Simon Pickles

Nigel Farage claims that he's fighting the Greens.

But for weeks now he's refused to debate me.

Reform know Gorton & Denton are ready to vote for the Green Party.

Your Manager is a System. They Need an API A systems-thinking guide to navigating human bottlenecks

Managers are legacy systems with zero documentation. They run on caffeine and anxiety.

I wrote a guide on how to reverse engineer the 5 most common configurations (including the Polling Loop and the Random Number Generator).

Build the interface: reluctantleadership.substack.com/p/your-manag...

Sign the petition to keep chlorine-washed chicken off our shelves Here we go again. Trump has told the UK that if we want a UK-US tech deal, we need to buy chlorinated chicken from the US! 🤢🐔 How dare he try to impose poor food standards in Britain. Sign the petitio...

Trump has told the UK that if we want to revive a failing UK-US tech pact, we need to start buying chlorinated chicken from the US!
Say no, please sign the petition!
act.38degrees.org.uk/act/chlorine...

The "Stop Doing" List (and why you need one) The Gentle Art of Doing Less in 2026

It is December 31st. You are tired. You are probably mostly cheese.

Do not make a New Year's resolution to do more.

Here is the gentle art of doing less in 2026.

open.substack.com/pub/reluctan...

This was a lot of fun to write. The cathartic ones are the best.

New post: The Canary in the S3 Bucket
A field guide to spotting when your startup is… not fine.

reluctantleadership.substack.com/p/the-canary...

The Canary in the S3 Bucket - A slightly traumatised guide to startup oblivion

I finally wrote up all the startup red flags I’ve collected over the years.

Some funny. Some painful.

It’s live: The Canary in the S3 Bucket

reluctantleadership.substack.com/p/the-canary...

You can get my Engineering Manager OS from the Notion marketplace now. I'd love to hear how it helps you.

Today’s Reluctant Leadership post digs into nudging as a leadership skill. Not manipulation, just the quiet art of helping someone reach their own best idea without taking over.

If you’re a manager who prefers asking to ordering, this one might resonate.

In the UK, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's friendship with Epstein has led to total disgrace.

He's been stripped of his titles, reduced to the status of a pariah.

Nobody is defending him.

He's a TOTAL disgrace.

In America, Jeffrey Epstein's close mate, Donald Trump, remains the president.

Insane.

Very proud to announce the release of my project I've been working on for a few months.

I’ve spent years trying to turn the chaos of engineering management into something repeatable. This is the result.

If it helps just one person be a better manager, I'll be happy.

😎😎😎😎 GOOD THINGS CAN STILL HAPPEN 😎😎😎😎

Top 10 US billionaires’ collective wealth grew by $698bn in past year – report Oxfam warns Trump policies risk driving inequality to new heights – but Democrats have also exacerbated wealth gap

This is what the #nokings movement should really focus on:

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

I'm looking forward to @zackpolanski.bsky.social resetting their Overton window soon.

Wind Power Has Saved the UK Over £104 Billion in Energy Costs Since 2010, UCL Study Reveals • CWP Energy A groundbreaking new study from University College London (UCL) has found that wind power has reduced the UK’s energy costs by more than £104 billion since 2010, highlighting the financial as well as ...

Did Rory not read this recent report?

cwpenergy.uk/wind-power-h...

I listened to @restispolitics.bsky.social for the first time in a while. What a mistake.

It was alarming to hear how much they have shifted right. Alistair softer on taxing the super rich, Rory suggesting watering down net zero targets.

Sad.

Surviving Startups as an Engineering Manager How to lead when no-one knows what’s happening… especially you.

Direct link to blog: open.substack.com/pub/reluctan...

Took a month off writing. I now have the same sense of direction as most early-stage startups: vague intentions, unclear roadmap, too many ideas.

So naturally, this post is about surviving startups as an Engineering Manager.

I hope it helps someone who's in the middle of it... or about to be.

Talk on insuring hobbits

Inspiring day at #newscientistlive

The Green surge is breaking limits! 😲

Together, we can make hope normal again! 💚

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day?

Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

We flounced out of the EU on the say-so of politicians who lied to us. And what a total shitshow that’s turned out to be. The polar opposite of what they promised. Now the call to flounce out of the ECHR. By the same people. Telling the same lies. Has the country been kicked in the head by a horse?

Poor Robert Smith

We can but dream

quick while the government is shut down let’s all switch to metric

Surely you mean ISO-8601, the pinnacle of date formats.

YYYY-MM-DD

Nathan Gill’s treachery puts him in same league as the “Cambridge Five” Reform’s Russia connections may endanger our security – time for a public inquiry

Reform’s Russia connections are a danger to our national security.

It’s time for a public inquiry.

What has Yvette Cooper’s proscription of Palestine Action done to this country?

Beyond absurd. It’s extreme authoritarianism. These police should be arresting rapists & crooks, not neglecting those duties to spend time arresting citizens standing against genocide.

It undermines police and the law.

BREAKING:

Huge win for President Maia Sandu and her pro-EU PAS Party in today’s Moldovan parliamentary election.

With 90% of the votes counted, her party has 45.61% of the votes and is on track to win a majority of the seats in Parliament.