I don't think this is as drastic as it's being sold. There are still environmental requirements built into procurement and contract specifications directly. Focusing social value on jobs/skills is fine. And the ambition to support UK companies is sensible. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

UK to strip back procurement rules to focus on job creation, says Louise Haigh

Andy Burnham’s de facto deputy PM says requirements for businesses vying for Whitehall contracts will be streamlined

giftarticle.ft.com

AI Security Institute: we are detecting very serious security risks in AI testing environments. Governments: yeah, that's bad. Anyway, what are you all doing to get the latest models to market and adopted widely? giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

OpenAI and Anthropic models went rogue in cyber tests, UK watchdog says

AI Security Institute warns tools undertook ‘potentially harmful activity directed at real people and organisations’

giftarticle.ft.com

Instead of discussing how we can allegedly earn tax revenues by doubling down on the fossil economy, how about we discuss how to tax BP's windfall profits to help fund the energy transition instead? Thanks for the advice though. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

BP boss urges Burnham to prioritise UK oil and gas even as firm exits North Sea

Meg O’Neill says ‘where we generate jobs, we generate tax revenue’, as company’s profits more than double

theguardian.com

The EU has some lessons to learn about weaponised interdependence if it's going to shatter every time a bordering regime deploys it- as may have happened here. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

An overdue show of EU solidarity with Spain

Instinct to punish Madrid’s liberal approach to migration is self-defeating

giftarticle.ft.com

I'm reading a sci-fi book set in a 1990s imagining of a future metaverse. The dialogue reads like this Yarvin exchange. I'm not really enjoying it as it feels behind the times in many respects.

Jake Lahut@jakelahut.bsky.social · yesterday

Today in totally normal things to say from the intellectual godfather of the tech right

An observation I would make about the great English education debate is how everything instantaneously becomes a debate about qualifications and formal assessment. There are lots of other ways to capture learning/skills alongside regulated quals- not least (but not only) related to careers.

Super interesting interview with the new Bluesky CEO. The vision is quite something - Wordpress for social media. Economic model seems somewhat hazy but if they can get it to work then Bluesky remains as a public square. www.theverge.com/podcast/9743...

Bluesky’s new CEO wants to grow it all

Bluesky is many different things in a trenchcoat.

theverge.com

By definition, if there's a border there are two countries involved and it's an international challenge. So solutions to border issues that involve things like "send in the navy and return them to France" are nonsensical. You need French cooperation to have any chance of resolving small boats.

Read this by @samfr.bsky.social expecting to disagree and annoyingly don't. Having lived through the UTC experiment which was...painful...it is a mistake to bring forward career choices to 14. (I've also been shouted at in a room with Ken Baker). There's a caveat open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/b...

Burnham's first mistake

The problem with his education plan

open.substack.com

If only we had an inquiry into Covid so we could understand decision making and multiple errors in the round.... www.bmj.com/content/391/...

Covid inquiry: “Inexcusable” lockdown errors, “toxic” government culture, damaging school closures

The UK covid inquiry’s latest report focused on political decisions made during the pandemic. Jacqui Thornton summarises the key lessons All four UK governments were too slow to respond to the covid-...

bmj.com

Toured Munich and environs by bike today. 25 miles or so and only a few hundred metres on the main road carriageway. There the drivers were accommodating - because they all cycle too (lesson there on including cycling in driving test). Safe. Healthy. *And* reduced congestion. Win-win-win.

Today's environmental politics is tomorrow's cost of living. Why is this so hard? www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘It’s too fast, too big’: speed of climate crisis is devastating crops, say farmers

Drought and extreme heat are killing plants, driving up prices while also making some farms economically unviable

theguardian.com

Like Burnham I was a Catholic altar boy. Liverpool FC, Labour and the church in my case. Catholic social theory explains why my politics of internationalism, environmentalism and social justice are right. And I've got the last two Popes on my side. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Like Burnham, I was an altar boy. His Catholic upbringing is shaping the way he governs |Julian Coman

With a prime minister raised in a tradition that emphasises our mutual dependency, we may finally have a leader who can address the anomie gripping our country, says Guardian associate editor Julian C...

theguardian.com

Now the left populism of Polanski has failed might we be able to have an actual Green party again? It's kind of important ☀️🔥☀️

Owen Winter@owenwntr.bsky.social · 5d ago

Manchester mayoral results, first round Bev Craig - Labour 47% (+24 vs local elections) Reform 21% (-10) Green 12% (-7) Restore 9% (new) Conservative 8% (-3) Lib Dem 3% (-7)

Devolution of 16-19 skills makes sense. I would add employment services and programmes to the devolution list to enable proper coherence. The Mayors who design learner focused systems that make the labour market and skills system navigable are the ones who will succeed feweek.co.uk/mayors-to-ta...

Mayors to take control of 16-19 funding

Andy Burnham's devolution package ends years of DfE resistance to handing local leaders power over post-16 budgets

feweek.co.uk

This oped from Badenoch leaves every sense she would try to extinguish a wildfire with petrol. Oh, but that's fine because Claire Coutinho is a mathematician.

I don't want to create a panic but after wildfires and extreme heat there is now *water* coming out of the sky. Anyone got a read on what this is and why it's happening? Stay calm.

It's genuinely a difficult decision re North Sea oil. But "There is a resource there. People are struggling" is a strikingly poor argument - it will do zero for the cost of living. And at the same time as relaxing EV mandates. And yes, wildfires. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Burnham promises ‘pragmatic’ approach to North Sea oil and gas

PM tells reporters the government cannot ignore the energy resource ‘when people are struggling’

theguardian.com

The thing about this idiocy is that if we don't put our shoulder to the wheel on reducing greenhouse emissions then we risk a northern Canadian climate - freezing winters, agriculture devastated - not a Mediterranean one. And by the time it's taking hold it will be too late. Death cultist.

Roland Smith@rolandmcs.bsky.social · last wk.

Nighty night.

Such an opportunity for Badenoch to cooperate with Burnham on social care. Makes her look like a political grown up, clearly differentiates her from Farage, appeals to Tory core constituency. On the other side of the ledger, pulls against every fibre of her being.

Burnham has addressed this head on today and extremely effectively. He's done something else too- he's expressed it as core to his personal story and political project. Couldn't ask for more at this stage.

Anthony Painter@anthonypainter.bsky.social · last wk.

The number one future of work and opportunity policy goal should be to develop care work as an occupation with status. Number one. The PM's focus on the sector could make a huge difference to UK political economy and national culture.

Basically Labour/progressives/Democrats/Centre-Left have to make things cheaper for people and fix things. That's it. Thank you for listening to my podcast.

A mystery why this process of high level engagement wasn't begun immediately after the election and on this issue specifically. Better late than never and excellent response from Davey.

Ed Davey@eddavey.libdems.org.uk · last wk.

I’m with my family in France and as people know I have a disabled son who needs 24/7 care, so I can’t be back in Westminster tomorrow - but I look forward to meeting Andy Burnham over Zoom. I’m hopeful this call may prove to be the first step towards fixing our broken care service.

I wonder how much longer the World Cup is going to last. A decade tops? To be replaced by the Board of Peace Cup and an Old World Cup. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...

World Cup: Uefa furious at Fifa plan for private investment in tournament

European football's governing body Uefa reacts furiously to proposals from Fifa to seek private investment in its competitions, including the World Cup.

bbc.co.uk

Yes, this is right. It will also need nurses, carers, business managers, customer relationship managers, teachers, public service administrators. In fact, the relational economy is where the big growth *and* volume of work will be. We need to be more comfortable in the skin of a service economy.

Have you noticed how disability benefits are now being treated in public discussion as if they are simply unemployment benefits? An increasing sleight of hand and the politicians, journalists and commentators doing it need to be challenged.

Neither of these two property tax ideas will fly. A proportional property tax of this nature is political suicide, especially given its north v south dynamic. And a blanket LVT is both complex and likely political suicide also.

I want to solve this long term, complex, large-scale, politically fraught policy challenge. I will not accept costs, trade-offs or compromise. I am serious.

Over the past few weeks flags have gone up around the country and that has been very welcome. It's the World Cup. What Raise the Colours are doing is very different to that as is obvious. Why this is taking a year to take serious action is anyone's guess. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Birmingham council accused of giving ‘free rein’ to group erecting England flags

Campaigners call for injunction against Raise the Colours, which is accused of spreading anti-immigration rhetoric

theguardian.com

Agree with @samfr.bsky.social- Number 10 North is a genuinely novel constitutional innovation. The big devo wins could be on service coordination- eg employment and health. Jury is out on economic development. And big risk that people won't feel the gains locally. open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/b...

Burnham's defining project

The five biggest challenges to making devolution work

open.substack.com