«"When given suitable resources the Civil Service can often outperform private companies like Palantir," the former government technology advisor said. Eden added MHCLG had created a "better, easier to use, and cheaper" system.»

I do think shame & consequences for unsupervised LLM use is part of the solution. Else we’re all sunk.

The rising of the baby dinosaurs!

I think this maybe the most niché bit of trivia I’ve ever heard.

Coming 2 or 3 short stories. #Free #newsletter includes inside track on writing etc, more broadly arts and fiction, life stuff... It's always free, secure, and will offer opportunities to chat. And moved to #beehiiv so now #Substack haters have no excuse. stephens-newsletter-69af79.beehiiv.com

Coming soon to my free newsletter subscribers the first of two free short stories set in Edinburgh a few years before the Crooked Medium's Guide to Murder. A cynical lawyer meets two grasping siblings frightened that an English medium will get them disinherited. #writing #books #reading #mystery

Shark moats, laser cannons,

What slick Iago, his time come round at last slithers towards the tearoom to throw scorn

White middleclass person in North London approached by a south african literary festival as a brilliant example of global literature. SPAM!

HMRC, now do Nigel

Given the confidentiality of tax affairs, there was a good chance the story would not break while the information was limited to HMRC, her and her tax advisors, leaving her in control of when to drop the news.

If you're a juror on a trial where you even *suspect* the defendants are guilty of an offence carried out as an act of protest (because they've also been banning recent defendants from talking about Palestine), you absolutely *have* to acquit them, because you now don't know what the Judge will do.

Please retweet.

This is one of the several truly epic reviews...

Coming soon to my free newsletter subscribers the first of two free short stories set in Edinburgh a few years before the Crooked Medium's Guide to Murder. A cynical lawyer meets two grasping siblings frightened that an English medium will get them disinherited. #writing #books #reading #mystery

Very good but how about (not mine) "the human politician who cooperates with the Daleks and is surprised to be exterminated in the last ten minutes"

Three-quarters of UK millionaires would be happy to pay more tax, research finds

Wes' theory seems to be that if you wield the knife then you get seen as a traitor and can't win, but walk around waving a big knife with 'backstabbing knife' written all over it going "hey, I'm not using it YET" you'll be a contender. What??

Well, I think we’ve given chaos without Ed Miliband a fair shot, so…

We were late to colour TV and it was extraordinary to have it for this series....

Burnham, disembarking Avanti West Coast

This is better than Wes is a Dalek made of ham.

Changing Prime Ministers mid-term and the constitution How gaining or losing a Prime Minister between general elections in the norm and not the exception New at the Empty City substack emptycity.substack.com/p/changing-p...

This suggests that not only do the creative industries add £124 bn to the economy, they also support a healthier life. On a personal note, keeping the brain going in your sixties when your dad had Alzheimers...

This is one of the several truly epic reviews...

Wes Streeting is a Dalek made of ham

The moderators at bluesky need to understand that public criticism and protest against moderation policies that happen to mention them as public facing representatives of the moderation policy itself are in fact just normal behaviour and one of the things people reasonably use social media for.

Keir Starmer is bad at the job, to the extent he does it. He came into power with limited preparation, he hired poorly, has never bothered to manage the parliamentary party and for two years he pursued a dreadful strategy that bore its bitter and inevitable fruit last Thursday.

Be a human that rejects AI It is not your responsibility to detect all AI. Your anti-AI moral stance is not compromised by someone else getting human-glossed AI past you. The rejection is the work. Make AI socially unacceptable and put the penalty for use back where it belongs, on the users.

Monday - New Crooked Medium novel to copyeditor Cover brief to the designer Price of the first book as eBook down to 99p 99c Out Sept. Plenty of time to read #1 Going for second coffee #books #read #murder #booksky #historical #victorian #queer #womensleuths stephencox.co.uk/books/upcomi...

Slightly increase a band 11 Pole Tudor

There is only one absolutely wrong answer to that question: Wes Streeting

The death of civilisation was foreshadowed when I couldn't persuade my very intelligent mum that just because a friend she liked forwarded her someone online, didn't mean it was true. Trust the friend with your life, yes, trust her to spot a phishing link, no.

this graduation speech moment is notable, and her amazed shock at having failed to read the room feels instructive. when you're inside the bubble, you think everybody else is. but everybody isn't.

1881, London. The Crooked Medium's Guide to Murder -dodgy social climbing medium Mrs Ashton and her working class sapphic lifepartner Braddie trying to solve one murder and find more. From a wicked noble to a docklass detective, danger, laughs, and twists galore. stephencox.co.uk/books/upcomi...

Note to all British people currently panicking -- you didn't forget, our one was in March.

Kind of shows who Farage is that he thinks the problem is getting caught

"We only built the Torment Nexus because evil writers made us do it"

This story needs way more attention. Farage and his acolytes have repeatedly claimed his home was "firebombed", to justify the £5m secret donation given to the Reform leader by crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne But the police report of the incident is a burglary. There's no record of arson

Great Britain now has a fairly typical European party system. Established SPD-Labour type party Traditional conservative party Liberal/Centre Party Green / Left party An insurgent far right, pro Putin, party. Strong 'regional' (national!) parties able to form administrations in those nations.

I found this and it may bring a smile!🙂 This is called the "feather-drying dance of the Great blue Heron"

Best pic of the Odyssey

Calling a Jewish person antisemitic for not supporting the actions of the Israeli government is in of itself antisemitic because it assumes Jewish people have a hive mind that is operated by Netanyahu. I know you know this but a lot of ppl talking about Zack Polanski right now apparently don’t.

I think Parliament should have kids musicians too.

Inspired by the Green Party wins of the last couple of days? A grass roots people powered movement to make life affordable for everyone and tackle the climate crisis. It's a great time to get involved! Join.greenparty.org.uk

I like Bluesky, it is full of booky people;

Parties representing liberal / progressive views have 51% of the vote share. The meeeja have got to stop acting like “everyone’s a little bit racist”, like liberal values are some lofty wafty niche. It’s about half-half, skewing slightly in favour of Not Deliberately Being An Arsehole For Effect.

'summarise the failure of Labour's political strategy in one graphic'

I having a pause as the WIP has had its last readthrough before copyedit, except a lovely friend/beta is not able to get a sensitivity note to me until tomorrow... First instinct is 'what to write next' not 'oh joy, marketing campaign planning.

Your occasional reminder that "AI" is shit: Every assertion in this "AI Overview" of the question "What coffee does John Scalzi drink" is wrong. I don't regularly drink coffee (and never black) I've never had black sesame jasmine cream tea, and I don't hang in coffee shops. Don't trust "AI" ever!