Matthew Ford

I’m easily entertained!

There has been a remarkable radicalisation of *elite* political and media discourse on mass deportations and remigration.

This is based on an elite perception (+ misperception) of what the public want.

Media and political elites have not spotted how skewed their perception of what the public is

The political effects of X’s feed algorithm - Nature Among users initially on a chronological feed, 7 weeks of exposure to X’s algorithmic feed in 2023 shifted political attitudes and account-following behaviour in a more conservative direction compared...

This is very interesting.

h/t @olivierschmitt.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Palantir is suing the Swiss "Republik" – An opportunity to talk about what kind of company it is, says one journalist | Matthias Monroy Five journalists reported critically on the US corporation Palantir with the WAV research collective and “Republik” – and Palantir is now demanding a right of reply at the commercial court. This…

#Palantir is suing the Swiss online magazine #Republik for their critical reporting – A good opportunity to talk about what kind of company it is, says one of the journalists:
digit.site36.net/2026/02/23/p...

SNOW

AI displaces middle management. Middle managers can no longer afford their mortgages. House prices collapse. World ends. Army of 20 somethings rejoice that they can finally get away from their parents and afford to buy a worthless bit of property.

That AI revolution in full.

YouTube video by Basil Gentleman Sexy Beast 2000 - No No No No! Don Logan Scene HD

I watched Sexy Beast (again) last night.

Ben Kingsley as Don Logan is just FANTASTIC. This scene in particular just smashes it out of the park.

youtu.be/SIrfBy9ZYx4?...

The end of the alliance: Europe and the US in the Trump era - UK in a changing Europe Ruth Deyermond looks at Marco Rubio's speech at the Munich Security Conference and argues that the US is now an unreliable partner and that Europe must develop its own defence capabilities and archite...

@ruthdeyermond.bsky.social missed out the main point: Marco Rubio is very boring.

ukandeu.ac.uk/the-end-of-t...

War in the Smartphone Age | Hurst Publishers An essential guide to understanding war and information on today’s data-saturated battlefields—from Ukraine to Gaza and beyond.

‘War in the Smartphone Age: Conflict, Connectivity & the Crises at Our Fingertips’ by @warmatters.bsky.social is an essential guide to understanding war & information on today’s battlefields—from Ukraine & beyond. Hear the author at the Oxford Litfest: tinyurl.com/2u26crkj

tinyurl.com/bdn9uv58

And I am not trying to argue that AI hasn't already had an effect but that it is interesting to note that this isn't feeding through into property leasing.

The suggestion is that AI futures are more open than is being deterministically predicted.

The important thing here is that AI is not affecting the way businesses in London are leasing office space. They are assuming they will still have the same number of people working for them.

That is a counter indicator to the AI reworking the graduate labour market.

So please assure me that every CDS has been saying the same since 2014! Or have they been saying 5yrs & that got shorter after 2022.

There is no way that anything will be ready in 3yrs unless everything is directed towards MOD. Which it won't & certainly won't under REFORM if it deports 300k people

BBC Audio | Business Matters | #26 Landsec CEO: Big Shopping Centres are the Future Mark Allan discusses shopping centres, office-working and affordable housing.

This interview with the CEO of UK property giant Landsec is really fascinating.

"Demand for office space is robust: businesses are signing 15 to 20 year leases... fear that AI will trigger mass job losses isn’t materialising just yet in leasing behaviour."

www.bbc.com/audio/play/p...

BBC Audio | Business Matters | #26 Landsec CEO: Big Shopping Centres are the Future Mark Allan discusses shopping centres, office-working and affordable housing.

This was also trailed at 0620 in the morning a few days ago. Very interesting interview with the CEO of LandSec

www.bbc.com/audio/play/p...

So just to be clear, how many years have we been talking about a three year readiness timeframe? I assume it is for more years than the full scale invasion of Ukraine.

This is Britain’s political economy of identity.

Brexit bonuses abound. More and more it looks like an ENORMOUS strategic failure of the British establishment.

REFORM’s policy isn’t actually about migrants.

It’s about the performative politics of defending national identity.

I understand the politics but it does not make for a happy British migrant to Sweden to watch people voting for these arseholes.

And importantly, REFORM’s policy isn’t actually about migrants.

It’s about the performative politics of defending national identity.

bsky.app/profile/sund...

Here you go. I should have guessed @sundersays.bsky.social would be all over it.

bsky.app/profile/sund...

Fascinating conversation between Ted Sarandos the Netflix CEO and Amol Rajan on the Today programme. Started at around 07:37. Good snapshot on the changing media landscape and Trump.

Reform would create ICE-style agency and end leave to remain, Zia Yusuf to say Nigel Farage’s party plans to deport up to 288,000 people a year on five flights a day and expand stop and search

A cheery story for the week.

I’ve not looked this up but how many “illegal migrants” and people with Indefinite Leave to Remain are there?

Reform propose to remove ~300k pa. How long would that take?

Apart from being wrong it will be economically disruptive.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

This political party has backers. Who are they and how are they connected to PR. Is it a one man band PR consultancy or what?

A subliminal message that makes my think it would be even more interesting to sit in on the creative process!

It is remarkably like a Curtis documentary. Makes you wonder who is behind the PR/media campaign and how much fun it would be sit in on their creative process!

It stinks.

This is BAD NEWS for MOD and for democratic accountability in the UK.

"Unless evidence to the contrary is provided to the public, it appears as if the government department responsible for defence has commercially surrendered to a single service provider."

You were put in a difficult and contradictory position. And now you can finally say why he was an ugly arse.

I want to pat on the back all those officers from Royalty and Specialist Protection Command who had to endure Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s comings and goings.

May you finally enjoy your time in court helping the prosecution demonstrate that the bloke was shifty and even broke the law.

Ministers and former officials had no direct engagement.

Uhuh. That just leaves everyone else.

MOD confirms Palantir contract was direct award The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that its agreement with Palantir for defence data analytics was awarded through a direct award process, citing a lack of viable alternatives.

This is a very smelly statement, leaving out as much as it asserts:

“Pollard stated that the MOD could confirm “no Ministers and former officials with prior links to Palantir were involved at any stage of that process”

ukdefencejournal.org.uk/mod-confirms...