Great, new tariffs, worth the same as the other new tariffs, different legal basis. More of the same to follow. This is turning into PTSD of my PhD where nothing of substance was changing but the entry into force of Lisbon meant I had 250 pages of article renumbering to deal with. 🫠

Though if we were going to send some far away from the legislature so they can do as little harm as humanly possible, these three would be low on my list of candidates, tbh.

Tom Freeman@tomfreeman.bsky.social · 2w ago

Not entirely sure about the wisdom of distancing ministers from parliament

What kind of meal? Not to be ultra middle class here but that covers three days of meal delivery boxes for four people, let alone home cooking!!! These people have no idea what actual poverty is. (I don't either, but at least I know to shut the hell up about my privilege and not demand more.)

Sky News@news.sky.com · 2w ago

'£50 doesn't even buy a meal': What people think of Burnham's electricity VAT cut

The whole point of increased defence spending is to build European capacity given our inability to rely on America for defence. I can't think of a worse appointment in that light.

James Walker@jameslwalker.bsky.social · 2w ago

🚨EXCLUSIVE: Newly appointed Defence Secretary Wes Streeting has taken tens of thousands of pounds from donors with links to arms firms and controversial US tech firm Palantir, The National can reveal👇 www.thenational.scot/news/2640176...

It's a great topic on which I have many thoughts, most of which centre on Michael Gove basically cursing the UK to become obligated to rate vox populi over expertise. Also: someone should do one for universities themselves, ironically.

Teodor Grama@teodorgrama.bsky.social · 2w ago

For those who want a break from Burnham news… NEW @instituteforgovernment.org.uk report out today by @paddy-mcalary.bsky.social, Saudamini Sigdel and I on how govt can better engage with researchers & bring their evidence, insights and expertise into policy making.

Yo - I know over in the academy we're all employed, but if you do any consulting or get any royalties on the side, fill this in, because you are very likely to have highly variable SE income and what they are proposing will be a nightmare to manage in your case. Promise.

Tits McGee@scientits.bsky.social · 2w ago

Self-employed people! Sorry to put a downer on your Sunday, but in case you'd not seen, the Government wants us to pay our tax *monthly* like we're employees or something With the World Cup and all the politics, I'd missed the consultation they put out last month, which is here: 1/

Way to show off that you understand nothing of human history, mate.

Owen Boswarva@owenboswarva.bsky.social · 2w ago

"AI is likely the most significant technology in human history," says Kanishka Narayan MP, the UK's new Minister for Artificial Intelligence, in a Linkedin post www.linkedin.com/posts/kanish... #techpolicy #AIpolicy #PPEOxford #koolaid

Haha fuck everything

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 2w ago

'Jacqui Smith has been reappointed as skills minister in prime minister Andy Burnham’s government, retaining her joint role across the Department for Education and the Department for Work and Pensions.' 1/2

It does make sense: OpenAI was losing ground and mindshare to Anthropic. They are running out of money but couldn't IPO because SpaceX ruined it. This "our model is a Cyberweapon" is advertising directly to the Pentagon.

tante@tante.cc · 2w ago

No, OpenAI's new magic models did not autonomously hack Huggingface. Per OpenAI's PR blog post (https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-model-evaluation-security-incident/):

The reporting on this is driving me mad. The AI was *instructed* to try to "get out" and found vulnerabilities it exploited. It's not like it woke up one morning and just decided to go hack something.

Sky News@news.sky.com · 2w ago

OpenAI admits its models hacked another company in 'unprecedented cyber incident'

Idle thought this morning: Does Nandy actually *like* DCMS? ... How does that work?!

People really need to stop giving this dude "credit" for being gay when most of what the stands for and believes in alienates the vast majority of the LGBTQIA++ community. This is like giving cred to Mahmood for being not white - okay cool but look at her bloody policy!!!!

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · 2w ago

Wes Streeting is the first UK Secretary of State for Defence who is openly gay. Gay people have been able to serve openly in the UK Armed Forces since 2000. Like PM Andy Burnham's Catholicism, something that would have been controversial is largely now a matter of biographical colour.

Vibe check. Click the areas where you think Andy's Gov will be an improvement on Starmer in light of your values. 1️⃣ Immigration 2️⃣ Economic policy 3️⃣ Education 4️⃣ Arts & culture 5️⃣ Human rights 6️⃣ Defence 7️⃣ Environment 8️⃣ Other - comment pls! 📊 Show results

Rather despondent this morning. Each and every of Shabana Mahmood’s planned reforms will cause immense harm for no benefit, be hugely costly to implement, and cause extensive upheaval and complexity. The excellent recent letter by various Labour MPs explained this very well.

Keeping Mahmood in post is the more electorally meaningful decision, but letting Phillipson keep Equalities is the maddest one. You have already decided to make an enemy of her by taking away her main job, but then you decide to piss off everybody on the socially liberal side of Labour? Why?

Back into the Cabinet after two years in a silent monastery in Tibet.

David Wilcock@davidtwilcock.bsky.social · 2w ago

Lisa Nandy heading into Downing Street, presumably for a promotion

Worrth remembering that Andy Burnham has a long record of being anti-immigration. He's kept Shabana Mahmood in place because he agrees with her

well he shouldn't be

James Heale@jaheale.bsky.social · 2w ago

Wes Streeting is the Defence Secretary

Very happy to be shod of BP in education, quite rate Powell, but what an absolute slap in the face to keep her on W & E. Between that and Mahmood, Burnham is exactly what I thought he would be: an appeaser through and through.

BTW there's something absolutely deranged about reading Lobby commentary about these appointments when we all watched them have not a fucking clue of what was coming less than two hours ago. It's cute that they're just continuing like it didn't happen and their 'insights' are real!

For my more in the know follows: is she a "born again" TERF like Streeting or a "Party Policy" TERF like the rest of 'em? (I do so love that this is now my overarching concern about the person managing the public health sector, thanks UK. Like I hope she's also got some other priorities right but.)

Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · 2w ago

Told Yvette Cooper is going to health.

It would frankly be v funny if Nandy was kept at DCMS, which is where I'm at emotionally now that I'm not at "maybe this will be 3% better".

From Liz Kendall's cabinet departure letter, posted on… you guessed it… X

Look, between Mahmood and Nandy somehow (????) probably getting a promotion, whatever faint hope I had for this change of government has been buried by partisanship and weak compromises already. Sure, chancellor better than expected (in that not Mahmood and someone with the background) but so what?

Fuck.

Really hoping Healey will start a war with Mahmood because he needs more money and UK immigration policy as it stands is the #1 thing that is precluding more of it from flowing in that the UK government actually has control over. I mean, not holding my breath, but Reeves definitely wasn't gonna.

Andy Burnham opts to keep Shabana Mahmood as Home Secretary. A big mistake

Getting a cabinet job: it doesn't matter how good you are at it, unless you're mates with the new PM you just stand no chance of keeping your job. Meanwhile, over in Mateville, it's only a third rate concern if they've actually got anything to offer for those departments, they've got HIS BACK!!!