The founding meeting of the non-permanent #MCRHumNetwork will take place on Zoom on February 24 at 6pm UK time (19.00 CET, 20.00 EET). Message me to get the link.

This is a delightful column even if you are unlikely to be dating anyone in New York www.ft.com/content/3afe...

Third, getting the basics of financial management right is key to delivering better services.

Second, having relevant financial management data and information is crucial for driving efficiency. Government systems often lack the data they need to make good decisions.

First, Gareth lays out the importance of timely, accurate financial reporting, and highlights the challenges faced by local government.

Gareth Davies, the head of the NAO, gives his annual speech in Parliament today. He calls for a step change in government financial management, and sets out four fundamentals in improving value for money. Follow along 👇🧵

Could we please go back to when being super rich did not go with pretending to be intellectual says @j-amesmarriott.bsky.social www.thetimes.com/article/4e9f... (HT @gabrielmilland.bsky.social)

‘If Labour, with a massive majority, 18 months in office, & no immediate economic or security crisis like the 2008 financial crash or COVID to deal with, can't govern effectively, what does that say about British democracy?’ Good read from a former Tory spad www.linkedin.com/pulse/watchi...

A great pleasure to visit @britschoolathens.bsky.social today which we are pleased to support. Enjoyed seeing this visitor book which bears the signature of Agatha Christie, who was married to British Academy Fellow and archaeologist Max Mallowan

If you care about official statistics this is an opportunity to join the Regulation Committee of the UK Statistics Authority. It meets 5 times a year. Members receive a £3k fee uksa.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/news/vacancy...

The new British Social Attitudes Survey shows the bloc politics faultlines: ‘In 2025, 29 per cent of Conservative and Reform supporters favoured reducing taxes and spending, compared with the 10 per cent average for Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green supporters.’ www.ft.com/content/28c4...

A great pleasure to visit @britschoolathens.bsky.social today which we are pleased to support. Enjoyed seeing this visitor book which bears the signature of Agatha Christie, who was married to British Academy Fellow and archaeologist Max Mallowan

They’ve only gone and pulled out Mozart’s own violin at this conference in Athens

I’m in Athens for a conference and have seen this wonderful and somewhat topical Stele of Democracy from around 337BC. It shows the personified Demos being crowned by Democracy

Love this! Feels so modern and yet it is 15thC BC. Three-handled Palace Style amphora with three large octopuses within a marinescape of rocks and seaweed. A Mycenaean imitation of the Minoan Marine Style. National Archaeological Museum of Athens.

This was an inspiring blog six months ago from one of the new joint PM’s Chief of Staff

You can be a self-employed, a part-time tutor, a project employee, a grant holder without job security, working in a museum or in archaeological fieldwork, in admin to pay the bills, there are different situations there. Join us! #MCRHumNetwork

This was an inspiring blog six months ago from one of the new joint PM’s Chief of Staff

This is the kind of dataset that previously earned you a decent academic publication. Now you can generate it in a Saturday afternoon while getting on with some DIY.

Really interesting thread on French nuclear power.

The inscription shows a muscular sense of the need to defend democracy: ‘If anyone rise up against the Demos for tyranny or join in establishing the tyranny or overthrow the Demos of the Athenians or the democracy in Athens, whoever kills him who does any of these things shall be blameless.’

‘Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl set may signify not the rise of Spanish in America, but its peak.’ economist.com/united-state...

"All our generations here are very excited; the elders know how to fly a kite, but we Gen-Zers don't know." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Love this! Feels so modern and yet it is 15thC BC. Three-handled Palace Style amphora with three large octopuses within a marinescape of rocks and seaweed. A Mycenaean imitation of the Minoan Marine Style. National Archaeological Museum of Athens.

I’m in Athens for a conference and have seen this wonderful and somewhat topical Stele of Democracy from around 337BC. It shows the personified Demos being crowned by Democracy

‘The two great loves of his life, his daughter said, were Rosemary, his wife of 68 years, and Rembrandt.’ Obit of @britishacademy.bsky.social Fellow Sir Christopher White www.thetimes.com/article/3402...

Couple of interesting related pieces today. This from @martinsandbu.ft.com explores philosopher Michael Sandel’s critique of liberalism that ‘fundamental questions are decided by markets and by technocrats’ putting ‘sovereign states and sovereign selves in question’ www.ft.com/content/7804...

@hetanshah.bsky.social could you share?

Feel like Mandelson meant this alarming story wasn’t noticed enough this week www.ft.com/content/cd08...

Great to hear from Minister for AI Kanishka Narayan MP - a serious thinker on the topic who does not seem to take an overblown approach

Another scream for action from me, in a world where the US is far from our best friend. Maybe one day the UK government might listen.

I’m just at a workshop where this stat was also mentioned and it is quite something. It is going to be interesting to see this year how exponential the technology can be in areas outside of coding www.ft.com/content/fd13...

The university funding crisis finally starting to make it into newspaper editorials www.ft.com/content/82f5...

This is rather on the nose from Janan Ganesh about how thinking on the right of politics is boxed in on foreign policy when as Carney pointed out, middle powers will need mini alliances with multiple countries on an issue by issue basis www.ft.com/content/0429...

I've now updated my chart of rape charge rate progression for the Met Police. Really big improvements after 2021/22, with charge rates now approaching levels last seen in 2016/17.

‘Novice workers who rely heavily on AI to complete unfamiliar tasks may compromise their own skill acquisition… We find that AI use impairs conceptual understanding, code reading, and debugging abilities, without delivering significant efficiency gains on average.’ arxiv.org/pdf/2601.20245

Striking paper from researchers at Anthropic using a randomised control trial to look at the effects of AI use on skills acquisition. TL:DR ‘We found that using AI assistance led to a statistically significant decrease in mastery.’ www.anthropic.com/research/AI-...

Awe inspiring story we could all do with right now A 20-year study of humpback suggests that [the technique of bubble net feeding]… diffuses through whale society much as skills spread through human communities: by individuals watching, copying & practising together www.thetimes.com/article/2372...

Given so many people are down on the OBR, it's useful to read a counterview - here is @julianhjessop.bsky.social making the case that it hasn't been a bad forecaster and that it has been independent of HMT julianhjessop.substack.com/p/the-obr-15...

Feeling the slow dreadful signs of escalation. I am a frog and the water keeps getting hotter, but I’ll be fine right? www.ft.com/content/cd08...

Striking paper from researchers at Anthropic using a randomised control trial to look at the effects of AI use on skills acquisition. TL:DR ‘We found that using AI assistance led to a statistically significant decrease in mastery.’ www.anthropic.com/research/AI-...

Yup, I’ve got total aphantasia – no visual imagery at all, nor any other senses for that matter (sound, smell nor touch). I’ve met a few more people who are somewhere on the aphantasia side of the spectrum so 4% might be an underestimate. People need to be aware of differences to self-report

‘Most of us can call up pictures in our minds. We can visualize the past and summon images of the future. But for an estimated 4% of people, this mental imagery is weak or absent.’ www.nature.com/articles/d41...

‘Novice workers who rely heavily on AI to complete unfamiliar tasks may compromise their own skill acquisition… We find that AI use impairs conceptual understanding, code reading, and debugging abilities, without delivering significant efficiency gains on average.’ arxiv.org/pdf/2601.20245

Such a great question this

‘To make AI work within organisations, a prosaic set of management problems needs to be solved.’ Yes! The fact we are starting to get articles like this suggests the discourse is maturing. A few snippets economist.com/briefing/202...

Important! AHRC is looking for a new Executive Chair. A critical role for arts and humanities. £160k - £170k. Please share widely to help get the best possible field! fa-evzn-saasfaukgovprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Not saying markets are perfect but they think something is up. Shares in the UK publishing group Pearson fell by 4% on the news, and shares in the information and analytics company Relx dropped 14%. Sage lost 5.5% in London and Experian dropped by 8.9% www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Just wrote about this thematic review www.easterneye.biz/bbc-diversit...

Important! AHRC is looking for a new Executive Chair. A critical role for arts and humanities. £160k - £170k. Please share widely to help get the best possible field! fa-evzn-saasfaukgovprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...