

Check out our new op-ed! With @taniaduarte.bsky.social @markwong.bsky.social, @suoman.bsky.social, & @timdavies.org.uk. We argue that these collabs normalize close relationships w/Big-Tech, setting them up to be key actors in governance who provide tech solutions to important social ‘problems’.

Updated my website :) bobdavies.co.uk

Will have some time to come back to BBB this month, so I'm starting to think about what this project is for: betterbritain.org.uk/posts/2026-0...