Fantastic campaign, with Christoper Eccleston, to end gambling ads. It's sooo notable how many adverts for gambling there are every where you look - television, YouTube, social media, everywhere Ruining families and it doesn't have to be this way www.instagram.com/reel/DUIMYiP...

Obviously hooray, go UK TV industry, but also is it stargate without a tinted filter over Vancouver forests?

Here's a big thing we've been working on over the last six months: what we've learned from our TICTeC conferences, seminars and conversations about where pro-democratic tech is, and what can happen next www.mysociety.org/2026/01/29/n...

Or else shows that we shouldn't think of constitutions as just written (or even unwritten) documents, but encompassing the norms that make them matter, i.e. the willingness to enforce them. ...

So I'm not entirely sure how much this is my view, but the strong form of "it's people, not rules, that matter" from my democratic perspectives notes

So, working backwards: here's a set of @mysociety.org reports we've have published in the last year🧵

Policy-making challenge: remember Scotland exists (difficulty level: impossible)

Good analysis on the fiscal drag effect of successive governments freezing student loan repayment thresholds, contrary to what HMG said it would do when it set out Plan 2 loans

So, working backwards: here's a set of @mysociety.org reports we've have published in the last year🧵

"I cannot tell you how haunting butterscotch becomes when you associate it with a 550lb (250kg) bear living under your floor." www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

STAIRs appears to be designed to be weak. In Scotland, RSLs are subject to the Freedom of Information Act with no issues. I explain why STAIRs will never compare to proper FoIA in this article: www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/tena...

Procedure Committee has put up a new round of written evidence on the parliamentary questions inquiry - including ours, focusing on the relationship with the FOI system committees.parliament.uk/work/9454/wr... committees.parliament.uk/writtenevide...

Procedure Committee has put up a new round of written evidence on the parliamentary questions inquiry - including ours, focusing on the relationship with the FOI system committees.parliament.uk/work/9454/wr... committees.parliament.uk/writtenevide...

Yes, the Parliament Acts are the big stick that's just in arms reach that explains the whole way the Lords *is*

Here's a big thing we've been working on over the last six months: what we've learned from our TICTeC conferences, seminars and conversations about where pro-democratic tech is, and what can happen next www.mysociety.org/2026/01/29/n...

Good case in point here, the government endorsed "how to prompt" training course giving helpful time saving ways to lie on your CV. Any government views on how this might be affecting the job market? No? Ah well! bsky.app/profile/kole...

I'm house hunting in a hilly area - what's the best online map that gives some idea of elevation in urban areas

BIG report launch tomorrow - packaging up what we've learned about pro democracy tech over the last few years - the big picture of democracy and technology, practical examples, and how to bridge gaps between different groups

Of course you haven't experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon

I see www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Reminder we track open letters now, featuring party breakdowns and searchable lists

Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee's report, while agreeing legislation is needed to update FOI regime in Scotland, recommends against advancing the current private members' bill digitalpublications.parliament.scot/Committees/R...

"We have to deny this, for form’s sake, for domestic audiences and to reduce the chance of reprisals," the logic goes. "But we nonetheless want you to understand we did it, and that we would do it again." The purpose of a deterrent is to deter. Why they can't even bother to come up with good lies.

Like, obviously a practical problem for Burnham this attitude exists but a bizarre view. Being mayor is a real job! Seems weird to think (even if he's not your preferred choice!) he'd be a stronger candidate if he'd stayed in Westminster.

This is good on the history of "MPs can't resign" - which was partly about their independence because if you can't quit no one can pressure you to quit historyofparliamentblog.wordpress.com/2018/12/04/r...

It’s hard to accurately describe what is happening in Minneapolis without sounding crazy. Unmarked rental vans all over the city, with people in military gear and no id jumping out of them to take captive anyone who looks nonwhite or who makes political speech they disagree with.

Here's the @labourtogether.bsky.social collab, in which I argue that adversarial-judicial structures aren't "planning" in any normal sense, and we could have more output from the same people doing the same job for the same money www.labourtogether.uk/all-reports/...

For the first time the Scottish Info Commissioner @foi.scot has launched legal action against a public authority - the Scottish Government - for failing to comply with an FOI decision. www.foi.scot/statement-sc...

So the assisted dying bill, despite having free votes, illustrates how the idea of MPs as independent legislators is really constrained.

My main "picking party leaders" thought here is it's a better rule would already be inclusive of combined authority mayors. The parliament side can be sorted later, and not doing it gives you an awkward set of "senior party figures who are not contenders without a jumping through weird hoops".

Hmm, not sure. Daughter is wise to some of these tactics. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The Inquiry uploaded a *lot* of new documents over the past few months. I’ve finally gone through and added all 11,757 of them to postofficeinquiry.dracos.co.uk for all your searching needs

And side point but what's really annoying about this is you can only really get people on a technicality, which *maybe* get a slap on the wrist. The actual scandals are just allowed.

Given the main parliamentary rule about what you can and can't do is "you have to write it down", just a really low bar not being met here.

Mark Carney's speech really is terrific: full text is here and very much worth your time.

New report: Leaky Pipes - what we learned about where candidate donation data comes from research.mysociety.org/html/leaky-p...

Having a think about what to do differently with the new registers this year - but here is the link to today's

I really cannot stress what a precise "oh this isn't serious" signal launching things at what3words is

*walking past Jeremy Bentham's skeleton on the way to lectures* Ah the good ideas man.

Just under a month away! Join @mysociety.org and others (in London and online) for FOI FEST 2026 Keynotes, discussions, lightning talks, skills tasters Thursday 19 February Sign up here: pretix.eu/mysociety/fo...

And there's a bunch of costs in "maybe there are more important things than price" when Palantir is bidding to run government services

There are principled reasons for thinking party switching is bad, but also it's annoying because it's a manual process on TheyWorkForYou.

Yes the combination of "don't publish nil returns" and "don't publish names *with* interests" seems odd. In the march version only about 20% of entries had interests.

Really pleased that @ecprtheloop.bsky.social have published my blog setting out my research around how well politicians understand which issues matter to voters, why they sometimes get it wrong, and how this misperceptions play out in real life decisions theloop.ecpr.eu/how-well-do-...

Yes the combination of "don't publish nil returns" and "don't publish names *with* interests" seems odd. In the march version only about 20% of entries had interests.

For 10 years, we've convened a global community, with a shared interest in how digital tools can defend and advance democracy, via our TICTeC conference. Now we're surveying the current state of affairs to provide applicable learnings for all. Join us: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/shifting-l... .

Good to see Full Fact banging the drum for regulation of election advertising. fullfact.org/documents/39...

Been having waves of sadness about this this week. Deeply unfair and a very kind and generous man

Something curious about this moment is that for the last 15 years congressional Republicans have railed against "tyranny" for all sorts of things that a Democrat in the White house tried to do. "Forcing Americans to switch to more expensive electric stoves is straight up foolish and tyrannical."

New report: Leaky Pipes - what we learned about where candidate donation data comes from research.mysociety.org/html/leaky-p...