WhatsApp exists? Like, I don't know what MPs will do but people being away from parliament makes party management harder, not easier www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Looks like they are not advertising it on this platform, so if you want to volunteer to be in the Opening Ceremony of the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, apply now 👇 💃 Dancers 🎭 Theatre performers 🎶 Musicians 💫 All rounders. 🔗 www.glasgow2026.com/get-involved... #Glasgow #Glasgow2026

One of the beautiful things about a donor cap is it does just simplify a bunch of loopholes

Pretty great how "anti-net zero" has become a full post-materialist ideology at exactly the time the world is taking an, uh, quite materialist turn

It's fundamentally "can we spend £15k to get 60 MPs to say something nice about gambling". They could just give the money to charity if they wanted, but they're withholding it unless someone says something nice about them.

Went to Perth today, it's good!

💥NEW REPORT 'Credible Deterrence: beefing up enforcement of the UK's political finance rules' Now that the Rycroft Review is out and already making a real impact, we have decided to publish some of the research we submitted to inform the review. 🧵⬇️ www.spotlightcorruption.org/report/credi...

Obviously one of the worst examples, but I think generalises into "AI/AI hype is a permission structure for making bad decisions" - where this isn't so much a negative but one of the selling points.

I don't know what Disney's photorealistic lion technology is for if not for animorphs

🚨Gov announces a moratorium on crypto donations and donation caps on overseas voters These are two positive steps for our democracy. But as Steve Goodrich highlights, "big money from a UK-based mega-donor poses the same risk to the integrity of our politics as from one based overseas". More ⤵️

This is good in backing up the "actually, we should have an effective rule rather than an ineffective rule" side of the argument www.gov.uk/government/p...

Ok! Some interesting ones to think about this week

Ok! Here is the long version of the grid I tweeted a while ago - what at the characteristics of effective use of AI? I argue it's when ML/LLMs lower the cost of producing solutions when verifying them is relatively cheap

A question that would add a lot of value to the RFMI would be "why do you think Google wanted to give you a nice treat?"

Curbing our right to know would be a blow to democracy. My Thunderer in today’s Times on floated government plans to kneecap key anti-corruption legislation by weakening FOI. www.thetimes.com/article/77a1...

Good point by Claire here that FOI costs can be saved if public bodies respond properly and so avoid unnecessary internal reviews and ICO complaints - "Research back in 2010 found internal reviews carried out by Government departments cost around five times more than the original request."

Ok! Some interesting ones to think about this week

🚨 ANNOUNCEMENT: In response to the letter from the Prime Minister, the EIC has launched a review into lobbying, disclosure, and access to government. We are seeking input into our review via the link below. eic.independent-commission.uk/what-we-do/r...

Information about these changes is now displayed on Who Can I Vote For. After a Scottish or Welsh postcode is entered, click the 'boundary changes' link to be taken to a map of your new constituency. Try it out: whocanivotefor.co.uk

For example, Moray Council switched to a new system for publishing the details of elected members’ expenses online and reckons it can save up to 40 hours of officer time a year not answering #FOI requests on the topic: newsroom.moray.gov.uk/news/moray-c...

Excellent Sunday Times leader on the kneecapping of the public right to know currently being floated by officials Our secrecy-addicted state is at it again. It must be stopped www.thetimes.com/article/82a9...

Pro parenting tip: a great follow-up question to "can I have the glue?" is "why?"

Can you find all four mirror people before they find you?

A very good time to revisit this excellent article by @benworthy.bsky.social on the usefulness of FOI

The key point for me from my lived experience with MOD decision making, legislative action and #FOI: “better proactive publication genuinely could reduce volume of requests by removing the need to request in the first place”

MSPs have agreed that The Scottish Parliament should elect conveners instead of appointing them through party negotiations. Following a debate led by Standards Convener Martin Whitfield MSP, the Standing Orders will be updated to include a procedure for electing conveners in the next session.

Have written more about what FOI cost limits are, and the effects of lowering them www.mysociety.org/2026/03/19/r...

It’s exactly a month since FOI Fest – a great day of discussion on all things freedom of information. If you missed it, videos are now available www.mysociety.org/transparency... After @gavinfreeguard.com's intro, we had a video from Info Commissioner, John Edwards www.youtube.com/watch?v=icFP...

Have written more about what FOI cost limits are, and the effects of lowering them www.mysociety.org/2026/03/19/r...

A weak case for restricting FOI, broken down by my colleague @alexparsons.bsky.social . As he says, governments that think they can't afford transparency will be amazed at the corruption and inefficiency they *can* afford in its absence. Or indeed that the next government will.

One of the things that's tricky about transparency is the cost shows up in one budget item, while the corruption/inefficiency costs of secrecy are everywhere. But here's a area where we do have a "waste money on secrecy" line item.

Even by the normal standards, a very weak case being made here. Almost all of the increase relates to records moving to the National Archives. www.ft.com/content/2c34...

Elected Lords is a good idea imo alexparsons.co.uk/blog/posts/s...

The biggest legacy of the bill in the short term is the appetite for Lords reform. Many Labour MPS told me they had been absolutely radicalised by the process. “Once we’ve done the hereditaries we should come for the rest of them,” one says Full story here www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

"To improve transparency and accuracy of land ownership data, [the Government] will work with HM Land Registry to provide access to free, spatial land ownership data for larger properties covering the vast majority of England and Wales, excluding almost all homeowners" www.gov.uk/government/p...

An important angle in this is that we don't do transparency for it's own sake: we do it because it fights corruption and improves how the government operates. Secrecy needs to justify why it is worth the increased risk of corruption and worse outcomes.

Officials have been anonymously briefing about the threat of FOI laws to national security in the FT. I've written a blog on Relight My FOI as to why a crackdown on transparency using the vague excuse of China would be a bad move. relightmyfoia.blog/2026/03/18/p...

Jumping off from this, the really fun thing about the negative procedure is that while there is a mechanism for MPs to petition for a vote, there is no automatic threshold that triggers a vote - some conventions but ultimately in the government's gift.

I don't want to underplay how much it's clear what some of these requests would have represented, but even accepting the risk of doing it "accidently" is astonishing.

Really big devolution news! England is a major outlier when it comes to how fiscally centralised it is. Allowing Mayoral Strategic Authorities to retain a share of income tax generated in their area would be a major step forward, unlocking more autonomy and direct benefit from local growth.

It is a fundamental principle of anti-corruption policy that parties must not be able to hand out financial inducements to voters - whether that's to attend an event, hand over their contact details or visit a website. If this isn't unlawful, it should be. www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...

Also - the messaging is all around making the system stronger, to ensure there can't be a repeat of the Mandelson appointment. But as @rebeccamckee.bsky.social and I wrote for @instituteforgovernment.org.uk, that was as much a failure of judgement as of the system

And not to expect consistency here - but having previously complained about processes and regulations standing between him and things happening, now a call for processes that would stop bad decisions happening.

Always a default assumption that "the green crap" is a luxury belief that can't be afforded in hard times, while being incredibly optimistic/detached from reality about the alternatives.

I guess my Buffy pitch would be a time travel thing. The gang are about to win big over evil, but oh no, some bad guys travel back in time to undo it and Buffy follows to defend the good ending.

This is another useful example about how constitution-guarding institutions do actually need powers to do that.

Many such fairy tale cases

Relevant to this that in most professional jobs you'd have to declare anything over say, £25 and probably wouldn't be able to accept anything over £250.

Was looking for the Scott Benton quote about gifts coming in just under the disclosure limit and hadn't read the full exchange before committees.parliament.uk/publications...

LUV Churchill, HĀT Badgers