Can't work out if this is the Hunger Games or a Hollywood style HS2 - either way, this golden dome is unlikely to end well for President Snow, oops, I meant Trump www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvsy...

When the rhetoric hits reality medium.com/predict/musk...

🌟Are you interested in exploring transformative programs and connecting with changemakers?

Join the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at the Bartlett Postgraduate In-Person Open Evening on 5 February 2025!

📍 UCL

🔗 Register here: https://buff.ly/41Jopk2

CARTOONS OF THE DAY 🫤

(Cartoonists are rallying around @anntelnaes.bsky.social as she leaves the @washingtonpost.com )

The Alpha geek was never going to be any good at democratic leadership. They never had the statutory accountability or the moral compass as a fundamental part of their stack - why we gave them so much power back in the day will always be beyond me. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

🔎An Afternoon of Missions in Action!

Today's event is a showcase of missions in action globally, drawing on the new 2024 MOIN Casebook, recent Health~Holland paper, and work on citizen engagement in EU missions.

🔗Discover the related publications here: www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/pub...

🇪🇺How can EU missions best approach citizen engagement?

IIPP's Policy Fellow and Visiting Professor @rowanconway.bsky.social contributed to EU Missions Research promoting inclusive and participatory #CitizenEngagement at the national level.

🔗Read her report here: https://buff.ly/3ZodCcd

🚀Missions in Action!

Join us as IIPP Professors @rainerkattel.bsky.social and @rowanconway.bsky.social convene a panel on the lessons we can learn from global mission practitioners, and the role citizens can play in mission-oriented approaches.

🔗Register here: https://buff.ly/3VmsE0Z

Superb
workshop on our missions for Wandsworth Town Property Partnership with our talented steering group. @rowanconway.bsky.social led a master class in turning mission rhetoric into reality !! @platformplaces.bsky.social making all this happen ..

🚀Missions in Action!

Join us as IIPP Professors @rainerkattel.bsky.social and @rowanconway.bsky.social convene a panel on the lessons we can learn from global mission practitioners, and the role citizens can play in mission-oriented approaches.

🔗Register here: https://buff.ly/3VmsE0Z

Including students in the UK net migration targets is truly one of the maddest policies of modern times. Actively cutting exports in a high value service sector and hobbling one of our strongest sources of soft power.

Fancy. Woke. Fillings.

In the first days of 2020, Musk wannabe, Dominic Cummings called for “weirdos and misfits” to drive efficiency in UK gov and find “trillion dollar bills lying on the street”. He must be chuffed that Musk is using his playbook in the US now. Here's my blog from the time... medium.com/iipp-blog/be...

This is *really* interesting for anyone following the energy demand of AI - the point about localised impact rather than global particularly so. (Also, side point, I wonder what this says about distribution of data centres and wondering what the implications of that might be.)

I'll post more later. But in the meantime, I've launched a newsletter because we can trust no platform & no publisher. We've seen what happened to Twitter. And the Guardian, in this moment of crisis, is seeking to sell our dearly beloved Observer, my home for 19 years.

substack.com/home/post/p-...

The declining pay of the cabinet secretary, from @ukcivilservant.bsky.social

Similar for the whole civil service, see chart

Time to do something about the interrelated problems of CS pay, grade inflation and staff churn

Community Engagement through face painting by one of the best in the business @rowanconway.bsky.social