📣 I'm excited to announce a new venture: Kinship Works! Supporting the energy at the edges - and building a human alternative to our struggling bureaucratic settlement. More details here, along with teasers on some wonderful work we'll be doing this Autumn: medium.com/@jamestplunk...

📣 I'm excited to announce a new venture: Kinship Works! Supporting the energy at the edges - and building a human alternative to our struggling bureaucratic settlement. More details here, along with teasers on some wonderful work we'll be doing this Autumn: medium.com/@jamestplunk...

A Friday share of this 👇 Particulary interested in the operating patterns for what devolution should look like in a digital age. (See the end of Part 1!)

This new blog post from @jamestplunkett.bsky.social (informed by the thinking he's been doing with @richardpope.org and me) is essential reading.

I’ve written a long read on the NHS, the 10 year plan, and how we can unstick the system What does a digital-era healthcare system really mean? (Warning: It’s one for a cup of tea!). (1/n) medium.com/@jamestplunk...

What makes Bluesky different: it’s open source, so anyone can contribute to building the experience they want. And even if you build a whole new app, the protocol means you can migrate with your data, identity, and relationships intact.

Just to complete the narrative arc, I made it to 7:15pm before eating the cookie, which is three hours into the journey, so I’m banking that as a win and maybe 7/10 grit. But also space for future growth/training montage/eventual triumph.

I have one cookie for the train ride from Edinburgh to London and I feel like I’m in one of those Stanford marshmallow tests. It is staring at me. Turns out I have no grit.

I’ve written a long read on the NHS, the 10 year plan, and how we can unstick the system What does a digital-era healthcare system really mean? (Warning: It’s one for a cup of tea!). (1/n) medium.com/@jamestplunk...

We've been overwhelmed by the number (and quality!) of people expressing interest in these roles, so going to close to the window at Thursday lunchtime. Watch this space for more on the new inititiative. Should be able to say more early next week.

A lovely couple of days at work. Today I was at Stretford Public Hall. A wonderful example of the civic revival in action. TL;DR an old ballroom now renovated and reclaimed as a bustling mixed use building owned and run by the local community. 1/n. stretfordpublichall.org.uk

🚨 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 🙏

👀 I'm hiring two roles for a new initiative launching soon (watch this space!) 👀 A Research Assistant and a Writer/Editor. Both part-time, freelance. c.5-10 days by end December, maybe more and ramping up over time (with no obligation). Both £350 pd. Especially keen to hear from good writers! 1/2

For anyone interested in the deeper drivers of yesterday, I recommend Demos’s work on epistemic security. Exploring how we can defend Britain’s information supply chains from foreign interference and other efforts to undermine democracy. demos.co.uk/research/epi...

Yep. Feels like a particular and new form of the mid-life crisis, but for affluent people in the age of social media. You don’t buy sports cars, etc (they already have those) but go down the rabbit hole and find purpose in far right politics - plus a narrative that fits your personal grievances.

ffs this process is ridiculous. It turns out I’m a bot so I can’t buy tickets.

Tautology? (Genuine question.)

Oop. I was on my bike on route to speak at Nesta Policy Live and this happened. *Showers*, the forecast said! Saved by my first black cab of the year.

This also reminds me of the old New York joke: Tourist: How do I get to Carnegie Hall? New Yorker: Practice, practice, practice

Someone trying to leave the Barbican. One of the staff members shouts from a distance: ‘Just get to a road, any road. You can make it!’ I’m pretty sure some people have been here for years, just wandering, trying to leave, visiting endless Giacometti exhibitions.

I hope the ‘do you live nearby?’ algorithm is sensible enough to randomize people who live within a certain distance. Makes sense for climate reasons to avoid long distance but odd to prioritise people in Greenwich over rest of London!

Has anyone got the yes for Radiohead tickets yet? Wondering if I didn’t make it or if it’s just slow.

I’m not an AI hater but these Grammarly ads that are plastered all over YouTube really might as well say “Grammarly does my thinking for me so I don’t have to”

Eugh, reshuffles. One reason there’s so much energy in community-led development is that people have realized that communities are our best source of continuity. Politicians come and go every few months, but the community sticks around. (1/n)

This is good on abundance and regulation from @dsquareddigest.bsky.social (yes I was very slow off the mark): open.substack.com/pub/backofmi...

I started the morning with ‘grrr, Hackney Central library is closed’ and finished it with ‘Bethnal Green library is amazing’. Really joyful space, I recommend it for anyone working nearby.

Has anyone done the Lee Valley mountain biking trail? Wondering if it’s Ok for kids age from 10?

Any ideas for things to do with kids in east London on a Thursday afternoon/evening? I am failing at uncle duties. (Claude says ‘the brutalist architecture of the Barbican will fascinate many children’, which I am 🤔ing)

Stumbled on this in a book fair at St Giles Cripplegate in the Barbican. It’s not the easiest read but helpfully precise about terms like emergence. Also interesting on intellectual history - when and why did modern complexity theory take shape.

A Friday share of this 👇

What can the UK learn from debates about public service reform in Australia? A few reflections from a series of workshops with public service leaders - on place-based work, changing the rules of the game, and the future regulator. medium.com/@jamestplunk...

What can the UK learn from debates about public service reform in Australia? A few reflections from a series of workshops with public service leaders - on place-based work, changing the rules of the game, and the future regulator. medium.com/@jamestplunk...

Public service reform in the UK and Australia. Some reflections from ten day of workshops and meetings with senior public service leaders in Australia. On place-based working, saving bureaucracy from itself, and a vision for the future regulator. medium.com/@jamestplunk...

Public service reform in the UK and Australia. Some reflections from ten day of workshops and meetings with senior public service leaders in Australia. On place-based working, saving bureaucracy from itself, and a vision for the future regulator. medium.com/@jamestplunk...

Hmm, Substack seems to be down. Is the site working for others?

I asked Midjourney for a sketch representing the UK-Australia relationship and it gave me this. A little harsh I thought.

This article on Alfred North Whitehead reminded of the wonder of Wikipedia. See the section on his philosophy and metaphysics. An exceptionally clear summary of the work of one of the 20th century’s most difficult (and brilliant) philosophers. (1/2) en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_...

Honestly think Melbourne might be the best looking city. Even the mundane bits look great. Brave architecture, trams, street art, and somehow a beautiful quality to the light.

🍺🍹🍷🥛 TGT Summer Drinks!! 🥛🍷🍹🍺 Join us at 6pm on Wednesday the 27th of August at the Buckingham Arms for the first TransformGov Talks Summer Drinks. Network, chat and put the world to rights - we'd love you to join us. lu.ma/sdzpnfl9

Guess the pub. (Best pub in Britain.)

Something new from SocietyWorks is coming soon... 👀 We will be launching a self-service version of FixMyStreet especially for parish and town councils. Find out more www.societyworks.org/2025/07/22/c...

London Trans Pride was joyous as always and more important than ever. ❤️(The picture’s from last year because I entirely failed to get a photo!) 🏳️‍⚧️

Just put a nice big teaspoon of salt in my coffee and had a slurp. How’s your Wednesday going?

Agree, the diagnosis is broadly right. The trick is how to achieve a combination of (a) quick material improvements (e.g. to the public realm) that people notice and associate with politics listening and making a difference. But at the same time…. 1/n

Can somebody also please commission a five year, 1,000 page review into why we’re still publishing public documents as PDF in 2025? www.gov.uk/government/p...

Ok, so this has now gone a little bit viral. Quite revealing I think. There's such appetite for practical ways to make bureaucratic systems less sclerotic. I thinik I'll write a follow-up with some reflections on the craft and the most tricky aspects of it.

Ok, so this has now gone a little bit viral. Quite revealing I think. There's such appetite for practical ways to make bureaucratic systems less sclerotic. I thinik I'll write a follow-up with some reflections on the craft and the most tricky aspects of it.

I am honestly not a booster/cheerleader, or a contrarian for the sake of it, but…. Doesn’t lowering the voting age add to the case that the govt’s performance in the first year isn’t quite as bad as people are saying? And might even be, I don’t know, kind of Ok? [Ducks]

Bumper crop in the community garden this year. Pears, apples, tomatoes, courgettes. And also rhubarb, carrots, onions, apricots, lots of berries, etc! This is the Glenarm Community Garden, a little gem in Hackney.

Looking forward to this tomorrow! (Thursday) How to be a mission driven organisation 👇