Wow @fintechf thank you! I couldn’t be more blessed to be amongst these amazing women #swashbucklers fintechf.com/homebox/fintech…

Disabling Fable 5 and other models for foreigners is not a misunderstanding or a mistake, it’s the inevitable result of technology shaping warfare so that sovereignty is more about code than cannons. With high energy costs and the emphasis on safety not opportunity Britain’s response has been to build the brake cutting ourselves off from the future and tied ourselves to the past. We cannot continue like this and remain sovereign.

The UK commentariat will spend this week deluded about the Anthropic situation. “It’s just Trump.” “It’s a one-off.” “We can build our own.” “We don’t want or need crappy American AI anyway.” None of it holds up. US has been using AI as a geopolitical lever since 2022. Chip controls, model weight restrictions, Chip Security Act embedding trackers directly into hardware, and now model restrictions. The direction of travel is clear. The UK has four AI Growth Zones, two without delivery partners, and OpenAI paused its Stargate UK data centre in April. Powering a data centre here costs four times what it does in the US. It is illegal to build LLMs that could compete with Claude because we cannot train models in the UK under our copyright laws. The idea we will build our own infrastructure under business as usual is unrealistic. We need to adopt. We need the productivity gains. Debt servicing costs are at historic highs, the tax burden is already at a 70-year peak, and the OBR’s long-run projections assume some productivity recovery. If professional services (the one sector generating real trade surplus) gets automated away by American AI while UK firms lag on adoption, the fiscal math becomes genuinely dire. Under current trajectories, we will arrive late, dependent on foreign infrastructure, with no domestic capability and no leverage. Nobody is taking this seriously enough and I’m feeling despondent.

We are still finalising the research on local misinformation in the local online groups around Makerfield but our lead researcher - who has seen a lot of local misinfo in the last 6 months since we've been researching this topic - tells me: 'it's an absolute shitshow.'

The infrastructure we need can be the infrastructure we like, worthy of the communities they serve. Let’s build with taste! 🇬🇧

EXCL: The Green Party has received a damning audit of its workplace culture and pay to staff by Unite the Union. A staff survey found that 47 per cent of workers for the party are struggling financially and 46 per cent believe they are underpaid. Among the workers, 30 per cent were unsure whether they wanted to stay in their job, while 14 per cent intended to leave. Unite also warns that ‘salaries remain considerably below market rates for comparable roles in the campaigning and political sectors’.

Secretary of State Secretary-of-Stating - vg

finally figured out how to describe my summertime aesthetic

Wes Streeting interview with @joshglancy has lots of policy: - suggests cut in employers' NI for younger workers - allow North Sea licenses (thinks Miliband will do so) - supportive of Burnham on devolution & public control All leadership policies here: docs.google.com/spreadsheets…

Me using Claude Opus 4.8 to rename a file

An ex-Google DeepMind team has just raised $50m to build a new AI lab in London! 🇬🇧 @inherent_labs, founded by @edwardfhughes, @kallyaleksiev, @LouisKirschAI and @TantumSCollins is building self-improving AI. Its AI system - named Faraday named after the famous scientist - allows humans and self-improving AI to work together and tackle what it says are some of the hardest problems in science. It has just come out of stealth with a $50m round led by @dannyrimer and @GeorgiaS_IV @IndexVentures. The team have worked across Google DeepMind, Microsoft and The White House, and @matthewclifford is an advisor. @mhbergen has covered the round in an article in Bloomberg that talks about the rise of recursive self-improvement and the companies (like Inherent and Recursive) trying to solve it, which is a GREAT READ. London is becoming of the densest AI hubs in the world and it is GREAT TO SEE

Hot Essay Summer has arrived.

Dan's point about tax simplification is a good one, he mentions that Nigel Lawson sought to abolish one tax a year. Well, last year we arguably abolished 3 taxes...we scrapped bingo duty; we got rid of the shadow Advance Corporation Tax rules; and also repealed the Diverted Profits Tax, folding it into CT. Will keep looking at what more we can do on simplification.

We have a new report coming out in a couple of weeks on *local* misinformation. We monitored Gorton & Denton the local elections. It's one of the most concerning research projects we've done. If you weren't already convinced of the social value of local journalism, you will be.

Right. Nothing signals a fresh start like bringing back Sue Gray.

Starmer's ex-chief of staff Sue Gray joins team Burnham as key adviser - as Tories prepare for snap election trib.al/gQJPjxs

RIP Jeremy Hanley, local Richmond MP and inspiration for one of the great political lines after returning to parliament after the 1983 GE: “Mrs Thatcher, I want to thank you. I won by just 74 votes and without them I wouldn’t be here. I think your visit to the constituency made all the difference. You are responsible for those 74 votes.” “No Jeremy,” she replied gravely. “It is you who were responsible for the 74 votes. I was responsible for the 20,000.”

ANNOUNCEMENT! Musical chairs in Downing Street don't matter when the real power sits next door at 70 Whitehall. Reform UK will scrap the Cabinet Office and the Cabinet Secretary and restore power to No 10, to ministers and to Parliament. Full policy document here: preparingforgovernment.com/f…

Rishi’s desk admin is 👌

The juxtaposition makes it even more stark