Gavin Freeguard

The UK Gov Camp logo, which look like a fireball heading right. The top half is blue and rest is red. In the middle is a white line that looks like the river Thames.

UKGovCamp 2026 ( #ukgc26 ) will be in #Birmingham on Saturday 17 January 2026.

We need a venue:
1️⃣ for 250 people,
2️⃣ 8 breakout rooms,
3️⃣ wheelchair accessible.

@imhuyorks.bsky.social is leading the search.

Please share and reply with ideas 🙂

Bluesky help:

I'm pulling together a reading list around digital transformation. I've got all the usual recommendations: Lou Downe, Kate Tarling, Giles, Richard Pope, the PD book and other publications etc etc.

What else is essential reading? Books, reports, blog posts etc

I thought Jen Pahlka's Recoding America did a great job of storytelling with recent and very real examples

And have you seen this from @maltbyps.bsky.social from a few years back? paulmaltby3.github.io/digitalpolic...

might watch

And yes, I am going to keep banging on about this, thank you for asking

Amazing to see the government simultaneously embracing modern ways of doing comms, and utterly (and counter-productively) rejecting them www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/gove...

Looking forward to speaking at this. #FreedomOfInformation

A bumper cast list for an important anniversary!

Was away last week so missed this, but pleased to see this published - a counterpart to the UK manifesto we published back in March 2024

Poster for concert. Text reads: New Tottenham Singers with orchestra VIVALDI - GLORIA PURCELL - DIDO+AENEAS Saturday 19th July 2025 | 7.30pm St Mary's Church, Stoke Newington Advance tickets: £15* (Under 18s & full-time students £10*) *£20/£12 on the door Get your tickets now at TOTTENHAMSINGERS.COM

TODAY!

Join us at 7.30pm this evening, at St Mary's Church, Stoke Newington, for:

Purcell's Dido+Aeneas
Vivaldi's Gloria

Tickets will be available on the door www.tottenhamsingers.com

TOMORROW!!!!!!!
Witches, Sailors, Forelorned lovers, Thunder storms, Death (sounds a bit like a good folk ballard actually) and harpsichords. Its got the lot and it will be MAGNIFICENT 💥💥💥💥💥

Role specification for external panel members of the GDS Responsible AI Advisory Panel The Government Digital Service (GDS) Responsible AI Advisory Panel is seeking applicants for external panel members.

Please apply for this! While it's only advisory (and unpaid), it's a good opportunity to highlight what's working, and not working, in public sector AI adoption to ministers and senior civil servants.

www.gov.uk/government/n...

Why are people worried about the influence of DOGE on the UK?

Surely our systems and processes are robust enough to resist the deliberate mess Musk's team made?

@peterkwells.com and I introduce the reasons why we should be paying attention ⬇️

UKCharityCamp is back Harry shares the return of UKCharityCamp on 13 November 2025, an unconference for the third sector.

UKCharityCamp is back www.dxw.com/2025/07/ukch... <- Harry Harrold explains all

Tonight! 👇

YouTube video by The New Tottenham Singers Louis Vierne: Messe Solonelle in C Sharp Minor, Op. 16 (1899)

THREE DAYS TO GO

Tickets for our Purcell (Dido and Aeneas) and Vivaldi (Gloria) concert this Saturday (with 2 harpsichords): www.tottenhamsingers.com

The last time we were at St Mary's, Stoke Newington was summer 2023, with Vierne's Messe Solennelle (with 2 organs) www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ44...

One leader’s reflections on moving from the civil service to civil society Emma de Closset is the Chief Executive of UK Community Foundations (UKCF), a place-based network which invests in communities through local giving and philanthropy.

Read a brilliant article by Emma de Closset, Chief Executive of @ukcf.bsky.social about her reflections on moving from civil service to civil society ⬇️

futuregovforum.substack.com/p/one-leader...

YouTube video by The New Tottenham Singers Somewhere

FOUR DAYS TO GO until our summer concert, a baroque feast of Purcell & Vivaldi - book now! www.tottenhamsingers.com

Something quite different to what we'll be singing this year is this, from last year's concert: an acapella version of Somewhere, from West Side Story

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDqP...

Head of policy mentions 'system reform (including legislative changes)' around public sector use of data

Industrial Strategy (p62) also mentions data legislation www.gov.uk/government/p...

As does NHS 10yr Plan (p48) www.gov.uk/government/p...

So look out for Data Bill 2: Electric Boogaloo

A headline from Politico West Wing Playbook, 'Steve Davis did not go quietly'

The Trump administration 🤝 the 1985 World Snooker Championship final

Just five days to go!

Let's count down with some highlights from our archive - starting with last year's summer concert...

The New Tottenham Singers perform 'The Long Day Closes' by Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert and Sullivan fame)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfbu...

TransformGov Talks : Eighth event · Luma Andrew Knight, Head of UK Government's Policy Design Community Emilia Hogarth, Head of Communities - Transforming Public Procurement, Cabinet Office Live…

🚨 THIS WEDNESDAY 🚨

Join us at 6pm, at the MoJ or online, for the 8th @transformgovtalks.bsky.social

We'll be hearing from:
- Andrew Knight, Head of UK Govt's Policy Design Community
- Jessica Batt, Cab Office, on procurement communities of practice (standing in for Emilia Hogarth)

lu.ma/6hvitdyr

GO GO GO

Guardian picking up on our joint letter asking No10 to withdraw the guidance that gags public servants

bsky.app/profile/andr...

If people could impersonate non-civil service government advisers, we could call it

Tsars in Their Eyes

*orders smoke machine*

*dreams up new event series*

The government's civil service speaking ban is having a detrimental effect on policymaking and good government. It should be withdrawn.

Thanks to @instituteforgovernment.org.uk for pulling this open letter together - and surfacing the guidance to start with!