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William Cullerne Bown @williamcb.bsky.social · 23h

The Cabinet reshuffle has clarified Britain’s ambiguous relationship with American Big Tech, I argue here in Renewal.

Renewal @renewaljournal.bsky.social · 1d

"It is hard now to think of a touch point for Big Tech with the UK state that does not fall under the auspices of the Blairites"

@williamcb.bsky.social analyses the government's relationship with Big Tech in light of the recent Cabinet reshuffle

Britain's Big Tech problem

The essence of a banana republic is that the state has the legal form of a republic but substantive power resides elsewhere, in the hands of American corporations backed by a US state that considers t...

renewal.org.uk

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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 1d

But you can compare bus journeys in Reading and Nottingham with the rest of the country since, and have a shrewd guess as to why people make the choices they do.

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Ian Black @balmachreuchie.bsky.social · 1d

This is dismal for labour, a nominally social democrat party that’s courting disaster for all of us by trying to mimic the extreme right - many of its supporters thinks this is a “comms” problem, but it’s actually a values problem. And that’s harder to fix. If it was “comms” they could have fixed it

YouGov @yougov.co.uk · 1d

Latest YouGov Westminster voting intention (5-6 October 2025)

Reform UK: 27% (-2 from 28-29 Sept)
Labour: 20% (-2)
Conservatives: 17% (+1)
Lib Dems: 17% (+2)
Greens: 12% (+1)
SNP: 4% (+1)

yougov.co.uk/topics/polit...

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Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 1d

I like to think the British public is intelligent enough to see through political parties whose plans for the future amount to

1. get rid of the immigrants
2. ?

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Marios Richards @mariosrichards.bsky.social · 1d

But probably the main thing would be directly pulling the plug on obvious lines of attack - foreign governments funding parties/media channels to try to disrupt your country - you *can* in fact be too complacent about this stuff.

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William Cullerne Bown @williamcb.bsky.social · 1d

Wake up Britain.

In the US, the Ellisons have put “anti-woke” Bari Weiss in charge of CBS News. The goal is to turn it into a mouthpiece for Trump. No wonder Trump is backing Larry’s AI plans.

In the UK, the Ellisons own Channel 5. And ITN’s contract for 5 News ends in 2028. The shit is coming.

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Eryk Salvaggio @eryk.bsky.social · 1d

The "you don't understand how (AI/LLMs/Diffusion Models/NNs) work" posture in any debate is often just "we don't agree on how to interpret what (AI/LLMs/Diffusion Models/NNs) are doing"

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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 1d

Racism and austerity vs racism and spending

What a time to be alive.

Andrew Sparrow @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social · 1d

Badenoch dismisses case for pact with Reform UK, claiming Farage's party wants more spending and more welfare - www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Badenoch defends Jenrick over comments that he ‘did not see another white face’ in Birmingham – UK politics live

Conservative leader suggests remarks in Guardian report could have been taken out of context and he was ‘making an observation’

www.theguardian.com

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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 4d

Data, however held and whoever held by, is vulnerable. Creating it, or concentrating it, creates or concentrates that vulnerability and creates targets for hackers.

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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 4d

Does TFP handle technical change at all really? Do you not need approach more like that put forward by Pasinetti in Structural Change and Economic Growth?

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 6d

Jews in Manchester should not be attacked because of political animus against Israel.
No one should have to shut up about civilians killed in Gaza, because an antisemitic murderer in Manchester. It doesn't make sense.

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 6d

Our horror at the genocide in Gaza, at the mass murder of civilians on Oct 7 2023, and at today's atrocity in Manchester, comes in each case from the same, inherent part of our shared humanity. We need to assert that shared humanity as loudly as possible, and in as many practical ways as we can.

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Fher Kjell @fherdinand.bsky.social · 6d

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Daniela Gabor @danielagabor.bsky.social · 6d

barbarians inside the state because they know it's very hard to kick them out

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 6d

"AI" is absolutely and ONLY a marketing term, and at this point if it's being used, the intent behind it is to overpromise to the consumer/end user on the program's actual capabilities. And, of course, none of the "AI" is actually intelligent in any meaningful way.

derickhuth.bsky.social @derickhuth.bsky.social · 6d

It would be neat if it wasn’t marketed as AI. Predictive statistical modeling doesn’t really slide off the tongue I guess

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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 6d

And no one should be surprised, because that’s how he became leader in the first place. But this tends to be ignored, or excused, by those that wanted this outcome.

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Phil Syrpis @syrpis.bsky.social · 6d

He has a history of telling the party what it wants to hear. (He does the same with eg Trump; all a sign that he may be more ‘political’ (and/or less principled) than many believe).

I will be watching to see if this approach is repeated in other forums.

But it wouldn’t surprise me if it isn’t. 3/3

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Gaia Vince @wanderinggaia.bsky.social · 6d

Morning! ReformLabour is back!

Starmer to end asylum ‘golden ticket’ of resettlement and family reunion rights

People granted asylum will have to earn right to invite family in plan charities call ‘straight from populist playbook’

www.theguardian.com

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Toby Nangle @tobyn.bsky.social · 6d

It might be funny if US productivity woes came from tech, but authors of a new paper reckon this isn’t happening, because:

“much of this apparent stagnation can be explained by properly accounting for quality improvements.”

So it's the accountants wot dun it!

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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 7d

He’s been doing it too long. There’s a lot of bruises. It’s going to take a lot more than a few words.

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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 7d

I know eye watering sums have been announced, but the number of physical buildings will still be quite a small as a proportion of overall construction

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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 7d

How??? Under PR Reform would need 50% of the vote to get 50% of the seats. Whereas under FPTP it is possible to get a majority of 140 on 35% of the vote, as with the current government

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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 7d

I won't. I will vote for the party that represents my views: the LibDems or Greens. If Farage gets in under the current electoral process, that's democracy for you. Labour could fix it by becoming a progressive party again, as opposed to a Reform Tribute act, or introduce PR. They will do neither

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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 7d

Speaking as a member of the "pissed off progressive base", it's going to take a lot more than a rallying cry against Farage, and the cabinet sat in a line waving sandcastle flags to get me voting for them again.

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Andrew Smith @oldboysmith.bsky.social · 9d

“AI is the asbestos we are shoveling into the walls of our society and our descendants will be digging it out for generations:”

JW Mason @jwmason.bsky.social · 9d

No surprise, this is very good. pluralistic.net/2025/09/27/e...

Pluralistic: The real (economic) AI apocalypse is nigh (27 Sep 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

pluralistic.net