Thread for the last register of financial interests for June. The theme for this week is "objectively there's about 3 scandals here, but also it's pretty much the same sort of things as last month".

There's lots of "oh, are you saying I can't write a book? What about doctor MPs?" about MPs second jobs - but the actual effect of not having rules here is Nigel Farage MP is paid hundreds of thousands to tell people to buy gold.

There's lots of "oh, are you saying I can't write a book? What about doctor MPs?" about MPs second jobs - but the actual effect of not having rules here is Nigel Farage MP is paid hundreds of thousands to tell people to buy gold.

Thread for the last register of financial interests for June. The theme for this week is "objectively there's about 3 scandals here, but also it's pretty much the same sort of things as last month".

This is just false, isn't it? Avg levels of trust in Holyrood (mean 4.46 on a 0–10 scale) are higher than levels of trust in W'minster (3.06), so Dundee would have to be way out of line w/ the nat'l picture to trust Holyrood as much as W'minster www.electionanalysis.uk/scottish-ele...

Short thread on different things moving away from whipping can mean

Combined authorities have a scrutiny problem - here's a pitch for a scrutiny and civic development fund to support local journalism and other civil scrutiny actors research.mysociety.org/html/mayoral...

Posted without comment

You may not like it, but this is what peak AC performance looks like.

Enjoy For All Mankind's recurring "hmm, seems my pal is going space crazy. I'm going to leave that alone for a bit and see if it fixes itself".

Daughter's current scheme is she has taken some pictures of her toys, which I need to take into work and get money for, and then she can use the money to buy a horse.

Every Mamdani scandal is like “he loves his mom and writes very well for a 15 year old”

Each stage in this story has made me more annoyed at everyone involved, but Tim is right and it is very hot.

Organisation merch goals right?! This week our friends at SPOON in the Netherlands hosted our annual ATI Network day. We discussed what's helping (and hindering) freedom of information in practice, and why effective oversight matters just as much as having a good law.

New House of Commons vote: Draft Carbon Budget Order 2026 - https://votes.theyworkforyou.com/decisions/division/commons/2026-06-24/41

The details contained in this are horrific, as they have been into reviews in maternity care in so many other trusts. Time and again the same issues are raised. If you care about public services, you should care about this. The quality of maternity care is a scandal.

Nottingham inquiry is grim

I re-read this old blog post to see I'd changed my mind on any of it. I think the way I'd extend it is to get into the fuzziness of how people make decisions - but that fuzzy things eventually add up alexparsons.co.uk/blog/posts/i...

As I talk about a bit in this blog post, complaints systems hold the whole system together, AI can make both frivolous and legit complaints easier - hard to see what the solution is other than an increase in budget for ombudsmans etc across the board www.mysociety.org/2026/06/16/i...

I've written up what we've learned from this here - in particular digging a bit more into complaints that *weren't* taken up by the commissioner and how this could shape our future approach www.mysociety.org/2026/06/17/w...

It's hot! There's a climate crisis! Air to air heat pumps (aka air conditioning) can help with both problems. But what questions do you have about it? Is it comfortable? How much does it cost? My colleague Shaan Jindal has answered 14 of them here: www.nesta.org.uk/blog/air-to-...

As I talk about a bit in this blog post, complaints systems hold the whole system together, AI can make both frivolous and legit complaints easier - hard to see what the solution is other than an increase in budget for ombudsmans etc across the board www.mysociety.org/2026/06/16/i...

Quite aside from ~ everything else ~ going on this week, hard not to feel as though there is a general underestimation of how serious the effects of the weather this week may be

So dumping this for later, but re-reading Burnham and Rotheram's Head North the other week, and where I think the book is good is giving you a sense of where constitutional frustrations relate to personal frustrations.

37 degrees in London for three days is it? YIKES. Time to review the Shade the UK list of ideas again to see if there’s anything further I can do on the flat. (Main thing is getting at least a temporary canopy up over the sunny patio, I suspect) So many ideas: www.shadetheuk.com/overheating-...

So a bit of a thread on the thinking of our work around written questions and financial interests

Had a momentary "hah, I live in Glasgow now, that forecast doesn't affect me" but then remembered I do in fact have to go down for work this week

Bits in disclosure day stealing from sense8, more things should steal from sense8.

For those following the saga with the Information Commissioner, and for everyone who has worked in a toxic technology environment, this is an important bit of transparency and leadership from DSIT SoS Liz Kendall

This release's notes: X, labour leadership, freebies for ministers

Aside The Member Defender argument, these two points cut against each other. The case for a coronation is the winner isn't really in doubt and getting a move on. The case for a full contest is if, despite that, airing some issues would make the government better

Finally saw Oppenheimer the other day, and it's good right, but the narrative puzzle box choice is funny

EXCL: Nigel Farage has been trying to block Bank of England cryptocurrency plan that could be costly for billionaire bankrolling his party. Cracking tale from @tomburgis.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

So a bit of a thread on the thinking of our work around written questions and financial interests

A few months ago we made a few complaints to the Parliamentary Commissioner about some missing interest declarations on written questions by Nick Timothy. A few weeks ago, this led to Timothy apologising www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=...

A few months ago we made a few complaints to the Parliamentary Commissioner about some missing interest declarations on written questions by Nick Timothy. A few weeks ago, this led to Timothy apologising www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=...

We gave evidence to the Procedure Committee last month about written questions and FOI. Here's a quick summary of that, and some reflections on other people's evidence - especially on the growing problems in the FOI complaints system (likely due to AI).

Thinking about social media ban as a parent of a currently quite small person is interesting, because there's already such a wide gulf between the "social media" of my childhood, what exists now, with massive uncertainty about what that is 10 years from now.

Obviously I think tightening the rules is a good idea, but this also gets at the fundamental problem of the 'house of experts' model - the fusion of public and private interests at the heart of Parliament is inherently a corruption risk.

We gave evidence to the Procedure Committee last month about written questions and FOI. Here's a quick summary of that, and some reflections on other people's evidence - especially on the growing problems in the FOI complaints system (likely due to AI).

This release's notes: X, labour leadership, freebies for ministers

… This is also why good scrutiny of primary legislation, and the powers it contains for ministers to make secondary legislation, is important.

Zendaya is meechee

I try to take a systematic lens with the register analysis but you do notice when the same names keep coming up.

Philip loves Elizabeth and Elizabeth loves Russia

So this is interesting as someone who in the business of transparency - and it's something I've explicitly been challenged on by funders that a likely outcome of work digging into corruption is a decrease in public trust in politics.

I am pretty sure that neither the PM nor the candidate in Makerfield have grasped this. Not myself sure how far the Home Office know it but won't acknowledge it- but there is a refusal to produce the modelling of who would have to go, who might choose to go, or the £ impact bsky.app/profile/jame...

"When you see something that doesn't look right" - I'm sure this used to be "if".

Possibly time to reconsider the phrase "anti-immigration protesters" tbh www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/...