An account of life inside one of China's close contact quarantine facilities ft.com/content/776226…

Question for Institute for Government folk / Jill Rutter - has there been work done looking at professional background of senior civil servants (directors/DGs/perm secs)? Wondering how many come from policy roles vs other civil service functions (or external appointments)…

Signing on as Government Chief Scientific Adviser today. I’m looking forward to working with government, academia and industry. Science, innovation and technology has never been more important for the UK.

NEW: America is a rich country. Britain is a poor country with one wealthy region. People love to compare the UK to Mississippi, but it’s far more informative to look at UK subnationally, too. London ranks fairly well, the rest of the country does not 👉 ft.com/content/e5c741…

To Rugby World Cup - the organisation at the Marseille stadium was beyond shambolic.

Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccine: 1 and 2 doses, at 5 years old. Ticking time bomb now.

In accordance with ancient tradition (and the Port of London Thames Byelaws) a bundle of straw is dangled from Millennium Bridge to warn shipping of work under the bridge (we’re not making this up, honest). Robert, from our rope access contractor CAN Ltd, does the honours.

There’s been lots of research in this space, but the most fascinating thing I’ve seen was a study from Harvard Business School, where hundreds of management consultants at one of the world’s biggest firms were randomly assigned to either use or not use ChatGPT in their work.

UK Q3 GDP growth came in today (0%), which means it's time for another update to the G7 growth chart Here's each country's cumulative increase in real GDP, since just before the pandemic: 🇺🇸 +8.0% 🇨🇦 +3.9% (through Q2) 🇮🇹 +2.7% 🇬🇧 +1.8% 🇫🇷 +1.4% 🇩🇪 +0.6% 🇯🇵 +0.2% (through Q2)

What's changed of course is how long you have to save for

A strong political divide is emerging between young men and women in many countries: on.ft.com/3Hv2Qs6

📣 Announced in today’s #Budget2024: The British Business Bank will award £250m under the Long-Term Investment for Technology and Science (LIFTS) initiative to create two investment vehicles to support UK innovative companies. Read more: bit.ly/3wH84yN

“I think the thick buttress of bureaucracy is the biggest problem" - Ryan Reynolds “It's a lot harder to build in the UK than, I found, almost anywhere else in the world.” - Rob McElhenney. All TV shows about running a business in Britain have at least one season on planning.

Never even liked tennis anyway.

We left a bike with GPS trackers somewhere we assumed it would be safe... Right outside Scotland Yard. It was quickly stolen. Police didn't check CCTV, couldn't go to a "moving" GPS signal or one at an address Government has given up and police can't focus on rampant theft.

The Cows in the Coal Mine marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolu…

The way the BBC has phrased it makes it seem like the #NUFC cup parade has taken a dark, dark turn…

We’ll be coming 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 See you at the 2026 FIFA World Cup 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 🇲🇽 #FIFAWorldCup

Interesting little aside in Peter Hennessy’s ‘Hidden Wiring’ - there were a mere 160 judicial review cases in England & Wales in 1974. Maybe of interest to JR sceptics… Joe Hill Sam Dumitriu Dominic Cummings Benedict

after chatgpt was released, british MPs started using phrases in their parliamentary speeches that american congressmen use in their floor speechs