@bowsy.co.uk
I've been a long-time supporter of the government technology and transformation communities since 2009. I've worked for mySociety, the GLA, HackIT and GDS. I'm on the committees for GovCamp, TransformGov Talks and the UK Polyamory Association.
The only part I really disagreed with was about having proper markets for things like "GP IT". I strongly believe that government should provide a single high quality in-house produced product for something that is very largely the same across the whole of a section of the public sector.
The parts about working in the open are great. Which bits of the NHS are doing that now and how do we support them? Are there any NHS teams doing recorded show and tells?
On to the next one. Test, Learn (and Grow) in the NHS.
Interesting to read that iterative development has been tried multiple times in parts of the NHS that have then reverted back to old ways of working. How can we highlight / work on the reasons for that?
medium.com/@jamestplunk...
Looking forward to being in the audience for the #RosalindFranklinLecture at @humanists.uk tonight.
Polling from More in Common shows that Greens and Reform win a higher share of voters who struggle to make ends meet, while Labour and the Conservatives win those who are most financially comfortable
Reform UK and the Greens are hoovering up financially insecure voters. My piece this week looks at the return of Britain's class politics (with a twist) www.economist.com/britain/2026...
The latest mailing list email from @demos-uk.bsky.social is excellent but why are so many groups like this not posting their content on their blog? All this does is make their important and interesting work harder to share (left with Mailchip URLs).
mailchi.mp/demos/starme...
I've written another blog post. This one on the Yellow Cars of modern government.
cholten99-61869.medium.com/the-yellow-c...
How does it work in places like Estonia?
Tom sums up everything that's currently wrong in two sentences. Until there's a plan to change that everything will remain fundamentally broken.
I might know someone. DM me for info.
I love this so much. One heartwarming humorous comic for each ten of existential dread seems about right.
So awesome to see #PhysicsGirl posting science videos again! Wonderful to see you Dianna!
youtu.be/B3m3AMRlYfc?...
Wow
Honestly I should be mad about the ongoing inability of DSIT to even let interested people outside of government hear what they are up to. But to be honest I'm just weary.
A snippet of a web page saying "Use public sector emails only to register"
DSIT : "Our Perm Sec is now Head of the Government Digital and Data Function and Profession" come to this webinar to find out about the changes.
Also DSIT :
Yikes - that apparently took four months 😅. Anyway - here's my new blog post about the very rapidly approaching world of humanoid robots in your home and how it'll be the return of colonialism even before all the AI concerns kick in.
medium.com/@cholten99-6...
People have said "what will everyone do when there's no work for them to do because the robots are doing it all".
Well, one answer is going to be endless algorithmically generated content.
Time to re-read : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mac... .
You have to assume that Netflix has a skunkworks already hard at work on this. Given the data they have they'll be able to just generate AI versions of shows targeted at each specific customer giving them endless new versions of shows they they already like.
"For example, the new teams would not manage their comms via ‘the grid’, they would work in the open, talking daily about progress and obstacles, and enlisting junior ministers to prosecute the argument to carve out political space."
Fair brings a tear to the eye...
Finally getting around to reading the frankly embarrassing number of @jamestplunkett.bsky.social long-form essays that I've been piling up for months.
This one on government disciplines is excellent. I hope that @policycamp.bsky.social has some positive influence.
medium.com/@jamestplunk...
Yellow car (see my previous post)...
@theguardian.com for example. Your article uses the word "consultation" nine times but doesn't link to it.
In case you missed it - it's here.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
Are you an unpopular Republican president destroying the economy, hurting working class people to further enrich your billionaire pals, suddenly staring down a landslide electoral defeat?
Ask your Vichy enablers about starting a war in the middle east, premised on WMDs that do not exist!
So you get the same responses from the usual groups. One can only hope that in time the National Strategy work will improve things.
www.nationalstrategy.uk
One more fundamentally broken way we do things. Much discussion in the press of banning social media for under 16s. The government does its usual thing of putting out a consultation to ask the country about this and, of course, almost no-one knows it exists.
www.gov.uk/government/c...
Council to spend £1.5m on new children's care home to address local shortage
More than 90% of children with complex needs have been placed outside the borough
enfielddispatch.co.uk/council-to-s...
Thread 🧵
I'm reading @jamestplunkett.bsky.social on UBI. Things like that, CS support in opposition, single person record, deliberative democracy, automatic benefit enrollment, etc, etc feel more like a game of Yellow Car than things actually moving towards policy.
www.yellowcargame.co.uk/pages/offici...
@civilserviceworld.bsky.social on supporting policy development in opposition. Such things come round again - notably in things like, say, CSW back back in 2015...
www.civilserviceworld.com/news/article... (2015)
www.civilserviceworld.com/news/article... (2026)
I try not to swear too much on here but fuck this. Also, it's got to be another instant block from the courts surely? Them problem now, thanks to the Supreme Court, is that it'll need to be blocked individually in every state.