John Williams
@johnhuww.bsky.social
wine, gardens, churches and Wales will feature. Professionally interested in health and life sciences, mental health, academic clinical careers and science policy in general. I cross boundaries. @wi_john
As someone who is 🏴 with little to celebrate one can’t help but feel a frisson of joy up on reading this sentence 🥳😂
“A most rude and humbling awakening”
www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/...
“A most rude and humbling awakening”
www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/...
Six Nations: Error-strewn England humbled by Scotland in huge wake-up call for Borthwick
A most rude and humbling awakening for England.
www.telegraph.co.uk
February 14, 2026 at 6:58 PM
As someone who is 🏴 with little to celebrate one can’t help but feel a frisson of joy up on reading this sentence 🥳😂
“A most rude and humbling awakening”
www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/...
“A most rude and humbling awakening”
www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/...
Excellent analysis
“I think the current conversation reveals something important: people know they don’t like the system we have but seemingly have no real idea of what a big reform to it would look like”
www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/02/14/i...
“I think the current conversation reveals something important: people know they don’t like the system we have but seemingly have no real idea of what a big reform to it would look like”
www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/02/14/i...
If everyone hates today’s student loans, where are the big alternative ideas? - HEPI
HEPI Director, Nick Hillman OBE, considers the paucity of big alternative ideas from those behind the campaigns against student loans. The student loan row rumbles on for another weekend … It is an od...
www.hepi.ac.uk
February 14, 2026 at 3:10 PM
Excellent analysis
“I think the current conversation reveals something important: people know they don’t like the system we have but seemingly have no real idea of what a big reform to it would look like”
www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/02/14/i...
“I think the current conversation reveals something important: people know they don’t like the system we have but seemingly have no real idea of what a big reform to it would look like”
www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/02/14/i...
Rishi Sunak:
“When I speak to CEOs, I am struck by how AI deployment is dominating their thinking and time. This isn’t true in Westminster and Whitehall. But we’ll only get adoption in the public sector if ministers make it their priority.”
www.thetimes.com/article/3e75...
“When I speak to CEOs, I am struck by how AI deployment is dominating their thinking and time. This isn’t true in Westminster and Whitehall. But we’ll only get adoption in the public sector if ministers make it their priority.”
www.thetimes.com/article/3e75...
Rishi Sunak: Every CEO is talking about AI — why aren’t our leaders?
Britain will become a tourist theme park if we don’t fix our productivity problem — Keir Starmer has an opportunity to solve it with technology
www.thetimes.com
February 14, 2026 at 1:20 PM
Rishi Sunak:
“When I speak to CEOs, I am struck by how AI deployment is dominating their thinking and time. This isn’t true in Westminster and Whitehall. But we’ll only get adoption in the public sector if ministers make it their priority.”
www.thetimes.com/article/3e75...
“When I speak to CEOs, I am struck by how AI deployment is dominating their thinking and time. This isn’t true in Westminster and Whitehall. But we’ll only get adoption in the public sector if ministers make it their priority.”
www.thetimes.com/article/3e75...
A troubling diagnosis… “a maddeningly slight, pink turd of an adaptation”
giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
No sex please, we’re Brontë scholars
Emerald Fennell’s bombastic new ‘Wuthering Heights’ has sent us back to the OG version
giftarticle.ft.com
February 14, 2026 at 11:16 AM
A troubling diagnosis… “a maddeningly slight, pink turd of an adaptation”
giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
Depressing …
“Clavicular, has emerged as a beacon for a group of narcissistic, status-obsessed young men. He wants to take his fixation with “looksmaxxing” mainstream.”
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/s...
“Clavicular, has emerged as a beacon for a group of narcissistic, status-obsessed young men. He wants to take his fixation with “looksmaxxing” mainstream.”
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/s...
Handsome at Any Cost
www.nytimes.com
February 14, 2026 at 8:06 AM
Depressing …
“Clavicular, has emerged as a beacon for a group of narcissistic, status-obsessed young men. He wants to take his fixation with “looksmaxxing” mainstream.”
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/s...
“Clavicular, has emerged as a beacon for a group of narcissistic, status-obsessed young men. He wants to take his fixation with “looksmaxxing” mainstream.”
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/s...
“It should alarm us that some of the insiders who know the tools best believe they can cause harm — and that conversations like the ones I had seem to push developers to grapple with the social repercussions of their work more deeply than they typically do.”
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/o...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/o...
Opinion | ‘We’re All Polyamorous Now. It’s You, Me and the A.I.’
www.nytimes.com
February 14, 2026 at 8:03 AM
“It should alarm us that some of the insiders who know the tools best believe they can cause harm — and that conversations like the ones I had seem to push developers to grapple with the social repercussions of their work more deeply than they typically do.”
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/o...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/o...
“a rare specimen who blends both a clear sense of purpose with clarity of communication and political instincts.”
www.thetimes.com/article/156b...
www.thetimes.com/article/156b...
What kind of prime minister would Wes Streeting be?
To some he is a tall poppy in need of cutting down. To others he’s the future. Allies, former staff and friends reveal what he might be like in No 10
www.thetimes.com
February 14, 2026 at 7:50 AM
“a rare specimen who blends both a clear sense of purpose with clarity of communication and political instincts.”
www.thetimes.com/article/156b...
www.thetimes.com/article/156b...
Ambition versus reality in NHS England’s medical training review
Review highlights key issues but stops short of the structural reform needed
www.bmj.com/content/392/...
Review highlights key issues but stops short of the structural reform needed
www.bmj.com/content/392/...
Ambition versus reality in NHS England’s medical training review
Review highlights key issues but stops short of the structural reform needed
Phase 1 of NHS England’s medical training review is the most comprehensive assessment of postgraduate medical training in ...
www.bmj.com
February 13, 2026 at 9:03 AM
Ambition versus reality in NHS England’s medical training review
Review highlights key issues but stops short of the structural reform needed
www.bmj.com/content/392/...
Review highlights key issues but stops short of the structural reform needed
www.bmj.com/content/392/...
Reposted by John Williams
Many universities gave up that terrain a long time ago when they primarily became businesses either due to government funding reductions or university leaders who thought they could become rich this way.
February 13, 2026 at 7:44 AM
Many universities gave up that terrain a long time ago when they primarily became businesses either due to government funding reductions or university leaders who thought they could become rich this way.
“Young people are quickly becoming so dependent on A.I. that they are losing the ability to think for themselves. And rather than rallying resistance, academic administrators are aiding and abetting a hostile takeover of higher education.”
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/o...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/o...
Opinion | A.I. Companies Are Eating Higher Education
www.nytimes.com
February 13, 2026 at 7:26 AM
“Young people are quickly becoming so dependent on A.I. that they are losing the ability to think for themselves. And rather than rallying resistance, academic administrators are aiding and abetting a hostile takeover of higher education.”
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/o...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/o...
Europe’s life sciences sector could ‘go the way of the dinosaurs’
“despite strong scientific foundations and entrepreneurial talent, Europe is struggling to scale & retain its life sciences innovation in the face of growth in the United States & China.”
www.thetimes.com/article/4d73...
“despite strong scientific foundations and entrepreneurial talent, Europe is struggling to scale & retain its life sciences innovation in the face of growth in the United States & China.”
www.thetimes.com/article/4d73...
Europe’s life sciences sector could ‘go the way of the dinosaurs’
Controlling shareholder of Novo Nordisk joins coalition of European venture capital firms to combat surging growth in the United States and China
www.thetimes.com
February 13, 2026 at 7:18 AM
Europe’s life sciences sector could ‘go the way of the dinosaurs’
“despite strong scientific foundations and entrepreneurial talent, Europe is struggling to scale & retain its life sciences innovation in the face of growth in the United States & China.”
www.thetimes.com/article/4d73...
“despite strong scientific foundations and entrepreneurial talent, Europe is struggling to scale & retain its life sciences innovation in the face of growth in the United States & China.”
www.thetimes.com/article/4d73...
To end ‘boys’ club’, Starmer must do more than just hire women
“These are highly qualified, talented and successful women who deserve these important roles, & will no doubt do them well. What they don’t deserve is to be used as a way to say the problem is solved.”
www.thetimes.com/article/8813...
“These are highly qualified, talented and successful women who deserve these important roles, & will no doubt do them well. What they don’t deserve is to be used as a way to say the problem is solved.”
www.thetimes.com/article/8813...
To end ‘boys’ club’, Keir Starmer must do more than just hire women
The PM is accused of presiding over a toxic masculine culture. But bringing in more female staff, without real power, risks ignoring the causes of recent errors
www.thetimes.com
February 13, 2026 at 7:02 AM
To end ‘boys’ club’, Starmer must do more than just hire women
“These are highly qualified, talented and successful women who deserve these important roles, & will no doubt do them well. What they don’t deserve is to be used as a way to say the problem is solved.”
www.thetimes.com/article/8813...
“These are highly qualified, talented and successful women who deserve these important roles, & will no doubt do them well. What they don’t deserve is to be used as a way to say the problem is solved.”
www.thetimes.com/article/8813...
“Yet neither Streeting, Rayner, Burnham nor rebellious MPs have as much as nodded to the epochal challenges to Britain’s security. Starmer’s party has long prided itself on its internationalism. Now, it seems, Labour prefers to live in Little England.”
www.ft.com/content/e6f7...
www.ft.com/content/e6f7...
The Little England mindset of the prime minister’s critics
Starmer’s restive MPs should acknowledge that Britain’s fortunes are shaped abroad
www.ft.com
February 13, 2026 at 6:50 AM
“Yet neither Streeting, Rayner, Burnham nor rebellious MPs have as much as nodded to the epochal challenges to Britain’s security. Starmer’s party has long prided itself on its internationalism. Now, it seems, Labour prefers to live in Little England.”
www.ft.com/content/e6f7...
www.ft.com/content/e6f7...
“Chairs who serve for an excessive period of time leave themselves open to accusations…of losing their independence... Regular renewal is a vital principle that helps maintain robust challenge, fresh perspectives and strong governance discipline.”
www.ft.com/content/3ede...
www.ft.com/content/3ede...
Who would be a FTSE 100 chair?
BAT is the latest London-listed company where succession is an issue
www.ft.com
February 13, 2026 at 6:46 AM
“Chairs who serve for an excessive period of time leave themselves open to accusations…of losing their independence... Regular renewal is a vital principle that helps maintain robust challenge, fresh perspectives and strong governance discipline.”
www.ft.com/content/3ede...
www.ft.com/content/3ede...
Attempt to modernise NS&I has been a ‘full-spectrum disaster’, MPs find | it’s astonishing that a failure to learn from prior IT upgrade debacles continues and has allowed another to occur. As always zero accountability for the business failure.
www.theguardian.com/money/2026/f...
www.theguardian.com/money/2026/f...
Attempt to modernise NS&I has been a ‘full-spectrum disaster’, MPs find
Spending watchdog says state-owned bank exposed taxpayers to ‘unacceptable risk’ as cost spiral to £3bn
www.theguardian.com
February 13, 2026 at 6:39 AM
Attempt to modernise NS&I has been a ‘full-spectrum disaster’, MPs find | it’s astonishing that a failure to learn from prior IT upgrade debacles continues and has allowed another to occur. As always zero accountability for the business failure.
www.theguardian.com/money/2026/f...
www.theguardian.com/money/2026/f...
The questions not addressed are firstly did the senior leadership misjudge the initial submission for funding - who is accountable - and secondly in the absence of new money how will they persuade the wider UKRI family to share the pain ?
Choices!
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Choices!
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Funding cuts will devastate the next generation of scientists | Letters
Letters: Physics research drives technological innovation, from medical imaging to data processing, write Dr Phil Bull and Prof Chris Clarkson; plus letters from Tim Gershon and Vincenzo Vagnoni, and ...
www.theguardian.com
February 13, 2026 at 6:38 AM
The questions not addressed are firstly did the senior leadership misjudge the initial submission for funding - who is accountable - and secondly in the absence of new money how will they persuade the wider UKRI family to share the pain ?
Choices!
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Choices!
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
“Nobody is against high building standards, safety or support for local infrastructure. But botched implementation and a failure to anticipate how policies would interact have created a perverse situation where it is no longer economical to build homes”
www.ft.com/content/05fa...
www.ft.com/content/05fa...
How London unwittingly killed housebuilding
A perfect storm of policy and regulatory headwinds has slowed new construction to a trickle
www.ft.com
February 13, 2026 at 6:37 AM
“Nobody is against high building standards, safety or support for local infrastructure. But botched implementation and a failure to anticipate how policies would interact have created a perverse situation where it is no longer economical to build homes”
www.ft.com/content/05fa...
www.ft.com/content/05fa...
Reposted by John Williams
A fascinating politician. Does not do the job, visibly and audibly not interested in the brief…bizarrely aggro about people pointing it out.
Absolutely the correct approach to life. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
February 12, 2026 at 11:18 AM
A fascinating politician. Does not do the job, visibly and audibly not interested in the brief…bizarrely aggro about people pointing it out.
Reposted by John Williams
🧵1/ England’s 2026 national cancer plan sets ambitious goals. Earlier diagnosis, personalised care, and faster access to innovation. But our new @bmj.com piece with Bernard Rachet & Ajay Aggarwal, argues that it reads less like a health strategy and more like an industrial strategy.
February 12, 2026 at 12:43 PM
🧵1/ England’s 2026 national cancer plan sets ambitious goals. Earlier diagnosis, personalised care, and faster access to innovation. But our new @bmj.com piece with Bernard Rachet & Ajay Aggarwal, argues that it reads less like a health strategy and more like an industrial strategy.
Reposted by John Williams
5/ Meanwhile, the most coherent part of the plan is its industrial vision: positioning the NHS as a global testbed to accelerate discovery and commercialisation: cancer vaccines, new trials, and emerging detection technologies.
February 12, 2026 at 12:43 PM
5/ Meanwhile, the most coherent part of the plan is its industrial vision: positioning the NHS as a global testbed to accelerate discovery and commercialisation: cancer vaccines, new trials, and emerging detection technologies.
Social workers’ AI tool makes ‘gibberish’ transcripts of accounts from children | “an eight-month study by the Ada Lovelace Institute found “some potentially harmful misrepresentations of people’s experiences are occurring in official care records”.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Social workers’ AI tool makes ‘gibberish’ transcripts of accounts from children
Transcription tools used by councils in England and Scotland reported to wrongly indicate suicidal ideation
www.theguardian.com
February 12, 2026 at 7:53 AM
Social workers’ AI tool makes ‘gibberish’ transcripts of accounts from children | “an eight-month study by the Ada Lovelace Institute found “some potentially harmful misrepresentations of people’s experiences are occurring in official care records”.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
“What’s at stake is not the position of our universities in some hollow ranking, but the enduring excellence of institutions that have long driven innovation and prosperity in this country.”
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/o...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/o...
Opinion | Don’t Trust the Rankings That Put China’s Universities on Top
www.nytimes.com
February 12, 2026 at 7:51 AM
“What’s at stake is not the position of our universities in some hollow ranking, but the enduring excellence of institutions that have long driven innovation and prosperity in this country.”
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/o...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/o...
Britain should pray that Starmer survives
“You have to have access to a special plane of consciousness to believe that Labour is unpopular because it is not leftwing enough.”
www.ft.com/content/c9a2...
“You have to have access to a special plane of consciousness to believe that Labour is unpopular because it is not leftwing enough.”
www.ft.com/content/c9a2...
Britain should pray that Starmer survives
The country did not and would not vote for the Labour left
www.ft.com
February 12, 2026 at 7:31 AM
Britain should pray that Starmer survives
“You have to have access to a special plane of consciousness to believe that Labour is unpopular because it is not leftwing enough.”
www.ft.com/content/c9a2...
“You have to have access to a special plane of consciousness to believe that Labour is unpopular because it is not leftwing enough.”
www.ft.com/content/c9a2...
One in 14 children who die in England have closely related parents: “This is the first analysis of its kind globally looking at consanguinity-related child deaths across a whole country & over a number of years,” said Prof Karen Luyt, director of the NCMD”
www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
One in 14 children who die in England have closely related parents, study finds
Exclusive: Calls for ‘urgent action’ as study also finds stark ethnic and socio-economic disparities in child mortality and consanguinity
www.theguardian.com
February 12, 2026 at 7:10 AM
One in 14 children who die in England have closely related parents: “This is the first analysis of its kind globally looking at consanguinity-related child deaths across a whole country & over a number of years,” said Prof Karen Luyt, director of the NCMD”
www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
Wake up Labour MPs: the price of electricity is a crisis for industry and growth | Nils Pratley
“The net result, though, is loss of competitiveness in core industries”
“high-growth” sectors, including life sciences, defence and advanced manufacturing”
www.theguardian.com/business/nil...
“The net result, though, is loss of competitiveness in core industries”
“high-growth” sectors, including life sciences, defence and advanced manufacturing”
www.theguardian.com/business/nil...
Wake up Labour MPs: the price of electricity is a crisis for industry and growth | Nils Pratley
Centrica boss’s 2030 prediction is not controversial, but government’s strategy hardly adds up to one to prove him wrong
www.theguardian.com
February 12, 2026 at 7:09 AM
Wake up Labour MPs: the price of electricity is a crisis for industry and growth | Nils Pratley
“The net result, though, is loss of competitiveness in core industries”
“high-growth” sectors, including life sciences, defence and advanced manufacturing”
www.theguardian.com/business/nil...
“The net result, though, is loss of competitiveness in core industries”
“high-growth” sectors, including life sciences, defence and advanced manufacturing”
www.theguardian.com/business/nil...