Very good and informative episode!
Service Designer working in local government. Design, Policy, Public Services, Local Democracy. Trying to avoid building the Torment Nexus. Trying to be much less online on here than I was on the other app.
137 followers 157 following 532 posts
view profile on Bluesky
Very good and informative episode!
Much of which feels outside of government control. However I'm all for reliable welfare, maternity and paternity leave and good family services so, happy to see people argue for them!
Was listening to an interesting podcast recently though which said a lot of the public opinion research suggests that for most this is actually less "Can't afford it" and more "don't feel in a good position to do it". Think housing is part of that but also quality of partners etc
This is not me being anti-natalism, I love children. I'm also in favour of making it so everyone who wants kids can afford to do it on fairness grounds. But you have to accept that the revealed preferences of the world is that once you don't *have* to do it a lot of people choose not to do it.
Having children is extremely hard and requires a great deal of compromise in terms of other stuff you want to do. It is no mystery at all why every society in the world stops doing it so much when women have the a) means and b) freedom to do so
Some colleagues of mine are running a challenge prize for those with ideas for tackling food waste in Camden - if that's you or someone you know head to www.wemakecamden.org.uk/camden-chall... if you just want to read a blog about it medium.com/@changebydes...
Ok maybe I could do this one if I was prime minister, talk for 15 minutes about the feat of graphic design, get out Figma and start mocking up worse alternatives for comparison
However, Stephen's are good! I'll concede
Oh to be clear I totally recognise that for most people in this country the flag is a positive and heartening thing, even if I personally don't feel that emotional connection. I'm just curious whether *the journalistic question* comes with a good media-friendly politician's answer
out of touch elitist!
Like I get the flag is important to many but I think we have to be honest that this debate hangs around so much because it's a "what's the price of milk"-style story generator
Isn't the persistence of this question tho that it's a gotcha with no good answer? The honest answer of most people in Britain is "oh yeah, it inspires a vague general sense of patriotism in me, and sometimes I wave it at football" but that doesn't feel good enough for a politician so they go weird
My column in today's FT: on the problems of letting your plans to reform and your plans to save money crowd each other out
this is probably the way round that makes the alliance more likely, though - YP contains a lot of stubborn and bloody minded people while the Greens are so nicey nice that Zak Polanski is considered by them to be a raging populist on the fringes of acceptability
It's hard to say to Green members "look, three more seats won throughtfully will win us a lot of respect and airtime in itself" when Farage's summer is right there
I suppose also, big changes in the last year: -Much more potential to the left of Labour in progressive urban seats -Reform vs Greens + Lib Dems showing the route to attention and rapid growth is not through incremental electoral gains
tactically would that even be a good priority though? So much new potential to the left of Labour in progressive urban seats that didn't exist a year ago. Potentially worth sacrificing some of the other stuff in 2029
“We listen to the poorest communities whether they're migrant communities, disabled communities, the trans community, working class communities, whoever needs us to have their back, we will be there. We will be there to amplify their voices, to listen to the most marginalized & minority communities”
I mean basically the contest was between "Our existing policy platform but not really doing any comms" and "Our existing policy platform but doing much more comms in response to the current media and political environment"
Polanski has won *by a landslide*. 20,000+ votes vs 3,705 for Ra,say/Chowns
So I think yes, norm enforcement mechanisms are important but also some people who are not the most motivated racists, actually still don't want to enforce those norms because they do not agree with them and we have to be comfortable pointing that out
There's a lot of "well nobody wants refugees living near them" going around. Um actually many of us do not mind that at all or indeed choose to engage in community work or socialise with refugees. That view is a racist view, straightforwardly.
I have to say I can only conclude that part of the issue is some people in senior positions in Labour and in the media are themselves quite racist on the issue of refugees
Why we treat local gov less seriously than European counterparts is a question that's above my pay grade but it's very interesting. I mean, fewer powers is obvi part of the answer but that just pushes the q back. Councils used to have more powers and we took them away bit by bit.
Have I *also* worked on, e.g., parking issues? Proud to say I have. But there's quite a lot more going on.
The preventative focus in the NHS will be another. Barely any serious primary prevention work rests with the NHS, and yet... no funding for it!
Well also even where they don't have enough money to do other things, that's often why a national policy runs into trouble. Net Zero is a good example
Local gov is part or whole of the public sector side of delivery for most big policy issues you care about. Bins and potholes matter but that's not the primary importance of local gov in either practical or electoral terms.
I now work in local gov, and have done for just under 3 years. Right now people on my team are working on huge policy challenges including: -Youth homelessness -Food waste -Future of the welfare state -Planning reform -Primary prevention for people not known to social care etc etc etc
very good thread. In my brief time working in Westminster I encountered, generally, two views of local gov 1) It's boring and doesn't matter (more an implicit view ofc) 2) It matters a lot because (patronising tone indicating speaker's superiority) actually potholes matter a lot to the little people
Anyone concerned with gender equality needs to watch how the current fertility panic is tending. See this in the comments of the article below - and not the only one, just the most reasonably expressed. Gilead can be brought about by people wearing the most reasonable looking business suits.
Fascinated how the implication of this comment is that banning women from owning pets until they have kids *wouldn't* mark a "return to patriarchy"
Also if people get offline for a bit there's ample chance to try and do something about it. There are refugee resettlement voluntary organisations in most areas for example.
"social media" is doing this? According to LBC??? the absolute bloody neck of it
To be fair to Keir Starmer... what do you say? Well, what apart from making a series of loud raspberries and flipping the bird, which I accept the dignity of the office would not allow.
And believe me I did not enter this summer an optimist on that particular issue
The most surprising bit of the whole nasty asylum hotels affair is not "Nigel Farage makes hay with controversial legal issue", or "the government is tied up in knots", or "the internet promotes bile" but just how degraded our media have become
"Do you display the flag" is such a political journalists' question. Memeable, picturable, immediately divisive, miles away from anything anybody normal talks about and, crucially, requires you to understand absolutely nothing about the country, your interview subject, or any policy area.
I've complained to the BBC and suggest you do too. We don't have to put up with this absolute endless stream of bilge. Frankly I'd be happy to see the BBC go under at the moment.
The hotels pose problems because they take away community assets, they don't give councils good time to plan services, etc etc etc. One of the problems they pose is not "there will be refugees living in your area". It certainly is not "you will fear for your daughters"
Hotels as accommodation are not good, the way they are set up is not good (I say both from a very pro-refugee perspective). However "living near some refugees while their asylum claims are processed" should not be being identified as an inherent problem by "impartial" journalists
The *moderate* journalistic position, which I have heard less racist versions of elsewhere, has become "come on, nobody wants to live near asylum seekers".
cast someone who looks like Stephen Miller as snape? Have someone talk about "putting wizardkind first"? It wouldn't be good but it's something
like surely the star wars sequel trilogy trope of "using your fantasy world to say something extremely basic about contemporary white radicalisation to score media points" was there for them
would also very much like to save a lot of disgust for Matt Chorley too, who I'm sure just happened to very innocently phrase the question; would you want your daughter walking past an asylum hotel every day?
I would also venture that there are a range of differences between how we should view, in relation to this topic, the innovations of entrepreneurial immigrants to Britain and how we should view intellectual property claimed by the British crown
I think these fine differences are legitimate nonetheless, though. Battered cod from a chippy, tempura cod, and portguese fried cod are absolutely different dishes despite sharing a root and sounding quite similar if you described them all to an alien
I will absolutely stand up for my right to slightly butcher recipes from all over the globe in my own home. On the other hand, I am a citizen of a country that murdered untold numbers of people so it could have plentiful access to sweet hot drinks and that is something to bear in mind.
Personally I'd talk more proudly about the Balti as British curry heritage cos it's a more significant innovation, it seems to me
I cannot offer you clemency from the hordes I'm afraid
Like I've just seen the take that "coronation chicken shows that spices are British food" and I mean, like, in very important senses it *does* but...
Once again I am the most annoying person you know
Ok ok ok, on the one hand, Chicken Tikka Masala is British. On the other hand - appropriation of food and food culture is also absolutely possible, it's just more complicated than the US left's weird ethnic-essentialist idea of it
I think it's naming the tax after what it funds rather than what's being taxed. Makes it seem like a sort of netflix subscription. See also the licence fee.
(Not the most important problem to be clear but I think an additional reason to focus on it)
These same (polite, sensible, middle class type) people are perfectly happy to pay income tax when they actually barely engage with the state. Yet call it a *council* tax and it focuses minds on "what are they doing for me?"
Politically, I think even just the name is a problem it's worth fixing. So many people I meet now say "why am I paying council tax when the council doesn't seem to do anything for me"
"I'm less scary than the BNP (as was)" was always a core part of the farageist pitch both to the country and to those needed to maintain his iron grip on his own parties. I doubt he's coordinating anything beyond his own world but he'll deffo be using this carefully
Like "please make the world less scary to me" is not sociopathic, whatever else it is, while "give me personally the power to decide what other people do" is
Also I'd argue that "ban everything" from a relatively powerless person is a call for a sense of security and control (which doesnt mean its not stupid!) while "ban everything" from the person who gets to decide the ban is something closer to the sociopathic traits described
Just as in policy there has been a move to "evidence/data *informed*" rather than "driven/led", think a similar moderation is required in politics - measuring to explore what's worked and course-correcting if not, but not starting with the measurement
Being "data led" or "data driven", some of my least favourite phrases in policy, has become a big problem in politics too. Very often the data just tells you what the status quo is. It's not helpful in trying to create a new status quo
Yeah I mean ironically our role as enthusiastic teacher's pet in the American empire is behind a lot of this!
"Baked beans are gross" says the only nation in the world to widely enjoy squirty cheese.
The fair criticism of "traditional" British food (usually people actually point to a pretty modern spread of dishes) is that our 20th century was defined by homogenisation and adoption of mass-produced slop. The thing is, America is not obviously in a good place to criticise us there.
I turn on my TV and a TV presenter is asking a Govt minister why they are talking about rolling out free childcare when the big issue is asylum hotels. This is objectively insane.
Imo Pakistani immigrants to Britain are British is your position that that is not the case
Asked on Sky News about this tweet from Elon Musk, part of a recent stream of far-right messages from the X owner about the UK, education minister Stephen Morgan doesn't directly condemn or contradict it, saying the government "understand people's frustrations across the country" about migration.
You too!!
% of brits who would probably say that abstracted "control" is worth more than abstracted "choice of lifestyle and food options" is high-ish. % of Brits would would say "yes I would deport the guy in my office" is very small
Yes. I think the food thing is actively unhelpful because it brings us further into an abstract terrain of weighing up the benefits vs costs of immigration, rather than the salient question of, would you deport Rick, the British Pakistani guy who you eat lunch with every day at work, and his family
Evidence of the 60s and 70s is that they can be - general lifting of restrictive social norms led to greater tolerance for child sexual abuse in some quarters. Equally I'd say there are counter examples - e.g. online culture of late 00s, very pro-weirdo, obsessively anti-abuse
'More in Common' was set up in honour of her and now spends most of its time either lecturing 'the left' or trying to work out how many shandy drinkers will vote Reform
Jo Cox was murdered by a man with a house full of neo-Nazi agitprop and this was then retconned into a vague narrative about social media abuse
Government plans to halve the ‘move on period’ for Refugees, reducing it to 28 days. 28 days to find a job, get a deposit, and find somewhere to live. Thousands of street homeless refugees by the time winter hits. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Wealth inequality? Psh. I would set up a crack task force, separate from the treasury, just real smart guys in a room. Then a four point action plan of action: a) nobody earns too much money. That's right... nobody. b) People who are paid badly? They should be paid better. Fast - weeks, not years...
absolute triumph of the "I would simply" genre here
as of when I last lived in TH a few years' ago, Lahore II was still quite good!
(I speak as an erstwhile hackney gentrifier and dilletante enjoy of locals' things here to be clear I claim no authenticity)
Gentrified Newham is way worse than gentrified Tower Hamlets but locals' newham is vice versa
Erm, East Ham has 10 x better curries than whitechapel nowadays
yes fair point! Bad analogy, more like putting strategic planning of power generation and distribution in the hands of thousands of retirees
I'm a smart person, I think, and I vote on values. Though ofc I read manifestoes, but mostly to discern values, red lines, priorities, commitments etc, not for the policy itself which some over caffienated 32 year olds called up some think tanks and threw together
Very strange technocrat brained modern phenomenon, the idea that we should weigh an itemised list of policies from manifestoes on their objective merits.
The thing is, "who'll stand up for people like me and my values" is the only rational way to vote. We don't know whether most policy will work. *And* we don't know what snap decisions the government will be called on to make about unpredictable events.
I often think of it like this: with other critical infrastructure, some people would prefer it run by the state, others by big companies. Nobody argues, though, that we should put say power generation in the hands of retirees who bought a mini substation kit online and run it from their garden
I appreciate I am potentially taking your points too seriously lol
right so if anything Bluesky is *more* heterogenous than traditional political-social institutions?
The world has never been this sort of university debating society vision of a liberal idyll where people seek out as many opposing views as possible and then sit listening to them and saying "hm, some good points my man". This has never existed anywhere, in any society, outside of tiny circles.
Well, it is as much as Bluesky is!
Things that did *not* get invented in 2008 no matter what columnists and bloggers think: -People who share values dating each other -People who agree with each other discussing ideas -People liking it when other people agree with them -People shunning those whose views they find scary
People in modern western society have always gathered with other like minded people! This is not a unique contemporary phenomenon! If I went to a 1950s rotary club and started espousing socialism or a 1960s liberal club quoting enoch powell what do you think would have happened?
"In the age of social media, progressives have unprecedented opportunities to associate with like-minded people" feels like it would be news to, e.g., trade unionists, members of Labour/Liberal clubs, co-operative societies, etc etc etc of bygone eras
At a very basic level I have never understood how pieces like this can stand up given the existence of widespread politically-defined social institutions in previous decade
So many people have been told "shakespeare is important" with reasoning that basically stretches back to the 19th century, and that they may therefore have reasonably found unpersuasive. Finding new ways to persuade them is interesting and important
Expressing an instinctive and authentic, personal response to a canonical author is just as interesting as discovering an author you can see and others can't, logically
I kind of think, if we agree that "allowing the position of Victorian elites to go uninterrogated" is generally a bad idea, then we shouldn't allow them to go uninterrogated on *why* various canonical authors are good, even if we agree they are good
These are just ordinary brits, with their life-sized cardboard cutouts of politicians that we all have, and their Freikorps that they've founded. It could be any one of us.
A proudly racist man with a previous conviction for violent disorder has set up a militia to "tackle crime" and still gets the soft soap treatment
The latest development in the political revolution sweeping through local government - Reform controlled Durham County Council are removing England flags for health and safety reasons.
