🚨 6PM, WED 24 September 🚨 Join us at the MoJ or online * Dr Moira Nicolson & Holly Marquez "Failing Forward: Why Planning for AI Disasters Unlocks Breakthrough Innovation" * ​Ben Sauer "Always Be Creating Clarity: Daily habits for strategic storytelling" luma.com/sm09nslz Please share! Thanks 🙏

Where I have some thoughts on digital improvements that can follow from The Elections Strategy. I think the "digital notices" thing could be a really interesting pattern in legislation

UKGovCamp 2026 ( #ukgc26 ) will be in #Birmingham on Saturday 17 January 2026. We need a venue: 1️⃣ for 250 people, 2️⃣ 8 breakout rooms, 3️⃣ wheelchair accessible. @imhuyorks.bsky.social is leading the search. Please share and reply with ideas 🙂

Chuffed to see we're getting more Mandy. The show is made sweeter because in my *greatest role* (Joseph, aged 5) Mary was the most beautiful girl at infants school, one Mandy Carter. There is a kind of resemblance too, makes me wonder if 80's Nottingham Mandy is more famous than I realise...

One for any of my old colleagues from the GDS registers team, ten years on. In a list of challenges for a big operational gov service today: 'There is no authoritive list of local authorities'. *weeps quietly in the corner* www.ukauthority.com/articles/dcl...

Peter Makeham was one of the best DGs I worked for in government and I hope this stirs up the debate about gov structures. I share similar frustrations but I'd favour a different response, eg collapsing policy/ops/digital around services rather than separating them out. But interesting nonetheless!

This is an extremely good piece from @jamestplunkett.bsky.social & speaks to many of the frustrations I've experienced and tried to overcome in public service reform over the years

I'm seeing much eye-rolling on my timeline about the 'futurist' (such a silly term!) piece about AI and jobs. My contrary take is that I think its sensible time to do scenario planning for potential disruptions to the labour market, 1/6

Strong agree with @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social here. Love reading but *hate* reading books for work, especially as most work books could have been a blog post, most blog posts could have been etc etc. Use AI when it's the right tool to pick from the toolbox

My favourite unexpected benefit of working in the open open 💛 #CampDigital

I'm retiring as @ukgovcamp.bsky.social deliver manager (DM). I need an individual or jobshare to volunteer 1 to 2 hours a week of your time. You'll lead the best, annual #publicsector #unconference. Reply or email [email protected] please. Free hoodie included 🙂 www.ukgovcamp.com/about/

Just got an email confirmation of my postal vote (re)application. Email subject line: 'To whom it may concern'. Bless, cute

Still trying to work out how to take a photo of the authenticator QR code of the new gov.uk phone app using my phone. Do I print it out somehow? 🤔

How you handling the heat today? #Moss #Airedale.

Watching Prodigy at Glastonbury and I quite fancy getting myself a Lazzzzer too. Reckon would look awesome early on a misty morning across the playing fields at the back of the house. Are they affordable these days? Could I plug it into the power in the garage? *Furiously searches web*

Adorable www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...

Saturday morning East Midlands revelation. Palo Alto is Kettering, but millionaires

What happens if you let AI run a vending machine? Actually autonomously managing a money-making process is a very good test for AI. Anthropic did exactly that, and it lost money. But the flaws (& strengths) provide a great lens on what AI is good and bad at, and how those gaps might be closed.

"Automation may be the final straw I reckon before white collar Britain goes into full revolt." @jameskanag.bsky.social didn't exactly cheer me up with this post but it's really worth reading! politicalwhiteboard.substack.com/p/the-collar...

There's a lot of AI shit out there, but this is proper good.

Out with the dog to find some kidneys, tea and bread & butter for breakfast. Scant brown gravy. Turns out Cafe Nero mainly does coffee

For 20 years when I've wavered out of signal I've put on my *best* Bolton accent and irritatingly asked 'Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now?!' just to amuse myself. Today, for the first time, someone asked is that from Phoenix Nights and I'm ecstatic and embarrassed in equal measure

Took the teenagers for some Saturday night science at the Royal Institution. Enjoyable & inspiring; book ordered amzn.eu/d/2O5PYQg

Indeed. Government has to actually *do* some AI, and do it at scale with companies that know how to do it if they want to see the benefits this Parliament ‪@peterdt847.bsky.social www.civilservicereformuk.com/single-post/...

*Unmutes all the words*

Yep. This post tells you a lot more about the person using ChatGPT – and their understanding of / experience using it – than about the nature of ChatGPT, or AI itself. It’s definitely interesting! Just not necessarily for reasons the author (or people sharing it) think it’s interesting.

That feels better #groomers #Moss #Airedale

So much love in the room for Shonan Knife in Nottingham last night

Bad sign for this place 😞

I wrote a history of recent AI development in 32 images of otters using wifi on airplanes, from images to video to code. It shows two big trends: rapid improvements in AI models of all types and the growth of open weights AI models. www.oneusefulthing.org/p/the-recent...

Love closing the laptop on a Friday night, cracking a beer and making a deeply average 15min dad junglism creation (with sound effects from Moss the Airedale) 😁🎶🔊

I hate ironing too

Been reading this by @richardpope.org in my lunch hours and it’s rewiring how I think about public services and the policy building behind them. It’s also really nicely written. Strong recommend.

I've spent c.3 decades working on public service reform and Total Place was the only one that I was involved in where I (and from what I could see others too) made zero progress. Nice in principle but without looking at its practical failures (& energy diverted from other reforms) seems a mistake

Not saying I'm struggling this morning but I just ordered a 'deflat' instead of decaf flat white at GDS towers. Might trademark that (and increase the caffeine)

Yep agree with this @dxw.com

'Because you created this account in the 90's before email we can't update your account, so fill in this PDF form and send it via your child instead'. Wow - quite the user journey there from Student Finance England's call centre 😲 Interestingly rare terrible gov transactional web experience

A dozen fresh warm Brick Lane bagels. Yum yum yum

Interesting framing from @bowsy.co.uk - goes deeper than just the personification of personal/organisational agents, but think we're already starting to see how important even this area of AI service design will be, especially for gov

Looking for something to do in Manchester next weekend? Come along to the next Joy Diversion. It is fun and free, and you will always discover something. bit.ly/ODM-JOY17

Big fluffy dog in a beer garden. Perfect

Any civil servant leading the reform of a complex public service should read this document from DWP, reflecting on the painful lessons learned implementing Universal Credit. data.parliament.uk/DepositedPap...

Intriguing... Claude-based natural language midi controller for Teenage Engineering EP-133 KO-II github.com/benjaminr/mc...

The Faculty team loved taking part in this and were chuffed the Clio pitch won. Amazing to see this level of energy and interest across the community - feels like a long time since we all started the balls rolling on this 💪

It’s polling day! 10,000 polling places are open across England for council and mayoral elections. Find out if you have an election, and get your candidate and polling station details: whocanivotefor.co.uk

> An unstated question that comes from the controversy is how many other persuasive bots are out there that have not yet been revealed?

Been enjoying the snooker this year youtu.be/O5WaQA36IoE

open.substack.com/pub/martinro... A stunning example of the kind of crazy nimbyism which makes infrastructure projects like HS2 impossibly expensive

Hivemind 👋 What are we calling the sort of service journeys that 'AI agents' enable? Is there a word yet? I want to help people grasp how it's going to feel different from today's journeys, in words (alongside showing the thing, ofc)

What’s up Bluesky, I’m starting to look for my next professional opportunity. If you are looking for someone community, co-design or collaboration shaped, please get in touch 💬